News of the death of Austin's household and the miracle of his survival dominated the headlines and people's gossip for months. 

In light of their good relationship with Austin's parents, the royal couple gave Austin new servants to fill his house, bestowed him with riches, assigned strong bodyguards to him, and promised that they would help him find the culprits who killed his parents.

Many people went to his parents' funeral to give their condolences. His parents had formed a lot of connections and everyone liked them for their upright and strong nature. However, thanks to the power and position they held, it was inevitable that they would have enemies as well. 

For those fighting to replace his parents in the political scene, they insensitively used the funeral as another chance to network with the important figures, especially since the royal couple would be present as well. They pretended to have been on good terms with his parents by saying pretty but empty words about his parents.

For those fighting to replace his parents in the economic scene, the other big fishes tried to steal the trades and businesses that had always been under his parents' control. It did not help that the figurehead his parents used to represent them got greedy and started his exploitation, causing unhappiness among workers, shareholders, and business partners.

Everything that was going on was painfully clear for Austin to see even though he was grieving. His parents had brought him up with the intention to pass everything down to him, so they did not hide anything about their world to him. Although this meant that he had a very different childhood as compared to most other children of his age, he did not begrudge it. His parents still showed him that they loved him and he understood the purpose of their actions.

On the night they died, they have also given him their final instructions before they revealed themselves to the assassins. It was done so that Austin would not feel at a loss if they lost their lives. It would be a long period of hardship for Austin but it would not be impossible to protect everything his parents has built up. 

Not wanting all his parents hard work and efforts to go down the drain with their deaths, Austin decided to push aside his grieving and step up to fill in his parents shoes as much as he could. 

I'll make you regret not killing this small insignificant weak child that night!

Knowing that his age would be an issue, he made his one and only request from the king. He wanted to switch his current young butler for someone with far more experience. The king had assigned someone closer to Austin's age in consideration of his young age and need for companionship. However, they were also glad to hear that Austin was willing to take on the mantle of a Duke. If Austin was able to do what he had proposed, it would indeed save everyone a lot of trouble. The king acceded to his request and provided his full assistance. 

Over the years, Austin was barely able to keep things under control.

Almost a year after the night his parents died, most of the things that were stolen from his house were found and the family living there was convicted of murder. 

Austin felt that something about them being the culprits did not sit right with him. The ones that killed his parents that night were obviously not mere bandits and seemed fitter than the ones they were arresting now. There were no signs of the still missing items anywhere, not even in pawn shops. Although the arrested family does not have a clean record, they only ever robbed small shops, which they confessed to once they were charged. Yet this time, they never stopped proclaiming that they were innocent. Unfortunately for the maligned family, Austin decided to sacrifice them to lay the path for a grander scheme.

When he was 15 years old, he finally won everyone's trust and punished those who had tried preying on what was left behind by his parents. He became known as the Ice Duke. No one saw him smile since his parents' death and he was all work and no play. His intimidating image made it such that nobody besides Esmeralda dared to attempt getting close and personal with him.

Now that everything was dealt with and things have stabilised, Austin could finally dedicate more effort into the re-investigation of his parents death.

Another 3 years passed by in the blink of an eye.

Austin was alone in his large and private study. It was the only place that he did not allow anyone to enter. Not even a single servant. The state of the room reflected the state of his heart. Crumpled and torn papers were strewn everywhere on the tiled floor, tall bookshelves were left untidy with some books left on the floor and some on the table, and the drywall behind the big dark brown study table had many newspaper clippings and notes stuck to it using small daggers.

He leaned against his table as he stared at the wall with a sharp gaze. 

After all his research and investigation, he could conclude that they were independent assassins who killed indiscriminately. He managed to link all the cases they were responsible for and tracked down the clients of each case. That included the Marquess whom has already been dealt with harshly. Using his influence, Austin suppressed any gossip and made it such that the Marquess's death was reported as a mere accident on the road.

He easily learnt the way they were contacted and tried to lure them out by pretending to be a client. Despite keeping watch over the letterbox from a hidden place, he never saw anyone taking any letters out until the postman came to collect the letters the next day. Trailing the postman and questioning him drew up no leads. The letters addressed to the assassins mysteriously disappeared from the pile too.

The targets he listed in the letter were his trusted business partners. After he had let them know of his plan, they were in on it and allowed him to use their name out of goodwill. Since he has long planned to confront the assassins, he has trained his body from young and practiced not only with guns but also with melee weapons. Pretending to be a bodyguard was no issue to him.

The assassins always arrived as he expected, however he could never catch them. For some reason, they always managed to slip away just before they died at his hands. At least with each encounter they had, he has inflicted an injury that he believed was deep enough to leave a scar on them.

He was getting frustrated with this cat and mouse game. He glared at the paper that was in the middle of the mindmap and has a big question mark drawn on it. I swear I'll get you the next time.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. 

"Your guests have arrived." His butler's voice traveled through the closed doors.

He stood up and straightened his white shirt and dark grey vest. He left the study and walked at a measured pace, not wanting to reveal his eagerness about meeting the people waiting for him in his sitting room. 

Austin entered the sitting room and his eyes immediately searched for the girl that could soothe his agitated heart.

Esmeralda and her friends has been coming over to his house once a month ever since his parents' death as a show of support. He had considered telling them to stop coming over and wasting his precious time but somehow could not bring himself to do so. In the end, he resorted to making excuses about being too busy to receive them or sending a letter to them in advance.

That was until he turned 13. 

Esmeralda was everything he was not. The joy, laughter, and positive energy she radiates could brighten up anyone's day. She was especially thoughtful towards him and never gave up on trying to cheer him up. It would make complete sense if she ended up growing on him and he grew to adore her. 

However, this was what he found incomprehensible about himself. 

When they turned 13, someone new joined Esmeralda's entourage. It was the girl with olive hair and grey eyes. The one Esmeralda introduced to him during her 10th birthday party as Eva. Whenever she was present, his loneliness felt oddly relieved and he calms down. Overtime, this constant relief he felt whenever she came over with Esmeralda made him identify her as the balm for his soul. He could not help but feel a growing desire to have her by his side more often. As a result, not only did he stop creating excuses to cancel or postpone their meetings, he even began to look forward to it over the years.

Eva spent the past 8 years walking on eggshells. This was an unexpected form of torture that she knew she brought upon herself. If she chose not care about her family, she would not need to worry each and every single day.

The money her parents earned from killing Austin's parents allowed them to live lavishly. They bought scrumptious food, clothes of finer quality, and nicer furniture. This combined with the fact that there had been no repercussions from killing Austin's parents made them bolder. They continued to kill anyone they were requested to kill against Eva's advice to not do so. With each kill, they were more convinced that Eva was worried for nothing. 

Unbeknownst to them, Eva was in the know of Austin's efforts to catch them ever since she turned 10. 

The first time she went to Austin's mansion as part of Esmeralda's entourage was the first time she would be meeting him after Esmeralda's 10th birthday party. Although he also came for Esmeralda's 11th, 12th, and 13th birthday parties, she had intentionally avoided him. 

No matter how many times she met him after their first reunion when Eva finally turned 10, she still could not bring herself to look at him in the eyes, but it was for more than one reason now. Not only did she feel anxious about the feelings that may rise in her heart when she looked at him in the eyes, she was ridden with guilt. 

If he truly had the same soul as the second male lead of the previous worlds, it would mean that BaoBao was not the only one by her side supporting her the whole time. Moreover, she has been wishing for his happiness ever since the previous world. Unfortunately, even though she was fully capable of giving him what he wanted in this world, she could not bring herself to sell her family out. This made her weakness painfully clear to her. She wondered if the punishment world was chosen specially for each host.

BaoBao had informed her of what appeared to be Austin's study. He described to her the state it was in and how every death since his parents' death was marked on the wall. Every kill her parents committed, Austin got closer to the truth. He began identifying the cases they were responsible for and the ones they were not. 

Being in the know yet lacking the ability or power to change anything strongly reminded her of her original life. 

Although she behaved like a prick in her family's side by consistently expressing her disagreement and disapproval, her family never failed to pat her head and reassure her. 

When she turned 12, she intended to change her approach of protecting her family to one that uses her body as a shield, just as she did so in her original life. However, they treated her differently from Briana and did not involve her in any assassinations. Her parents simply said that she did not seem physically or mentally fit to join the profession, unlike Briana, and that they were fine with this.

As a result, Eva resorted to tailing them and protecting them through the shadows. 

She used her only redemption left to redeem an enchanted ring that would make her invisible. Redemption of items could be used more than once since it could be kept. So with the help of the ring and BaoBao, she kept up with her family who rode bicycles through the underground tunnels, and intervened in fights whenever the situation got dire for her family. 

Coincidentally, it was this year when she secretly joined her family in their assassinations that her family started to run into obstacles. There was a particular masked bodyguard who would always appear and was capable enough to fend off her family's swift and silent attacks. It was as if he knew their pattern of attack like the back of his hand. Eva could not help but suspect if he was related to Austin.

Feeling that it was better to be safe than sorry, she took the bodyguard seriously and assumed the worst case scenarios. Her interventions were timed properly with BaoBao's help but the execution was down to her ability. Oftentimes she would make use of them being knocked back or thrown off to give them an extra tactical boost, which would bust them out of a window or slide through some other opening that could be used as an escape route. Her family always managed to handle the rest of the escape by themselves. 

By the time they reached home with grievous injuries, Eva would already be home and waiting to dress their wounds.

Nobody suspected a thing. 

The only relief she got was that her family would give up on the targets protected by that mysterious guard. At least they admitted that their strength and skills were inferior to that person's.