The Discarded Son's Skill Market
Chapter 23: Begging

Chapter 23: Begging

Zaid woke up 12 hours later, with a white ceiling blocking his view.

He looked around and realized he was in a hospital.

It was the early hours of the morning when he woke up; there were no medical staff, just two other beds.

To his right was Alice, lying on a white bed with white sheets. The monitors showed that she was fine and her heart rate was stable; her breathing was normal.

That relieved him a little.

To his right...

’John? Is he alive?’

The machines indicated that he was alive, but not in very stable condition. His breathing was slow and erratic; a little uneven. His heartbeat was steady, but strangely irregular.

It was as if his body were trying to stay alive at all costs.

His neck was bandaged and in a cast to cover the wound.

After making sure he was at least alive, Zaid got to his feet. He was the least injured of the group.

Although he was noticeably exhausted from overusing his essence—of which he had very little—he wasn’t seriously injured.

He clenched his fists, and after slowly regaining his senses, he got up to go to the bathroom.

"...Help me get my revenge."

A voice startled him. He looked up abruptly and gazed at John.

His eyes were open, and he was speaking with difficulty. But he spoke!

"You..."

"I... I know I haven’t been good..." he whispered. "I... I didn’t even know how to choose a good leader... for my brothers."

"Brothers?" Zaid understood. Those two really were this boy’s blood brothers.

"...I want... to kill him."

Zaid stood up and walked toward him.

"You’re in no position to say that. He’s Luke Shawn, you know? His family has powerful A-Ranks. You don’t even have a last name."

John rolled his eyes and stared at him. Those eyes were bloodshot with rage and hatred.

"But... you’re a Zachary."

"The scum of the Zacharys. They expelled me," Zaid recalled.

"You’re not... that weak."

Zaid remained silent.

"I heard your footsteps," he said.

Zaid frowned. "My footsteps?"

"Yeah... while you were fighting off several assassins and the goblin boss... I heard them."

"I didn’t know you were now an expert at hearing footsteps."

"Heh,heh." John laughed nervously. "Don’t forget that I grew up on the streets... the streets teach you more than the great families do."

"..."

"No... I don’t need you to kill him," John continued. "Just help me get my revenge."

Zaid didn’t respond right away. If he agreed, he would be acknowledging his own strength.

If he refused, he would be passing up a good opportunity. John’s hatred was genuine; eyes rarely lie when they’re in such a pitiful state.

If he could harness that hatred, perhaps Luke Shawn wouldn’t be a problem in the future. He could get rid of him without having to show his strength. Besides, John had good skills.

"Why did they put you in Class F in the first place? Your strength isn’t on par with Class F," Zaid asked suddenly.

John realized that he wasn’t just interested in that simple question; it was a test.

A test to see if he was truly sincere.

"It was meant to humiliate you and prevent you from succeeding." John was completely sincere. "It was a setup by Luke and Robinson Shawn."

’Something coming from above?’ Zaid wondered, though he didn’t think much of finding out the answer.

He knows his family is a danger to him; if he could leave for another city or country, he would. But given the current circumstances—with the sky teeming with dangerous beasts and neither land nor sea being safe at all—even wanting to do so is nothing more than a dream.

His only option is to continue relying on the academy’s protection, since it is an independent entity affiliated with all the Awakened Associations around the world.

"That girl... I like her," said Zaid, glancing at Alice out of the corner of his eye.

"Luke wants to rape her and enslave her. Maybe just on a whim... but be careful—he might kill her if she resists too much."

Zaid frowned. "Come to think of it, Luke seems to have a peculiar talent... That day, he cast some powerful illusions."

John sighed. "Not even I know that. But I think his talent has something to do with the mind—or maybe enslavement."

"Slavery... what a troublesome guy."

It would be a good idea to try to get closer to him, simply to buy his talent. At least as a precaution. Given what kind of person he is, Zaid knows he’ll be a recurring enemy along the way. Unfortunately, that’s going to be difficult for now.

Zaid didn’t ask any more questions.

"Get well soon and come back to class. When you’re feeling better mentally, come find me." Zaid said, patting him on the shoulder before heading out to the bathroom.

John nodded with his eyes. He clenched his teeth tightly as he watched him disappear and looked up at the sky.

"...I gave you my devotion... you dared to kill them like that... I’ll rip your guts out," he whispered, before the growing hatred caused him to faint.

That was what was causing his heart to beat irregularly and his breathing to grow so shallow... the hatred could kill him.

--

Wednesday morning.

[Breaking News:

Five students entered an F-Rank dungeon to complete the academy’s mission and were ambushed by dangerous assassins.

Apparently, the assassins belong to the Order of Silence and killed two of the students.

One is seriously injured.

And two sustained only minor injuries.

What’s amazing about this is that one of the students turned out to be Zaid Zachary, a son of the Zachary family who was believed to be dead!

The police quickly arrived on the scene to help them and managed to kill some of the killers, but two got away.]

[A member of the Zachary family, Lord Roger, has made a statement regarding the matter...]

[

"Assassins from the Order of Silence kidnapped my son on his birthday, and then we received a report—complete with several images—that he had been murdered.

They did this in retaliation for our history; they are cowards!

I, Roger Zachary, will not rest until I wipe their hideous faces from our glorious country. They are the scum that taints our world."

"What do you think about the fact that not only is he not dead, but he also showed up at the academy and was almost killed again by those guys?" asked a TV reporter.

Roger looked sad. "We got in touch with him... he hates us. He thinks we sold him out. Those damn murderers have brainwashed my son." At that moment, tears began to roll down Roger’s face.

"You are my son, and you always will be. I promise I’ll kill all your enemies and feed their flesh to the birds. Even if you hate me, I’ll never stop loving you. Just wait—I’ll bring you back!"]

Ting!

Zaid turned off the TV immediately.

"Huh? Why are you turning it off? Can’t you see that Roger Zachary himself was speaking!?" His roommate complained and scolded him.

"Who cares about that old fart?" Zaid whispered irritably.