Crow shifted his weight awkwardly. His sudden change in attitude seemed to have confused Penelope. It made sense though. Until now, everything he had said and done to her had been out of his own self-interest. In fact, he wasn’t even sure why he felt the need to open up to her about this particular story. Even if she was helping him escape, it was risky for him to share anything about himself with a knight. Yet here he was, prepared to offer her a piece of his past.

He held her gaze and then nodded, accepting her word when she said she wouldn’t say anything. Heart pounding with nervousness, he exhaled as he readied himself to tell the tale. “I know you must think it’s none of my business, but I can’t stand seeing families fight like that. It’s frustrating when they don’t realize what they have and how fortunate they are.” A smile tugged at the corner of his lip. “Do you remember when you asked me why I became a thief? Well, the answer I gave you was a lie. It [i]is[/i] satisfying to rob the wealthy of their excess, but that isn’t the only reason why I do what I do.

“You see, my father… he’s a noble; the viceroy for the king. If you’ve lived in the inner citadel for any length of time, you’ve probably seen him around.” He averted his gaze, suddenly self-conscious. He knew it wasn’t difficult to see the resemblance between himself and his father if one looked closely enough. According to his mother, they had a lot of physical similarities, including their dark, wavy hair, pale green eyes, and sharp jawlines. He had no memories of his father, but he suspected that he had grown up to bear quite a few other features of the man as well.

After a pause, Crow went on, “Anyway, he met my mother when he was stopping in the outer villages on his way to Younis for an assignment. She was young, and he was taken by her beauty, so he charmed her into spending a night with him. After that, he went on his way.

“He spent about three months in Younis performing various tasks for the king, and then returned to Brerra. By that time, my mother already knew she was with child, so when she heard that he had come back, she immediately sought him out to tell him the news.” Crow’s expression turned cold. “But when she told him, he didn’t even do her the justice of taking responsibility. Instead, he claimed she was a harlot who had seduced him, and she was outcast from her society.

“My mother was forced to move to another village and rebuild her life from scratch. She was scarred by my father, so when I was born, she kept an emotional distance from me. I took after my father in my appearance, so every time she looked at me, she saw him. She tried to get past it, but I always knew she never really got over how I look.

“Teaching me to be a thief, while it put food on the table, was also her way of getting revenge against him. It’s disgraceful for a noble to have a criminal for a son. I wouldn’t be surprised if my mother had been hoping I would make a name for myself so my father would find out what I had become.” He gave a mirthless laugh. “I’d give anything to see the look on his face.” He shook his head. “My main point in all this is that you shouldn’t take your family for granted, and they shouldn’t take you for granted either. They may feel like a pain in the ass right now, and not everything will go your way, but you’re lucky you have them. Not everyone does.”

Crow stopped walking and fixed his gaze on the ground. Something must have possessed him, or maybe he was losing his mind. Even if he was trying to help Penelope, it wasn’t like him to share such a personal story. He had never told it to anyone before. The secret of his father’s identity had been kept solely between him and his mother ever since he had been born. Why he was suddenly putting his trust in a knight he had just met, he had no idea.

He shot Penelope a warning glare, “If you tell [i]anyone[/i] what I just said, I will murder you in your sleep.”