Part 3.2: How to Protect You

Chapter 12: Family Discussions Always Revolve Around Torture

Once a month my father, Lant Agriche, held a family dinner with his top three children based on our academic evaluations and....achievements.

Although many preparations were made in anticipation of the event, in simple terms, it was merely a time for a father to hold a conversation with a few of his children over dinner. Among my siblings and I, to be invited to a family dinner was one of the highest honours he could give us. It meant he approved of our upbringing and accomplishments. Over dinner, the conversation would casually go over current politics, our academic achievements and goals, and so on.

Every word my siblings and I spoke to our father was like answering a test, as if he were evaluating everything we said. Conversations tended to be serious. I often planned my responses in advance to weigh my words carefully.

However, there were times when an idle topic came across dinner, just like it had occurred during my first dinner with the family.

Get ready, I told myself. I was sitting at the table for dinner. My father was grinding his teeth. It was a habit he had before thrashing the Pedelians during every family meal.

I had realized I had been reborn into a novel when I heard my father mention the Pedelian name to me for the first time.

The Pedelians exist, I had thought. And I am an Agriche. The names can't be a coincidence.

Is father going to start again? Jeremy frowned in boredom. His thoughts were etched plainly on his face. He had received the third invitation to come to dinner today. Unlike the first and second invitations, it wasn't uncommon for the third rank to change.

The undisputed first rank among the Agriche children was my half-brother Dion. Currently, I had two older brothers and one older sister who had been deemed worthy by my father; they were still alive, after all.

Dion was the second oldest son. He was nineteen years old and was not present due to official duties. He had been the first rank even before I had attended my first family dinner.

I wouldn't be surprised if Jeremy bested all of us in the future though. He was the main villain in the novel.copy right hot novel pub