Three-Year Agreement

The ones threatening Brian's life were none other than the "family" who had once helped him.

To be precise.

It was Brian's uncle, Billy.

Before the live-burial incident.

Brian had always respected this uncle of his.

Back when he was eight, after entering the Children's Home, his striking looks had nearly gotten him roped into a cream-puff-and-hot-dog cosplay by several warmhearted male caregivers and that "head of the family."

To avoid being attacked from both ends.

Left with no choice.

Brian, who in his previous life had never even killed a chicken, struck first and used Flame Purification to cleanse those sins.

No one would suspect an eight-year-old child of being a criminal.

Brian thought he was safe.

But he wasn't.

Good things without the ability to protect themselves too easily drew the eyes of bad people.

After switching to another Children's Home, he ran into similar trouble.

That time, three caregivers died in an accident.

After that.

There were four adoptive families.

Outsiders could hardly imagine the filth hidden inside all of this.

Just as Brian earned the title Child of Calamity and felt that if things kept going this way, he was going to be exposed, he found a way to contact his clan members far away in New York.

His uncle personally rushed to Los Angeles.

After learning about those "accidents" Brian mentioned, as well as his current reputation.

This uncle found a way to get him a kind, normal couple as adoptive parents.

Brian's slide down a twisted path also came to an end. After suffering nightmares for a while, he once again lived like a normal person.

Brian was grateful to this uncle from the bottom of his heart.

Especially when Brian was ten.

His uncle, Billy Camo, moved the entire Camo Family, which by then had only a dozen or so clan members left, to an Italian Community in Los Angeles, and often invited Brian to attend family gatherings.

Billy, the family head and his uncle, looked after and valued this nephew with a different surname very much.

As for the other clan members, though they ate, drank, whored, gambled, smoked, murdered, set fires, and committed every evil imaginable, they were still fairly friendly to this kinsman who shared the same blood.

As time passed.

Brian also developed a sense of belonging toward this Mafia-born family.

His part-time job as a vehicle appraiser had been arranged with the family's help.

Otherwise, ordinary people couldn't get into this industry at all.

At best, they would be controlled and squeezed by those gangs, turned into tools.

At worst, competitors whose business had been stolen would simply shoot them dead.

However, those vehicles were also effectively affiliated with the "Brokerage Firm" opened by the Camo Family. For every transaction, the company would take a commission, and in exchange, the company provided protection for them.

Otherwise, there would have been no need for them to spend money getting an appraisal license.

Even though the family made even more, Brian was still very grateful that the family had given him this opportunity to make money.

So when his uncle came to Brian and asked him to give up his life plans and take a job at the Los Angeles County Forensic Bureau, he thought of all the care and recognition the clan had given him before, and in the end, he compromised.

Brian had never imagined that he would become a forensic assistant.

He very much liked studying Human Body Art.

But definitely not the kind of human body studied by a forensic assistant.

The pleasures of the two were not the same.

Brian's résumé was pretty good.

He had finished his university credits in two years, and more importantly, quite a few respected male professors at the college had given him very good evaluations.

So he passed the interview smoothly and joined the Forensic Bureau.

After joining the Forensic Bureau.

Brian found it very hard to adjust.

His position was forensic assistant.

The title sounded impressive.

In reality, he was a technical odd-job worker, mainly responsible for photographing corpses, sending various body tissues for testing, collecting and tidying up fragmented bodies, and so on—every miscellaneous task the forensic doctors assigned.

When he had first started the job.

Seeing the severed limbs of his own kind, the reeking internal organs.

Brian had thrown up for more than two whole weeks and lost over twenty pounds before he slowly adjusted.

This was completely different from causing accidents and sending other people out of this world.

They were two entirely different experiences!

That intense inability to adapt had also caused Brian to develop serious psychological problems.

He could only follow the advice of some doctor practicing medicine illegally and use the stimulation of certain exercises to vent his stress, ease his psychological issues, and maintain the appearance of being normal.

In the two and a half years since he had joined the Forensic Bureau.

Although the family had never arranged for Brian to do anything.

In order to relieve his increasingly severe mental problems.

His daily life had become extremely divided:

By day, he examined the bodies of the dead who were brought in; by night, he examined the bodies of those ambitious dream chasers. Occasionally, he would also take care of Federal University Students working their way through school, doing his modest part for the independence and self-reliance of the new generation.

This sort of thing brought a sense of freshness and excitement at first.

But after enough time passed.

Brian and his brother had both gone numb.

He had thought about restraining himself a little.

The result was that his brother stopped being numb, while his heart began to go numb instead. He became like a walking corpse, sinking deeper into depression by the day.

During that time.

Brian felt he could not hold on anymore. He had thought about leaving Los Angeles, then finding an honest woman and going ashore, living a more normal life.

He had handed in his resignation letter in the morning.

By that afternoon, he had nearly been buried alive.

Only when the cold, reeking soil of the cemetery covered his body did Brian truly understand.

So-called family affection was all bullshit!

The purpose behind his eldest uncle arranging for him to enter the Forensic Bureau was nowhere near as simple as he had imagined!

Ridiculously, he had previously wanted to repay the family, and even though he had guessed the family wanted him to do something illegal, he had still given up the glamorous career path of becoming a dentist without hesitation, becoming a futureless, low-status technical worker at the Forensic Bureau instead, and had nearly driven himself into schizophrenia!

The problem was!

If you fucking had something to say, just say it!

Not saying anything and directly threatening his life—what was that supposed to mean?

Brian felt as if he were a tool randomly arranged for some purpose. He did not need to know why. If he no longer fit the hand, he would simply be replaced. There was not a shred of family affection in it.

For Brian, who had been an orphan in both lives and longed for family affection, this made him extremely furious and bitterly disappointed!

For more than a month after that.

Relying on the channels of that unlicensed psychiatrist, he obtained some raw materials and mixed more than ten pounds of explosives, preparing to send his eldest uncle and the clan members who had acted against him away at the first opportunity.

Then an accident happened.

His adoptive parents, who had treated him like their own son, fell seriously ill.

His adoptive parents had both very suddenly been diagnosed with a rare Genetic Disease.

Conventional medical treatment would make them live in great pain, the kind of pain even painkillers could not withstand, while better treatment required out-of-pocket payment.

Brian also suspected it was a conspiracy.

He specially spent money to invite experts over to treat his adoptive parents, but it all turned out to be true. It really was that much of a coincidence.

Everyone died.

Brian did not expect his adoptive parents to make it through this disaster.

But he hoped he could make the two old people suffer a little less and leave with a little more dignity.

Maintaining dignity required money.

A lot of money.

People were not beasts.

Once he had a weakness.

For the sake of giving his adoptive parents a good end, Brian ultimately had no choice but to accept his fate.

There was no way around it.

Reality was not a movie.

And the people in the family were not little lambs either.

The Camo Family's funds all had specialized money-laundering methods, and in the end, all of it was deposited in foreign banks.

Only Uncle Billy knew the account and password.

Brian knew exactly what he was capable of.

His marksmanship was awful, and his IQ was only that of an ordinary person. At most, he could play a few dirty tricks—either send those people away once and for all, or get retaliated against and then drop dead himself. Forcing the bank account out of his uncle's mouth was basically impossible.

On top of that, Uncle Billy, in order to placate Brian, had let a little slip.

The reason he had arranged for Brian to join the Forensic Bureau more than two years ago was for some important arrangement three years later.

As long as Brian cooperated afterward and helped him achieve his goal.

The Camo Family would cover all of Brian's adoptive parents' medical expenses from then on.

At the time, there had been less than a year left until the Three-Year Pact.

With no other choice.

Brian could only work overtime and take part-time jobs while placing his hopes in the promise his uncle had made to placate him.

Now, the three-year deadline was near.

And this matter was about to have its conclusion!

This background was connected to the worldbuilding.

The early parts were all setup and foreshadowing. There were so many March Great Gods, and this book's subject matter was so niche, yet it still forced its way to premium status on first subscriptions. That proved the author's prose and plot were at least above the passing line, so brothers, just be patient and keep reading.