What was a clan? To me, a clan wasn’t quite a family, though ours was on the road to becoming one. People who were yet to be a family gathered together, and somehow formed relationships. They were struggling to keep their relationships afloat while carrying out their respective duties.0

The head steward and the clan shadow—as long as they still had their roles, no one would abandon them. Not yet, not yet, not yet, they would tell themselves, this desperation encouraging them to keep going. We were here now because we would try our hardest until the day I could truthfully call myself someone’s father and the children could call themselves mine. Since I watched all of my children struggle, I was the clan’s patriarch.0

“Uburka.”0

“Ugor.”0

He looked back at me with a somewhat satisfied expression after roaring toward the plains. His hot breath leaked out through the gaps between his fangs.0

I said, “The enemy is a top-ranked warrior in the Tower. He also has an unfairly good item, so—”0

“You’re saying this is an enemy I don’t need to go easy on.”0

“That’s right. Fight to your heart’s content.”0

Uburka grinned. “That was the command I’ve been waiting for, Patriarch! I love you, Daddy!”3

Thump!0

Uburka rushed toward the enemy army, his heavy footsteps shaking both the heavens and the earth. If Skians were born to be iron horses with spears, Uburka was a chariot and a battleship at the same time. On his own, he carried out the same charge that the Skians had done earlier with an army of nine thousand.0

“Is there a warrior who can fight me?” Uburka roared.0

The surviving Skians lost their grip on their weapons. 0

“No one? Do the Skians not have a single worthy fighter? Aaaaah, I understand! The only thing you have to show for is the horns on your heads! Hahahaha!”0

Uburka was as large as a giant from a legend, and the Skians weren’t prepared to face something like...0