CHAPTER 193: CHAPTER 193: THE SEER [4]

Chapter 193 – The Seer [4]

Was that surprising?

To see such a powerful and incredible woman not even able to be composed when faced with that kind of situation?

To see a woman — one who could see through you and see all your possible futures in an instant with frightening ease — crumble like a castle made of sand just because a young boy showed her a little bit of affection?

Was that... surprising?

Yes, if you saw it like a third person who didn’t truly understand what was going on.

But let’s just... for a little moment, put ourselves in Vaela’s position.

She was starved—like a wandering man in a desert with no water in sight—starved of affection. She didn’t receive any of the good things in life like love, kindness, or even gratitude.

All her life, all the people around her gave her nothing but cold shoulders and apathy beyond the comprehension of mortal wisdom.

And for a sensitive person, a person who liked to interact with others, a person who wanted to give love and also receive it back—for a person who just wanted to live joyfully in this horrific but beautiful life that can end in an instant... for such a person, there was truly no greater nightmare than being born inside the Cerveau.

That’s why when finally someone showed her a semblance of kindness, a little bit of affection... her wall fell apart instantly, like a house of cards.

That’s what being emotionally deprived does to you. You become vulnerable, weak, and pitiful to anyone who shows you something you’ve always desired.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

No...long-buried hunger never dies cleanly.

And so we ask the question...

What would you do if you finally obtained something you had been obsessed about?

Yes. You get me.

"We... we are friends, right?" she asked, still in his embrace, her voice low and faint like the whispering wind swirling around them.

"Yes, we are," Kaden responded simply, already beginning to feel like he had escaped a massive ordeal.

But Vaela was not done yet. She continued.

"If we are friends, does that mean we will always be together? Does that mean we... will experience many things together? We will share secrets and laugh at the world together... right?" she asked, her voice holding an edge that made Kaden’s body subtly shudder.

Here, he sensed something was wrong.

But he didn’t do much, he... couldn’t do much.

So he simply nodded once again, his voice still calm.

"Yes, you’re right."

His answer made Vaela’s lips curl into a smile that could enchant gods and spirits.

It was a smile so astonishingly beautiful that, for a moment, it looked like the world became pure, radiant... and more lively.

But all Kaden felt was a deep-seated dread beginning to take over his whole body like a being about to be petrified... harrowing.

Before his thoughts could even question this sudden feeling, Vaela’s voice echoed again.

"Then... then you wouldn’t mind this, right?" Her voice was filled with a wicked delight.

This time, Kaden sensed such danger that his instincts took over, his body wanting to escape her embrace but it was too late.

CLICK—!

A sharp sound echoed in the silent forest as Kaden took a couple of steps back and suddenly sensed something on his right wrist.

He snapped his head toward it and found something that looked like a handcuff—but it wasn’t metal—it was made of blue threads, woven together in such an astonishing way that it looked like a tapestry, a divine fabric crafted with such delicacy and elegance that one could stare at it for days just to admire the talent and effort behind such a chef-d’œuvre.

But Kaden didn’t quite have the mood for admiration. He noticed that the handcuff was connected by a thin, almost invisible thread that stretched toward...

...he slowly followed the direction of the thread with his eyes, praying in his mind that it was not what he thought, but hélas—!

It was indeed what he thought.

The handcuff was connected by a thread to another handcuff... snapped tight on Vaela’s left wrist.

Kaden raised his shaky eyes and looked at her with a deeply confused expression.

"What... what is this?" he asked, his voice no longer calm or confident.

He had lost his momentum.

Vaela simply smiled innocently. But oh...

Her smile was innocently twisted, and even her eyes seemed to grin, curved like crescents, gleaming with serene madness

"You said we will always be together. But what proves that? What if something happens to you or someone else tries to take you away from me?" she said, firing off questions that were clearly rhetorical.

She slowly stood up from the rock and started walking toward Kaden, her feet not even touching the water below her as if the very idea of contact was beneath her.

She approached the unmoving Kaden, whose mind was still reeling from everything that was happening.

Vaela continued without a care, "That’s why I created this artifact. It was like a sudden inspiration from nowhere. Something deep inside me told me to make it, so I did. I created it because I don’t want to lose my only family, now that I finally have one."

She stood an inch away from him, then slowly raised his head with her pale, slender finger and locked her neon blue eyes into his blood-red ones.

The sight was... terrifying.

The world around them disappeared into a blur of nothingness.

At that moment, for both of them, it felt like the entire world had stopped moving and caught its breath just to watch them.

There were sparks flying between their eyes, an invisible storm of tension.

Kaden by now had calmed down considerably. He realized that stressing and panicking would change nothing.

So instead of letting his mind spiral, he forcefully calmed himself and looked at Vaela.

They say the eyes are the gate toward the soul... toward the true self.

Look deeply into someone’s eyes, and you can understand their heart.

Well... that might actually be true.

Kaden looked into Vaela’s eyes so deeply, so profoundly, that for a moment it looked like he was swimming inside a bottomless blue sea made of threads—threads that ferned and stretched toward the sky, where a massive tapestry of woven strands flowed freely through the air like fate itself.

In that place, it felt like he was seeing countless timelines flash by.

Vaela, too, stared deeply into Kaden’s blood-red eyes.

And for a moment, she found herself in another place entirely... a limitless ocean of blood, with no end in sight.

The ocean was made of severed limbs, twisted socketed eyes, rotting organs, golden crowns of fallen emperors, the corpses of powerful beings with red swords driven through their hearts, torn king’s robes, even the small bodies of newborn babies—eyes wide in horror, as if in their short time alive they had already seen the vilest truths of this damned life.

It was a foul and twisted place.

But Vaela couldn’t help but feel... at ease.

As if everything there was... right.

As if this was the natural end of all life.

High in that broken sky, she saw both the sun and the moon bleeding extensively... blood so pure, so impossibly radiant, that they seemed out of place in this profane realm, it was...too celestial, too sacred.

She blinked.

And found herself back in the forest, with Kaden staring at her with wide eyes, as if he had just seen something beyond the known world.

But Vaela was even more surprised—yet instead of fear or hesitation at what she saw, she felt only certainty.

Certainty in her decision to use her one and only artifact on Kaden, because...

"...our fates are the same now, Kaden. If you die, I will die together with you. And if I die... you will accompany me."

She smiled widely.

"...we will be together forever... even in death, my friend."

Kaden looked at her blankly, then slowly raised his head to the sky, muttering lifelessly,

"Did I anger the gods in one of my past reincarnations...?"

His voice was a whisper, but Vaela heard it loud and clear and for the first time since she was born, Vaela...

...giggled.

—End of Chapter 193—

A/N:

What a delightful month. I am honestly beyond shocked and grateful for your support.

I only asked for 600 GT, but you went beyond and I almost touched 800 GT.

Some of you gave me 68 GT (I saw it) , 25 or even 1 (beyond grateful for this) and even a golden gachapon (my heart skipped a beat on this one).

All of this just to say one thing...

Thank you for supporting this unworthy author.

And...

...thanks for reading?