Hitched & Hitched Again: A Comedy of Marital Mayhem ( Elysia and Tarquin)

The old man's face twisted with guilt and regret as he spoke.

"I did get my revenge. I cleared my mentor's name, even brought pride to our people. But I was too flashy about it. When they couldn't beat me fair and square, they started playing dirty."

"They killed my mentor's wife in the most brutal way, then used my junior as a pawn against me! They forced me to throw fights-told me to lose on purpose in the ring to foreign fighters, just so they could save face on the world stage."

"If I refused, it was either take my own life, or they'd kill my junior. The kidnappers let us video chat. He was devastated-his eyes were red and he shouted at me, teeth clenched: 'Avenge her! Don't worry about me, just get revenge for my mom!""

"After our mentor died, his wife was my junior's last anchor. Losing her broke him. He was just a kid, and suddenly he had nothing left to live for-only a burning need for revenge."

"But by then... everything inside me had changed. I was angry, but I was also wracked with guilt. I regretted being so brash. If I hadn't drawn so much attention with my revenge, none of this would have happened to them!"

"There are countless ways to get payback, but I chose the dumbest one. I only thought about making things right for my mentor-I never stopped to consider the danger I was putting his wife and kid in."

"If I hadn't been so loud about avenging my mentor, they wouldn't have gotten caught up in it."

"So after she was killed, I lost my nerve. I gave in. I'd already gotten her killed in my quest for revenge-there was no way I'd let my junior die for it too."

"He was their only son, their legacy. I had to keep him safe. But when they tried to make me throw the fights, just couldn't do it. It wasn't just about mme-it was about our country's honor. I was a fighter, proud to represent our people, and I'd never let those foreign fighters humiliate us." noveldrama

"But I couldn't just let myself die, either. If I died, what if they broke their promise and killed him anyway? So, in the end, I faked my own death. For whatever reason, after I disappeared, they let my junior go."

"For years after that, he barely scraped by just surviving, really. Life was hard enough, but the pressure was even worse. He wanted to avenge his mother, but he didn't have the strength or the skills."

"He couldn't even track down who'd

done it. He only knew it was foreigners who killed her and kidnapped him, but he had no idea who exactly. And even if he found out, what could he do? That kind of helplessness... it eats you alive. His life fell apart." Content bétongs to

"As for me, I couldn't help him openly. All I could do was give him a little support from the shadows,

make his life a bit easier. But

emotionally? I was useless

The

harder things got for him, the more he missed his mom, the more he wanted revenge-and the more he grew to resent me."

"He knew I wasn't really dead. He didn't think I'd faked my death and disappeared for his sake-he thought I was a coward, spineless, that I didn't care about his mom at all. Over time, that resentment just grew, and so did his despair."

"Later, I tried to set him up with a new mentor, get him back into training, but he refused. He even threatened to end his own life if I didn't avenge his mother."