CHAPTER 68: THE FIRST KNIGHT V: THE RISE OF ARTHUR AND THE FALL OF THEA

For the next five years, Arthur kept exploring dungeons, clearing them, and selling the heartstones he found. With the money he earned, he single-handedly supported the Montrose household.

It made Maurice feel ashamed — as the patriarch, he was supposed to be the provider. But Arthur simply said,

"Dad, don’t worry about it. This is what I’m good at. You can continue with your lab work — that’s what you’re good at. I can’t do what you do, and you can’t do what I do, so what’s wrong with each of us doing what we do best?"

He stayed a scout for only three months before joining the fighter teams. He and Dumar were inseparable, they explored and cleared dungeons together, especially level-three ones. They were among the best.

People called them the two lunatics, they would do anything, face any danger. Yet their team’s mortality rate was among the lowest, and soon more and more people wanted to join them.

Eventually, Arthur and Dumar formed their own team, no longer employed by any exploration company. Arthur built the team under Montrose Corporation, then a small, almost bankrupt business.

Together, he and Dumar turned it into profit through their exploration work. More companies began hiring them for their high success rate and low casualties.

When Arthur was fifteen, Maurice finally succeeded in creating a generator powered by heartstones, with the help of Julian, which had a knack for thinking outside the box. Arthur saw an opportunity and brought the prototype to an exploration site, offering it to a mining company.

He knew one of the biggest problems in dungeon mining was the lack of a portable power source, something that could be brought deep inside to speed up the process.

The Montrose Generator was an instant success.

They built a new division to mass-produce the generators without abandoning their original products, heartstone-powered household items.

With the success of the generators and Arthur’s exploration team, Montrose Corporation began paying off its massive debts. By the time Arthur turned eighteen, he was elected CEO of Montrose Corporation.

Maurice stayed in the lab, continuing to perfect the generator. Julian, who had joined him there when he was ten, grew up surrounded by machines and heartstones.

When Arthur became CEO, it was Julian who came up with the concept for the Montrose Aegis.

He had seen how Arthur always came home covered in bruises, wounds, and blood. He wanted to do something to help his brother, he hated feeling useless. That was when he designed the Montrose Aegis. Maurice helped him turn his ideas and theories into working prototypes.

Leila came up with the name, and later, she would design most of Julian’s concepts and models.

That left Thea.

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Theo stirred in his sleep. He was in a very deep slumber, unaware that his three "knights" were quietly arguing and discussing how to talk to him. He was oblivious to the fact that it was already morning.

He was exhausted, all he wanted was to keep sleeping.

As he drifted back into a deeper state, he felt something guiding him, something that wanted to show him... something.

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Thea grew up among her parent’s love and her siblings’ attention. But she never really meet Arthur. She only knew she had another older brother beside Julian, but she rarely saw him. But every time she saw him, he would bring her something: it could be a snack or toys. So Thea very much looking forward for her next meeting with her oldest brother.

At home, she only had Julian to play with. Even that, Julian would sometime disappeared for hours even days at a time.

Playing alone wasn’t a strange thing for Thea. She could feel her parents’ love, Julian’s care, and Arthur’s attention — but for as long as she could remember, she was always alone.

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Theo’s mind drifted. The air fells warmer. Softer. Like sunlight through lace curtains. He doesn’t remember this place, but it feels like home and yet he also feels alone.

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Because she was always alone, Thea grew up to be a quiet young girl. She rarely spoke for long, and when she did, her words came out fast and abrupt, as if she was afraid the other person would leave before she finished her sentences.

The rest of her family was always busy with work, with Montrose Corporation. Every time she offered to help, their answers were more or less the same:

"You don’t need to worry about that. You can live free of worry. Have fun."

After being rejected a few times, Thea understood, she was too useless to her family.

And so, she began to withdraw from them.

By the time she was ten, Julian was fourteen and becoming more and more involved in the lab work, leaving Thea completely alone.

When Julian started working full-time, Thea felt completely abandoned.

She didn’t have any friends at school. The other children avoided her, their parents had warned them not to get too close to Arthur Montrose’s little sister.

Everyone knew the stories. The man who walked out of dungeons drenched in blood, who faced monsters no one else dared to fight. Some said he laughed in the face of death. Some said he didn’t feel pain at all.

Even her teachers were cautious, their voices too soft, their smiles too polite, as if afraid that one wrong word might reach him.

To them, Thea wasn’t a person. She was a fragile extension of her brother — a porcelain doll watched over by a monster in human skin.

No one ever asked what she really wanted.

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Between the ages of ten and fifteen, something began happening to Thea’s body that she couldn’t explain. She never asked Leila or anyone else about it.

Again, she felt alone, trapped inside herself.

And as a result, she chose rage.

She turned into an angry teenager, lashing out at everything and everyone. But her family dismissed it as growing pains.No one ever stopped to ask her what was really going on.

Then Thea met a boy, Bradley.

An older boy who was handsome and gentle, who spoke softly and actually listened.

He was sweet, attentive, and for the first time in a very long time...

Thea felt seen.

Under Bradley’s attention, Thea bloomed into a sweet, happy, yet cautious, young girl. She completely trusted him. In fact, she was sure she was in love.

Her family began to notice the change in her, especially Leila.

She tried several times to talk to Thea, to ask what was going on in her life, but Thea brushed her off every time.

"You’ve never given me any attention before, and now that I’m starting to feel happy, you’re asking me? Are you trying to take it away from me?"

Leila was taken aback by her daughter’s sharp, wounded words.

Over the next few days, the rest of the family tried to talk to Thea, but none of them succeeded. She grew even more withdrawn and reluctant to speak. Sometimes, she ignored them completely.

The tension reached its peak on the night of her sixteenth birthday. The whole family had gathered to celebrate.

Thea had wanted a quiet evening with Bradley instead, but the young man gently insisted she spend it with her family.

"We can have our own celebration tomorrow, Thea. Family is more important," he told her.

Reluctantly, Thea followed Bradley’s advice. But sitting among the people she felt had abandoned her was pure torture.

Every attempt at small talk or warmth fell flat. Her replies were short, cold, or sharp, sometimes all at once.

Finally, Thea couldn’t hold it in any longer. She stood abruptly, her chair crashing onto the dining room floor with a loud clatter. Fury burned in her eyes.

"You don’t know me! Stop telling me what to do! I hate you!"

Leila reacted on instinct, and slapped her.

The sound was deafening.

Thea stared at her mother in disbelief. It was the final straw.

She turned and ran out of the dining room, packed her bag, and left the estate.

She didn’t know what was said after she left, and she didn’t care.

She called Bradley, who picked her up at the gate, confused and concerned. He agreed to take her away to calm her down.

For the next five days, Thea lived with Bradley in his small wooden house on the outskirts of Selene, near the forest. It was close to the Selene hiking trail.

They were the happiest five days of Thea’s life. Bradley was polite and proper — he never touched her inappropriately and always respected her space.

On the morning of the fifth day, after Bradley left for work, Arthur showed up at the front door.

Thea was actually more afraid of Arthur than of her parents. The stories she’d heard about him had turned him into something cold, unapproachable, and powerful in her eyes.

Arthur tried to persuade Thea to come home. Thea only shook her head silently. She knew instinctively that she could never win an argument with him, so she chose silence instead.

Then Arthur said,

"Thea, if you really want to keep living with Bradley, you need to know everything about him. His name is Bradley Thomas. He’s twenty-four. He’s currently working at Montrose Corporation. Did you know that, Thea?"

Thea froze.

No, she didn’t know that. She only knew Bradley. She had never asked his last name, never asked where he worked. She lifted her head and stared at Arthur.

Seeing her expression, Arthur knew immediately.

He continued, hoping Thea would finally see that Bradley wasn’t who she thought he was.

"Yes, he worked at Montrose Corporation. But Thornfield sent him. We investigated his background, he was planted by Greg Thornfield of Blackwood Enterprise."

Thea knew that name, everyone did.

Blackwood Enterprise wasn’t just Montrose Corporation’s rival; they were notorious for their dirty tactics. Even in school, she’d heard about their lawsuits and scandals.

Seeing her frozen in place, Arthur thought he’d finally gotten through to her and sighed in relief.

But Thea’s next words made him freeze instead.