I Became the Daughter of a Disgraced Duke - Chapter 4

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 4
There are far too many lunatics in this world. Too many people with nothing left to lose.
Cassian Calypso, with alcohol burning down his throat, began to curse.
“Damn it. If I fold that hand now, what am I supposed to do? You’re telling me to eat dirt?”
Cassian Calypso.
The textbook example of a man whose face either redeems him or condemns him.
Perfect looks, high station, glorious accomplishments.
And.
Gambling, alcohol, cigarettes, dopamine, tattoo addiction—you name it.
A man who possessed far too much.
Currently, he was occupied with an “important engagement”: illegal gambling.
“Listen, the two of you rigged it, didn’t you? When I think about how I lost my estate to you last time, my head still throbs. If you don’t want to die, confess now, eh?”
First impression: ‘Remarkably ugly for someone so handsome.’ But the more you look, the more you think: ‘Remarkably handsome for someone so ugly.’ This man was nothing but a—
“Here he goes again.”
—wastrel.
“You lost fair and square and still throw a tantrum. I received the estate just fine. Sold it to pay my children’s tuition.”
“That’s rich. I slept rough for a week after losing my house. Ah, I’m out of drink. Hey, proprietor! Another bottle here!”
“Not a drop until you’ve paid off your tab!”
“Wait. If I win this hand, I can even cover the interest.”
“You lose every single day. Some nerve.”
The tavern owner snorted and turned his attention to another patron.
Cassian huffed and drew a cigarette from his pocket, placing it between his lips.
His opponents at the table burst into snickers.
“How do you breathe through all that smoke?”
“Really, you should hurry up and die.”
The five million Gold riding on this hand was everything he had.
Well, not everything—he also had five hundred and eighty million Gold in debt.
But debts are assets too, aren’t they?
With assets that size, you’re still rich no matter how you slice it.
Drag.
Cassian inhaled deeply, and one corner of his mouth curled up in satisfaction.
“Checkmate!”
Cigarette still clamped between his teeth, he laid down his cards.
“Aaah.”
A sound of defeat came from across the table.
Cassian reached out gleefully to rake in the winnings.
“Hold on!”
One of the players grabbed his wrist.
“There’s still this.”
Slap!
The man threw down a card, and Cassian’s face contorted.
“You had a Joker? Damn it.”
“This money’s mine now. Ha ha ha.”
The man began sweeping the coins into a prepared sack.
Cassian, watching his entire fortune vanish before his eyes, went limp in his chair.
Hell. He was finished.
Starting to get hungry too.
Maybe I should go see Rosalind. Or Eileen? Rose would be nice too.
That’s when a large shadow fell across Cassian’s table.
Two masked figures, swords at their belts.
His fellow gamblers began to slip away with practiced ease.
Exhale.
Cassian blew out cigarette smoke and looked the men over from head to toe.
Loan Sharks and Assassins both. Quite the collection.
They came by often, day after day, telling him to die, do this, do that. He was sick of it.
And yet—strangely—he’d never been gladder to see them.
“Cassian Calypso?”
“Only two of you came?”
Cassian broke into a grin and faced the pair head-on. Anyone watching would’ve thought he’d lost his mind.
“So you really are Cassian Calypso.”
Clang!
The men drew their swords.
Cassian Calypso stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and asked languidly.
The shadow cast by his tilted head made him look more like a creature of the underworld than the assassins themselves.
“By the way, how much advance did they pay you to kill me?”
Beneath his deeply sunken, shadowed eye sockets, golden eyes swept across the assassins like a predator’s.
Their weapon of choice was the sword. From their height and muscle build, they looked like a pair working in tandem.
The assassins didn’t answer—they simply rushed at Cassian.
‘Not bad, actually.’
With this level of skill, they’d have made a name for themselves in that world, eaten their share of time. But that was only good until today.
In places where lives hang in the balance, the most crucial thing is the matchup itself.
And Cassian was the absolute worst opponent to draw.
Crash! Bang-bang!
After deflecting their combined strikes a few times, Cassian subdued both of them in the blink of an eye, his massive frame belying his speed.
He snatched the swords of the fallen men from midair and hurled them far across the room into the wall.
“Owner! Those swords are expensive! I’ll give them to you instead of paying for drinks!”
“How many times do I have to tell you—pay in Gold!”
“But they’re worth more than the tab, aren’t they?”
Let’s see. How much money did he have left?
Cassian’s hand slipped straight into the assassins’ pockets.
Rummaging, rummaging.
After digging through their pockets, he wrenched out their wallets and tossed them to the owner.
“Keep the change. I’m coming back tomorrow to drink more.”
The assassins pinned beneath him thrashed and cried out.
“This bastard’s playing with us!”
No matter how much of a War Hero he claimed to be, wasn’t this too humiliating?
The assassins exchanged a look and tried to break free from Cassian.
That’s when—
Whack! Whack!
Cassian smacked the back of their heads.
Like a peace officer handling street thugs or a teacher delivering a precise Snap to a disobedient student.
“Ugh!”
The assassins clenched their teeth at a humiliation they’d never experienced before.
We’re not the type to take this kind of treatment from anyone—why is this happening? We thought a War Hero living like garbage would be an easy target, but we were wrong.
“You two. I asked how much advance payment you received. Why won’t you answer?”
Cassian looked down at the pair bleeding quietly, resigned to their death.
When they didn’t respond, he lifted a foot caked with dust from the floor and ground their heads into it.
“Every time you don’t answer from now on, I’m severing one Achilles tendon. Speak.”
“…We, we received 100 million Gold each.”
“You really need to be threatened before you’ll cooperate, don’t you?”
Cassian crouched before them and looked them over.
The assassins closed their eyes and braced for death, overwhelmed by his savage face and oppressive presence.
It was Cassian Calypso, after all.
The man born in darkness who had ruthlessly slaughtered and butchered those like them, who earned the name “mad dog of the battlefield.”
There was no way such a man would spare those who’d tried to kill him.
This is the end for us. As if reading their minds, Cassian smiled wickedly and made an offer.
“Give me all that advance payment, and I’ll let your limbs walk away intact.”
It was an offer, certainly.
Just not one the assassins had any choice about accepting.
* * *
The man with the close-cropped hair looked like a stray dog at first glance, but the longer you looked, the more he resembled some neighborhood simpleton uncle.
“This stuff is really delicious, you know. Mmm~ so yummy~ Why won’t the little one eat it~”
He kept eating the same Egg Sandwich he’d had for days now, acting as if it were impossibly delicious.
“Graaaagh! I’m a monster! Roooaaarrr!”
He stretched both arms wide and wiggled his fingers, playing the monster.
‘Hmph!’
I’m ten years old. And the smartest in our Sunlight Wing Class, at that—and the tenth tallest.
So I’m not falling for tricks like that.
“Kyeeee-hahahaha! Hee-hee-hee!”
I shrieked as if I were running away, bounding around the small house.
He crawled up onto the grimy sofa and hid beneath the dining table.
Keeping company with a scatterbrained uncle was exhausting work.
His heart thump-thump-thumped, sweat beaded on his brow, and his breath came quick from all the running.
I was supposed to be the brightest student in Sunlight Wing Class, and yet I’d spent a whole week playing babysitter to Uncle Baron.
And then it happened.
Creak.
I was eating the egg sandwich Uncle Baron had bought for breakfast—again—when the monster showed up.
“Boss! When you said look after the kid, did you mean for a whole week? I haven’t been able to leave work, I’m dying here, boss……”
The monster stumbled in, eyes dark with exhaustion, reeking of alcohol.
Still confused by whatever Baron had said, the monster noticed me and tilted his head.
“Why is there a kid in our house…… Oh. Right. Huh.”
The kid’s mother still hadn’t shown up.
He sighed and muttered something to himself, then strode over and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck.
“Uh—uh?”
The mashed egg inside the sandwich tumbled from my grasp.
The monster’s piercing yellow eyes bored into me.
His stare was so sharp I felt a whimper rising in my throat.
“Listen. I’ll deal with this and be back.”
Thump.
Cassian Calypso hoisted the little one onto his shoulder like a sack of flour.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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