The situation has been cleared.
Delan looked at Sebastian as he was wheeled away on a stretcher.
"Now let's finish this."
After stemming the flow of blood from his head, Delan led Osian to where his father, Duke, was.
~The second floor of the mansion, off-limits to visitors~
The scene in front of Dyke's room had already been cleaned up.
The bodies had been cleared away, but the blood, bullet holes, and charred scars left behind told of a fierce fight that had taken place here.
Osian studied the marks carefully.
The number of bullet holes in the walls and floor told him that more than half of the fifty or so men must have been traitors.
The bullets they'd brushed off must have numbered in the thousands but then something caught his eye.‘What is this?’
There was an area that was unusually intact.
The walls were intact, the carpets were pristine, as if the only signs of violence hadn't touched them amidst the hail of bullets.
It was as if the bullets and bombs had spared the area, as if this area was a sanctuary.
‘Human form?’
Osian realized that the shape the bullet holes had drawn resembled a human form, somehow.
He suddenly remembered Fernando warning him to be careful.
'I knew he wasn't normal when I saw him, but I guess he was on to something, too.’
Dustin, waiting at the entrance, inclined his head toward Delan as if expecting him.
I don't know what their relationship had been like before this, but at least the way Dustin was presenting himself to Delan now, he seemed a lot more uptight than his eldest son.
"Lord Dyke is waiting for you."
"Let's go in."
Dustin's demeanor seemed to come naturally to Delan.
He had already prepared himself.
Dustin opened the door as Delan, Osian, and Elise stepped inside.
The room was filled with colorful objects, paintings, and miscellaneous items, along with a large bed.
Sitting on the bed was an old man, his upper half raised.
"Welcome."
His voice was overly formal for a man of his age.
However there was more to it than that, there was strength in his voice, a fire in his eyes that belied his wrinkled face.
He looked like that's what Delan would look like if he lived for a few decades more.
"You're up."
Delan turned to his father, Dyke, and offered him a light greeting.
Dyke smirked, perhaps because he already knew the whole thing was his doing.
"Still, of all my children, you and the youngest worry about me."
"Am I a child?"
The words were bony and sharp, but Dyke didn't bat an eye.
"Then if you're not my child, what are you? If I take you outside, everyone will see us as father and son."
“So, do you feel a little better now?”
"Yes, because I've cut away the rotten flesh that needed to be cut away."
Dyke's gaze traveled to the other side of his bed, where three people were kneeling.
First, David Goldiron.
Second, Marcy Goldiron.
And finally, a middle-aged woman who looked quite tired.
She was Darcy Goldiron, Dyke's wife and the matriarch of the Goldiron family.
She was probably over 60, but thanks to skin procedures and the power of money, she looked like she was in her 40s.
She would have been a wealthy lady who would have been treated well anywhere, but not now.
She was now a loser who dreamed of rebellion but failed.
Dyke's eyes held a complicated emotion as he looked at Darcy.
"For someone who says he's better, you look quite uncomfortable."
Delan's comment made Dyke wince.
He'd said he was fine, but he couldn't be fine, not when the woman he'd been with for over half his life was plotting to kill him with their children.
Even the youngest, the talkative and unobtrusive one, now stood still, hands clasped together.
"I guess I'm getting old, too. Not like I used to be."
"And what would you do if you were?"
"I'd be angry as hell."
"Aren't you angry now?"
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. I do get angry. I just don't let it out like I used to, I keep it inside."
"If you keep it inside, you'll get angry."
"Are you making fun of this old man?"
"I'm just worried about you."
Delan didn't say a word.
Just as Dyke had gone through his own event, Delan had almost lost Sebastian.
He must have read the emotion in his illegitimate son's eyes.
"You remind me of my younger self. It's like looking in a mirror, and I can still see myself when I was your age."
Dyke smiled, as if pleased with himself.
"But you are better than I was, for you already know how to keep your anger inside."
"Why!"
David, who was on his knees at the time, burst out.
He glared hatefully at Dyke as if he couldn't understand why he was being treated this way.
"Why would you leave your fortune to that bastard?"
It would have been understandable for Dyke to have been angry at his eldest son for arguing with him but Dyke responded with a much more calm expression.
"The fact that you're asking tells me you can't."
"I'm the eldest son, and I've followed your business closer and longer than anyone else!"
“What have you done? All of this is the business I started. Do you think you’ve become smart just because you’ve run a few small businesses that I threw at you to gain some experience?”
"I could have done better if you'd given me a bigger chance!"
"You'd have screwed up big time, and I'm tired of trying to convince you otherwise."
David bit his lip.
There had been times before when Dyke had looked at him pitifully and given him a hard time, but he'd never said he'd given up completely, not like now.
He'd expected it, after all, he was his blood, but this was the first time he'd ever let it go.
“So, are you saying you’re going to kick out all the children of the people who helped you?”
It was then that the silent Darcy spoke up.
Dyke glared at his wife, who glared back at him with a venomous gaze.
“What’s wrong with killing the person who tried to kill me when I’m sick? Even if I chewed up all of you bitches right now, I wouldn’t feel satisfied.”
David averted his eyes, intimidated by his glare but Darcy didn't look away.
She might be the wife of a wealthy family, but she had come to this position against all odds.
"David and Marcy were only doing what I told them to do, so please just look after the children.”
"So doing what they were told doesn't make it a sin? That's a convenient way of looking at it."
When that didn't work, Darcy appealed to her flesh and blood this time.
"Don't you have any sense of duty to your own children?"
“You were the one who cut off all ties first. You cut them off so sharply that you didn’t even have time to look back.”
"So, you're really going to end it here?"
"Because I wanted to, don't you think?"
Darcy bit her lip.
"If you've been with me long enough, you know that once I make up my mind, I don't change it, even if the heavens turn upside down."
"That's......."
"I gave you a chance, and you're the ones who didn't take it and kicked it away, so don't blame me, blame your past selves for being stupid."
Dyke turned to Maria, the youngest, and asked.
"Do you think my decision is bad, too?"
"What can I say?"
Maria immediately backed away, as if she had nothing to do with this.
‘When I see things like this, I realize that she is a genius at judging situations.’
Osian looked at Maria again.
Running out of options, Darcy glared at Delan with a venomous gaze that dripped with hatred.
If she could tear a man apart with just a glance, she would have left no corpse behind.
"If only you weren't here, if only you weren't here!"
"Then why didn't you educate those two morons better?"
"What?"
"That's why you ended up handing over the crown to a bastard like me."
"Yi, yi......!"
Delan's sour words turned Darcy red to the tips of her hair.
She was so angry she could barely speak.
Delan realized that the conversation had already passed and that he was going to take over Dyke's position as head of the family, so there was nothing to see or do.
"Are you going to continue wasting your time, Father?"
Delan deliberately emphasized the word father.
Darcy Goldilocks tried to scramble out of her spot, but the guards around her pushed her back down.
"How dare these things touch my mother’s body! You want to get fired?!"
David shouted, but the bodyguards remained silent.
David is being mean, Darcy is refusing to admit fault, and Marcy is trying to see if she can get away with playing the pity card.
"I can't stand the sight of them. Get them out of here."
At Dyke's words, the bodyguards led the three out.
They tried to struggle, but it seemed impossible to escape the grip of the vicious bodyguards.
"And Maria."
"Yes. I have a friend to talk to, too, if you'll excuse me!"
Maria was gone before Dyke could say another word, leading Elise by the hand.
Uninterested in the whole situation, Elise waved to Osian with an expressionless face and disappeared.
Only four people remained in the room: Dyke, his faithful henchman Dustin Kruger, Delan, and Osian.
"Well, if you've come this far, you know what I'm going to say."
"Yeah, well. I'll give it my best shot."
"Sure. I'm sure you can do it. You're better than I used to be."
"Father's old days must have been pretty bad."
"Kkkkk. You bastard. Is that what you do as soon as you're sure of your place? You should be a little more pleased."
"I've been through too much to be happy."
At that, Dyke asked, his voice cracking.
"Do you still blame me for not taking care of your mother?"
"How could I resent you? You've provided me with delicious food, fine clothes and a mansion."
"I was always running forward to make money. Now that I'm old enough to look back, I'm full of regrets."
Dyke's voice softened from the cold, hard tone he had been using up until this point.
"I will not ask you to forgive me now, for my sins are too many and too deep but I will give you one piece of advice. Care for those around you and take good care of them. That's the only thing I've never ever done right."
Dustin's head hung heavy at those words.
"I do that enough without father telling me."
“And be careful when you choose people.”
Dyke's gaze flicked to Ossian.
"Well, you needn't worry about that, because the one fixer you picked is a hundred times better than any organization with a name on it."
Dyke took one look at Osian and realized at once that he was no ordinary fixer.
"Much better than that."
Dustin's eyes widened at Osian's words.
He was surprised Dyke had complimented him, because he'd never heard anyone here respond with such arrogance.
Dyke's eyes narrowed for a moment at Osian's response, then he burst into a roaring laugh.
"Kahaha, yeah, he's even better, whose son picked him!"
Dyke's natural tendency to brag about his son was not lost.
Dustin, nervous that Dyke might get mad at Osian for being so cocky, patted his chest.
After a long moment of laughter, Dyke turned his sharp gaze to Osian and asked.
"I'm sure you've already been paid, but as a father, you saved my child's life, and I think you should be rewarded for that in addition to the fee."
At the mention of compensation, the corners of Osian's eyes twitched slightly.
"Mr. Fixer, what do you want from me, the richest man in Tirna?"