Chapter 28 - Chapter 28: Chapter 27 Night Talk (2/2)
Until one morning, just after he had woken up, he felt a terrible malice erupt suddenly from inside the tent.
“`
That was a scent of death I had never encountered before, one that made my body tense up involuntarily!
Lucius was extremely vigilant as he cautiously stepped outside the tent.
His muscles tensed up in an instant, totally fearful at the sight of everyone around him being petrified, each member of the mercenary group turned into lifelike stone sculptures amidst their blank expressions!
The old man in black robes had finally come!
He recognized the eyes at first glance, even though the “old man in black robes” was revealing his true form as a black giant dragon nearly a hundred meters long, those yellow serpent-like pupils hadn’t changed at all!
It said, “Let’s gamble again, you just need to beat me once, and it’s all over. I will let everyone go.”
It sneered, “Either your own innards or those people of the mercenary group, you can choose your stake.”
Under the terrifying dragon’s might, Lucius was extremely scared, his heartbeat quickened, sweat poured down his forehead, his palms were damp, as if something was stuck in his throat, making it hard for him to breathe freely.
He had to make a choice, but when he saw the cold, mocking gaze of the black dragon, his heart instantly felt like it had plunged into an ice cellar, subconsciously knowing that winning the gamble was almost impossible.
But I really don’t want to die! No matter what, I don’t want to die!
Lucius spoke with great difficulty, his voice trembling as he expressed his deepest thoughts.
“They, let them be the stakes.”
The moment he spoke, he actually felt a sense of relief and happiness as if a burden had been lifted.
But Lucius still subconsciously thought that he had hardly ever lost a bet in his life, and might not necessarily lose terribly. He had to try to win the upcoming gamble as much as possible.
It burst into loud laughter!
“Good!”
In the gambling that lasted for a day and a night that followed, involving all sorts of previously unseen games, Lucius tried every trick in the book even attempting to cheat, but he could never win even a single game; most games were simply impossible to complete by an ordinary person’s strength, with the results almost invariably one-sided.
And for some reason, the black dragon’s luck was always incredibly good. Even if Lucius managed to have a slight chance, the dragon would overturn the situation every time in the end.
Fear, helplessness, despair, and madness, a vast sea of negative emotions flooded his mind. Lucius trembled, kneeling on the ground listening to the continuous sound of the sculptures shattering.
As the sculptures made from the members of the mercenary group shattered, one by one, he finally learned a horrifying truth.
“Your stakes are used up, worm, goodbye… no, never to see you again.”
The black dragon’s voice was particularly cold and void of any emotion, not even bothering to mock anymore. Then it took to the sky with immense pride, leaving Lucius alone, collapsing on the ground and weeping bitterly.
At the edge of the campsite, Lucius’s thoughts gradually emerged from the memories, as he continued speaking in a calm tone.
“At that time, I fell into complete despair, having almost everything taken from me in an instant, I was dazed for I don’t know how long.”
The giant dragon is also a rare and powerful existence among mysterious creatures. What Byrne’s father recounted was simply beyond belief, leaving Byrne staring agape.
A certain emotion began to stir in Lucius’s eyes, and his breathing became progressively faster.
“Since then, I haven’t gambled for many years. To truly speak of it, perhaps only this chess move of actively seeking out the Lord of the Lost counts as gambling, and it’s the most important gamble of all.”
His eyes filled with hatred and malice, he uttered his words with a rasp nearly hysterical, chilling to the bone:
“As an ordinary person, I could never win; many of the games that black lizard played required extraordinary power to complete. One day! One day when I become powerful enough, I will find it again!”
“I must win it over! Then kill it! Skin it with my own hands!”
Byrne stared at his father sitting beside him, his expression fierce, completely losing his usual easy-going demeanor, almost like a man he had never truly known,
He opened his mouth and finally asked, with great difficulty:
“If the people of the mercenary group hadn’t died, would you have come back for us?”
“Of course I…”
Lucius’s expression faltered for a moment, wanting to say “Of course I would,” but for some reason, he couldn’t complete the sentence, unusually at a loss during a conversation.
Byrne understood, and so he silently got up and walked to the other side of the campsite.
He didn’t continue to press the issue, only realizing a hard truth.
His mother didn’t matter at all in his father’s heart, and his own existence was nothing more than an emotional substitute.
A few years ago, Byrne might have been devastated, feeling completely unable to accept it, even crying, but now as an adult, he just felt a deep-seated discomfort that he couldn’t shake off from the bottom of his heart.
Lucius shifted his toes slightly, wanting to stand up and smooth things over with his usually skillful words.
In the end, he didn’t stand up, but quietly looked towards the jungle outside the campfire with a profound gaze.
That completely dark jungle, devoid of any light as if to swallow all hope, where almost any rational kindness would be choked by the night’s cold madness; the people by the campfire, just like the members of the Fischer family, should never venture into that Tranquil night on a whim.