Rise of the Darkness Tycoon

Chapter 20- Flight 473

Calvin woke up to the scent of frying eggs, blinking repeatedly as he stared at the unfamiliar ceiling in silence for several moments.

Then everything that had happened over the past few days came flooding back into his mind, and he muttered, “Right, I’m Calvin Carter now.”

With that, he sat up, noticing his clothes were still the same as the previous day, the only difference being a blanket placed over his body.

That, along with the scent of eggs coming from the kitchen, made it clear Martha was home and had covered him the night before.

He glanced out the window, then at a nearby wall clock showing 8 a.m., before getting off and dragging his feet to the kitchen.

“Morning, mum,” he said in a groggy voice, opening the fridge and taking out a bottle of water.

He had expected something cold, but what came from the small standing fridge was far from cold, even though it had been plugged in throughout the night. He blinked for a moment before remembering the reason.

‘Right, the fridge has been faulty for a while now. I guess that’s something I have to replace.’

He looked around the apartment once more, then exhaled softly.

‘Yeah, we really need to move out of here.’

“Breakfast is ready,” Martha said, pulling him out of his thoughts.

Calvin nodded, closing the fridge door and walking over to the kitchen table where a few slices of bread and fried eggs waited for him, along with a steaming cup of tea.

He quickly scarfed down the meal, and while he ate, Martha asked, “When are you planning to return to school?”

At that, Calvin froze, thinking about the annoyances he had met the previous day, and for a moment, he considered asking whether he really had to go back to school.

‘Those guys would be a pain in the behind to deal with in the long term, and dealing with Calvin Carter’s other classmates along with Florence and Isaac feels like unnecessary stress.’

Thoughts like that crossed Calvin’s mind, but in the end, he shook his head and dismissed them.

‘If I want to build a business empire, I need academic qualifications and certifications to enter certain industries.’

As such, he needed to finish high school at the very least, and maybe even college after that.

Exhaling softly, he answered Martha’s question. “Next week. I’ll go back starting next Monday.”

Martha nodded, then checked the clock on the wall before speaking.

“I have to go now, or I’ll be late for work. Lunch is in the pot on the gas. Don’t stay out too late.”

With that, she walked past him, ruffling his hair lightly. The moment she did, she froze, turning around and adding, “Ah, right. You were already asleep when I came back last night, so I didn’t get to tell you. Nice haircut.”

She said this with a smile, then went to put on her shoes.

“You haven’t seen the glasses yet,” Calvin called out.

Martha buckled her shoe, then replied with a chuckle. “Don’t worry, I’ve already seen them. You didn’t exactly do a good job hiding the packaging.”

She waved at him once more before leaving the apartment, heading out to catch the bus to her workplace.

The faint smile on Calvin’s face quickly vanished as the door closed, and he waited until he could no longer sense Martha’s presence on this floor before immediately moving toward their bedroom.

He opened Martha’s wardrobe, scanning through it silently until he noticed a box in a corner.

“Hmm, there’s a bit of dust, so I have to be careful not to leave traces.”

He carefully reached out, lifted the cloth box, set it on the ground, and opened it to inspect the contents.

Inside were clear bags filled with papers, the newspaper cutouts he had seen in Calvin Carter’s memories, the same ones Martha had held that fateful day many years ago, when her young son had asked the question that made this woman, who had endured years of constant abuse from her mother, finally break down in tears.

Calvin picked up the files and opened the first one, pulling out the newspaper cutouts inside, his eyes immediately drawn to the bold headline.

[DAND AIRLINE FLIGHT 473 ATTACKED, ZERO SURVIVORS.]

He glanced at the date and saw it was from a newspaper released in the Year 2002.

He set the first cutout aside and looked at the second, which read, [ELEMENTAL BEASTS STILL RULE THE SKIES.]

The image below the headline showed another angle of the wreckage on the first cutout, also displaying the remains of a plane and the completely destroyed forest around it.

Calvin moved through the remaining cutouts, seeing they were all from different newspapers but covering the same event, the same plane crash caused by an elemental beast attack.

At first, his expression was calm, but as he looked through them and saw the dates, his eyes widened, and a chill ran down his spine.

He picked up the first again and read the details, seeing it was about a flight from Dand City to Aegall attacked by an S-rank dragon-type elemental beast.

He checked the date of the incident again, then silently let go of the paper. It slipped from his hand, falling softly to the ground as he clenched his fists.

“No way this is a coincidence.”

He refused to accept that this was a coincidence anymore.

If what he suspected was correct, then Calvin Carter’s biological father had been on that flight and had died there.

That was the only explanation for why Martha would have kept so many newspaper cutouts about the crash, the investigations, and the search for survivors, along with all the other mysteries surrounding it.

The more he searched the box, the more cutouts he found, along with bills for private investigators to form search and rescue teams to find survivors in the area.

“Did she try to find him herself?”

All the documents were dated back to Year 2002, starting from the week of the crash and continuing for several weeks after.

He continued reading more cutouts, some suggesting foul play, others claiming the entire incident had been orchestrated to eliminate certain people on board, with the rest of the civilians caught in collateral damage.

After going through everything, Calvin stopped on the final headline, the one reporting the death of the dragon-type elemental beast that had attacked the flight.

The image showed a man standing atop the corpse of the dragon, holding a massive black blade dripping with blood, after using it to cut open the dragon’s chest and extract its heart.

Calvin recognised that man instantly.

Of course, he did.

That man was him.

It was 18 years ago, but he remembered those events as clearly as though they had just happened.

Calvin Osborn was the one who had killed the S-Rank Elemental Beast that had likely been responsible for the death of Calvin Carter’s biological father.