novelraw Chapter 40: Jim’s Story II
Chapter 40: Jim’s Story II
’Even if Jim’s brother broke through to Level 3, Jim’s wife was also Level 3 and for even longer.’
Jim shook his head, "Even though my wife was Level 3, she wasn’t allowed into the clan’s circle of power because she was a commoner and seen as an outsider."
"The elders’ concession was for my brother to take the throne, but they never had plans of eliminating my family... after all a Level 3 was still a Level 3 even if she was a commoner."
"How could you be so sure?" Jensen asked slowly.
"While I might not have much inclination for politics and leadership, I am not stupid. With my level of craftmanship sneaking in cloaked items to listen in on their conversation was more than easy for me."
"And you believed everything you heard? Couldn’t they have found your bugs?" Jensen questioned again.
"I considered that, but I already agreed to surrender my right to leadership to my brother, and their consensus was exactly what I was expecting." Jim calmly explained.
"But I never knew that my brother wasn’t contented with that... he saw my children as a threat to his rule and decided it was best to eliminate us."
"Since the consensus was made an agreed upon, we did not see his treachery coming and I am fairly certain that the elders... at least most of them were not a part of it."
"He poisoned me and my wife with this insidious poison while I was leaving for a business trip before ambushing us with some unknown guards."
"This is another reason I believe the elders were truly not part of it... I know most of our forces and if they were members of the clan, I would have surely recognised such notable people."
"My wife managed to hold off most of them and the only reason we barely managed to survive was because even the town guards did not know who the assailants were and attacked them."
"But you recognised your brother?"
"Yes, My Lord, I will always recognize my brother even if he was wearing a mask." Jim answered, "Even then I did not dare go back to the clan."
"And my reasoning was soon proven accurate when my brother flipped the script and declared us traitors making us fugitive."
"He claimed that the reason he was saved was because the guards sacrificed their life to allow him to escape."
"I tried to secretly find information on my wife hoping that she survived but..." Jim paused again.
"And because I wasn’t expecting such betrayal, I lost access to most of my wealth since I leave them at home on my trip to prevent loss."
"The little I had left was barely enough to allow us to flee far from there to this town where you found us."
"At first I tried to make a living, but my level slowly fell, I had no protection and our condition rapidly deteriorated to its current situation."
"Thankfully it doesn’t seem like my family could find us for a while." Jim immediately began with the only good thing about the situation.
"As long as My Lord can find the cure for this illness, I promise to dedicate my life to you."
"My only wish is for you to accept my children as well." Jim finished.
Jensen then began to consider his options, while this brought more conflict than he expected, it was not like this family’s problems were something that Jensen could not deal with.
In fact, he would welcome an attack so he could capture some of them and refine them into Thralls.
He had no problem ensuring their loyalty since a single thought from him could basically render them powerless... he still hadn’t met someone that could still go against that.
Granted he only had such hold on Maria and Lily.
The issue is that he currently had no use for useless baggage which are the children.
The son awakened a mind path and decided to use a sword, the second daughter was another mind path user who he honestly couldn’t see a use for, and the last one was till a toddler.
If he had his way he would have framed his brother for killing his children to motivate him to work harder.
Unfortunately, he knew next to nothing about the brother so he doubted he could accurately frame him.
’Asking him for a description of his brother and then a similar man to said description showing up and killing his children was more than suspicious.’
’Or maybe I could leak their current location to their brother and come in time to save him...’ Jensen thought. ’That might actually work.’
’Or hire someone pretending to be his brother and have them kill the children... this might also...’
"My Lord... Please accept us." Jim cried out seeing Jensen go silent for a while, afar as he could tell, Jensen did not seem concerned about the poison... no... something else was bothering him.
He truly did not know how close he was to a more severe trauma.
"You don’t have to worry about my brother... I will never walk outside in my life, and my children can change their faces." Jim pleaded.
Jensen chuckled for a second, "I have no problem with your brother finding you here... In fact, I welcome the challenge."
The room fell silent only to be broken by Jensen again.
"The issue is... I have no time or space for liabilities... what can you children provide me?" Jensen asked, "Unless they have something genuinely intriguing about them, I will not fulfil your wish."
The room fell into silence again before Jim confidently said, "While I know my children might seem unassuming, I assure you My Lord... they are not."
"What makes you so certain?" Jensen asked now surprised by Jim’s confidence.
"I know my son is talented in the sword just like his mother was... he simply awakened to the wrong path." Jim said but he did not stop there.
"My daughter, Talia is born with unusual wisdom even without training... the only thing stopping her is circumstances and I say it now that if she had decided to leave us behind, she would be far ahead." Jim
"Proof it."