Lisa Kross greeted Leon with a beautiful smile that could melt glaciers. Her lips curved perfectly, revealing pearly white teeth, and her deep blue eyes sparkled with warmth.
"It's so wonderful to finally meet you, daddy," she said, her voice like honey mixed with silk.
"Liam has told me so much about you."
Leon felt his heart skip a beat. Not just from her beauty, but from the way she called him 'daddy' with such genuine affection.
It stirred something deep inside him that he couldn't quite name.
"Please, come in," Leon managed to say, stepping aside to let them enter.
The three of them settled into the modest living room. Lisa and Liam sat together on the main sofa, while Leon took the chair across from them.
He couldn't help but notice how Lisa's dress rode up slightly when she sat, revealing more of her creamy thighs above those black stockings.
Liam cleared his throat, his confident demeanor suddenly faltering. He ran a hand through his black hair and looked down at his feet.
"Dad... I owe you an apology," he began, his voice heavy with guilt.
"I wasn't able to invite you to our wedding. It happened in the capital of Zora, which I know is quite distant from this village."
Leon nodded slowly, memories of the previous Leon flooding back. Zora was indeed far from this small village, at least a week's journey by carriage.
"The thing is..." Liam continued, his hands fidgeting.
"I wanted to come here personally to introduce Lisa to you. To make up for... everything."
The weight of those words hung in the air. Leon's inherited memories painted a clear picture of their troubled relationship. The previous Leon Kross had been married once. His wife had given him two children, Liam and a daughter named Elena.
But when the children were still young, his wife left him, taking Elena with her and vanishing into the night. She left Liam behind without a word, like a ghost slipping through the dark.
Leon raised Liam alone, doing everything he could to provide for him despite the heartbreak. He took quests from the Adventurer Guild, slayed beasts, ventured into deadly places, and risked his life over and over, just to give his son a better future.
But when Liam turned eighteen, things had gone wrong.
Leon had wanted to take his son to the Adventurer's Guild in the nearest town. It was honest work, and adventurers could make good money if they were skilled and brave. But Liam had refused. He'd claimed he had bigger dreams, better plans.
Those "better plans" had turned out to be theft.
One night, five years ago, Liam had cleaned out every single gold and silver coin from his father's savings. Money that Leon had worked years to accumulate. Money meant for emergencies, for Liam's future, for their survival.
Liam had vanished in the darkness, leaving his father with nothing but an empty house and a broken heart.
And now, five years later, here he was. Sitting in that same living room with a woman who looked like she belonged in a king's court, not in a poor village.
"I know what I did was unforgivable," Liam said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"I took everything from you. I left you with nothing. I was selfish and stupid and—"
"You were young," Leon kept his face calm and his tone warm, though his thoughts were sharp and without a hint of warmth.
"Young men make mistakes."
Lisa reached over and squeezed Liam's hand, giving him an encouraging smile.
Leon noticed the gesture and felt a strange pang in his chest.
"But how did you manage to..."
Leon gestured vaguely at Lisa, then at Liam's fine clothes, "...all this?"
Liam's face brightened slightly.
"I got lucky in the capital. Really lucky. I met some people who helped me get into trading. Made some good investments. And then I met Lisa at a noble's party."
Lisa blushed beautifully, her cheeks turning a soft pink. "Liam swept me off my feet," she said softly.
"He was so charming, so different from the other men at court."
"Father, she was also an adventurer," Liam said.
"That was in the past," she replied with a faint smirk. Her eyes held a distant shine, proud yet bitter, as if those days meant everything and nothing at the same time.
Leon studied them both carefully. There was something about their story that didn't quite add up, but he couldn't put his finger on what.
The system chimed quietly in his mind:
[Target Analysis: Lisa Kross]
[Current Loyalty to Host: 0%]
[Current Loyalty to Liam: 87%]
[Hidden Status: Conflicted]
Leon's eyebrows raised slightly. Conflicted? About what?
"So what brings you back now?" Leon asked.
"After all these years?"
Leon wasn't stupid. He knew how the world worked. Liam, who had stolen his decades of savings, took off and never looked back. And now he just showed up?
He wasn't dumb enough to believe the bullshit about coming all this way just to introduce his wife and ask for his father's blessing, especially from the capital, a trip that took a full week by carriage.
Liam could sense the shift in the air. He glanced over at Lisa.
Liam and Lisa exchanged a quick glance. There was something there, some unspoken communication between them.
"We're not just here to apologize," Liam said finally.
"We're here because we need your help."
Leon leaned back in his chair.
"My help?"
"There's trouble in the capital," Lisa said, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"Political trouble. We had to leave quickly and quietly. We're looking for a place to stay for a while, somewhere safe and away from prying eyes."
Leon felt the pieces clicking together. Whatever success Liam had found in the capital, it came with a price. And now, they were running from something. Or maybe his business had collapsed, and his former partners were after his life.
"You want to stay here," Leon said. It wasn't a question.
"Just for a few weeks," Liam said quickly.
"A month at most. We'll pay you rent, of course. We're not asking for charity."
Leon looked at Lisa again. She was watching him with those ocean blue eyes, and he could see hope mixed with worry in her expression.
Leon took a deep breath. Liam Kross was standing in front of him, asking for help. He was the biological son of the previous Leon Kross, the one who had died.
This was the same boy who had stolen everything from his father and vanished without a word. Now he had come back, not just with empty hands, but with a wife the system had already marked as Leon's first target.
And soon, both of them would be living under the same roof. It was like fate was playing a very twisted game.
"Alright," Leon said finally.
"You can stay."
Relief flooded both their faces.
"Dad, did you receive the fruit I sent?" Liam asked quietly, his voice almost shy.
"They're famous local fruits from the capital."
Leon suddenly remembered the box of fruit that had been delivered days ago. It came with a letter, the handwriting unmistakably Liam's.
In it, his son apologized for his past mistakes, his betrayal, the theft and offered the fruit as a gesture of remorse.
He wrote that he and his wife would arrive the next day.
At the time, Leon had felt a flicker of hope. He had eaten the fruit, believing in his son's apology, even feeling grateful that Liam had finally reached out.
But that night, after falling asleep… he never woke up. The fruit had been poisoned. That was how the original Leon Kross was murdered by his own son.
The system chimed again in his mind:
[Quest Update: Tame Lisa Kross and Inject Arcane Seed. Make the unfilial son carry the heavy burden of regret for murdering his own father and stealing everything that was rightfully his. Break him down until he wishes he had never been born and can never escape the consequences of his actions]
[Time Limit: 7 Days]
[Reward: skill —Assimilation]
Note: Increasing the target loyalty may unlock additional rewards, including enhanced skills, rare passive traits, or exclusive system perks.
[Failure Penalty: Death]
Leon stared at his Liam Kross, calm and unreadable.
He said, "No."
"But," leon continue, smiling just slightly, a devilish curve forming on his lips.
"we need to set some ground rules. This is still my house. And Liam… you and I have a lot to talk about."
Both Liam and Lisa froze for a moment, a strange chill creeping down their spines. There was something in Leon's smile, charming on the surface yet quietly threatening, that made their bodies tense.
Their instincts reacted before their minds could. It felt like danger was hiding behind that calm expression.
Lisa smiled that beautiful smile again.
"Thank you so much, Father. You won't regret this."
Leon's eyes narrowed slightly.
"I'm sure you won't regret this either," he said, suppressing the dangerous smile threatening to creep across his face.