25 The Gambit Adept Family (1/2)

An unknown amount of time pa.s.sed with the father-and-son pair staring at each other.

Karl broke the ice: ”I guess I have to apology…”

”…”

How was he supposed to react? Should he be angry, turning everything upside down to show his family how furious he was about being abandoned? Should he be sad? Should he be relieved about his father finally returning to him?

In the end, Drodosis stayed faithful to his character: calm and composed, acting with maturity even in the most incongrous situation. If living two lives taught him anything, it would be that emotions cloud your judgement, especially when it comes to matters of heart.

”Drodosis, Karl, come inside. You two should know more about each other”, elder water dragon interrupted.

A few minutes later, Drodosis found himself sitting in front of the mysterious Karl Thornfield, enigma of his family, supervised by the severe gaze of his grandfather.

”Don't blame your father for being absent in your childhood. It is, after all, not his fault”, Elder Water Dragon said with grief, ”But before he tells you the purpose of his mission and the hards.h.i.+ps which prevented him from coming back earlier, I would like to tell you a story.”

From the serious tone, Drodosis could already tell that this story was restricted to the core members of the family, something that even elders might ignore. He decided not to say anything, and instead listen with care.

”A few decades ago, the Thornfield family was much more glorious than what it currently is; but an enemy appeared: The Gambit Adept Family”

Drodosis was shocked. The Gambit Adept Family was already sending forces on the battlefield against his family, but Drodosis has always been wondering why since he learnt about it.

After all, it was no secret that the Thornfield Household had thoroughly crushed its previous enemy, and even benefitted from the war against the Huntingwood family. Be it resource, territories, number of acolytes and knights…The Thornfield family had significantly improved from this conflict.

If the Gambit Adept Family wanted to take advantage of a momentary weakness, then it should have struck alongside the Huntingwood family, or six months ago, before they could recover! Why would they wait for 6 long months, and still not sending a single acolyte on the frontlines? Why didn't they strike twenty years ago, when their last adept died?

”The Supreme Elder of our family, at the time, was of adept rank. He was the last adept of the Thornfield family, but his strength was already being corroded by the pa.s.sage of time. Fortunately, he had taken a lot of measures, which allowed our family not to decay too fast. He relinquished parts of our family's territory along with resource sites in exchange for treaties of peace. Be it the Heister Family, the Gale Family, the Java Family…All of these neighbouring adept families with adept-level powerhouses agreed on letting us alone for 50 years. They gained a lot of lands and resources in the process, so n.o.body complained…expect one adept family: The Gambit Adept Family.”

Drodosis could already guess the following events.

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”The Gambit Adept Family was strong, and it possessed a huge history. Truthfully, had we entered in a conflict with them a hundred or even two hundred years ago, when our family was in its peak, we would have had no chance at all. However, the Gambit Adept Family relies on bloodline. The more time pa.s.ses, the thinner their bloodline gets, and the less potential they have. Originally, the Gambit bloodline could allow its bearers reach the rank 2 adept realm. Yet, it's been over a century since they produced a single rank 1 adept! Their Supreme Elder at the time, sole adept-level powerhouse in their household, was thus overcome by greed. He was only 200 years old, so there was no reason for him to make it hard for us, especially considering that our family, at the time, still possessed an adept-level powerhouse as well.”

At this moment, the sight of his father looking down in grief didn't escape Drodosis' gaze.

”The Gambit Adept Family proposed duels between our two households. Only the strongest elders could partic.i.p.ate, and everything went according to the rules, under the careful observation of the Royal Family.”

Karl interrupted Elder Water Dragon: ”You must understand that adepts are too powerful, so they cannot unleash their full strength without restraint. Over time, the Phuinem Kingdom decided to set a system of duels to resolved feuds between adept-level powerhouses. This way, there would not be unnecessary innocent casualties in the conflict. The last time an unrestrained conflict between several adept-level powerhouses burst, half of the kingdom turned into a bloodpath, suffering from ma.s.sive viruses and curses let out by a witch. Since this dreadful event, the Phuinem Kingdom used its power to prevent such things from happening. In cases where duels wouldn't suffice, the two factions would enter a pocket dimension. Of course, be it us or the Gambit family, we couldn't afford to borrow a pocket dimension, so we ended agreeing on duels.”

”Indeed. In the end, our Supreme Elder lost his life in this duel…as well as 2 pseudo-adept elders, and 8 elders of advanced cultivation. Among them…was my wife”, Elder Water Dragon continued with grief in his voice; ”Their sacrifice wasn't in vain. Each powerhouse we lost, the Gambit family lost twice as much. Although we didn't have a pure bloodline like them, most of the elders who partic.i.p.ated had mastered one of the three inner circle spells I previously showed you. This allowed us to gain the upper hand against them”, Elder Water Dragon mumbled with difficulty.

When Karl heard about Drodosis' influence, he couldn't believe his ears. His son wasn't even 15 years old, yet he had earned the right to see the inner circle spells, something that usually only came after decades of contribution to the family! What kind of feats did his son achieved in order to receive this reward?

”Why would they wait for us to replenish our forces, then?”, Drodosis asked out of curiosity. The crux of the problem was still there!

”Because of internal conflicts! The Thornfield family followed the will of the dying Supreme Elder, founding a Council where elders would make decisions crucial to the survival and rejuvenation of our family. However, the Gambit Adept Family was not so lucky, and its dying adept didn't prepare for an eventual loss. He was, after all, only 200 years old. Nothing should have happened for at least another century. After falling from their pedestal, the entire Gambit Internal Politics became chaotic. They fought against each other for power, resources and future plans. Half of the family, after losing family members and huge a.s.sets scoffed at the thought of diving into battlefields again, but the other half was driven by hatred, wanting to take revenge against us.”

”And this is where my role begins”, Karl said, ”I infiltrated their inner circle, and I basically fuelled the fire of inner conflicts within their family. However, there is only so much I can do. I became the fourth most influential elder in their family after completing missions here and there. Eventually, the 3 Raging Bears rose and stomped their political opponents with sheer power, including myself. Combining their strength and working together, these three pseudo-adepts managed to convince the whole family to engage in a war against us. I came back as soon as the decision was set in stone. Nothing can prevent a war anymore.”

With a shaking voice, he continued: ”Your mother died in the mission. She wasn't supposed to come alongside me, but she did so anyway. It's not that we didn't like you, or dismissed you. It's just that…we knew that if this mission wasn't successful, you would have had no future. We did it for the family, but our core motivation was your well-being in the end.”

”As I previously said, Drodosis, please don't blame your father”, Elder Water Dragon sighed.