Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power

Chapter 481 – A Grandfather and a Grandson, and Life’s Greatest Lesson [4]

Two days.

Two days had passed inside that strange realm, and on the third day everything shifted. Not in a good way, as one might have hoped.

Far worse than anything one could have imagined.

Raven’s curse — or whatever was gnawing at the old man — had gotten exponentially worse. He was no longer able to sit for long before his chest would naturally contract, his lungs refusing to pull air in.

At those moments, he would open his mouth pitifully, like a fish pulled from water, spasming as if seized, trying breathlessly to breathe.

The sight was horrific the first time it happened that morning. Kaden stood there, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

But he pulled himself together and helped his grandfather before the asphyxiation could finish what the curse had started.

That was only the beginning.

Visibly, in real time, Kaden watched Raven’s body begin to shrink — muscles, bones and skin becoming like water, unable to hold the weight of a life.

He could barely take one step before collapsing like a sack of rock. At that point, Raven looked up at his grandson, unable to hide the pain and sadness brimming in his bright eyes.

"Ah, my boy, I think I will desperately need your help now." He whispered, trying to smile sheepishly. "I will need you to take care of me. The bathroom. The food." He paused, smile widening. "Will you?"

Kaden couldn’t answer. He managed only a weak nod.

One might have expected him to break under that weight. To fold on himself the way he had been doing since the beginning of the quest.

But no.

The young Warborn found himself brimming with strength. Not the strength of his body. But the strength of his mind and soul.

Because watching Raven’s eyes — bright, mischievous, carrying a wisdom that left Kaden speechless — in what was essentially his deathbed had taught him something.

What right did he have to mourn, cry, and stay buried in himself, when this old man was still here, fighting to live not for his own sake, but for his grandson?

That realisation filled him with strength he hadn’t known he still had. And so Kaden began his work as a caretaker.

Each morning, he would carry his grandfather in his arms the way a father carries a child — Raven weighed almost nothing — and bring him to the bathroom in the wooden house.

The old man said he didn’t mind. But Kaden would always close his eyes inside the bathroom, relying only on a sliver of perception as he washed him.

Given the fragility of his skin, he used barely any strength at all.

Then the toilet. There, Raven brought back something Kaden had almost forgotten.

Something the old beggar had once told him, that festival day of Sul Lotus Blood, in the darkness of a stinking alley.

"I think I have arrived at that stage, haven’t I?" Raven said as Kaden helped him onto the toilet seat.

"What stage?" Kaden answered softly, his own pain now entirely ignored, his slowing heartbeat a background noise.

"One day I will feel so weak, so useless that I will need someone to wipe my ass." Raven repeated the words he had spoken through the beggar, looking at his grandson with a small smile, his eyes shimmering. "Well, my boy, I think I have reached that level, haven’t I?"

Kaden, once again, had no words.

He looked at his grandfather and tried to imagine the man he had been before the curse. One cut from the same cloth as his father, or better still. A man who could destroy an entire city with a basic release of intent. Who had once told Kaden he could overlap two different spaces from different territories with ease.

A godly power. The kind mortals would bow to and worship fervently.

And that same man was now reduced to this. Weak, powerless, unable to relieve himself without his grandson’s hands.

The blow of it made Kaden stagger inwardly. The futility of everything he had been going through hit him all at once. So laughable and so heartbreaking at the same time that he bit his lip hard to stop the tears from coming.

Raven looked at him and smiled slightly. "What? Do you want to watch too?" He joked, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

Kaden laughed softly, shaking his head. "I think I’ll pass on that." He muttered, and stepped out to give him space.

When Raven called him back in, Kaden wiped his grandfather without a change of expression and carried him back to bed.

Without resting, his face damp with sweat from pushing his broken body, Kaden went to cook.

Raven’s teeth and digestive system had been completely ruined by the curse, nothing complicated or hard could be absorbed.

So Kaden made a porridge from the vegetables and fruits available, sat beside him, helped the old man sit up slightly, and fed him patiently.

Sometimes Raven would let some slip through his mouth, his jaw tiring easily. He would always shoot Kaden a sorry smile when it happened.

Kaden would only smile back — smile because if he didn’t, he would cry — and wipe his grandfather’s face with a strip of his own clothes.

After the meal and a cup of water, the old man was full. He lay back peacefully on his bed, sunken eyes growing sleepy, a smile settling on his face.

"You know, my boy, you still have an answer to give me by the end of five days." Raven said suddenly, peeking through heavy eyelids at Kaden sitting close beside him.

"Aye, grandfather." Kaden answered.

"Ah, then let me tell you how to get full marks, as the magnanimous grandfather I am." He continued, then paused to cough, black blood and spit mixed together.

Kaden handed him water gently. "Here. Here. It’s okay."

When the coughing finally calmed, Raven resumed with an eager gleam in his eyes.

"To get full marks," he whispered, "you just need to hold my hands, my boy. And kiss my forehead. Just from time to time. That’s it. Easy, right? Now, aren’t I the best grandfather?"

Kaden’s lips trembled. He lowered his head, reached out both hands, and took his grandfather’s right hand warmly between his own.

He leaned forward and kissed his forehead, not minding the roughness of his skin in the slightest.

Visibly, Raven’s eyes brightened. A big, contagious smile split his wrinkled face.

"My boy, thank you." He said, his voice heavy with emotion, eyes wetting. "Thank you for taking care of me."

Kaden lowered his head even further, hiding his own tears. "No." He replied. "It’s me who must thank you, grandfather."

Raven chuckled, the sound dry and small. "Then we need each other, don’t we?" He looked at Kaden, finding wet eyes looking back. "That’s why family matters, Kaden. That’s why friends, companions, and those who truly care about you matter in your life, my boy."

Kaden tightened his grip on Raven’s hand and listened.

"The reason is clear enough if you look at me." He smiled. "I would have probably died in loneliness, or with this curse devouring me, if you weren’t here. And I would have died long before that if my sister Scarlet hadn’t stayed with me. And again, I would have walked the wrong path entirely if a dear friend of mine hadn’t beaten the shit out of me to make me think straight."

Kaden chuckled at the last part, even as tears struck down his cheeks.

"That’s how life is, don’t you think, my boy?"

"Yes, grandfather. It is."

"So don’t forget it." He whispered, his voice going drowsy. "Just like at the beginning of life, when you are a baby, you need others to survive. At the end, when you are one step from the grave like me, you also need others to survive. And here is a small truth, my boy..."

He closed his eyes.

"...in the between, you need others too."

Raven fell asleep immediately after.

Kaden ducked his head, tears falling freely.

"I have heard you... grandfather."

And inside him, Reditha — his one companion — stirred, and embraced him with ghostly hands.

—End of Chapter 481—