“You know my relationship with my father is terrible, right?”
“Yes, I’m sorry.”
Olivier’s reply was brief, and his expression seemed awkward. I’d heard he’d researched me beforehand, but I suspected he might be feeling guilty.
“Please don’t worry about it. As I said before, it’s natural for you to research me. Besides, any noble family, no, even ordinary families, research their potential marriage partners beforehand.”
Merchant families are more concerned about their prospective spouse’s past and lineage than nobles. Just like in business, ambitious merchant families eventually consider marrying into nobility. They are eager to bring children of nobles or those who cannot inherit their family line into their clan.
However, they don’t want partners with bad conditions. If they are heavy spenders, or have a bad reputation with women or men, they will reject the proposal, even if it’s with a noble. That’s how merchant families operate.
“My father never treated me as his son. I never thought of him as a father either. Anyway, my mother was no longer in the mansion, and although my stepmother was a very kind person, my relationship with the consorts was terrible, so I didn’t want to burden her further. Thus, I spent my time at my grandfather’s mansion. I played with Yeny, rummaged through books, and back then, somehow, it was a pleasant and peaceful time.”
However, that time was suddenly to come to an end.
“Someone attacked me on my way to my grandfather’s mansion as usual. I was hit on the head and lost consciousness — and woke up in some kind of facility.”
“Why?”
“It was my father’s doing. He resented me because I lacked talent in swordsmanship and was favored by my grandfather. Well, I didn’t ask him directly, but at the time, I was rebellious towards both my father and his consorts, so I guess he didn’t like that either. I was told by the so-called staff at the facility that I couldn’t leave until I reformed, and I finally realized that my father truly detested me.”
The facility was merely a name; it was a detention center that gathered troublesome children among the nobles. It was a dumping ground to get rid of children who might cause problems if they stayed in their mansions. The staff were merely guards, only monitoring. They left the children to their own devices, as long as they didn’t die. Many children from merchant families were also there; factions and power struggles were rampant, and they competed to see who would become the leader.
“I wasn’t interested in the squabbles between the children, so I spent my days locked in my room, not interacting with anyone. I dreamed of getting out of here and getting revenge on my father. But that was my mistake. Because I didn’t interact with anyone, I became a target and was continuously subjected to violence from everyone in the facility.”
I noticed Olivier gasp. Was he shocked, or did he feel sorry for me? However, Jared had never thought of himself as unfortunate. Even while being beaten and kicked, he continued to endure, dreaming of revenge on his father.
“At that time, I couldn’t even use basic magic and had no combat experience, so I was too weak and constantly defeated. The one who saved me was a boy three years older than me, named Luzer.”
Luzer, who was also isolated but was a strong figure in the facility without being targeted, saved me out of whim or some other purpose. As we began to spend time together, the violence decreased, but the malice from those who disliked Luzer increased instead.
“He taught me how to punch. He thoroughly taught me, through experience, where to hit to inflict pain and to take away the opponent’s will to fight. Luzer was my first friend, my master, and like an older brother to me.”
He taught me how to fight and how to resist. I learned to vent my frustration on the people in front of me, not on my absent father. Within three months, Jared and Luzer had become a faction of two.
“We had a goal. To survive in this dumping ground of a facility. And to escape from it. I needed to get revenge on my father, and Luzer needed to save his sick mother.”
Although it was only three months, Jared and Luzer, who shared meals and slept together amidst hostility, had become like brothers. They promised each other that if one of them fell before achieving their goals, the other would take their place. Jared would get revenge on Luzer’s father, and Luzer would save Jared’s mother. Then, by causing a major disturbance within the facility, they exploited the weakened security and managed to escape.
However, the hardships were continuous from there. As I later learned, the facility Jared was imprisoned in was an illegal facility, located in a remote area unknown even to the lords. Near the border of the Dragon Kingdom, the cold, snowy land mercilessly attacked Jared and the others who had rushed out without proper winter clothing.
At the same time, the staff frantically searched for them, as they couldn’t afford the major blunder of allowing noble sons, or sons of prominent merchants, to escape. As they continued to evade their pursuers, even the children who had been their enemies began to cooperate with the staff. They attacked relentlessly, unable to tolerate the thought of only two people achieving peace. The staff, it seemed, reasoned that while they couldn’t kill a noble’s child themselves, if a noble’s child killed another noble’s child, it could be treated as an accident. Thus, Jared and Luzer were pursued with the intent to kill, not capture.
The most troublesome was that among the pursuing children, there was someone who could use magic. Jared and Luzer, wounded and bleeding, continued to flee. However, if they stayed together, they would eventually be caught. They reaffirmed their promise to meet again, agreeing that if only one could survive, that survivor would fulfill their respective goals, and then they parted ways.
Having lost a large amount of blood due to his injuries and on the verge of death, Jared walked a considerable distance from the facility before losing consciousness. The person who saved him was Almeida, who would later become his master.
