Chapter 1

Deep in the woods on one of Hrestia's oldest mountains, Dante Blackwood stared sadly at an old man's exhausted, puffed-up face.

"You really want me out of here, Master? You really want me to join my seniors?"

"D-Don't come any closer! Shoo!" the old man cried and stumbled backward.

"All right, tell me the truth. Is it because I eat a lot while remaining talentless, unlike my seniors?" Dante asked.

"What?! Who said that? I didn't! It has to be Old Harry from the market. It's his opinion, not mine!" the old man denied a little too forcefully. "I just thought you should rejoin the world out there. You could learn something with a change of scenery. You could even improve if your seniors tutor you instead, right?"

"Whatever you say, Master." The young man took his luggage and walked away, then turned back to the old man with an innocent grin. "See, I knew you'd kick me out today, so I've left a special farewell gift for you."

"A what?"

"A gift," he repeated. "In your hut. I hope you like it."

In a flash, Dante vanished into thin air.

A few seconds later, the old man roared, "You pissbucket of a brat! I can't believe you'd put a hornet's nest in my room! Aaaaah!"

…

Dante admired the city skyline of Audraco as skyscrapers soared above him. He marveled at the extent of modern civilization.

'No such monument exists in the backwater town I came from!' he thought.

Dante produced a flip phone and called a string of numbers. "Hello, Gwen? Master Athos told me you'd be coming to pick me up. Are you here now?"

"You're here? Already?!" a cool, melodious voice exclaimed from the other end. "I thought it would take the bus three more days!"

"Oh, that. I left the bus because I thought it was too slow. So I came here on foot."

The young woman was shocked. A normal person would take more than a month to travel this far. Even someone like her would have taken ten days.

Dante, her junior and Athos' youngest apprentice Seeker? He took only five days!

Dante had no idea he had stunned his beloved Gwendolyn already. After all, he could have taken only two days to reach Audraco had he not gotten lost a few times.

"When will you be here?" he asked again. "I'm hungry!"

"Ngaw, hang in there, Danny. I'm coming right now. Don't go anywhere!" she replied sweetly.

"All right! You're the best!"

Dante was about to settle down somewhere for the wait when he heard a scream. A luxury car tore through the road like an uncontrollable boar and charged straight at an old man crossing the road.

The poor man shrieked and fell onto his butt in fear.

Behind the windshield, the driver shouted in panic, "Out of my way, you fool!"

Suddenly, there was a blur of black. It scooped the old man up and placed him under the traffic light.

The car crashed into an ornamental tree on the street, its bonnet damaged beyond recognition.

The old man turned to Dante shakily. His fear and shock had not subsided in the slightest. "W-What? N-No, I mean... Thank you, young man. If it weren't for you..."

A crowd had gathered around them. Everybody clapped loudly.

The applause stopped as soon as the driver kicked his door open and got out of the car with a thud. He trained his finger at the old man. "You, old geezer! What the hell was that?! I could have died right there, for fuck's sake!"

"The pedestrian light was green, young man. You shouldn't have driven so quickly on a road like this!" the old man argued anxiously.

"Yeah, man. We all saw that. You're not gaslighting all of us," someone from the crowd piped up.

A few more luxury cars stopped behind the damaged car, and one of the drivers got out. "Mr. Pearce, what happened?"

"What the fuck do you think happened?! My beloved is now scrap metal!" the young man snarled.

Dante helped the old man up. "Hey, where do you live, sir? Would you like me to walk you home?"

"Oh, you're such a kind lad!" the old man replied, sniffling gratefully.

"Excuse me, did I hear y'all right? You did not just think you people could leave, right?" the man sneered. "Don't even try!"

He stepped ahead, his hand reaching for the old man's hair.

Dante caught his wrist with a precise grip.

"Now, now," he said innocently. "We should love and protect our senior citizens, my friend."

"Yeah! You're the one who's in the wrong. You can't just start throwing hands because you're rich!" someone cried out from the crowd.

The driver's expression darkened dangerously. He glared at Dante. "You should try to research who you're messing with before your conscience gets you killed, bozo."

"Oh, I know what this is!" Dante suddenly cried out.

An excited realization dawned on his innocent features. "I've read novels like these before. You're what they call a 'trust-fund kid' right? Guys whose only strength is that their daddies are rich?"

The young man reeled. "What the hell?"

Dante ignored him and continued, "Then, according to the standard plot, the main character will, let's see... Oh, yeah! 'Wipe the floor with you!'"

"You?! Wiping the floor with me? Are you for real?!" The young man laughed. Then, in a millisecond, his expression darkened. "Now you're dead."

"We'll see about that!" Dante smirked, flashing his impeccably white teeth, and closed his grip around the young man's wrist a little harder.

The young man's carpal bone shattered. Then, Dante swung his other hand across the young man's cheek—just as he was wincing in agony—and sent him flying.

Dante approached the man. "You think you're some hot stuff, huh?! No one in my town has ever made me cower, and you're not gonna be the first, either! Take this! And that!"

He started beating the young man up with his trusty slipper as the crowd watched in stunned silence.

'What happened to that angelic, innocent vibe? This guy is the kind of menace who would cackle loudly while he blew cars up!' they thought.

The young man shrieked. "Ahhh! How dare— Owww! You hit me— Ouch! Do you even f— Aargh! Know who I am?!"

"Do you know who I am?" Dante retorted.

"How the hell would I know?!"

"Exactly! You can't report me if you don't! Now brag about your daddy again, and I'll whoop your butt like your mommy should have!"

Dante gave the young man another round of fixing before the young man cried out, "I'm... the successor of Pearce Inc— Aargh! How dare you?! Stop! I'm Daniel Pearce! The he— Ayeee!"

The crowd stiffened. The one guy among the crowd who had been protesting Daniel immediately abandoned his heroics.

"Daniel Pearce?! Of the Pearce family?! Holy crap, we are dead!"

The crowd yelled for Dante to stop. Even the old man tried to pull him away. "This is bad, son! We can't cross these people!"

Dante stopped.

Finally getting some breathing space, Daniel crawled to his feet. "S-Scared now? Y-You should be! Y-You're too late though! You two are dead!"

The old man's knees grew weak. "Mr. Pearce, please! Let him go, at least! I was the one who was in the wrong, not him!"

Just then, a fleet of Rolls-Royces suddenly materialized from the horizon, looming closer and closer to where they were.

Daniel spied the license plate number on the leading car and froze in shock. The crowd immediately turned silent as well.

A pair of long, shapely legs emerged from behind the car door. Slowly, a young woman with impeccable beauty dressed in a black refined jacket draped over her shoulders revealed herself.

She considered the scene calmly until her eyes finally settled on Dante, who was still holding his slipper. Her lips curled, and she purred, "Danny, you've been naughty."