‘I am Rothsmith…’ Jesse held his head and shook his head. He was having a mild headache. ‘This is not what I expected… How would my fathe—Terry, respond if he knew?’
Even though he asked the question to himself, he had a very vivid idea of what he would do.
He had already stopped calling Terry his father, not even using the word stepfather.
“I know, this is a lot to take in, son.” Jack stood up with the help of his cane and smiled. “If you don’t mind, may I visit you tomorrow in your apartment? There are a lot of things I want to discuss with you privately.”
“O-oh, sure.” Jesse timidly said. He felt strange being called son by him, but he felt a strange sense of familiarity coming from him.
He thought there was no one who could understand him and what he had to suffer because of his disease. But now there was someone who also happened to be his real biological father. It was unreal.
“Let’s finish this tomorrow, alright?” Jack asked, and after seeing Jesse nod, he turned to his mother and smiled. Then he limped to the clothing rack, took his top hat, and put it on. “Do you have tomorrow completely free?”
Matilda and Nyx glanced at Jesse. They were completely silent during the conversation and simply listened eagerly.
‘Martial Online can wait; this cannot.’ Jesse nodded and said. “I have.”
“Good, I will be seeing you tomorrow then.” Jack said with a smile as he nodded at her mother and then stepped out of the house. The door soon closed.
“Are you hungry? I can make something.” Matilda asked Jesse with a smile.
“No, I think I should return to my apartment.” Jesse stood up and noticed that his legs had gone completely numb. This meeting was a greater shock to him than he expected.
“Mm.” Matilda nodded as she stood up and gently hugged him, surprisingly. She then whispered into his ear. “I know this came as a surprise, but my son is a good person, unlike the ones who abandoned you. I hope we see you again, grandson.”
‘Grandson…’ Jesse felt immense warmth in the hug, something he hadn’t felt for a very long time.
He then shyly nodded and walked to the front door. He slipped his feet into his shoes and was about to leave until he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.
He turned and saw the black-dressed Nyx standing beside him.
“Yo~”
“Hey…” Jesse awkwardly said, opening the door. He waited in the doorway, waiting for Nyx to finish whatever she had to say.
“So, you are my cousin,” Nyx said.
“Seems so…” Jesse said with a strange expression. Their first meeting was still very vivid in his memory, which was why it made him feel rather awkward.
Nyx forced a smile and leaned closer until her lips were about to touch his ear. She then softly whispered.
“Let’s keep our first meeting a secret, okay? No one has to know~”
“Hmm, what meeting?” Jesse acted ignorantly with an innocent expression.
“You know, that…” Nyx looked at him in the face, but then saw his smirk and soon realized what he meant by that.
She smiled softly and gently patted a dust particle off his shoulder. “See you later, cousin~”
“Mm.” Jesse nodded and stepped out of the house. As he crossed the road back to his apartment, he looked over his shoulder at the luxurious building. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
After returning to his apartment, he got rid of his shoes and went to change his clothes. He put on his sweatpants and blue t-shirt, which were old clothes of his, and was feeling quite tight because of his newly acquired physique.
He still had to purchase new clothes when he had time.
He then returned to the living room and slumped down on the sofa.
“I have a new father, grandmother, and cousin. This is crazy…” Jesse held his face, but a small smile crept up on his face. Past few years, he felt like he was living in a world of cold and gray, but now, first sign of light appeared. 𝑜𝒱𝓛xt.𝐂𝔬
‘Fuck…’ Jesse wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes. “Got little bit emotional after all the shit things I had to go through lately.”
He cracked a smile and scratched the back of his head.
‘I suppose I will go to Martial Online to clear up my mind.’ Jesse stood up and went first to the bathroom, then ate before moving to his bedroom. He planned this to be a very long day, as tomorrow he would be busy.
‘Till nightfall, I have to be productive.’ He thought and laid on the bed with a VR headset around his head.
With one button press, he entered the white expanse of space, and with another press, he entered Martial Online’s strange world.
…
A sound of creaking wood echoed in his ears as Ambrose slowly opened his eyes to see the empty room around him.
The light from the window was dim and cast shadows on the walls. It was because of the forest in the house’s backyard, which blocked most of the light from reaching the windows.
‘What should I do today?’ He wondered as he stood up to stretch his limbs. ‘I have to be careful not to be discovered by players, as I am not ready to face Zahhak yet.
‘There is this forest, though. Maybe I could grind levels in here undisturbed. I could use this house as my base for now, but I should keep moving.
‘It takes at least a day for Zahhak to reach Amaterasu. They are then going to start searching for me like blood hungry hounds. However, I am also about twenty hours away from Amaterasu by wagon.
‘So, I have nearly fifty hours of advantage over Zahhak. I should keep moving to the outskirts of the Light Continent. Perhaps I can find some peaceful place to lay low.’
Ambrose didn’t like the idea of running away, but he had to be very careful. 5,000 silvers was a lot for any player, and even those who didn’t like Zahhak would search for him.
‘This indeed is harsh.’ He thought and left the room.
When he reached the stairway leading downstairs, his whole body froze.
The front door was open, and there were several people lounging in the doorway of the house.
Ambrose quickly hid behind the wall, sweat falling down his forehead.
‘Players? Here?! How can I be so unlucky?’
He tried to gather his thoughts and quickly looked around the second floor to see if anyone was there.
There didn’t seem to be anyone, but it was clear that they had searched all rooms.
The only reason they didn’t find him was because he was offline when they searched his room.
‘Who are they, and are they hostile?’ Ambrose perked up his ears and tried to listen to their conversation. There seemed to be three players in the doorway.
“Man, when the fuck is Narnia coming back online?” A rough-sounding player clicked his tongue. “We are wasting time; we should’ve arrived at the farm already!”
“His mother called for him to clean his room. Hah, knowing him, it must look like a dumpster.” A sharp-haired player said with a chuckle.
“The boss is going to be mad if we don’t return to Tonshen soon.” Jock, a tattooed player with ocean-blue eyes, said with a frown.
He had his back turned against the house while looking at the surrounding forest. The forest looked rather scary, as if some unknown creature could suddenly jump from there.
Ambrose stopped listening and started to think about the current situation.
‘So, there are actually four of them. One of them is offline. Wait, Tonshen… they are part of the players who massacred everyone there!’ Ambrose’s expression turned cold. ‘Alright, so they are definitely hostile.
‘Also, they are going to a farm? Could it be that farm?!’
Images of the elderly man and the cozy-looking farmhouse with a wooden barn and surrounding fields filled with wheat, crops, corn, tomatoes, and pumpkins flashed through his mind.
‘They are clearing the surrounding areas, for what?’ Ambrose frowned. ‘It can’t be for silver or for treasures. That farm has nothing except the fields and the area… They are trying to increase their territory?’
Ambrose looked down at his waist, where the sheathed Black Sword was. He wrapped his fingers around the hilt and clenched it tightly.
‘I won’t let them.’ He looked coldly at the wall in front of him. ‘Three I can manage, but four will make it difficult. I have to get rid of them before the fourth logs back in.
‘Well then, how should I do that? Frontal attack isn’t wise as I don’t know their strength.’ Ambrose peeked from upstairs towards the doorway. ‘Hmm, they are all swordsmen? They have swords on their waists. Well, that makes things easier.’