Chapter 1819: Lily will take care of the rest: Part-2
Chapter 1819: Lily will take care of the rest: Part-2
SSSSNNNGGGGGG!!!
The car roared through the tunnel at high speed.
White strips of light flashed across the windows at regular intervals.
“Whhhhhooooo—Boo!”
Noah was completely absorbed in his own little world, sitting in his child seat and making two toys crash into each other as if they were giant robots locked in an epic battle.
Meanwhile, Young Aether sat quietly by the window, his expression distant as the passing lights glazed across his face.
He had barely spoken since they entered the tunnel, seemingly lost somewhere deep inside his thoughts.
Lily, who was driving, glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
“Unc Aether, what’s with the long face?” she asked. “Are you really that unhappy about seeing your ex?”
Young Aether slowly rolled his eyes toward her.
“What do you know about me, girl? Don’t act like you know everything. You’re still a child. You haven’t even had your first peri—”
He abruptly stopped.
“Ah! Fuck.”
He immediately facepalmed.
What the hell was he talking about?
Had he completely lost his mind?
This was his friend’s daughter.
And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, there was a child sitting directly behind them.
Lily glanced at him, completely unfazed.
“I got my first period a long time ago,” she said matter-of-factly.
Young Aether froze.
“…Oh my God. Please don’t answer that.”
He turned his face toward the window and closed his eyes.
‘Fuck me. Why did I even say that?’
He had only let those words slip because his mind was somewhere else entirely.
Unfortunately, his bitchy mouth uttered them without thinking.
Young Aether rubbed his forehead and sighed.
“Sorry. Just forget what I said. I wasn’t in my right mind.”
[+700 AP]
Young Aether’s eyebrow twitched.
‘…Why did I just get AP for that?’
Lily simply smiled and shook her head.
“It’s alright. So, now that I’ve had my first period, I’m an adult, right?”
Young Aether stared at her.
There was a long silence.
“First of all,” he said carefully, “that was a very poor choice of words on my part. And second of all… no. You’re still a child.”
Lily immediately puffed out her cheeks.
“What I meant to say was that you’re too young to understand these kinds of matters properly.”
Lily clicked her tongue.
“Come on, Unc. I’m not a child. I know more than you guys did when you were my age.”
Young Aether blinked.
“Well, if you mean knowledge in general, I suppose your generation—”
“No. That’s not what I meant.”
“…”
Young Aether blinked again.
“Then?”
Lily’s lips curled into a mischievous smile.
“When my dad was talking about you with my mom… I heard something cute about you.”
Young Aether’s expression immediately changed.
“Cute?”
The word alone was enough to make him suspicious.
“About me?”
Lily nodded.
Young Aether narrowed his eyes.
‘What could possibly be cute about me?’
He tried to think of what she could have heard.
Fighting?
Being punished?
Getting into trouble?
Being an idiot?
Those were considerably more believable.
However, Lily’s next words shattered everything,
“You believed kissing a girl… would get her pregnant, correct?”
“…”
Lily waited.
“…”
“Unc?”
“…”
“Uncle?”
Her face slowly turned amused as the silence continued.
Meanwhile, Young Aether was screaming internally.
‘That son of a bitch. That fucking motherfucker. Perverted asshole. Pile of dump shit. Shitty jerk. I’m fucking going to kill you, tear you into pieces, and stuff them into my mouth, you son of a bitch. Bitch’s son. Motherfucking jerk. Stumpy dickhead—’
“Uncle!!”
Young Aether snapped out of his thoughts.
He immediately looked at Lily with the calmest expression he could manage, as if he hadn’t been mentally cursing her father with every insult known to mankind just a few seconds ago.
“Haha… You mean your father believed it?” He forced out a laugh.
“Hahaha… That son of-ahem… Yeah, he believed that shit. Haha… That’s so funny, you know… Ahaha.”
His expression became increasingly awkward with every second Lily continued staring at him.
“Ahem. I mean… I don’t know why he twisted the truth, but it was he who believed it. Definitely not me.”
“Believe me…”
Young Aether immediately nodded, wearing an expression of absolute confidence and pride.
“Trust me!”
But Lily obviously wasn’t going to believe him.
Her face said everything.
She simply stared at him with the unmistakable expression of someone who had already figured out the truth and was now enjoying watching him dig his own grave.
That only fumed Young Aether even more.
Lily smirked.
“Anyway, what I’m saying is that I know more than you did when you were my age. So please, don’t treat me like a child.”
“…Fine.”
Young Aether sighed before shaking his head.
“But I’m absolutely sure you don’t understand what it means to be an adult. Unlike us, you don’t need to worry about anything. You’re still just a free spirit like Noah.”
He suddenly turned toward Noah and raised his voice playfully.
“Wohaaah~!”
He growled at him like some strange beast.
Noah flinched.
Then he picked up his mask, put on the most intimidating expression his little face could manage, and growled back.
“Waaahhh!!!”
Young Aether immediately chuckled.
“See? Haha… So cute~”
Lily’s hands tightened around the steering wheel.
The amusement vanished from her face.
Her expression suddenly hardened, as though his words had struck somewhere far more sensitive than he realised.
“Worry?” she asked quietly.
Young Aether glanced at her.
“You’re talking about money stuff? Paying bills? Being responsible? Is that what makes someone an adult?”
“Well, I think partially it doe—”
“You have no idea what I’m going through, Uncle!”
Her voice suddenly cut through the car.
Young Aether’s smile disappeared.
Lily kept her eyes fixed on the road, but her grip on the steering wheel tightened until her knuckles turned pale.
“Every single day, we were barely surviving in this horrifying land. Do you think our dad wanted to stay in this wicked Division?”
Lily’s breathing became heavier.
“Do you have any idea how many times my mother has been called a prostitute by my friends?”
Her eyes began turning red, anger burning beneath the surface as years of resentment threatened to spill over.
“You think I’m some carefree child who knows nothing because I don’t have to worry about anything?”
Her voice trembled.
“You have no idea what it’s like to watch your family struggle every single day and pretend everything is fine because there’s nothing else you can do.”
The playful atmosphere from moments ago had completely vanished.
Even Noah had gone quiet in the back seat, his toys resting motionless in his small hands.
“Tell me, Uncle… what should I do if your friends call your mother a prostitute and ask for her number so they can… f-fuck her?”
“…”
Young Aether was completely taken aback by the sudden burst.
Lily continued, her voice trembling beneath the anger.
“And it didn’t end there… My dad… Do you know how many times the world labelled him as a man who holds a candle for his prostitute wife? They called him every filthy name in the world… and all he could do was bow his head.”
Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
“I watched him do it, Uncle. Again and again. He would hear them laughing behind his back. He would hear them insulting my mother. He would hear them questioning his dignity, his manhood, everything he had spent his life protecting.”
Her jaw trembled.
“And what could he do?”
She swallowed.
“Nothing.”
The word came out painfully quiet.
“He couldn’t fight every person who said something disgusting. He couldn’t silence an entire city. So he just… lowered his head.”
Young Aether remained silent.
“Could you handle seeing your father just shut his mouth and bow his head?” Lily asked.
“Could you watch the man you respect most in this world swallow every fucking insult thrown at him….”
Her voice cracked.
“B-Because that’s all he could do to protect us.”
Young Aether’s expression slowly changed.
Lily’s eyes remained fixed on the road, but tears were already gathering along her lower lashes.
“Tell me, Uncle! What would you do if you were in my shoes? Just enjoy this fucked-up life? Pretend everything is normal?
Let the world degrade your father and mother like pieces of garbage while the children just… jump around happily?”
Her voice rose again.
“Huh? Tell me!”
Her hands shook against the steering wheel.
“What the fuck am I supposed to do?”
Young Aether blinked.
Where was all of this coming from?
This accumulated pain?
But whatever had caused it, she was still driving.
Young Aether glanced at the road ahead before looking back at her.
“Calm down, Lil—”
“I AM CALM!!”
Her shout exploded through the car.
Young Aether instinctively flinched.
“…”
That was, without question, the least calm person he had ever seen in his life.
Drip…
A tear rolled down Lily’s cheek.
She tightened her grip around the steering wheel as more tears gathered in her pale turquoise eyes. Her eyes trembled, her lower lip quivered, and she bit down on it as though physically holding herself together.
Her free hand rose to the side of her neck, rubbing the skin there with a disgusted expression.
“And do you have any idea…” she whispered, her voice suddenly much quieter,
“How it feels when people call me with those lustful eyes?”
“?!!!”
Young Aether’s expression changed instantly.
What the fuck had he just heard?
His face went completely stiff.
For a moment, he couldn’t even process the question.
Who the fuck was looking at her like that?
She was a child! For a fucking god’s sake!!
Lily bit her lips as her breath turned erratic, “They called me if I am just like my mother!!!
DO YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS?”
“HUH?”
“Whenever I walk on the road, I could literally feel it… I feel their gaze all over my fucking!”
She slammed her fist against the horn.
BEEP!
“FUCKING…!”
BEEP!
“FUCKING…!”
BEEP!
“FUCKING…!”
BEEEEEEEEP!
“MY FUCKING BODY!!”
The scream tore itself from her chest.
Tears poured from her eyes.
Her shoulders trembled as she desperately tried to keep control of the vehicle.
“I hate it!”
The words came out barely above a whisper.
Young Aether said nothing.
He might not have known what it meant to experience the world as a woman, but he knew what those lustful eyes looked like.
Hell, he had experienced them himself only a few days ago.
The instinctive urge to cover yourself.
And that experience had lasted only moments.
For her, it sounded as though it had become part of everyday life.
The realisation sent a cold shiver through him.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Even Noah had fallen silent in the back seat, his toys resting forgotten in his small hands.
The tunnel continued stretching ahead.
White lights swept across the windshield, one after another, briefly illuminating Lily’s tear-streaked face before leaving it in darkness again.
Lily finally released some of the tension in her hands.
She took a shaky breath.
Then another.
Her shoulders slowly dropped.
She looked toward Young Aether.
The fury that had filled her eyes moments ago was gone.
What remained was exhaustion.
And underneath that exhaustion was fear.
“Even…” she whispered.
A weak, broken laugh escaped her.
“Haha…”
It disappeared almost immediately.
“Even my dad’s friend looked at me like that… What can I say about strangers then… Haha….”
She let out a hollow laugh.
Young Aether’s eyes widened slightly.
Wait!
Hold on a minute.
The last few hours… he had been acting like a creep, hadn’t he?
Telling her that he could see everything.
Asking her whether she had gotten her period.
His face slowly went pale.
Had he looked at her like that?
“The fuck?!”
Young Aether’s expression turned horrified, as though he had suddenly realised he had committed something more heinous than eating people or corrupting their minds.
“C-C-Child… I-I didn’t mean it when I said, ‘I can see everything!'” he hurriedly explained, his words tripping over one another.
“It wasn’t meant in any sexual way! Your clothes were just a little too small, that’s all! I mean, come on! I would’ve reacted the same way even if you were a guy! Believe me! I said it because I know how the fuck those creepy bastards look at children—Fuck!”
Those last words had somehow made his explanation sound even worse.
He know?
“That’s not what I mean!”
Young Aether waved his hands frantically.
“I’m not a creep! I’ve seen those fucked-up people before. I know exactly how they look at children. That’s what I meant! Please… I really didn’t see you that way. Even that period thing…”
He covered his face.
“Oh, fuck me… I’m so sorry, okay? I just blurted it out.”
He lowered his hands and clasped them together as though he were praying before a merciless god.
“I really didn’t mean it like that. Please believe meee!!!!”
Young Aether was almost on the verge of tears. In his mind, the horrifying label had already been stamped across his forehead.
A fucking paedophile!
Then, apparently deciding that words alone weren’t enough to defend his honour, he straightened his back and spoke with absolute conviction.
“Look, I like looking at beautiful women. I’m a man. I admit it. I love looking at the curves of women, but it’s women!
“A fully grown woman. Adults. Mature, consenting women. That’s my territory.”
“In fact, I love MILFs.”
Lily blinked through her tears, “Un—”
He placed a hand over his chest.
“MILFs are beautiful. They’re confident, elegant, and they know what they want. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating that.”
Lily stared at him…. like she was staring at a filth!
Young Aether raised another finger.
“And even GILFs.”
“…” Lily was utterly shocked now!
“GILFs are also beautiful. Age doesn’t suddenly make someone unattractive. If anything, some women become more elegant with age and wiser… like a fine wine… slurrrppp~”
Lily’s expression became increasingly bewildered.
“And I AM PROUD OF THEM!” He said with a lifted chest.
“Because appreciating attractive adult women is not a crime… it’s a blessing!!”
He shouted the last sentence with such absolute conviction that his voice echoed through the car.
Lily stared at him in stunned silence.
Then her lips began to twitch.
“Calm… ahaha… calm down, Uncle… Hahaha… What the…” She couldn’t hold it anymore. Her tearful expression slowly broke into laughter as she rubbed the corner of her eye and shook her head.
“Oh my god… ahaha… I… ah… ah… I didn’t mean you, Unc…”
“…”
Young Aether froze.
He stared at her.
Then his shoulders slowly dropped.
“…You didn’t?”
Lily shook her head.
A tremendous sigh escaped him.
“Haaaaaaah…”
It was the sigh of a man who had just survived a catastrophic misunderstanding.
For the past few minutes, he had genuinely believed that his entire reputation had been dragged into the abyss.
Now it felt as though some enormous, horrifying label had finally been peeled off his back.
He leaned against the seat and closed his eyes.
“Thank Good.”
Lily wiped away the remaining tears from her eyes, still smiling faintly.
“Still… that’s not something you should be proud of, Unc.”
MILF? GILF?
That was still worse, right?
One should have felt embarrassed, but Young Aether… actually felt that it was far better!
So, he proudly accepted those titles.
“Wait… if you don’t mean me… then who?” He looked at her with a frown.
Lily fell silent as her grip on the steering wheel tightened.
“Lily?”
She didn’t answer.
“Tell me, dear… who is it?”
His voice softened.
“Did someone hurt you?”
Lily continued staring at the road.
Young Aether’s frown deepened.
“Tell me. Whoever it is… I’ll fucking annihilate that bastard from existence.”
Lily gave him a weak smile.
“You would?”
“Of course.”
She looked at him.
For several seconds, she simply stared at him.
Then she slowly shook her head.
“If that were true… you would have found out already instead of asking me.”
Young Aether’s brow furrowed.
“…I don’t understand.”
“My father has only two friends in his entire life.”
Young Aether nodded slowly, “So he hasn’t made any friends other than u—”
His words stopped.
His head instantly turned toward Lily.
His eyes widened.
The realisation arrived so suddenly that his entire body seemed to stiffen.
Lily gave him a dead smile.
Her hand slowly moved toward the side of her neck. Her fingers rubbed the skin as her expression twisted with pain and disgust.
“Y-Yes…”
Her voice came out watery.
The tremor in that single word sent a chill through Young Aether’s body.
“Uncle Jonathan.”
Crack
Read Novel Full