Chapter 149: Family Affection

The next day, Akar returned to Gem Territory with the Demonic Sword.

He had to personally take care of Raven. After all, Raven knew too many secrets, so it was inevitable that he could not be allowed to live.

Yam, due to using the 【Nirvana】, needed at least one or two months of rest.

But precisely because of that, he actually had more time to spend with his family.

...

"Uncle Yam, Aunt Lily."

"Grandfather."

"Father."

As Yam, Lily, and Ion entered the dining hall, Jinna and Aches, who had clearly been waiting there for a while, quickly stood up and greeted them.

Lily's brows furrowed slightly. She glanced at the servants waiting in the dining hall with a cold gaze.

"It's not their fault." Jinna was intimidated by Lily's presence and quickly spoke up, "I told them not to rush serving the dishes because they said you were about to arrive."

Yam gently patted Lily on the back, then casually took Cindy into his arms.

"Hehe, no need to be so formal from now on, we’re all family," Ion said with a chuckle. "Tell the kitchen to serve the food."

Although Lily was technically the lord of White Mountain Territory, unless in public settings, it was usually Ion who sat at the head seat.

On the left side of the dining table sat Yam, Lily, and the third seat belonged to Sherry.

Last night, Akar had sat at the head of the right side, followed by Jinna and Aches.

But today, Akar had left early, so the head seat remained empty.

However, Ion, Yam, and Lily all keenly noticed traces of food crumbs at Akar’s seat—under normal circumstances, Yam’s family always dined at the same time, so cleaning up afterward was quite straightforward. But because Akar had rushed off to deal with Raven, he hadn’t waited to eat with them. The servants, in their clean-up, clearly hadn’t been meticulous, resulting in leftover food crumbs that shouldn’t have been there.

None of the three said a word.

Lily warmly smiled at Jinna and said, “Jinna, although I’m the lord, we’re all one family. You and Aches don’t need to be so reserved. So there’s no need to accommodate our timing from now on. If you’re hungry, just have the kitchen prepare something. The manor’s kitchen is always kept ready.”

After saying that, Lily looked at Aches and continued, “Last night, Yam told me that Aches is about to begin physical training. That means he’ll be exercising a lot, and he’ll be getting hungry more often. If you keep trying to fit our schedule, it might negatively impact his growth.”

As expected, Jinna’s expression turned alarmed.

To Jinna, going hungry herself didn’t matter. But if it affected Aches’s development, she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself. So she naturally felt a sense of dread at Lily’s words and nodded repeatedly.

Seeing Jinna’s overly humble demeanor, the others let out helpless sighs.

But given Jinna’s past circumstances, it wasn’t hard to understand why she acted like this—In fact, even Sherry, who was born a commoner, came from a wealthy merchant family. Though she had initially been cautious around Baron Ster, she had never shown the same level of humility as Jinna. And later, under Yam and Lily’s leadership, Sherry gradually developed a noble air.

"Miss Jinna, are you interested in helping me with the bookkeeping?" Sherry asked with a smile.

Sherry had a good impression of the mother and son pair.

Especially yesterday, when she first met Aches. Aches didn’t know Sherry’s identity and mistook her for Akar’s wife, calling her “aunt,” which left quite a few people amused.

"Me... me?" Jinna was surprised. "But... I don’t know how to count."

"It’s okay, I can teach you. Want to give it a try later?"

Yam looked at how both Lily and Sherry were trying to help Jinna quickly integrate into the Soderbell Family and felt quite comforted.

So he turned to Aches and asked, “Aches, do you have a preferred weapon?”

“No.” Aches shook his head. “When I fought in the village, I always used my fists, or sometimes a wooden stick.”

“Then let’s head to the training grounds later and start with the longsword,” Yam thought for a moment and said. “I specialize in swordsmanship, while Akar is good with the bow. But if neither suits you, we can try something else... Though I personally recommend the sword, the most important thing is for you to feel comfortable with it. After all, you’ll be heading to the battlefield someday.”

When Jinna heard the word “battlefield,” her palm subconsciously clenched for a moment.

But after glancing at Yam and Ion, then at her son, she ultimately said nothing.

“No matter whether Aches will go to the battlefield in the future, as a man, the first thing he must learn is how to use a weapon. Only then can he protect himself.” Ion had also noticed Jinna’s emotions, so he spoke up. “You can never know when calamity might suddenly descend. Only those who can protect themselves are qualified to protect others.”

“I understand, Father.” Jinna nodded.

She recalled the days in Kalel Village.

If Akar hadn’t arrived in time, she and Aches might not have survived.

During the rest of the meal, they casually chatted about their experiences—encouraged by the others, Aches and Jinna shared some amusing stories from their past: though their life had been filled with hardship, it wasn’t all suffering. There were still moments of happiness and joy.

After the meal, Yam left first with Aches.

Sherry took Jinna along, saying she would teach her how to count and do bookkeeping.

Ion then took Cindy and Liam, his two grandsons, and left.

Lily remained seated, elegantly wiping the corner of her mouth before speaking. “Steward.”

“Yes, my lord, what are your orders?”

“All servants who worked in the dining hall this morning are to be dismissed,” Lily said coldly. “Do you understand?”

“Yes.” The female steward, responsible for all affairs in the lord’s manor, immediately nodded upon meeting Lily’s gaze.

She instantly realized that Lily’s words did not merely refer to the ordinary servants but to all those who worked in the dining hall this morning: including the kitchen maids and cooks. Clearly, someone had carelessly mentioned to Jinna and Aches that they should wait for Lily and the others to dine together—whether the comment was a deliberate suggestion or an unintentional remark, given Jinna and her son’s background, it was natural for them to overthink it.

Ion and Yam had refrained from speaking up at the time, granting Lily, as the lord, the opportunity to handle it.

But Lily could not ignore the feelings of her husband and father-in-law, especially since Jinna and Aches were her true family, and the Soderbell Family placed great value on familial bonds.

Ignoring the servants’ pleas in the dining hall, Lily soon left.

The steward glanced at the several kneeling servants in the dining hall and sighed softly.

She knew that some of them harbored jealousy, looking down on a common village woman who had suddenly become someone able to command them. So they tried to put Jinna in her place, reminding her that her status here wasn’t truly high. But these people clearly hadn’t grasped why they were only third-class servants in the dining hall, while she had become the steward of the lord’s manor.

“Go pack your things. Our merciful lord has given you your last shred of dignity, so don’t make me call the guards.”

...

Ion and Yam didn’t say much about the breakfast matter.

Because they knew Lily could handle it well.

So Yam’s real responsibility now was to train Aches on behalf of his elder brother—of course, there was also a mindset of gaining experience, since in another ten years or so, he would likely need to apply it to his own daughter.

“You’re about the same age as I was when I began learning swordsmanship.”

Yam brought Aches to the training grounds, then handed him a wooden sword.

“A wooden sword?” Aches picked it up and swung it a few times. Soon, his expression changed slightly, and he swung it a few more times.

“Notice anything?” Yam chuckled.

“It’s much heavier than the wooden swords I used to make.”

“That’s because it has counterweight balls inside, and the blade is made of ironwood,” Yam said with a smile. “You can think of it as a standard longsword without an edge... When I was thirteen—actually, members of the Soderbell Family start training with this type of sword at the age of twelve. I, Akar, and your father were no different.”

Aches was briefly stunned, then lowered his head to look at the wooden sword in his hand. “So this sword...”

“No,” Yam smiled and shook his head. “The one we used back then was left on Iron Wolf Mountain...”

Yam hesitated but eventually told Aches about the Iron Wolf Mercenary Group, though he didn’t reveal the origin of the family’s power or the Demonic Sword, mainly because he was concerned about Aches’s maturity. He planned to observe him for a few more years before deciding whether to share the truth about the Demonic Sword.

“If there’s a chance in the future, let Akar take you back to Iron Wolf Mountain to see where your father lived as a child.” Yam gently patted Aches’s shoulder. “I heard Akar gave you three gifts. I didn’t know what to give, so I had this commemorative wooden sword made for you... Your father missed your childhood, but it wasn’t intentional.”

“I know I can’t replace your father, nor can I make up for the childhood you lost.”

“But I hope you remember that the Soderbell Family never abandoned you or your mother. You will always be one of us.”

“Thank you, Uncle Yam.” Aches gripped the hilt of the wooden sword. He raised his head and looked at Yam seriously. “This is the best gift I’ve ever received in my life. I’ll never forget my family name.”

“Foolish child.” Yam laughed. “Your life is still long. You’ll surely receive better gifts in the future.”

Aches only gave a slight smile and didn’t respond.

“I originally intended to start by teaching you the Tyrella Kingdom’s Military Swordsmanship, but after some serious thought last night, I realized it wouldn’t be good to teach you that right away. It would easily cause you to form certain fixed memory responses.” Yam also picked up a longsword from the side, except this one wasn’t a wooden sword but a real, sharpened longsword. “So I plan to teach you only the most basic sword techniques. These basic moves won’t cause your muscles to form fixed memory patterns, but they will help train your body.”

After speaking, Yam first demonstrated the fluid movements once. Then, on the second round, he slowed down and began breaking the movements down step by step.

From Yam’s second demonstration onward, Aches began trying to imitate him.

At first, his movements were slow and his form not quite correct, but after repeating the motions several times, his speed gradually began to match Yam’s—though his form still wasn’t quite precise.

Yam had never expected Aches to immediately keep up with his movements.

But after watching Aches perform the routine six or seven times, with even the movements beginning to look fairly proper, Yam was a bit surprised. So after thinking it over, he decided to change the day’s training plan. Instead, he had Aches try out all the weapons available in the training grounds—having once been a Militia Instructor, Yam knew how to use most weapons.

From single-handed swords, two-handed swords, longspears, bows, sabers, to shortswords, sword-shield combinations, halberds, and more—Aches tried nearly all of them.

And Yam found that Aches had considerable talent with the single-handed sword, two-handed sword, and longspears. He could perform relatively standard combat movements after about ten repetitions. While his hands were fairly dexterous, in weapons like the shortsword and dagger, which required fine finger movements, he lacked the needed flexibility. And with halberds, whose center of gravity differed from longspears, two-handed swords, and single-handed swords, Aches’s performance was average.

As for the bow, it required long-term training—at least without the aid of manifested bloodline abilities, Yam couldn’t see any talent in this area. Perhaps only Akar would be able to judge if Aches had potential in archery.

“You’re quite confident in your own strength, so you lean toward weapons with a center of gravity close to your body.”

After a simple morning of testing, Yam quickly arrived at his assessment.

“You can choose between the two-handed sword and the longspear—whichever you feel more comfortable and prefer—for training... The single-handed sword also works, but it doesn’t need to be your main weapon. It can be a secondary option.”

“Two-handed sword.” Aches made his choice almost without hesitation.

“Why?” Yam asked, as if to test him.

“The techniques and experience I gain from learning the two-handed sword, while not fully transferable, will definitely share some commonalities with the single-handed sword, since both are sword-type weapons. That can reduce my training time and help me master both faster,” Aches replied without any hesitation. In the earlier trials, he had already noticed the similarities between the two. “Also, most importantly, I find it easier to gauge distance with sword-type weapons. Unlike the longspear... which comes with range risks.”

Yam nodded slightly.

He appreciated Aches’s practical mindset.

Of course, in Yam’s view, there was also another important reason—only by training in swordsmanship could one fully utilize the value of the Demonic Sword.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.