Myths Reawakened

“Back then, Silvia and I were on the verge of breaking up. She left Londan for faith and obtained a position in Palis...” Auston lost himself in the memory.

“Did you anger Master into leaving home because you were messing around with other women?” Wayne said sarcastically.

“Do you want the story or not?!”

“...”

“As a member of the Tulip Families, I was raised to feel great aversion for churches. Faith makes one resolute, while religions make one foolish. All followers are lunatics.”

Auston bluntly expressed his derision for religions. “However, they control the greatest power in the Chosen Land—magic, and only magic can defeat magic. To get Silvia back, I have to acquire greater power through faith.”

There was something he had left unsaid, such as his life essence. Silvia had dragon blood, while Auston was only a regular Silver-ranked mage with average talent. He would never reach Gold rank normally. While he was dating Silvia and during the years of their marriage, his weak physique had been pushed near the breaking point.

To make his wife happy and to earn himself a voice, he fought to climb up the ladder and broke down the barriers of the magic monopoly, becoming part of the leadership of the Ministry of Magic through his bright mind. And with the benefits granted to high-ranking officials, namely, creative accounting, he took a great many magical items to strengthen himself.

It wasn’t ineffective, but it lacked impact. Facing his dragon-blooded wife, he was still unable to put up a fight.

Other men felt cockblocked when their girlfriends’ relatives visited before marriage, and after getting married, they saw those monthly visits as salvation[1]. His wife’s relatives were always his saviors before and after marriage.

Good news: the magical items did help, and by putting more and more stat points into his constitution, Auston had successfully improved his ability to take a beating.

“The root cause of my conflict with Silvia is the fact that she is a devout disciple of the Goddess of Nature, while I’m a free mage with no faith to speak of...”

Auston paused once more. He once had a dream: to wipe out all faiths in the Chosen Land. His first target would be the Church of Nature.

As a capitalist, he knew better than anyone that faith was no different from a sustainable business with an endless supply of exploitable victims.

A capitalist would say, “If you don’t work hard, how am I going to buy new cars, get new houses, and replace my wife next year?”

A god would say, “If you don’t work hard, how am I going to rule over the world and grant you everlasting grace?”

“So, Darkness came after me. Or more precisely, I found the legacy of Darkness in a ruin...” Auston frowned. “It was the Darkness Knight’s legacy, terrifyingly powerful. I was overjoyed, but I was also put under Darkness’s curse because of it.”

“The knight’s legacy shouldn’t have belonged to me. I was to take it out of the ruin and hand it to the one the goddess had actually chosen. Then, the goddess would reward me. However, I kept Twilight Despair by force, and the curse of Darkness took root.”

Auston had made many omissions when reminiscing about his past. The Goddess of Darkness had seen the desires in his heart and praised his dream of wiping out all faiths in the world, so she invited him to a little game.

Twilight Despair would bring eternal pain and torment upon his body and thoughts, while granting him the power of the Darkness Knight. The more pain he endured and understood, the more powerful he would become. However, during the process, he could not transform back into himself. Only by giving up Twilight Despair and finding the actual chosen knight would the curse be lifted.

Auston had thought that he could endure it, but he was wrong. Unlike Silvia’s loving fists, the pain of Darkness was beyond his tolerance. He almost lost his mind.

“I couldn’t take Darkness’s curse, but I didn’t want to give up the power. I had to find another faith to suppress Darkness...” He opened his hand to reveal the silver coin. “I found Death and acquired a coin of luck.”

“Aren’t Death and Darkness allies? Why would Death help you? And about your curse of Darkness, to my knowledge, knights don’t suffer such curses.” Wayne wasn’t sure what to think. He had acquired the Death Knight disguise through an unconventional means, so he didn’t have the experience to make any claim with authority.

Auston didn’t respond to that. He said, “I didn’t trade with the Goddess of Death, but one of Her avatars, Misfortune Spider Grau, also known as the Observer...”

“He is a subordinate god of Death and the embodiment of misfortune, capable of manipulating the esoteric luck.”

Lando, the blue way, meant gambling[2]. Although Auston didn’t own a casino, he had been gambling at every major turning point in the early half of his life.

“I made a deal with Grau,” Auston continued. “He blessed the silver coin with luck, giving me good fortune while suppressing the curse of Darkness. So, I have to constantly keep this coin with me.”

Then how do you do the do? Just... grope Megan with one hand?

On second thought, Wayne swallowed the inappropriate comment. “So the silver coin you gave me that night was a fake one. You have two?”

“That was Obed’s coin,” Auston said honestly. “Mine was with Megan then because I was worried that the Death Knight would take it from me.”

Wayne nodded. “No wonder you kept groping Megan’s ass. The coin was in her pocket.”

Megan stared. Master didn’t keep groping her; he only touched her once.

“What would happen if the Death Knight took your coin?” Wayne was quite interested in the luck buff granted by the coin. “Why don’t we give it a try? How lucky for you that there’s a Death Knight here.”

Auston clutched his coin tighter, rejecting Wayne’s absurd proposal. If the silver coin changed when it came into contact with the Death Knight, he would be in great trouble.

“Death and Darkness are not the best of bedfellows. Grau couldn’t be happier to suppress a Darkness Knight and prevent the real Darkness Knight from rising. Thus, Darkness’s influence is always weaker than Death’s in the Chosen Land. And because of the deal, I have to listen to Grau’s order...”

Auston turned to Wayne. “It wasn’t the Goddess of Darkness’s order to wipe out the Church of Nature, but Grau’s. In other words, Silvia’s enemy has always been you, the Death Knight.”

Wayne refused to be the scapegoat. He scoffed, “Well, you tell Master that and see if she believes you.”

Auston scowled. Of course he wasn’t going to tell her. He had not transformed into the Darkness Knight even once since Silvia returned—well, there was one time, but it was out of his concern for his wife’s safety.

When someone as beautiful as she was went to a cemetery to meet the Death Knight, he had to be there to save the damsel in case the Death Knight lost his mind for some reason. Thus, the Darkness Knight made an appearance that night to declare his dominance in Londan and warn the Death Knight to watch himself.

Later, thoughts identical to Silvia’s eavesdropped on the Darkness Knight and the Death Knight, antagonizing both of them like she had a death wish. Auston almost had a heart attack. Mid-chase, however, he realized that someone was pretending to be Silvia to get her killed, so he lost interest and turned away.

Thinking back, even if it had been the real Silvia that night, she would’ve been the safest person in the world with two knights protecting her. Things would’ve gotten a little ugly, though. Since the two knights didn’t know each other, they would’ve fought to the death, and no matter who the last one laughing was, the winner wouldn’t have been able to face Silvia afterwards.

Honey, I killed your student.

Master, I killed your husband.

And there was also Veronica. The Lando family would’ve fallen apart for real.

“That’s my story. Now, it’s your turn. How did you become the Death Knight?” Auston asked eagerly.

Megan also shifted her gaze to Wayne. She had followed Auston for years and thus knew everything about him. Auston had almost no secrets she didn’t know.

For example, when Auston was trapped in his Darkness Knight state, he had used his old image as a playboy to conceal the fact, making it seem like he was so lost in women’s bosoms that he wouldn’t even meet his daughter. Megan had been the one to create that image by simply hypnotizing the socialites.

On the other hand, she knew little about Trash Jr. She did have a good grasp of his personality since she was with someone identical to him every day.

“It’s a long story. It all goes back to March thirteenth last year. That night, Veronica visited my detective agency, and we fell in love at first sight...” Wayne thought back to the time when his dream began.

“...” x2

Megan hesitated. From what she knew, Auston and Silvia hadn’t fallen in love at first sight. In fact, Silvia couldn’t care less about the playboy at first and never gave him the time of day. Auston only managed to fool her into marrying him by pursuing her shamelessly.

Veronica was just like Silvia, and Wayne played Auston’s role in this instance. Therefore, Wayne had to be lying. There was no meet-cute, but a scumbag salivating after a dragon-blooded girl’s body.

Megan nodded to herself. She had figured out the true story.

Auston rolled his eyes and said bluntly, “My daughter isn’t blind and won’t fall for you just like that. You must have deceived her.”

You might not believe it, but I managed to lure her with a diary!

Wayne huffed. “Whatever you say, Veronica kissed me the other day. It was two days ago, actually. You know her. For her, kissing means eventual marriage and childbearing.”

(눈皿눈)

Auston scowled.

“What? Can’t control your temper? Are you going to hear my story or not?”

Wayne huffed. He hadn’t been afraid of Auston, and he had less reason to start now. Neither the Death Knight nor the Darkness Knight was an identity that could be advertised. There was nothing for him to fear!

1. In an earlier chapter, there’s a reference to ‘aunt visiting’ being used as a euphemism for periods. That is the same case here. Relatives visiting is another version of the expression. ☜

2. The surname Lando is 兰道 (lan-dao) in the raw, which can be the ‘blue way’. In Mandarin, the ‘black way’ refers to gangs and syndicates, the ‘white way’ refers to the authority and the police, while the ‘blue way’ refers to gambling, fraud, and other immoral ways to exploit people. ☜