The moment I left the gym, Maa came sprinting toward me, her eyes filled with worry.

"Raj, what are they saying on the news?" she demanded, quickly scanning me. "You got attacked by the Sword King?"

"Maa, I'm completely fine," I reassured her. "Take a look. I don't have any injuries. He did attack us, but Saya came and saved us."

"But in that video—"

"Maa, that video is obviously edited to gain views. It will soon be taken down."

It took me more than ten minutes to calm Maa down, after which I returned to my room. The previous day, I had cleared a D-Ranked dungeon alone and then fought an S-Rank, followed by spending the entire night exercising. Both my mind and body were completely exhausted, so I took a shower, set an alarm for 11:50, and went straight to sleep.

---

Tring-tring… tring-tring…

"Is it already time?" I murmured, rubbing my eyes and turning off the alarm.

After refreshing myself, I grabbed my phone to check what Aryan had meant earlier. Sister Aisha had sent me a link, and when I clicked on it, a live press conference opened.

At a wide table with multiple mics from different news companies, Aryan was sitting, wearing formal attire.

After a brief moment, he began,

"Everyone here is aware of my brother's recovery from Mana Overload. It is a moment of extreme joy for me and my family. However, I have seen several news articles circulating on the internet that, instead of congratulating our family, were badmouthing my brother and even went as far as calling him useless or worse. So let me give a clear answer to every citizen of this country—I love my family more than anything else, and I will not tolerate any inappropriate defamation of my brother. If these derogatory remarks are still circulating after the end of this conference, my team will take legal action against all companies or individuals behind these baseless rumours."

Before Aryan could continue, a journalist suddenly spoke up,

"So that means you are threatening the media for providing information to the citizens of the country?"

Despite the disrespectful tone in which the journalist asked the question, Aryan remained calm and replied in a straight, polite tone,

"I will kill you for your disrespect."

Suddenly, the journalists were startled, and various murmurs arose in the background, but before it could intensify, my brother continued,

"This is what a threat is called. If you didn't hear it clearly, let me repeat it—my team will take legal action against baseless rumours about my brother. Is standing up against defamation also called threatening, Mr. Journalist?"

"Hehehe! He's good at it," I chuckled, unable to hold in my smile.

Aryan remained silent, waiting for a response, but none came, so he continued,

"Now, for the primary reason I have gathered you all here. Most of you must have already seen the video circulating on YouTube about how Rudra attacked my brother with the intention of murder. He might come up with a ridiculous excuse, such as claiming that Raj entered his territory as a spy and cleared a D-Rank gate, which is why he attacked him.

"So let me clarify this first. The only people who went to Uttar Pradesh were my brother, who is an E-Rank, and my guild's manager, Jasmine, a C-Rank, with the sole intention of visiting Pandeshwar Temple. If the Sword King claims that these two people cleared a D-Rank gate, then he should consult a doctor to have his brain checked.

"Many times in the past five years, the Sword King has directly or indirectly interfered with me or the Black Raven Guild, but I took no action because his hatred was directed only at me. However, he mistook my silence for weakness and crossed all limits."

My brother's eyes slowly turned crimson. His facial hair began to flow as if stirred by an unseen force, and red mist radiated from him as he declared,

"I, Aryan Singh, also known as the Blood Demon, challenge the Sword King, Rudra, to a one-on-one deathmatch after one week at Wankhede Stadium. If he does not appear for the match, then the Black Raven Guild will declare war on the Silver Sword Guild. The only reason the war has not occurred yet is because I showed some respect to the Chairman of the Awakener's Association."

A wave of uncontrollable gasps and exclamations surged through the video.

The camera recording the conference began shaking, as if the person holding it couldn't stop his hands from trembling. Before the journalists could pull themselves together and ask any questions to Aryan, he rose from his chair and left with Sister Aisha.

"He really went and did it," I sighed, holding my forehead.

Within a few minutes of the press conference, the whole internet went into an uproar. S-Ranks were considered even more important and precious assets than nuclear weapons, and a country would go to any length to recruit an S-Rank from another nation or provide the maximum available resources to AAA-Rank Awakeners to help them reach S-Rank.

It was not an exaggeration but an understatement to say that a nation's power was defined by the number of S-Rank Awakeners it possessed.

So what would happen if an S-Rank fought against an AAA-Rank who might reach S-Rank at any moment? Logically, the government would do everything in its power to stop that from happening. No matter who won the battle, it would be a loss for the country at the international level.

The Awakener's Association did try to stop my brother from fighting the Silver Sword Guild, so this one-on-one battle was what he came up with to heed the request of the Association's Chairman.

I quickly jumped off the bed and went downstairs, where Maa was almost on the verge of tears while watching the exact same press conference on TV.

"Maa, don't worry about it. I will try to stop Brother from doing this foolishness," I said, gently tapping her shoulder.

The moment I turned to head toward the basement, Maa suddenly called out from behind.

"Don't stop him, Raj!" Maa ordered. "I'm not crying because he announced a fight with the Sword King. I was crying because he endured all those scandals silently until now."

"But Maa, the Sword King is at S-Rank while—"

"Believe in your brother, Raj! He will surely win!"

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