Edward Stark was born from a declined wealthy family, bearing so many debts, his family's assets had been loaned and confiscated, soon, the rich boy would have even lost his mansion.

 

Edward himself was a handsome charismatic boy, in his 17 this year, he had charmed so many women, the blue-colored eyes as if a bright sky that seemingly would never cloak by the dark cloud, black hair resembled the sparkling obsidian and upright nose like a heroic general.

 

But he was spoiled, as the only child of the Stark, his parents were too soft at him, Edward had caused so much trouble in the city, although not exaggeratedly chaotic such as only flirting with many young ladies or bullying the poor, his parents had never reprimanded him.

 

At some point of the time, his father, Hansel Stark suddenly fell ill, all of the family's wealth had been expended to find a cure for him, now they were leaving almost with nothing, and not to mention as a merchant, Hansel also borrowed lot of money, most of them still unpaid.

 

In the early morning, three people had come into the mansion, one of them was a short fat guy, and the two of them were tall strong-like people, they were here to demand the payment for the debt.

 

"I am sorry... there is... there is nothing more we can use to pay..." mother Stark said with a sad countenance, she was a beautiful refined lady before, now the misfortune and her husband's dire illness caused her to transform into a miserable woman, the day after day worries had aged her so bad that she looked like 20 years older than her current age.

 

"I don't care, the deadline is overdue, if you can't bring me money, then give me something else," the fat short guy said without mercy, the two big baddies behind him was even glaring, causing the mother Stark to tremble.

 

"I'll... I'll try to find something... please, enter first," mother Stark delivered the short fat guy into the old couch in the living room, usually, there was an antique coach there, designed with a gold frame, but now, it was only a gray-lame couch.

 

The fat short guy revealed disdain in his eyes, he told the tall guy to clean the couch first and then placed a piece of cloth, only after that, the fat short guy finally sat.

 

"Old Vernon, please check what we have in my husband's study room, bring anything you deem worthy," mother Stark said, revealed a slight weariness.

 

"Yes, Mistress," a butler with grey hair bowed slightly and left the living room.

 

"Yo, you are so poor, yet still have a butler," the fat short guy sneered.

 

"Old Vernon is my husband's distant uncle, he offered himself to work as the butler," mother Stark said indifferently.

 

The butler Old Vernon walked up the stairs, and when he passed the long hall, a young figure came out from a room, despite the family's situation was in dire strait, he still looked graceful and elegant, it's like anything that happened in this family got nothing to do with him.

 

"Old Vernon, I am hungry, get me some bread and milk," the young man said before returning into his room while yawning.

 

The butler sighed, he couldn't understand why the young master could still behave like his family was upper citizen, judging by how the situation progress, soon it would fatally collapse, and they might have to move out from the mansion, inevitably living like a commoner, perhaps even lower than them.

 

He felt like to chastise his nephew, this was the result if you were over-pampering, even in rain and storm, the young master would never care other than his own pleasure.

 

There was only a couple of staff left in the mansion, and the annoying cooker recently had the idea to take off also, ungrateful bastard, how long he had served the family, and now directly wanted to leave, it felt like all the money the Stark gave to him in the past was all wasted.

 

The butler ignored his young master's demand, right now, saving his niece-in-law from further embarrassment was priority number one.

 

The young man, Edward Stark walked around his room with nervousness, due to his family's financial trouble, he couldn't behave as he likes in the past, so he borrowed some money from his friend to enjoy himself in the high-class gambling establishment last night, and he promised to pay back double.

 

Who knew he just kept losing, more and more his own debt piled up, and now he had to pay back the money.

 

But he never had a saving, and all of his precious stuff had also been exchanged for money, now, he had nothing left.

 

Edward Stark wanted to ask some money from his parents, but looking at the two of them in a poor state, he didn't have the heart to ask, he was very much clueless at what he should do.

 

Stealing? His father was a merchant, there still should be some precious stuff he kept save in case of anything.

 

He wanted to go to his father's study this early morning, but who knew that hateful people came to demand payment of the debt so early, and the butler Old Vernon actually ignored his words and kept going to his father's library, what if he found some nice stuff and gave them to those people instead, what should he do later?

 

Time passed, but the Old Vernon hadn't come out yet, did he find nothing in father's library?

 

Then, what were the odd he could find something worthwhile in the library? But where else he would search? The main bedroom would be a good choice, but then there was his father, he might unconsicous but could he really do it in his presence? Would he forgive him?

 

Edward grew impatient by minutes, seeing the Old Butler hadn't yet appeared again. But when he thought it would take any longer, there was a movement outside the hall, he pasted his ear on the door then opened it, saw him walking down the hall with three books and a sextant on the top of them.

 

As a merchant, his father tended to go overseas, and he was particularly fond of a sextant, which could be used to guide the sail by using the stars.

 

Should it be his father's last precious item? And what about those books? Were they valuable?

 

Edward didn't know what kind of book that worth money other than a magic book, the kind that held information of certain magic, which people could learn from. He also heard there was a sort of dangerous book in this world, should it fell into a wrong hand, it would cause many disasters.

 

Anyway, he didn't have the time to think of the consequence; if there was a book that indeed could save his ass, then he would willingly take it out and exchange it for money.

 

He waited for a while, seeing the butler didn't have the sign of coming back, Edward opened the door and sneaked his way toward the library.

 

The last time he stepped into that room was when he was 10 years old, luckily there were no longer maids around now, otherwise, they would have questioned hisintention.

 

The library that also served as father's study room, it was not big, but every shelf was full of books, Edward swept his eyes, there were a few missing books, he guessed they were the one that salvaged by the old butler.

 

He didn't know whether he could find anything, but a beggar couldn't choose, so he forced himself to look around the room, he found a set of writing tools, navy maps, documents, and that's about it, there was nothing left he could find.

 

"No, I can't give up..." Edward gritted his teeth and started to look at the books, thinking whether he could sell them.

 

These books were varied, some were pretty thick, other was no more than a hundred pages, there were books using a fancy cover, there were also books with the simpler one, Edward looked each of them and discovered he had no idea what they were, he couldn't estimate how much price they had.

 

"The good ones probably have been taken by Old Vernon," I mumbled in disappointment, although he sure he wouldn't even understand the value of the book if it was discovered by him.

 

Ah, what should he do? Just take random books and sold them? That sounded about right, but then again, where he should pawn the book?

 

What if they knew the value of the book was nothing but I made a big deal out of it? Wasn't I pretty much looked like a clown then? That would not work, Master Edward did not clown himself, he made fun of people.

 

Maybe he should relate to one of his friends? At least there should be someone who knew this kind thing, Edward was willing to share the profit as long as they could identify it.

 

He looked around the room, decided to look for the book with an old and plain cover instead of the fancy one, he thought something old might have historical value on it.

 

He took some of them, but he wasn't really sure about the topic of the book, seemed pretty non-sense to him, well, he would just bring them to his friends.

 

When he thought of leaving, there was suddenly something that caught his eyes, normally, he wouldn't care about it, but maybe because he wanted to find a valuable book, his eyes seemed quite sensitive when it came to the subject now.

 

He walked toward the book, staring at for a while, there were words written on the side cover, and he couldn't recognize the language.

 

The other thing that caught his interest, the shelf had three rows on it, but the book was pretty much at the center, and it was actually bigger than the rest of its fellow, it stood out.

 

There was slight dust on it, proved the book had been long untouched, Father usually took care of his book by himself, ever since he fell sick, he rarely went to the library anymore, but at least the books shouldn't be very dirty, and yet... this book was quite different from the rest, showed even father hadn't touched the book for a long time.

 

How could a standout book is this dirty? And how come the Old Butler didn't take this? Was it probably too weird and feared the people downstair would be unhappy?

 

To be honest, Edward also wasn't sure about the book, looking at the strange language, he doubted many of his friends would even recognize it, how about he took the book to some mages in the town? Maybe they could read it.

 

But he realized how naive his thought was; if it was that easy, father would not have abandoned the book, nor the Old Butler would not take it out.

 

Or maybe they knew the words in the book, but it's just a bunch of uninteresting subject, therefore they didn't pay attention to it.

 

Ah... Edward scratched his head, why would he think any of these now? It didn't really matter...

 

He extended his hand and grabbed the book, taking it out from the shelf, he blew the dust and wiped it with his hand... only noticed the dust didn't get removed even a single bit.

 

"Huh?"

 

Edward stared at the book, this was strange, why he felt like the dust as if glued to the book? No matter what kind of effort, they just persisted to stay.

 

"Was this a magic book?" Edward thought, there had never been a mage in the line of his family, so he pretty much doubted this idea.

 

"But you don't need to be a magician to sell some magic item; like you don't need to be a doctor to sell medicine, as long one has knowledge of the item, then they are good to go..." Edward mumbled as he thought he might have discovered a treasure.

 

He opened the book, there was a loud creak it made, following the red wooden cover, there were grayish papers, surprisingly the book didn't have that many pages.

 

Just like the words on the cover, he couldn't read a single thing, what this language supposed to be, it's like a bunch of strange drawings to him.

 

Edward shrugged and decided to bring the book to sell, he ought to try at least.

 

By the time he went out of the library, he carried several books with him, then returned to his bedroom and packed it inside his bag. When he came down to the first floor, he noticed the awful people still didn't leave, mother was alone accompanying them while the Old Butler was missing, these people didn't have a good expression either, clearly dissatisfied about the payment.

 

Edward naturally didn't want to leave through the front door to avoid some questions from his mother, so he tried to sneak into the backdoor of the house.

 

Although he felt bad leaving his mother alone, his own ass was needed to be saved now, couldn't manage anything else.

 

"I know, you have a handsome boy, right?"

 

Edward heard the loud annoying voice of the fat short guy, his body instantly stiffened, what kind of ill intention this pig had for him?

 

"You... what do you want to do?" mother Stark had the same idea with her son, bad premotion rose from her guts.

 

"You shouldn't waste such talent, although he was useless with anything, a face and appearance like that can earn you a fortune," the short fat guy smirked, waving his meaty hand, "there is a lot of people willing to pay for him, just give him to me and I'll consider the debt paid in half, the other half depends on the boy's effort."

 

"No, don't touch my son, I beg you," mother Stark was getting desperate, there was nothing left she could offer.

 

"Well then what else you can give me as a payment? Do you think these books and stupid stars pointer is any useful? It's not even cover the quarter of it," the fat short guy sneered.

 

"I..." she bit her lips, cast a glance to the side, said without hesitation, "me."

 

"Huh?" the fat short guy gave a long disdainful voice, he curled his lips, sweeping his eyes on the mother Stark figure, said in a mocking tone, "you're kidding? Your figure doesn't even have half of the whore in the Gambling establishment."

 

"I... I can serve people... I can demonstrate it for you... please just leave my son alone..."

 

The fat short guy didn't seem to have a single interest, he glanced at the tall guy behind and said toward mother Stark, "Well, if you can make him satisfied, I'll consider."

 

Without as much as a hesitation, mother Stark stood up from her chair, slowly approaching the tall guy.

 

"Mother, don't!"

 

Edward couldn't bear his mother to make a sacrifice like that, he quickly approached them.

 

"Ed!" mother Stark was shocked to see her son's appearance, then she shouted, "Ed, go back to your room!"

 

"No, Mother, don't do this, I don't want you to do this," Edward nervously said, then he snapped his head toward the fat short guy, "give us more time, I'll promise to pay all the debt."

 

The fat short guy scanned Edward's figure up and down, there was a hint of appreciation in his eyes, said, "Truly a marvelous young man, if you really want to save your family, then you should just agree and come with me."

 

"No, Ed! Mother will not agree, Old Vernon, take him back to his room!" mother Stark said with the panic tone, she started to call out the butler crazily.

 

Edward clenched his hand, the thought of sacrificing himself and what these people would do had terrified him, he would be lying if he was not cowered at the moment, but he also didn't want for his mother to sacrifice herself, no, their family might be declined, but his mother should not be insulted.

 

Looking at Edward seemingly unbudged, mother Stark's eyes filled with tears, in desperation, she walked to the table and grabbed a fruit knife, placing the edge on her wrist and said, "Ed, if you dare to agree with him, then this will be the last time you see your mother."

 

"Mother, what are you doing? Put the knife down!" Edward was horrified, had his mother gone crazy? If she died, then what about his father? Would she just leave him alone?

 

"I will if you go back to your room!" mother Stark glared at Edward.

 

"Mother..." Edward became more and more confused now, he couldn't let his mother died, but he also couldn't let his mother be insulted, what choice he should make?

 

"Family drama, boring~" the fat short guy suddenly said, then he waved his hand, "subdue her."

 

In the blink, one of the tall guys ran forward, attempting to reach out to mother Stark, she was startled, looking at the threatening person that approached her, her instinct was not to slice her wrist, but waving the fruit knife instead, shouting, "No, get back!"

 

"Don't hurt my mother!" Edward startled, also approached their position.

 

The tall guy didn't faze, easily dodged the slice of the knife and extended his palm to slap mother Stark, the fragile body quickly stumbled on the ground, a red mark was quite clear on her cheek.

 

"You bastard!" Edward didn't hesitate to jump onto the tall guy, launching his own fist.

 

But the tall guy easily grasped his hand, his grip was very strong, no matter how he pushed or pulled, Edward's hand fixed in his grasp.

 

"Grab him, thank you for the 'item', Madam Stark, I'll sure you, we'll take good care of him," the fat short guy stood up from the chair and prepared to leave, the tall guy pulled Edward and placed his body on his shoulder, his strength such easily overwhelmed the young man.

 

"No, no, don't take my son away, I beg you, take me instead, " mother Stark grasped the tall guy's thigh, trying to hold him still.

 

"Annoying hag!" the tall guy shook his leg, but the woman was fierce, no matter how hard her face clashed against the sturdy leg on him, she didn't let go.

 

"Mother, stop, we can't do anything about it," Edward said bitterly, he had accepted his fate, and he didn't want to see his mother suffer anymore.

 

"No, not while I still alive, you dare to take my son away, I will spend at nothing to kill you all!" mother Stark glared with red eyes, her face had been full of bruises, making her quite hideous at the moment.

 

"Hah, like that can happen, but still, I feel not quite good at your threat, it seems you need to take a quite few beating to make you sober," the fat short guy looked at the other tall guy, he nodded and approached mother Stark.

 

"No, no, leave her alone, I am willing to go with you!" Edward started to struggle, the bag on his back swayed along, inside of it was quite heavy books, it kept hitting on the side face of the tall guy, annoyed him much.

 

"Ed! Shut up, don't you ever say that, the mother does not allow you to say that!" mother Stark said with reprimanding tone, continued, "vent everything on me, use me as you wish, just don't touch my son!"

 

"Well, if you say so," the fat short guy laughed, then the tall guy took her away from his buddy's leg, and... he started beating on her.

 

"Mother!!!" Edward shouted at the top of his lung, never in his mind, his mother would experience this kind of suffering, feeling tears about to burst out from his eyes, he opened his mouth and bit on the tall guy's ear, drawing some blood and several groans of pain, he dropped Edward on the ground as the young man quickly made his way toward the bully who beat up his mother.

 

"Fuck, you little shit!" but the tall guy behind him grabbed him by his collar and slammed him onto the ground, Edward felt his world spun and the concussion made him dizzy, the books from his bag also scattered outside.

 

"Ed!" mother Stark cried out, the pain on her body did not match with the ache in her heart.

 

"Don't harm him too much, his face is the best asset," the fat short guy said.

 

"Relax, boss, I'll just give him several lessons," the tall guy smacked his fists together, then he grabbed Edward by his hair, said, "pretty boy, you soon learn the truth about the world."

 

He slammed Edward face on to the ground, even it was not hard, Edward felt his face burned up as the result, then the tall guy used his feet, he kept stomping on his body, Edward's organs as if churned up at the moment.

 

"Leave him! Don't hurt him! Please, I beg you!" mother Stark crawled from the ground, tried to reach out to her son.

 

"Cough," Edward spat some blood from his mouth, the fat short guy stopped the tall guy's action and prepared to leave.

 

Looking at his mother's miserable condition, she was tattered and torn, sobbing while dripping blood.

 

Edward's heart was full of hate, hate that he was so incapable, hate that he couldn't protect his mother, hate that his father made so much trouble.

 

But that's the best he could do, hate... just hate... yet he was doing nothing.

 

He looked at the dusty red book; if he thought about it was right, that this was a magic book, could it possibly help him out?

 

Nah... to dreamy, his father could not do anything with the book, let alone him this ignorant child, there was no such thing called Miracle.

 

He grabbed the book at the same time with the tall guy picked him up above the ground and put him once again on his shoulder, he was treated no differently than a sack of salt.

 

He accepted his fate, but he didn't want to leave his mother like that, beaten and wounded, but the injury in her heart was bigger than what happened on her body.

 

She could not protect her son, so what's left there for her to live?

 

Edward wanted to cry out loud, he wanted to go over and hugged his mother, in desperation he sought for help, but none shall answer his pleading.

 

It felt like the world had abandoned his family, it felt like the world abandoned him.

 

Meanwhile, as Edward closed his eyes in bitterness, the blood from his mouth kept dripping, bead by bead, one of them finally landed on the dusty red book, strangely, this bead of blood disappeared a few seconds later, and something unimaginable happened.

 

A brilliant light shot out from the book, blinding everyone in the entire room, it lasted quite a while before it slowly fading, and by the time it had completely gone, the people in the room couldn't help but get surprised.

 

Originally, there were five people in the room, excluded the old Butler that didn't seem want to make an appearance, among the wounded woman, two fierce tall guys, short fat guy, and pathetic Edward, there was additional the sixth person.

 

Her hair and eyes were fiery red, coating with fluttering flames from her head down, she had dark brown irises and a fair complexion, the body was petite, probably about 12 old years.

 

She wore all black attire consisting of a shirt, pants, and trench coat, the way she looked at the people in the room was indifferent and cold, it's like nothing in the world could faze this little girl.

 

Then she fixed her eyes on Edward, swaying the sword in hand, she aimed it toward the tall guy and simply said, "Put him down, or I'll cut you down, Flame Haze does not concern with human's affair, but if you bother with my master, then I shall punish square and fair."