1447 I would love to know more about you as well, Master.
“And what if…
You cannot do that?
What if no matter what you do, no matter how strong you get, you still can’t avenge your wives?
What if you were forced to live with the fact that your wives died because of you and you still cannot avenge them?
How would you react then?”
“I won’t let such opportunity arise, there is always a way out, you just have to se-”
“You do not meet your wives in your current life, Nux. You actively avoid them and force yourself to not pursue them.
I do not know the reason behind your actions, but isn’t your situation somewhat similar to my father’s?
Aren’t you helpless because of certain situations as well?”
Before Nux could even complete his sentence, Aeliana cut him off.
“…”
Nux had no answer against that retort.
His reason for not approaching his wives was different, they were not his real wives, however, this wasn’t something he could reveal to Aeliana. Not that it mattered, what Aeliana said wasn’t incorrect.
Despite him having reasons for his actions, in the end, even he was stuck in a situation where he could not meet his wives for 10,000 years.
Isn’t that ridiculous?
A man who swore to be next to his wives all the time was now forced to stay away from them in order to pursue his goals.
‘Fate is a bitch…’
Nux muttered in his head.
At the same time, he started sympathizing with the Vampire Progenitor. Even if he was the strongest existence in all of Yrniel, he still couldn’t escape the Fate’s cruel game.
The man, who should have everything at the palm of his hands, was nothing more than a broken shell who had lost everything… A man who couldn’t even avenge his dead wives.
Thinking about such fate, Nux shuddered.
For a man like him, who valued his wives more than anything, imagining such a scenario was… terrifying. Goosebumps appeared all over his body as he placed himself in Azriel’s shoes. Cold sweat drenched his back. There weren’t many things in this world that he feared, but this… This was a fate that made him tremble nonstop and when he realized it, he glanced at Aeliana with an uncertain look on her face.
Aeliana, who saw that expression smiled wryly.
This wasn’t the first time she had seen this expression.
Every time the Progenitors shared the stories about her father when she requested them to, they always looked at her with the same look on their faces.
Was it pity?
Maybe it was.
After all, with everything said and done, Aeliana still suffered, the girl who couldn’t even speak back then, lost both her mothers because of one incident. Even though her father was still alive, fate played such a cruel game with her that her father, her last remaining family, for some reason, decided to abandon her.
What’s worse?
She couldn’t blame her father for this.
From all the stories she was told, she could tell how much that man loved her. As someone who had heard almost everything she could about her father, despite not meeting the man himself, Aeliana knew quite a lot about him.
She knew what he had been through, she knew just how pure and strong his love was, and… that made it even more impossible for her to hate or blame him. She knew that deciding to distance himself from her must have hurt him more than it did to her.
How could one blame a man who was already… broken…?
Aeliana was helpless, a lot of anger and hatred was buried in deep inside her heart, yet there was no place she could direct all these feelings to. For all these long years she had spent, she was forced to keep these feelings inside her, not letting them out even once. It had become so common for her that she had now learned to live with it.
“You hate this world huh…”
Suddenly, Nux, who had a lost look on his face a while ago muttered as he stared at Aeliana.
“…?” Aeliana tilted her head in confusion, she wanted to ask where that came from, but before she could form any words, “Me too.”
Nux spoke.
“I hate this world too, Master. Who would have thought, the two of us have something in common.”
“…”
Aeliana simply stared at Nux in silence.
“Yrniel, the Ancestral Order, everything you ‘built’ so far, you hate everything, just like me, don’t you?
What’s the point of living in this world? Creating Ancestral Order to protect the world? Protect this place my foot. You are only doing this because you are expected to do this. How could the daughter of the strongest progenitor not protect this world? The world that her father sacrificed everything for?
You see, master, all this while, I always thought about what your end goal was, what is it that you wanted, what keeps you motivated, what ‘wish’ governs all your actions, It is only now that I got the answers to all my questions,
For you, it is nothing more than what you are supposed to do. It is what people expect from you, sure, there might be people you value here, but in the end, you have so solid attachment in this place. How could you? Everything was snatched away from you at a young age just to protect this place. It would be more surprising if you had any love for this place.
This place is more like a burden to you.
A burden you have been carrying for thousands of years.”
Nux spoke, his voice was low, however, every single word of his reverberated through Aeliana’s entire being.
Then suddenly, a weak smile appeared on Nux’s face and,
“How very similar…
This world is a burden for me as well, no, more than a burden, it is like a torture chamber for me. I do not like anyone here. I do not value anyone here.
Just like you, I am alone despite being surrounded by all the people. What a hateful place.
And despite hating this place with my complete being,
I am still forced to stay here…”
“Why…?”
Suddenly, Aeliana asked a question.
“If you hate this world so much… then why stay here…?”
It was a weak question, especially considering that it came from a Primordial Stage Cultivator, someone who is supposed to have formed her Law and should apparently understand her ‘purpose’ and ‘goal’ in this world.
Just this was enough to tell what the current state of Aeliana was.
Of course, Nux, who himself wasn’t in the right state of mind, failed to notice how his words were affecting Aeliana.
He just continued to pour everything out and answered Aeliana’s question,
“To see the end.
To see where all of this is going and…
Change everything for the better.”
“Change everything for the better…?”
“Of course. You don’t think I am going to give up, do you?”
Suddenly, his usual, confident smile returned on Nux’s face and,
“It doesn’t matter what situation I am in, it doesn’t matter what sort of sick game fate tries to play, in the end, I will come out on the top and find my happiness.”
Nux’s goal had never changed. To spend eternity together with his wives. So what if he is unable to form his Law? He would simply force himself to do it and leave this darned place to meet his wives again.
“Find my happiness…”
Aeliana, who seemed to be more affected by those words than Nux expected and realized, muttered to herself.
Looking at her disciple and the confident smile on his face, a small, imperceptible smile appeared on her face.
“Your goals are quite grand, Nux. What you wish to achieve isn’t easy. I have been living for thousands of years and I still haven’t achieved it.”
“I was never the one to be afraid of a challenge.”
Nux chuckled.
“As I would expect from my disciple.” Aeliana nodded continuously.
“I would stand up to your expectations, Master.” Nux bowed lightly.
Aeliana stared at him for a while, then,
“I have decided.”
She spoke up.
“Hmm?” Nux tilted his head, waiting for Aeliana to finish.
“The Disciple’s Will shall be discontinued from today onwards.”
“What?” Nux was taken aback.
“There is no point in continuing that tournament anymore, with how one-sided it is, rather than motivating my people, it is only pushing them to despair. I cannot allow that anymore.”
“…but my punching bags.” Nux pouted.
Aeliana glared at her disciple but in the end, she decided to ignore him.
“Anyways, in place of the Disciple’s Will, we will start something else.”
“Something else?”
Nux frowned, Aeliana on the other hand, smiled at her disciple and,
“Despite you being my disciple for almost 200 years, there are still things that I do not know about you, that is unacceptable.
So from now on, every year, you are supposed to come here and have a talk with me, the topic of conversation doesn’t matter, your past life, your current life, your goals, the time you spent with your wives, whatever it is, doesn’t matter.
Of course, I would share my stories as well, as a being who has lived for a long time, I have quite a lot of interesting stories, I believe you will be interested in those stories, Or do you not wish to spend time with this old master of yours?” Aeliana questioned and, “Are you kidding me? How could I ever reject such a thing?”
Nux’s smile then widened and,
“I would love to know more about you as well, Master.
This is much better than venting my anger on a bunch of punching bags.”
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