Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1882: Some Lies… Gave Birth to Love: Part-3

Had he ever thought about his birth father throughout his life?

Well, of course he had. He knew the story he had been given. His birth father had an affair with another woman and eventually left them behind.

That was the truth.

That’s… what he had been told, anyway.

But what happened after that?

Had he ever seen him again?

Had he ever heard another word from him?

Had his father ever tried to contact them, even once?

He was an actor, right?

What about the movies he had appeared in? Surely there should have been something. A new film? An interview? A photograph?

Some meaningless piece of news that would prove he had continued living somewhere in the world.

No… There were no movies after he left them.

Some might think he simply walked away and decided to live a quiet life. Maybe he changed his name. Maybe he abandoned everything he had been and started over somewhere no one knew him.

That might have been possible, right?

Even so, there was no news about him at all.

Nothing.

Not even a rumour.

It was as if… as if…

“He disappeared…” Aether mumbled as he stared at his birth father’s head lying on the ground, completely separated from his body.

The man looked at Aether with an annoyed, disgusted expression, as though the sight of his own son had only made his situation more unbearable.

“Tsk… I can’t believe my own son forgot about me. After everything, this is how you greet your father? What a useless child you became.”

Aether continued staring blankly at his birth father’s face.

There was no anger in his eyes, nor sadness. Only a quiet confusion that seemed to grow heavier with every passing second.

“What’s going on here? How are you here… and why?”

The man’s face twisted with disgust.

“This is all because of you!!” he shouted furiously.

“…”

Aether fell silent as his expression hardened.

What did he do?

The question lingered in his mind, but before he could ask it, the man spoke again.

“If not for you, I would have never been stuck in this place! I would have been tormented by this bitch!!”

He spat, his voice trembling with rage as he thrashed his head violently, glaring at Aether as though every moment of suffering he had endured could somehow be blamed on him.

Aether’s frown deepened.

He walked over to his birth father. The cosmic-black blade was still embedded in his chest, yet Aether showed no sign of pain.

Aether stopped directly before him.

Then he reached down, picked him up like a piece of discarded trash, and stared directly into his eyes.

“What are you?”

For the first time, the man’s furious expression disappeared.

A strange grin slowly spread across his face.

“What am I? No… the better question is, what are you? Why would I endure all of this for someone like you? Tell me… why was I forced to suffer for a fucking nobody?”

Aether’s expression hardened.

There was something wrong with the man’s words.

Not merely hatred.

There was resentment buried beneath them.

The man’s expression suddenly twisted with fury.

“If she had only left when I told her… If she had only not absorbed me and imprisoned me here…”

Aether stared at him for a moment before his eyes narrowed slightly.

“My mothe—”

“SHE IS NOT YOUR MOTHER!!” he suddenly shouted.

The scream echoed through the strange space, his face contorting with rage as he stared directly into Aether’s eyes.

“I am not your father, either.”

His breathing became heavier, and the disgust returned to his expression.

“We were only here to bring you into this world. That was our purpose.”

He paused, almost as if even saying those words filled him with hatred.

“That’s all. We were never your father or mother…”

His eyes trembled with something deeper than anger.

“Heck, it doesn’t matter what you call us… because we are one.”

“…”

Aether’s expression became even more confused.

Bring him here?

Not his parents?

They were one?

The words continued to circle inside his mind, refusing to settle into anything that made sense.

What was he talking about?

Aether slowly turned his gaze toward the silhouette of the person inside the storm.

It wasn’t that Aether was refusing to understand.

He understood.

He had been born in another world. That much was undeniable.

And after Mortimer stole his future, everything had changed.

His soul had been torn from his original body and taken to a world called Earth.

So yes…

Someone had brought him there.

Someone had made that happen.

His eyes slowly narrowed.

Did it mean…

“Are you… the twins?” he asked.

He wondered if it was grinning figures… after all, they were the ones that took interest in him, right?

Yet, the man frowned.

“What are you babbling about? Again, not accepting reality? What a fucking bitch you are… Ahaha… You deserved all that shit. Ahaha.”

“I guess not…” Aether muttered. ‘If not, then… then…’

He frowned as he looked at his father.

His father kept talking shit about him as if nothing had happened, as though the years of pain Aether had endured were nothing more than something amusing to laugh about.

“Tell me… who exactly are you?”

Yet instead of answering him, the head grinned wickedly.

“You’re just a little punk who cried for his mommy… Ahaha… Look at you. So what if you cut my head off? You’re still a little freak… Haha. Did your life feel good? Huh? Did you bow to your little brother? Did you cry for mommy?”

He twisted his face into a mocking expression.

“When I abandoned you, you cried for me like a bitch! Hahaha… Look at you, poor little child… Ahahahah! Everything was worth it… ahah!”

“…”

Aether quietly stared at him.

His eyes eventually drifted away from the man and toward the flame sword his beloved Grace had given him.

So fucking annoying…

He looked back at that face.

That fucking face.

Just looking at it made him want to punch it.

It was almost a miracle Aether hadn’t already done so.

“Hehe… Mommy… Mommy… Mommy~” the man continued to mock him wickedly.

A vein bulged on Aether’s forehead.

‘Yeah… This bitch needs to be put in his place.’

THUD!

His fist slammed directly into the man’s face.

The severed head flew through the air like a ball before tumbling across the ground.

“Arrrrrhhhhh!!”

The man screamed before crashing onto the ground.

“W-What was that for, asshole?!”

Aether slowly lowered his fist.

“You know… it wasn’t until you left that I realised something.”

He stared at the man with an oddly calm expression.

“I never liked you.”

Aether gave a small laugh.

“Haha… I mean… I didn’t even bother checking on you. You were just… there. Someone who existed in my life, and then suddenly didn’t.”

His eyes narrowed.

“So, yeah… I didn’t give a shit about you… fucker.”

The man’s face turned slightly pale.

“W-What are you talking about?”

Aether smiled.

For the first time, he actually smiled.

But the smile never reached his eyes.

The man’s expression slowly broke when he saw the purple-flame blade in Aether’s hand.

“Well… there was something I always wanted to do.”

Aether tilted his head slightly.

“W-What?” The Head trembled.

Aether smiles.

“Beat the shit out of you, Daddy~ Heheheheh~”

That uncanny, wicked grin slowly returned to his face.

It was the kind of smile that made the man realise something had gone terribly wrong.

!!!!

A shiver ran down the man’s spine.

Yes.

Even though his body had been decapitated, he could still feel it.

He could still feel fear.

“Hehehehehe… Dadddddyyyyy~ Hehehehehehe~”

The man watched Aether slowly walking toward him.

“O-Oi! W-What are you going to do? D-Don’t you forget that I-I am your father and mother! I-I took care of you—ARRHHHHHHH!!!!!”

The purple flames flared furiously.

Aether’s grin widened.

“Daddy~ Daddy~ here we go~

One little cut, nice and slow~”

“ARRRGHHHHHHHH!”

“Daddy, Daddy, here we go~

One little twist, nice and slow~”

“STOP! STOP, Y-Y-YOU FUCKING BASTARD!”

“Daddy~ Daddy~ once you ran~

Now you’re trapped inside my hand~”

“AAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHHHHH!”

“Daddy~ Daddy~ don’t you cry~

You left me once, so say goodbye~

Hehehehehe~”

“P-PLEASE! ENOUGH!”

“Daddy~ Daddy~ round and round~

Listen to that lovely sound~”

CRACKKKKK!!!!

“NOOOOOOOOO!”

“Daddy~ Daddy~ one more time~”

“ARRRGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

An hour later…

Aether patted his hands together and looked down at the… mangled thing before him.

A head whose hair had been ripped out, two eyeballs had been forced into the nostrils, and an ear had been lodged into an eye socket.

Every tooth had been pulled out.

But that wasn’t all.

The body had been twisted, broken, and bent in ways that should have been impossible for a human body, yet somehow it still remained standing, holding the head like a grotesque trophy.

The fingers had been chopped off and shoved into every available… opening.

He hadn’t shown mercy.

He hadn’t even felt guilt.

The only thing he had felt was… enjoyment.

Yup.

Aether had actually enjoyed doing all of this.

Perhaps it was because, for the first time, he was hurting the person who had once hurt him without even knowing it.

He looked at his birth father with a satisfied expression before asking calmly, “Now… are you ready to listen to me?”

“…”

The head wore an expression of absolute horror, as though he still couldn’t believe that this boy… his once-son… could do something like this to his own birth father.

Aether tilted his head slightly.

“Daddy~”

“Y-Yes!!”

The head flinched at the cute, wicked tone in Aether’s voice.

Even though his ears were attached to his eye sockets, he could still hear him perfectly.

The eyeballs lodged in his nose rolled upward and looked directly at Aether.

“Tell me… everything… from the beginning!” Aether asked coldly, his eyes completely emotionless.

The head swallowed nervously and began speaking.

“W-We… just… we were ordered to get your soul to this world and act like real parents. W-We were supposed to take care of you until you reached the age of five. So, we manifested ourselves in this world, and with our little magic, we managed to influence others and make it look as though we had lived here for years.”

Aether remained silent for a moment.

“Age five? My last happiest birthday… wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

Aether’s eyes became distant.

“That was the last time everything felt… normal.”

The man said nothing.

Aether continued quietly, almost speaking to himself.

“I remember being happy. I remember thinking I had a family.”

Aether stared at him for several seconds before asking,

“Then what?”

“We were supposed to leave this world… erase our presence and our identities from this world. That was how we were supposed to move on…. But…”

Aether’s gaze hardened.

“But?”

The man’s expression became complicated.

“But she… rejected the idea.”

“Why?”

Aether’s eyes became colder.

“She simply refused to leave you behind. She didn’t want to abandon you… even though our purpose had already been fulfilled.”

Aether stared silently.

For some reason, those words struck somewhere deeper than he expected.

“She stayed…”

“Yes.”

“Because of me?”

The man hesitated before answering.

“Y-Yes.”

Aether lowered his gaze for a moment.

Then he quietly asked, “What happened after that?”

Instead of words, the real visuals rippled…. The reddish-hued void behind him suddenly blurred.

They rippled like disturbed water, and images began to emerge from within it.

Aether slowly turned his head toward the vision.

His birth father appeared within it, his body glowing with darkness.

“If we don’t leave… I will kill that boy.”

The man spoke coldly, blackness dancing between his fingers as he stared at the figure standing before him.

Aether’s eyes narrowed.

Then he saw her.

The figure standing opposite his birth father radiated a majestic gradient of reddish-black light. Her presence seemed to dominate the entire vision, as though the darkness itself had become insignificant around her.

Her ice-blue eyes glowed with an almost ethereal intensity.

But it wasn’t just her beauty that made Aether freeze.

Her expression.

Aether’s lips parted slightly.

“That’s… Mom?”

His voice was barely audible.

The woman looked directly at his birth father.

“Touch my son, and I will annihilate your existence.”

Ba-dump!

Aether’s heart skipped a beat.

The dull eyes… flashed with colour… as if those words… splashed across his face in the vibrant colours of flowers.

His eyes were particularly glowing!

He stared at the woman before him as though the entire world had suddenly become silent.

His mother.

His real mother.

His heart began beating faster.

So fierce!

So protective!

That woman was the one he loved.

And she had loved him.

A small, gentle, genuine smile appeared on Aether’s face.

His eyes trembled slightly as he continued staring at her.

“She’s sooooooooo beautiful…”

His birth father watched the expression on Aether’s face.

His own expression twisted with disgust.

“That’s fucked u—Chuc!”

The purple-flame blade was suddenly shoved into his mouth.

Aether looked directly at his birth father with deadly calm.

“Shut up… bitch.”

!!

His birth father’s body trembled.