"Hey, Dad, I"m home."After Sergeant Jamie Wolfe dropped me off at Jing Tian City, I headed straight home. To my complete lack of surprise, Dad was watching anime on the couch when I pushed the door open. I waved at him as I took my shoes off at the entrance.
"Oh, Richie! You"ve been gone for a couple of days now! How did your mission go?"
Dad paused his anime and raised his head from the couch to glance at me. I smiled briefly and shrugged.
"Okay, I guess?"
Dad gave me a stare as I proceeded toward the stairs and headed up to my room. He snorted in disbelief.
"Seriously? You take down the Grim Reaper and flushed out several nests of Goblins, and you say it is just okay?"
I paused at the bottom of the stairs to gape at him.
"How did you know…?"
"Hah!" Dad crowed. "What do you take your old man for? I"m a mercenary as well, you know? I have access to the mercenary information network. Your feats are all over the news today! You and that young lady…Anastasia, was that her name?"
"Uh, yeah."
Dad nodded thoughtfully. "She seems to be a fine young lady."
He said nothing more than that. Dad was aware of my relations.h.i.+p with Alicia, even if I didn"t explicitly tell him about it, and that it was still too soon for me to move on. It had been less than two weeks since her death. Maybe three. I had lost track of time.
"Anyway, good job out there." Dad sighed as he looked at me seriously. "But really…you"re too reckless. Why did you try and fight an enemy like the Grim Reaper, anyway?"
"Because she and her spirit attacked me," I replied simply.
Dad studied me, inferring that Anastasia and I was unable to escape and thus were forced to fight to the death, and nodded understandingly.
"I"m glad you"re all right," he said. "As long as you"re fine…" he frowned. "Well, you probably got healed by a healer in the military."
"The Silver Wolves," I corrected. I didn"t tell Dad how injured I was, or how close to death I was when they found me. He would probably get mad and concerned. He wouldn"t fuss over me – Dad wasn"t the type to do that – but he would still be worried.
"Ah…I think I"ve heard of their healer. Heather, was it?"
"Heather St. Helen."
"That"s the one." Dad nodded. "That"s good. She"s a very competent healer, and considering that you"re in one piece, she must have expended quite some mana." He pursed his lips. "I hardly imagine that you"ll be in good shape after fighting a monstrous enemy like the Grim Reaper."
"What do you think your chances are against someone like Selina Wright and Hades?" I asked. When Dad gave me a blank stare, I quickly amended," I mean the Grim Reaper."
Seemed like the Grim Reaper"s true ident.i.ty wasn"t common knowledge. People just knew of her legend, but they didn"t know who she really was.
"Ah…fifty-fifty, I guess? That guy is quite the troublesome one." Dad was nodding. He grinned. "In a way, you"ve surpa.s.sed your dad. You should be proud!"
I didn"t feel proud. Just tired. It was only because my Constellation magic happened to counter Hades" ability that I defeated him. Any regular mage who didn"t have a bunch of different magical techniques or Soul Beasts would find it near impossible to defeat that murderous spirit. And when all was said and done, I just felt…weary.
All I wanted to do was go to my room and sleep. Probably because my body was still sore and I needed some more time to fully recover.
"Oh, Dad…"
Before I went upstairs, though, I suddenly remembered something. While we were on the topic regarding Hades…no, the topic of contracted spirits, I might as well ask him about it. it had been bothering me ever since Selina mentioned something about a sacrifice…a vessel, and a terrible price to pay to establish the contract.
"About Angelica…"
"Hmm? What about her?"
Dad turned back to look at me, his hand on the remote. Having seen that I was about to go upstairs, he intended to resume watching anime. This time it was some trashy series about cheat magicians in another world, except that the protagonist didn"t really have any "cheats." Despite the protagonist and his childhood friend using the word "cheat" over and over and f.u.c.king over again, I still didn"t understand how his isekai power was a cheat. He was just different from all the other characters living in that world. That was the basis of a f.u.c.king isekai protagonist. Now, if he was literally hacking the world because it was a game and his power was gameshark, I would understand his insistence that he was using a "cheat". However, all he did was control spirits…like wow, that was so game-breaking (no, it really isn"t)!
After a while, I honestly just couldn"t give a s.h.i.+t about the show…not just because of the cheesy premise, but because of the bland dialogue, the flat and one-dimensional characters, the overabundance of clichés and a poor, predictable storyline.
Whoops…I was digressing too much from the topic at hand. Dad was still waiting for me expectantly, a bemused expression on his face.
"Why are you asking me about Angelica?" he prodded, bringing me back to reality. I stared at him and hesitated for a moment.
Then I shook my head and scratched my scalp.
"No…never mind."
This wasn"t the appropriate time to ask about Angelica. No, that was just an excuse. I found myself afraid to ask. I had a feeling that I didn"t want to know the answer. That my dad had committed an unforgivable sin and sacrificed someone he loved.
A truth that would shatter my imagination of him as a hero. I had always looked up to him and admired him as a hero, an ally of justice. For Dad to have done something…so inhuman was unthinkable. I just couldn"t imagine it.
I didn"t want to imagine it.
"Sorry. I"m just confused after such an exhausting mission. I"ve a report to write, so I"ll go get it done."
"Don"t push yourself," Dad called out to me as I ascended the stairs. I merely nodded and waved at him, and he started playing the video.
Yeah…this was for the best. I was not ready to know the truth. Not mentally prepared or emotionally strong enough. I wanted to continue believing that Dad was an infallible hero.
…yet I knew that he was the type who would sacrifice the minority to save the majority. For him to exchange a single life – albeit the one he loved the most – to gain power to save the world…that was unmistakably Dad.
I knew that. I knew that Dad was not beyond sacrificing the few for the many. What was one life balanced against the world?
However, the truth would be…devastating, somehow. It would still alter my perception of Dad. Even with his cold, methodological thinking, Dad was still human. There had to be a price he would refuse to pay, no matter what. Even if it was to save the world.
If he was willing to sacrifice even the person he loved the most…then was Dad even human? How could someone like him see me, someone who wasn"t even related by blood, as his son? Despite his friendly demeanor, did he always see me as a tool? A tool to be sacrificed if the circ.u.mstances called for it and he needed power to save the world?
"Ugh…"
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There was no point thinking too much about it. Taking a deep breath, I stepped into my room and pushed the matter out of my mind. For now, I should focus on my report.
I didn"t need to know Dad"s so-called true nature or his past. Dad was my dad. I just needed to believe in him as I always did.
*
"…eh?"
I woke up in the middle of a night, slumped over my desk. Rubbing my eyes, I adjusted my gla.s.ses back on and stared at the s.p.a.ce above my desk where my holographic screen should have been. My personal computer had gone into power-saving mode and switched off the holographic screen after several minutes of inactivity.
I must have dozed off in the middle of writing my report. Rubbing my head and stifling a yawn, I reached out to switch my computer back on and resume writing the report.
An explosion rocked my room, almost throwing me from my chair. Glancing out of my window, I saw an immense inferno billowing upward, consuming something in front of our gate, just beyond the fiery barrier that Dad had designed.
"What…?!"
I immediately turned around and bolted out of my room without any hesitation, barreling down the stairs. Someone was wreaking havoc just outside our house and I intended to take care of them once and for all.
Dad wasn"t in the living room watching anime – well, it made sense, considering the time of the night. Most of the times he would just leave the intruders to the fiery barrier…which was strange. The fiery barrier didn"t have a function to blast flames outside of our territory.
Meaning the inferno was most likely a spell conjured by Dad.
Slipping on my shoes, I bounded out of the house. Raising my head, I caught sight of Angelica hovering high up, her wings of fire shedding flaming feathers. Lifting a hand, she directed another colossal fireball at somebody outside of our courtyard, on the road beyond, and blew him or her out. I hastened my pace and burst through the front gate.
"Dad?"
I caught sight of Dad standing outside, his arms crossed and his features grim. He tilted his head as he glanced at me.
"Richie. Sorry, did I wake you up?"
"No, I was writing my report anyway…what happened?"
Dad didn"t reply. Instead, he strode toward the immolated corpse within the inferno and plunged his hand into the flames. In a single jerk, he yanked out the blackened body and tossed it uncaringly into the street, where it continued to smolder.
"Professional killers from the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild. Umbra Sect, from the looks of it. Caught them sneaking around." He frowned. "I think they were targeting you instead of me. Seems like you"ve p.i.s.sed off the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild."
"Well, they can p.i.s.s off," I growled, irritated. "They can try to kill me, but I"m not allowed to kill them back in return? What kind of logic is that?"
Dad grinned and kicked the charred corpse. "That"s the spirit."
He then glanced up at Angelica, who slowly descended toward our position with a single flap of her fiery wings.
"Is there anyone else?"
"No, we got all of them." Angelica nodded, distaste evident on her beautiful face. It was as if she hated killing, and wasn"t pleased that she was forced into staining her hands with the blood of humans. I watched her, transfixed, wondering briefly if it was because she had been human once.
What did being a vessel mean? Was this Angelica"s real form, or was that the physical features of the loved one Dad sacrificed in order to host the angel of fire?
"Richie? You okay?" Dad frowned when he noticed my stare. "Is there something wrong with Angelica?"
"Uh, no." I snapped out of it. Perhaps it was time to face the truth, after all. I still dreaded learning it, but if I didn"t confront it once and for all, then I would never be able to move on. Taking a deep breath, I turned to Dad. "I"m sorry if I sound rude, but I wanted to ask about Angelica."
"What about her?" Dad asked, furrowing his brow in puzzlement.
"She"s a contracted spirit, right?"
"Yeah." Dad raised an eyebrow, as if that was obvious. He had explained that concept to me before, when I first started trying to learn summoning magic.
"Then…who did you sacrifice to make a contract with her?"
For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence, the only noise being the crackling of flames that continued to eat away at the Umbra a.s.sa.s.sins. Dad stared at me, his expression unreadable.
I gulped, wondering if I had made a mistake after all.
"S…sorry. It"s all right if you don"t want to tell me. I"m probably overstepping my boundaries. I mean, I"m not even your real, biological son, and yet I"m…"
"No, that has never been an issue, and will never be an issue."
Dad sighed and shook his head. Angelica vanished, almost like a flickering fire, and I wondered if that sad expression on her face just before she disappeared was just my imagination.
Turning his back on the pyre of a.s.sa.s.sins, Dad strolled back to the house.
"The story will take some time…it"s not something I can tell you while we"re standing out here in the open." He paused for a while. "I should probably grab a can of beer while at it. What do you want to drink? I"ll make you a cup of hot chocolate."
I didn"t expect Dad"s wistful tone, so I nodded as I followed him back into the house.
"…it"s not that I didn"t want to tell you." Dad sighed as he headed to the kitchen. He went for the fridge and grabbed a can of beer, and then reached up to a cupboard to pull out a sachet of hot chocolate. Emptying the powder into a cup, he then filled it up with boiling water from the electric kettle, stirred it, and pushed it toward me. He sat down on one end of the dining table, while I took the seat adjacent to his. "It"s just that it"s a very…complex story. And there was no need for you to know…or so I thought."
He stared at his can of beer for a few seconds before he flipped the tab open and took a gulp.
"But I guess…you would have found out about the truth behind contracted spirits sooner or later." He sighed heavily as he set his can down, his eyes still dark and weary. "I"m guessing you already know it requires a…sacrifice."
"Yeah. Of someone you love…someone important to you." I nodded, my voice sounding diminutive even to me.
"That"s right." Dad straightened up, his eyes still taking on a faraway gaze. "Angelica"s true ident.i.ty is…the woman I loved the most in the world…the person who would have been my wife if "that" didn"t happen…"