Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 262: Brothers

He didn’t swoop down on them directly. Instead, he moved back a few paces and then came down, shrinking the tower. Slya and Tiber nagged him, reminding him that he had promised the Master Knight he wouldn’t come down from the tower.

Atrox didn’t listen. "I’m just going to have a look around."

He was in a clearing, making his way toward the unit camp. The forest was silent. The insects made little to no sound, and the animals were the same. Apparently, everyone was feeling the aura coming from the Master Knight.

Atrox walked forward cautiously, his eyes scanning the forest for guards, but no one was stationed to keep watch. That immediately made him raise his guard.

’... Are they so comfortable with a Master Knight among them that they don’t care...?’

Atrox finally walked into the clearing and saw the camp with the tents set close together. Warm light spilled out from within. But that wasn’t what caught his attention.

A man was sitting on a tree stump in front of the tents, his head raised, eyes up, as if tracing the stars.

The sight of the man made Atrox tense immediately. He narrowed his eyes, his steps becoming firmer as he entered the clearing. "You are not the Master Knight."

The man lowered his head and looked at Atrox, taking in his figure. "You are not one either," he said, his voice low, as if they were two long-time friends whispering together after not seeing each other for years.

Atrox’s eyes swept the tents. "Are you using an enchanted tool to simulate the aura of a Master Knight?"

His brother smiled. "Is this the question you will ask your big brother after all these years of not seeing me? That’s cold." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Atrox looked at Thrain Soryu. When he had left the Clan, his brother had still been in the small gap between young adulthood and full manhood. But now, everything had been washed away into manhood.

Even the way he sat made him look like the true Clan leader.

"Big brother? Didn’t you already remove me from the Clan?"

Thrain smiled. "And yet you gathered men in the name of the Clan to take it."

"Because you never had the power to take me from the Clan in the first place. I gathered men to take what doesn’t belong to you," Atrox said.

Thrain shook his head sadly. "You have always been weak. More so when you were discovered to be a Forbidden Knight. I should have killed you then instead of letting you go to the borderland."

Atrox was a little surprised. This was the first time he had heard someone outside himself refer to him as the Forbidden Knight.

’... Seems his memory wasn’t wiped... Unless he was the one doing the wiping... But that’s not possible... He didn’t have that kind of power...’

"So why don’t you kill me?" If Thrain had made a move back then, Atrox would have gladly accepted death—before the borderland forged him into something more.

Thrain sneered. "Oh, I wanted to kill you, but it would have been useless since you were supposed to die in the borderland. Why are you alive, Atrox? Why don’t you die? Your death would have solved a lot of problems. Your death would have been the best gift you ever gave me!"

Atrox watched him intently. "You are bold to assume I would be here tonight instead of sending one of my Master Knights."

Thrain chuckled. "Because I’m finally understanding how you think. Before, I was still seeing you as the old Atrox. But now I know you are more than that. I know you are here because you want your most powerful pieces close..."

The more Thrain spoke, the more wary Atrox became. There was no way this wasn’t a trap. The man was purposely talking while something was being set up around him. Atrox used his senses to check his surroundings and was relieved when nothing jumped out at him or seemed out of the ordinary.

But at the same time, that only made him more tense. Had Thrain set up such a sophisticated trap that he couldn’t even detect it?

Atrox scowled. "Cut the bullshit, Thrain. We both want each other dead. All the fake admiration won’t do anything for me. Now tell me what you want. Why do you want to meet me?"

If there had ever been any brotherly love between them, it had long since been swept away by time and the desire to destroy the other.

Thrain’s eyes shone. "Join me. Swear loyalty to me, Atrox."

Atrox was surprised to hear those words come out of his brother’s mouth. That was the last thing he had expected. For an instant, he couldn’t say anything. But then he pushed out, "Why?"

"It’s simple. We are making the Clan weak—and weaker still if we continue this war. The other smaller Clans are hovering at the edges, waiting to jump in and devour us. They are sharpening their weapons.

"We have to stop, Atrox. This war will hurt us more than it will ever help. This is the time to make the Clan strong so the other Clans won’t eat us up."

Atrox nodded. "I agree with you."

And it was the truth. The Soryu Clan was already growing weak, and now the two of them were making it even weaker by clashing internally. In fact, the other smaller Clans would have been foolish not to take advantage of the situation.

Thrain was surprised to hear Atrox agree with him so quickly that he paused, the words he had prepared next failing to find their way out. Instead, he blinked. "You do?"

Atrox nodded. "Of course I do. But then, this does beg the question, Thrain—if you love the Clan so much, why did you kill its Clan leader? The smaller Clans would never dare look our way if he were still on the throne."

Thrain’s expression twisted. "You... You don’t know anything! Father was strong, but he made the Clan weak! He made it weaker over the years. He had to go for the development of the Clan! Just... Just like you have to go!"