Name: Supreme Magus
Rating: 4.5 (339 reviews)

Chapter 3549 A Clean Business (Part 2)

Derek McCoy was a man who spent his entire life facing adversity and injustice. After being forced to settle with surviving rather than living, he had finally found his place in the world, until everything was taken from him one last time.

After losing his life to avenge his murdered brother, he is reborn as Lith in the magical world of Mogar filled with magic and monsters, as a calculative, distrusting, broken, cynical man who pursues his own interests at all costs.

During his long and arduous journey to power, seeking answers to his reincarnation problem, Lith slowly learns to live again. On his voyage paved with blood and lies, Lith clashes with mystical powers, horrible enemies, and evil plots older than humanity itself. Follow him along his journey, from grieving brother to alien soldier. From infant to Supreme Magus.

Background

Derek McCoy is the first ‘life’ of the protagonist; he was regularly abused by his own father, Ezio, and shunned by his mother. He was bullied in school due to his poor economic condition, and even the school authorities and child protective services didn’t pay much heed to his problems, causing Derek to lose any and all hope in humanity except for his only companion during such hardship – his brother Carl McCoy.

So, he decided to learn jiu-jitsu and improve his body to fend off his bullies and hopefully his abusive father as well. After a few months of training, he brutally beat up his bullies.

The bullying stopped, but Derek never had a social life. He started growing feelings for the opposite sex, but the darkness in his home forced him to bury all feelings inside his heart. This enraged him, and he started plotting his father’s demise but gave up as he was afraid that a murder would lead to his arrest, and Carl would be left to fend off on his own.

Derek’s chance for freedom finally came when Ezio received the biggest commission of his life and was in a hurry for a meeting. Ezio missed the elevator and rushed for the stairs.

Derek knew that the stairs were wet from just being washed but he kept silent, and Ezio suffered a nasty fall. When Derek reached him, Ezio looked up to his son for help, which Derek denied.

After the death of his father, he was emancipated from his uncaring mother and got a decent sum of money from the inheritance and settlement. They lived a significantly better life as he completed school and eventually got a degree in biochemistry.

Alas, Derek never found love due to his inability to trust. Carl’s successful relationships and social life were a painful thorn in Derek’s side. Although both went through the same experience, Carl was able to lead a normal life.

Derek’s peaceful world was torn apart when Carl was run over by a drunk minor, Chris Wainright. The trial ended in Chris’s favor due to his status as a minor. This broke him down and he led a distraught, monotonous life until he was diagnosed with cancer.

He refused treatment and was informed that he only had six months left. Derek tried to live his remaining days to the fullest until he suddenly saw Chris one night. He was still involved in drugs and violations of the law. Since Derek had nothing to lose, he orchestrated Chris’s death, before ending his own life.

Prologue

No matter if you are a pessimist or an optimist, Derek Esposito’s life wasn’t a good one nor a bad one. It was just a mediocre insignificant existence.

His father was a bipolar abusive man, capable of disappearing is his bedroom for days during the depressive phase. He would wake up only to eat, use the bathroom and the occasional “let’s make your life miserable” fit of rage.

During his euphoric phase, he would work like a madman, but not having any talent either as a businessman nor as social climber, he was unable to both being successful and establishing the right connections.

In his natural state, whenever he decided to actually take his medications, he was just a coach potato that would stand up and go to work just to avoid the blame and spite from neighbours and peers.

Whatever was his mental condition, he always was a perfect example of an abusive father.

His sons were always a disgrace in his eyes.

They never studied hard enough, never were disciplined enough, nor did show enough respect.

And he was always there to remember them how wrong they were.

He would yell at them for the slightest mistake, constantly reminding them that they were just parasites that leeched off his hard work.

And when words weren’t enough or when they did fail to meet his expectation with school grades or chores, there was no teacher like his leather belt.

Hence, Derek and Carl had to quickly learn how to fend off for themselves, since their absent-minded mother practically forgot about them right after giving birth, dedicating her life in pursue of peace and quiet, staying as far as possible from her spouse tantrums.

Derek was two years older, and desperately tried to take care of his little brother, but to no avail.

They grew up watching and reading stories about heroes protecting the weak and upholding justice. But no hero ever appeared to save them.

Every week they would be forced to go to church to worship a nondescript benevolent god and his son, the saviour of all mankind. But no matter how much they prayed or how good they were, no miracle occurred.

So, they simply stopped believing in heroes and instead of wasting time with prayers they crammed.

School was their only oasis, but that lasted only until the sixth grade.

Once in middle school, it didn’t even take a month before the bullying started.

Their cheap clothes and gloomy disposition made them the easiest targets. They were so used being tossed around and insulted that they didn’t even bother trying to fight back.

For a long time, Derek had considered it the worst moment in his useless life. After a month, he knew he could not take any more of that, so he tried to make things better.

He reported his father’s abuses to the social services with an anonymous email, but being overworked and understaffed the social work assistant made a brief visit and never came back.

…