tkworld Chapter 128 : Chapter 128
Chapter 128 : Chapter 128
Chapter 128. That’s All You Amount To
The room fell into a deathly silence.
Logaris West was stunned.
He had imagined countless possibilities. Perhaps his mother had been taken by force. Perhaps she had been deceived by that bastard’s sweet words. Perhaps she had even been cast out by her family.
But he had never considered that it might have been a mutual choice.
“She left?” Logaris asked.
“She left.”
Galahad let out a bitter laugh. “Without hesitation. She did not even pack her belongings—just took a sword off the wall and followed that man into the rain. From beginning to end, she never looked back.”
“That night was the eve of her engagement banquet.”
The old man’s voice carried a complicated mix of resentment and release.
“She abandoned the entire family for some wild man who appeared out of nowhere, all for that so-called freedom! Did she have any idea what kind of disaster that would bring upon us?!”
“Disaster?” Logaris immediately caught the word.
“That Count…” Galahad gritted his teeth. “His fiancée eloped on the eve of the wedding. To him, it was the greatest humiliation. He poured all his rage onto us.”
What followed was a familiar story.
The standard ending for fallen nobles.
Their business was cut off. Their caravans mysteriously vanished along the roads. Former allies who once called them brothers avoided them like the plague. The already modest foundation of the West family collapsed rapidly under the crushing weight of power.
They sold their ancestral property to repay debts and were eventually forced to relocate to a remote town in the Northern Territory just to survive.
Their father died in depression. Their mother cried herself blind.
The once-glorious baronial household ended up living worse than ordinary merchants.
“That’s the truth you wanted.”
Galahad tossed the empty flask onto the ground with a sharp clang. He slumped into the chair, as if all strength had been drained from him, staring blankly at the ceiling.
“I don’t know who that man was. I don’t know where Elvira went. For over twenty years, I did not even dare inquire about her. I was afraid that Count would come back and crush us again…”
Logaris listened quietly.
There was no anger as he had expected, nor any deep emotional resonance of family bonds.
He only felt irony.
Utter, bitter irony.
In the memories of his less-than-pleasant childhood, Elvira had been an extremely controlling mother.
She forbade him from going outside freely. She forbade him from speaking to strangers. She even strictly regulated when he slept and when he woke up.
She had turned herself into a neurotic jailer, using that drafty wooden hut as a prison, locking away her only prisoner.
So this was the “freedom” she had traded everything for?
This was the “storm” she had chosen over her family?
She had escaped one gilded cage, only to lock herself into another—smaller, harsher, and more barren.
And in order to protect that so-called “child of love,” she had become exactly the kind of person she once despised.
“Heh.”
Logaris let out a soft laugh.
There was relief in that laugh, but also a trace of mockery toward the absurd script of fate.
He had always believed he had been abandoned by his maternal family, and there had been some lingering resentment in his heart. Now it seemed there had been no abandonment at all—just everyone paying the price for their own choices.
That foolish woman chose freedom. The price was dying in poverty in a foreign land.
This family chose to sell their daughter for status. The price was being crushed into dust by the powerful.
No one could blame anyone else. Like the law of equivalent exchange in alchemy—it was perfectly fair.
Logaris stood up and adjusted the hem of his coat. There was nothing more he needed to ask. Listening to these old, rotten stories would only make one more irritated.
He pulled out a neatly folded parchment from his coat and casually placed it on the rickety table beside him.
“This is a special authorization from Saint Arcadia Academy.”
Logaris looked at the old man, who now seemed like a heap of lifeless mud. His tone returned to cold, businesslike indifference.
“With this, Ashley West’s tuition, accommodation, and even experimental material costs at the academy for the next five years are fully waived. Additionally, I have deposited two thousand Golden Lion Coin into her student account.”
Galahad suddenly lifted his head. His cloudy eyes were filled with disbelief.
Two thousand Golden Lion Coins?
To the current West family, that was an unimaginable fortune—enough to buy back half of the land they had once lost.
“Do not misunderstand.”
Logaris adjusted his glasses. “This is not for you. This is me repaying that foolish woman’s debt. Though she brought it upon herself, she still bore your family name. I will settle this debt of upbringing on her behalf.”
“From today onward, whether it is Elvira or myself, we are completely settled with your West family. No debts remain.”
With that, he turned and walked toward the door.
The sound of his boots on the floor was steady and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
Just as his hand grasped the cold brass doorknob, Logaris paused.
He did not turn around. He merely tilted his head slightly, his voice echoing clearly in the empty room, carrying a chill that sent shivers down the spine.
“One last question.”
“What was the name of the Count who destroyed your family for the sake of his pride?”
Galahad froze.
As he looked at that tall figure, for a fleeting moment, he seemed to see again the terrifying man who had stood in the rain over twenty years ago. The same black coat. The same heart-stopping presence.
The old man’s lips trembled. Whether out of instinctive fear or a suppressed desire for revenge after decades, the name slipped out.
“Cassido… Cassido Tarassa.”
“The Tarassa family?”
Logaris raised an eyebrow slightly.
He recognized the surname. A member of the Northern Territory nobility, holding lands at the border, near the eastern region, controlling a highly coveted seaport.
“I see.”
Logaris pulled open the door. The cold wind rushed in, making his coat flutter violently.
“That’s all you amount to.”
Leaving behind that ambiguous remark—whether directed at the old man or the so-called Count—he strode into the dark corridor.
BANG.
The door slammed shut.
Galahad was left alone in the dim room. Staring at the priceless parchment on the table, he suddenly covered his face and broke into heart-wrenching sobs.
…
After leaving the inn, the snow outside had grown heavier.
Logaris stood beneath a streetlamp and finally lit the cigarette he had been holding.
He took a deep drag. The harsh smoke swirled through his lungs, washing away the damp, stale heaviness clinging to him.
“Tarassa…”
He exhaled a ring of smoke, watching it dissipate in the cold wind. His eyes in the darkness held no focus at all.