Black Online-Chapter 197: Family Meeting

"...Brother."

Raikou bowed to Raizen with his hand on his chest and back bent, showing respect for his elder brother.

It wasn’t only him that showed respect.

Every member of the Bastard Men did.

They had heard stories about the legendary Fang Raizen from Raikou, and his name was very well known throughout the tower.

"...Spear of Redemption..."

"...Raizen is known as one of the Three Unstoppable Forces of the Tower—players who are so strong that it doesn’t matter how many come against them, they will always come out victorious."

"...Fang Raizen... Rook Rose... and Leon D. Hardt."

Raizen ignored Raikou and walked straight towards Rock instead, and to everyone’s surprise, he bowed.

"Master."

Raizen said.

"...Raizen."

Rock looked at his former student with a deep look and then glanced at Fang Raon, who was looking away.

It seemed like Fang Raon was trying to make his presence thinner so that Raizen wouldn’t notice him.

"I apologize for the stupidity of my brother. Causing a commotion like this is so... childish. I hope your time in the Sun Festival isn’t disturbed because of this little incident."

Raizen said.

"It’s fine. Congratulations for the First Clear."

Rock crossed his arms behind his back and said.

"Thank you. We used your teachings."

Raizen straightened his back from the bow, and then he looked over his shoulder at his other brother.

"...You are teaching him now?"

"I am."

Rock said.

"...I hope he isn’t wasting your precious time. He can be a hard person to teach sometimes."

Raizen said.

"He is a good student. You were a hard one as well, Raizen."

Rock said with a chuckle.

"...And I am ashamed of that. I only learned the value of your teaching when it was too late."

Raizen said.

At that moment, the Risk Zone started flickering out of existence, and it was soon gone, and the surrounding area returned back to normal.

The Risk Zone Orb only lasted a little while.

"I’ll go discipline my idiotic brother. I hope you have a nice rest of the day, master."

Raizen said, then he turned around, and without even acknowledging Fang Raon, he just walked past him.

"B-B-But brother..."

Raikou stuttered in fear.

"You make mockery of our family, Raikou, with these childish antics of yours. How do you think it makes our family look when two brothers are fighting to the death in one of the most populated places in the tower?

"Idiotic!"

Raizen spat out coldly.

Ashamed, Raikou lowered his head, but the flames of hatred also still burned brightly, and he glared at Fang Raon.

"I am sorry..."

Raikou whispered.

"Go get your sister. We need to have a meeting."

Raizen said coldly.

"...Meeting? What for?"

Raikou asked.

"...Father is planning to visit."

Raizen said with squinted eyes.

After hearing that, Raikou’s eyes widened in shock, and he looked around the street in fear of seeing his father somewhere.

If their father was here witnessing this, he might be so angry that he might throw him out of the family!

"Let’s go, Raon."

Rock said.

"...Yeah."

Fang Raon unequipped the King’s Battle Armor and walked away with Rock with his head hanging low.

His hands were tightly clenched into fists, and his teeth started grinding together like he was trying to hold back a scream.

"...Shit..."

In that moment, he slammed his fist against a brick wall and lost a little bit of health as a result.

[HP: 44/700]

"Drink this."

Rock handed him a healing potion, and Fang Raon looked at it before accepting it and drinking it all in one go.

When he was done, he just crushed the glass vial in his hand and dropped the pieces on the ground.

"...I want to get stronger..."

Fang Raon said.

"You will."

Rock said.

"I want to kill Raikou. Is that a bad thing? I mean, he is my brother, but I still want to kill him more than anything."

Fang Raon said with a deeply hurt look.

"...He tried killing you."

Rock said.

"Not really. He wanted to embarrass me. It’s why he never tried directly killing me even when he had many chances.

"He wanted to destroy my items so when I was without weapons, he could just humiliate me in front of everybody there.

"So that I would be too embarrassed to show my face around here."

Fang Raon said.

"Family can be a complicated matter. I can’t tell you what you need to do. You need to decide it on your own."

Rock patted his student’s shoulder, then whispered, "Let’s go," and they headed straight back to the village.

When they arrived at the village, they went straight towards their cottage, and in there, Elena and Della were waiting for them.

"Is everything alright?!"

Della jumped to her feet and saw that Fang Raon was quite battered, with some bloodstains on his face.

"Oh~"

Elena took out some napkins from her inventory and wiped the bloodstains off Fang Raon’s face until it was clean.

"I’ll go inside."

Fang Raon walked past them and went into his room—which he hadn’t really used—and lay down on the bed.

’...In the training camp, I’ll become so fucking strong that I won’t be humiliated like this anymore.

’Raikou... Raizen... Anna... They are all horrible in their own way... I share the same blood, so maybe I am also horrible.

’I’ll become strong... Horribly strong... A monster... I will become a monster...’

Fang Raon gritted his teeth.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

In that moment, someone knocked on the door that was already open, and Fang Raon saw Della standing at the doorstep.

"Are you alright?"

Della asked gently.

"...Yeah."

Fang Raon said.

He didn’t mean it, and Della knew it.

She entered the room, and then, with surprise, she suddenly lay beside him on the small bed that was barely big enough for the two of them to lie beside each other.

"That’s your family, huh?"

Della said.

"...Yep."

Fang Raon replied.

"I also have a horrible family. Except my mom and grandpa. My auntie and her family are good too, but my brother and father are the worst.

"My father cheated on my mother regularly. He even liked to brag about it. He would even cheat on her in our own home, as he wanted mom to find out.

"My brother, Rook, has always hated me. There were times when he treated me nicely, so I thought our relationship was improving.

"When I was nine, he took me to an amusement park. It was really nice... for a moment. Then, he left me there and just went home.

"Hoping that I would never come back...

"I was there until dark until mom finally came to pick me up."

Della said with a sad look.

"..."

Fang Raon listened silently.

"...Till this day, I don’t even know why he hates me so much."

"...At least you have Rock and Elena. They care about you greatly. I am envious."

Fang Raon said with a sigh.

He didn’t have anyone like Della had—he had nobody—he was completely alone in his own world and pain.

"You have Anna. I think she cares about you... in her own way."

Della said.

"It wasn’t Raizen and Raikou that hurt me the most when I was young... It has always been Anna... She always made me feel so alone..."

Fang Raon said, and remembering his childhood caused his eyes to slightly get wet, but he didn’t cry.

In that moment, Della grabbed his hand.

"You are not alone anymore. You have Rose Records. You have Rock. You have me."

She said with a bright smile.

"...Haah..."

Fang Raon let out a deep breath, then he closed his eyes and seemed to be trying to calm himself down.

Then.

He opened his eyes.

"I’ll make Rose Records great."

"Huh?"

Della looked surprised at his sudden declaration.

"...Anna’s Angels... Bastard Men... They are top 9 and 7 in the Global Guild Rankings, right? I’ll surpass them."

Fang Raon said casually.

It sounded so casual that Della thought that he was joking for a moment, but seeing his expression, it was obvious he wasn’t joking.

He really meant it.

And it didn’t sound like Fang Raon thought it was something difficult to achieve but, instead, something very trivial.

"Hehe~ Sure!"

Della leaned against him, her head resting on his shoulder, and continued to gaze up at him with a soft smile on her face.

"...I’ll do that..."

At that moment, Fang Raon’s eyelids happened to grow too heavy, and he slowly fell asleep, and, unknowingly, he turned on his side.

He suddenly wrapped Della in a hug, which she couldn’t escape, and she looked surprised as her face touched his chest.

"Ah... Raon?"

She asked but saw that he was very much asleep, and she couldn’t help but feel comforted by his embrace.

She didn’t know what it was, but she also started to feel tired, and her eyelids—even though she tried to keep them open—slowly closed.

...

The beach, one hour later.

"..."

Raizen stood silently like a towering figure around a small campfire that crackled and hissed in the darkness.

Raikou sat on a log, just staring at the flames and not saying a word.

"...Tch."

Anna looked annoyed to be here, as she wanted to be anywhere else than with these two, but she had no choice.

"Thank you for all coming here."

In that moment, they saw a man walking towards them on a beach, dressed in casual clothes, sandals, and sunglasses.

He was none other than Fang Aizen, and it looked like he had come here for vacation based on what he was currently wearing.

"Father, why have you called us here?"

Raizen asked.

"...One... Two... Three..."

Aizen counted the people around the campfire but thought that somebody was missing, and he asked.

"Where is Raon?"

"...Why the hell do you want him here?"

Raikou asked.

It was also something that confused Raizen, as their father had never shown any kind of interest towards Raon before.

"Anna."

Aizen narrowed his eyes.

"I didn’t tell him to come because I did not know what your intentions are towards him. I am just trying to keep him safe."

Anna crossed her arms.

"...Keep him safe. Hah. I should remind you, Anna, who is the leader of this family. I make the decisions around here, and I wanted him here."

Aizen growled.

"Then you get him. I know where he stays."

Anna said smugly, knowing that Aizen was too prideful to go get Raon by himself.

"This is something that involves the entire family. Whether you like it or not, Raon carries the family name... and he isn’t the same useless cripple he once was."

Aizen said.

"What is it, Father?"

Raizen asked.

It must be something very serious for Aizen himself to come to Black Online, as he very rarely did except if there was some business that needed to be done.

Aizen looked at his three children, and then he started talking.