Chapter 12

Sometime in the afternoon, the door leading to the pocket dimension opened as a soulless Keith walked through and arrived in the courtyard. Seeing the familiar plants around him, he suddenly fell to his knees and cheered. “I’m free. Free, hahaha!”

Three days of nonstop training had slowly drained his optimism, but now that it was over, he saw the light at the end of a long dark tunnel. It was like finding water in an oasis after nearly dying from dehydration, rejuvenating his will.

“Ridiculous.” Serilla arrived behind Keith a moment later and was embarrassed to be his Aunt after seeing his exaggerated reaction.

To her, a three-day retreat in training was akin to a walk around the neighborhood. Her nephew even got to return home for meals three times a day. For him to cry out in joy after enduring some hardship, how would he survive what was to come? She shook her head. Forget it. It wasn’t her kid. She did what she could when considering her responsibilities. For someone in her position to disappear for three days now and then was already pushing the limit.

Standing over Keith, Serilla spoke in a grave tone. “I won’t be coming to train you anymore.”

“Huh?” Keith’s head spun around so fast he almost got whiplash. He examined his aunt closely to try and see if she was pranking him. “Are you serious?”

Serilla grit her teeth before continuing. “Years ago, my goal was to teach you how to fight, yet you rejected my goodwill and stubbornly didn’t want to kill anything, so I could only teach you how to run and keep your life. Thankfully, in this regard, you aren’t a complete waste and possess talent in this area.”

As soon as Serilla started speaking, Keith felt like something was wrong. Why did it sound like she was saying goodbye?

Regardless of Keith’s thoughts, Serilla went on to say with some pride, “With your stats and using Void Shadowstep, I can confidently say you can keep your life before anything below level 250 at rare or epic grade.”

“Really?” Keith was surprised. All he had fought was his Aunt and her clones, so he had no reference as to his strength, er, fleeing ability.

“You will come to understand my skill’s power in time,” Serilla responded vaguely, knowing that moment would come sooner than Keith thought. Her nephew might resent her for training him so harshly, but once he encountered some real battles, that resentment would become gratitude.

At that moment, the pavilion atop the pond lit up with light as Mariane appeared with a satisfied expression as if she had just had a massage. In reality, she just beat up monsters for a few days.

Upon seeing her sister, however, her face scrunched up. “You haven’t left yet?”

Serilla clicked her tongue, said nothing, and began walking to the teleportation array in the pavilion. As the sisters passed each other, Serilla stopped, followed by Mariane. Serilla glanced over her shoulder at Keith and seemed to come to some decision. In a voice loud enough for both to hear, she said, “When are you going to tell him?”

Keith had just been trying to leave the vicinity as soon as possible to avoid any arguments when he suddenly stopped and perked his ears.

Mariane’s face dropped as she hissed, “What are you doing?”

“Hmph.” Serilla turned to face her sister. “When you encounter tough decisions, you wait until the very last minute, every damn time. It was the same then, and it’s the same now. Last time you shocked everyone, but we were all adults, so we could handle it. Keith is just a kid. He needs time to prepare.”

In the corner, Keith desperately wanted to protest and say he was an adult now, but he knew better than to interject at this dangerous moment. Honestly, he was surprised his Aunt was looking out for him, of all people.

As Keith tried to make his presence as small as possible, Mariane surprisingly didn’t refute her sister’s words. On the contrary, her shoulders dropped as she clenched her hands. “He’s my kid. What right do they have?”

“Are you pretending to be ignorant?” Serilla’s tone grew cold. “You knew the rules, yet you still went and had a child. Not only did you have a kid, you went and did it with the worst person possible. Maybe if you chose a nobody, things would work out. But you didn’t.”

Keith had never seen his Mom look so powerless as Serilla laid bare her greatest regret. Mariane forced back tears as she responded, “Back then, I didn’t know I’d awaken such illogical feelings. When I was pregnant, I started remembering what we went through in our childhood.”

Mariane looked into her sister’s eyes, and for the first time in almost two decades, she spoke heart to heart with her sister. “Do you remember how we’d cuddle together and share our thoughts and feelings after surviving another day?”

“Of course I do.” Serilla smiled bitterly as she recalled distant memories. “If we didn’t have each other, I don’t know what I would’ve turned into.”

Finding a long-lost connection with her sister, Mariane grew passionate. “Wasn’t the world so colorful and full of life in the beginning?”

“It was.” Serilla’s eyes glimmered. “I remember us promising each other how we’d grow strong and punish the Overseer and Dad for everything they put us through.”

“Right, and then-“

“Then we grew up,” Serilla cut her sister off. “We saw the state of the world and the reason for our training, so those feelings we used to have disappeared as we reluctantly accepted our responsibility.”

“And what did we lose?” Mariane countered as she gave Serilla a sympathetic look. “I don’t know how to explain it to you, but when I held Keith in my arms for the first time, that long-lost resentment came back in full force. I couldn’t bear to put him through what we experienced.”

“You don’t need to explain it. I know what you’re talking about.” Serilla’s expression became complicated as she said, “Did you know I hated you for leaving me? When I secretly visited you one day, I started to understand why you did what you did. While playing with Keith in a park, you both had an innocent and carefree smile. You never smiled like that before.”

Mariane blushed as Serilla revealed thoughts she had never told anyone before. “You don’t know this, but over the years, I began to doubt the principles of morality and fighting for the greater good the Overseer and Dad drilled into us. As I killed more and more people, I began to wonder if all their lives were worth what I believed in. For a long time, I struggled to answer this question.”

Serilla looked up into the sky with a dazed look as she recalled that day so long ago. “When I saw your smile in that park, surrounded by other parents and their children with similar looks, I suddenly realized what I fought for wasn’t some vague concept. It was in front of me this whole time, yet I never realized it until then. I kill so that others can live their lives free of conflict.”

Mariane never knew her sister had such doubts and didn’t know what to say. The jobs each of them had were vastly different. Mariane fought in the light and was respected, while Serilla fought in the dark and was hated and reviled. While Mariane returned from battle to people cheering, Serilla returned in the shadows.

To Serilla’s surprise, Keith suddenly embraced her from the side with tears in his eyes. “I don’t fully get what you guys are talking about, but while I don’t like how you beat me up, I still know you do it with good intentions. To me, you are someone I care about and someone I call family.”

“Brat, what’s gotten into you?” Serilla felt uncomfortable from the hug after never receiving such intimacy in years and was at a loss.

Keith tightened his hold on his Aunt as he chuckled. “I don’t know, but you looked lonely.”

“He’s right.” Mariane embraced Serilla and Keith in her arms. “It must’ve been hard taking up my responsibilities over these years. I owe you too much.”

Serilla had the stats to escape from their grasp yet chose not to. Instead, she bit her lip and asked, “Do you think if Mom didn’t leave, we’d have been like this?”

Mariane looked into the distance and nodded. “I think so.”

After a few moments of silence, the group separated awkwardly. Keith turned to his mom with a hesitant expression. “Mom, I’m not an idiot. You and Uncle Ridgar have been strange lately, and with you and Auntie’s strength, I have some guesses. You’re from one of the four families, right?”

Mariane’s face twisted before letting out a deep sigh. “Let’s go inside. I need a drink before I explain.”