Chapter 37: 36 Chapter Step Over My Dead Body (Vote!)<div>
“Seventeen.”
He had killed seventeen of Rhea’s cavalrymen; the rest of the enemies should have scattered without theirmander.
Snowkes danced wildly in the sky, soft and light, twirling and swaying, mystical and beautiful.
Lucius stumbled forward, aware that the severe loss of blood was affecting him, and the effect of the blood potion could only provide limited healing.
“If not for the Extraordinary trait ‘Fight to the Death,’ I wouldn’t have been able to fight at all.”
But he had just realized one thing—that even a passive Extraordinary trait required a minuscule amount of Spiritual Power to maintain.<div>
The blow that the half-orc knight had delivered to his waist had been nearly fatal; his liver was ruptured.
Moreover, the power of the protective runessted only an instant. At that time, they had failed to stop all the bullets, and thest few shots fired by the men were not blocked by the runes; one of the bullets had sessfully hit an artery in his thigh.
Dizziness.
It felt as though the ground beneath his feet had lost its gravity, everything swayed on the brink of copse, and all the surrounding scenery spun rapidly in the same direction.
Lucius tried to steady himself but could only see the constantly tilting snowy ground. Then came the buzzing noise in his ears.
Buzz…
The world fell silent.
Hey quietly feeling the chill of his cheeks against the snow, watching the snowkes falling, while an assortment of strange, nonsensical thoughts suddenly sprang to mind.
Why did I leave that city in the first ce? Lucius vaguely remembered that gentle and beautiful woman, Byrne’s mother, who had pleaded with him tearfully, wanting him to stay.
But he was very afraid.
Family, marriage, everything rted to the concept of rtives, filled Lucius with enormous fear, restlessness, and sleepless nights. It was more unbearable than any sharp knife or axe.
Family meant constraints, meant he could no longer fight unrestrained, couldn’t do whatever he wanted, had to share all his property for free with another person, and his enemies would have a vulnerable point to exploit.<div>
Essentially, it also meant he had to bid farewell to the people from the mercenary group who had apanied him for decades,pletely abandoning the familiar past of his former life.
Back then, just thinking about it shook him with fear, feeling as if facing death was nothing worse.
Lucius cowardly left, fleeing with the people from the mercenary group, not even daring to say goodbye to that gentle beautiful woman. The others in the group weren’t surprised; they just felt it was a shame.
“So that’s how it was; I had forgotten…”
With that thought, he gradually fell into an overwhelming sleepiness, his thoughts slowly fading away.
So cold!
“Cough, cough, cough!”
As he opened his eyes again, what entered his vision were shrinking snowkes, and blood surged from his painfully sore throat, abruptly waking him.
Lucius sat up shivering, wondering why his body seemed to be filled with strength again. Could it be that the Spiritual Power had naturally recovered and reactivated ‘Fight to the Death’?
He stood up again, surprisingly finding his mind exceptionally clear.
“Huh.”
Unable to contain his tion, Lucius continued to step forward. Very soon, a new thought emerged in his mind. Why did he go back then?<div>
It was after everyone from the mercenary group had died that he returned to the city he had fled.
All members of the mercenary group were dead, and at that time, Lucius had lost almost everything. He spent his days in a daze, squandering the inheritance of the mercenary group, eventually bing a detestable drunkard.
People would take detours to avoid him; he reeked and was so drunk every day he couldn’t even lift his sword anymore.
Then one day, that despicable man recalled the gentle and beautiful woman. The selfish wretch wanted to return and receive her pity, even a bit of constion would have been enough to make him feel reassured.
But he never saw her again; instead, while peering into the house, he saw a thin, sickly, and inarticte boy.
He was like some frail little animal, weak, young, and unsettlingly vulnerable as if the slightest malice from anything could easily destroy him.
The next moment, Lucius realized that this was his son.
He carefully inquired and confirmed this, and also learned that the boy’s name was Byrne, which meant the wise and warning bird, “raven”.
Lucius, after a long absence, took a bath again, shaved, and then came to the doorstep once more, hesitating to knock and acknowledge the other.
Byrne must surely despise him.
So, he grew afraid, going back and forth numerous times without entering the house, constantly debating whether to just leave for good, yet unable topletely put his mind at ease.
After secretly observing, Lucius discovered that the boy was timid to an extreme, and if not for the proactive charity of the neighbors, he probably would have secluded himself to the point of starvation.<div>
How could there be a life so fragile and so foolish!
Until one day, Byrne, struggling to live on his own, copsed from illness.
Lucius, unable to concern himself with anything else, could only burst into the house immediately to carefully tend to his unconscious son, while constantly berating himself for his cowardice.
Until the boy woke up, looked at him, and without a second thought, asked a question.
“Are you my father?”
He was silent for a long time, then finally nodded.
“Yes, I am your father.”
The boy’s naive eyes flickered with unhidden joy, grievance, unease, and finally, he asked in a timid, low voice:
“Will you leave again?”
“I will, but I will take you with me.”
He reached out his sturdy palm and gently stroked the boy’s hair, suddenly no longer fearing certain things in his heart.
The skinny boy was none other than his own son, with a pair of innocent blue eyes, unlike anyone from the mercenary group, and even different from that gentle and beautiful woman.<div>
Lucius let out a smile from the depths of his heart, as the hatred for revenge was no longer the driving force urging him to hurry on, reced by some newfound, deeply rooted strength.
“Byrne, I’m sorry, I’ve never been at peace with myself.”
“Thank you.”
He murmured, deeply aware that on that day it wasn’t he who saved the ill Byrne, but his appearance that had utterly saved himself.
There are some things that cannot be touched or reached, existing only in the gaze of people, yet shining brighter than diamonds, more noble than constetions, even greater than gods, providing morefort than all the things in the world!
The zing Sun and Radiant Sun arrived overhead; their light rendered the surrounding snowscape immactely white, as he was about to step out of the woodspletely.
At some point, Lucius could no longer hear the sounds around him, feeling an unparalleled silence and peace in his heart and the whole world.
Snow.
Finally stopped.
Suddenly, a loud shout came from behind the man.
“Fire!”
He turned around sharply, and then time around him seemed to slow down.<div>
A dozen Rhea infantrymen tensely raised their flintlocks, standing tens of meters away, as bullets were already firing out of the scorching muzzles.
Lucius instinctively wanted to dodge, but found both his Spirituality and physical strength had reached their limits, he couldn’t even activate the runes.
In the end, he could only watch the scene unfold calmly.
Everything was very slow.
Lucius pondered continuously as he faced death, but for some reason, there was no strong sense of regret in his heart, even though he still had important things to finish, like settling the score with that giant ck dragon.
He soon understood, the giant dragon’s lifespan stretched for thousands of years, and the Fischer family would eventually be a powerful n on this continent.
Generation after generation, seeding one after another.
One day, someone will take his ce to bring down that once unreachable giant ck dragon!
He looked up calmly, as if speaking to the sky, to fate, or perhaps to a god.
Maybe it, or He, could convey his will.
Byrne, Irene, Chris, and the future members of the Fischer family.
“Step over my body and go forward.”