บท 76: Returning
Nathan was running away and invisible, leaving Haven Town.
He had no plans to fight Red Dust at the moment.
In his mind, they will always be here and he can return any moment. And if they decide to move to another place, not only will the preparation take time, the journey will be long and dangerous as well -- such is the weakness of having a large camp.
Given that he has no idea where the Divine Towers are, his goal right now was to go to Cram city and hunt for S2s before they will be killed and their AGI-based items taken by other people.
Because of that, he also didn't bother digging up the bag he buried in the mountains when he first arrived here.
To him, it would only be a waste of time. He can always loot or steal from others anyway.
As for his cousin Amir...
'Amir, I'm so sorry. Things happened and I reacted. I promise to avenge you no matter what... I hope you will forgive me...'
Once he's done powering up, he would definitely return here and hunt down Red Dust.
'Rose, whether you kill Amir or not, I will still hunt every last member down, even if it means killing everyone here in Womania or chasing you all to the end of the world. And as for your family, you can definitely expect that I will torture and kill them in front of you!'
He thought about Derek.
'White knights that don't know how to mind their own business should be killed!'
He thought about Ashleigh.
'Just thinking about the fact that I helped her before and now she's against me just because she's with Red Dust makes me sick! I want to see how you will beg once I kill your precious companions in front of you!'
Nathan spat on the ground.
'No matter… Thinking about what I experienced with human relationships in the past, I should've expected this.'
Nathan began to recall his past…
***
3 years ago.
Nathan, 21 years old.
Latif City, Muwin.
4:30 pm.
Nathan graduated from college just a few months ago and was working online.
After he finished his internship at The Falsus Network, he decided that he didn't want to deal with any of that office politics so he decided to work online.
This way, although there are scammers and the job isn't exactly stable, it was a small price to pay compared to having to deal with office politics.
He was working on an article when his phone rang.
Ring…
Ring…
He picked up his phone.
Ring…
It was Vincent calling.
He answered it.
"What's up?"
"Yo! Are you busy right now? It's an emergency."
Nathan frowned.
He thought about the last time Vincent called him like this.
He had to go to a neighborhood that's filled with Southern Muwinians and give him clothes.
Although Latif city was located between the North and South region of Muwin, the tension between the two groups was high and they normally don't get along due to religious beliefs and whatever bullshit reasons.
As for how Vincent got to the neighborhood, he was drunk the night before and went home with a South Muwinian woman to her house whom he thought wasn't married.
That morning, the woman's husband arrived so Derek had to escape through the window with only his boxers and phone. Unfortunately, he left his wallet.
"I'm working right now. Whatever it is, give me 30 minutes and I'll call you back."
"Wa-wait! It's really important. I need to talk to you."
Nathan massaged his forehead.
"What is it?"
"Let's meet. I have something to tell you. It's very important."
"Look, man, if you're not going to tell me on the phone, I'm going to end this call right now. I'm really busy so just tell me. You know me, I won't judge."
"I'm serious. It's really important. It's not something that should be said on the phone. Come on, man. Let's meet."
'Maybe this really is an emergency.' Nathan thought and said, "Are you in jail? Or have you been kidnapped?"
"What? No, it's nothing like that. It's –"
"So just tell me on the phone or you can just drop by later."
"I can't. We should meet outside. It's really an important matter."
Nathan let out a sigh.
"Look, I have to submit this article I'm working on in 30 minutes. Not everyone is like you who doesn't need to work. Karen and I have bills to pay for this apartment and everything."
"Nathan, I'm being serious here. I seriously need to talk to you."
"I'm also being serious. So just tell me."
"Okay, the reason I want to meet you is because –"
Ding!
There was a notification from the Message App of his laptop.
It was from his employer.
[How's the article?]
"Wait… Hold on for a moment. My boss just sent me a message."
He replied to his employer.
[It's almost done, sir. I'm currently checking for some spelling errors, the grammar and the links of the sources just to be sure. I'll send it in 20 minutes.]
[No worries. Just take your time.]
[Thank you, sir.]
"Yo, Vincent. I'm sorry but I'm really busy. My boss is already asking about the article. Look, don't worry, wherever you are, I'll go to the place and give you clothes once I'm done working. But I will have to rush back home because I have to cook dinner before Karen comes home from work. You should join us because I'm cooking her favorite dish. Lately, she doesn't have any appetite. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Nathan, I'm calling you because I have something to tell you about Karen, about why she doesn't have any appetite."
Nathan frowned.
"What…?"
"Just go to the restaurant where we celebrated your birthday last time."
***
A couple of minutes later…
Nathan and Vincent were at the restaurant they decided to meet.
They were currently sitting on a table, facing each other.
"So what do you have to tell me about Karen?"
Vincent took a deep breath before looking at Nathan.
"Do you remember the first day of your internship last year?"
"You mean at The Falsus Network?"
"Yeah, that place."
"Okay... And?"
"That day I sent you a text about a party I was throwing at the weekend which you didn't attend, while Karen did because you were busy..."
"Yeah, Karen told me that you proposed to Nikki at that time but she rejected you."
"Then you must know how devastated I was at that time because Nikki not only declined my proposal but she also broke up with me and I ended up making a scene, causing some of the guests to leave."
"Yeah. Vincent, where is this going? Get to the point."
"Hold on. I want to tell you the whole story. This is very important…"
Vincent rubbed his hands nervously and his face was sweating despite the restaurant's air conditioner was turned on.
Nathan looked at Vincent and frowned.
"When Nikki and the other guests left, I started drinking like crazy and Karen was there consoling me the whole time…"
Vincent took another deep breath.
Nathan was beginning to become suspicious and thought, 'Don't tell me this is going to be like one of those dramas that Karen loves and forces me to watch…'
"I know this is a shitty excuse, but I was just so heartbroken and vulnerable at that time that I ended up forcefully kissing Karen."
Nathan closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Karen never told him about this. However, thinking about the circumstance, he calmed himself down and smiled.
"So you guys kissed. You were in a bad place and drunk. I understand that. It's no big deal. We're all adults here and we sometimes make stupid decisions, right?"
Vincent stared at Nathan. His eyes were painted with extreme guilt that he could barely look at Nathan straight in the eye.
"There's more..."
"What did you just say?"
"Two months later, she texted me. She wanted me to accompany her to this bar and have a drink because you were busy and then --"
"Vincent… Stop." Nathan was no longer smiling and his voice now cold.
"I'm sorry, man. But I have to tell you. The guilt is killing me. So we went to this bar, we got drunk and the next thing we knew we were kissing and then–"
Nathan got up on his seat, grabbed Vincent by the collar and punched him the face.
Bam!
Vincent's nose was broken and it started to bleed.
"I deserved that…" Vincent said as he picked up some tissues and wiped off the blood coming out of his nose.
Everyone inside the restaurant stopped and looked at Nathan and Vincent.
Nathan returned to his seat and didn't look at Vincent.
He closed his eyes, he pursed his lips, and took deep, long breaths...
His heart was racing...
His chest felt like it was being viciously ripped apart...
He was clenching and unclenching his fists...
His right leg was fidgeting...
He was trying so hard to suppress the powerful and dark emotions stirring inside of him.
A waiter approached them.
"Sir, we need you to leave. You're making the customers uncomfortable."
"FUCK YOU AND MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS!" Nathan pointed at the waiter.
"Sir, we need you to leave or we're going to call the cops."
Nathan slammed his fist against the table.
Bam!
"DID YOU FUCKING HEAR WHAT I JUST SAID?! FUCK OFF!!!"
Vincent got up and said, "Please excuse us and let us talk a bit longer."
"I'm very sorry, sir. But we need you both to leave," said the waiter.
Nathan, who was still trying so hard to suppress his emotions, got up from his seat and stormed out of the restaurant.
He was seeing red and he couldn't believe what Vincent told him -- or perhaps he refused to believe it.
In the first and second year of his relationship with Karen, he and Karen used to argue about her feelings for Vincent. Fortunately, they were able to eventually overcome it… or so he thought.
Vincent followed Nathan outside.
He saw Nathan walking down the street.
"Nathan, wait! There are still more things I want to tell you."
"FUCK YOU BOTH! I'M NOT A FUCKING MASOCHIST! I DON'T WANT TO FUCKING HEAR ANYMORE OF IT!"
"Nathan, Karen was pregnant and she aborted it."
Nathan stopped walking but he didn't turn around.
Karen doesn't take pills because she was allergic to it. Instead, Nathan uses condoms. But when it was her safe day, they do it raw.
He clenched his fists once again. But this time, his nails sunk into his flesh.
"She said it was my child… But I don't know…"
Nathan turned around, walked up to Vincent, grab him by the collar and pinned up against the wall.
"WHY ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS?!" Nathan growled.
"I… I honestly don't know. I honestly don't know…" Vincent started crying.
Nathan immediately let go of him and stepped away.
Vincent sat on the pavement, he held his head down and grabbed his hair.
"I don't know, man. It's… It's everything yet at the same time confusing. I've been feeling so guilty for months that I could hardly sleep and eat - I mean, we're childhood friends so I never wanted to betray you but I'm also angry that she aborted the baby yet I also love her and want to be with her..."
Vincent crawled his way to Nathan.
He knelt in front of Nathan and grabbed onto his legs.
"I really didn't mean to betray you like this. I honestly didn't. Things just happened. Please forgive me. Hit me or anything. Do whatever you want. Please! PLEASE!!!"
Nathan looked at Vincent in disgust.
"Childhood friend? Didn't want to betray me? What a load of bullshit… Hearing your apology, you only confessed because she had an abortion and it could be your baby. If that didn't happen, would you two even tell me that you've been sleeping together behind my back?"
Vincent was tongue-tied, "I - I…"
"You're dead to me. Don't ever show your face to me again."
He kicked his leg away and left Vincent.
*********************************************
Author's thoughts:
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading!
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To those who want to help this immortal in his path to immortality in writing his first immortal book, you can consider these two other immortal positions:
The first immortal position is to become one of my Immortal Patrons at P-a-t-r-e-o-n and have access to my "chapter drafts" for only $5 a month.
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Please note that to view my P-a-t-r-e-o-n page, you need to enter the link I posted above and replace the asterisk symbols with the appropriate words. It doesn't appear on the search list because my page is marked with adult content. Moreover, the chapters posted there are only drafts. So when I will publish them here, there will be some edits.
By the way, I also posted the draft of [Chapter 83] and [Chapter 84] there.
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Thank you once again and I'll see you in the next chapter.
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