Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1885: A Pain that no one seen: Part-2

Aether blankly stared at the visuals of his broken, crying mother, the woman who could do nothing except watch her son suffer because of her love.

Her face was distorted by helplessness, her blood tears continuing to fall as she endured every second of his suffering without being able to reach him.

Aether’s eyes remained completely empty and lifeless as he slowly turned his gaze toward his birth father.

Head flinched at the change in Aether’s expression and hurriedly tried to defend himself.

“S-See, this is what she brought upon herself! I told her to leave… I gave her a chance to walk away, but she stubbornly stayed.

A-And she was the one who sealed me first… I-If anything, she was the one who started all this.

If not for her, you would have lived a wonderful life!

You should be angry at her! Not me!”

“All this time…” Aether’s voice was quiet, almost disturbingly calm. His eyes remained fixed on the head.

“You made her watch and cry?”

The head was slightly taken aback by the question. “Wait… are you angry—”

“Tell me, asshole… Even if I am not your real son, you could have stopped somewhere, couldn’t you? You could have looked at a child and decided that whatever hatred you carried was no longer worth inflicting on him.

But you didn’t.”

His fingers slowly curled into a fist.

“You hurt a child while his mother could only stand there and watch him suffer.

Every scream, every wound, every moment he begged for it to stop…

She had to witness all of it without being able to do anything.

So tell me…” Aether’s expression gradually became colder.

“What exactly did you hope to gain from this?”

The head swallowed nervously. “I… I mean…”

Aether interrupted him before he could finish.

“You hate that she felt something, but you couldn’t.”

The head flinched.

Aether stared at him for several seconds.

“Even though you kept saying that the two of you were one, you never truly felt what she felt… didn’t you?” Aether asked, his voice gradually becoming quieter. “Isn’t… isn’t that why you never stopped?”

The head was taken aback, genuinely shocked by Aether’s words.

Of course Aether knew.

After all… wasn’t he kind of the same?

He had never truly felt what his other iterations felt. Their experiences belonged to them, their emotions shaped by lives he could only observe from the outside.

Sometimes, he wished he could feel what 25 felt. Sometimes… he wanted to understand what 27 had experienced and why those experiences had shaped them into someone so different.

They were him, yet they were also undeniably different from him.

And after seeing his other iterations help him without asking for anything in return, Aether began wondering what they truly felt.

But… that’s different… Now, He looked at the head and said,

“You could have ended it at any point, but you kept going. Day after day. Year after year.”

His eyes hardened.

“I understand that you were angry because you were sealed and cut off from whatever source you were trying to reach back to.

I understand you wanted to feel what she felt.

I understand that you blamed her for what happened to you.

But answer me this…”

Aether’s jaw tightened.

“Was any of this necessary?”

He took a slow step forward.

“Not for a year. Not for two years. Not even for ten.” His voice trembled faintly with restrained fury.

“You did this for the past fucking twenty years, damn it!”

Aether suddenly kicked the head with a furious expression.

The eyeballs rolled out from the head’s nose.

Thud!

The head landed heavily against the ground.

Aether coldly stared down at him. His breathing had become heavier, but his eyes held something far more painful than anger.

“How I wish I could tear you into pieces,” he said quietly as he clenched his fist tighter and began walking toward the head.

For all those years… for all those countless seconds…

He had believed that his mother was the one who hurt him.

His mother was the one who abandoned him.

That belief had shaped the way he remembered his childhood, poisoning every memory he had of her.

But now, the truth stood before him.

She had never abandoned him.

She never left him.

She never hated him!

She had been the one being tormented!

She had been forced to watch her own son suffer while carrying the pain of being unable to save him.

And in the end, the one who had abandoned her was… him.

“I…” Aether’s voice weakened as the realization finally settled into him. “I couldn’t even tell the difference.”

His eyes trembled as he stared at the ground, his expression slowly breaking apart.

“How could I not notice?”

A bitter breath escaped his lips.

“I was so convinced that she had abandoned me”

His eyes began to glisten with tears.

“I failed…”

Aether swallowed hard.

“I failed as her son.”

His eyes trembled as tears gathered at their corners. He looked back toward the head, but there was no longer only anger in his expression.

There was grief, regret, and a hatred born from realising that twenty years of his life had been built around a lie by this thing!

“At least you could have left her alone…” Aether said, his voice breaking slightly.

“But you didn’t.”

Aether’s tears finally slipped down his face.

“You chose to hurt both of us.”

His grip tightened.

“And now I have to live with the fact that she suffered all those years while I hated her for something she never did.”

A crushing force erupted around the head.

“ARRHHH! S-STOP!”

The head screamed in pain as the crushing force continued to bear down on him.

After all those years of torment… this fucking bastard was the one responsible for it all?!

Talk about his fucking luck.

Both of his fathers, his birth father and his stepfather, had hated him.

Somehow, every man who was supposed to have been a father to him had become another source of suffering.

“Wait a second…” Aether suddenly froze as a possibility crossed his mind. “Did you manipulate him?”

There was genuine shock in his voice, as though he had never considered that possibility before.

However,

“I-I didn’t. He just hates you. That’s why I chose him,” the head said through a strained and painful expression.

“Hmm…” Aether hummed quietly, almost letting out a sigh.

Thank goodness.

For a brief moment, he had worried that the story would somehow become even more twisted.

But then Aether frowned.

Why the fuck did he even hate him so much then?

The visuals suddenly changed.

They showed the moment when Aether had seen his stepfather preparing to leave the house.

“I will be going for a marriage,” he said before leaving the house.

The fake mother merely nodded before throwing herself back onto the sofa.

She casually grabbed another snack and began eating while watching the show… without the slightest concern.

Then she suddenly flinched.

Her eyes widened.

“It started?”

The moment those words left her mouth, the entire world suddenly trembled violently.

The walls shook, the ground beneath the house groaned, and the air itself seemed to distort under an overwhelming pressure that had descended upon the world.

The fake mother’s expression slowly changed into one of delight.

“Finally… it’s about time.”

She stretched her body lazily before turning her gaze toward the outside.

Above the collapsing world, the Mother Root descended from the sky, its enormous presence piercing through the heavens before penetrating directly into the world below.

“I guess it’s time to leave this pitiful world…” the fake mother muttered.

“Are you ready, bitch?”

The real mother did not react.

She simply remained silent within the raging storm.

It was as though she no longer cared about anything.

Nothing could make her feel anything anymore.

After all…

Her son had left her.

The fake mother cloaked herself and quickly fled from the house. She moved through the rapidly destroying world while searching for something, her eyes constantly scanning the surroundings.

“Where is it… where is it… where is it?”

She searched desperately as the world around her continued to collapse beneath the influence of the Mother Root.

Months passed…

And then she saw it.

A red portal had opened in the distance.

From within the enormous portal, countless monsters emerged and descended upon the world, tearing through everything in their path without mercy.

The fake mother’s eyes immediately lit up.

“It’s here!”

She shouted as she stared at the enormous red portal.

A wicked smile spread across her face as she slowly moved toward it.

The closer she approached, the faster her body began to flicker.

Her body and the portal seemed to resonate with one another, as though something within her was intrinsically connected to whatever existed beyond that red gateway.

“I hope your beloved son is still alive,” she muttered wickedly.

Her smile widened.

“And even if he is… he won’t be living for much longer. Haha”

She let out a wicked laugh as she extended her hand toward the portal.

“Our Lord gives you the punishment you deserve!”

Her body flickered faster and faster, becoming almost indistinguishable as she prepared to touch the portal.

“Mother-in-law~”

The fake mother suddenly froze.

Even Aether, who had been watching the visuals, immediately frowned.

That voice.

He had heard it before.

The fake mother slowly turned around.

A white, brilliant figure stood directly behind her.

The figure radiated such overwhelming brilliance that the fake mother instinctively squinted, struggling to see the person’s actual form through the intense light surrounding them.

“W-Who the hell are you?” the fake mother asked as she tried to look at the figure, but the radiance made it almost impossible to see clearly.

“Hmm? You are the only one that is different from the other humans…” The figure tilted her head curiously.

“I guess you are the one who carried my husband, right, Mother-in-law?”

Instantly, the fake mother’s eyes widened.

“H-How did you…”

“Silly, I know everything…” the figure said as she slowly inched closer, her voice carrying a strangely affectionate warmth,

“I know… everything you have done to my darling.”

Suddenly, the fake mother’s entire body locked in place as though invisible chains had wrapped themselves around every muscle, bone, and nerve. She tried to move, but nothing responded. She could not even twitch a finger.

“W-What’s going on here?”

The figure stepped closer, her brilliant radiance making it difficult to see her features clearly. Yet there was something almost playful in the way she approached.

“You see… I love my darling so much that sometimes it hurts me just thinking about everything he has suffered…” the figure said as she pressed a hand against her chest and slowly clenched it.

Her voice softened further.

“And when something hurts the person I love, it hurts me too.”

The figure looked toward the fake mother.

“So naturally, I cannot simply ignore it.”

The figure stepped closer.

“As his legal and proud first wife… shouldn’t I take care of the business he left behind?”

“But more importantly, shouldn’t a wife protect what belongs to her husband?”

The fake mother’s face gradually turned pale.

The figure moved closer until barely any distance remained between them, then gently placed her fingers against the fake mother’s cheek.

“This ‘thing’… Belongs to my dear hubby~

He had to know… about the things ‘you’ have done to him.” Her thumb slowly brushed across the fake mother’s cheek.

“Not everything about you was fake, was it?”

Her voice became almost tender.

“You really loved him, right?”

The fake mother blinked in confusion.

“What are you talking about? Let me go this instant, otherwise the Lord will come for you!”

The figure merely sneered.

“I am not talking to you. I am talking to the one who truly loved him.”

The fake mother’s face became even paler.

How did she know that too?

Who the hell is she?

The figure chuckled softly, seemingly amused by the questions running through the fake mother’s mind.

“There is no need to wonder.” She leaned slightly closer, her smile widening.

“I am your son’s beautiful, gorgeous, sexy future wifey~.”

Her fingers gently stroked the fake mother’s cheek before withdrawing.

“As for you… you will stay here until he comes for you. And he shall decide how to deal with you.”

The fake mother’s eyes widened.

“What—”

Before she could finish, a brilliant light suddenly struck her body.

Her muscles immediately went limp.

Every trace of movement disappeared from her body, leaving her completely motionless, like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut.

Yet she remained conscious.

She could still see everything happening around her.

She could still hear every word.

She could still think.

She simply could not move anymore.

The figure wiped beneath her eyes as though removing tears that had never existed.

“I’m working so hard for my darling…” she murmured, putting on an exaggeratedly emotional expression.

“He must be so proud of me…”

She sniffed softly.

“Sniff… sniff… What a great wife I am.”

Her expression brightened.

“I wonder if he’ll praise me when he finds out. Hahaha… He’ll definitely pat my head, won’t he? Of course he will. My darling always rewards his good wife, doesn’t he? And I being the most best goodest helpful wife… he definitely going to reward me with more love~”

She placed a finger against her lips and tilted her head.

“Being the first wife must be hard, though. Tsk, tsk… carrying all this responsibility alone, making sure nobody bothers my beloved…”

Her smile slowly widened.

“But he will love me more, more, more and more and more…”

“Right?”

Her voice became softer with every repetition.

“He has to.”

For the first time, the fake mother sensed something deeply wrong beneath that sweet voice.

The figure’s smile remained beautiful.

“But even if he doesn’t realise it yet…”

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

“I will simply love him enough for both of us.”

The brilliance surrounding her suddenly darkened.

The warmth vanished from the air.

“After all, my love doesn’t need permission.”

The figure’s expression remained serene.

“He is my darling.”

The darkness around her deepened.

“My husband.”

Her smile became almost frighteningly peaceful.

“RIGHT?!!!!~”

For a moment, the figure no longer looked like someone merely playing with words. Something twisted seemed to move beneath that beautiful exterior, something intensely possessive and completely unwavering.

Then, just as quickly, she returned to her previous expression.

“Oh, pardon my unsightly behaviour, Mother-in-law…” the figure muttered with an excited tone.

“It’s just that remembering your son makes me really excited about our meeting.”

She reached down and effortlessly picked up the motionless fake mother.

“I’ve waited so long to meet my darling properly.”

Her smile became brighter.

“So I have to make everything perfect before he arrives.”

She carried the fake mother away from the red portal.

“Now… time to set things up for my beloved~ Fu~fu~.”

As they moved farther away, the strange flickering surrounding the fake mother gradually weakened. The unstable distortion that had connected her to the portal began disappearing little by little until her body finally became completely stable.

Meanwhile, Aether could only stare at the visuals in utter disbelief.

What the fuck did he just witness?

“So… it really was her?” Aether mumbled, his eyes still fixed on the visuals.

“Arcane was really here?”

Until now, he had thought someone else had disguised themselves as Goddess Arcane and used her identity to create all this chaos across the land.

But to think…

She really was the person who had caused all of this.

And the one who—

Aether stopped himself.

He did not even know how he was supposed to process any of this anymore.

There were too many revelations coming one after another, each one forcing him to reconsider something he had previously believed.

Aether eventually looked toward the head.

“So she… made you immobile so that you couldn’t leave this place?”

The head groaned through his pain.

“Yes… I didn’t know Goddess Arcane herself was involved with you.” His face twisted with frustration.

“Talk about my shitty luck! Fuck you!”

Aether stared at the head for several more seconds before turning his attention back toward the visuals.

As he continued watching, he saw the figure arrive before a man who was holding a woman protectively in his arms.

The man’s eyes trembled as he stared at the brilliant figure standing before him, clearly understanding that whatever power stood before him was far beyond anything he could confront.

The figure looked at him calmly.

“I commend your willingness to protect the one you love…” she said, her voice carrying an unexpectedly cold seriousness.

She paused, studying him carefully.

“But you already lost the moment you betrayed him. Still… You were there when my husband had lost everyone.”

“And for that…”

She slowly raised her hand.

“I don’t mind changing a few things.”

The atmosphere around her became strangely quiet… as the light brightened stronger and stronger.

“Consider it a gift from the woman who loves him more than anyone else.”

The figure looked directly into the man’s trembling eyes.

“Will you accept this redemption, Allen Hatcher?”

SNNNGGG!!

The rainbow coloured light descended!

Sorry guys, Today only one chapter… I am truly sorry.