Chapter 83: A Gamble!

Chapter 83: The Gamble is On!

This somewhat delayed luncheon was one that Cullen ate with extreme restraint.

Regarding the image of the Allen family,

and the treatment he might endure upon his arrival,

he had envisioned many possibilities before coming, but the scene before him lay entirely outside all his reckonings.

When Cullen set down his fork and took a napkin to wipe the corners of his mouth, the elderly Mr. Anderson immediately instructed Eunice:

"Take Master Cullen to his bedroom to rest. Of course, if Master Cullen is so inclined, you may first show him his study."

"Yes, Grandfather."

Eunice stood up and walked to Cullen’s side; Cullen also rose, nodded to everyone present, and then followed Eunice out of the dining room and up the stairs.

At the entrance of the third floor, Eunice pointed toward the study door ahead and said:

"Cullen, this is your study."

"My study?"

The door to the study was large, flanked by decorations that were ancient and restrained; once Eunice opened the door, Cullen immediately realized that this was by no means a room hastily cleaned up on a whim—it must have always had an owner.

For one could clearly sense whether a room had been left vacant or continuously occupied.

Upon the walls of the study hung numerous paintings.

What instantly caught Cullen’s gaze were three specific pieces.

The first painting depicted a middle-aged man dressed in island attire and wearing a pirate's eyepatch, holding in his arms a splendidly dressed woman wearing a crown.

Following Cullen’s gaze, Eunice introduced: "This is our ancestor, Count Recar. He is the pride of our family history, having once been the leader of the Long Harp Sea Pirate Legion."

"Then the woman in his arms is..."

"His lover, the Queen of the Vien Royal Family at the time—Gloria III."

Vien had originally been an island nation that, through maritime hegemony, gradually formed the empire of today;

In the early days, facing external pressure, both the royal family and the government issued documents encouraging pirate organizations to serve the empire;

And the most formidable pirate captain of those years had actually managed to make the Queen of Vien his lover.

No wonder the Allen family maintained excellent relations with the Vien royal family to this day, and the women of the family could still frequently enter the palace to have afternoon tea with the Queen's household; it turned out the ancestors of both houses shared such a history.

One could only wonder if there had been any mixing of bloodlines.

Cullen then looked toward another painting, which depicted a massive sea monster. Upon the monster's forehead was thrust the flag of the Allen family crest, and behind it, a fleet of pirate warships followed in its wake.

"This one, you have seen before—Aselos. Though it probably isn't the same Aselos that brought us back."

Cullen nodded, his gaze falling upon the final painting.

That painting depicted... a black cat.

This black cat wore a pink top hat, a string of pearls around its neck, and sat upon a golden chair with a stern, majestic expression.

The corners of Cullen’s mouth twitched involuntarily.

This... was Pu'er?

It was truly difficult to overlap the Pu'er in this painting with the black cat that always liked to sprawl on the third-floor windowsill of his home to bask in the sun,

even if they were both cats.

Just as it was difficult to connect a king with a beggar, even if they were both men.

"This is the most famous genius in our family history. She elevated the family's belief system to a whole new stage. As for her specific deeds, I don't know much, because the family's intention was not to rush me onto the path of the family system, and I myself am not very keen on it.

But I remember asking Grandfather when I was a child, why the portraits of the ancestors in the study were all so heroic and martial, yet this ancestor was a cat?

Grandfather told me that this was just the temperament of a genius. Many years ago, when the family invited court painters to paint her portrait, she deliberately transformed herself into a cat.

She said there were too many portraits in the family, and she did not wish to fade away as just one of many; she hoped that every time future descendants looked at these portraits, they would always see her and notice her at first glance—only then would it be interesting."

Cullen nodded;

Yes, very interesting.

But back then, you probably didn't know you would have to be a cat for a hundred years afterward.

"This ancestor is very important in our family history, no less so than Count Recar. It's just that her achievements belong to another dimension. Cullen, you ought to know of this."

"Yes, I know. What happened later?"

"Later, I cannot say for certain. This ancestor seemed to have had some conflict with the family, and in the end, there were no further records of her in the family chronicles, as if she had evaporated into thin air.

But the prohibition against keeping cats in our household began because of her."

Cullen remembered Pu'er mentioning that the Allen family had once obtained a mysterious object, and Pu'er, believing that this object would bring a great disaster to the family, carried it directly out of the house, severing ties with them from then on.

Therefore, Cullen felt that the Allen family's ban on cats was not out of "reverence for Pu'er's name," but rather because the family patriarch of that generation hated "Pu'er" to the bone.

Yet because "Pu'er" was a glorious peak in the family's history—and during that period, the name "Pu'er" could even deter enemies—the conflict could not be made public, leaving them to vent their fury upon "cats" instead.

"That one over there is the progenitor of our Allen family—Allen." Eunice reached out, pointing to the painting behind the desk.

In the painting, a half-naked man walked through ice and snow, yet his body was ablaze with flames.

His name had been bestowed as their surname.

Cullen looked at this painting. So, he was the beginning of the Allen family's belief system, and clearly a figure who had bound the dual attributes of water and fire unto his own body;

No wonder Mick had not hesitated to blow off both his legs just to practice this. The progenitor's portrait had been hanging in the house all this time, which was equivalent to constantly instructing generations of descendants: I did it this way, and it works!

Or perhaps, it could be called "instigation" or "beguilement."

Without this portrait of the progenitor, generations of the Allen family would likely have broken far fewer legs or arms.

"Whose study was this?" Cullen asked.

"It used to be Father's study. Grandfather said this will be your study from now on," Eunice said.

"My study?" Cullen smiled. "You aren't joking?"

Eunice shook her head. "When Second Uncle Mick heard this arrangement earlier, he also said, 'You must be joking, right?' And then, on Second Uncle's face..."

Cullen had noticed it; when Mick wheeled himself inside, there was a red cane mark across his face.

"No, Eunice, how can I use your father's study the moment I arrive? This is the patriarch's study, isn't it?"

"But that is exactly what Grandfather means. Furthermore, opposite the study was originally the master bedroom of my father and mother. It has already been cleaned up and replaced with new amenities; from now on, it will be your bedroom."

"What exactly is Grandfather Anderson trying to do?" Cullen looked at Eunice.

Eunice blinked, looking back at Cullen, and said, "Do you still not see it clearly?"

"I feel it is unreal."

"But this is Grandfather's arrangement. My mother didn't expect it to be arranged this way either, but Father must have discussed it with Grandfather long ago.

Earlier, when you rang the summoning bell and the dining room cabinet door was opened;

Grandfather, who stood at the very front, said:

Brace yourselves, everyone, and accept the summons of the new patriarch."

“Grandfather Anderson wants me to be the new patriarch?”

“That is what Grandfather said.”

Karen subconsciously clutched his head. “Is this… is this how your family always does things?”

What Karen had originally wanted to ask was: Is your family always this reckless in doing things!

Handing the position of patriarch directly to an outsider setting foot in their home for the first time?

To a son-in-law was already absurd enough, let alone the fact that he and Eunice weren’t even married yet, and their engagement ceremony hadn’t even been held in Wien.

Just then, a maid walked over.

“Miss, the Master sent me to call you downstairs.”

“Very well, I understand.” Eunice turned to Karen. “Sit in your study for a while. I’m going down; Grandfather must have instructions for me.”

Eunice went downstairs,

And then two more maids walked in, arranging tea, pastries, cigars, and cigarettes onto the desk and side cabinet.

Once they had left as well,

Karen walked over to the desk with a hint of helplessness,

And looking at the row of exquisite instruments, from quills to fountain pens, he suddenly felt like laughing.

“Young Master?”

At that moment, Alfred stepped inside.

“Alfred.”

Karen gestured to their surroundings.

Alfred caught on immediately, his blood-red eyes flaring as they swept across the room, before he spoke. “Young Master, there are quite a few restrictions and spell formations outside, but this study is very clean. Generally speaking, a place like a study is often the cleanest.”

“Mhm.”

Leaning his back against the desk, Karen said to Alfred,

“A smoke.”

Alfred immediately drew a cigarette and offered it to his master’s lips, then pulled out a lighter, spinning it with a flourish to light it using the outer flame.

This sequence of movements was something Alfred had practiced in private many times, calling them his ‘Cigarette-Drawing Technique’ and ‘Cigarette-Lighting Technique.’

However, his young master seemed intent on quitting smoking, leaving fewer and fewer opportunities for his practiced ‘techniques’ to be deployed.

And indeed it was so; except for the period right after he woke up, when Karen needed tobacco to steady his panic at the time, once his days stabilized, he tried his best not to touch things that harmed his health.

But the logic remained the same,

He needed to ‘clear his head’ right now,

Which meant either slapping himself twice across the face, or lighting a cigarette;

Since the effect was identical, he chose the latter.

“The Allen family wants to give me the patriarch’s study and bedroom.”

“Young Master, I can see that. They seem to intend for you to take over the management of this family.”

“Don’t you find it ridiculous?”

“Your subordinate finds it utterly laughable.”

“Right, you think so too—”

“A family as lowly as loaches in a mud pit like the Allens, actually daring to hope to cling to you, Young Master, is simply an absurd delusion!”

“……” Karen.

…

Kevin wanted to follow upstairs, but Pu'er’s two paws were pressed right against his ears; if he dared to leave now, Pu'er would dare to rip both his ears clean off.

The big golden retriever chose to protect his ears and stood at the doorway, while Pu'er continued to sit on his back, pricking her two cat ears to listen intently to the words of the Allen family gathered at the dining table.

“Bang!”

Old Man Anderson raised his cane, striking the dining table heavily, making even the coffee table shudder. Everyone seated straightened up at once.

“Wood is a fool!”

Pu'er nodded; yes, exactly!

“A fool who only knows how to flaunt brute force, a fool who only knows how to dwell on island style! His brain hasn't realized at all that the Allen family of today is no longer the pirate family that once galloped across the high seas!

We have been ashore for over two hundred years!

The environment we face, the trajectory of our family’s development, have completely uncoupled from the age of the sea.

Therefore,

I banished Wood to Korona Island, because I knew that if I let him be the patriarch, he would surely fight to the death and squander what little foundation the family has left!”

“Bang!”

Old Man Anderson picked up his cane again and struck the table once more, the coffee table bouncing again, and everyone seated straightened up once more.

“Mike is a fool too!”

Pu'er nodded; yes, exactly!

The named fool, Mike, did not dare to utter a sound.

“He originally had excellent talent for cultivation. I hoped he would go further within the family’s belief system, so that I could feel a bit more at ease handing the family over to him in the future.

After all, the ultimate foundation for a family like ours is still strength!

But, but, but…

He went and privately attempted fusion, blowing his own legs off and cutting short his possibility of continuing upward on this path. Now, he is reduced to a complete invalid, inferior even to the gardeners and servants in the courtyard!”

Mike lowered his head.

“Bang!”

Old Man Anderson struck the table with his cane yet again, the coffee table bounced, and everyone seated put on a display of straightening up.

“Bede!”

Bede immediately raised his hand and said,

“I am a fool.”

“Bang!”

A good attitude toward confessing guilt did not earn leniency; the old man’s cane swept sideways, striking Bede squarely in the ribs.

“Hiss…” Patriarch Bede winced from the sharp pain, but forced himself not to cry out, his face turning taut.

“You are an absolute, thorough fool!”

Pu'er nodded: yes, exactly!

“I told you to go to the appointment with the Inmerals family, and you actually went to Sampu for an art exhibition, and then sent your wife and daughter to stand in for you?”

"Was the excuse that Jenny belongs to Logia, so she could just drop by to visit relatives?

You are a patriarch, not an artist, you idiot!"

Hearing this explanation, Purr immediately widened his feline eyes: hit this idiot again, it is still not enough to vent the anger!

"Do you know that the relationship with the Inmmiles family was forged by your great-great-great-grand-aunt?

Is this how you perfunctorily treat the Inmmiles family?

And you call yourself a patriarch, you call yourself a patriarch!"

Old Man Anderson raised his cane again, but suddenly seemed to have sprained his waist, and Bede immediately stood up to support the old man.

The old man began to gasp heavily,

Then he pointed a finger at his own face:

"As for me, I am an even bigger idiot, because I sired three idiot sons."

Purr nodded: Yes, you are the biggest idiot.

"Under my governance, the Raphael family rose step by step, and finally began to erode our family's businesses. It was my incompetence that failed to reverse the family's decline, and failed to properly train a successor for the family's future.

I,

your eldest brother, you, and you;

Heh,

our whole family, are all idiots."

Everyone lowered their heads in silence.

"The patriarch of the Raphael family died suddenly. Fortunately, the Raphael family is not a family with deep foundations. The sudden death of a patriarch was already enough to throw them into chaos, trapped in internal friction and infighting. The number one enemy before us can be considered collapsed.

But is the Raphael family the only enemy our Allen family has?

I truly do not want the family's decline to continue. Jenny, Lisa, and the others still have to go into the palace from time to time to chat with the Queen and the others.

Hehehe, you must know that back then, the Queen of the Wien royal family was merely a lover whom our ancestor summoned at will and dismissed with a wave of his hand. A few days before the ancestor came ashore, the Queen had to wait at the dock on the shore for the ancestor's arrival to attend to his bed!

And now,

we actually have to rely on pulling relations with the royal family to enhance our family's prestige. What a disgrace, what a disgrace!

But what might be even more disgraceful in the future is,

by the next generation..."

The old man pointed his finger at Eunice's cousins:

"Weakness

is the original sin of a family like ours!

But if our family continues to remain weak like this,

I reckon by the time it reaches your generation, we will be tacitly suppressed and dismantled by other families.

You, you, and all of you;

will all have to reduce yourselves to breeding tools for other families, becoming a part of enriching their own faith systems!

We are no ordinary family. The past glory of our ancestors is also destined to be our current shackles, even a curse!

Because you won't even have the retreat of going to work in factories, moving goods at the docks, or becoming beggars. You can only reduce yourselves to swine in someone else's pigsty, waiting to be bred!"

The old man sat down,

Jenny handed over the tea,

The old man took a sip,

And continued:

"So, this is the reason why I made this arrangement.

I once vaguely felt that Diss was an extraordinary person. The Inmmiles family did not seem as ordinary as it appeared on the surface. Even though the Inmmiles family later gradually declined, gradually losing the glory of having three inquisitors in one family, I still felt that Diss, as well as his family, was not simple.

Otherwise, that ancestor of our family would not have deliberately gone out of his way to forge a relationship for our family with the Inmmiles family.

Facts have proven

that Diss, he really is very extraordinary!

When Jenny called to tell me that Diss had given her a purple bookmark, I wished I could have just beaten this rebellious son Bede to death with a cane right after hanging up the phone!"

Patriarch Bede sat there very obediently.

"You should be glad, we all should be glad, glad that Eunice also went to Logia City with her mother. Otherwise, if Diss really got angry because of this, using the neglect as an excuse, coming straight over to flatten our home would be a very simple matter, depending solely on his whim.

It was also fortunate that Eunice went to Logia City.

Although saying it so bluntly is somewhat shameful, compared to the entire clan of the next generation or the generation after that reducing to swine for others to breed, Eunice going to fulfill this marriage alliance is the best choice for the family.

Of course..."

Anderson looked at Eunice, who had just come back and sat down:

"The men of the Inmmiles family are all very handsome, hehe."

Eunice lowered her head, really not knowing how to respond to her grandfather's words.

"I even suspect that when that ancestor went to forge a relationship with the Inmmiles family back then, he was also taken by the handsomeness of the Inmmiles men."

The big golden retriever opened his mouth, let out a smile, and wagged his tail very excitedly.

Purr: "..."

"Yes, Diss is asleep. But he was also passive for decades back then. I even personally went to the study of the Inmmiles house on Mink Street in Logia City to persuade Diss to pull himself together.

He said he felt it was all rather meaningless.

I actually believed him at the time,

Well,

this is what he meant by rather meaningless!

If the Inmmiles family feels it is rather meaningless, then our Allen family might as well build the pigsty in advance, so that when we are bred in the future, the living conditions might be slightly better.

When he said he became passive, he really became passive?

When he said he went to sleep, he really went to sleep?

He won't wake up?

The Inmmiles family offended a colossus like the Church of Order, and Diss broke with the Church of Order, so has the Inmmiles family been exterminated now?

Is their family not still living perfectly well in Logia City? Is he, Diss, not still sleeping soundly in his bed at home?

Even the Church of Order is swallowing this grievance, so what right does our Allen family have to go up and stamp a foot?

The blood sacrifice ritual turned the Inmmiles family from this generation to many generations to come into ordinary people, unable to enter the church again.

Heh,

Heheh,"

"Hahaha..."

The old master suddenly burst into laughter:

"Then why on earth did he send Karen to our family?!"

A hush fell over the room, a true and heavy silence this time.

"If Karen were willing to be an ordinary person, living out this life in peace and stability, why wouldn't he stay at home?

It is precisely because Dis believes that this grandson of his cannot be an ordinary person, is not suited to be an ordinary person, and is incapable of being an ordinary person, that he arranged to send his grandson out!

He even gave our family a purple bookmark for the sake of this grandson.

That is an item only an Elder of the Order of Light's temple is qualified to issue!

Though our Allen family used it to write Raphael's name—the equivalent of using a battleship's cannon to swat a mosquito—think about it, even so, Dis was actually willing, and he even fulfilled the agreement!

What does this show?

It shows that Dis holds high hopes for this grandson of his, boundless hopes!

This shows,

Dis regards Karen,

As the hope for the resurgence of the Inmerils family!

So,

Please tell me, tell this old man,

Should our Allen family hitch a ride on this train coming from Luojia City, or not?!

Most importantly,

Since we are going to hitch a ride, we cannot care about saving face; being bashful and proud while trying to hitch a ride, now that is truly unimaginable stupidity!

Our Allen family is placing our wager!

In any case, if we continue like this, our destiny is to enter the pigpen!

We wager that he, Karen, can lead the Inmerils and, along the way, our Allen family to rise together!"

Finally,

The old master extended his finger, pointing at the ancestral portraits hanging around the dining room,

And smiled:

"I have been incompetent and foolish my whole life, but I have a premonition that perhaps because of my decision today, my portrait might be qualified to hang right in the very center here in the future."

In the corner, Purr nodded: Believe me, you can.

"At the very least, it can push down the portrait of that black cat. Placing a cat among the family ancestors' portraits—honestly, I've found it an eyesore for a long time."

"..." Purr.