novelraw Chapter 117 : Chapter 117
Chapter 117 : Chapter 117
Volume 2
Chapter 41: Dog
“A mere… second son of a viscount!”
“A thing that cannot even inherit a title!”
“Get out of here. There is no place for you here!”
“This idiot does not even know how to fight back anymore, hahaha…”
Shaking images.
Mocking shadows.
An overturned bucket.
Soles smeared with filth.
Pain, rage, numbness…
And blood.
Like a nightmare.
Like darkness.
He had thought it would never end.
He had thought he had already grown used to it.
Until—
“Why don’t you fight back?”
Golden hair shone brilliantly.
His gaze was arrogant and untamed.
Like the sun.
“They’re bullying you like this, so why don’t you hit them back?”
“Because… I am only a viscount’s second son.”
“A viscount? Ah, I see. Then… if I give you a higher status, would you dare to hit them back?”
A higher status?
Of course I would.
It is not as though I cannot beat them. I just…
“I see. Now I understand. In that case…”
The blond man extended a hand.
“Would you like to be my dog?”
“A dog?”
“That’s right. A dog.
“I am not a particularly clever man, and I have a bad temper. There are always people who obey me in public while defying me in private, whispering and pointing fingers behind my back.
“So I need a dog. A dog that will bite wherever I point, and never question any order I give.”
“What would I get out of it?”
“What would you get?”
The blond man seemed to smile.
“The benefit is that from now on, before anyone beats a dog, they will have to look at its master first.”
“So, are you willing? Aemon Biandi.”
…
…
“Did I have that dream again?”
Inside a dark, dilapidated wooden shack, Aemon jolted awake from a plank bed riddled with holes.
A few dust-filled rays of light slipped through the cracks in the walls, faintly revealing the disheveled and haggard look on his stubbled face.
“Could it be… that I still haven’t given up hope on something like that?”
He rose and walked to the wall.
He stared at the portrait of the blond man hanging there.
For a brief moment, confusion flickered in his eyes.
Then it transformed instantly into a blaze of fury fierce enough to burn everything to ash.
“No!”
“I threw that thought away long ago!”
“All I have now is hatred!”
“I hate you, Muen Campbell!”
He slammed his fist into the tattered portrait, which was already covered in cuts and marks.
With a bang, the entire shack shook.
Countless specks of dust rained down and swallowed him like a storm.
He withdrew his hand in a wretched state.
Knock, knock.
A rap sounded at the door.
Aemon immediately grew wary.
Pressing himself against the wall, he crept cautiously to the door and listened.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me.”
The voice was familiar.
Aemon let out a breath of relief.
He opened the door, and a gaunt monkey-like face appeared before him.
“I did everything you told me to do!”
The moment he saw Aemon, Monkey-face blurted it out impatiently.
“You did?”
Aemon’s eyes lit up.
“Quick, let me see the result!”
“Here.”
Monkey-face took out a square magic device.
With a light press, an image unfolded before Aemon like a projection.
The picture was blurry and shaky because of the angle and lighting, but it was still clearly a scene from martial skills class.
Aemon leaned in close, watching everything on the screen with desperate intensity.
When he saw Muen being surrounded and condemned by so many people, he clapped excitedly and shouted in delight.
“Yes, that’s it! Tear off his mask! Force him back to what he really is! Changed? He is still the same arrogant, overbearing wastrel young master!
“Hahaha, look at that face of his. He looks as awful as a little brat who has had his candy snatched away!”
But as he spoke, sorrow began to creep across his face.
His brows drooped powerlessly, like a stray dog drenched by rain.
“No. No. That is not Young Master Muen. That is not Young Master Muen. If it were Young Master Muen, then he definitely, definitely, definitely would have told me to break the legs of everyone who dared say such things! There is no way he would tolerate this.
“That is not Young Master Muen!”
He flared up again and smashed the magic device to the ground.
“Ah! My magic recorder!”
Monkey-face stared heartbreakingly at the pile of fragments on the floor.
That thing had not been cheap.
It had cost him eight thousand Amiel.
Gritting his teeth, Monkey-face turned to Aemon.
“Fine. I have done everything I was supposed to do. Pay me.”
“What do you mean, everything? Didn’t Muen Campbell come out of it completely fine?”
“I already did everything I could! Do you have any idea how much risk I took stirring up those people behind the scenes? If I had been found out, I would have been finished! In the end, even the student council president showed up, and I think she may have seen me!”
“That is your problem!”
“Your problem? From the very beginning, your request was ridiculous, all right?
“I will tell you the truth. If I had not recently fallen into a huge gambling debt, I never would have taken on work this dangerous. You wanted Muen Campbell utterly ruined? You wanted him exposed for what he really is? If this were the old him, I would not even have needed to spend all that effort provoking people. His reputation was already rotten to the core. But now everyone knows he has changed into a completely different person. Sure, I can still stir up rumors in the dark and fan a little ill wind, but taking it any further is impossible! Do you know what happened? After that, he used the authority of being the Duke’s only son to make those people submit. I thought no matter what, they were going to be skinned alive. But all he did was make them apologize! He really only made them apologize! At the time, those people were so scared they looked like quails. But Muen Campbell only made them lower their heads, then lectured them with a bunch of grand principles and let them go. Afterward, they were all crying their eyes out, ready to put Muen Campbell on an altar and worship him for his mercy!”
“So how exactly am I supposed to keep going after that?”
“L-Lies!”
Aemon’s face flushed crimson as he roared,
“The person you are describing is not Young Master Muen at all!”
“The hell, are you mentally split or something? One moment it is Muen Campbell, the next it is Young Master Muen?”
Monkey-face roared back,
“Just pay me already, or I will announce your whereabouts to everyone! Those people and the student council are all looking for you!”
“I…”
Aemon’s whole expression collapsed at once.
He fumbled around in his clothes for a long time before finally pulling out a stack of banknotes.
Monkey-face snatched them over and counted them. His face changed instantly.
“Only thirty thousand? Didn’t we agree on two hundred thousand?”
“T-That is… all I have left.”
“You are at least a nobleman’s son. You cannot even produce two hundred thousand?”
“My family thinks Muen Campbell abandoned me because I offended him, so…”
Aemon’s lips trembled as he muttered,
“They cut me off.”
“Damn it!”
Monkey-face grabbed Aemon by the collar.
“If you do not have money, then go get it. Aren’t you—”
But halfway through the sentence, he suddenly froze.
Only now did he truly notice just how miserable this man—once somewhat well-known throughout the academy—had become.
“Hell.”
Monkey-face shoved Aemon to the ground and spat on him.
“What Wolf of Campbell? Without Campbell, you are just a dog.”
After saying that, he stuffed the money into his clothes and left without another glance.
Aemon hung his head in despair, letting the spit run down his face.
Second by second, time trickled past. Aemon seemed to turn into a statue.
Then, suddenly, the light was cut off.
A figure hidden beneath a black robe appeared before him.
“Aemon Biandi.”
“Who are you?”
Aemon looked up, barely able to make out that the person beneath the loose black robe was a woman.
“Who I am is not important. What matters is that I know you have always wanted to take revenge on the Muen Campbell who abandoned you, yet you do not have the courage to do it.”
The black-robed woman took out a bottle of potion and set it in front of Aemon, her tone seductive and coaxing.
“And I can help you.”