"Just like you…. Your father is also a non-combat class player. He's an architect, he builds weapons and buildings–" Elena said, as Leo instantly assumed the worst.
"Oh is that so?" He said with a wicked smile on his face as he sized his father up and down.
"Are you really an architect?" Leo asked, as Jacob, although hesitant, nodded his head.
In reality Jacob did not wish to lie to his son, however, with Elena present he did not wish to reveal his true profession either since he knew that Elena disapproved of killing and violence in general.
"Huh–" Leo scoffed as he could not believe his own ears.
The old man was clearly a killer and not just from Terra Nova but probably back on Earth as well and was manipulating his mother into thinking that he was a harmless non-combatant.
"I'm so glad the three of us don't kill for a living….. I've talked with Luke too, he's a Knight and he says he has to do some fighting occasionally, but I don't really approve of it.
Violence always breeds violence and nobody should get comfortable with killing human beings.
If you start getting comfortable with killing people within this realistic game, it won't be too long before you get comfortable being a killer in reality as well, and hence I hope that Luke only sticks to killing monsters and does not raise his weapon against humans" Elena said, as both Jacob and Leo had the same exact reaction to her words.
Both father and son felt their left eye flutter at Elena's words, as they tried hard to suppress the emotions bubbling inside them.
On one hand, they acknowledged the truth behind Elena's words and in an idealistic universe, perhaps her way of living was the best one. However, this universe was far from idealistic.
In a dog eat dog world where the weak struggled and the strong thrived, morals such as non-violence were simply unrealistic, however, neither Jacob nor Leo had the heart to debate with Elena.
"Leo….. you don't kill any humans, do you?" Elena asked, startling Leo as he hurriedly lied through his teeth.
"Me? No No No, I'm a harmless merchant mom, how can I kill anyone?" Leo said, as he tried his best to keep a straight face, knowing that his mom could easily see through his lies.
In Leo's mind, his lies were different from Jacob's lies because he was doing it to appease Elena, while he believed that Jacob was doing it to scam her.
Leo wanted to badly expose that guy in front of his mom, however, before he could formulate a proper plan to expose him, Elena began ranting about 'TheBoss' out of the blue.
"You know…. There are a lot of kids here that idolize 'TheBoss' guy who is number one on the leaderboards.
But I think my Leo is a much better role model.
What does 'TheBoss' know except murder and killing?
My boy is a much better role model to strive for–" Elena said, nodding her head vigorously as she felt her chest swelling with pride over how talented Leo was.
Little did she know that 'TheBoss' and her boy were one and the same and the same stone cold killer that she was criticizing today was none other than Leo.
"Oh come on now honey…. The Boss kid is very talented in fighting. What's wrong with the young ones looking up to someone talented as their role model?" Jacob said, as Elena puffed her cheeks at his words.
"You're an ex secret service agent, so of-course you adore fighters…" Elena complained, as Leo's ears perked up for the second time in this same conversation today.
Sizing up Jacob once more, Leo raised his eyebrows when he received this unexpected piece of news.
"You were a special forces agent in the apocalypse?" Leo asked, as Jacob gave him a curt nod.
Although he did not elaborate on it, once Leo noticed his posture and his habit of constantly scouting for threats, he realized that the man was not really lying.
"Well….Well…. Why am I not surprised?" Leo said, slapping his face, as he felt a childhood memory of his resurface.
When he was a kid and still loved Jacob he often cooked up fantasy stories in his head that his father was a secret service agent who was trying to save the country from disaster.
However, as he matured, he realized that it did not matter if his father was trying to save the nation or not, as he had failed to save his family.
While he was busy playing hero on foreign soil, his 18 year old son had to repair snow-covered rooftops on Christmas mornings just so that his family could afford turkey for christmas dinner.
Hence, even if he was a hero like the young Leo wished him to be, in the end it did not really matter.
"Ha…hahahahaha….." Leo said, as he slowly started to chuckle, his laughter getting louder and more hysterical, the more he assessed this situation.
"Well let me ask you this…. Super Spy…. When you were deployed on your 'Super' missions, did you or did you not receive pay?
You left us with an inheritance of 500$. 500 freaking bucks and did not even send us a single paycheck after that.
We thought you were dead….
But I guess you were just having too much fun to remember that you knocked up a woman twice and had two kids back home–" Leo said enraged, as he stormed off after making this comment.
"Leo…. Leo…." He heard his mother scream behind him, however, Leo did not stop.
He did not know why he felt this angry, but somehow he did.
Until now, Leo thought he had grown numb to his father's presence. However, meeting him in person today and hearing his story of being an ex-secret service agent stirred emotions in Leo's heart that he thought were long buried.
He feared that if he stayed for a tad bit longer, he would start longing for his father to return like he did as a kid, and hence he stormed off, as he did not wish to undergo that traumatizing experience once again.