Loveless Marriage or Lovely Divorce

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The Gentoshi family lost a huge amount of high ranked members which ultimately changed the family's dynamic forever.

**Loveless Marriage or Lovely Divorce** is a scandal of the gentoshi family. It dealt a heavy blow to the family's ego and reduced the company's fortune.

## Background

### Loveless Marriage

Liam Chiaster Gentoshi and Byakko Gentoshi were married for political reasons. Once upon a time, there was a revelation that the two of them would create a great S-ranked.

*"When the white tiger is comfortable with its chain, a great power would be formed in the form of two."*

The Gentoshi family at the time was in grave dangers due to the rise of powerful ranker. Their company and industry became outdated to monster hunting career. Thus, a political marriage between the Liam and Byakko was arranged.

However (Haruna Genji Gentoshi in particular), did not value physical strength over intellects and wealth. However, due to the rise of adventure guild and hunting monsters, Haruna believed that it was better to get a powerful warrior on their side. Thus, an arrange marriage was arranged.

He asked his children to create children that can inherit the family's company and wealth rather than asking for some over the top warrior. This invisibly created pressure towards Byakko who wanted more children to comfort her father in law, in turn, she created pressure towards her husband, Liam who did not love her but married her regardless for the family's political gain. The relationship between the two became distant and filled with pressure as the result. Byakko, as an elemental was signed to be in love with Liam so she was madly in love stalk Liam. Effectively drained the man from his life.

In search for someone to link and relate to his own misery, Liam met a girl named Rize Sias. She was a blind girl but he felt that she was the only one who could "see" through his misery and sympathize with him. This was probably because they were all miserable. Liam was a bird in a cage, incapable of freedom while Rize was a wild cat, incapable of being loved. As they got what the other lacked, the could comfort each other. They had a child together and loved each others by a lot.

Still, for his children to have a happy family, he still tried his best to stay in and keep the family from being broken. He believed that he could sacrifice his own happiness. Liam and Rize decided to kept their existence in secret. Liam would provide his second family with aids and money while trying to wait for the right moment to introduce them to his father.

### Treatment of the Twin

The second born of Liam and Byakko were the twin sister of Sakae and Samie. Believing that this was "*the form of two*" in the prophecy, Byakko tried her best to teach her twin. That being said, Haruna, her father in law seemed to value woman's value of having soft power than hard power. Her twin children were great but Sakae became more and more of a tomboy, she liked to become a warrior and compete while Samie was much softer and calculative. Believing that Samie was the right person fitting the family's dynamic, Byakko devoted her love towards her first born daughter, Angela and one of the two in the prophecy, Samie while neglecting Sakae. Byakko still loved her children but she usually gave less love and treated Sakae less than her other children. Sakae eventually came to believed that her mother, Byakko could not give her as much as her siblings. Meanwhile, seeing her father distancing himself from her, she believed that her father was a weak man who could not stand up to his own wife.

### Adultery Discovery by Haruna

In 18th August of Year 5500, Haruna discovered the adultery story of his son. Realizing such a grim future waiting ahead, he decided to stop trusting Liam's family and put his trust in the vague word of the mandemon. When Liam discovered that his father knew, he did nothing as he thought if his father exposed the story, he would have a reason to divorce. His father did not do that however.

### Kidnapping the Twin

In the year 5501, happened a Great Depression that caused economic downturn everywhere except the Monster Hunting Career. Ten years old twin, Sakae and Samie, were kidnapped by the Organization of the Black Rose to study about the oracle about the S-ranked. The ruler of the organization however, when looked at the two children saw a funny picture. She demanded 20 million $ to release the two. This shocked the house as they did not have that much money at the moment. Being deeply sad, Byakko had decided to choose a cold hearted choice. She begged the kidnappers to release one of the twin (Samie) for 10 million $, thinking that a pretty and kind-hearted girl like Samie would be better in the eyes of the family than a tomboy Sakae. This decision, unsurprisingly, run the relationship between Sakae and the rest of her family down the toilet and never recovered. At the same time, the stress and Byakko's decision made Liam felt even more distant with his wife. From this point, it can be best to described their relationship as solid ice. Cold but cannot be broken.

### Death of a family

In the 30th November of Year 5505, a 12 years old Wiz Gentoshi awakened his S-ranked power. In his awakening, he was unable to control his power and created a massive explosion that destroy the entire house along with his own father, mother and older brother.

Angela, Liam's first born, became the highest ranking grandchildren of the Gentoshi family. She pursued an aggressive policy to sever all ties with Wiz, stating that he was a murderer and forced him into extreme debt of a billion $. She also stripped away everything Wiz inherit from his family and forced him into penitentiary. Angela's action scared even Byakko, her mother, who decided to learn these policies.

Following the death of his brother's family, Liam was forced into his brother's position of CEO. He was forced to abandon his own love for literature and his career of being a poet. This was his breaking point. And he wanted to divorce his own wife from here.

### Sakae's Departure

12th April of 5507, Sakae was rescued by Fredonia Security Alliance. It seems that she was experimented on and became a very powerful S-ranked warrior. She asked to stay and join Fredonia instead of going home, blaming her family's unfair treatment towards her.

Her grandfather, Haruna was pissed by this but he believed that Sakae would eventually caved and got back, that Byakko was a good mother and "blood is thicker than water". However, Sakae's heart became cold and she did not want to do anything with her own family anymore. She believed that she would create her own life from then on.

At 6th November of 5507, the death anniversary of Ayako Gentoshi, Haruna's late wife, every member of the extended Gentoshi family (including a 15 years old Sakae) was invited. At first, Sakae did not want to go but after hearing Byakko's pleading, she got an idea. At the ceremony, she gave out many abandonment letters as well as contracts to make everyone of her family abandon her. This made Haruna extremely angry. Not only because Sakae publicly denouced the family, but because he lost his own children just 2 years prior and now he was about to lose another of his grandchild. Sakae's big sister, Angela on the other hand, gladly accepted the letter and convinced everyone to do the same. Angela's reason was that Sakae's belief was like cancer of the family, her hatred was compared to a ticking bomb of Wiz as they both were S-ranked. Angela stated that their benefit would never be able to substitute for such a problem they may create in the future so it was better to give up on them right now.

Upon hearing such a cold hearted quote from her own daughter, Byakko got a fear that she would be abandoned not only by her daughter but by the family itself, creating a fear to maintain her family at all cost. Thus, Byakko agreed to side with Angela in hope to maintain order. Liam on the other hand thought that if his adultery was to be discovered, he might be abandoned like Sakae and the family would not pursue him and his new little family. Sakae was then abandoned by the entire family. The only one who did not want this was Samie who wanted to compensate her twin sister. Facing Samie, Sakae threatened her, stating that Samie was a good for nothing brat.

## Course of the Event

### Hint of the Adultery

Not wanting his adultery would plummet the family's reputation, Liam decided to take a soft approach by hinting that he had mistress outside to Byakko. Byakko quickly learnt of the adultery and her husband's passive aggressive move. However, the departure of Sakae had haunted Byakko. As Byakko feared that her family (now led by her first born daughter, Angela) would abandon her and forced her into a loveless situation, Byakko decided to aggressively respond by attacking her husband's mistress and his bastard rather than confronting him directly. She created a facade that they were a happy family to the public while inside, they fought each others through backdoor dealing.

### Wicked Old Woman

At December 28th of 5507, during a snow storm, an elderly woman named Josephine Wright was seen rolling on the ground. She yelled loudly that she was being hit by an 8 years old boy with the name of Nagisa Gentoshi, a part-timer of a restaurant nearby. The 8 years old boy was criticized by the old woman as liar and evil while he tried his best to defend himself. Seeing no other option, Nagisa was forced to call his mother, Rize. Seeing Rize, the elderly woman continued to yell. She stated that Nagisa hit her so Rize as his mother had to compensate. Nagisa began to cry stating that he did not do it. Believing her son, Rize knew that the woman was a swindler so she called the police.

Not only was the old woman not afraid of the police investigation, she also cried and swore that it was Nagisa who hit her. The police investigated to see who was lying. However, the police discovered there were no roadside surveillance cameras and no one came forward to testify for the boy. At this time, the old lady continued to cry to the police: "Policemen, you must help me, I did not lie." There was no convincing evidence so everything seemed to be at a standstill. However, Rize was determined to prove her son's innocence. She hoped to find witnesses.

After that, the old woman and her family went to the hospital for examination. The results by doctor Edna showed that the old woman had a broken left femur and needed to be hospitalized to recover. The old woman's family forced Rize to pay compensation, otherwise they would make her family lose face. Fearing that this event would make Liam's adultery exposed and shred a bad light to him for having a guilty child, Rize had no other choice but to advance the old woman's treatment costs.

But things were not so simple. Early the next morning, the old woman's son, Joseph Wright took her to Rize's house, forcing her to take care of his mother. If his mother had any problems, Rize would be responsible.

After many days, the elderly woman began to recover. Rize and Nagisa could finally relief as they could now bring the woman back to her home but the woman denied that. She stated that even if her physical wound recovered, her mental wound had not. She demanded a million $. Seeing such a ridiculous demand, Rize finally realized the severity of the problem. Not to mention, Rize had already paid 20000 $ before for her treatment at the hospital. Believing this was an extortion case, she consulted Liam who happily shared the story to the internet and media thanks to Rize's recording device in her house.

Turned out, the woman got her lemur broken long before meeting Nagisa. She once came to a private clinic in hope to get cheap treatment but she refused to be treated as the price was 10000 $. Liam also managed to collect information about the woman's family, noting that her son was a well-known indebted gambler. After having a witness to prove Nagisa's innocence, January 15th of 5508, Rize sued the wicked woman and her son. The wicked woman sacrificed herself stating that her son only did what she said and went to prison in his place.

### Samie's and Andrea's investigation

As the court case became famous, Samie noticed something. The account that was used to share the case before it went to the court was a clone of her father's social media account. Being doubtful about her father, Samie once tried to borrow her father's phone to check but aside from these messages about the court case, nothing was really shown. Still unconvinced, she asked Angela about that of which, to her surprised, Angela told her about their father's adultery, saying that was a very hot topic in the elite gossiping table since there was some people out there with the name of the Gentoshi without actually being in the family's genealogy or family tree. Hearing that, Samie broke down since she could not believe her father would betray her mother. She asked Angela to help her of which, Angela denied, stating that investigating about some bastards was an indecent an unladylike.

Knowing that Samie could not receive more information from her close sister, she asked Andrea to help of which he agreed reluctantly. They hired a well-known private detective named Naoto Shirogane to investigate the subject. To their surprised, their father indeed were cheating on their mother for more than 10 years. They got concrete evidence about their father's screenshot and the record of many conversation.

Samie broke down in anger. She wanted to confront her father but Andrea got a softer approach. He asked his sister to investigate further about the situation. They should get to know Nagisa and Rize first before doing anything. They asked the detective Naoto to continue spying on Liam while Andrea tried to befriend Nagisa.

February 1st of 5508, Andrea went to the restaurant where Nagisa worked part-time and tried to befriend the young boy there. Andrea straight up asked to become friend of which, to his surprised, Nagisa agreed stating that if everyone can be honest and become friends, the world would be much better. Andrea bought lunch for the boy while asking about his family but Nagisa refused to answer. The two continued their friendly relationship. Usually, Andrea would take Nagisa to the park or restaurants, buying food and snacks for Nagisa. They became closer. Andrea realized that Nagisa was just an innocent child who loved his mother and father. He wondered if Rize was the one at fault here. Samie also introduced herself to the relationship, playing with the young kid.

October 29th of 5508, Rize discovered the relationship. Rize had some hunch about the thing as she did not believe that someone would actually be so nice to her son but she brushed it off believing that the court event made her son pitiful in the eyes of others. However, as the relationship got longer, she became more suspicious. And her suspicion proved to be correct as she was confronted by Samie and Andrea. Knowing that she stood in front of Liam's children, Rize said nothing but asked the two to investigate their parents' relationship, questioning whether or not Liam was happy being Byakko's husband and the family's next in line.

The two investigated and realized that their father's dream was never to become the CEO of the house but to be a poet and he married their mother for political gain. It was just an arrange marriage of which their father were forced into by their grandmother. Realizing that even her father was just a bird in a cage, Samie and Andrea determined to help her father.

### Secretary's Strike

After the Wicked Old Woman event, Liam's action raised suspicions in his own circle. Nomura Watanabe, his personal secretary decided to investigate and found out about the adultery from Byakko. Byakko asked Nomura to seduce Liam in front of his mistress' family to break them up. That way, the family's reputation would not be damaged. A deal that Nomura agreed.

Nomura then increased the intensity of work that Liam had to deal with, forcing him to stay far away from his mistress and bastard while giving him more and more business trips. Unsurprisingly, this did not sit well with Liam but as Liam was inexperienced and needed Nomura's guidance, he reluctantly agreed. However, he still tried to visit Rize and Nagisa from time to time. Meanwhile, Nomura also tried to seduce Liam. Many times in the company, she tried to stage many situations that required Liam's help to draw his attention.

December 11th of 5508, Nomura managed to organize a lunch break in Nagisa's part-time restaurant and acted as Liam's lover, even went far enough to kiss Liam in front of Nagisa. This broke the young boy's heart. Nagisa run out of the restaurant straight home. Liam intended to follow but he was kept back by Nomura who staged to have curry fell on her suit.

Nagisa run straight back home crying. He told his mother, Rize about what happened. This brought both her and Nagisa to tear. While Rize believed Liam would never betray her, it was her son who told her about this and she believed her son.

The first day of new year, January 1st of 5509, usually Liam had to spend this day with his family. However, he decided to spend it with Rize instead as he had not visited her and their son for a while. Noticing this, Nomura organized lunch with the Central Capital's biggest shareholder, Oprah Winfrey, so that he could not meet them. Liam realized something was up with Nomura. After the lunch, he questioned her but she brushed it off, stating that it was just coincident. Liam demanded Nomura to go away so that he could go to meet Rize in secret. Nomura rejected to go away saying that it was in her duty to tag along and record what happen as his personal secretary much to Liam's dismay. He allowed her to tag along with the idea of cutting her somewhere but Nomura had predicted such. She had a record of a kissing scene that she played it when the two were near Rize's house. Being sensitive to sound, Rize recognize it immediately and run away crying leaving Liam who did not recognize anything from the sound confused. Liam tried to contact Rize and Nagisa but his calls were all denied. Unable to do anything and did not want to confess what he was doing in front of Nomura, Liam decided to go home, to Byakko.

Rize, being depressed, went to her friend, Cecile for advise. Cecile, being bribed by Byakko decided to sabotage the relationship by badmouthing Liam, saying that Rize was just Liam's plaything and he had find another thing to play with being his secretary. She advised Rize to be angry at Liam to test him if he truly love or not.

Cecile and Nomura had formed a deadly combo against Liam and Rize. Cecile gave bad advise to Rize that she should try to be angry at Liam by giving out the silent treatment while Nomura kept Liam at work, giving out heavy schedule whenever he had plan to meet with Rize. That way, Rize would feel that her anger and test were not met her condition, straining her relationship with Liam. Whenever Rize became sadder, she came to Cecile who continued to badmouth Liam, straining the two. Meanwhile, Nomura spied on Nagisa so that she could schedule meetings with Liam in front of Nagisa regularly, sabotaging the two.

Things happened like that for several months, making Rize deeply hurt while Liam unable to comfort her.

## Reference

1. ↑ The event was inspired by a real life event in China. https://vietnamnet.vn/giup-cu-ba-bi-nga-cau-be-9-tuoi-bi-doi-boi-thuong-hon-3-ty-dong-2161772.html