The Shamed Bastard Son Who Tamed a Forbidden Angel

Chapter 4: A Gift for the Worthless

Harry's head snapped toward where she pointed. There, huddled against the wall, was the small girl John had summoned—the one without wings. The red handprint from John's slap still blazed across her pale cheek. Her thin shoulders shook as she sobbed silently, her tattered white dress barely covering her frail frame.

"Perfect solution, Grandmother!" John crowed. "The worthless beast for the worthless master! It's poetic! A piece of garbage for a piece of garbage!"

"Fitting indeed," Marcus added with a cruel laugh. "Trash belongs with trash. At least this way, the defective creature won't have to be disposed of immediately. Though honestly, she'd probably be more useful as fertilizer."

The ceremony master opened his mouth to protest, then closed it. His expression was troubled, but he remained silent.

Harry stared at the trembling girl. His first instinct was to refuse—he wanted nothing from these people, not even their castoffs. But then her eyes met his, wide and desperate and utterly hopeless. She was still an unclaimed summoned beast. According to the rules, any beast that remained uncontracted after the ceremony would be "humanely disposed of"—a polite term for execution.

She was going to die if he didn't take her.

Something twisted in Harry's chest. He knew what it felt like to be discarded, beaten, called worthless. He'd lived that reality for eighteen years.

Ignoring the sneers and whispers, he walked across the hall toward the corner. Each step felt like walking through fire as the crowd hurled insults at his back.

"Look at him! Going for the trash beast!"

"A match made in the gutter!"

"I wonder which one is more useless!"

Harry knelt beside the girl. Up close, he could see she was even younger than she'd appeared—perhaps fourteen or fifteen. Her bare feet were cut and dirty, her dress torn. The handprint on her face had already begun to bruise.

"Hey," Harry said softly. "Can you stand?"

She flinched at his voice, then looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. Slowly, she nodded. Harry extended his hand. After a moment's hesitation, she took it, and he helped her to her feet. She swayed unsteadily, her legs weak.

"I'm Harry," he said, keeping his voice calm despite the rage still burning in his gut. "I know this isn't what either of us wanted, but... I'm willing to contract with you. If you're willing."

Her eyes widened, filling with tears again—but these seemed different. "You... you would contract with me?" Her voice was barely a whisper, hoarse from crying. "Even though I'm defective?"

"You're not defective," Harry said firmly. The words came out with more conviction than he'd expected. "They don't know what they're talking about."

"But I'm below Common grade," she whispered, her voice breaking. "I have no wings. I can't fight. I'm... I'm useless..."

"Then we'll figure it out together," Harry said. He squeezed her hand gently. "I'm not going to leave you here to die. Are you willing to try?"

For a long moment, she simply stared at him. Then, slowly, she nodded. "Yes. I... I'm willing."

"Then let's do this."

Harry placed his other hand over hers. The girl closed her eyes, and a faint light began to glow between their clasped hands—weak and flickering, but growing steadier. The contract was forming.

As the light intensified, Harry felt something strange. A warmth spread from his right hand—from the simple bronze ring on his index finger. It was the only thing his mother had left him before she disappeared, the only clue to his father's identity. She'd told him it was his father's ring, that he should never remove it.

Now it blazed with sudden heat.

Harry gasped as symbols flared across the ring's surface—ancient runes he'd never noticed before. The light from the contract between him and the girl merged with the light from the ring, creating a brilliant pillar that shot upward.

Then a voice exploded in Harry's mind—deep, resonant, and utterly inhuman.

"AWAKENING COMPLETE. INFINITE BEAST EVOLUTION SYSTEM ACTIVATED."

"HOST IDENTIFIED: HARRY KLEIN."

"CONTRACTED BEAST DETECTED: ANALYZING... SPECIES: UNKNOWN. RANK: SUB-COMMON. POTENTIAL: INFINITE."

"SYSTEM FUNCTIONS NOW AVAILABLE. EVOLUTION PROTOCOLS ONLINE."

The light faded. Harry stood frozen, his mind reeling. The girl looked up at him with confusion and wonder, feeling the completed bond between them but unaware of what else had just awakened.

The ring on his finger had stopped glowing, but Harry could still feel it—a presence in his mind, vast and patient and powerful.

The Infinite Beast Evolution System.

His father's final gift.

And everything had just changed.