Chương 39: Childhood
The boy's echoing voice faded from the room. Once the house fell completely silent, Himeko sighed and gently stroked Taxue's back.
"Little kitty, little kitty, tell me, what has he been through?"
"Meow~"
Unfortunately, the little kitty couldn't talk and couldn't answer her question.
With her line of inquiry interrupted, Himeko couldn't continue probing for the moment. She could only lean against the sofa and play with the cat. However, no matter how she teased it, Taxue didn't have the habit of wagging its tail.
"Well, it has been so long since that photo was taken. Even if it's also a black cat, it might not be the same one." She lifted the kitty up and examined it carefully. Unfortunately, aside from having heterochromatic gray and gold eyes, the black cat was no different from any ordinary black cat. On the contrary, having annoyed the cat, she received several kicks to the chest from Taxue. She quickly placed it on her lap and smoothed its fur before it could get truly angry.
"Still a feisty little kitty." Not angry at all, Himeko continued stroking Taxue's fur with a smile.
A somewhat disgruntled Taxue lightly swiped at her with its claws as a warning, then curled up, nestled against her, found a comfortable spot, and closed its eyes, falling fast asleep.
Himeko, who had originally planned to secretly look for more clues while Ren was away, was now completely 'sealed' by the kitty. Helpless, she could only sit obediently on the sofa with the cat, staring blankly at the furniture in the house.
Ren's home wasn't big; even fully furnished, it was less than 60 square meters. Himeko, accustomed to living in the staff dormitory at St. Freya, didn't feel cramped at all. Perhaps it was the arrangement of the furniture that gave her an illusion, but the compact environment actually gave her a sense of homely warmth. It was as if every member of the family had their own belongings, their own place. That was what a home should be like.
Several pairs of old shoes were placed on the shoe rack. Some were relatively clean, while others were covered in dust. She wondered who the owners of the shoes were, and why they had been left there.
Time had left its mark on the mottled walls, and occasionally, there would be a small doodle hidden in an inconspicuous spot. Perhaps a boy had once drawn his dreams there, capturing a moment in time, but now it was all in the past.
Most of the doodles had been painted over with white paint, as if filling the memories with blankness, yet forgetting to write a new story on that blank space.
Perhaps it was because the boy had grown up, perhaps because the happy times were no longer there, or perhaps it was simply a renovation. In any case, he was no longer the child who loved to laugh.
So many stories were hidden within the small living room. Himeko couldn't find them all but could still glimpse clues through small details.
Sunlight fell on the solid wood coffee table. Its old and rough surface still shone after being cleaned. But at the corner, there was a dark red stain that couldn't be wiped away, like an ugly scar, marring what should have been beautiful.
The moment she saw the bloodstain, Himeko's heart sank. She carefully observed every corner and finally discovered that such bloodstains were everywhere.
"What happened here?" Himeko was so concerned that she even forgot to be mindful of Taxue. She gently picked it up, placed it on the sofa, and smoothed its fur, causing the already stirring kitten to fall back asleep.
Why were there so many bloodstains? For a moment, Himeko even imagined a horrific massacre, or perhaps a terrifying scene of family members turning on each other. But after gently touching the bloodstains with her fingertips and scraping away the surface layer with her nails, she discovered that these stains weren't all from the same time.
Some parts of the bloodstains were dark and had completely merged with the wooden furniture. Some still retained some traces, and the clearest bloodstain was only a few days old.
"Was it illness?" Having ruled out the possibility of murder, Himeko quickly thought of another possibility.
Quietly glancing at the silent bedroom, Himeko started searching through the cabinets in the living room. She immediately thought of the drawer containing the disability certificate and carefully pulled it open.
Sure enough, besides the copied certificate, there was also a recently printed diagnostic report. However, the signature wasn't Ren's mother's, but his own.
Rare, hematemesis, incurable…
The moment she saw these words, Himeko's heart skipped a beat.
With current medical technology, most diseases already had treatments. Even some rare diseases, even if they couldn't be cured, could be detected. The only exception was Honkai sickness.
Honkai sickness didn't refer to a specific disease, but rather a general term for pathological conditions caused by the influence of Honkai energy. These illnesses were often difficult to detect, and even if they could be detected, they were incurable with current human medical technology. Apart from large organizations like Schicksal, ordinary people who contracted the disease were essentially given a death sentence.
And the date of this test seemed to be recent.
She continued to search through all the test records and found that the initial test was four months ago, and the doctor's prognosis at that time was less than a month to live.
The second test was three months ago, with the same test results, but the prognosis this time was less than three months.
"So he became a Herrscher only three months ago? And the event that happened then – the Herrscher of the Void's awakening!"
Himeko felt like she was getting close to the truth. Just as she wanted to press on, the bedroom door suddenly opened.
"What are you doing?" With a frosty expression, Ren looked at her coldly, as if she were a rat stealing food from his house.
"Sigh…"
Himeko sighed. She calmly put the medical report back and looked at Ren, wanting to speak but stopping herself.
If you're truly an irredeemable villain, then I will do everything in my power to stop you.
If you were only forced to become a Herrscher, then let me pull you back from the abyss.
That was what she decided in her heart.
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