Sixteen years ago.
Aran Calendar 1277, Holy Spirit Calendar 2674.
Under the rule of the new Aran Monarch, four years had already passed.
After the promulgation of the Lord’s Bill, the Emperor executed the strongest suppression, and from then on, the centralized Royal Court extended its influence everywhere, reducing all the small and large nobles across the regions to vassals of the Royal Court.
And the golden port located at the Narrow Sea, Chenxi Port, also welcod its rebirth. With the frequent trade and investnt of capital, many jobs were created.
This allowed the place to change its appearance within a short period of ti, transforming from an obscure wild port into one of the first cities within the Aran realm to beco prosperous.
Extrely bustling.
The Coinage Act promulgated in the previous years even caused the wealth of the people within Aran to surge like a rising tide.
Despite Ogne Heinrich being tried as a war criminal for the influence and disaster brought by the Witch Hunting Secret Departnt, the fear, though gradually diluted over the years, still left its shadow etched deep in everyone’s bones.
Under the deterrence of the Emperor, the Village Heroes Groups once ford to combat the Secret Departnt were disbanded, but many households still secretly ard themselves with weapons, in case of an ergency.
The Mika family did the sa.
Located in the Central District of Chenxi Port, near the Eternal Sect’s church, was an eight-story detached duplex with a pointed red tile roof, one floor of which belonged to the Mika family’s property.
The side wall beside the burning fireplace hung a matchlock gun that could be fired. The furniture in the hall was not considered high-end but was quite refined, made by very skilled carpenters.
The bright midday sunlight outside the window completely severed from the unspoken gloom and dimness of the room.
The rocking chair creaked with a squeaking sound, sharp enough to tornt the ears. A middle-aged woman with a worried face sat on the chair, eyes closed, one hand pressing against her temple.
And a man with sunken eyes paced back and forth in the hall, seemingly quite anxious.
The sound of firewood crackling and bursting into sparks in the fireplace turned the already tense atmosphere stone-cold.
"How much money have we lost?"
Mika was the first to speak; he couldn’t stand these two making a mountain out of a molehill.
He looked about sixteen or seventeen years old, youthful, with prominent features, a high nose bridge, and deep grey-blue eyes. Dressed in a white shirt and black vest, sporting a pocket watch, his family was far from rich, but certainly not poor either.
He took out a cigarette case from his pocket, shook one out, and was about to light it.
A loud slap had already landed on his face, leaving a red mark.
The middle-aged woman’s hand trembled as she withdrew it.
"Is it really necessary, just for smoking a damned cigarette?"
Mika remained indifferent. The sharp pain on his face wasn’t that bad; it was just that the woman’s ring had scratched him a little, which was really annoying.
"Now that you’ve been expelled from school, all the money we’ve paid in tuition has gone down the drain, and you still have the face to..."
The middle-aged woman’s anger gradually subsided, and she started to sob.
The school that Mika had attended was no ordinary institution. The tuition was expensive, and for his family’s financial situation, it took up a quarter of their total expenses.
The reason Mika was expelled.
It was because he had stabbed a school teacher in the thigh with a dagger, not once but twice, fully crippling the leg. He should have been handed over to the sheriff and after verification, imprisoned for three years.
But Mika’s father had used his business connections to bail him out. Of course, he also paid a hefty compensation to the disabled teacher to reach a settlent.
"I’m going to talk to Milke’s parents, those scoundrels better not co looking for you to ss around anymore."
The middle-aged woman tried to solve the problem with her own ideas.
The so-called Milke was a well-known troublemaker in Chenxi Port, with a rather wealthy family background. At a young age, he started forming gangs and engaging in deceitful activities.
Mika thought this approach was idiotic: the thinking of a woman was not to be relied upon.
"Big sister, do a favor. Milke is my little brother. Where would I put my face if you did that?"
Mika pondered if that woman really did such a thing, he would have no face to mingle in Chenxi Port anymore.
He was the second-in-command of that gang, which wasn’t really much of a gang but just a small group ford by students for fun and leisure. With strength in numbers, they weren’t bullied by others.
The adventurer’s guild also happened to move into Chenxi Port recently. If he lost face with Milke, he was ready to run away from ho and try his luck.
The middle-aged woman was almost furious to death, rubbing her temples.
"Why did you stab your teacher?"
Even though the family was close to losing everything, the middle-aged man remained calm. Mika’s hooked nose and grey-blue eyes were inherited from him.
Mika was extrely irritated.
Tired of these imperative tones, that old lecher wanted to ss with the woman he had his eye on, didn’t he deserve a lesson?
"That level of skill doesn’t deserve to be a teacher, leading young people astray."
Mika gave a very righteous reason, as if he was clearing a hidden danger for Aran’s educational cause.
In school, he primarily studied two subjects, history and the basics of arcane. Mika’s dad hoped he could work in the governnt in the future. Judging that the military and police would still dominate Aran, and the Emperor would be the military governnt, there was no other way. If you can’t beat them, join them—only by blending into the governnt would there be prospects.
With Mika’s talents, if he hadn’t committed this blunder, he might have had a chance to get into an inland higher education institution. Now, what to do?
He glanced sideways at his son, who still had a short-handled axe hanging at his waist. Now, no school would accept him, and he needed to find an alternative path.
Mika’s dad had been in business for many years, and recently many new types of hallucinogens appeared on the market, rumored to be trafficked by people from Northern Prison.
These drugs were completely different from traditional hallucinogens, with excellent hallucinogenic effects.
Not only that.
It was said that in villages plagued by epidemics in the northern part of the Empire, pervasive diseases were previously uncontrollable, but a Physician from the big prison managed to solve the problem.
"Perhaps... I should find you a ho tutor to teach you dical practice."
He reasoned thus.
"Sorry?"
Mika doubted he had heard wrong. He hated two kinds of people the most: Priests and Physicians, both charlatans in his eyes. He thought the herbal ointnts were purely deceptive, ssily concocted to kill people, instead of allowing natural recovery.
He didn’t want to beco a fool selling herbal redies.
"Have you lost your mind from anger, dammit? All right, I apologize. I shouldn’t have stabbed him. If I had known earlier, I would have killed that caveman and settled future worries. Worst cos to worst, I could go out to sea and make a living like Hened."
Mika said as much.
At this ti, Hened hadn’t been captured, still a notorious Turbid River Dragon that could silence crying children in the Narrow Sea, well-known throughout the region.
The middle-aged woman had already started looking for a feather duster to beat him with.
"Give it a rest, your weak strength is like you haven’t eaten, you need to use a weapon."
Mika took off the axe from his waist and kicked it to the feet of the middle-aged woman.
However, such behavior from Mika made his dad even more determined to have him learn the recently erged New Pharmacology and New Trauma Science, fields with very little competition and offering a blue ocean opportunity, and to change this brat’s aggressive nature, to have him deal with patients outside.
The family business losses were recent and the savings were nearly gone, but considering the sunk cost, there was only one path of no return.
"All right, go out and have fun, stay out all night if you must, but at least co ho once every three days. Have your fill until I find you a ho tutor. You’ll need to buckle down then."
After saying so, his dad unfastened his money pouch, took out six silver coins and handed them to Mika.
"Bro, you’re really my true dad."
Mika was so moved he was about to cry, his hands respectfully receiving the silver coins. This amount of money was a fortune for a sixteen or seventeen-year-old.
"By the way, just how much did we lose?"
Mika couldn’t let go of this issue.
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