章 91: Like Father, Like So-... Daughter
"..." My father looked at me for a second before narrowing his eyes further, as if he was looking at something behind me or in me rather than actually looking at me.
On the other hand, I kept my a*s on the rock, not moving an inch forwards or backward. My legs were crossed, and since I didn't have my jacket to put my hands in, I simply put my right elbow on my right thigh while resting my head on my right palm. Meanwhile my other hand simply drummed my left knee, giving off a bored vibe overall. My face was currently expressionless, with slight boredom mixed within.
"Is what they have said true?" Asked my father in a much more composed tone.
"Mostly" I said nonchalantly
"What part did they miss out them?" Asked my father, now slightly more enraged
"Well, they didn't miss out anything too important. But the facts are that around 5 people who were enemies were coming towards us. I went for the closest one, hoping to catch him off guard before he reaches us. I wanted to get back in time for the second solo guy, who just happened to be an assassin, to arrive, but the guy I went for turned out to be tricky." I explained
"What does this have to do with you enslaving that girl!?" My father roared
"I was getting to it... Anyway, The guy I fought decided to use this fire majestic boom thing..."
"Overheat: Magnificent Eruption" Olivia chimed in
"Thanks! Anywa-" I tried to continue until I was interrupted once again
"OVERHEAT?!" My father shouted, but no anger was in his voice.
"It is part of the overheat series yes. You may have not heard of it, but it is usually used as a suicide tactic. Fortunately for Pandora, he hadn't reached the wizard rank yet." Olivia explained.
Within the blink of an eye, I watched as my father's body flickered and appeared in front of me before attacking me and putting me under the mercy of one of his hugs.
"Oh god, Dad! At least let me finish the explication!" I pleaded with no avail.
*5 minutes later*
After my father finally calmed down, I sat down on the large rock and continued- "After the guy exploded himself, I ran back to where we were before to see an explosion of steam in the distance. When I got there, I saw a half destroyed body on the floor while two other bodies were sent to the sides unconscious." I said, completely leaving out the fact that the assassin did not die.
"Wait, but how did you escape the blast of the overheat move?" My father questioned
"Not important right now. Anyway, I felt the presence of 3 other people coming from the distance, one of them being Olivia here." I pointed towards her with my thumb "The other two was a short guy and another big guy. While fighting them, I had angered the big guy quite a lot, since I kept dodging and leading them into the forest. This made him go into an enraged state which consequently made him destroy everything around him. I chose to hit him hard enough to knock him out while also knocking out the small guy, b-but... *sniffle*..."
At this moment, Olivia was looking at me in awe, and thankfully, no one was paying attention to her. She was so surprised that I was able to create a story up that makes sense with all the current evidence on the spot, but of course to me, this was no surprise. I had been using my Mind Influx combination to think and calculate for the best lie that I could make. I kept my voice and tone the same for most of the story, but now that I was about to tell my father that I killed someone, I had to make it look like I 'broke my act' of being strong. While yes, my brothers seemed to not have really cared about killing someone, they were both more than twice my age, and they were both unconscious by the time the mad died. They didn't even have to see the corpse of the body, so it didn't really matter how they would react.
"D-d-dad... I thought it would be easy. I watched people die so many times when they attacked the forest back when I was with Juilam. *sob*... D-dad, I even helped the beast kill the humans and even though I felt a bit bad, it feels nothing like this." I sobbed while looking down at my 'shivering' hand while my bangs covered my face from the angle everyone was looking. And by everyone, that didn't mean Olivia.
She looked at my face, that had a wicked smile plastered on it for a split second before disappearing into a sad terror filled teary expression.
I looked up in a half dramatic matter and looked at my father in the eyes before asking "Why does it hurt so much" while clenching my heart.
'Wow, I'm such a good actor!' I said cheerfully through the mind link
'You are the devil' Olivia retorted. Meanwhile, my brothers and the driver all had complicated expressions.
While the driver had seen how I was acting and how I was covered in blood after I came from under the cliff, he had a hard time believing that I was currently lying. On the other hand, Zack was simply trying his hardest not to scoff at my face while I was crying, while Zarch had the opposite opinion. Zarch was a little more level headed than his hot headed brother who would do everything on instinct. He reminded himself that I was barely even 6 years old, and not only have I been working excessively hard since the age of 4, trying to become stronger than everyone in the family, and even allying with monsters to do so, but that I had just killed my first human at the age of 6, an action he couldn't even imagine doing until recently.
Suddenly, before even my father could move, Zarch walked forwards and within a few seconds, he was in front of me. To surprise, he leaned down and hugged me while ruffling my hair a little, which caused Zack to drop his jaw almost instantly. Feeling proud of his once envious son's initiative, my father walked forward and also gave me a hug, saying "It's okay. This is a part of life. While I don't like killing or death, I didn't want my own 6 year old child or 14 year old twins to know what it means to take a life..."
"You know, I'm really proud of you. You had taken a life and realised the true meaning of it at barely the age of 6, and now you even know the pain of taking one. Even though it may hurt now, you have done what is right. If you hadn't killed that man, not only may you have died, but your brothers and Wallace too. You never know, you might have saved dozens, if not hundreds or thousands in the future by getting rid of one person. However, I want you to never get rid of this emotions that currently plagues you, and that every time you kill somebody you feel the same amount of pain that you currently do, is that understood?" My father spoke, burrowing me deeper into his chest while hugging me.
"Y-yes dad" a muffled voice came out between sobs while thinking-
'Sorry dad, but I think I've been far too desensitized to the killing of another human.
After 'crying' in my father and brother's arms, I finally decided to finish the story I had created.
"After I k-killed both of them, Olivia broke down and decided she didn't want to live anymore, but then I decided to make a contract with her so that she can't betray me and that she will work for out family, and in payment, she be treated to food, shelter and a family name." I told my father while not daring to look away from the ground in 'fear' of my father's reaction.
Suddenly, or not so suddenly because I can see everything around me no matter the obstacles in the way, I felt a tap on my head before a voice broke me out of my reverie, saying "I'm proud of you, so no need to look so down" with a huge smile on his face that warmed even my cold heart.
'wait... since when did I have a cold heart' I asked my self with the mind link still open.
'I don't know, but clearly since forever because you pulled that lie off like it was nothing in front of your overly sympathetic father.' Olivia sighed
"So, Olivia Raven huh" My father commented while looking her up and down, yet there was not single speck of lust in his soul, but rather curiosity and battle spirit.
'Oh god, he is doing the same thing you were.' Olivia snarled
'Like father like s- Daughter.' I remarked
"What kind of contract did the both of you use?" my father inquired looking at both me and Olivia. Since Olivia was not allowed to say anything, she simply looked at me waiting for me to give an answer, while also slightly curious if I am going to tell them about the Divine contract.
"It's called a soul contract. It makes a connection between two 'flames of life' while either making one side submit to the other, or to make a fair or mostly fair contract between two parties. Really easy to use" I remarked with a thumbs up.
-- 贈り物
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