Help! I don't want to NTR the protagonist!

"Even with those two twins?" asked Lucius.

"Yes," said Ryan, pausing for a second. "Those brothers are horrible. They'd attack and hit me, treating me like a servant and even making me call them young master and follow them around like a butler. Even after I told my mother about it, she still kept insisting that the true shield hero should never use violence on others."

"Do you truly believe that?" asked Lucius suddenly.

Faced with this sudden question, Ryan didn't know what to say. For a second, he felt like there were a thousand words he wanted to say, but in the end, they all ended up choked in his throat, completely inaudible. Eventually, he just sighed as he spoke, almost in a whisper.

"It… it was my mother's last wish."

Hearing this, Lucius just shook his head.

"Ryan, I don't know much about your mother, but I think you're reading this all wrong. Your mother's last wish wasn't for you to not fight back or use violence, but for you to be safe. The reason she made you endure the bullying and beatings was not because she didn't want you to fight back, but because you couldn't."

"Then why didn't she say that?" said Ryan, snapping uncharacteristically.

Lucius didn't take it to heart as he could kind of understand the emotions Ryan would be feeling at the moment and sighed.

"If your mother's dying wish wasn't to fight back, do you think you could have held back till now? Think about it. How many times have you nearly snapped, but the fact is, your mother's dying wish kept you from doing so."

"Ryan, don't forget your identity. The identity of the illegitimate son of the head of a family as noble as the Shield Hero family brings too many problems. It's fine if the son is mediocre, but if the son is talented, it brings uncertainty and a change in the established system, two things nobles hate completely."

Thinking about it, Lucius sighed. He could kind of understand the thinking of Ryan's mother. A helpless maid would have no idea how to handle and play around in the dark battleground of politics and conspiracies.

As long as she kept her head down, she and her child could survive and live out ordinary days in peace. But what if her child was talented, and not just with decent talent, but outstandingly so, enough to even threaten the position of successor?

Even if she warned such a child to give up, would he really? Ambition is a scary thing. It's fine if never it has a chance to grow, but if there's just a small spark, it can rapidly grow into an uncontrollable and raging prairie fire.

At that point, her child could be competing with the main family and would just end up losing his head without even knowing.

Lucius had read many books about illegitimate children and unfavored sons going against fate, counterattacking, and sitting on the high throne as the true king, but how many of those are realistic?

Realistically, 99% of those protagonists would be crushed by lurking forces or stronger combatants they couldn't afford to offend. The only way to break out of such a quagmire was to have such outstanding talent and a growth rate that all obstacles could be blown apart like a house built on sand.

Unfortunately, while Ryan was talented, he wasn't the son of a god, nor a blessed reincarnator. With this in mind, his mother must have wanted to completely eliminate any unrealistic ambitions.

So what if you were humiliated? So what if you were stepped on and bullied? Pride be damned!

All that mattered was the life of her child. She had probably only been allowed to live after getting pregnant because of such a mentality and Living with such a mentality, her only wish would be for her child to grow up safe and live a full life, ignoring all provocations and attacks of others.

But his mother could have only underestimated the cruelty of the human heart.

It's true that a lot of nobles would treat illegitimate children like dirt and, if Ryan kept his head down, would completely ignore his existence. But there were also twisted people who found pleasure in tormenting those they may have once perceived as better than them.

The prime example was the pair of twins. Despite being from the branch family, they had a son of the main family groveling at their feet like a servant.

If Ryan had just told them that he was the son of the head of the family, they probably wouldn't have dared to continue such behavior even if they had an extra pair of lives. But Ryan's identity was obviously a secret.

Such things wouldn't match keeping up his secret identity.

As for complaining to his father? If he had ignored his mother, why would he care about a bastard son who couldn't even deal with some branch family trash?

Ryan's mother had the best intentions for him and tried to protect him in the only way she knew. Although it was flawed and not perfect, it was the only way she knew, and it must have broken her heart to sentence her son to a life of silent suffering.

But if she told him to fight back and resist, he would only die even more tragically.

Lucius understood why he never even heard of Ryan in the original book. This guy probably died a wretched death at the hands of those twins.

Whether it was accidental or intentional, they probably ended the poor boy's life and swept it under the rug, leaving him to die alone and full of grievances. Lucius understood Ryan's situation, and Ryan himself was slowly opening his eyes to his own true reality.

"Lucius, w-what do I do now?" Ryan felt helpless, finally understanding what was happening. It was the final piece of the puzzle that changed a scrambled image into a clear picture.