That night, Crimson struggled to sleep. He rustled around the floor, trying to find any place that was even a little comfortable.

With dust getting in his hair and rubbing against his skin, it was almost impossible to have a good night’s sleep.

Past midnight, a knock sounded at their tin door. His father slowly stood up and answered the knock.

Crimson remembered this day vividly. He could hear the slow creak, and the words that occurred next.

A deep voice exclaimed, “Hello, Driffen. I believe we need to hold a talk with you.”

There was a pause, where Crimson imagined the person talking glanced at his ‘sleeping’ body.

“Outside.” The voice then said.

“Yes, sir…” His father’s frail voice answered as they made their way around the small shack.

Despite that, Crimson could still hear their conversation. What did they expect? The walls were less than one inch in thickness.

Crimson closely followed the conversation.

“We have gracefully held onto your contract for you, yet you still decide to not fulfill it. We cannot take your laziness for much longer. You need to go on more frequent missions, Driffen!”

“Sir, I go on as many as I can. But you know my situation. I get injured every time. And… she’s not with me anymore.”

“Don’t try to make excuses!”

“…”

Crimson could tell his father was hurt by that statement. His father loved his mother more than anything in the world. He had never met her, but he could tell that his love for her was above anything else.

He sometimes also thought that the only reason his father kept him around was because he was related to his mother, and he was the only thing that reminded his father of her.

“I… had my arm and left leg broken last mission. I was forced to take at least two months off to fully heal them.”

“Use the money you make and buy healing materials! Don’t tell me you can’t afford them. We give you plenty in our contract!”

“But sir! I am forced to pay the monthly payback fees due to not completing enough missions. I am in a hole here… there isn’t anything I can do–“

*SLAP*

Crimson’s eyes expanded as he heard this.

For a moment, there was eerie silence.

Afterwards, the man said something that Crimson didn’t hear, as if it was mumbled.

The only thing he heard was at the end, “This morning…”

His father then replied, “Yes… sir…” in a defeated tone.

When his father returned back inside, Crimson pretended to sleep again.

That night, after his father returned inside of the shack, Crimson remembered hearing silence for an entire hour.

The reason he didn’t sleep was because… he never heard his father get back into bed for that entire hour.

It wasn’t like his father left the shack, or was even doing anything else. He wasn’t moving.

He was right there… doing nothing. Standing still. Staring… staring at him.

Crimson had his eyes closed, but knew that his father was staring at him intuitively.

Crimson didn’t know what his father was thinking. Maybe it was the fact that this child had ruined his life. Maybe it was depressing thoughts of his wife. Or maybe it was to strangle him to death right then and there.

Of course, this was all in Crimson’s imagination. It could have been anything.

Only after an hour had passed did he hear his father move back into his bed.

His father then embraced him tightly.

“I love you…” He said in a broken voice.

The next morning, his father was nowhere to be seen.

This wasn’t too abnormal, but after the previous night, Crimson was naturally a bit worried.

For the day, Crimson didn’t go outside. He didn’t want to get beaten again like the day prior, and he was also worried about his father.

Despite whatever he thought, he still loved his father. In fact, there was nothing else he loved.

He didn’t even love himself, especially because of his Ancestral Ability. All he was, was a burden to the one thing he actually cared for… his father.

He stayed home waiting for his father. But despite that, his father didn’t arrive at home.

Through the night, and past midnight, Crimson was still alone. Starving, and swaying back and forth with anxiety.

Many thoughts crossed through his head, which was already filled with a negative bias:

‘Did he finally abandon me? Was he taken by the guild? Butchered, possibly? Maybe he went on a mission without telling me… but… he has never done that before. He always makes sure to tell me so that I am not worried.’

…

Crimson left his shack at 4 AM in the morning. It was still pitch black outside.

There were a few street lamps, but not nearly enough for good vision.

He wandered through the night like a zombie, finally arriving at the guild.

When getting there, he made his way around the building–near the back entrance.

There was a large alleyway there, where his father would usually enter in order to not catch any glances.

When getting there, Crimson was distraught to see what he had found.

A pool of blood was settling into the ground. Above it was floating the clothes that his father always wore to go hunting.

Crimson fell onto the floor. He wanted to burst out and cry, but all he could feel was despair. Utter, dooming despair.

He couldn’t even express himself, like his emotions were caged with horror and a feeling of infinite pain.

‘He… was going hunting.’ He assumed this part from the clothes, ‘But they… they…’

He paused, not jumping to conclusions.

‘His body… where is his body?’

There was only one place he could think of.

It was a hill located a bit farther away from the city, overlooking the town.

There was a single tree on that hill, and beneath it was his mother’s burial site.

Crimson arrived there in the middle of the night. It was a full moon that day, and without the blocking of the city’s buildings, the light actually was of some use.

Crimson stood at that hill with his body shaking uncontrollably, staring at the tree on which his father’s body was hanging by the throat.

A gust of wind came by, causing his father’s body to swing back and forth.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep