Chapter 17: The Weak Are Preys

Sam quickly rushed out of the house and pulled Eri, who was about to beat Ain again. "Eri, stop. Big brother is here."

"No! I think this piece of shit needs a beating!" Eri's eyes were red as he looked at Ain. "It was fine when you don't do anything, but now you are becoming a burden. You're going to talk to me like that despite the fact that we paid silver coins just to bail you out?"

Ain stood up and patted the dirt off his trousers. He lazily glanced at Eri. "If it really hurt you so much to take out money to bail me, then just let me be. I never expected help from any of you."

Looking at that face that didn't show an ounce of emotion, angered Eri even more. "Leave! I don't want to see your face again, you ungrateful bastard!"

"Ungrateful? I didn't ask for charity. Don't act hypocritical, Eri. It doesn't suit your brash personality." Ain looked unfazed facing Eri's wrath. "Do you think I'd want to come home in this house? No. I thought it would be more comfortable now that the old hag is dead, but it seemed like there are little mongrels that inherited that unreasonable personality of hers."

This time, even Sam was frowning. "Ain, watch your words. That's our grandmother."

"Look, even the dead have someone who speaks up to her. Hahahahaha." Ain pointed at Sam while laughing as if he just heard the funniest joke in his entire life.

"Your grandmother?" Ain sneered. "I don't have an old witch as my grandmother!" After saying that, he pushed Cia, who was beside him (Innocent Cia: I was just watching, I didn't do anything), and coldly walked away without giving the house a second glance.

[Host, why didn't you try to mediate the fight?]

"Even the original owner wouldn't dare to. Although I'm their eldest brother, Cia is rarely home and has no idea about the hidden undercurrents of this family." Cia was clearheaded. He couldn't righteously state his opinion without knowing what's happening.

Eri's chest was heaving up and down as if he was running a marathon. He was glaring at Ain's direction with anger... But Cia sensed a bit of pain and disappointment in his gaze.

"Uhm... I'm home. The sun has already set. Let's go inside." The atmosphere was awkward, so Cia was the first to break the ice.

The three of them went inside silently. Rena was inside the living room playing with her toys. She looked at the three of them and accurately lunged toward Cia like a little cannonball.

"Big brother! Did you bring something yummy?" Although she was asking that, her eyes were glued on the paper bag that Cia was holding.

"Little glutton, here, have some." Cia opened the paper bag and gave Rena a pink pastry. He handed Eri the rest. "You and Sam can have some. Don't feed Rena another one because she'll probably lose her appetite to eat dinner. I'll go cook."

Eri held the paper bag and looked at Cia, who was walking to the kitchen.

"..." He had no idea what he was feeling. The eldest brother didn't ask about the quarrel between him and Ain. Eri should be chilled by Cia's indifference, but for some reason, he could feel a bit warm in his actions.

The problem between Ain and the family is not something that could be solved in day one.

Eri snapped out of his daze when he felt someone poking on his arm. He looked to his side and saw Sam staring at the paper bag.

"Give me one."

Sam ate the yellow pastry while Eri ate the green one. The three siblings sat in the living room, not speaking and just enjoying the sweetness in their mouth.

They didn't notice that Cia took a peek at them before continuing to cook.

...

Cia looked calm on the surface but deep down, he had a morbid feeling of wanting to put all of his siblings in his pockets and not let them walk away.

It was a bit unhinged, but it seemed to be a side effect of the main mission pressing on his head. It wasn't obvious, but the psychological pressure was weighing on him.

He even considered checking out early; being away from home could make you feel insecure and it wasn't really that easy to adapt to a new environment.

With everything piling on top, Cia felt that he was about to suffer from a bout of depression. It wasn't that he was not sad, but he forced himself not to think about it.

But alas, he overestimated his endurance... Or maybe his true nature was showing up? Whatever was going on, Cia was afraid that if this continued, he would go insane.

That eye he saw at the library and Ain's distant attitude seemed to trigger his buried unease.

[Host, the root of your insecurity is because you feel like you are very weak to protect them right?] The system felt his mind space churning. It was alarmed. Aside from the mission, the system really cared about Cia and treated him as a companion.

[How about becoming stronger?]

That was a very obvious answer but Cia was silent. How can he become stronger? By killing.

All he had killed so far were demons and despite them being not human, all of them have humanoid forms.

He had never killed an authentic human being before. Cia isn't an idiot, but the psychological hurdle is really hard to overcome.

Even the punisher mode, Cia was terrified of that 'personality switch' of his.

"I'm a bit scared..." Cia admitted it.

[Host...] The system also felt sad for Cia, but with its limited intelligence, it couldn't provide Cia a comprehensive solution to his dilemma.

"I'll think about it," said Cia as he tossed the chopped-up potatoes into the pot.

...

It was dinner time. Ugan realized that there seemed to be no firewood inside the house. He told Sisi not to open the door to strangers and that he would be back after a while.

Steam stoves are something only people with money can afford. Ugan's family was still using the primitive way to cook.

His wife died when Sisi was two and the neighboring old woman was usually the one who takes care of Sisi. The old woman was widowed and childless.

She was actually the wife of a mercenary, but her husband never came back, leaving behind three children. The man either died or lived a new life.

The eldest was a boy and the last two were girls.

Fate seemed to hate the old woman. When the eldest was 13, he drowned in the sea during a storm while he was fishing. Then when the second child turned 15, she was molested by a hooligan during her work at the pub.

The youngest died of illness, leaving behind the poor old woman to suffer alone.

"Ugan?" he heard someone calling his name.

He raised his head and saw Ron walking toward him with a surprised look on his face.

"It's really you. I didn't know you lived in this area!" Ron seemed to be happy to see Ugan.

They were not close, just acquaintances, so he had no idea where Ugan lived.

Ugan looked at him and felt sick. He was facing a human trafficker. He couldn't let Ron see his disgust, so he pushed the bile down and tried to act natural.

"Uhmm. What are you doing here?" Ugan remembered that Ron didn't live near here.

"I was together with a friend of mine. He lived around here." Ron was not a native. When he married his wife, they moved to the town of Syrencrest. It had been two years, so he was not that familiar with the area.

Ugan didn't want to talk to him, so he just nodded.

Ron didn't mind the cold attitude and just smiled. "It seems that you're busy? I'd be on my way. Take care."

After Ron left, Ugan was tortured by the painful pang of conscience that was nagging him. He bent down and continued gathering woods.

The sky looked very gloomy. It's probably about to rain. Ugan needed to gather enough firewood to last tomorrow.

After a while, he finally managed to gather a bundle. He carried it on his shoulders.

Ugan started walking on his way home. He met some neighbors who were chatting on the side. One of the men saw him and casually said,

"Your friend was looking for you. A while ago, he asked us where you lived. You should hurry back."

Ugan paused. His heart dropped and he almost fainted from the rush of emotions in his chest.

Human traffickers only target the weak.

Targets the weak...

Weak...

He threw the wood down into the ground and ran toward his home like crazy.

The man who just told Ugan that someone was looking for him stared at Ugan's departing back in shock.

He turned to his friend and asked, "What was that? The man who was looking for him... Is a loan shark asking for him to pay up?"

"Who knows."

"Forget about that. Continue your story. So what happened at the arena..."