Chapter 111

Twilight City, prosperous district.

Clutching this month's wages, Damien returned to his front door with trepidation.

In this neighborhood, his house was particularly eye-catching; even in the dim light, it was easy to find.

After all, in a row of gorgeous villas with colored glass windows, the only house with mottled walls and windows that had long been broken and could only be covered with rags was just too conspicuous!

Tap, tap.

After a light knock on the door, a girl carved from pink jade opened the door in a panic.

She had long silver-white hair, skin as white and tender as milk, and combined with porcelain-like exquisite features, she was like a pure angel who had come to the world, making people unable to help but feel a strong desire to protect her.

"Brother, Father is going crazy again!"

After pulling Damien into the house, Alisha said in a panic.

"How much did he drink this time?"

Hearing this, Damien rubbed his temples, his expression painful.

"Hahahahahaha!"

Before Alisha could answer, a burst of hysterical laughter came from the living room, deafening to the ears.

After pushing Alisha into her room and closing the door tightly, Damien stepped into the living room cautiously.

To his surprise, he didn't see broken wine bottles all over the floor this time, but the entire living room was shrouded in an extremely alluring tea fragrance.

And in the center of the living room, a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard and a flushed face was dancing excitedly.

He was about forty years old, but his face was as haggard as an old man's, and his hair was messy, sticking to his scalp with grease, looking extremely decadent.

This was Damien's biological father, Harris, who had once been a Baron lord.

"I am a war hero! I cut off the head of the Lion King! I am greater than the Red Fire!"

Harris shouted crazily.

Damien: "???"

The usually calm poet couldn't keep his composure at this moment, or rather, the muscles on his entire face were twitching.

Although his father had already done many bizarre things after drinking, today was particularly inhuman.

Clearly just a deserter, he was actually arrogant enough to compare himself to the Red Fire, the greatest knight in the history of the Southern Region.

"Sigh," Damien let out a long sigh, his thoughts inevitably drifting back to the past.

He once had a happy home too.

At that time, his father was still a heroic Baron lord, with a fief, a castle, a beautiful wife, and a pair of lovely children.

That was his most carefree period, where he could follow his mother to learn singing every day, follow his father to learn sword techniques, be snatched by noble ladies coming to visit to pinch his cheeks, marveling at his appearance, and even had a childhood sweetheart who was also a noble and inseparable.

Until the Dragon-Lion War broke out.

The lords of the Southern Region fulfilled their duties, each personally putting on armor, riding horses to the battlefield.

This naturally included his father.

Just as he and Alisha were kneeling before the statue of the god under their mother's leadership to pray for their father who had gone to war, one night, their father suddenly returned to the castle.

Just as he and Alisha were happily rushing over to hug their father, their mother saw the clues from the man's expression of shame, so low he dared not look at her.

Afterward, his mother, who was usually so gentle she almost never spoke loudly, suddenly cursed at his father like a shrew, and even cursed viciously at why his father hadn't died on the battlefield!

And young he and Alisha could only hug each other's shoulders, trembling as they watched this scene.

Later they learned that their father had been a deserter in the Dragon-Lion War.

Not long after, under the life-and-death struggle of the Southern Region's strongest knight, the Red Fire, the Dragon-Lion War finally ended, even bringing the grace of exempting the Southern Region from food taxes.

But even so, the nobles found it hard to feel happy, because... too many people had died in this war, so much so that almost every castle in the Southern Region was holding a funeral, and the wailing drowned out the sky.

And Harris, the only lord who had fled halfway through the war, also faced the reckoning of the nobles.

Fine, we were fighting to the death on the front lines, even the commander was gone, and you, you were good, returning to the castle early to cuddle with your wife and children and sleep!

Even Victor, the Lord of Nightshadow, who was known for his cowardice, had at least personally gone to the battlefield where arrows rained down, and could still be found in the pile of dead after the battle.

The nobles' rage descended like thunder, and finally, Rosa Martha, the new Lord of the Southern Region, passed judgment—Harris was stripped of his castle and fief, and from then on became a landless noble.

And under the backlash of violating honor, their family's noble protection all shattered; even if they were still nobles in name, in reality, no one recognized them.

Fortunately, that Lord of the Southern Region still left them a glimmer of hope and did not strip them of their property, so they could take a sum of money that could barely be called generous to settle in Twilight City.

After using this money to buy a house in the prosperous district, they could have lived a relatively affluent life.

But Harris, who had suffered a major blow and was spurned by everyone, began to drown his sorrows in alcohol and quickly became severely addicted to alcohol, even beating his wife and children after getting drunk.

His mother had thought about resisting, but how could a noble lady who had spent her whole life learning dance, etiquette, and singing be a match for a Transcendent Knight?

Finally, the woman, covered in wounds, hugged Damien and Alisha tightly, and after tearfully promising that she would definitely return to pick them up, she disappeared into the night.

Damien waited and waited, until he grew into a handsome young man who could use money to threaten his father not to use violence, before he gave up on this beautiful dream.

Mother, she probably would never come back again.

"Hahahahaha, I wish for Your Majesty to accept my son as your godson!"

Another burst of hysterical laughter woke Damien from his memories.

Looking at Harris, who was acting insane, he walked over silently, raised his palm, and used all his strength to slap the other's scruffy face.

Slap!

After a loud slap, Harris's expression gradually sobered from his madness.

"Did you just hit me?" he asked suspiciously, looking at the son in front of him.

"No, just a drunken hallucination."

Moving his reddened palm behind his back, Damien shook his head calmly.

Shaking his head, Harris didn't bother with it anymore, but looked at his son with glowing eyes.

"My good son, you should have been paid today, can you give me some?" he said excitedly, rubbing his hands.

Seeing this, Damien sighed, but still took out the money bag from the interlayer of his clothes.

This was his agreement with Harris: as long as he provided him with enough money to buy alcohol every month, he could not use violence against his family, could not scare Alisha, and could not secretly contact people to try to sell him to noble ladies or marry Alisha off as a concubine.

"Remember to drink less alcohol; the market is very bad right now, and the deadline for the food tax exemption will end in a few years, so we must save more money to buy food in advance."

Looking at Harris, who was excitedly counting the Copper Sol, Damien advised him with a heavy heart.

That was all the hard-earned money he had endured the pain of being harassed to earn.

"Hehe, alcohol, what kind of trash is that, I've already quit!" Harris said with a chuckle.

Before Damien could react, he handed over the steaming tea on the table.

"Taste it, this stuff is much better than alcohol; I'll never drink alcohol again!"

Damien was stunned; he had thought this tea was for Harris to sober up, but now it seemed it had replaced alcohol instead?

Looking at the crystal-clear tea in the cup, Damien hesitated for a moment, but still took the cup and took a light sip.

(End of chapter)