After a few more steps, I stepped into the courtyard of the building I’d called home for more than a decade.
Nothing had changed.
Makeshift tents still crowded the cracked concrete, their tarps patched with duct tape and clotheslines hanging between rusted poles.
The smell of cheap tobacco and rust lingered in the air, mixed with smoke from a nearby barrel fire.
A few old women sitting around the fire noticed me almost immediately. Their heads turned, followed by whispers that quickly spread through the courtyard.
"Oh~ Isn’t that our dear Kaiser boy?"
"Dear? Who’s he dear to? That bastard wouldn’t even agree to marry my daughter."
"Don’t act like he’s yours. I also wanted him to marry my daughter, but he always acts like he’s above everyone."
"Hahaha, I guess today is the perfect time to persuade him. Once he starts begging us to help him with his dad, he’ll have no choice."
"But seriously. Two nights gone, and now he strolls back like nothing happened."
"Unfilial brat. Once he becomes my son-in-law, I’ll teach him some proper manners."
Perhaps it was because of my enhanced F-rank senses, but I could hear every word the women were saying. Honestly, it disgusted me.
I took a slow breath, forcing my expression to remain neutral as I let their words slide off me.
I darted my eyes around the compound, from the tents to the three-story building, until my gaze finally settled on a middle-aged man with weathered skin, wrinkles etched across his face, and a huge, burly frame.
Sitting atop the concrete steps at the front of the building, elbows resting on his knees and a half-empty bottle dangling from two fingers, was none other than my father, Dan Kissman.
Even from this distance, I could see the vein pulsing at his temple, his jaw working as though he were chewing on his own fury.
"So you’ve finally decided to return, fucker? What, don’t want your vacation anymore, or did you miss your daddy?" he said, his voice low and rough.
He raised his gaze high, our eyes meeting for a long moment before he spoke again. "Get on your knees, Kai."
I slowed to a stop a few paces from the steps, my gaze fixed on the man I’d called my father for ten years.
It wasn’t that I was afraid of him, nor was I underestimating him. I simply knew the truth: the man who had been my nightmare for years was now someone I could easily crush beneath my foot.
The reason I stared at him was simple. I was searching myself for even a speck of warmth toward him.
At the same time, I searched his eyes for any lingering affection. Anything that might prove there had once been even a trace of love between us.
I let out a quiet scoff. "What did I expect?"
My old man raised a brow, annoyance clearly written across his face. "What was that? Didn’t you hear what I just told you?"
I didn’t answer immediately. Instead, I raised my head, chin held high. "Yeah, I heard you, fucker. And what if I don’t want to?"
The courtyard went dead silent.
Even the barrel fire seemed to hold its crackle.
The old women froze mid-whisper, their eyes wide as saucers. Somewhere behind me, a clothesline creaked in the wind like it was the only sound left in the world.
My father’s eyes went wide, then narrowed to slits. He rose slowly from the steps, and for a second, I thought that was all he had in him.
Then he vanished.
One instant, he was ten feet away. The next, his fist was an inch from my face, his knuckles white and murder written plainly across his features.
Yeah, it was fast... for a normal human, anyway.
But to me, he seemed almost painfully slow.
Without much effort, I raised my hand and caught his fist.
Just like that, the fist I’d once considered so powerful was trapped in my palm like a bird with a broken wing.
The courtyard gasped as one. Bottles, plates, and other objects hit the floor, shattering across the concrete as sand and dust from the impact billowed around us.
"That’s all you’ve got?" I asked, my voice coming out colder than I expected.
His gaze dropped to my hand.
That’s when he saw it.
A faint mark etched into my skin, glowing with a pale teal light.
The unmistakable mark of an Awakened.
His face contorted. "You bastard! You actually went and Awakened!" He wrenched his arm back, testing my grip. "Who gave you the right to go against me?!"
For a second, his hand trembled in mine, genuine fear flickering behind his eyes. Then his gaze sharpened as he examined the sigil more carefully, and some of the tension drained from his posture.
He barked out a sharp, ugly laugh. "A Support class! You’re just a lowly Support class."
He wrenched his hand free with a hard shove and stumbled back several steps, his boots scraping against the grit-covered concrete.
"Support classes. Pathetic. Should’ve known a runt like you couldn’t pull anything better."
He straightened his collar, spat to the side, and rolled his neck until it popped. "Guess it’s about time I reeducate you about who runs this house."
He clapped his hands twice.
As if they’d been waiting for his signal, the windows around the building suddenly flew open.
One by one, grown men emerged, iron rods and splintered bats gripped tightly in their hands.
Then, almost in unison, they dropped from the windows and surrounded me from all sides, forming a loose circle.
There were around eight of them. Maybe ten.
’I guess he prepared for this too.’ I thought with a laugh that felt too heavy for someone who supposedly didn’t care. ’This time, he’s really planning on killing me, isn’t he?’
My jaw clenched before I even realized it. ’Who was I kidding?’
’This bastard who had made my life a living hell. Why would I ever think he’d have any warmth left for me?’
I looked around at the men surrounding me, at the way their hands trembled around their weapons, and laughed.
A deep, dark laugh that made my head fall forward.
Slowly, I covered my face with one hand, trying hard to hold back the stupid tears threatening to spill from my eyes.
It took me a moment to calm myself before I finally raised my head and stared straight at him
"Coward."
"What?" the old man mumbled, his eyes widening.
I didn’t flinch or look away from him. "You heard me right. You’re a fucking coward."
My expression darkened. "I can’t believe I was ever scared of a man like you."
The old man’s face twisted as though he’d been possessed. "You bastard! If you can’t even respect this old man, then I’ll send you to your grave."
At his words, the men lunged at me, weapons raised, ready to take my head at all costs.
I simply let out a small breath.
[Host, should I activate your ability?]
’No need.’
[...]
A warm sensation flowed into my eyes, as though LED lights had suddenly been switched on behind them.
’I understand it.’
Blue lightning began crackling along my arm, threading up my shoulders and sparking across my collarbone. A strange azure glow seeped from beneath my skin, wrapping around my entire body like a second layer of skin.
Then came a strange sensation on my forehead.
It felt as though invisible metal were carving something into my flesh, yet there was no pain. I could only feel something being etched into existence.
For a moment, my eyes met my reflection in the window.
The purple irises I’d always known were now glowing sky blue, while the unmistakable sigil of the Mage class had been etched into my forehead, radiating the same azura light.
The courtyard froze. Even the old man’s jaw went slack, like he wanted to scream something but couldn’t.
I felt my feet lift an inch off the ground, then two, hovering there as the second skin writhed around me like a living thing.
To them, I probably looked like some demigod descending from the heavens.
These people who had never seen anything beyond G-rank in their entire lives, it was no wonder they looked so dumbfounded.
They were nothing but frogs stuck in a well, completely unaware of the heavens beyond it.
A real Awakened, one with a high-ranked skill blazing to life before them, was the stuff of rumors and late-night stories. Someone like that existed only on the news or in fairy tales.
Now, that same figure of awe stood in their courtyard, a blade pointed at them.
I could see fear crawling up their spines, the unspoken urge in every one of them to turn and run.
"Rush him!" my father bellowed, spit flying from his lips. "What are you standing around for? Rush him!"
They obeyed. Fear or not, they charged, iron rods raised, boots pounding against the concrete.
I reached out with my mind and caught the nearest one mid-swing.
A pale blue light only I could see wrapped around his body, locking him in the air as though he’d hit an invisible wall. With a flick of my wrist, I swung him into two others, sending all three sprawling across the ground in a tangle of limbs and clattering iron.
Their rods, along with those of a few others frozen by fear around me, tore free from their grasp and rose into the air, orbiting my body in a slow, deliberate circle, their points gleaming beneath the streetlights.
I gritted my teeth and looked past the men scrambling on the ground, straight at my father.
"Old man! Let me ask you this. Did you ever even love me?" The words came out rougher than I intended.
"Just answer me. Why would you, my father, treat your own son like this?"
The entire courtyard went completely still before he barked out another laugh, though this time it sounded forced. "Because you got a little stronger, you think you can question me?!"
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, his eyes glinting with something close to madness.
"Doesn’t matter what class you Awakened into. The second I end your life here, all of it, that mark, that pathetic glow, all of it will have been for nothing."
He raised both hands and chanted something under his breath. A dull purple light spread over the boys still standing, veins bulging along their arms as their muscles swelled unnaturally beneath their sleeves.
"You came here to teach me a lesson, didn’t you?" His grin stretched wide, yellow teeth gleaming in the lamplight. "Then I’ll have to kill you. No matter what it takes."
I let out a slow breath, watching the boys around me shift their stances, weapons trembling in their re-strengthened grips.
I still didn’t understand it. I couldn’t wrap my head around how a father could harbor this much hatred for his own blood.
But my mind was already made up.
I lifted my gaze, and whatever warmth had ever lived there was gone, burned away by cold resolve.
"So fucking pathetic."
My cold gaze met his, and for a moment, I almost felt like him, looking at someone with absolute hatred.
"Then... I’ll return the favor in kind."