I screamed loudly and tried to break the chair with all my strength, but I couldn't. My parents and little sister were wearing white clothes, but for the first time in days, or maybe weeks, I saw something in a different color... red!
My regret increased exponentially, and my mind raced for any solution, even if it meant sacrificing myself, but it was futile.
"You're a criminal! How could you do this to me after all I've sacrificed for you?" My father spoke with a tearful voice that I still remember to this day.
But what I remember more than his voice was the expression on his face when he said those words, completely disgusted as if he was looking at a repulsive insect. It was clear he had disowned me as his son.
What I feared most had come true, even more than dying horribly or being caught by the police. And that was: my family finding out what I had done...
I stopped screaming, my tears halted, and I became calmer. I had found a solution, but I hesitated to use it. It required someone else to do it, which is why I had never done it before, but I could now.
By doing this... I could save my family and escape from here easily... but I didn't do it. Why? The reason is simple.
I knew that even if I somehow fixed things, I would never be able to heal my family's psychological wounds. My father would never accept me, my mother would hate me, and my sister would reject me.
I didn't want that. I feared that happening much more than my family dying in that place at that moment... Yes... I was that low. I refused to use that skill out of a trivial fear of my father hating me more and the stupid pride of a teenage boy.
I have never forgiven myself for what happened that night, and the regret has never left my mind since then... I watched their expressions and heard their last words as they were continuously stabbed in front of me, even my little sister.
Ironically, I started feeling regret the moment they all died, and the tears that flowed from my eyes didn't stop for hours. The masked men left afterward, leaving me in that room with my family's bodies lying in front of me. The only door leading outside was sealed with reinforced cement.
My life ended there, and my thoughts dulled. I stayed there for several more days, consumed by hunger and thirst, but I didn't care at all. A thick beard had grown for the first time in my life, making me look like a vagrant, but I didn't care.
I used to care about my appearance more than anything else before, but that was the last thing I cared about at that moment. And ironically again, I didn't die, even with all the accumulated sins.
StarHold family forces broke into the place the day I was about to collapse completely. They took me to a safe place, fed me, and cut my hair.
They made sure I was well taken care of and provided me with the best comforts imaginable. I began to recover after several months, having repented for my mistakes and was ready to confess everything I had done and atone for my sins in prison for life.
That was the second worst day of my life after the day my family was killed. I realized everything then... I met a woman named Loana, the wife of the mighty head of the StarHold family, and she offered me a better way to atone for my sins.
She tricked me, of course, and forced me to sign a slavery contract, and my life as a slave to the royal StarHold family began from that moment. I went back to being an assassin, but this time it was more prestigious.
People accepted me, and law enforcement didn't chase me. Everyone treated me as if I were an honorable knight. Instead of a hated assassin, I became a beloved one.
My social status changed significantly, but my essence did not... I remained an assassin and thought I would remain so until my death...
And the worst part was the person I worked for... Loana, the woman who caused my life's downfall in the first place. She constantly tracked the talents of all the children, somehow knowing about me and my Legacy skill.
She was the one who fired my father from his job in the first place and lured me with unknown means to work in that specific store. That intermediary worked for her, following her orders to the letter.
That group of assassins were her followers too, and my coup was part of her plan...
I spent six years dancing in the palm of her hand, manipulated like a fool without any reservations, and she made a child do all that.
Because of the contract I signed, I couldn't even think of her in a hostile way, let alone seek revenge!
I still remember that moment, the moment she told me this story, sitting across the table looking at me with a disgusting smile. She decided to tell me the story on a whim, because she knew I couldn't move against her anyway.
All that so I would use my Legacy skill on her son: "Darian" to make him stronger and help him win the inheritance game he was failing at. A few months before the present time, Diana realized that I would never use my skill on her son, no matter what she did to me.
That was my way of getting back at her, and there was nothing she could do about it. In the end, she decided to sacrifice me in a suicidal mission, fighting an SS-ranked opponent, and I ended up on this island with Cassian StarHold.
Darian StarHold's competitor in the inheritance game...
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