Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1877: He is responsible for the death of his friend’s parents?

Lily blinked in shock, staring at the old lady. She had never expected someone living in this settlement to know Young Aether, let alone speak of him with such bitterness.

“Wait. You knew him?” she asked in a confused tone, her eyes moving between the old woman and Young Aether.

The old lady blankly stared at Young Aether for several seconds. There was no warmth in her eyes. Then she spoke coldly.

“The curse of my family. Of course, how could I ever forget this boy?”

Her words carried a quiet pain beneath their bitterness, as if merely looking at him had forced open a wound she had spent years trying to bury.

She nodded a few times while looking between him and the woman Lily had been forced to protect, her expression becoming increasingly troubled.

“I see… so that idiot grandson of mine hasn’t changed at all.” Her tone turned pitiful as she slowly shook her head in disappointment.

Young Aether blankly stared at her, “What do you mean… she died a long time ago?”

The old woman ignored him and walked towards the woman who was still being held by Lily.

“Hmm… This is the first time I have seen her cry.” The old woman gently examined the woman’s face before glancing at Young Aether. “Let’s talk on the upper floor,” she said as she took Aether’s mother by the arm and slowly guided her towards the staircase.

Aether’s mother moved like a robot that had forgotten how to think for itself. Her eyes remained vacant, and her body simply followed the old woman’s guidance without resistance.

Young Aether followed them without hesitation. Lily, holding the lantern, followed close behind.

“Who is she…?” she whispered to Young Aether, keeping her voice low.

Young Aether stared at the old lady ahead of them. “Allen’s grandmother.”

Lily raised her eyebrows. “Oh? Oh… Wait. Allen… My father? My father’s grandmother? Then…” Her eyes widened as the pieces finally connected in her mind.

A world-shaking revelation.

‘Wait a second! Why haven’t I heard about this? My great-grandmother is still alive? And she has been here all this time?’ she thought, horrified by the realisation.

Meanwhile, Allen’s grandmother softly laid Aether’s mother on the bed. She checked her pulse with practised fingers and gently wiped the blood tears from her eyes. For a moment, the old woman’s expression softened, revealing something that looked almost like sorrow, before she sat beside her and looked at Young Aether.

Her expression quickly hardened again, twisting into disgust and annoyance.

“How are you still this young?”

Young Aether remained indifferent. “I asked you first… What do you mean, she died a long time ago?”

The old lady frowned for a moment, the wrinkles around her eyes tightening as she studied him. Whatever patience she had possessed seemed to disappear.

“Just like your fucking father. Brat, you are not ordering me around. I am not your servant.”

Young Aether’s lips twitched slightly as he frowned.

“I am reborn in another world.”

“What?” Lia’s eyes widened as she heard it for the first time herself.

The old lady raised her eyebrows in surprise. For the first time, her expression showed genuine curiosity.

“Ah?… That’s… I didn’t expect that. Reborn? Is that even possible?” She paused before slowly shaking her head. “I suppose if the goddess and the monster are real… then being reborn might be possible, but…” Her wrinkled nose tightened as her expression gradually returned to disgust.

“Why you?”

Lia’s tiny bat ears twitched, and her cute little face immediately hardened with fury.

“Bitch! If you say anything insulting about my son again, I will suck your blood and feed it to the Ghoul!” Her tiny, cute bat face turned furious.

She could not tolerate someone belittling her child.

The old lady frowned. “Where is that voice coming from?” Her eyes roamed over Young Aether’s cloak, and she became certain that the sound was coming from him.

Young Aether remained silent, simply staring at her.

The old lady sighed before finally saying, “She had been like this… from the moment Allen brought her here.”

Young Aether frowned. “How long?”

“13 years…”

Young Aether and Lily’s eyes widened.

Lily turned curious. “What happened to her?”

The old lady glanced at the cloaked figure. “Who are you?”

“…” Lily fell silent for a moment. She hesitated, wondering whether she should reveal her face or keep her identity hidden. After a brief thought, she decided to deal with it later and simply shrugged.

“I am… his girlfriend. We came to find his mother.”

Young Aether slowly turned his head towards her, giving her a look that clearly said, Girlfriend?

Lily blushed beneath her cloak and pulled it deeper over her face, as if she could dig a hole beneath the fabric and hide inside it. It was not as though she had actually wanted to call herself his girlfriend.

Those words had slipped out because of what Lucus had said just a few minutes ago. Somehow, in the heat of the moment, she had suddenly introduced herself as his girlfriend.

Considering that she was around his age and everything… that made perfect sense, right?

RIGHT?

Lia frowned as she nervously nibbled on her nails. ‘No! No one takes my child! Not this bitch! Not that bitch either… He is my son!’ She gritted her tiny teeth, already imagining how she could take her son somewhere safe before either of them could steal him away.

And also… He was born here? In this world? Her son was hiding so many things from her!

‘How dare he!

Hmph!

No milk until he tells me the truth!

Hmph!’

Anyway, the old lady sighed and shook her head. “Whatever…” She looked at Young Aether before continuing,

“I don’t know how or why it happened, but this is how he brought her here, and she has been like this for the past thirteen years. There were no movements, no self-awareness… She wouldn’t even blink.” As she spoke, she gently poured a few eye drops into the woman’s unblinking eyes.

“Just a body that still functions. That’s all.”

Young Aether frowned as he stared at his mother, who lay motionless on the bed, her eyes fixed on the ceiling with an unnervingly blank expression. She looked alive, yet there was nothing behind those eyes that acknowledged the world around her.

Then he looked at the old woman. “And… why did he do that? Why would he bring her here? For what purpose?”

The old woman stared blankly at him before answering,

“I asked the same question… but he never answered. He never did. He only said that this was his way of asking for forgiveness.

I didn’t know what he was going through or what he was thinking, but now… I understand why. Why he wanted me to take care of this woman…”

Young Aether stared at her with dull eyes before letting out a quiet scoff. “What? He did it for me? Haha… He? Oh, please… I’m pretty sure he must have put her here just to break her right before my eyes…”

The old lady stared at him for several seconds. Her expression remained unreadable as she seemed to search his face for even the smallest trace of the boy she had once known.

Finally, she slowly shook her head.

“You just… You are just as repulsive as your father.”

Young Aether’s lips curled upward and downward as if he wanted to smash this bitch’s head against the ground again and again.

He didn’t know why, but he could feel his anger rising inside him, tightening his chest and making his fingers slowly curl into fists.

Something about the way she spoke about his father, his mother, and everything he had lost was digging beneath his skin.

“Look at you… comparing me to my fucking father. And your precious grandson is the one licking his ass. Haha… I wonder who is truly repulsive here.”

The old woman’s face turned furious.

“Aether… Don’t say a word about my grandson!

Do you know how much he sacrificed for you?

Do you even understand how much he gave up?

How much we suffered because of you?”

Young Aether chuckled hollowly. There was no amusement in his laughter.

“You suffered? Me? Oh… fucking old hag. Don’t act like your grandson is a saint!

He is just another fucking asslicker for fucking money!

If your grandson is so great, then why the fuck are you staying in this rotten place?

Why are you hiding here like the rest of the people he abandoned?

And don’t tell me it’s because to take care of my poor mother~” he teased her without hesitation.

The old woman’s hand clenched tighter and tighter. She looked as though she wanted to strike him. “Aether… You are crossing the line.”

Young Aether scoffed again, his eyes narrowing. “Me? Your grandson crossed the line already… Don’t worry, I will rip his spine out and fuck his wife’s puss—”

Slap!

The old woman suddenly swung her hand towards him, or at least she thought she had.

Lia caught her wrist in midair, transforming, stopping the slap before it could reach Aether.

Her fingers tightened around the old woman’s wrist.

For a moment, it looked as though Lia was about to rip the woman’s hand apart.

But Young Aether stopped her before she could do it.

The old woman didn’t care. She barely seemed to notice the danger in Lia’s grip. Her eyes remained fixed on Aether, burning with grief rather than fear.

“Do you have any idea what happened to my child? His parents?”

Young Aether shrugged. “They met with an accident—”

“NO!!”

The old woman’s scream tore through the room.

“THEY WERE KILLED BY YOUR FATHER!!!”

Young Aether frowned.

For a moment, the room became strangely quiet.

Tears flowed freely from the old woman’s eyes as years of grief finally broke through the anger in her voice.

“They died… They died because of your father… Because of you!!” Her voice trembled violently.

“I had to see my child’s dead body with my own eyes! I had to bury someone I raised with my own hands! And all I had left was the knowledge that your father was responsible!”

Her breathing became ragged as she struggled to contain herself.

“Do you know what that does to someone?

That they died before me?

To wake up every morning knowing that your child is never coming back?

To look at the empty place where they used to sit and realise that you will never hear their voice again?”

Her face twisted with anguish.

“And then I had to look at you… the son of the man who took them from me! Tell me, Aether… do you know how that feels? Huh?”

She suddenly screamed again.

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!! JUST DIE… DIE!!”

She desperately tried to move forward and grab him, but Lia held her tightly, preventing her from reaching Young Aether.

Young Aether stared at her for a second.

He had heard too many lies, seen too many people hide behind convenient stories.

Honestly, he still felt that this was just another lie… Another fabricated fakeness!

So he simply raised one finger.

“Then… Hear what your grandson said.”

He played the audio of what his friends had been saying about him and what they were planning with his father.

As they listened, their expressions slowly changed from surprise to confusion, from confusion to disbelief, and finally from disbelief to horror.

Lily was the first to react.

Her face slowly turned pale as she listened to those words, those disgusting words, and the plan they had made for Young Aether.

But what hurt her most was hearing her mother speak those words as though they meant nothing.

“M-My mother would… would never do that,” she quietly mumbled in a slightly broken voice.

Her lips trembled.

Her eyes remained fixed on nothing as if her mind was desperately searching for some explanation that could put her world back together.

Her legs staggered backwards several times.

“No… She wouldn’t…”

The words barely escaped her lips.

The person she had trusted most had suddenly become a stranger… Her father too.

How could he do that to him?

Now she understood why Young Aether had acted so furiously that morning.

Now, suddenly, everything made sense.

Lia, on the other hand, became furious as she heard those words.

‘How dare they harm my child! How dare they even think they could treat him like that? You will all pay!!’ she vowed silently in her heart.

As the audio of their laughter slowly faded away, the room was left in a suffocating silence.

Young Aether looked at the old woman and asked coldly, “How does it feel to see your grandson’s real face? Huh?”

The old woman’s eyes trembled as she shook her head violently.

“N-No… No! You are lying… It’s not him. H-He is not like that… H-He would never do that.”

Young Aether stared at her for a moment before scoffing.

“He lied… That’s the truth. He lied to everyone.”

“He lied to his grandmother.”

“N-No.”

“He lied to his best friend.”

“N… No…”

“And…”

Young Aether paused for a brief moment, watching the old woman’s trembling face.

“He lied to his daughter.”

“NO!!”

The old woman screamed so loudly that her voice cracked.

Her face contorted with fury and trembling disbelief. She shook her head again and again, as though denying it hard enough could somehow erase the words she had just heard.

“I-I did not raise him like that… He is not like that! He is a good child!”

Her voice broke on the final words.

“He is a good child…”

This time, she sounded as though she was trying to convince herself.

Young Aether chuckled hollowly. There was something almost pitiful in the sound,

“Good child?”

He slowly tilted his head.

“Yeah… He is very good at licking my father’s ass.”

A faint, humourless smile appeared on his face.

“Good enough to betray everyone who ever trusted him.”

He let out another hollow laugh.

“Haha…”