Chapter 580: 580:Worry Of A Parents
The mood of the entire estate was quite sombre and unpleasant, and it felt as if the whole place had lost its luster while a quiet heaviness lingered over every corner of the villa.
There were still small children running and gliding across the halls and gardens while servants continued their work as usual, but after losing so many at once, Ethan could not help but feel an emptiness inside.
The first batch of children had already gone to guard Frostvale.
The second batch had gone directly to the battlefield.
And the third were still toddling around the estate without understanding anything about the cruel world outside.
The war remained uncertain, and even Ethan himself had barely managed to survive through it before getting his ass kicked several times.
Before the children left, he had repeated the same advice over and over again until even Sophia became annoyed hearing it.
"Fuck the war and pride. If you find yourself in a perilous situation, then run away."
He had said it countless times with a serious face while forcing them to remember every single word.
Not only that, but he had also spent a massive sum to buy short-distance spatial magic runes, and once activated, they could teleport the user away for a short distance in an emergency.
Even then, Ethan still did not feel at ease.
Now all he could do was hope that their path ahead would remain smooth and that fate would not corner them into disaster.
And just like that, two years passed quietly.
........
Inside a small tavern near the border regions, the atmosphere was noisy and filled with rough laughter while the smell of alcohol and roasted meat lingered heavily in the air.
A woman walked in slowly and grabbed a mug before placing it atop the wooden table where a man and woman sat together.
The man casually picked up a newspaper lying nearby and started reading through it while shaking his head.
"The world is going nuts," he muttered.
"Five kingdoms against the vast Demon, Orc, and Beastman alliance."
His voice carried exhaustion more than shock.
The war had become nothing short of brutal, and every month hundreds of thousands of people were dying while both sides continued rampaging across the lands without restraint.
Territories were being lost and reclaimed repeatedly, and the borders kept shifting while countless lives disappeared in the process.
The situation had become so heavy that many people started thinking it would be better to cede some territories and stop this meaningless slaughter.
However...
No side wanted to stop.
Irrespective of losses, they continued going all out as if they had already gone mad.
While lost in his thoughts, the man suddenly heard a disgusted voice from across the table.
"What a crap!"
The woman’s expression twisted badly as she took another gulp from the mug.
"Yewww!"
That reaction made the man chuckle lightly while folding the newspaper.
"You have been living in the wild for so long, yet you are still finding this distasteful," he said with amusement.
The woman snorted immediately and crossed her arms.
"I lived years of my life in luxury while tasting the food developed by my father, so how can I adjust to this in such a short span?" she complained.
Hearing that, the man froze for a moment before slowly nodding in agreement.
Even he had been stunned after tasting the food during his stay at the Blanks estate.
Compared to that...
Most food outside felt miserable.
"Now that I think about it, your father is truly a different breed from others, Miranda," he said while shaking his head.
Miranda immediately cast him a sweet smile.
"Thanks for the praise, Master Zach," she replied cheerfully.
Zach smiled faintly before his eyes suddenly narrowed.
"Miranda," he called out calmly.
"Yes?" she answered while raising her head.
"You forgot to cloak your face."
Miranda froze instantly.
Her eyes widened in shock before she hurriedly grabbed her hood and tried to cover her face quickly.
But it was already too late.A loud whistling sound echoed from another table nearby.
"Yo beauty, why bother covering that face?"
"Let us take a proper look."
"No, more than that, why don’t you accompany us for a charming night?"
The atmosphere around them immediately turned unpleasant as several rough-looking men stared at Miranda with unsavoury expressions while openly licking their lips.
One bulky man slowly stood up and cracked his knuckles before looking toward Zach.
"Man, I think it’s better if you scram out of here," he said with a grin.
"Having such a lady all to yourself is a sin."
Zach ignored the man completely and instead turned his head toward Miranda with a calm smile on his face.
"What do you think?" he asked casually.
The bulky man was just about to get angry when, to his absolute shock, Zach suddenly stood up from his chair and started running away swiftly without even looking back.
"You are right, buddy!" Zach shouted while waving his hand.
"You can have this girl to yourself. This lass is nothing but trouble for me!"
The entire tavern froze for a moment.
Even the bulky man looked stunned.
Miranda, however, did not react much and simply took another sip from her mug while quietly staring at the men in front of her.
The bulky man grinned shamelessly and stepped closer toward Miranda while the others around him laughed loudly and banged their mugs against the tables, and the entire tavern smelled heavily of alcohol, sweat, and smoke.
"Come on beauty, don’t act so cold," he said while extending his rough hand toward her shoulder.
At that moment, a waitress walked over carrying several plates of food, and she placed them down on a nearby table before glancing toward Miranda with a teasing smile.
"Little girl, don’t fight back," she said casually while wiping her hands on her apron.
"Sleeping with them has quite a few benefits."
Several men burst into loud laughter hearing her words, and the waitress simply shrugged before leaning slightly closer toward Miranda.
"Also, once you taste that forbidden pleasure of being a woman, you can’t stop yourself from wanting more," she added with a playful smile.
Then she chuckled softly to herself and walked away while humming lightly.
Miranda remained seated calmly, and she slowly lifted her eyes toward the bulky man while still holding the mug in one hand.
Her face remained completely indifferent.
The next moment...
The man’s rough hand landed directly on her shoulder.But before the grin on his face could widen any further, Miranda suddenly moved.
CRACK!
She grabbed his wrist and twisted it brutally in the opposite direction, and the arm bent at a horrifying angle while a sharp cracking sound echoed loudly throughout the tavern.
"AAAAARGHHHH!"
