CHAPTER 204: CHAPTER 204: DIFFERENT WORLDS

Chapter 204 – Different worlds

What followed after was Daela and Kaden talking about numerous random things together.

They started with the matter of Dain, wondering where he was and what he was doing. Wondering if he was safe, or hanging on the brink of death, or even captured by malicious people who knew of their artifact and so chose not to kill him but instead kept him between life and death.

All of that was possible.

And so, there were many things they wondered, but the undeniable truth was that they were both worried about him.

He was their brother after all. The eldest.

And in the Warborn family, where blood and loyalty mattered, where honor thrived, then even if they were rebellious like Kaden and Daela, they still couldn’t stop those kinds of truths from being born within them.

Kaden decided he would search for Dain once he returned to Asterion, suddenly feeling the weight of the need to know more about his whereabouts.

After the matter of Dain, Kaden couldn’t stop himself from asking about Daela...about what made her so insecure that she panicked the moment she heard him say he wanted to marry multiple wives.

Daela hesitated at that point.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her brother, but there were some things that were better left unsaid, some things that were better hidden within yourself and never shown to another soul.

Even to family.

Because insecurities were weapons people could use to rip open your chest, seize your heart, and pierce it over and over with their knife-like tongues, all while staring you straight in the eyes.

That kind of pain could make you wish for death.

And it was worse when the one inflicting it was the very person you trusted enough to open your chest to—let’s not lie, it’s generally them who hurt the most—the one you let see your weak, beating heart outside its cage, exposed for them to peer into.

She knew all of this, and so she hesitated...but just for a moment.

After all, if she wasn’t even able to open her heart to Kaden, then who else?

So, steeling her mind, taking a deep breath to calm her thunderous heart, Daela spoke about her childhood.

About how her parents were always absent.

About how she was always alone.

About how she craved warmth but received only the frightening and respectful gazes of the servants.

About how she longed for love but found only indifference.

Yes, she spoke of all this while staring at the portraits in the Archive.

None of them looked at each other, their gazes fixed straight ahead. Daela’s body trembled subtly, showing the deep fear of reliving those memories. Her voice wavered at times, as if about to crack.

But Kaden listened attentively, never interrupting. And this made him realize something by comparing his childhood to Daela’s.

No siblings are ever born in the same house.

Yes.

Confusing?

Let me explain, folks.

No siblings truly have the same parents, to begin with.

Garros and Serena to Daela were not the same Garros and Serena to Kaden.

Daela remembered them as two warriors always outside the stronghold, irresponsible parents.

But for Kaden it was different. His mother was always with him, spoiling him rotten. His father barely left either, and he was there to teach Kaden things from time to time.

There was also the truth that parents never relate to each child in the same way. Not only because of birth order, but also because of gender.

That’s the truth.

The firstborn does not feel what the youngest feels.

And the way one acts with a boy differs from how one acts with a girl.

That too is simple truth.

And there were still more factors, like the environment itself. When Daela was born, there was no conflict with the Cerveau. But when Kaden was born, the threat of a war against the Cerveau was looming.

All of this meant that even within the same house, they had been born into different worlds.

And so, no siblings were ever born in the same house.

Kaden’s mind felt enlightened as he grasped that simple concept. And in the process he understood how deeply important it was for a child to grow in a stable environment with stable parents.

Because without that, though it didn’t guarantee the child would be scarred forever with unseen wounds deeper than physical ones, the probability was very high.

Now he understood why Daela acted as she did. But he didn’t look at her with pity, nor with sadness.

He simply held her hand tightly, both of their gazes still fixed on the portraits, and whispered under his breath:

"You have been strong."

Those words struck something deep inside Daela, and for a moment tears welled up, threatening to fall at any moment.

She clenched her jaw, gritted her teeth until a creaking sound escaped, trying desperately to hold them back.

But they fell.

Tears trailed down her cheeks like water down stone. At first slow, controlled, then dripping faster, until they poured like a waterfall, drenching her beautiful face in rain.

This was the first time Daela had cried...

...since she was five years old.

Because someone had recognized her effort.

Because someone had understood her.

And so...

She cried.

Not from sadness. Not from fear. Not from insecurity.

She cried because she was liberated.

Because someone saw her ugly scars, saw how twisted she had become, how altered her mind was, and still chose to love her. Still chose to accept her with all her flaws.

And...

...that was enough.

And so...she wept.

She sobbed like the little five-year-old girl she once was, alone in her room.

And amid all this, Kaden stood there, back straight, eyes fixed forward, not blinking even once, because he was afraid...

...afraid that he might shed tears too, because his sister was crying.

So he opened his eyes wide, fists clenched until his knuckles turned bone white, and he waited. Waited for his sister to vent, to free herself from the murky shadows of the past.

...

A week had passed since that day in the Archive.

Daela hadn’t changed outwardly to the rest of the world. Her eyes still carried their apathetic gaze, her face expressionless. She continued her routines, meaning training and spying on her brother.

Yes, she wanted to tell everything to Kaden, but not the fact that she was spying on him, and certainly not the fact that she was writing his history from her own perspective, like a Recorder.

She wanted that to remain her only secret.

She was a girl, after all. She needed some things hidden, right?

But even if she hadn’t changed for the world, whenever she was alone with Kaden she acted like a cat, purring and smiling every time her brother patted her head or praised her.

She was honestly living the life of her dreams. She wished these moments could last forever.

But since when did the gods listen to mortal pleas?

Kaden, after all, would soon return to Fokay.

"I have rested well enough, I think," Kaden muttered under his breath as he sat on his reclining chair, Reditha resting on his lap.

He stroked her blade gently, lovingly, as if handling something fragile that could break at any point.

Reditha pulsed at his words, clearly disagreeing.

She wanted more time alone with him before they were thrust into another storm.

Kaden smiled wryly. "I wish that too, you know? But I need to be a Master first, before this fragile peace between us and the Cerveau shatters.

You were with me. You know what Vae told us... It’s only a matter of time before they strike. Those bastards are determined to take us down."

His voice turned cold as frozen rivers at the end.

And Kaden hadn’t forgotten about the Steelbeasts either. If Goremaw returned with the inheritance of that legendary dungeon, things would go from bad to worse.

He couldn’t afford to waste time. He had to find an evolution stone, take his quest...and fortunately, he had a lead.

’That kind of place surely has an evolution stone, right?’ he mused as information he’d once obtained resurfaced in his mind.

He sighed softly, raising his head to stare at the black ceiling of his room.

"Master rank, huh..." he breathed before a grin tugged at his lips.

"I cannot wait."

Suddenly, a question pulsed through his mind.

What would his Master-rank quest be?

’Hopefully not something insane like destroying a whole forest.’

What did The Will take him for?

He was a nature-loving man, for the love of the gods.

—End of Chapter 204—