Norton Lorist

Posto Mercenário: Ferro
Ranked Mercenary Veteran

Blade-master Rank 3 (Slaughter Domain).

Battle Force: One Star Silver rank

Manual: high class
Blazing Battle Force technique

Manual past life:
Aqua-Metal Ki Technique (chapter 5)

He likes to use a
short sword to his belt buckle and a long one on his back. he slot two daggers
into his boots and a mini-crossbow on his left arm.

Special Skill: Dynamic
vision

Lorist had already become one of Morante City’s most well-known personalities with his moniker being Iron Locke the Silver Undefeated, a proud dual Gold ranked instructor with an Iron ranked Battle Force.

Norton Lorist of House Norton, Duke of The Northlands. He was given this title by Second Highness Auguslo, being enfeoffed the whole of The Northlands.

## Personality

Lorist didn't deny he had considered the notion of forming his own kingdom. After all, he had already put in so much effort to meld with the battleforce-oriented world of Grindia as someone who came from another world. His soul stemmed from an ancient oriental civilization that had five millennia of history. While the original owner of his current body might have been a person loyal to the kingdom, he wasn’t. The fact that House Norton managed to become what it was today, bearing the title of Duke of The Northlands, was already far beyond the Norton ancestors' imagination. Lorist felt he had already done a lot for the house.

## Background

Lorist, the Second Young Master of the House Norton who had been exiled for ten years since the age of 14 had learned a bunch of useful skills during his time away from the family.

The moment he inherited the position of the family head, the Second Young Master intentionally instigated conflict with the Kenmays Family and burned down their Redriver Valley Bastide and even erected the Firmrock Castle at Morgan Hills. Faced with the harassment of Duke Loggins, he even eliminated the 4000 troops that managed to enter their dominion and even sent out soldiers in retaliation, all the while hanging the former horse breeder of the Second Prince, Baron Farad for harming one of the messengers of the Norton Family.

Lorist had amassed quite an amount of wealth during his time away from the House. After he received summons from the family, he formed his own northbound convoy and had many Gold ranked family knights under his command.

As for the aftermath of the duels, Lorist finally secured his title as the Silver Undefeated the moment he got his 3000th win. When the dueling event was finally over, the academy administration had Lorist’s physical proportions measured for the life-sized statue they were going to commission for him. Starting from the next semester, his statue will be erected within the academy, forever immortalizing the legend of Iron Locke the Silver Undefeated.

He was brought into a conflict with Count Corby and decided to avenge his Third Uncle and the rest of the merchant convoy after he had found out the truth about the count’s involvement in the incident years prior.

After killing of the count and all his illegitimate sons at Geldos City, he departure from the main convoy with Shadekampf, Patt and several others to make it in time for the inheritance ceremony, which led to their extermination of a group of bandits at the border of the Andinaq Kingdom and the formation of another convoy followed by their return to the dominion, during which they discovered the construction site at the valley in Morgan Hills and occupied it. He also had the captured family members who were being forced to work at the mines by the Kenmayses, rescued.

Back when House Norton clashed with the second prince and won, their forces swept across The Northlands and took care of all landed nobles apart from our three houses. Currently, there were 17 noble houses living in Firmrock Castle. They are all the old nobles of the Krissen Empire that have some relation with House Norton. But, given that The Northlands was already under the four houses' control, Lorist had been wanting to give them replacement dominions. Kenmays had the second highness agree to enfeoff land in Delamock to the nobles, to gain House Norton’s support. Also letting Lorist have Kobo and the rest of the remaining territory, to further his highness's cause without any hesitation. Kenmays wanted the Nortons' forces that far exceed that of the three other houses. With their involvement, they could decrease their casualties. Second, he wished to have five of the landed nobles his house was rearing given land in Delamock along with those in the care of the Nortons. If he accepted this, he could leave the matter of reclaiming Baron Felim's dominion to House Norton. They would be more than capable of defending against House Fisablen.

Also, Kenmays convinced the second highness to name Lorist the governor of Winston and leave Windbury in his jurisdiction. The second highness refused, but Kenmays convinced him that when they conquered the duchy, there would be nobles that would submit to him. Kenmays also knew some nobles of the Iblia kingdom that were on friendly terms with him. All he had to do was move their dominions to Winston, and leave only Windbury under House Norton's control. If he made sure to support House Felim, one of the Nortons' allies, Kenmays convinced him that he would cause House Norton quite a bit of trouble.

## Abilities

Lorist took up accounting and knight training as his additional professional courses. This was chosen ten years ago by his uncle who also handled all of his family’s business affairs. His uncle thought that learning accounting would benefit Lorist even if he doesn’t end up inheriting the title of the family head as he can always inherit his position as the head of the family’s trading group.

As for knight training, that was chosen because his family had a glorious military history and considered martial prowess paragon. Lorist also showed tremendous talent as he had awakened his Battle Force at the young age of 14. Had it not been for the grave error he committed in the past, he would not have been exiled to Morante City by his father. Being exiled meant not being able to receive the traditional knight training of his family. At that time, Lorist’s uncle thought that it was not good for Lorist to not have any training in this field and chose knight training as the other professional course he had to take.

A month after his enrollment, due to his overbearing arrogance, Lorist had got into some trouble with several other students and ended up beaten to the brink of death. It was at that time that another consciousness took over young Lorist’s body. Because of that, Lorist only took one year to complete the accounting course since to the current Lorist, the subject was merely some crude, simple arithmetic on the level of mathematics classes taught to fourth or fifth graders back in his previous life.

However, the current Lorist had some initial trouble with his knight training. Had it not been for his already fit body, he would’ve suffered quite a bit during the arduous three years of the course. He had to start of as a squire of other knights and carry out many miscellaneous tasks for his seniors as well as manage their armors and take care of their horses on top of attending his own physical exercise and training sessions in the skills of a knight. After three years of bitter training, he finally obtained his pass for the course.

Despite all that, he could only become a knight apprentice, unlike his other course mates. That was due to his Iron ranked Battle Force. Only Silver Swordsmen could become full-fledged knights.

That being said, the main cause for his stunted Battle Force training was due to a mishap in the cultivation of the Norton family’s Blazing Battle Force. Ever since inheriting the memories of the original owner of the body, he knew that he was in possession of a hand-copied version of the Blazing Battle Force manual that only allowed him to train up to the Three Star Iron rank. At that time, his Battle Force had just recently been awakened and it would take him a few more years to reach the Three Star Iron rank, so he wasn’t in a hurry to obtain the rest of the manual.

Battle Force training was very much different from the Ki-refining techniques he had encountered in his previous life. He was forced to train the Aquametal Technique passed down in his family by his grandfather at the young age of seven back then. Battle Force training, however, did not start until one reached the age of 15 or 16; one could not awaken one’s Battle Force at too young an age when the pulse wasn’t strong enough to agitate the magical beast factors present in the blood.

It was primarily the fault of the knight training course instructors back in the Dawn Academy who always said that knights should be brave and courageous during a charge and that using a bow is an act of cowardice. That had caused Lorist to neglect archery training almost entirely to the point that he could only use javelins to attack enemies at a distance.

Ever since he broke into the Dark stage, his senses have become so sharpened that he could easily detect the presence of any living being that was even as small as a rat, not to say much about a human, within a radius of one or two meters. A beating heart and the circulation of blood are like a bright light shining in the dark night that easily catches Lorist’s attention.

Others would feel the chilling aura of a snowstorm when fighting against Lorist. Lorist's arcane swordsmanship style that seemed to have a chilling aura of a snowstorm that causes his opponent’s strikes to slow down as if the cold was robbing his strikes of their energy.

Since a slaughter always succeeds the manifestation of the domain, Lorist named it the Slaughter Domain. Lorist's speed, agility, strength and other bodily qualities were doubled or tripled in the world. He worked on familiarizing himself with this ability as soon as he could. He adjusted his training to focus in that direction and tried his best to train his body until the state was within the domain.

### Aqua-Metal Ki Technique

 Dark Stage
 \*Transformative Stage

\*Mentioned in chapter 111.

### Equipment

Lorist used a lot of money and precious materials to make his two swords. For example, each Metal-eater Rat teeth that was among the materials of the swords cost one small silver each. Lorist had spent almost ten gold Fordes on nearly a thousand of them and used them to increase the hardness of his swords so that it would be strong enough to be able to withstand strikes from blade glows without prior infusion of any Battle Force. His friends all knew that even though his swords didn’t look fancy or amazing, the cost involved in their making greatly exceeded that of most other priceless weapons.

Dominion Equipment

Dominion Military

Grindia Military Units

## Relationships

### Family

Lorist's father had 17 illegitimate children. Including Lorist and his two brothers, the Old Master had 20 children in total. Including Lorist, only 11 are still alive. Of the siblings, there are four illegitimate daughters, two of which are already married with the other two still only in their teens, at the time of Lorist's claim to family head.

Lorist did not mind their statuses between himself, Molocinque, Wellickson, and Eidelwoke. To him, the blood of the Nortons also flow in their veins and they were his brothers by blood. However, due to the customs and traditions of the family, he was unable to let them train in the hereditary Crimsonblood Battle Force technique. However, Lorist gave them three high-ranked Battle Force manuals. Other than that, all three of them received training in noble and knight etiquette. When they broke through the Silver rank to become knights of the family, they were allowed to bear the Norton family name. When they raked in enough achievements for the family, he would also make them all landed nobles so that they could form branch families for the Nortons.

As for the remaining four when they reached the age of 12, they were to begin receiving training in noble etiquette and knighthood. If they are hardworking enough, they will have the same prospects of their three brothers. Their mothers were given a yearly sum to improve the quality of life within their families so that Lorist’s half-siblings would be able to live better lives.

### Harem

* Princess Sylvia: Lorist did not quite know what to make of her. Even though the house's officials were incredibly in favor of their union, with Governor Hansk and Governor Hector writing letters to encourage the marriage as well, Lorist couldn't help but feel a little weird about what was requested of him. He had always seen Princess Sylvia as an adorable and beautiful little sister. He had never imagined she would end up falling for him. To Lorist, the only benefit of the princess's visit was that she caused the members of his harem, especially Arriotoli, to calm down. Charade had a different take on the matter, a more conservative attitude. He believed that House Norton and House Fisablen's alliance would not be without its shortcomings. Instead, he was wary of why Duke Fisablen would make such a move in the first place. House Fisablen, which controlled three whole provinces, was a force to be reckoned with, after all.
* Nico Telesti: Lorist honestly felt that Telesti was a great candidate for being the wife of him, the baron of the Norton Family. While she wasn't among the ranks of the most stunning beauties in Grindia, she definitely looked quite pleasant with her decent figure and fair skin. The most important point of hers that Lorist admired was her wise and knowledgeable aura that fit Lorist's tastes. Moreover, Telesti was unlike most other noble ladies who only knew how to dress up and demand to be spoiled; she was also a scholar. Just like a certain saying in Lorist's previous life, while Telesti could definitely progress far in her life by relying on her looks, she didn't do that and instead focused on her studies and research. Her independent and headstrong personality was what attracted Lorist the most. As he spent time with her, Lorist knew that she felt some attraction for him, given that she tolerates his insolent acts like hugging and kissing her once in awhile. Even though it always ended with her being mad, it was more of a kneejerk reaction due to her being too ashamed to admit her hidden desires. She wasn't willing to renounce the oath she made to stay single and strive only for truth and knowledge. That was also a rather troublesome issue for Lorist. He was quite frustrated that she would take that kind of inhumane oath out of all other oaths that could be made. After much time Locke was able to subdue her maidenhood, however, after failing to take her as a wife, settled with her becoming his lover.

#### Dinas

Lorist wanted to bring the two girls and their young aunt away from the barony. During the previous year when he attended the paradise gathering, he got to know a girl called Dina Arriotoli and her aunt who bore the alias of 'Chessy'. They spent a fulfilling night together, and the girl said that she fancied Lorist quite a lot and promised that she would no longer attend the gathering to wait for Lorist for three years. If Lorist was willing to take her hand in marriage, she would be wedded to him along with her younger sister.

In the previous year, Lorist had Els pay them a visit on his behalf and sent over a thousand gold Fordes with a bunch of other gifts. When Els returned, he reported that the girl was incredibly down after learning of Lorist's identity as a count. Given that she and her sister were of low status, they would not be fit to be Lorist's wives. She originally thought that Lorist was just a knight which she and her sister could marry without problems. If 'knight' Lorist tried hard enough, he might even get a title of a baron.

Lorist did not wish to force them to come with him, but given the stark situation of the Andinaq kingdom, and how the dominion of the girl's house was near the northwestern area of the Redlis kingdom, the moment the second highness's forces were defeated, the northwestern area of the Redlis kingdom would fall under the control of the Union. By then, if the Union sent their forces down, the girl's house and the Dina baroy would be one of the first to suffer. Lorist did not wish for the girls and her family to fall to the hands of the mercenaries of the Union. That was not something he was willing to ignore.

* Dina Arriotoli: The elder Dina mistress had discovered that, be it status, looks, battleforce, aura or family background, neither she nor her younger sister could compare to the princess. They didn't even have the right to be jealous. It was also because almost all the officials of the house supported a union between Lorist and the princess. Arriotoli had no choice but to stop her efforts to push her younger sister to the position of Lorist's wife and the household's matron grudgingly.

### Past Lovers

* Louise - First time
* Windsor Prinna - First girlfriend
* Nina
* Sala - mentioned in ch54
* Jumile
* Molly

### Disciples

* Reidy Gezeizidorf: Reidy was Lorist's first disciple and, in some sense, he was one of the people Lorist trusted the most alongside Howard. Those two held a different place in Lorist's heart than Potterfang, Charade, Els, and the others. While Reidy was only a one-star silver rank, he wasn't training in battleforce. Instead, he was practicing the Dan Ocean Ki-Refining Technique, which Lorist had passed down to him, so he was especially close to Lorist. Naturally, Reidy had no way of knowing that the internal techniques he learned were from Lorist's family in the previous world. He was instead told that they were passed down from the days of the eastern combat monks. As Lorist's eldest disciple, Reidy had never let him down. In fact, Lorist had expressed more than a couple of times that his disciple was more talented in training than he was, having only taken around five years to break through the bottleneck that was the third level of the technique and approaching the fourth.
* Howard
* Jinolio: third disciple; eldest son of Fedley Senbaud. When Senbaud was first captured, Jinolio was to be taken as Lorist's disciple and serve as his personal atttendant when he turned 16. Lorist had Howard give him the training routines he used to use so he could work on it as well.
* Freilyde: forth disciple; second son of Charade. He is described as having a kind innate personality and insatiable curiosity.

### Subordinates

Terman, Yuriy, Els and Charade were the friends that Lorist had made during his ten years at Dawn Academy, and they were also his most trusted subordinates.

* Shadekampf: Lorist's personal attendant. The young Lorist was rather haughty and bossed Shadekampf around quite a lot.
* Patt: Patt was Lorist's rival from the days of his childhood. When the both of them met, they always broke into a fight and one of them always went home crying. If they meet on the next day, the whole cycle would begin all over again. After both of them had met after such a long time, a feeling of intimacy and nostalgia sparked between them instead.
* Grei Potterfang (Pog): Lorist deemed Potterfang as someone worthy of respect, due to his mastery of eight basic swordsmanship moves. Lorist had Potterfang  address him as Locke. To Lorist, the moment he fought alongside him as a comrade, he had already become his friend. And friends don’t speak so formally among one another. Potterfang then had Lorist address him as Pog, the nickname his comrades in the army used to call him.
* Pajik: In Lorist eyes he had always been an upright person who upheld his oaths. Helias was the sole offspring Lorist's elder brother left behind and he hoped that he can obtain the love and care of a father and mother that a child like him deserved as well as siblings for him to grow up with. The reason he wanted Pajik to be his guardian was because he hoped that he would be able to raise him into a trustworthy and noble person. When he reaches 12 years old, Lorist would fetch him back and begin training him into a magnificent knight like his father.
* Brennan Evanport (Els): After two encounters, Lorist was left with a deep impression of Els being a bringer of bad luck in his heart. Lorist made a mental note to be on guard lest he get wrapped up in any more troublesome business. It was only after that incident with the Ground Wyrm when Lorist changed his impression of Els. Following that, they went on more missions together and eventually their friendship developed to a point where they could talk about almost anything.
* Zelan Ovidis: Lorist felt that the bearded bandit leader was a pretty interesting fellow and even considered him to be one of his loyal subordinates early on. Technically speaking, Ovidis could be considered to be Lorist's prisoner and 'property' and he didn't have any personal freedom. The captives also included the former bandits who were currently serving within the guard squad. However, ever since Ovidis started following Lorist, he had won Lorist’s trust with his efforts and sincerity. And performed rather well. Lorist then promoted him to a family knight. Despite being a former bandit, Ovidis had been loyal ever since he pledged his allegiance, which was why Lorist trusted him deeply. Enough to give him command of the Thunderbolt Brigade.
* Pesha: Apart from his father, the one he most hated was that red-haired girl who frequently took his elder brother away from him and followed him around all day. Once, he curiously tugged on that girl’s red ponytail and ended up getting pummeled very harshly as a result.
* Boris: Lorist's opinion of that old butler was a good one in that he was a capable person that handled most of what he was instructed without trouble and was a talent in human resource management and administration. The only flaw he had was that he was extremely fearful for his own life. If the opposite was the case, there was no way that he would surrender to Lorist's forces so easily and work so earnestly for him in the first place. After Lorist's return, despite knowing that Shadekampf was Lorist’s personal attendant, her act of giving him a slap signified a huge disregard for the authority of the family leader. She was used to behaving as she liked in the family, thought Lorist, enraged, as he decided that he would definitely put her into place and see if she would dare to piss him off in the future as a mere Two Star Silver rank.

### Allies

* Second Highness: Faced with the suspicion the second highness held towards the house, Lorist would never bother to do anything to placate the second highness or calm his fears. Not only was it a sign of his confidence, it was also part of his pride. Whether the second highness be his former self that commanded 300 thousand troops or his current self, no better than a failed noble, Lorist maintained the same attitude he always had. Lorist thought the second highness wasn't one without talent. His reputation as one of the war gods on Grindia was nothing to scoff at. The second highness may be a brilliant commander, but the way Lorist saw it, he wasn't a good king. While the second highness's governing policies weren't bad per se, he didn't have the wisdom or wit of a king. Lorist believed the second highness was a grudge-holding, petty, stubborn, authoritarian, and opportunistic man who always thought he knew best. Lorist could easily name a ton more faults the second highness possessed. The man's biggest problem was his self-importance. It was the reason Lorist wanted as little to do with him as possible. He had no right to instruct Lorist to do this or that. He was glad a landed noble like him could refuse unreasonable orders from his liege, unlike the knights that served the second highness, who had to obey every single order without question. Lorist's method was simple: do everything step by step and focus on building a firm foundation. It was far better than the second highness's alpha-strike mentality that got him to gather a force of 300 thousand, only to end up with nothing after a devastating loss, having nowhere to return to apart from The Northlands, resulting in him having to rely on Lorist once more. When the second highness received the Whitelion Legion's equipment as well as 100 thousand gold Fordes, it showed the relationship between the second highness and House Norton was nothing more than one of a liege and his vassal. The second highness had baited House Norton with the same gear to have their forces exterminate the obstacles that would stop him from gaining power. The equipment's return signified Lorist desire to have nothing further to do with the Andinaq royal family, a sentiment which the second highness undoubtedly noticed.
* Count Kenmays: Lorist himself found the relationship between his family and the Kenmays’s to be rather weird. Even though they had made peace between one another, the Kenmays Family no doubt lost quite a bit from their interactions with the Norton Family and they should secretly feel hateful of that. And given that the Norton Family profited quite a bit off the Kenmays’s, they should also be rather varying of them. The two families should only be friendly on the surface. However, the more Lorist interacted with Count Kenmays, the better friends they became, to the point that they could tell one another anything down to the most private matters. Lorist felt that there was no way he could truly hate the count even if their families were to be on hostile terms.

### Enemies

* Krissen Iblia (Second Prince): The Second Prince had no good intentions for the Norton Family. So, Lorist was very straightforward in his attitude towards him: no matter what he desires from him, he would refuse it. Lorist was still bearing a grudge for the fact that he abandoned the family after the death of his elder brother who had served him and the Norton Family had drawn a clear line to not want to be involved with him any further.

### Knight

Knight 1: Charade, also known as ‘The Fatty’, bore the title Chief Knight of the House and was a one-star gold rank. He was born in a family with a mercantile background and used to be the supervisor of Dawn Academy’s enforcement division. He was also one of Lorist's close friends.

Knight 2: Three-star-gold-ranked Grei Potterfang, nicknamed Pog, was of common birth and use to serve as a regiment leader in the Krissen Empire’s Whitelion Legion. He was the first gold-ranked knight to pledge allegiance to Lorist.

Knight 3: Loze Wales, nicknamed ‘Fiercetiger Loze’, was a peak three-star-gold-ranked knight whose father was a mercenary. After he matured, Loze joined the army and became one of the legion’s generals. He joined House Norton along with his friend, Potterfang.

Knight 4: Mons Malek, who bore the moniker ‘Ironface’, was a two-star gold rank of common birth who used to serve as a regiment leader in the Whitelion legion. After the legion’s dissolution, he joined Lorist along with Fiercetiger Loze.

On the 17th day of the 2nd month, the citizens of Edelise revolted. Near a hundred thousand citizens protested on the streets against the surprise attack and demanded House Norton leave and Duke Madras return. Only ten thousand of the legion's soldiers were present. Gold-ranked Knight Malek gave the order to kill to suppress the revolt, which resulted in the deaths of more than 30 thousand of Edelise's citizens and the capture of 40 thousand more. Malek, who gave the order without the slightest change in expression, was known henceforth as Ironface.

Knight 5: Josk, affectionately called Joe, was a three-star gold ranked knight known as the ‘Divine Marksman’. He was born in a family of knights and was adopted by a noble. He joined Lorist for the sake of vengeance. He pledged to live life alone forever so that he wouldn't forget his deceased fiancee.

Knight 6: Chino Freiyar, a three-star gold rank who used to be a mercenary, had been forced into a labor camp because he had fought against some nobles. He was rescued by Lorist's convoy alongside his family and traveled to The Northlands to become a gold-ranked knight of the household.

Knight 7: Belnick, or ‘Beck the White-haired’, was a three-star gold ranked knight born to a servant family of the Norton household. When he was still a silver rank, he had been poisoned and remained in his sickbed for years before Lorist treated him. After being given a high-ranked battleforce manual, he eventually trained to the gold rank.

Knight 8: Brennan Evanport, known to most as Els, was a one-star gold rank who used to be a syndicate boss in Morante. He ended up following his close friend, Lorist, to The Northlands and became a silver-ranked knight of the house. After ten years of training, he eventually became a gold rank.

Knight 9: Waprey Terman, a one-star gold rank who was born in a family of freelance knights, was the first one to join Lorist's northbound convoy. Deeply trusted by Lorist, he got the position of the commander of the Raging Bear Knight Brigade.

Knight 10: Yuwen Ridest, nicknamed Yuriy, was a man from a line of shepherds from the grasslands. One of Lorist's close friends since the days of the academy, he joined Lorist's northbound convoy and eventually ended up being the commander of the light cavalry scouts.

Knight 11: Pajik, a one-star gold rank of common birth, had become the captive of the first young master of the Norton house during the time of the civil war. Following the first young master’s death, he kept his word and was eventually knighted by Lorist when he returned to the dominion.

Knight 12: Senbaud, a two-star gold rank ex-pirate who had been forced to serve House Norton during one of Lorist's expropriation missions and eventually pledged allegiance to Lorist, was the commander of the Oceanic Legion.

Knight 13: Two-star-gold-ranked Jades used to be a slave. Originally a wandering knight, he had been captured and enslaved by a Hanayabartan slaver band and forced to fight for his masters’ entertainment. He was eventually rescued when Lorist exterminated the kingdom and pledged his allegiance to his house.

Knight 14: Messen, a one-star gold rank who used to be a slave, used to be the captain of a village garrison before his enslavement. He eventually pledged allegiance to House Norton since he no longer had a home to return to.

Knight 15: Ovidis, nicknamed ‘Big-beard’, was a one-star-gold-ranked ex-bandit. After surrendering to Lorist and serving him, he eventually made many contributions to Lorist's cause. His trustworthiness and sincerity were the qualities that convinced Lorist to knight him.

Knight 16: One-star gold rank Dulles. Being of common birth, he had joined up with Lorist when he was still at Dawn Academy because he admired Lorist's swordsmanship. Dulles was utilized extensively and was the one who founded the carroballista unit so monumental to the northbound convoy’s success. He was also one of Lorist's favorite subordinates.

Those were the 16 gold-ranked knights under Lorist's command. Their reputation had yet to truly become widespread, and they had no way of knowing that they would eventually come to be known as the Raging-Bear King’s 16 Wings. With the growing might of House Norton, the Raging Bear sharpened its claws. Eventually, the time when their reputation spread far across the whole of Grindia would come.