The Epic of the Discarded Son-Chapter 44: Swiming With the Fishes

His eyes drifted along the shadows moving beneath the water. Dark. Long. Serpent-like shapes gliding through the surface, keeping pace with the ship like uninvited escorts.

"Okay. Let’s do this." He said it with confidence.

But his legs disagreed. They were shaking. Locked in place like they’d suddenly developed a very strong opinion about diving into monster-infested water.

Which was fine. Totally normal. Because he’d never actually fought a real beast before. Unless fighting the Ebony Knight counted.

He froze.

And shook his head.

No.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

He didn’t like thinking of the knight as a monster. Or a beast. Or anything other than what it was—his companion. His friend. Calling it anything else didn’t sit right on his chest.

’So that makes my record against actual monsters a grand total of zero.’

Everything up to this point had been humans. Training dummies. And one very weird, fight-obsessed bald man who hit harder than most monsters probably did anyway.

’So come on, you cowards. There’s a first time for everything.’

From what Rei had taught him, normal rank monsters were manageable. Dangerous, sure. But if you knew the anatomy—where to cut, where to strike, where the connection between brain and body was thinnest—they went down.

But corrupted, elite, great, greater, each step up was a different conversation entirely. Faster. Tougher. Smarter. The kind of enemies where one wrong move doesn’t just kill you, you became their next meal. Your mana, your core, your life force—absorbed. Devoured. Turned into the very thing that made them stronger.

He looked at the shapes beneath the water. Counted them.

’Six. But these are normal rank. Bottom of the food chain.’

’We should be able to take them out easy.’

He slapped his legs a few times. Gave them a pep talk they didn’t deserve.

Then tossed the robe aside and launched himself off the edge.

The ocean swallowed him whole. Cold. And surprisingly—nice. The water pressed against his skin like a cool hand on a fever. Soothing in a way he wasn’t expecting.

He moved through the water beneath them. Watching. Studying.

The eel-like creatures barely noticed him. Six dark shapes drifting lazily through the blue, minding their own business, completely unaware that something worse than them had just entered the water.

His eyes moved from one to another until they landed on the biggest one.

’Alright. We have a winner.’

Before any of them noticed, he shot upward. Cutting through the water like a shadow with a blade.

His fist connected from below—a brutal uppercut that launched the eel’s massive body out of the water and sent it spiraling into the open air. Hanging there for half a second—confused, disoriented.

In the same motion, he blew past it, appearing above the thrashing beast. Then he came down, driving his dagger into the back of its neck before dragging the whole thing back into the water with him.

The monstrous eel was not a big fan of the sneak attack.

Its body crackled. Electricity arced across its scales like veins of white fire, and then it erupted. Lightning exploded outward in every direction. A surge so violent the water around him went from blue to blinding white in an instant.

Every nerve in his body lit up at once, lighting him up like a Christmas tree. His muscles clenched so hard he thought his bones might snap from the inside. His jaw locked. His vision strobed.

And the water made it worse. It didn’t just carry the electricity—it amplified it. Turned what was already brutal into something that could cook a man from the inside out and leave nothing but a floating husk.

The rest of the eels scattered. Gone in an instant. Wanting no part of whatever was happening between the idiot with the knife and their furious friend.

As much as he would’ve loved to see exactly how much voltage his body could take before it gave out—which, for the record, would be the single stupidest experiment in human history—now was not the time.

Maybe later. When he is feeling more suicidal than usual.

And with a twist of his blade, the connection severed and the lightning slowly died out.

The water went dark. Still. Silent.

Until a familiar chime rang in his head. Music to his ears.

[You have acquired a soul fragment.]

’Huh. That’s new.’

Something appeared in front of him. A shard. Red. Floating in the murky water like a tiny ember.

’Oh. That’s very new.’

He knew what it was. But this was the first time he’d earned one on his own.

He snatched it from the water and bit down lightly between his teeth.

’Mine.’

Normally, the scent of blood in the water was a dinner bell for everything lurking in the deep. But they were still within the island’s protection range—the invisible boundary that kept the real nightmares at bay.

Once they crossed that line, spilling blood in the water would be a very different conversation.

He worked fast. Gutted it. Removed the head. Let the water wash the flesh clean. The head and guts he tossed aside—let the other creatures fight over it. An offering to the deep. A peace treaty written in entrails.

The eel was roughly twenty feet long. He kept half. That was more than enough.

The rest belonged to the sea.

He swung back onto the deck soaking wet, half a monster eel draped over his shoulder like a fur scarf on a runway model.

’I feel so much better now.’

Nora tossed him a towel. Smirking. "You know we have enough food for two weeks, right?"

He shrugged. "Fresh tastes better."

And in his defense—no matter how much he ate, he couldn’t get rid of the taste of snakes. Years of them. Raw, cooked, boiled, burnt. The flavor had moved in permanently. And sometimes, against all logic, he actually craved it. That metallic, irony bite. Like coffee for normal people—disgusting until you can’t live without it.

But those days were over. He couldn’t exactly sit there crunching on a snake skull with Ari curled on his shoulder watching him do it.

’That would be a difficult conversation.’

"LET’S GET DRUNK!" Darius announced from across the deck, raising a bottle that was already half empty. The man had started early.

As Shiro set the meat down for everyone to share, he added one crucial condition.

"You can have everything. But the belly meat is mine."

Nobody fought him on it. Not a single objection. They gave it up willingly—almost eagerly—without a word of protest.

And they all looked smug about it. Every single one of them. Darius was too drunk to care about anything. Richard was too busy glancing between the map and the horizon to notice what anyone was saying.

Luca and Nora, chuckling at each other like Shiro had just said something incredibly dumb.

’What’s so funny?’

And the feeling—that sharp, familiar sting he thought he’d gotten rid of—just crept back in.

"Great."

He leapt back up to his favorite spot. His comfy nest. Away from the noise. Away from all the uneasy feelings.

He sat down. Back against the barrel. Ari coiled in his lap.

The laughter below continued. Warm. Easy. Full of people who belonged to each other.

He pressed his palm against his chest.

’What is wrong with me?’

Just then, he thought about the chime. And as if it heard him, the notification appeared.

[Title: The Tyrant King]

[Core Status: Awakened]

[Passive Acquired: Limitless]

[Restriction: Shard Consumption—Prohibited]

[Soul Fragments: 1/100]

He stared at it. The blue glow reflecting faintly in his eyes.

’This thing again.’

’So what happens when I get a hundred of those?’

He paused.

’Maybe I should find out. At least it’ll keep me busy.’

’Better than sitting up here listening to whatever’s happening down there.’

Something else surfaced. A thought.

He remembered seeing the same thing for the Ebony Knight. And it appeared in front of him.

[Entity: Black Knight]

[Rank: Dormant]

[Soul Fragments: 0/100]

’Wait—how come he didn’t get one?’

He closed his eyes. And when he opened them, he was back in his inner world. The only way to meet the knight without summoning it into the real world.

The knight stood before him. Still. Patient. The way it always did.

Without hesitation, like he’d done this many times, he reached out and touched his chest with one finger. At his fingertip, a purple ember glowed. Small. Warm. Bright as a miniature sun.

Then he pressed it against the knight’s chest.

The effect was instant. Its body began to radiate a faint glow—soft, pulsing, alive in a way it hadn’t been before. Like something dormant had just been given a reason to wake up.

The chime rang again.

[Your current Soul Fragments: 0/100]

[The Black Knight’s current Soul Fragments: 1/100]

’Oh.’

He opened his eyes and he was back, leaned against his little nest. The writing still visible in front of him.

’This is interesting.’

He couldn’t use shards to power up like everyone else.

But in exchange, he got soul fragments. A different currency.

Because every fragment forced a choice. Him or the knight. His power or the knights.

Every fragment earned was a decision. And every path he took, there was no turning back from it.

’The universe really has a sick sense of humor.’

He sighed. "I need to learn more before I do anything stupid." More to himself than anyone.

His eyes drifted to the ocean. The dark shapes were still out there.

’Good thing there’s plenty more where that came from.’​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​