Chapter 181
A Painful Past
Everyone noticed the appearance of the Lady of Illusions and Deception as the purple dust gradually began to fade from the area. As it dispersed, the girl was revealed standing before Arthur, slowly opening her arms as though inviting him into a warm embrace.
Silence reigned for a moment, and astonishment spread across the faces of the onlookers. The scene was strange... no, shocking.
But what truly shattered everyone's minds was not her appearance, but the words that left Arthur's mouth in a trembling voice filled with longing:
"Little Moon... is that really you?"
A faint, warm smile appeared on his face, completely unlike the expression he usually wore. He approached her with slow steps, as though afraid she would disappear if he moved too quickly.
At that moment, the Lady of Illusions lightly waved her hand, and a thin cord of mysterious energy emerged, wrapping itself around Little Moon's body and pulling her away from Arthur before he could reach her.
A dark violet glow began to shine within Arthur's eyes as he continued approaching, a small, broken smile resting on his lips. Suddenly, he opened his arms and embraced her tightly, with unbelievable tenderness, as though everything he had left in this world had been condensed into that single moment. He held her close while silently crying, the sorrowful tears of a man who had collapsed from within.
Grand Minister Chuji slowly sighed as he watched the scene and said in a low voice filled with restrained disgust:
"If your goal is to break him to his very core... then I would say you are succeeding."
At that moment, a blue rift opened above the heads of Arthur and the Lady of Illusions.
It was part of her unique technique...
A technique capable of extracting the most horrific memory in a person's life and displaying it before everyone—or trapping it within their mind alone.
The Lady of Illusions smiled maliciously, then snapped her fingers.
And Arthur's memories were revealed.
---
He was ten years old.
A dark, suffocating room appeared, overflowing with misery. A man with a reddened face from excessive drinking sat swaying in his seat, while before him stood a small child whose body trembled as blood flowed from his mouth and nose.
"Go and bring me liquor and magazines... quickly."
The child trembled.
"But Father, my fri—"
He did not finish.
The man picked up an empty bottle and hurled it violently, but it missed the child's head because of his drunkenness.
"I said go, you damned brat!"
That child was Arthur...
And the man was his father.
Arthur had been waiting for his friend, M, to arrive, so he did not want to leave. However, his fear of his father's anger forced him to run off.
As he ran, he thought to himself with an innocent smile:
If I return quickly... I'll be able to play with M again.
The world around him was crumbling—dirty streets, broken homes...
The result of living in a forgotten place.
He bought the bottle from a shop whose owner knew his father well. No one questioned him. No one stopped him.
Then he hurried back.
But when he arrived, the house door was open.
Then he heard a scream.
A single scream...
Sharp...
Then absolute silence, as though the sound had been torn from existence itself.
Arthur's body froze.
The bottle fell from his hand, and he rushed inside.
He saw his father lying on his side, asleep with a disgusting drunken smile upon his face.
Beside him...
Was the corpse of a young boy with delicate features, his neck broken and his clothes torn apart.
It was M.
His eyes were still open, staring at the doorway...
Filled with hope.
Hope that his friend would return.
But Arthur had returned...
Too late.
Everyone watching the memory gasped.
Mouths hung open.
Bodies stiffened.
This was not a scene...
It was a child's nightmare.
At that moment, tears streamed from young Arthur's eyes. His body trembled violently, then...
Stopped.
He looked at his father.
Then he moved.
He gently pushed his friend's corpse aside, returned with a rope, and tightly bound his father—his hands, feet, and neck together. Every movement caused the rope to tighten further.
His father awoke shouting:
"Where's the liquor bottle, you little bastard?!"
He tried to move...
And immediately began choking.
"What did you do, you little brat?!"
But Arthur did not answer.
He picked up a small knife and walked forward.
His father laughed drunkenly.
"What? You're going to kill your own father?"
Arthur did not respond.
He put on his black gloves.
And did the unforgivable.
Screams of agony echoed throughout the room.
Blood exploded everywhere.
Yet Arthur remained calm...
Cold...
Empty.
He fetched another knife, heated it in fire, and cauterized the wounds to stop the bleeding.
Then he continued...
Without emotion.
The torture lasted for hours.
Three hours of hell.
Then he set the house ablaze...
And fled.
Everyone stood watching the place burn.
Some vomited.
Some trembled in terror.
As for the Imperial Minister, he remained standing...
His body as cold as ice.
They had all witnessed what Arthur had done...
At the age of ten.
---
But at that final moment, just when everyone thought the memories had ended, a terrifying voice echoed from within them.
"Didn't you break the wall surrounding your memories, boy?
You damned fool."
When everyone heard the voice, they immediately recognized it.
It was Arthur's father's voice.
But now, it was no longer that disgusting, drunken voice.
It was truly...
Beautiful.
"Fool.
Break the wall and remember the truth.
Remember what happened.
Wake up, my son.
You are a descendant of the Narins."
With those words, the memories ended.
Arthur's body trembled deeply and violently as a large portion of the true memories began overlaying the fabricated memories he had created in order to forget his grief.
His father had not been a drunkard.
He had not been filthy.
He had not been a scoundrel.
He had truly been a great man.
But he did drink, yes.
He had asked Arthur to go and buy liquor.
And the moment Arthur left...
His friend M arrived.
Arthur's father welcomed him and left him waiting.
But something unbelievable happened that day.
A large group of men came to kill Arthur's father.
A long and bloody battle erupted between them.
A single exhausted, drunken man in his fifties stood against one hundred strong young men.
He protected M and killed every one of them.
But at the final moment, one of them struck M and killed him.
In the end, Arthur's father killed them all.
But he suffered extremely severe injuries.
And when Arthur returned...
His mind did not see the truth.
Instead, it created different memories.
He had killed his father after finding M dead.
The human mind was truly terrifying.
Had Arthur continued remembering those psychological traumas as they truly occurred, he would have died from pain and grief.
Therefore, after killing his father, his mind erected a wall around his true memories and left behind different ones...
Memories that allowed him to survive.
Memories that placed the blame upon his father.
But now...
Now Arthur remembered.
Arthur's voice sounded calm, steady, devoid of any emotion:
"Thank you... for reminding me of something I tried to forget long ago."
In the next instant, the Lady of Illusions let out a heart-rending scream.
Her body shook violently as she began pleading:
"I beg you... spare me... I beg—"
But it was already too late.
Arthur raised both hands high...
Then drove them through her body simultaneously and tore her completely in half in a single motion.
One half in his right hand...
And the other in his left.
He turned toward Little Moon's corpse.
With a single glance...
It vanished.
Then he spoke in a low, gentle voice that was terrifying in its calmness:
"And now... where has our dear First Prince gone, I wonder?"
Arthur stepped forward with calm strides, a small smile appearing on his face as he dragged the remains of the Lady of Illusions behind him...
Leaving behind a silence heavier than death itself.
---
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