My Clan Cultivation System: Only My Clan Can Cultivate

"Wait! Are you really going home right now?!"

​Merra’s voice echoed through the night as she rushed toward the front gates of the Academy, panting heavily. Standing near a waiting carriage in his battered, dirt-stained uniform was Isaac.

​Hearing her voice, he turned around and looked at her. His dull golden eyes briefly scanned her flushed face before a small, knowing smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.

​"If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were starting to fall for me. To chase me all the way out here..." Isaac teased dryly.

​"W-What?! You’ve got the wrong idea! I don’t—!" she stammered, her cheeks burning bright red. Seeing his smirk widen, she panicked. "Wait! Don’t change the subject!" she blurted out, taking a step closer to him.

​"Miss Merra... Please" Isaac said, his tone turning calm and serious. "Although I may appear to be a quiet, detached person, I can easily tell when someone cares for me... or even when someone loves me. I am really not that dense."

​"W-What?! Love?!" she squeaked, quickly covering her face with her hands to hide her embarrassment.

​"Sigh... Your attitude toward me started changing a few days ago," Isaac pointed out calmly. "You started touching me more gently, caring for me too much, and yelling at me out of genuine worry when I did stupid things. Even the way you look at me has changed from how you used to. Maybe you didn’t consciously notice these feelings yourself. But if you really don’t feel anything for me right now, you can just say so, and I will apologize for making the wrong assumption."

​"..."

​A long moment passed. Merra didn’t say anything. She didn’t argue back; she only looked down at her shoes, her silence serving as a complete confession.

​Isaac let out a heavy sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. He walked back toward her and gently took her hands, pulling them away from her face.

​"I am sorry to tell you this, Merra... but this will never work," Isaac said, his golden eyes filled with grim reality.

​When she heard the words ’never work’, the blush on her face instantly vanished, replaced by sheer horror. "Wh-what? Why? Why can’t it work? Is it because of the age difference?!" she asked, her voice cracking as she began to break down.

​"There are a million reasons why it wouldn’t work, and our ages are not one of them," Isaac explained softly, slowly letting go of her hands. "Look at yourself for a second. You are a beautiful, talented, seventeen-year-old Third-Class Mage. I don’t even know why someone as young and gifted as you is working as a mere academy nurse in the first place, because as a Third-Class Mage, money shouldn’t be an issue for you at all."

​He took a step back, gesturing to his battered body. "Then look at me. I am a fifteen-year-old mortal weakling who could be killed at any minute in this disgusting world. How could I tie you down and hold you back? And don’t even get me started on my family and the hatred we attract. Your future is limitless, Merra... while mine is doomed."

​"We could... we could maybe try to—" she tried to argue, but the words couldn’t form properly in her throat. Tears were welling up rapidly in her eyes, though she fought hard not to let them fall.

​"Goodbye, Merra," Isaac said softly.

​He turned around and climbed into the waiting family carriage. As the coachman snapped the reins and the carriage began to roll away into the night, Merra stood frozen for a long time before finally turning back toward the infirmary, wiping her eyes.

​Inside the carriage, a heavily armored family guard looked at Isaac from the opposite seat.

​"Young Master, don’t you think you were a bit harsh on the girl?" the guard asked respectfully.

​"No, I wasn’t harsh at all. If I didn’t tell her the brutal truth now, she would have tried something stupid in the future," Isaac said, a dark smile forming on his face. "Maybe in a month or two, she will have forgotten all about me and moved on with her life. She is much better off without me anyway."

​"But Young Master... for someone who just dumped a girl, you are awfully smiling a lot," the guard noted, shivering slightly at the coldness in the boy’s eyes.

​"Am I really?" Isaac murmured, touching his lips. "I guess it should be about time now."

​"Time?" the guard asked, confused.

​"It’s just a small surprise gift I left for my ’friends’ at the Academy. They should be opening it right about now," Isaac chuckled darkly, leaning back in his seat.

​Back at the Trillah Academy

​Preston, Sidney, and Terry were currently on their knees, bowing subserviently in a lavish, heavily guarded private dorm room. Two older nobles in pristine attire stood in front of them, looking down at the small glowing pink vial resting on the mahogany table.

​"You are late," the leading noble spat, shooting absolute death glares at the three boys. This was Antony Comberton, one of the many privileged sons of Count David Comberton. "I planned to slip this potion into Beatrix’s drink and make her mine by tonight, but you three commoner rats had to fuck up one simple errand."

​"Young Master, you shouldn’t waste your breath shouting at these commoners. They never understand simple instructions," Dave sneered, crossing his arms. Dave was Antony’s personal retainer, a talented Aura User who had been admitted to the Academy solely through the Count’s connections.

​"You’re right about that, Dave. Since we missed our window today, we will just have to plan it for the day she returns to the Academy, or we can find another girl tovuse it on" Antony said, a wicked, disgusting smile spreading across his face as he picked up the vial.

​Antony looked down at Preston. "Did you idiots at least check if it’s the real deal inside?" he asked, holding the vial up to the light.

​"..." Preston, Sidney, and Terry didn’t answer, nervously keeping their heads bowed.

​"Tsk. You guys really are completely useless. You couldn’t even check a simple thing? What, were you terrified you would be affected and end up fucking each other?" Antony mocked with a look of pure disgust. "Sorry to ruin your imaginations, boys, but an Incubus Potion only affects women. You would have been perfectly safe. Now, let’s see if this is the real deal or if you idiots bought a dud and wasted my gold."

​Antony popped the cork off the vial.

​’Antony Comberton... he is just as disgusting with women as his father, the Count,’ Preston thought bitterly, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. ’Buying an illegal Incubus Potion that strips a woman of her senses with just one smell... he sure is despicable.’

​Sniff... sniff... Antony inhaled deeply from the vial a few times to test the potency.

​"Fuck! I can’t believe you guys were sold a fucking dud! The smell isn’t even close to an Incubus Potion!" Antony roared in fury, violently throwing the glass vial onto the stone floor. It shattered instantly, spilling a clear, odorless liquid everywhere.

​’It’s fake? Did that bastard Isaac cheat us?!’ Preston, Sidney, and Terry all thought the exact same thing, panic seizing their hearts.

​"If you guys had just checked the—" Antony started to scream, but his voice suddenly cut off. He collapsed heavily into his velvet chair, aggressively gripping his hair. "Aaahhh! My head! Why the hell is it hurting so much?!"

​Suddenly, it wasn’t just Antony. Everyone in the room began gripping their heads in sudden, agonizing pain.

​"Aaaah!" Preston screamed, violently thrashing on the floor.

​"Why does my head feel like it was trampled by a beast?!" Antony choked out. He suddenly felt something warm leaking down his neck. He reached a trembling hand up to his left ear and pulled it back. "I-Is this... blood?!" he stuttered in sheer terror.

​Antony frantically turned his head to look behind him. He saw Dave screaming in absolute, blood-curdling agony, clutching his throat, but Antony quickly realized he couldn’t hear Dave’s screams at all. He had gone completely deaf.

​’What the hell is going on?! It must be that vial! What the fuck did those brats buy?!’ Antony thought, his mind racing in a blind panic. ’I can’t... I can’t even sense my mana anymore! Wait... is this... is this the Devil’s Cage?!’

​A horrific realization dawned on the noble. The Devil’s Cage was a legendary, forbidden airborne poison that he had only heard rumors about. It was designed to completely paralyze the victim, stripping them of their ability to move, talk, or hear, while dissolving their mana veins. The victims would die an excruciatingly death, and ironically, those with smaller mana pools were killed the fastest. So it’s basically a poison for mages and aura users.

​’How could a restricted assassination drug from the Obsidian Empire end up here?!’ Antony thought in despair. He tried to keep his eyes open, but thick, dark blood began pouring profusely from his nose and tear ducts.

​’Fuck... who would do such a thing to me?!’ Antony wept tears of blood. The sheer, suffocating fear of death welled up inside him as he lost complete control of his bodily functions, a warm puddle of urine forming under his chair.

​He weakly turned his head to look at Dave one last time, only to see his retainer lying in a pool of his own blood, completely motionless.

​A second later, Antony’s world went permanently dark.

​Preston, Sidney, and Terry were already long dead on the floor. Within minutes, the lavish dorm room fell totally, terrifyingly silent.