My Disciples Became Scoundrels - Chapter 2

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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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Fifteen years?
Balanus existed fifteen years ago? I couldn’t make sense of it. I grabbed the man by the collar.
“What happened to the children who were here when Balanus existed? What came after? Tell me everything you know.”
“I—I don’t know! I just bought the building!”
The man struggled, his face drained of color. Learning that the building had been sold felt like the ground dropping out from under me.
Balanus had been sold and turned into a brothel?
I had no way of knowing what had happened since my death. This man seemed to know nothing.
There was no point continuing the conversation, and I didn’t want to keep this garbage in my house any longer.
“…Get out. Take anyone still here and leave.”
I released the man, and he scrambled out of the office. Even after his footsteps faded, I stood rooted in place.
A cloying perfume hung in the air. My stomach turned. The landscape etched in my memory had vanished, and I was left alone surrounded by the stench of strangers.
I no longer heard my students’ laughter.
I stood in that emptiness for a moment, then forced myself to move. There was no time to indulge in sentiment. I needed to understand what had happened and find the children.
I headed into the city. Fifteen years had passed, but perhaps some familiar faces remained. I needed to find someone who could tell me what had occurred.
A restaurant came into view as I entered the downtown district. The sign was weathered, but the shape of it was familiar. It was still here after all this time.
The restaurant was quiet. As I sat at an empty counter seat, the owner approached. She had aged from middle-aged into her twilight years.
“What can I get you?”
“…I’ll have a soy milk soup, please.”
I ordered a dish I’d once requested often. The owner’s eyes flickered with something strange.
“We don’t serve that anymore. Where did you hear about it?”
“I heard about it from someone long ago.”
“Is your father’s name Dein? Your face looks just like his.”
I felt a small jolt hearing my name from her lips. True enough—the resemblance was striking. Only the age was different; I was young again. Instead of correcting the misunderstanding, I nodded.
“Yes. My father spoke often of this restaurant. He said the soup was excellent.”
“Well, that’s something. He was always so devoted to his students—I never knew he had a child.”
The owner said this and turned toward the kitchen. The restaurant that I had visited just days ago seemed to have aged in an instant.
Fifteen years had passed. Why had I survived? Why had I returned as a twenty-year-old boy? Questions swirled, but there was something more pressing.
“Here’s your soup. Bread is on the house.”
“Thank you.”
I received the warm soup but had little appetite. I hadn’t come to eat, after all. I turned to the owner.
“I have a few more questions, if you don’t mind. I came to this city looking for my father’s Domus.”
A Domus—the space where my colleagues, my students, and I had existed together. A Domus was similar to a Guild, but with significant differences.
A Guild is a profit-driven organization that recruits individuals of proven skill and allows for relatively free movement between them.
But a Domus is something closer to a family structure.
We took in children with nowhere to go, trained them through apprenticeship, and accepted them all as family—genius and mediocre alike, without discrimination.
My colleagues and I were mentors, guardians, and caretakers to those children. I had to find my students.
“Are there any members of Balanus Domus still in this city?”
“Balanus collapsed fifteen years ago.”
“What happened?”
The owner hesitated, glancing at me before speaking.
“The city was attacked fifteen years ago. Many people died, including all the adults from Balanus. With no one left to care for them, the children scattered in all directions.”
Not a single adult in this city had taken those children in?
It struck me as shocking—all the more so because Balanus had had strong ties to several Guilds and other Domus organizations, and we’d had a good reputation.
“When I went to find Balanus Domus, it had become a brothel. Do you know why?”
“I’m not sure. Some say the owner seized it by force, others say he bought it…. Either way, given how the children scattered, he probably paid next to nothing.”
Thinking of what my students might have endured after my death made my head swim. I pressed my palm to my forehead and spoke.
“Do you know anything about where the children went?”
“Well… oh! Cesare is still in this city. He came back a few years ago and has been working as a mercenary here.”
Cesare. The image of a bright-eyed child’s face came to mind. Fifteen years had passed; he would be twenty-seven now. I had no sense of what he might have become.
“Do you know where Cesare lives?”
“I’m not sure exactly….”
“Could you ask around for me? I’d be grateful.”
I placed fifty thousand baht on the counter along with the meal cost. The owner pocketed it with a genial smile.
“I’ll ask the customers who come in tomorrow. Come back then.”
At least Cesare had remained in this city—that was a mercy. As I began to piece together my students’ circumstances, another question surfaced in my mind.
The mysterious attackers who had assaulted the city. Who were they?
“You mentioned the city was attacked. Do you know who the attackers were and why they did it?”
“I’m not sure. I heard the attackers all died. Since then, there hasn’t been much investigation into it.”
So the reason for that terrible tragedy had never been uncovered?
I couldn’t shake the unease. Among it all, the final words left by that attacker echoed in my mind.
“Still, I severed the tree’s trunk. Someday, I’ll reach its roots and shoots as well…….”
The man had spoken those words clearly. In a tone of unmistakable purpose. As though everything was far from finished.
Anger and questions simmered quietly within me. Who were they, in the end? I had to learn their intentions, but finding my disciples came first.
In the end, I didn’t even touch the soup. I left the dining hall quietly. At least I’d learned where Cesare was — for that much, I was grateful.
What had become of the other children? What did they look like now, fifteen years later? I gripped the Necklace tightly and stepped forward into the street.
* * *
“Cesare is staying at the Narwhal Inn at the moment.”
Around midday the next day. The shopkeeper brought me this welcome news. I’d expected the search to take much longer.
I’d spent the night at Balanus Domus, though I hadn’t slept well. The men sent by the inn’s owner saw to that.
I’d beaten them half to death before sending them back. For now, I could only hope they’d stay quiet.
The Narwhal Inn. So it still stood. I moved forward with an odd nostalgia stirring in my chest.
Cesare, now a mercenary. I couldn’t quite picture it. The Cesare in my memory was just a child beginning to learn the sword.
Twelve-year-old Cesare with his hands full of raspberries, laughing with berry juice dripping down his fingers. Those raspberry-red curls and olive-green eyes were vivid in my mind.
Would I even recognize him? Lost in such thoughts, I was nearly at the Narwhal Inn when—
The inn door burst open, and someone came tumbling out like a rag doll, crashing into luggage with a loud clatter before falling hard to the ground.
“You lunatic! Your tab’s piling up and you’ve got the nerve to go on about booze in broad daylight? You alcoholic wretch!”
The man shouting was a stranger to me. Yet those raspberry-red curls and green eyes were familiar — almost aching in their familiarity.
He looked to be in his mid-twenties now. How he’d grown over the years. Quite broad-shouldered, well-built… though admittedly he carried some weight around the middle. His stomach protruded somewhat, and his hairline had receded noticeably, as if baldness was beginning to claim him….
He was nothing like I’d imagined, yet seeing my grown-up disciple was profoundly moving nonetheless.
I felt moisture gathering at the corners of my eyes. As I stared intently, Cesare seemed to sense my gaze and turned to look at me.
“Who are you?”
“You’ve grown so much. I barely recognize you.”
I approached Cesare and gripped his hand firmly. He seemed taken aback.
“Excuse me? What do you mean? Besides, you look younger than me…….”
“That’s understandable, given the surprise.”
I patted the stunned Cesare’s hand, smiling. Joy and relief came pouring out of me.
“I worried about you so much. I wondered if something had happened in those fifteen years. And look — you’ve even opened a business. I’m so proud of you, Cesare.”
“Cesare?”
Cesare’s eyes went wide as he looked at me, then his brow furrowed.
“I’m not Cesare!”
“What?”
But the hair color and eye color were identical. The age, the gender — everything matched. I stared at him in confusion, and he jerked his hand away roughly.
“The Cesare you’re looking for is that guy! Let go of me!”
I was left speechless, releasing his hand and turning to look behind me. There, buried under a pile of luggage, was a man.
The same man who’d come tumbling out of the inn just moments before. Despite being seated, his massive frame made it clear he was quite tall.
He was wearing a hood that obscured his face, so I approached hesitantly and removed it.
The smell of alcohol hit me immediately. It wasn’t even noon yet.
His red hair was unkempt, unwashed for who knew how long, and his beard was filthy and matted.
His green eyes were clouded and unfocused as a drunkard’s ought to be, swaying with each breath. With every breath he took, a sour reek wafted up — not just alcohol, but filth. The stench of someone who hadn’t bathed in far too long.
“Ah, shit……. What?”
Slurred curses spilled from his lips. He fixed me with a savage, feral glare. My voice trembled as I spoke.
“Cesare……. Is this Cesare?”
It couldn’t be. The Cesare in my memory was small and gentle — a timid child who’d scamper away in fear whenever one of his teachers came home drunk.
The bearded, massive man glared at me. He spat onto the ground, then spoke.
“Yeah, I’m Cesare. Who the hell are you?”
I stood frozen, staring at his face in shock.
This man was Cesare?
My gentle, innocent young disciple, Cesare?

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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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