paul/geese convo

Paul



I still hadn’t left the bar.

The sun was on the verge of setting, so the place was starting to get more customers who weren’t members of my squad. On the other hand, many of my people had already left. Not that I really cared. I was planted at a table all by myself, drinking like a fish.

Apparently, it was obvious that I wasn’t in the best of moods. Everyone in the place was giving me a wide berth.

“Hey there! I’ve been lookin’ for you, buddy.”

Everyone except the most recent arrival, at least.

I looked up and found myself face-to-face with a grinning monkey of a man. It was the first time I’d seen his ugly mug in a year. “Geese…? Where the hell have you been, huh?”

“Ooh, hostile! You seem even crankier than usual, my friend.”

“What do you expect?”

Clicking my tongue in irritation, I reached up and touched my cheek. It was still throbbing where Rudeus had punched me earlier. Maybe I should have swallowed my pride and let one of our healers fix me up.

That damn kid. I swear. “The Demon Continent might be tough, but my magic was more than a match for it,” huh? Well, good for you. If it was such a cakewalk, why didn’t you take a little time to look around for your mother?

Oh, but at least I got to hear your lecture on the best ways to cook Great Tortoise meat. “If I hadn’t hit on the idea of creating a pot using Earth magic, we would’ve been stuck eating charred, smelly chunks of that stuff for a whole year!” Wasn’t there anything else you could have done with the time you spent hunting down ingredients for some monster stew?

Ugh. God damn it.

And then, just to top it all off, you’ve got the nerve to accuse me of cheating! I haven’t even thought about touching a woman in the last year and a half, you smug little moron! You didn’t do a thing to help, and you think you have the right to get on my case?

Oh, you didn’t know, huh? Great excuse. If you’d actually bothered looking at the world around you, Zenith or Lilia might be back here with us right now!

Seriously. What a joke…

“Hee hee hee. From the look of things, I’m guess you haven’t bumped into each other yet.” Grinning to himself for some unclear reason, Geese ordered something or other. Presumably booze. The man was a heavier drinker even than Talhand, and Talhand was a dwarf.

“Hey, Paul. Make sure to stop by the Adventurers’ Guild tomorrow, all right?”

“Why?”

“Because I think you’ll run into someone interesting.”

Someone interesting? Geese apparently thought this meeting would improve my mood. Given the timing of his arrival, and who I’d “run into” today…it wasn’t hard to guess who he meant. “You talking about Rudy?”

Pouting a little, the old monkey scratched at his head. “Huh? How’d you know that?”

“I already bumped into him today.”

“You don’t look particularly happy, considering. Did you have a fight or something?”

A fight…? Well, I guess we did. Although it barely even qualified as one.

Damn it. Just thinking about it’s got my face aching again…

“What happened, Paul? Tell me all about it.” Geese got up and pulled his chair over next to me. With that friendly face of his, the man had always had a talent for listening to people’s problems. This wasn’t the first time he’d stuck his nose into my business and encouraged me to gripe.

“All right, get a load of this…”

I went ahead and told Geese what happened earlier.
I’d been happy to see Rudeus, of course. But it felt like we weren’t really on the same page about the situation, so I asked him what he’d been doing up until now. At which point he started talking all cheerfully about his journey through the Demon Continent.

Every other word out of his mouth was some pointless boast, so I pointed out that he could have used his time more productively. Then he got all pissed off at me. He made a crack about me sleeping around. I lost my temper completely. And then we fought, and he kicked my ass. The end.

“Ahh…yeah. I gotcha…”

Geese had listened patiently to the whole story, nodding and tossing in a few brief comments here and there. I felt like he’d been sympathizing with me. But then, once I’d wrapped things up, he looked me in the eye and said, “Well, sounds like your expectations might have been a bit unfair there, chief.”

“Huh?” I replied, sounding like a complete moron.

Unfair? How I was I being unfair? And to whom? “You think I expected too much? Of Rudy?”

“I mean, think about it, man,” continued Geese as I blinked in confusion. “Sure, the kid’s amazing. I’ve never seen anyone who could cast spells without a word like that. And when I saw him going blow for blow with North Saint Gallus, it sent chills down my spine. Rudeus is the kind of prodigy you see once a century.”

Right. Rudeus was a prodigy. He was a genius. He could always do anything he set his mind to, even as a little kid. For a while, I’d been under the impression that he had some relatively serious flaws as well, but…I mean, by the end of his stay in Roa, Philip was willing to marry off his own daughter to him. Philip! The same guy who talked trash about me behind my back! “Yeah, that’s right. He’s unbelievable. When he was only five years old, he—”

“But at the end of the day, he’s still just a kid.”

Startled by Geese’s firm interruption, I fell silent.

“Rudeus is still an eleven-year-old kid,” he repeated slowly, just to drive the point home. “Even you didn’t run away from home until you were twelve, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Anyone younger than that’s still just a snot-nosed brat. Isn’t that what you always used to say?”

“Yeah, okay, sure. So what if I did?” Come on. Rudy’s already stronger than me.

I did have some alcohol in my system this morning. Even with that factored in, though, it was clear the kid had improved dramatically. I might have been drunk, but I was also going all-out; I lowered myself to using the North God Style’s “Four-Legged Stance,” and even busted out the Sword God Style’s “Silent Sword.” But my sword only sliced those panties he was wearing off his face. Rudy wasn’t even taking the fight seriously, either. The fact that none of my people suffered anything worse than a few minor injuries was proof enough of that.

It was hard to say just how he’d grown as a fighter since the last time I saw him. But even at the age of seven, he was cleverer than me. Now he was both smarter and stronger than I was. What was so unreasonable about expecting him to accomplish more than I could, then? His age had nothing to do with his capabilities.

“Paul, what were you doing when you were eleven years old?”

“Hm…?”

As I recalled, I spent most of that year at home training with the sword and getting chewed out by my old man. He found reasons to complain about every little thing I did, and took every chance he could to smack me around.

“You think you could have survived alone on the Demon Continent back then?”

“Heh. You’re forgetting one little detail here, Geese. Rudy found himself a demon bodyguard, remember? This guy speaks Human, Demon-God, and Beast-God, and he’s strong enough to take down an A-ranked monster single-handed. Anyone could have made it back with a chaperone like that.”

“Nope,” Geese declared confidently. “You wouldn’t have made it. No chance. Even if you went out there now, you still wouldn’t survive on your own.”

I can’t say hearing that put me in the best of moods. It didn’t help that Geese was still smirking at me from across the table. The man had a seriously irritating smile. “Hah! Fine! Doesn’t that just prove my point, then? Rudy pulled off something I couldn’t. My son’s a prodigy! He’s already standing on his own two feet! I’ve got nothing left to teach him. Was it wrong of me to expect him to put those talents to use, huh?! Am I really in the wrong here?!”

“Yeah, you are. But that’s nothing new, hey?” Still smirking, Geese paused for a moment to chug down the beer he’d just been handed. “Ahhhh! That’s the stuff. You can’t get booze like this in the Great Forest, you know?”

“Geese!”

“Okay, okay. No need to shout.” Geese smacked his wooden mug down onto the table and looked me in the eye, his expression suddenly much more serious. “Listen, Paul. You’ve never been to the Demon Continent, have you?”

“So what?”

It was true. I’d never had the pleasure of visiting. I mean, I’d heard the rumors, of course. Everyone made it out to be a dangerous place where you’d run into monsters every time you took a walk, and had to eat them to survive. But “lots of monsters” sounded like something I could deal with, honestly.

“Well, it’s where I was born and raised, remember? And in my considered opinion, the whole continent is bad news.”

“You know, you never really talked about the place, now that I think about it. What’s so awful about it?”

“First of all, there’s no proper highways. They have roads between the towns, of course, but you won’t find anything like those safe, smooth, monster-free ones they’ve got on Millis and the Central Continent. If you’re traveling anywhere, you’d better expect to be attacked by C-ranked monsters. Or worse.”

Okay, I knew the place had a lot of monsters, but C-ranked or worse? On the Central Continent, you’d have to go deep into a forest to find anything that dangerous. Many monsters at that rank traveled in large packs, or had some lethal special ability. “I feel like you’re exaggerating just a little there, Geese.”

“Nope. I’m not telling you any tall tales right now, man. That’s just how the Demon Continent is. The place is crawling with nasty monsters.”

Geese looked perfectly serious, but that was how he usually looked when he was lying to you. I wasn’t going to fall for his crap this time.

“Now, let’s say we dump a kid out in the middle of a place like that. This is a real talented kid, mind you, but he’s got no real-world combat experience.”

“…Right.”

No real-world experience, huh? Seemed like we were talking about Rudy again. Come to think of it, I’d never heard of him getting into any actual battles before. But he’d apparently managed to fight off some would-be kidnappers in Roa, and Ghislaine thought he might be able to beat her if he had enough distance at the start. I didn’t know a single swordfighter better than Ghislaine. If she couldn’t close in on him safely, then there probably weren’t a thousand people on the planet capable of beating him at his ideal range.

All in all, his lack of hard experience didn’t seem like such a big deal to me. Didn’t Alex R. Kalman, the second North God, cut down a Sword Emperor in the first battle he ever fought?

“At this point, a grown-up appears and offers to help the kid out. This guy’s a demon, and a really strong one, too. In fact, he’s a Superd. You’ve heard of them, I’m sure?”

“Of course.” To be frank, I wasn’t sure I bought that part of the story. From what I’d heard, there were only a handful of Superd left, even on the Demon Continent.

“So, the kid has someone offering him aid when he’s in desperate straits. This guy’s willing to help him navigate a place he knows nothing about. And the Superd are terrifying, of course! He has no idea how this guy might react if he refuses. You’d basically have to accept that offer, right?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“But as the days roll on by, clever little Rudeus starts to ask himself a question: ‘Why exactly is this guy helping me out, anyway?’”

Sure. That did sound like Rudeus. The question might never have occurred to me, but the kid was always sharp about that sort of thing. I’d known just how weirdly perceptive he was ever since that day he stepped in to save Lilia from Zenith’s wrath.

“Problem is, he can’t figure it out. He doesn’t know what this guy’s really after.”

Well, how would he? You can never know what a stranger’s really thinking. That’s the whole reason guys like Geese manage to make a living.

“This Superd’s helping out for now, but he could easily abandon or betray them someday…or so Rudeus thinks. And that’s why he decides to try and get on the guy’s good side.”

“I don’t know about that plan, Geese. Does a Superd even have a good side?”
“Okay, don’t get all clever. You know what I mean, right? Rudeus decides to appeal to this guy’s emotions. He wants to make him feel like they’re all buddies.”

Hmm. That would explain why Rudy had spent so much time helping out this demon guy. And it did make sense, actually. Not only was he scoring brownie points with his protector, he also had a chance to develop his own skills as an adventurer in case he needed to rely on them later. I had to admit, that sounded rational. It was probably the safest path he could have chosen.

Hmph…the boy did have a good head on his shoulders, didn’t he? “Tch. You’d think a kid that smart could have found some time to look around a little, too.”

Geese held up one hand and spread out his fingers. “He’s in an unfamiliar land,” he said, folding one down. “He’s on his first adventure ever. No matter how smart he is, this is all brand new to him. He needs to learn the basics fast, before someone takes advantage of him. He’s trying to keep a demon who might betray him at any moment happy. Oh, and he’s got a little pal tagging along behind him who he needs to protect.”

By the time he’d finished with this recitation, Geese had run out of fingers. With a little shrug, he moved on to his closing argument.

“If he’d also managed to comb the continent for other people who’d been teleported, well, that would just make him superhuman. Seriously, I’d be ready to give the kid a spot in the Seven Great Powers.”

The Seven Great Powers, huh? Now that brought back some memories. Back in the day, I used to dream about earning myself that kind of fame. Still, I felt like Rudy really did have the raw talent to make it on that list someday. And I didn’t think that was just my parental pride talking.

“The kid would have worked himself to death just trying. I know Rudeus is a prodigy, but human beings have their limits, man. Especially when they’re still children.”

“Okay, look,” I interjected. “If it was that much of a struggle, then why’d he make the whole thing sound like it was some big, fun adventure? He sounded like one of those spoiled rich brats who poke around on the first floor of a labyrinth just to have something they can brag about.” If the journey had been that rough for Rudy, he wouldn’t have described it that cheerfully. He would have told me about the hard and painful parts instead. But he hadn’t even mentioned any bumps in the road.

“Why? Because he didn’t want to worry you, obviously.”

“Huh?” I grunted, somehow sounding even stupider than before. “Why the hell would he be worrying about me? Am I that much of a failure as a father?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Tch. Sure, I guess you’re right. I’m a weak little man who drowns himself in booze for idiotic reasons. I suppose our little prodigy would feel great pity at the sight of me.”

“Hate to break this to you, Paul, but it doesn’t take a prodigy to pity you right now,” Geese said, letting out a sigh. “I know you can’t see your own face, so let me tell you something. You look terrible, man.”

“Oh yeah? Terrible enough to earn some sympathy from my own son?”

“Yep. If he walked in right now, I don’t think you guys would end up fighting. He’d probably feel too bad for you to say anything at all.”

I reached up and touched my face. The stubble I hadn’t bothered shaving for several days rasped audibly against my fingers.

“Look, Paul. Let me just repeat myself here,” said Geese, his tone suddenly firm. “You expected too much from your son.”

Was it really that unreasonable of me to expect more? Rudy could do anything he set his mind to, ever since he was little. All I ever did was get in his way with my clumsy attempts at parenting. He never really needed me.

“Tell me something. Why can’t you just be happy that he made it here? Does it really even matter what kind of a trip the kid had? Let’s say it really was a carefree cruise, and he spent every minute of it making out with his little girlfriend. So what? He’s here now, and he’s safe. Ain’t that something worth celebrating?”

Of course it was. And I was happy at first.

“Would you have preferred your son to come back hollow-eyed and down a limb or two? Hell, there was a damn good chance of you ‘reuniting’ with a corpse. Oh wait, my mistake… If he’d died on the Demon Continent, there wouldn’t even be a body left for you to find.”

Rudy? A corpse? I’d seen him healthy and full of life this afternoon, so it was impossible to even imagine right now. But just a few days ago…hadn’t I pictured that exact scenario as I wallowed in despair?

“God, that poooor kid! After that long, hard trip, he finally found his dear old dad again, but the guy turned out to be a drunken scumbag! If I was him, I’d have cut ties on the spot.”

Oh good. Now he was getting all theatrical. “I get the message, Geese. You’re not wrong, all right? But there’s one thing I still don’t understand.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Why didn’t Rudy know about what happened to Buena Village? I’m positive I had a message waiting for him at Zant Port.”

Geese opened his mouth as if to explain, then grimaced slightly and let it fall shut. I recognized that expression. It meant he was hiding something.

“Uh, I dunno. He probably just got unlucky and didn’t notice it.”

“Wait…where exactly did you find Rudy, anyway? I was assuming you ran into him in Zant Port.”

I didn’t know where Geese had been for the last year, but Rudeus had come to Millis from the north. And Zant Port was the only city up in that direction big enough for Geese to really thrive in.

I definitely left a message for Rudy in that city. And on top of that, we had members of our squad stationed there. Their job was to gather information from any travelers crossing over from the Demon Continent. If the kid was an adventurer now, he obviously would have stopped by the Guild, right?

“I met Rudeus in the Doldia Clan village, actually. That was a real shocker, let me tell you. He’d managed to get himself locked up naked in a jail cell on charges of assaulting their Sacred Beast.”

“Naked? In a beastfolk jail? Are you serious…?”

I’d heard about this from Ghislaine. For members of the Doldia tribe, to be stripped naked, chained up in a jail cell, and doused with ice-cold water was the greatest of all humiliations. They almost never subjected outsiders to such treatment, but when they did, it usually ended in the prisoner’s death. I tossed some water on Ghislaine as a joke once, and she glared at me like I’d killed her parents.

“So, uh…what happened there?”

“What? Didn’t Rudeus tell you about all that?”

“All I heard was the part where he traveled over the Demon Continent.” Why hadn’t he told me why he never saw the message I left him at Zant Port, anyway? That was really damn important.

Oh, right. I’d never actually asked him.

Damn it. Why did I have to be so short-tempered?

I needed to calm down and think this through carefully. Rudy was a smart kid, but he’d somehow failed to see my message, or even hear about the situation. If he’d spent any time in Zant Port, he would have stumbled across that kind of information without even trying.

In other words, he must have gotten mixed up in something the moment he arrived there—something that got him carted off by the Doldia tribe. Whatever it was, it must have been a major incident. Some of our Zant Port people should be coming back in two or three days to make their regular report, but maybe something big had gone down up north.

“Well, I don’t know all the details myself,” said Geese. “But I was hanging around with the Mildett in the Great Forest when I got wind of a rumor that the Doldia had locked up some human kid.”

“Hm? Wait a second. You were where?” The Mildett? Wasn’t that a beastfolk tribe? They were the ones with rabbit ears, right?

“At a Mildett village. It’s the one where their chief lives, so it’s actually pretty big, but—”

Geese’s explanation was painfully long-winded and annoying. Honestly, I was tempted to cut him off partway through. But I’d missed out on important information by getting impatient with Rudy earlier. And although I rarely learned from my mistakes, I wasn’t stupid enough to screw up the exact same way twice in a single day.

Eventually, Geese’s rambling tale did come to an end. I tried to summarize what he’d told me. “So basically, you were going around to all the tribes in the Great Forest…and convincing them to send any lost humans they found over to Millishion?”

“That’s right. Heh heh. Feel free to shower me with gratitude!”

“Yeah, I owe you big time…” That probably explained the constant trickle of refugees from the Great Forest area who’d been coming to me for help.

“Well, anyway! When I heard about this human kid, something sorta clicked, so I ran right over. Not to brag or anything, but I’m a man with many connections, yeah? Just so happens I even know a couple people in the Doldia village. I got one of their warriors, good pal of mine, to have me tossed in the same jail cell as the kid.”

“Hold on a second. Why would you need to go in there with him?”

“So I could help him escape, if worse came to worst. It’s way easier breaking out of a beastfolk prison than breaking into one.”

I was familiar with Geese’s talent for escaping prisons. Whenever he got himself locked up for running some kind of scam, he’d pop back up soon enough as if nothing had ever happened.

“Anyway, I was assuming I’d find the kid curled up in a ball sobbing, you know? But instead…ha ha!”

“What happened? Was he all right?”

“He was lounging around casually in the nude, man! And the first words out of his mouth were ‘Welcome to life’s final destination!’ How was I even supposed to respond to that?!” Geese had to stop for a moment to cackle with laughter at his own story.

“This doesn’t sound like a laughing matter, man…”

“It was hilarious, though! I could tell right away that he had to be your kid, Paul!”

I didn’t understand what was so funny about that. Or how he’d even figured it out so quickly.

“He was exactly like the old you, man,” Geese went on. “Ridiculously cocky! Ready to boss around a total stranger! One time, he was trying to flirt with this beastfolk girl, right? She glared at him and said ‘I can smell your arousal,’ but he kept on ogling her anyway! That boy’s your son, all right!”

At this point, the man broke off for another cackling fit. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, reminded of some youthful indiscretions of my own.

“It did take a little longer for me to be completely sure, though,” said Geese, pausing to drain a second mug of beer. “But yeah, that’s the shape of it. You can hardly blame the kid for missing your message. From the sound of things, he didn’t spend any time in Zant Port.”

“Hm? Hold on, Geese. You were locked up in the same cell, weren’t you? Then—”

Couldn’t he have just explained everything?

“Anyway!” Geese said quickly, rising from his seat. “I’m sure there’ll be a bit of lingerin’ family awkwardness here, but do your old pal Geese a favor and go make up with the boy, all right?”

“Hey, wait. I’ve still got more to—”

“Oh right. Slipped my mind before, but it looks like Elinalise and company headed to the Demon Continent for you. People were sayin’ some elf lady had milked half the men in Zant Port dry, and we both know what that means.”

“What? Seriously?” I thought Elinalise hated me even more than the others did, frankly.

“Heh heh. When all’s said and done, they don’t hate you as much as they let on.”

With that, Geese sauntered right out of the bar. He hadn’t paid for his drinks, of course. He never did. But this time, I didn’t mind picking up his tab.

In any case, I’d done more than enough drinking for one day. It was about time I turned in for the night.

I’d have to go talk things out with Rudy soon. Maybe even tomorrow…

“No more booze tonight, buddy,” called Geese, who’d popped his head back in the door. “You’re gonna head over to the Dawn’s Light Inn tomorrow sober, got it?”

“Yeah, yeah! I know!” With a sigh of irritation, I put my mug of beer down.

Now that I thought about it, though, I had been overdoing it lately. Why did I keep drowning myself in this crap? I still had plenty of other things I needed to be doing.

“Um…Captain Paul? Are you finished talking with your friend?”

As I was turning things over in my head, a woman hesitantly approached my table. There was an apologetic expression on her face. My head wasn’t clear enough to recognize her at first, but after studying her face for a few seconds, I realized it was Vierra—one of my squad’s members.

“Heh. What’s with you, girl? Felt like wearing something modest for once?”

“Well, yes…” With an ambiguous nod, Vierra lowered herself into the seat Geese had just vacated a minute earlier. For some reason, she wasn’t wearing her usual provocative getup tonight. She’d changed into some perfectly unremarkable outfit that made her look more like an ordinary city girl.

“I was worried that what happened with your son earlier might have been my fault, sir.”

“What? Why would you think that?”

“Er, well, it seemed like…the way I dress might have caused him to misunderstand the nature of our relationship…”

“That’s got nothing to do with it. The little punk took one look at the size of your chest and jumped to his own conclusions.”

There was a reason Vierra dressed like she did. The woman had been an ordinary adventurer back in Fittoa, but the Displacement Incident had left her stranded on the Millis Continent without any equipment to speak of. She was quickly captured by a gang of bandits who treated her as their plaything. It was the kind of nightmare that would leave most people broken, but she’d managed to put it behind her through sheer willpower.

However, we’d also taken in a girl who hadn’t bounced back so quickly: her sister Shierra. Even now, Shierra trembled uncontrollably every time a man so much as looked at her. And we had a number of similar cases in our squad.

In order to protect them from unwanted attention, Vierra had started wearing a deliberately skimpy suit of armor to draw male eyes in her direction. She was also the member of our squad most adept at comforting and caring for women who’d been subjected to that sort of trauma. As a man with no way of understanding that specific kind of pain, I considered her an indispensable part of the team.

We didn’t have a sexual relationship, of course. The idea was ridiculous.

“It wasn’t your fault. We clear?”

“…Yes, sir.”

Still looking a bit dejected, Vierra got up and shuffled back over to the table where the other girls were sitting. Looking around the room a bit more carefully than before, I noticed that more than a few people were watching me with obvious concern in their eyes.

“Oh, for crying out loud… Don’t look at me like that, you morons! I’ll make up with him tomorrow, all right?!”

I pushed back my chair, stood up, and stomped out of the bar.



When I’d returned to my room at the inn, I found Norn already asleep.

I poured myself a cup of water from the pitcher on our table and quickly drank the whole thing. The lukewarm fluid coursed its way down into my churning stomach.

I could feel myself gradually sobering up. I’d always had a high tolerance for alcohol; I did get plastered when I drank a lot, but the effects never seemed to last too long. As the fog in my head slowly began to clear, I looked down at my daughter, who was curled up in bed clutching her blanket, and stroked her gently on the head.

I felt sorry for Norn. I really did. With a father like me, she had to have plenty of complaints, but she always kept them to herself and tried her very best to smile. If I ever lost her, I wouldn’t have the strength to go on living.

“Mm… Daddy…”

Norn shifted around in bed just a little. It didn’t seem like I’d woken her; she was probably just sleep-talking.

Norn wasn’t like Rudy. She was an ordinary child. I had to keep her safe.

Suddenly, an odd thought occurred to me: If Rudy had been an “ordinary” kid as well, wouldn’t he be sleeping in this room with Norn right now? He would have stayed home with us instead of going off to be a tutor. And at the moment of the disaster, he might have been tugging at my sleeve, asking if he could hug Norn, too.

If Rudy had been ordinary—a normal eleven-year-old—wouldn’t I look at him the same way I looked at Norn? As someone I needed to protect?

My legs trembled underneath me. I finally understood why Geese had told me “He’s still a kid.”

What difference did it make if Rudy was ordinary or not? How did that even matter? What if Norn had been the genius? Would I have spoken to her like that? If Norn had come back to me after going on an adventure, knowing nothing of what had taken place…would I have told her I expected more?

Once I started thinking about that, I couldn’t fall asleep. I didn’t even want to lie down in bed. I left our inn, found a fire bucket full of water outside, and dumped a whole jug’s worth over my head.

And then, remembering the look on Rudy’s face as he left the bar, I bent over and vomited.

Refresh my memory, Paul. Who was it who hurt the kid that badly?

Looking down into that fire bucket, I saw the face of a total idiot. Whoever this dumbass was, he was obviously the last man in the world who had any business calling himself a father.

“Ah, shit. This might be tough…”

If I was in his kid’s shoes, I’d cut ties without a second thought.