A family.
A place where someone should feel safe.
A place where someone should feel loved.
That was how it should have been…
"Jacob, you are truly my son, unlike your failure of a brother."
A young boy looked at his father praising his brother, words that his father deemed too valuable for a failure like him.
His father was an influential man, involved in politics and the power struggle.
So what did his father need? It was none other than the perfect tool to make his ambitions come true and continue his legacy.
In other words, a son.
When the boy was born, his father was extremely delighted.
Time passed by, days, years, and finally, the boy grew older.
He became an ignorant child who looked up to his father.
But…
"Why can't you do it? It's extremely simple! All you have to do is to smile and nod your head!"
The boy failed to meet his father's expectations for the first time.
It was because he questioned his father's order for the first time.
Smiling when he didn't want to was extremely tiring.
Learning things thing he was not interested in was extremely strenuous.
He was not interested in politics or power, he just wanted to draw.
However, such a thing went against his father's expectations for him.
"You are a failure."
After he spat these words, his father never once spoke to him and he rarely got to see him.
He was cast aside like trash.
The young boy asked himself. 'What did I do wrong?'
He couldn't understand what was happening. The people who used to talk to him with smiles on their faces became cold.
No one listened to him when he asked questions. He was at home, in the middle of hundreds of servants, but he was alone.
Even his sisters treated him like a bother, fearing that their father would give up on them too.
And the situation worsened after his brother was born.
Finally, his father got on his hand the perfect tool.
From that day onward, his parents seemed to have forgotten his existence.
The name Timothy didn't come out of his father's mouth, even once, as he grew up into an adult.
Timothy lost himself in alcohol, women, and gambling.
Staying at home was just too painful for him, and he wanted to escape.
And even when he was gone, no one came searching for him.
His father didn't even bother reducing his monthly expenses, because he forgot to do it.
"F*ck it all!"
Timothy cursed when he saw the people who came for his brother's coming of age ceremony.
'Is there that much difference between us?'
Timothy felt a void in his heart that he could never fill. Women were just there for his money, alcohol was just there for a short moment of peace, but there was nothing that seemed real.
Timothy didn't know anything about the outside world, so how his own family treated him made him into a helpless person.
As a result, he became violent, he didn't care about his behavior and adopted a rebellious attitude. He did everything that his father disliked.
However, his father didn't even look at him.
"F*ck! F*ck!"
The smile on the face of these thousands of people who appeared to be happy for his brother made him want to puke.
'What's even good about all of that fake smiles? I can't understand.'
That was when he saw a girl, who was different from everyone else.
It was obvious that she didn't have a fake on her face, or to be exact, she didn't smile at all.
For some reason, Timothy felt like this girl was different.
But no matter how hard he tried to talk to her, the girl didn't put on a fake smile, even once, and when he tried to flirt with her, she showed a disgusted expression. The was no hint of hypocrisy in her attitude, it was her real feeling.
But Timothy smiled and felt something he never felt before.
It was love at first sight, something that he never experienced.
For the first time in his life, Timothy met someone different, even though she was also part of the system that he hated so much.
It was nothing grandiose, but Timothy decided that this was a sign.
Liu's face appeared in his mind again and again, and he couldn't forget her.
He couldn't sleep at night, and so he thought. "What's holding me back here? Nothing!"
From there, Timothy discarded his title, his family, and everything that held him back, and he chased after Liu.
It was a very stupid choice, it was nothing but foolishness, but Timothy was smiling.
He finally understood that he didn't live for his father's sake.
He just needed a strong determination to cast away everything that held him back and decide for himself.
Of course, Liu didn't accept Timothy's feelings, and instead, he became a complete stalker that followed her everywhere.
He always managed to find a way or another to appear in front of Liu during her missions.
Sometimes he was covered with bruises, wore weird clothing, and ride some weird beast, but he was always there…
Timothy didn't only meet new people by doing this, but he also learned a lot about the world.
But as expected, Yelena didn't appreciate his behavior and the two of them clashed often.
However, it was just pure obsession toward Liu, and he became a more helpless person but just in a different way.
And that was when Yelena accidentally revealed a certain information during their usual quarrel, and from that day onward Timothy learned about Liu's situation…
He couldn't believe it…
She was stronger than he would ever be.
At that moment, Timothy felt like he didn't deserve Liu's attention. She already had too much to deal with, and she shouldn't waste time with someone like him.
She was dealing with a problem similar to his, but she didn't give up, unlike him who took the first opportunity to run away…
Timothy gave up chasing after Liu and was about to fall into despair again.
He was drinking alone inside a pub when Liu appeared in front of him.
"You forgot this," Liu said.
"How did you?" Timothy was almost speechless.
Liu handed him a worn-out paintbrush that he forgot at home.
"Your father said that you are free to do what you want, so what would you do?"
"He said that? I-"
He could never believe that his father would say such a word unless Liu did something. But why? He was nothing but trash.
Even Yelena scorned Liu's action. "Miss Liu, why did you go to such an extent for a mere stalker."
However, Liu smiled a little bit, as if she remembered a distant memory. "Everyone deserves a second chance."
Liu was not a fool, and she knew about Timothy's identity since the first time he appeared in front of her, and she also did a background investigation on him.
That was when he discovered Timothy's situation and the reason why he might have been so obsessed with her.
She didn't immediately reproach his actions, even though they were bad, but instead, she gave him another chance to prove his worth.
Liu was far from perfect, she was almost a broken person herself, but for Timothy, she was like a goddess.
From that day, Timothy vowed to be Liu's sword.
*****
"Die!" Timothy shouted. Timothy couldn't let the chance to kill Liu's kidnapper slip away.
Lupic was enclosed inside of a lighting field that could turn him into a piece of charcoal.
Even though Timothy was a level 7 gift holder, he was not weaker than Yelena when it came to fighting ability.
Drizzzz!
A dazzling light was followed by an explosion and the explosion caused shockwaves that sent dust flying.
"Take that, you sh*thead!"
"Be on your guard!" Yelena shouted. "I don't believe that he will die that easily!"
"Mmm." A voice resonated from somewhere inside the cloud of dust. "That was a close one. I didn't think that these bugs would be this powerful. It seems like I must take this a little bit seriously." Lupic said, but his voice was playful.
"Bastard!" Timothy was about to launch another attack.
However, something unexpected happened.
"Is he not a teleporter? Then why are there five of him?" Timothy asked as he looked at the scene in front of him.
Lupic didn't only vanish and reappear, but now he could also clone himself.
This was another power of someone who could create their domain.
"Tch! Let's attack together! We should not give him the time to pull another trick." Yelena instructed.
"Roger!"
Timothy and Yelena attacked non-stop using fireballs and lightning bolts.
However….
"What the hell? Why are there so many of him?" Timothy questioned his sanity.
"I don't know!" Yelena replied, and was also puzzled by what was happening.
Even though Lupic didn't come close to the barrier that Yelena and Timothy created, he managed to give them hard time.
Moreover, Timothy and Yelena were mistaken about the nature of Lupic's power.
He was not a teleporter. His ability granted him the ability to enter the mirror dimension where space and all timelines merged into one, so he could cut himself off from time and space.
It felt like he was teleporting, but what he did was skip the time he needed to move from one place to another.
However, when he used his domain, he could link with all of the versions of him that enter this mirror dimension...
This was a very difficult thing to do because all of the other versions of himself were no different from the original, and unless they agreed to come to this timeline of their own volition, it wouldn't work.
As long as time was not against him, Lupic was more or less immortal even if he lacked firepower.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om