Tremble! My System Manufactures Modern Weapons

The cold winter rain beat heavily against the wooden gates of the Sterling manor as Dustin Vance hurried through the cobblestone path. His fingers were stiff from the freezing air, but he kept his hands wrapped tightly around a small, glowing crystal vial.

Inside this precious vial was the rare Elixir of Life, a medicine he had spent the last three weeks of his life performing brutal, back-breaking labor in the deep mountain ores to obtain. His body was completely exhausted, his shoulders bruised, and his clothes covered in dark mud, but none of that mattered to him right now.

He had pushed himself past his physical limits to return several hours ahead of his usual schedule, driven entirely by a beautiful anticipation. He simply could not wait to walk through the front doors, place this expensive medicine into his wife Chloe's hands, and see the radiant, happy smile return to her face.

For three long years, Dustin had worked himself to absolute bone-deep exhaustion for other arrogant noble houses across the city, sacrificing every single silver piece he earned to fund her family. Chloe had knelt before him on their wedding night, weeping as she claimed her mother was suffering from an incurable, highly contagious magical core rot.

"She is locked away in a secure, restricted containment center where only the high-tier alchemists can enter," Chloe had sobbed into his chest back then. "If you do not help me fund her treatments, the disease will slowly eat her soul."

Because he loved his wife more than his own life, Dustin had willingly become their live-in, ridiculed laborer, enduring the venomous insults of the entire city while believing his sacrifices were keeping her mother alive. He had even been overjoyed when Chloe announced her pregnancy a few months ago, believing he was finally building a true family of his own.

As Dustin stepped onto the grand pavilion porch, his boots making zero sound against the wet mat, a set of clear, happy voices suddenly echoed from behind the frosted glass doors, freezing him completely in mid-stride.

"Brandon, honey, be careful with my belly," Chloe Sterling’s voice giggled softly, overflowing with a sweet, affectionate warmth that Dustin had not heard from her in years. "The royal doctor said our baby's spiritual pulse is growing exceptionally fast and strong."

"Our child will inherit the entire Western Territory," Young Master Brandon replied, his deep voice rich with proud, arrogant laughter. "That stupid, brainless fool Dustin is still out breaking his bones in the mines, completely believing that the child in your womb belongs to him."

Dustin’s breath caught violently in his throat, his entire world beginning to fracture into bloody, jagged pieces as he stared through a tiny crack in the frosted glass. Chloe was sitting comfortably on the lap of Young Master Brandon, the ruthless heir of the rival Razor-Sexton House.

"The idiot has absolutely no idea," Chloe scoffed loudly, tossing her head back with a mean, unyielding expression of pure disdain. "He actually thinks we are getting married in a grand renewal ceremony next month to celebrate his three years of service."

"He doesn't even know that my mother is completely healthy and resting right here in the room," Chloe added, gesturing toward the plush armchair across from the sofa.

Dustin’s eyes widened in absolute, suffocating horror as his gaze shifted across the luxurious sitting room. Sitting there comfortably, draped in expensive imported silk and drinking fine spiritual tea, was his mother-in-law, Eleanor Sterling.

Eleanor looked entirely healthy, her complexion radiant as she let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "That peasant dog is the most useful tool we have ever trapped," the old woman sneered, setting her cup down with an ungrateful clink.

"Every single high-grade medicine he starved himself to buy was instantly resold to the black market," Eleanor added with venomous delight. "We used all that silver to buy the prime cultivation crystals we gifted to you, Brandon, to secure your family's favor."

"The Sterlings are truly amazing," Brandon chuckled, rubbing Chloe's stomach smoothly. "He works night and day just to feed my growth, thinking he is saving his mother-in-law from a contagious ward."

The sheer, unadulterated weight of the ultimate betrayal crashed over Dustin’s soul like a mountain of lead. The glowing crystal vial he had bled to obtain slipped from his trembling, numb fingers, shattering violently against the stone porch floor.

He didn't care about the noise; he slammed his hands against the frosted glass doors, pushing them open with a thunderous crash that caused the fine silk curtains to shake. His face was deathly pale, his knuckles bleeding as he stood at the threshold.

"Chloe!" Dustin screamed, his raw voice cracking into a million pieces with a palpable sense of pure, agonizing heartbreak. "You lied to me! The pregnancy... the sickness... everything was a calculated trap?"

Chloe did not look scared, startled, or even slightly sorry when she saw him standing there in his tattered, mud-stained clothes. She slowly stood up from Brandon’s lap, her beautiful features instantly hardening into an expression of unyielding, cold disgust.

"Why the hell are you back before nightfall, Dustin?" Chloe sneered, crossing her arms tightly as she looked down at his ruined appearance. "A worthless laborer has zero right to barge into the main pavilion and disturb my guests."

"Is that your baby?" Dustin whispered, his voice shaking violently as he pointed a trembling finger at her stomach. "I starved myself for three years, I swallowed your family's insults, and you are having the child of this arrogant fool?"

"Yes, it is Brandon's child, and it always has been," Chloe stated with an unyielding, arrogant pride, her silver eyes flashing with a deep malice. "Do you honestly think a multi-billion-stone heiress like me would ever let a broke, powerless servant like you father her child?"

"Your pathetic labor funded my child's future and my own breakthroughs," Brandon laughed loudly, stepping forward to stand directly in front of Chloe as he drew his gleaming spiritual blade. "You should be grateful that your useless life could serve a true master."

Eleanor Sterling stood up from her armchair, walking over with a cold, mocking sneer as she looked at Dustin. "Get out of our sight, you filthy dog," the old woman barked. "We only kept you around to drain your labor. Now that Brandon’s family has accepted our alliance, you are completely useless to us."

"I gave you everything!" Dustin roared, his chest heaving with a raw, calcified fury as he clenched his fists. "I will expose this fraud to the city! I will destroy your prestigious name!"

Young Master Brandon let out a manic, joyous laugh, his eyes flashing with absolute, murderous intent as he raised his fire-infused sword. "Expose us? You won't even leave this courtyard alive, you trash."

Determined to display his newly increased strength to the Sterling family, Brandon lunged forward in a blinding blur of speed. He swung his heavy hilt downward with absolute, brutal force, aiming straight for Dustin's lower body to permanently break him.

Dustin tried to dodge, but his legs were completely stiff and weak from three years of uninterrupted, heavy manual labor. CRACK! The heavy spiritual weapon slammed directly into Dustin’s right knee, shattering the bone structure into bloody splinters.

Dustin let out a wild, agonizing shriek that shook the walls of the pavilion as he fell. Brandon didn't stop; he suddenly used his speedy movement magic to violently drag Dustin out from the sitting room and straight into the main outer courtyard, because he did not want to stain the luxurious room with a useless trash's filthy blood.

Chloe, Eleanor, and the rest of the Sterling family also rushed outside into the rain to witness the violence, eagerly gathering around to enjoy the brutal show and loudly praise Brandon for his extraordinary cultivation accomplishments.

Brandon grinned at their compliments, swinging his heavy weapon a second time with a sickening force that smashed Dustin's left knee joint completely into the hard stones.

Dustin collapsed hard onto the freezing, wet mud of the courtyard, his legs twisted at a horrifying, unnatural angle as he pooled blood. The physical trauma was an absolute nightmare, making his vision turn completely black as he thrashed helplessly in the icy slush.

"Look at him crawl," Chloe mocked from the open doorway, her beautiful face completely rigid, lacking a single ounce of human mercy or regret as she watched her bleeding husband. "Finish him right now, Brandon. Throw his broken body into the outer waste-ditches where he belongs."

Brandon raised his sharp steel blade high into the gray sky, the metal reflecting the weak lines of torchlight in the pouring rain. "Goodbye, useful fool," Brandon laughed, preparing to drive the cold steel straight down through Dustin's throat to end his life once and for all.

Just as the blade was about to drop, a loud, thunderous sound shook the entire mountain estate. The heavy reinforced iron gates of the outer courtyard were suddenly, violently smashed open by an immense, siphoning spiritual pressure.

A grand, magnificent carriage draped in pure silver silk swerved sharply into the muddy yard, its large wheels throwing dirty water across the grass. The magnificent vehicle bore the ancient, supreme crest of the province's highest authority.

It was the personal transport of Lady Vivienne, the Arcane Archduchess—the most powerful, respected, and highly influential entity in the entire realm. The entire Sterling family immediately froze in absolute, primitive terror at the sight.

Brandon quickly hid his bloody sword behind his back, his face turning completely pale as his hands began to shake violently with fear. Patriarch Sterling rocketed out of the main hall, bowing so low his forehead hit the wet, dirty gravel.

"Welcome, Your Grace!" the Patriarch screamed frantically, his voice cracking with immense dread as he looked at the carriage. "The Sterling house is deeply honored by your presence! We did not expect you!"

Lady Vivienne’s personal mail-guard stepped out first, opening a grand silk umbrella as a pair of pristine, expensive shoes touched the ground. Lady Vivienne stepped out of the vehicle, her silver robes shimmering beautifully under the rain, her face a mask of absolute royal dignity.

The real reason Lady Vivienne had come out here so unexpectedly was an absolute emergency. One of her elite boundary guards had been suddenly, brutally injured by a rogue beast near the border pass, and the wound required immediate attention.

Because the Sterling house had been selling to Vivienne the very expensive medicines even cheaply just to curry favor, she needed a rare vial right now. This was the exact vial Dustin had been working the hell out of himself for, thinking he was saving his dying mother-in-law, and Vivienne had swerved into their courtyard without warning to demand it immediately.

Chloe glanced toward the broken vial Dustin had dropped earlier on the porch floor and bit her finger in absolute panic. Eleanor fearfully stepped forward and apologized, saying that the special medicine was not available right now, because she knew Vivienne must not discover the medicines she had been buying from them had been deceitfully duped all along.

Lady Vivienne looked past them, her cold gaze landing directly toward Dustin, who was spurting blood in the dirt and looking completely weak. Vivienne frowned and pointed her hand, asking what the "slave" had done wrong to deserve such a beating.

Desperate to protect their prestigious public reputation from being completely ruined, Chloe quickly dropped to her knees in the wet mud, letting out a fake, loud sob to deceive the Archduchess. "Your Grace, please save us from this monster!" Chloe cried out shamelessly.

"This rebellious slave just tried to rape me in the pavilion!" Chloe wept, pointing a shaking, manicured finger at the bloody Dustin. "He stole our ancestral ledger and even tried to assault me, his master, when I caught him!"

"Exactly, Your Grace. We were only defending my daughter's honor from this rabid animal!" Eleanor lied quickly, bowing her old head until it almost touched her knees. "Please allow Young Master Brandon to execute this trash for his treason!"

Dustin lay in the mud, too weak to speak or breathe as the thick blood filled his throat, his shattered legs burning with absolute agony. He looked up through the rain at the high-and-mighty lady standing before him.

He knew with absolute certainty that the moment her carriage left, these vipers would murder him and bury his body in the dark. With the very last shred of his human strength, he dragged his broken, bloody chest forward across the gravel.

He stretched out his trembling, blood-covered fingers through the wet slush, reaching for the only person who could save his life. His raw fingers wrapped tightly around the pristine hem of Lady Vivienne's silver silk skirt, leaving a dark, wet stain of blood on the royal fabric.