Chapter 28 - Chapter 28: Chapter 27 Night Talk (1/2)

Chapter 28: Chapter 27 Night Talk

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After dealing with the aftermath, everyone was exhausted. Transporting the enormous bear carcass and three bodies also required a cart, so Lucius ordered two guards to go back first and call for more people, while the rest temporarily stayed in the jungle. In the end, they camped for the night.

For some reason, Byrne still longed deep inside to see that stunningly beautiful elf again.

In the middle of the night, he sat up again, feeling somewhat sleepy but unable to fall asleep.

“Byrne.”

A deep voice came from nearby, and Byrne saw his father Lucius keeping watch, arms folded across his chest, gazing at him wearily.

Ever since that battle, Lucius had been constantly reflecting, with abrupt selfish thoughts hidden deep within, always feeling uneasy.

Byrne was the only son of his own flesh and blood.

But would I really be willing to die for him?

On the lips, relatives of the same blood are the most important, but when it comes to a critical moment, the selfishness and baseness deep inside still surge forward, Lucius shook his head.

Byrne sensitively perceived that something was off with his father but couldn’t specifically pinpoint it.

“Father, what’s wrong?” he asked.

Lucius looked at Byrne calmly and suddenly realized that at some point, he had grown into a man, even more handsome and dashing than himself when he was younger, like a truly noble gentleman.

And what about himself? He had inevitably aged somewhat.

Ageing, a word Lucius had never thought about before, suddenly overwhelmed his thoughts and refused to leave.

He began very slowly, “There are some things from the past that I want to talk to you about, things I’ve never told you before.”

“Alright, sure.”

Getting up, Byrne felt a bit excited inside. In fact, he had always known little about his father’s past.

Byrne grew up solely under his mother’s care after birth. His mother, the daughter of a famous painter, had a great talent for painting, but her family did not believe a woman could become a painter, so she was never able to study painting systematically.

All along, she had placed her hopes of becoming a painter onto Byrne, but in the second year of Byrne’s painting studies, a terrifying plague struck, and half the city’s population perished during those dreadful, months-long epidemic.

After his mother’s death, he arrived.

The man who claimed to be his father, whom his mother rarely mentioned and when she did, it was with admiration in her voice.

Byrne, who had survived the plague but was frail and sickly, numbly followed Lucius as they left, endlessly observing this stranger yet familiar man during their aimless and prolonged journeys.

He appeared languid, yet he was brave and shrewd, able to adeptly deal with any sudden situations, his eyes and speech filled with the confidence and charisma that could lead others forward.

Father might not be the grand hero from the poetry collections, but Byrne truly admired him, and found himself increasingly subconsciously learning from this dangerous man who narrowed his eyes in a smile.

The campfire crackled in the night, and the two made their way to the edge of the campsite.

The old man with a resolute face, in his forties, sat on a stone, silently staring into the darkness for a long time, as if gazing deep within his heart, before he finally slowly began to speak:

“I have long since forgotten your mother’s name. In fact, I forgot it not long after leaving that place; after all, I only spent a month with her.”

What?

Byrne looked astonished!

“Our mercenary group once stayed in your childhood city for a month, where I serendipitously met your mother. Perhaps it was the dangerous aura I carry that is fatal to those living in tranquility; she fell in love with me quickly,”

With his head bowed, Byrne listened, while Lucius continued expressionlessly.

“I grew up in a rather well-known mercenary group, those old mercenaries were like my family. I never thought about leaving the mercenary group and wanted to die there.”

He had never thought of leaving the mercenary group, so why did he come back for him and his mother? Byrne couldn’t help but feel puzzled deep inside.

Somewhat unexpectedly, Byrne found himself wishing that his father would not continue.

The voice of Lucius sank lower.

“I used to love gambling, and I loved cheating even more. I often used cheats to win money, until I met a wealthy guy one time.”

It was an old man with a black robe and yellow eyes, his pupils chilling like those of a serpent.

“He stared at me with a cold laugh at the gambling table, as if he could see through my cheating, but in reality, he lost to me time and time again. At first, I was ecstatically pleased with myself.”

“But as I kept winning more and more money, a fear set in subconsciously, as I had never won so much before.”

“So I made an excuse to leave the casino, and after getting back to the mercenary group, I never went there again. Within a few days, I completely put that incident out of my mind.”

As he spoke, Lucius gradually became entirely engrossed in his memories.

Then, he intuitively discerned an unsettling aura around the old man in the black robe, hastily making excuses to leave the casino. For the first few days after returning to the mercenary group, nothing happened; their team continued to move through the wilderness as they usually would, everything proceeding as normal.