06 Expensive

After the death of Rouge, Dante continued his life as usual. Day by day, the Mustang family business faced a lot of difficulties. In a short span of six months after the tragedies, almost all the wealth of Mustang family melted like ice in hot weather.

After getting the business properties, all Dante's relatives were starting to fight each other to take the big portions of the wealth in the family for themselves.

The once beautiful family no longer exists. Everyone had fallen to the greed and desperation to keep their own life and future. As Dante had said, the bread had rotten.

On the other hand, Dante didn't even bother to stop them. He only killed one of them as a warning to not involve him in their fight.

This action terrified all of them as Dante never showed that side of him all his life. They always think that he was an innocent boy who easily to be push around.

Until a day where one of them, a maid servant had tried to poison him and get caught.

Dante invited all his relatives to his house after catching the culprit. After everyone was gathered in his house and saw the culprit, Dante swung out a sword and cut her head without any words beforehand.

He gave his last warning to leave him alone from their fight.

It was not that Dante didn't care for all his parents'efforts to be destroyed, but he was unwilling to share his life with people he cannot trust. He learned a lot in his past life the behaviour of humans when storms hit them.

In the turbulent time, trust was expensive. Many people would fall. They would show their true colours when facing a storm in front of them. Any beautiful bread that had always been shared would be rotten easily.

Family?

After his parents died, they gradually showed their true face to him, and that was way before the pirates rampage. Although it just started with a facade, Dante understood too well that he had faced this kind of people many times in his past life.

So, he didn't care much when they started to fight each other. He didn't want to care much because he didn't want to be bothered and delay his training.

Until that day, one of them tried to cross the line and poison him.

Dante put harsh warning to make them know their place. He told them to get out of his house and to never return again.

Day by day, Dante Villa was having financial difficulty. The 'family' didn't even bother to pay his 10% of his benefits. Even worse, they stripped him out of the business and took the 10% for themselves over some lame excuses.

Although Bunta was fumed with anger, he didn't have any say on it. Dante on the other hand, he weirdly kept his silence and continued to do his training as usual.

Because his weird attitude, his resources were getting less by days. Living in his mansion, Dante had become a poor brat from a rich heir.

In turbulence time, loyalty came at a high price.

The retainers of Mustang company who were once owed Dante's parents and promised to face ups and downs with them, started to leave Dante one by one.

The guards, the maid, the cooks, and every person who used to serve him left one by one. The promise that they once said had lesser and lesser value by days. So they started to leave him. Some still stayed for some reasons.

Until one day, the final test came. They were out of food. If it was before, the maid and guard need only to serve their young master, now they need to work to find food for him.

They immediately quit their jobs and left the mansion. All the kindness they owed his parents before and all the sacrifice that they promised was gone in the face of difficulty.

There were only five people who stayed with him and decided not to leave. They were the old butler who had been taking care of his young master since he was a baby and another four loyal maids of his parents.

Days had gone as Dante stayed with his loyal retainer.

"Say grandpa Bunta, why didn't you leave like the other people?" Dante looked at him and asked.

"Hahaha, Dante. I have lived my life for many years. I have nothing else to take care of except you.

In the past, I had lost my spirit to continue my life. I was just having a good life and staying alive. It was until you were born a few years ago, I feel a new spark in my life when I saw your smiles and laughter.

Right after that, I was put as your butler to serve you. I am the only one in the whole mansion who was given a privilege to call you by name without any honorific. Seeing you are growing up, I had thought of you as my own grandchildren.

Even the clouds are dark, no matter how hard the seas are raging, no matter how difficult the path in front of you, I will always be here to protect you." Bunta answered with a smile.

"Future huh. I will sail to the sea one day. Will you follow me?" Dante asked again.

"No. I won't" Bunta immediately answers without a second thought.

"Ehh. Didn't you say you will protect me? " Dante asked in shock. He thought Bunta would definitely agree to follow him.

"Hahaha. I will protect you as long as you are here. But Dante, an adventure is something you had to do yourself. It won't be fun to stick with an old man like me. Besides, I can no longer sail."

"Why?"

"Hahaha. I won't tell you the reason. I just won't sail anymore. My adventure ended years ago. I am happy enough not to do it again." Bunta laughed.

"So you did have an adventure in the past. Care to tell me the story?" Dante asked excitedly.

Bunta told him a story of his young self. His adventure started from a place called Orchid island. He was a son of shipwright owner named Owen, in a shipyard called, Owens Shipyard. He grew up learning from his own father alongside his childhood friend Chou.