Damian Boren stood rigidly across from the grand desk, his hands shoved inside his pockets after rushing straight from the chaotic hospital emergency. He had been blindsided by a sudden, mandatory summons from his own father, and the cold look on the older man’s face told him this was no ordinary family catch-up.

Bellero Boren didn’t waste a single second with polite greetings. He slowly slid a small, clear glass bottle across the desktop. Inside the container, a dense, solid white powder shifted against the glass. The exterior label read in plain, standard print that it was a simple supplement to help patients struggling with chronic insomnia.

Damian stared down at the small bottle, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "What exactly is this for, Father?"

"You must ensure you feed this powder to Dorrent Grefo, Damian," Bellero stated flatly, his voice devoid of any warmth as his eyes locked onto his son’s face. "Mix it into his food or slip it into his drink. I do not care about the method you choose, just ensure that powder lands inside Dorrent’s stomach before the end of the week."

Damian took a step back, his face hardening into disbelief and disgust. "If you are planning to use my access to murder Dorrent Grefo, then I am telling you right now that I won’t do it. I have already told you before, Father, that I want to play this game fair. I want to win Jannah’s affection and claim her without using your dreadful, bloody means. And besides that, you already gave a promise to Joanne that you wouldn’t bring any physical harm to Dorrent’s life. Are you seriously going against the Vice President’s daughter right now?"

Bellero let out a raspy chuckle, leaning back in his chair as he waved his hand dismissively. "I recall my agreements with certainty, Damian, and I am not trying to kill anyone. I am simply helping my slow, stubborn son get that precious girl all to himself."

"By drugging him with an unknown substance?" Damian pressed, his voice rising in anger.

"This is not a lethal poison," Bellero explained, his eyes flashing with a cold, strategic brilliance. "This powder is a highly concentrated chemical compound used to trigger a dominant Alpha’s internal energy core. The moment it dissolves in his blood, it will force his S-tier system to run completely mad, driving him into a public rampage. He will lose his cognitive mind, destroy buildings, and a few people in the streets. The council will have no choice but to lock him away in a high-security facility, marking him as a dangerous, unstable beast. All the residents and family members will stay far away from him out of terror. He will be safely isolated from society, and thus, Jannah will be left unprotected. You can then easily bring her to your house, far away from the Grefo family and anyone else who wishes to claim her lineage."

As the calculated timeline unfolded in the air, a sudden, horrifying realization struck Damian’s brain like a physical blow. The pieces of past history began to shift into a terrifying pattern. His breath hitched in his throat, his face turning pale as he stared at the older man.

"Wait..." Damian whispered, his voice shaking with dread. "Nine years ago... when Dorrent suddenly underwent that horrific, unnatural black cycle rut in the lower sector... the rampage where he completely lost his mind and brutally killed Jannah’s parents and other people in the slums... Father, were you the person who engineered that entire disaster back then?"

Bellero’s expression didn’t change a bit. He offered no certain answer, his face remaining a smooth, unreadable mask as he picked up a pen from his desk.

"I have already told you before, Damian, that this game started a very long time ago, even before you were born into this world," Bellero delivered coldly. "You are still too young, and you will learn new things about this world as the days go by. Do not waste any more of my precious time standing there asking useless questions. Take the bottle and leave my presence immediately."

The lack of a clear, honest answer from his own father made anger boil straight up into Damian’s chest. He slammed his fist against the edge of the desk, his eyes flashing with an intense fury.

"What the hell do you think Jannah will do if she ever finds out the truth, Father?!" Damian shouted, his voice echoing off the walls. "If she discovers that my own father had something to do with the brutal death of her parents, she will never fall for me! She will look at my face and see nothing but a monster! She will hate my name for the rest of her life!"

Bellero looked up, a mocking smile touching his lips. "If you are so worried about fairness, you can simply tell her the truth—that it was Dorrent Grefo that killed her parents. That will even out things, won’t it?"

"There is no being even in this matter, Father!" Damian hissed, his teeth grinding together in disgust. "You are a monster. I am telling you that I won’t do this dirty work for you. What if the chemical compound is too heavy and Dorrent actually dies from the shock? What if his mind goes permanently crazy and he never recovers?"

Bellero’s smile vanished, his features turning as hard as granite as he leaned forward, his presence expanding with a terrifying, crushing weight that pinned Damian to the floor.

"Of course you will do it, Damian," Bellero stated, his voice dropping into a deadly threat. "You will deliver that powder to him exactly as I ordered, unless you want me to permanently sabotage your medical license by tomorrow morning. I have the power to strip away your legal credentials and ensure you never get the chance to treat a single human being ever again. Instead of standing by my side and running our underground businesses like a loyal son, you are busy spending all your time playing a cheap hero, treating gutter rats in the slums for free credits."

Damian went completely pale, the blood draining from his lips as his father’s threat hit his core. His heart hammered against his ribs in panic. His medical career was his entire life—it was his only escape. He had only wished with everything he had to be completely different from his corrupt father, choosing to spend his days healing broken people rather than destroying their lives like Bellero did. But he knew the truth: his father was ruthless and completely capable of fulfilling the threat. Bellero could easily manufacture a medical scandal, destroy his reputation as a brilliant doctor within a single hour, and ensure he never stepped a single foot inside a hospital again.

With a trembling, reluctant hand, Damian slowly reached out and picked up the small glass bottle, tucking it tightly into his coat pocket. He took a shaky breath, forcing his posture to straighten as he stepped backward toward the office doors.

He locked his eyes onto his father’s smug face, a bitter, venomous smile breaking through his own panic.

"If I were you, Father, I wouldn’t stand there looking so proud," Damian delivered, his voice turning sharp and cold. "When this plan completely fails, and you don’t get that ultimate Enigma grandchild you crave so badly from Jannah’s bloodline, do not dare blame my actions or call me a fool. Because you will be the primary cause of your own disappointment. I honestly wonder how incredibly clever you think you are, yet in all your long years of running underground syndicates and manipulating elite families, you never managed to find a way to give birth to an Enigma child yourself."

Bellero’s face instantly twisted into fury at the direct insult to his genetic pride. "You ungrateful foolish brat!" he roared, his arm flying back as he grabbed a wooden chair from beside his desk and hurled it with all his strength straight at his son’s head.

The chair crashed violently against the doorframe, shattering into a dozen flying wooden splinters just as Damian expertly twisted his body out of the way.

Damian gripped the brass doorknob, his eyes flashing with defiance as he looked back at the raging old man one last time.

"Only a fool gives birth to a foolish son, Father!" Damian barked back fiercely, his final words ripping through the quiet corridor as he stormed outside into the evening air, leaving the dark office behind.