Part 2 Chapter 90
“Ah, Father!”
“Ahhh!”
Ryan looked down indifferently at his father’s face, which was contorted in pain.
Then, he thrust the sword deeper.
“Cough, ugh…”
“You’re still thinking of luring me, huh?”
The blue veins in Edgar’s forehead stood out as he grit his teeth and endured.
“Next, where do we go from here?”
As he pulled the sword out, Ryan spoke.
“If you want to die gracefully, please stop.”
“…… Kill me.”
Ryan’s eyes narrowed.
Edgar muttered in a pale voice, calmly.
“Either way, I’m going to die… you think I’d sell my children just to live one more second?”
“……”
Ryan’s expression twisted in anger.
Edgar knew exactly what Ryan wanted.
If the power block was lifted while knowing instant death abilities were in play, it would be like a father killing his children with his own hands.
The children would remember their father’s last moment as cruel and heartless.
Ryan wanted to inflict that kind of tragedy, but Edgar had no intention of granting him that wish.
“Cough…!!”
Ryan thrust the sword again, this time in a more fatal location, between the neck and shoulder.
“At this point, if I hit the wrong spot, you’re dead.”
Ryan, with the sword still embedded, turned to look at Elliot.
He added more force.
More, more.
Even more…
The power block didn’t lift.
“Kill me… No, no. Torture me as much as you want and then let me go…”
“……”
“Then, as you wish… let me go, and let the others go peacefully…”
“……”
Tears welled up in Edgar’s eyes from the pain. He knew he would die if Ryan kept going, yet he still endured.
Why?
Ryan slowly pulled the sword out and took a step back.
“Father!”
“Aah, Father!”
As Ryan backed away, Elliot and Diana rushed to their collapsing father.
“Bridget!”
“Sister! Over here!”
At Diana’s call, Bridget quickly handed over a healing potion.
“Drink it! Drink it, Father!”
Diana cried as she thrust the potion towards Edgar.
Why did she?
Diana knew the power block would lift if she let her father die, yet she was trying to save him.
Did she know that he would die instantly once the block lifted?
But if she knew that, then she also understood that he would die either way. She must’ve decided it was better to let him die peacefully than to be beaten to death miserably.
Thus, Diana’s actions were purely to save her father.
“It’s fine… You can use it when you need it…”
Despite his deadly wounds, Edgar passed the healing potion to her.
Ryan stared at their embrace, dazed.
This couldn’t be happening.
None of them, Elliot, Edgar, or Diana, were behaving as Ryan had expected.
Their bond, which he had thought was based on shallow affection, was stronger than he had imagined.
Ryan felt an overwhelming rage.
An emotionless father who abandoned his children because they were useless. Brothers who coldly cut off and cast out their sibling because of their father’s wishes.
Ryan could endure all of this because he knew their past. He was not envious of them. He always believed that their family ties were fragile and could shatter at any moment.
He believed that anyone who was useless would be cast aside.
But what was it that made these people so solid now?
The years they spent together?
The memories they shared?
Ryan didn’t know. But one thing was certain. Despite everything, love and bonds clearly existed between them.
“Hah, hahaha…”
Ryan laughed bitterly.
It didn’t feel cleansing at all. The outcome he had imagined thousands of times was nothing like this.
“……”
As Ryan stepped back absentmindedly, his hand brushed against the unconscious David’s hair.
Furious, Ryan grabbed his brother’s head roughly.
Bang!!!
Bang!!!
He slammed it against the back of the table. Thick blood poured out onto the surface.
“Aaahhh!”
Elliot rushed over, crying. He swung a punch at Ryan but stumbled and collapsed without even touching him.
“Hit me! Hit me…”
“……”
How laughable.
Why, when he was twelve, had Ryan’s younger brother been so mercilessly thrown out while his older siblings were still cold and indifferent?
“Ryan…”
From afar, Edgar weakly called out to Ryan.
He barely managed to mumble through his white face.
“Come here… I’ll die for you…”
Ryan sneered.
He understood why his father was stalling. He was probably waiting for Krista. Even though it was a futile struggle, he was trying to give it a try.
And his calm eyes spoke volumes. He was offering himself as the sacrifice, waiting in place of his son.
Ryan found Edgar’s eyes absolutely revolting.
Father. My cruel father.
Even though his love for his children may have started from necessity and usefulness, in the end, it seemed that a part of him had developed genuine feelings.
Because, in the end, he was still human.
“……My lord.”
Max, seeing Ryan tremble in anger, called out with a worried voice.
“Take them out and kill them somewhere where they won’t see this.”
Ryan nodded silently and gestured toward kneeling Elliot, giving a quiet order.
Consideration?
No.
This was for Ryan himself.
He no longer wanted to see them grieving, suffering, and showing genuine affection for their family.
“I feel like shit.”
A suffocating sense of emptiness gripped his throat.
He had come here as an executioner for a great cause, but that reality didn’t sink in.
He just felt like a monster, a slaughterer who had driven a family into a corner and trampled them mercilessly.
“My life is ruined… damn it.”
They were playing their disgusting family games while he had been abandoned, left alone in the world.
At that moment, Ryan became that twelve-year-old boy again, Ryan Basenberg.
The one who had been abandoned and left all alone in the world.
Back then, nothing had changed.
He had always craved that primal affection and bond he had lost too soon.
That same love and connection still existed for them, but not for him.
Only for him.
Alone.
The abandoned, miserable twelve-year-old Ryan Basenberg…
“Sa… Saaja!!!”
Ryan froze.
His eyes widened.
He quickly turned around.
Bania.
“What… what?!”
In that instant, when he saw the owner of the voice, whom he had thought was a hallucination, Ryan was shocked.
“I’ve come!”
“Hey! Are you crazy?! Why…?”
Ryan quickly checked her safety. She was among his soldiers. Kali and Krista were there too.
Kali gave a reassuring gesture to Krista, indicating everything was fine.
Ryan, relieved that she was safe, barely had time to relax before hearing…
“Your daughter!”
Ryan’s ears rang with the unexpected words.
“Hey, you knew I had the instant death ability. What made you come here so recklessly?”
“I was scared! I was scared, but… I was left all alone in the world, abandoned by my family. That was even scarier.”
“……”
“…… You were the same, right?”
“Your sibling!”
“Yes, so as I went to meet him, I prayed. I prayed that my brother would be a good person.”
“Heh, heh. You were scared of being alone?”
“Yes, it’s sad and lonely. So, when I met him, I became someone for him, and he became someone for me… Someone we could rely on, someone we could lean on…”
“Your family!”
“I prayed for us to become family.”
Ryan smiled faintly.
“My father and I became family because we ‘chose’ each other, right? That’s why we’re even more amazing and special.”
Isn’t that right?
Yeah.
“Bania has come!”
You came for me, and I took your hand.
From that moment on…
“We’ll love and care for each other for the rest of our lives. Even if we fight, we’ll quickly make up. No matter how we change, we won’t abandon each other. You’ll be that person for me, and I’ll be that person for you.”
Yes, that’s…
“That’s what family is.”
Looking at Bania’s smile, Ryan smiled too.
Ah.
What was I so upset about, and what was so meaningless?
Siblings. Family. Love. Boundaries.
I’ve got all that back now.
“Well, I’m still in a pathetic state!”
“Pff!”
Bania confidently shouted as she appeared, but her legs were shaking like a rabbit before being eaten by a lion.
Yeah, look at that.
Even though she’s scared, she’s coming into this mess to save me…
I’ve got my back.
“Are you a foolish rabbit?!”
Ryan chuckled.
“I, the strongest in the world, am your family, so what are you afraid of?!”
He said playfully and spread his arms toward Bania.
“Come here!”
“…? You want me to go there?!”
“Ah, hurry!”
“Are you out of your mind?!”
Reluctantly, Bania ran, tiptoeing like she was stepping through a minefield, and without hesitation, she reached him.
Ryan swiftly pulled her into an embrace and looked back.
Everyone was staring in shock.
The father, the brothers, and now, those who meant nothing to him.
All of them were stunned by Bania’s sudden appearance.
“Hahahaha!”
And at last, after a long time, finally…
[Ryan Basenberg] died.
The abandoned, lonely, and isolated…
That irreplaceable scar of the twelve-year-old boy, Ryan Basenberg, who had breathed and lived…
Was gone.
