Chapter 40: Overdoing the Adopted Daughter Role

"Viola!"

The corridor echoed.

Thud! Thud!

Someone ran over, making heavy footsteps.

The only human who could act freely in the Duke's castle.

Hixon, the Duke's comrade and close friend.

"You brat!"

Hixon was furious.

"Sir Hixon, it's been a while."

"Wh-What did this speechless beast do wrong!"

Hixon loves animals.

He is known to love animals more than people.

"Do you want to lose?"

Among them, he especially cherished dogs and cats, often feeding stray cats on the streets, earning him the nickname 'Cat Mom.'

Kundo looked at Hixon with a slightly displeased expression.

"Sir Hixon?"

"Follow me."

Inside the winter castle, violence is not allowed.

But in the training ground, it's a different story.

"Why? Are you scared?"

"You're insulting Bellator."

Kundo nodded without much disturbance.

He knew Hixon was much stronger than him, but he couldn't refuse.

For Bellator, he had to.

Even if the other was stronger, he couldn't avoid a fight that came his way.

"Let's go to the training ground."

They arrived at the training ground.

Hixon beat Kundo up in the training ground.

"Weapons are a waste on someone like you."

He only used his bare fists, not any weapon.

Kundo's cheekbone caved in, and two of his finger bones were fractured.

Kundo lay on the ground, panting heavily.

In contrast, Hixon seemed unaffected.

"Take this guy and get lost."

Kundo's butler frowned slightly.

"You should take responsibility for this incident."

"Ha! Responsibility for what?"

Hixon picked his nose with his index finger.

"What responsibility for getting beaten by me because he's weak?"

"...Lord Kundo is only nineteen years old."

"So what?"

"He has endless potential."

Over time, Kundo would become stronger, and Hixon would become weaker.

He pointed this out.

"What good will it do for a guy like that to grow?"

"I hope you don't regret today's actions."

Kundo's butler picked up Kundo.

While a healer could treat him without any lasting damage, what about his shattered self-esteem?

Kundo's gaze fell on Viola.

"Coward."

Viola shrugged.

"Thanks for the compliment."

White Bellator uses strategy.

It's fine to use other forces besides one's own.

"It would have been better if you called it mercenary tactics."

In the end, Kundo lost consciousness, and Hixon approached.

"Are you okay, Viola?"

"I'm fine."

"I was surprised."

"What about?"

Hixon lifted his wrist.

A magic calling bracelet was attached to his wrist.

It was a matching bracelet to the one on Viola's wrist.

It looked like an ordinary silver bracelet, but it was an artifact with a warning spell.

When Viola infused mana, a warning sound would go off from the bracelet on Hixon's wrist.

"The call was really loud, you know?"

The intensity of the call varies depending on the concentration of infused mana.

But the call was so loud it almost exploded.

"It almost broke the bracelet."

"Hmm. Is it old?"

Hixon chuckled at Viola's puzzled expression.

'You can't really be unaware, can you?'

Actually, Viola really was unaware.

She didn't realize that the purity and amount of her mana far exceeded the norm.

That's why, even without using much power, she almost broke the bracelet.

"Anyway, are you really okay?"

"I'm fine, I said."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Tundra, go and bury this cat properly."

Viola handed the dead cat to Tundra.

"...Yes."

Tundra took the cat.

But Tundra looked a bit strange.

His eyes were red.

"Why are you like that?"

"It's nothing."

Tundra walked away with the cat.

A clearing far from the training ground.

There, Tundra dug the ground with his hands.

Tears streamed down the back of Tundra's hand.

'I couldn't do anything.'

If I were really strong.

If I were strong enough that my status wouldn't matter.

'My lord wouldn't have to endure such humiliation.'

The cat had a special meaning.

In 'The Shadow of Bellator,' cats sometimes symbolized demons or fallen people.

Throwing a dying cat was also a way to mock and criticize unclean people.

It made him so angry and frustrated.

'If I were really strong...'

Drip.

It started raining.

The rain in the winter castle was cold.

Tundra, who had buried the cat, lay on the ground for a long time in the rain.

'I have to get stronger.'

He couldn't fully understand his lord's intentions.

But he was certain that his lord had decided to become White Bellator.

If so, he had to support and back her up.

'If I keep being like this... I'm useless.'

Three years ago.

Viola had reached out her hand.

She had said she would be there for him, who had lost his father and sister.

'I have to get stronger for the lady...'

Suddenly, he didn't feel the rain.

The ground around him was getting wet with drips.

But the rain wasn't falling on him.

He turned his head and looked up.

An umbrella appeared.

And he saw Viola's face.

"I knew you'd be like this."

She seemed to understand what Tundra was thinking and why he was lying down.

Viola reached out her hand.

"Get up."

"But..."

"It's an order."

After hesitating for a while, Tundra took Viola's hand.

Viola's hand was still small and warm.

"You did your job well."

Viola patted Tundra's head.

"You were patient. I called Hixon, not you."

No more rain fell on Tundra's face.

But something like large raindrops trickled down his chin.

"I'll get stronger."

Tundra firmly resolved.

"I'll get so strong that trash like the Third Prince won't even dare to look at me."

Tundra's eyes turned red.

"I'll clear away everything that insults my lord. Definitely."

Tears and rain mixed and flowed down Tundra's face in a mess.

***

Hixon sat with his legs crossed, giving Viola a sidelong glance.

"Monster girl."

"Calling a lady a girl is impolite."

"How did you know the Third Prince would come?"

"Because the Third Prince is a lunatic who desperately wants me to become Black Bellator?"

So she prepared in advance.

She gave Hixon the magic bracelet for that reason.

"And my father also knew this, right?"

"So both you and Heron predicted this situation?"

"Yeah.

Viola drank banana milk instead of tea.

Maybe because she was in a ten-year-old body, she preferred sweet milk to tea.

"Father probably wanted to see my response."

"As White Bellator?"

"Yeah. I had to show mercenary tactics, not brute force. So I called Uncle, and Uncle got angry at the Third Prince. There was a good reason too."

"There was a reason?"

"You made the Cat Mom angry."

Viola shrugged.

"Father wouldn't have any problem with it either."

"Why?"

Well, our father is also a hedgehog butler.

"Father also loves animals."

"Really? I've never heard that before."

Of course, it's natural.

It's only in the setting book.

Hixon shivered.

"Anyway, you predicted the Third Prince would come and set up the situation."

"Yeah. The report is probably going up right now."

***

Viola's prediction was accurate.

She expected the report to go up soon.

But she didn't expect to be discussing this with the First Princess, Medea.

First Princess Medea.

The most likely successor to the next Duke, she spoke.

"Everything happened as Father said."

"Right."

As the Duke said, the Third Prince returned as a bloody mess.

Viola used an external figure, Hixon, to bring down the Third Prince, not her own strength.

It was an action that didn't fit Black Bellator but made sense for White Bellator.

"I met Kundo."

"How was he?"

"He's recovering through a cleric's healing prayer, but it will take a few days."

"See."

Silence fell for a moment.

Heron and Medea weren't particularly close.

Medea spoke again.

"But there's something strange."

"Strange?"

"Sir Hixon only used his fists, but Kundo had a wound on his chest."

Medea doesn't call minor cuts 'wounds.'

"Probably the wound started inside the skin and then opened up during the sparring with Sir Hixon."

Cutting inside the skin is much harder than cutting the outside.

It requires a sharper and more precise aura, and the ability to control mana to the highest degree.

It was a high-level ascending sword technique that destroys from the inside out.

"It wasn't Sir Hixon's doing."

"Then?"

"Probably it was Viola."

"See."

A faint smile appeared on Heron's lips.

Of course, Viola herself was completely unaware.

"Father."

"I've often heard that I'm the first in the continent, the first in history, the first in the world."

"Right."

A martial prowess comparable to the young Duke Heron.

With overwhelming talent and consistent effort, Medea rose to her current position.

She is also known as 'White Gale.'

Gale refers to the cold wind from the north.

White Gale means a massive snowstorm that occurs once in ten thousand years.

According to imperial records, 100,000 people died when the White Gale blew.

"I couldn't do that at ten."

Her smile deepened.

"Especially against someone stronger than me. Kundo even knew the Bellator sword style. I didn't expect her to wound K