Raymond T. Clover

Now that he was alone in his room, he started sorting through his memories.

He found out that his full name was Raymond T. Clover, and he was the only son of Late Chief Commander Thomas V. Clover.

His father died a year ago on the battlefield while fighting off the army of a neighbouring empire.

Clover was a family of nobles. The head of the family in each generation was appointed as Marquis by the Royal Family of the Fireborn Empire.

The Fireborn empire was ruled by the Phoenix family, who were said to be the descendants of the mythical Phoenix bird.

The Clover family has been serving the Phoenix family from the very beginning of the Fireborn Empire.

The Clover family has been famous for producing outstanding warriors, who had won many battles for the Royal Family.

And his father, Thomas was the most outstanding war commander in the history of the Fireborn Empire.

When the current emperor ascended the throne there was a lot of resistance against his rule due to his mother being of low birth.

But Thomas took the side of the current emperor and spearheaded the army. He cut down all the resisting forces and helped in consolidating the new emperor's rule.

He was adored by the masses and armies alike for his just, loyal and protective personality.

Raymond sighed thinking about his deceased father.

'He is the kind of person I would wish to serve under in the army' he thought inwardly.

He quickly shook his head thinking about his predecessor's life.

He didn't know who his mother was, he was told that she died giving birth to him. Even though he was the son of such a talented person, he didn't inherit his talent.

In this world everyone had a mana core and by refining the core by absorbing the surrounding mana, one could advance in cultivation.

Raymond's father was an extremely talented cultivator but Raymond was a lost cause. His core was fractured from the moment he was born. He couldn't cultivate even if he wanted to.

But that didn't stop his father from looking for ways to repair his core. He spared no effort in finding a solution, but still he couldn't repair his core.

He was still in the Martial Minor stage. Even his maid Jasmine was already in the Martial Major stage. Being at the Martial Major stage at the age of 19 wasn't something great.

Compared to geniuses from his own family and other families', she was less than average in terms of cultivation talent.

In this world dual cultivation was a popular thing. So one would always look for a partner with better talent.

Raymond always kept to himself and didn't go out often. He didn't consider making any friends other than Jasmine.

But ever since his father died he would go out everyday to drink alcohol and wallow in sadness.

Many times Jasmine had to bring him back to his room. Before he had a very spacious room with all the facilities available.

But ever since his father died and he started drinking, he was forced to stay in the shabby room near his family compounds.

A few weeks ago when he was drinking in the tavern he heard someone saying that his father's death was preplanned.

Ever since then he had been trying to look for clues and discover what really happened to his father. That's why he had been avoiding Jasmine to keep her safe in case he ended up poking the hornet's nest.

But no matter how much he tried his airhead maid wouldn't stop caring for him.

He had been in depression ever since his father died but he fell deeper when he couldn't find any clues regarding his father's death.

He had low self-esteem to begin with and when he found himself to be so useless that he couldn't even find out about his father's death, he went down a path of depression with no return.

Yesterday night's events were the last straw that broke the camel's back.

He was invited to a duke's birthday party and when he asked his peers about his father's death he was ridiculed by everyone for using his father's death as an excuse to seek attention.

And then his fiancé who was also the seventh princess of the empire declared that she would break off the engagement because he had been drinking everyday and been an unfilial son to his father.

He felt so useless and humiliated yesterday night that he couldn't sleep for a second and just after Sunrise, when he felt like he couldn't show his face to Jasmine, he decided to end his life drinking poison.

'So that's how this guy died. Poor guy, his life was even more depressing than mine.' Raymond shook his head in pity.

'Seems like he and his father were being targeted by someone, sigh~ it's too troublesome to deal with hidden enemies. Whatever, I will first focus on controlling my power.'

Taking control of his power was his first priority now. He was in an extremely dangerous situation, well not him but people around him were, until he could control his power.

'Even if I exert a little bit of strength, space starts to tremble as if it's on the verge of breaking. What would happen if I hit someone with that kind of strength?' he thought in his head.

It was already afternoon by the time he went through his memories. Soon he heard some voices outside his room. One of them belonged to Jasmine.

"Please forgive me master Allen, I will only serve Young master Raymond in this life." he heard her saying.

"Come on, Jasmine. How long are you going to be the maid of this trash? Look at me I am already in the Martial Master stage at the age of 20, How about you become my mai- no I will take you as my concubine, how about it? You will have a brighter future by my side. It will be better than serving this trash" he heard a man talking.

He realised that this voice belonged to Allen who was his cousin.

"Exactly, master Allen. You are very talented in cultivation, and I have very poor talent so you should consider someone with talent to become your concubine." she replied.

"Hehe, don't worry, I know a way to increase your talent." Allen said with a lecherous grin.

Suddenly the door of the room opened and Raymond walked out and stood in front of Allen and glared at him menacingly.

"What do you think you are doing? Don't tell me, you are going to stop me from getting your maid? If that's true, haha, then it's the biggest joke I have heard." barked Allen.

"What is the meaning of this cousin? Why are you trying to hit on my maid? Aren't you already married?" questioned Raymond even though he knew the answer.

"Hmph. What is so special about having more women for a genius like me? If you think you can stop me from getting to your maid, then my hand might just accidently slip and kill you on the spot." he threatened.

Raymond's eyelids twitched in anger after hearing his words.

"Master Allen, are you threatening to kill my master? You have to go through me first before touching my master " with that Jasmine strode forward and stood between Raymond and Allen.

Jasmine was pleasantly surprised by Raymond's actions. She thought he wouldn't say anything to Allen when he tried to woo her.

Now this was the master she loved, who would stand up against someone stronger than him to protect her.

'Hmm. She is definitely a keeper.' Raymond mused inwardly.

"No one can stop me from killing him if I want to. Do you think you can stop me? Hehe, let me kill this guy and then I will take you to my room" Allen said in a sinister manner.

Raymond really wanted to slap him to death on the spot but he held back from making a scene in front of Jasmine and also he might just wipe out half of the city if he used too much force.

"Alright Allen, if you think you can kill me then go ahead and try, I will stand here and see what you can do." with that he carefully pushed aside Jasmine and stood in front of Allen.

Before she could do anything, she saw Allen hitting Raymond with one of his techniques.

"Demon Subduing Fist" he punched him in the chest waiting for him to fall to the ground.

But after taking the punch Raymond stood there and sneered at him.

Blood rushed to Allen's head after looking at Raymond's smug face.

He started attacking again with every technique he knew.

Jasmine could only look dumbfounded.

After some time…

"Huff, huff, what are you made of? Why are you still unharmed?" Allen asked, catching his breath.

"Listen here, you little shit. Leave the city while you have the time, because if you are still in the clan after some days, I will personally come to end your life." Raymond said with killing intent flickering in his eyes.

Allen was scared out of his wits after seeing Raymond like this. He quickly nodded his head and ran off somewhere.

Raymond turned around to see Jasmine looking at him with her mouth wide open.

He tried calling her but she was not in the state to reply. She was still trying to make sense of what happened.

"Youn- young master Ray what happened to you?" she asked after some time.

"Hehe, did you think I was drinking all these days for nothing? I was actually practising a secret technique given to me by an expert. Now I am strong enough to protect both of us." he lied through his teeth.

She was ecstatic after hearing his reply. Of course she wouldn't doubt anything her master said as long as it wasn't ridiculous. Even though what Raymond said was nothing short of ridiculous, it was hard to doubt him with the proof right in front of her eyes.

She nodded her head dumbly and followed him inside the room.

"Young master Ray, are you really strong enough to protect us?" she asked.

He nodded his head.

"You looked so cool when you threatened Allen. Ahh, young master, I want to give you a present for saving me from that lecher." she said shyly.

"Oh, what present?" he asked.

"Close your eyes first"

He closed his eyes.

Soon he felt something wet touching his lips for a second and the feeling disappeared just as quickly.

He opened his eyes to see Jasmine looking down at something at her feet and her ears were burning red.

"How was it? Did you like my present?" she asked in a mosquito like voice.

"No." he said flatly.

"Is- is that so" she asked feeling dejected. Tears were threatening to fall from her eyes.

She turned around to leave the room but stopped when Raymond grabbed her hand.

"It was too quick for me to like it. I want a present that stays longer." with that he pulled her closer to him and lifted her chin and kissed her lips.

She felt his lips nibbling on her upper lip before she felt something entering her mouth.

Her eyes widened comically when she felt his tongue entering her mouth but soon she closed them feeling content.