Chapter 69: Victor’s Walk
Terrence became huge news in an instant. His name rose rapidly over the span of a single week, allowing him to complete his daily missions with ease.
He had held serious worries before. He originally wanted to build his influence slowly, keeping his growth hidden in the shadows far away from the Lee Family. But after realizing his situation, he concluded that doing things loudly wasn’t bad at all. Because of his daily missions, he had to operate efficiently so nothing would hinder his progress.
After all, it wasn’t as if people would just blindly believe him if he told them the blunt truth.
"I sell beasts," he would say whenever a stranger approached him to ask for advice.
They would just stare back at him as if he were making a bad joke. Or even when he tried a different approach...
"Do you want to buy beasts? I sell beasts."
It was merely a slightly longer version of his previous line, but the main point stood: he didn’t have to worry about exposing himself because people naturally assumed he was just messing around.
On the very same day he defeated Lucas and walked out of the arena as the undisputed victor, someone from his former family approached him in the corridor.
"Terrence, you look good."
The speaker was a man in his late forties with noticeable white strands running through his long beard, which partially covered a starting-to-wrinkle face. Despite his aging build, he still maintained the broad frame of a bulky man, squeezed tight into a formal tuxedo suit adorned with intricate decorative patterns along the hem of the sleeves.
The man standing before him was his former uncle, Irad Lee—who was also Menard and Noli’s father.
Just catching sight of this man’s face immediately triggered dark, suppressed memories from Terrence’s past. Because of his initial inability to awaken as a tamer, he had faced endless public ridicule and intense physical suffering from this exact man alone.
Who in their right mind would be a normal uncle and force his own nephew to crawl around like a beast on all fours? Who would force him to act like a wild animal? And who would force a child to address him as his absolute master?
It was a bitter, painful past Terrence had been forced to endure just to learn basic information about beasts from this pathetic maniac. Furthermore, it was a dark past that was directly connected to his mother’s tragic death.
He didn’t want to exchange a single word with him, so he simply attempted to walk past him without offering even a glance.
Irad tried to ease his visible irritation at facing such blatant disrespect from his former student—or at least, he couldn’t deny that the boy had originally studied under his care.
"You have to be careful, kid. Just because you gained a bit of power doesn’t mean you are indestructible," Irad warned in the stern, heavy voice of a seasoned veteran, piercing Terrence from behind and forcing him to stop with a sharp, questioning look.
"And who are you to tell me that?" Terrence retorted, spinning around aggressively to face him. "Do I need to remind you of the ridiculous, inhumane things you made me do back then? Or what you did to my mother?!"
He wanted to contain his rage, but the mere physical presence of this man made self-control nearly impossible. He felt an overwhelming urge to vent all his built-up frustration right here, or even declare outright war against him.
"You don’t need to keep bringing up the past. We can just build a completely new future together as a proper family, right?" Irad argued, trying to recall what he had done to Terrence over the years—though he couldn’t think of anything remotely decent, as everything had been pure evil or done for his own personal entertainment. "Well... I did teach you a lot about beasts, didn’t I?"
Irad cleared his throat and adjusted his collar. "The point is, return to the family. We can easily create a high position for you. We will feed you premium elixirs and make you even stronger than you are now."
Terrence’s brows furrowed deeply as he clenched his teeth tightly behind closed lips. He simply glared at Irad with an unreadable expression—a intense mix of raw anger and pure disgust.
After a few tense seconds of silence, he let out a heavy sigh, subtly shaking his head. He managed to regain his composure, refusing to waste his energy lashing out at the man.
Terrence could vividly recall every single grudge he held against Irad. He could remember all the brutal oppression his former family had inflicted upon the innocent people he cared about and loved. Yet, he held himself back. Keeping his cool here was the right choice.
"Don’t ever think it’s possible for me to return to the family. I am building a name for myself—by myself, and alone."
Terrence turned around to leave, only for another prominent member of his former family to step directly into his path.
It was Irad’s wife, Ellise Lee. She was adorned in a tight red dress that stretched across her body all the way down to her heels, awkwardly accentuating her bloated stomach.
Terrence’s eyes naturally dropped to her stomach for a fraction of a second before meeting her gaze.
Noticing his quick glance, Ellise flushed with slight embarrassment. She made a subtle effort to pull in her waist to lessen the shape, but failed with every attempt. Giving up on hiding it, she ignored the awkwardness altogether.
"What exactly do you want us to do?!" Ellise lashed out, her voice loud and frantic. "Do you want us to beg you on our knees?! If we must, then fine, we will! Just return to the family!"
"Desperate," Terrence muttered under his breath before they could even react to his words. "You are all complete trash. And I am going to become far bigger than the Lee Family could ever dream of being."
Terrence left his cold words hanging in the air as he walked away, completely leaving the arena premises. Along the way, he encountered several other members of the Lee Family standing in the corridors, but every single one of them silently parted ways and created a clear path for him until he reached the main exit.
The expressions on their faces varied wildly. Some wore looks of utter shock, anger, or silent fear, while others looked proud that such a powerful tamer was technically a former Lee. Yet, every single one of them knew deep down that Terrence harbored deep hatred toward the family.
Who could they possibly blame for that? It wasn’t as if they hadn’t all agreed with the patriarch when Terrence was deemed useless to the household. Moreover, their arrogant pride prevented them from admitting out loud that they had made a massive, irreversible mistake.