Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1876: Just… say something!

[Author’s Note:

First of all… I am truly sorry.

I’ve been busy and was unable to post the chapters as scheduled.

I know some of you paid the privilege to read ahead, so I sincerely 🙇‍♂️ apologise for the delay and for letting you down.

To make it up to you, I promise that this week, I will be posting 3 chapters per day. 🤞

I hope this makes up for the wait and, hopefully, calms some of your frustration.🥺

Once again… I am truly sorry, and I will do my best to make sure this kind of situation doesn’t happen again in the future.

And now enjoy the story!]

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“Jonathan.”

The President called him with a controlled tone.

Jonathan, who was still holding Maiuri’s lifeless body, slowly wiped the tears from his face as he stood up, his eyes red and bloodshot.

His gaze fell upon Emily’s dead body for a moment before shifting toward Allen, who remained frozen in place, staring blankly at his wife with hollow, lifeless eyes.

“Allen.”

Allen finally snapped out of his stare. He blinked slowly and looked down at the hand still holding the gun, as though he had only just realised what he had done.

“W-What have I do—”

“If you don’t listen… Noah shall have the same fate as well,” the President interrupted coldly.

Allen’s body trembled. He bit down on his lip hard enough to draw blood, then lowered his head and slowly knelt, his posture resembling that of a man who had already surrendered everything he had left.

“Understood, President.”

The President then gave them their order in a cold, measured voice. “Our priority hasn’t changed… Bring Aether back.”

Both Allen and Jonathan nodded.

The President’s expression then hardened. “I have noticed… that Aether seems rather fond of Noah and Li—Where is Lily again?”

Allen swallowed before answering, “She left the house after we had an argument about the plan… She will come back soon.”

“Hmm… Then, once she returns, we use Lily and Noah as bait to lure him…” The President paused briefly, his expression remaining unreadable.

“And once we have him, we use him to lure Aurelia Scarlet.”

Both Allen and Jonathan nodded their heads.

Then the President’s tone turned completely cold.

“This is goddess sent. I need her alive… She is the only one who can help me. Do not mess this up again.”

With that, the hologram cut off, leaving the living room in a heavy silence. Jonathan slowly turned toward Allen, walked over to him, and clenched his collar in his fist.

“You will pay for this,” he said coldly.

Allen looked at Jonathan with dead, exhausted eyes.

“I already did…” he said as he pointed toward his wife’s dead body.

Jonathan’s lips twitched. For a moment, he simply stared at Allen before shoving him away.

“Remember… the only reason you are alive is because you are the Arcane King. Otherwise, the President would have killed a disobedient dog like you a long time ago.”

Allen said nothing. He merely stared blankly at Jonathan before turning away and walking toward his unconscious son. He carefully lifted him into his arms, holding him as though he were a precious gem.

“If there is a hell,” Allen whispered, his voice barely carrying through the room, “I hope you all rot there endlessly.”

Jonathan simply smirked.

“Then I will prepare the best seat for you beside me.”

***

**

*

While Jonathan and Allen were searching for Aether, meanwhile…

“Mom? That woman… she’s your mother?” Lily muttered in utter surprise as she looked at the veiled woman sitting on a wooden chair.

Why would her father hide Aether’s mother?

What was going on here?

Young Aether stared at his mother’s eyes. Even without seeing her face, he knew those eyes. They were the eyes he had always wanted to notice him.

How could he ever forget those?

His knees remained on the floor, and his lips stayed slightly parted as though his mind could not accept what his eyes were seeing.

He thought he was over her.

He thought he had pushed her away somewhere deep inside himself.

He thought he wouldn’t give a shit about her anymore.

And yet…

Yet, when she finally stood before him, everything inside him that he had believed himself to be numb… suddenly cracked.

It was as though, for the first time, his heart had remembered how to hurt.

Deeper than when his friend had hurt him.

Deeper than any pain he had ever felt.

It stung so much… just seeing her.

She stared at him without blinking, simply looking at him with a hollow, unreadable expression.

Then a weak, hollow laugh escaped his mouth.

“Hehe… hehehehe…”

He raised his eyebrows slightly, as though trying to hold himself together, before pulling back his cloak and revealing his face.

“How are you?” he asked in a broken tone, his dull eyes barely had any emotion.

It was as though he had nothing else to ask… and nothing left to say to her.

Yet…

“…”

His mother did not react or even speak. She simply stared at him without moving an inch.

Young Aether stared back at her, his expression slowly becoming colder.

“What? Nothing to say to the son you abandoned? Huh? Not even… a simple greeting?”

“…”

Still, there was no response.

Young Aether’s eyes dulled even further as the pain in his chest tightened.

“Tell me… Was this all his plan? Is he watching everything?” he asked as he looked left and right around the chamber, searching for any hidden camera that might be secretly broadcasting his pain to his stepfather.

“Why are you staying silent?” His voice slowly grew louder. “What? Never thought I would still be alive? Never thought I would come back? Never thought you would have to face the son you abandoned?”

His breathing grew heavier as his hands slowly clenched.

“TELL ME, MOTHER!”

He shouted furiously.

The anger returned to his chest. He could feel it spreading through his body, drowning out the pain that had been consuming him only moments ago.

He could feel it.

The anger!

His blood began to boil as the numbness inside him finally gave way to something far more dangerous.

This was not mere acting… He could definitely feel the anger burning inside him.

It was real, raw, and… frighteningly familiar!

Yet again… that woman, his fucking mother, stayed silent as though his anger meant nothing to her, as though the years of pain behind his words were nothing more than meaningless noise.

Young Aether stared at her as his furious eyes slowly dulled back into nothing.

“Yeah, right. Hahah… Who am I to think that you ever thought about me? Huh? Mother… Hehe… My fucking sad life,” he muttered, his eyes trembling as he tried to laugh away the pain that refused to leave.

Lily was taken aback by Young Aether’s sudden outburst. ‘Now this feels… weird.’ She blinked, unsure of how to respond.

“Darling… There is something wrong with her,” Lia suddenly said with a frown.

Her eyes glowed as she observed the woman’s blood flow. It had been calm and steady, almost unnaturally composed, but ever since Aether had called her his mother, her blood had begun moving much faster, and her heart was beating rapidly. Her body was clearly reacting to him, yet… there was no physical movement at all.

No trembling.

No flinch.

Not even a change in her expression.

It didn’t make sense to Lia.

Young Aether scoffed. “Wrong with her? Haha… There is nothing wrong with her.”

He stood up, his knees trembling as though a tremendous weight had suddenly been placed upon his shoulders. For a moment, it looked as though his legs might give out beneath him, yet he forced himself upright, straightened his posture, and looked directly at his mother.

“She just… doesn’t know what to say to the son she thought was dead,” he said coldly.

His trembling hands suddenly shot toward her neck and caught her.

“AETHER!!” Lily shouted in shock when she saw Young Aether strangling his own mother as though she were nothing.

“What are you doing? Stop!”

Young Aether did not even give her a glance. His eyes remained entirely focused on the woman before him.

“Watch me, Father… I will kill this woman, and… I won’t feel a single thing.”

His fingers tightened around her neck, slowly cutting off her air, as though he were truly prepared to snap her neck and end everything that had haunted him.

Yet… she did not struggle.

She simply looked at him.

His eyes grew even duller, but they trembled violently.

“What? Is your guilt stopping you from struggling? Huh?” His jaw tightened as his fingers pressed harder against her throat.

“Talk to me, bitch! Say something! Curse me! Hate me! Tell me I was never your son!”

The veins on his forehead bulged as his voice finally cracked under the weight of his anger.

“Just… say something!”

But she remained silent.

He tightened his grip, ready to end her life then and there.

And yet…

Yet, when those deep blue eyes stared back at him without resistance, his fingers began trembling violently. His hands hesitated, refusing to obey the hatred screaming inside his mind.

Why wasn’t she fighting?

Why wasn’t she afraid?

Why did she still look at him with those same eyes?

Those were the eyes he had spent his entire childhood waiting for.

His breathing became uneven.

His fingers remained around her neck, but the strength in them began to fade.

His heart continued to bleed with a pain he could neither understand nor suppress.

He blankly stared into his mother’s eyes.

“I hurt my Aqua. I killed millions of innocents…” His voice became quieter, almost as though he were confessing to himself.

“I embraced death itself. I walked toward it knowing exactly what waited for me.”

His fingers trembled harder.

“So why…?”

He swallowed, unable to finish the thought.

“Why am I hesitating now?”

He slowly looked toward the left side.

A child with ice-blue eyes stood there, silently looking at him.

Young Aether stared at the child for several seconds before speaking, “She is the one.”

“She is responsible for the things that happened to our lives… Everything we lost. Everything we became. All those nights when we wondered why we weren’t enough…”

His voice began to tremble.

“I… I abandoned you because of her.”

The child continued staring at him without saying anything.

“I threw everything away for one second of her attention… One fucking second.”

His lips trembled as he forced out a bitter laugh.

“That was all I wanted, you know?”

He looked at the child, his expression slowly breaking.

“I didn’t want her money. I didn’t want her protection. I didn’t want some grand apology.”

His voice dropped to a whisper.

“I just wanted my mother to look at me.”

Young Aether lowered his gaze.

“And she couldn’t even give me that.”

His eyes slowly returned to the woman in front of him.

“She didn’t deserve to be loved by… Aether. She never did.”

His grip remained around her neck, yet his hands could no longer bring themselves to squeeze.

Drip…

Drip…

Tears rolled down Young Aether’s eyes unconsciously.

“I hate you…”

His voice was barely audible.

“I hate you so fucking much…”

Another tear slipped down his cheek.

“Then why can’t I kill you?”

Lia and Lily exchanged confused glances, neither of them understanding who Young Aether was talking to.

The child looked at him with a trembling smile before slowly shaking his small head. Tears quietly rolled down his cheeks as he placed his tiny hands over his chest and spoke softly for the second time.

“You will get hurt.”

His small fingers clenched against his chest as though he could already feel the pain waiting for him.

“I… I know.”

Young Aether mumbled those words from the deepest part of his heart. For a moment, his voice sounded almost like that of the child standing before him. Then he slowly turned his expression back toward the woman, who was still staring at him without the slightest change in her expression.

“Aether… I don’t know what happened, but I don’t think you wanted this,” Lily said calmly, her voice gentle as she tried to soothe whatever was hurting him while carefully attempting to pull the woman away from his grasp.

Lia then sighed. ‘It seems my baby only needs an answer,’ she thought.

Her eyes glowed for a second as she quietly attempted to take control of the woman’s mind.

‘Huh?’

Lia blinked when she felt… emptiness?

There was simply nothing for her to grasp.

She frowned.

‘What’s going on here?’

Something was deeply unusual about this woman. Lia then released the person who might know the answer.

Young Aether’s grip tightened.

Then tightened again.

The veins on his hands and jaw bulged as his entire body trembled, as though an internal battle was raging inside him. His fingers pressed harder against her neck, yet his eyes betrayed the hesitation he was desperately trying to suppress.

He was fighting himself.

“Just… say something,” he whispered.

His mother remained silent.

Thud!

His hand suddenly went limp, and he let go of her.

Lily reacted instantly and caught the woman before she could fall to the ground.

It was then that the veil hiding her face slipped free and fell to the floor.

!!!

Young Aether’s eyes widened.

His heart skipped another beat when he finally saw her face.

His mother was crying.

Not merely tears.

Blood tears!

They streamed silently from her unblinking eyes, tracing thin crimson paths down her wrinkled cheeks.

She continued staring directly at him without moving, without speaking, and without even attempting to wipe them away.

Young Aether’s chest clenched painfully.

His expression hardened as he desperately pushed that thought away.

“W-Why are you crying? WHY ARE YOU CRYING?!”

His voice trembled despite his attempt to sound cold.

“D-Do you… think this will affect me? H-Huh? I… I am not falling for this trick!”

His eyes flickered as he stared into hers.

“Talk to me!”

Just then, a quiet voice came from behind him.

“She wouldn’t…”

Young Aether froze.

“She died a long time ago.”

“??”

He flinched and immediately turned around.

Allen’s grandmother was slowly walking toward them, her old footsteps echoing through the path.

When she came closer, the lantern’s light reflected Young Aether’s face.

The old woman stopped.

Her eyes widened as she stared at him, disbelief slowly replacing the confusion on her face.

Her lips parted.

“Is that you… Aether?”