God's Dynasty

"You know son, our ancestor was a Sword Master!"

Ryan's father used to say it a lot as if it was out of habit at this point.

He was a man with great pride in his family's history.

Perhaps it was because his family may be a descendant of a Sword Master, someone who had reached the pinnacle of power, or perhaps his father was delusional.

Nevertheless, the villagers did not care about his father's antics, and his father always tried to keep his dignity with him even in the midst of any hardship he faced during the farm life he had cultivated, and his father expected the same attitude from his son Ryan.

Ryan could still remember his father's voice when he closes his eyes from time to time.

'Do not forget son, we have noble blood in us. Although we are like this now, remember we are still different to the other villagers out there.'

Ironically, his father could not pass on the martial arts to his son. What could have been such a great start to the young Ryan's childhood was missed and the only thing his father had handed to him when Ryan was growing up was the pride of being a descendant of a noble.

However, a tragedy befell Ryan when he was 11 years old.

A deadly plague had swept the entire mid-west region of the Empire, and the fatality rate was terrifying. Even in the nobility, one in ten died and commoners who did not have access to healers and expensive medicine died faster and in much bigger numbers.

After a full week of battling this plague, his father passed away leaving a short little note for his son.

'I'm sorry.'

It wasn't long before the village keepers had realized that the farmland his father had kept was now run by his son who had not come of age, and so he had taken the land off of the young boy and sold it to passing mercenaries.

Ryan had no place to go, no reason to live.

"Please buy me, I can cook, clean, and also handle heavy work"

Ryan with his head down looked at the mercenaries that were passing by the village.

"One silver coin? Aren't you too expensive little boy?"

"Just one silver coin, so I can survive, then I am all yours!"

"... Okay, a deal is a deal."

The purchase of Ryan was an act many people who worshiped the goddess of the ear had followed, and usually, mercenaries were the ones who worshiped her.

They believe that the goddess would atone for their sins of murder on the battlefield. But living as a mercenary was not just killing others in battle but rather killing people who are also not resisting which is something the goddess does not accept.

So the answer to many mercenaries' problems is recruiting boy soldiers to do their dirty work.

It was easy to teach a boy to cut the necks of those who are tied up with a knife, and they did not need much maintenance to keep either.

These children were called executioners.

'Come on little boy, gently shove the knife towards the neck and draw a straight line and pull it out. Simple right?'

'I... I can't...'

'Hm? Oi, bring the tongs out. Kid, which hand is your strongest?"

"Wait! WAIT! I MADE A MISTAKE AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

After many years of 'education', Ryan had obeyed the will of the mercenaries and became a murderer.

Killing the people he was ordered to kill was nothing compared to the pain he had suffered at the beginning of having his nails pulled out or being branded with a hot iron across his back.

"Oi, the bastard is running!"

"Catch that piece of shit!"

It was unknown whether it was a mistake or someone had loosened his rope on the traitor, but he had escaped with a dagger that he had stolen from another executioner.

While this was happening, Ryan who was in the same direction as the guy running was tasked to catch the guy by the other mercenaries.

As he caught up with the traitor, Ryan quickly rushed towards him and stabbed him in the stomach before the traitor could even react.

Surprisingly, the whole incident ended there.

There was no special technique used, he had avoided being stabbed by the man and dug it into his gut while staring into the man's eyes.

While Ryan jiggled his sword around ripping his lungs out, the man then choked on his blood covering the boy in dark red blood.

"You look like you are doing well, kid."

The one who approached Ryan was the captain of the mercenaries, he threw a short sword at Ryan and declared to the squad that Ryan is now an apprentice mercenary.

"If you get useful results like that, perhaps you may become an official mercenary"

Ryan's small build now grew much bigger and ripped yet it still had that slender build to it leaving him light and agile, and his skills with a sword weren't bad either.

With his trusty short sword at hand, he had proved his ability by killing ten people in four skirmishes that were nearby.

Even after becoming an official mercenary, Ryan's activities continued forward. As his body grew, he was able to handle a wider variety of weapons and was able to kill more enemies faster and quicker than before.

At the age of 17, 3 years after being promoted, Ryan was now being treated as their strongest weapon within the mercenary group.