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n“Huff… Huff… Huff… Fucking demon,” She muttered before her left eye regenerated instantaneously.

n…

n(Aisa POV)

nI was never close to my mother for various reasons, but the main one that always interfered with my mind wherever we crossed paths was how… she sold her body.

nI grew up in the red light district of some far away city, nothing close to Amlas, and my father is somebody I don’t know, and my mother was just your common whore.

nNothing less, nothing more.

nShe always smoked a bag a day and cursed like a sailor unless a customer was in front of her, and only then would she gather herself up.

nShe was beautiful and could’ve been something much more if it wasn’t for my grandfather’s poor choices… though I don’t blame him.

nMy mother could’ve easily left the district as it wasn’t too strict on retaining their profit-making machines. In fact, she might’ve even gotten severance pay for some reason.

nThough, I think I knew why she stuck around for so long.

nShe was waiting for somebody to rely on so she could have a smooth cruise through life, a life unphased by the common people, and a life where she could spend as much money as she wanted.

nDon’t get her wrong, this wasn’t for me, but her selfish wants that I won’t blame her for dreaming of, but at least give me some damn love… like **… even my grandfather had to learn how to become loving after his previous job.

nHe was an assassin or more like a bounty hunter who eventually joined the special forces for the government, but upon seeing the state of his daughter and granddaughter, he rid himself of his chains and tried to help us.

nOf course, my mother stayed behind, not even giving her father so much as a glance or a glimpse of hope… she was already too far, long gone.

n“Where are we going?” I asked my grandfather as he took me out of the red light district and into the normal city where the air was fresh yet tainted… but not the same kind of tainted as the red light district.

n“Somewhere safe. Don’t worry. You won’t have to see such unsightly things again… I promise,” He muttered while gripping my tiny hand.

nOur trek across the continent wasn’t very hard as we took a train to the continent’s capital, and using some of my grandfather’s connections, we were smuggled to the other side of the continent and thus landed in Amlas.

nAnd an almost nameless city that was basic and semi-safe for people like us.

nWe set up a house, and with the stuff my grandfather had carried all the way across the continent, we made a makeshift shrine that we prayed to for good luck each and every single day.

n“Grandpa, what do we do know?” I asked as we both sat on the singular small carpet placed in the center of the room.

n“I’ll teach you and then send you to school… You haven’t had an education because of your mother, right?”

n“Yes, but where is mommy? I miss mommy… I want to see her,” I said, and through my grandpa’s suppressed emotions, he hugged me with such care and love that I subconsciously began to cry.

nTears flowed from my eyes for whatever reason, and I couldn’t stop them, no matter how much I wiped them away.

nI had never felt that kind of caring love before… it was nice and warm.

n“We are leaving mommy for a while. You can see her when you grow up nice and big so eat as much as you can… and if you want, I can teach you how to be strong. Somebody who is independent and doesn’t need to rely on somebody,”

nI didn’t understand my grandfather’s words then, but after learning the truth and coming to terms with my life so far, I understood them.

nI cried for days on end.

nMy grandfather didn’t want me to end up like my mother, who he neglected his entire childhood, and without any proper monitoring, she made connections with the wrong people.

n“I swear I’ll protect you” Were the few words that stuck in my mind for my entire life.

n…

n“You were able to protect me, but I wasn’t able to protect you… even though I’ve already sold my soul for an almost infeasible amount of power… I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry,” I muttered as I crouched down next to the rotting corpse of my grandfather that had been covered by a blanket.

nSeeing the state of his body any longer would’ve filled me with another burst of rage, and it seems Orion knows me too well.

nBefore I could even get near it, he covered the corpse and then left me to myself, so I could mourn peacefully by myself.

n“That idiot… Sssssssss… Okay, I’m done. I loved you, but you were a shackle that I didn’t mind grasping my ankle… though, now I have nothing left to lose…. Did I want this to happen in the back of my mind? Have I already been corrupted by this **ty world?” I questioned myself over and over, even as we buried his body.

nThe amount of lifeless energy just radiating from the corpse was enough to unsettle even a necromancer.

n“It seems he still has a lot of regrets and continues to make his mark on this world… your grandpa is quite the badass,” Orion chuckled, trying to cheer me up but failing miserably.

n“Please shut up,” I muttered, and as Orion looked away to avoid my cold eyes, I returned my gaze to the grave in front of me.

nAn unsettling silence zipped the lips of everything around us.

nIt was so quiet I thought time had stopped.

n“Rest in peace, grandfather. May our ancestors guide you to a peaceful afterlife,” I muttered but knew deep down that was impossible.

nThat was truly, truly impossible for a guy like him.

n“προσευχές για τους πεσόντες,”

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