Duchess Alia was dead sure that Hypertension was not sothing they had to worry about in their family.
But what was this right now?
She was positive she was either going to pass out from this or commit homicide—better yet, start a planetary war.
Her first thought was to brace for a story about how her son and this white-haired wolf t. Maybe a dramatic tale and a few cringeworthy monts.
But most definitely not this.
Certainly not her baby, starting from the very beginning, calmly explaining what it ant to be this thing called a "guide".
At first, it sounded like a good thing, especially after they heard about what kind of place this Tesseris was.
It was apparently plagued by dungeons similar to what they were dealing with now, which was precisely why Luca thought it would now be necessary to share this information.
That originally gave her hope.
That perhaps the story wouldn’t be as terrible as the tension in her chest implied.
But the joke was on her.
On them.
Because the mont Luca began speaking, the storytelling guide couldn’t help but worry about why it now looked like two people needed to go to the hospital instead of just one.
They looked extrely sick, to the point that Luca had to stop and ask if he should call for help from outside.
But they didn’t just look sick.
They could’ve passed for terminally ill.
It was one husband who was on the verge of collapse, and one mother who wanted to vomit her guts up.
She couldn’t believe the kind of life her baby experienced at such a young age.
What’s more, she was surprised to learn that even that giant was learning about the whole story for the first ti.
But all that both of them could do was listen.
Listen and ignore the feeling of incurring multiple fresh stab wounds as he continued his story.
Luca’s back was against the tunnel wall, knees curled slightly, hands folded awkwardly over his lap as if he wasn’t quite sure where to place them.
And yet, if you just look at him like this, you’d think he’s simply telling a neighborhood tale, only for this story to be one tragedy after another.
And that sohow made it worse, as if the following things weren’t already beyond their imaginations.
It began with his condition as a guide.
"I was called defective," he said quietly.
Xavier’s fingers twitched. He’s heard this term before and didn’t like it one bit, but back then, he only heard a summary that glossed over Luca’s past hardships.
"Awakening was sothing that people normally celebrated. It was just that the sa thing couldn’t be said for soone like him."
He didn’t lift his head, but they could see the distant glaze in his eyes—the kind of haze that ca with mories people would rather forget.
"First, they attributed it to bad luck. But eventually, the sa people started blaming ."
"Saying that those rampages were no accidents...That I made them go mad."
Alia’s nails dug into her sleeves. Yet, she didn’t interrupt.
"So, from then on, I wasn’t allowed to go near the awakened humans. But it was easier when the kids were scared because it initially stopped them from being too violent." Luca shrugged, like he didn’t just downplay a six-year-old being ostracized and bullied.
That got Duchess Alia flinching, but still allowed Luca to continue uninterrupted.
"However, a few still thought it was okay to just get in a few hits so they’d co by every now and then."
He looked between the two of them—saw how stiff they were, so he tried consoling them with the good news.
"Thankfully, I apparently chanced upon a dungeon and sohow cleared it before I could rember things. So, I managed to find a really good hiding spot!"
"You got a what?" Alia asked, blinking.
"A dungeon similar to this, but without the wailing trees and vindictive beasts!"
Pause.
"Well, now—except for Tortie and the chickies, maybe? They’re kind of vindictive sotis."
He actually chuckled at that.
They didn’t.
Because that was the mont they realized how normalized his suffering had beco.
The duchess was clearly surprised, for who wouldn’t be when she discovered how her son owned one.
After all, to her, this had been her personal hell.
But it seed like to her son, that was his safe haven, and if what they said were true, then it was sothing they were even using up until they got sucked into this one.
However, she couldn’t continue with her train of thought after hearing how he had to be shipped out to a place devoid of other awakened humans until the governnt called him back to work at the Guiding Center.
All Luca said about that school was how they especially hated the awakened and had radical thoughts about them.
But Xavier knew just how radical those thoughts were and seriously wanted to find out where that institution was.
And he was thinking like that right up until Luca started to talk about these guides and espers from the guiding center.
Then the prince once again rearranged the order of punishnt.
The Guiding Center was where he learned the most about the awakened, but it was also one of the most difficult tis of his past life.
"Eventually, the people of the center concluded that I was a guide who caused addiction to the strong and mania to the weak."
"And apparently, that was threatening to many of the existing guides. So their jabs kept on increasing, until eventually they recomnded for transfer."
"It was for better use of my ’talents, ’ they said. But that was the first ti I learned how to make guiding pills."
"But I didn’t know any better and made good ones apparently, which alerted many and had imprisoned for my ’own safety.’"
This obviously did not sit well with both Xavier and the Duchess. Especially for the mother who was seriously caught off guard by everything that was being thrown at her.
But nothing could have prepared her for the events that would apparently lead to her son’s death.
The governnt found him more efficient under a coma and inside a dical tank and put him in there indefinitely.
He was alive, complete body parts and everything, and normally hid his consciousness inside his dungeon.
But then it happened.
The little guide talked about the rampage that tore into the facility, including his tank.
And as he told the story of how he thought it was similar to the Spiritual Energy Imbalance Disorder, he ntioned how his body ended up in literal pieces.
Now, to say that this was too much was not enough to describe how both the duchess and Xavier were feeling at this point.
And to hear that they didn’t stop—not even when he had technically died—only to harvest what remained of his organs for further draining...all while his consciousness stayed holed up in his own dungeon?
It was enough to make sothing break inside them both.
Because what kind of people did that?
What kind of human beings could look at a young man and decide he was still useful, dead, carved apart, and catalogued?
It was vile.
Unforgivable.
And especially heart-wrenching for a mother who thought about how it was impossible for people not to love her son.
Duchess Alia was distraught and figured that no amount of tears would be enough to cry for her son’s past.
So she would have to make sure they’d all cry and bleed for him.
And maybe by then, this ache could be lessened.
If only.
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