Chapter 2081: Kaidel, The Boy Seeking His Lost Dad

"It’s finally beginning, the tournament..."

Kaidel looked out at the massive amount of warriors gathered before him and the even more massive crowd that filled every seat and balcony of the colossal arena. The sheer number of people made his chest tighten with a mixture of anxiety and quiet determination.

He looked nervous. His long ears trembled slightly as his long blue hair waved in the strong winds that swept across the open coliseum. The heat rising from the towering pillars of blue flames that surrounded the tournament grounds weaved together and created a unique atmosphere of dryness and lack of fresh air, causing everyone present to grow more agitated with each passing minute. The air itself felt heavy, thick with the scent of sweat, metal, and burning mana that clung to the skin.

How long has it been? At least two years? No... three years since his father went to this very city and never returned?

Kaidel was always taller than most of his kin, and that difference perhaps originated from his mother, whom he had never met before. Standing among the other competitors now, that difference felt even more pronounced. His slender frame and taller stature made him stand out in a sea of stockier blue goblin warriors.

The young Blue Ghostly Goblin could still clearly remember his father’s last words before he departed from their rural town on the outskirts of the labyrinth region. The memory returned to him with painful clarity, as vivid as if it had happened only yesterday.

The town usually received the gentle light of the orange-yellow star. Nestled close to the sea, it enjoyed sunny and hot days relatively more often than the rest of the regions. It was a coastal, small trading town that enjoyed good food and a rare sense of peace — something increasingly uncommon nowadays with the awakening of the Demon King of Death and his ever-growing and expanding army. The soft sound of waves against the shore and the smell of salt in the air had always been a comfort to Kaidel during his childhood.

"Kaidel, I will return no matter what with your mother. This time... I will not let Her stop us from being together."

Kaidel’s eyes had widened in disbelief that day. The words had struck him like a sudden storm.

"Mother...?! You mean... she’s not...!"

"She was never dead, no. She lives far away, in a city built by a powerful goddess of war and blue fire."

"!!!"

"I once was a gladiator there and I fell in love with your mother. We came here to raise you. She had to run away from the city — something prohibited by the Queen, that ruthless goddess of war that always demands bloodshed for entertainment."

Kaidel had been completely taken aback by his father’s words. Thousands of emotions swirled through his young heart at once. Confusion, hope, anger, and a deep sense of longing mixed together until he could barely breathe.

"I... have a mother... she’s alive...?" His hands had trembled so hard he could barely keep them still. For the first time in his life, the empty space in his heart that he had always carried suddenly felt full of possibility.

His whole life, the boy had believed his mother had died of a sickness, and that nobody ever talked about her because they felt bad for him. The villagers had always spoken of her in careful, hushed tones or avoided the subject entirely.

But now he realized the truth. The union between his father and his mother had always been a taboo of the highest order.

A ruthless goddess governed the city where his mother originated, and she was the one who had forced her to return. The weight of that knowledge had settled heavily on Kaidel’s shoulders even as a child.

"Your mother was forced to return to the city under the goddess’s protection," his father had explained back then. "We hid you well so they never learned of your existence... or they would have likely taken you away as well."

Kaidel’s eyes had grown emptier as he realized his whole life might have been built on a carefully kept lie. "My existence... is a taboo?! Has the entire village been risking themselves to hide me from the world?! What... What am I, father?!"

It was not as if Kaidel had never noticed that he was different from the rest. He was taller and more slender than the usual stocky and small Blue Ghostly Goblins. He looked more like a "Half-Goblin," yet he lacked the clear traits of any other noble race in existence.

To everyone else he simply seemed like an unusually tall blue goblin with slender arms and legs, paler blue skin, blue hair, and mysterious eyes that glowed softly at night. Those glowing eyes had often unsettled the other children when they caught him staring in the dark.

But these very traits were still the reason he had been regularly bullied by the other children in the village. Even so, by now he had managed to forge a small group of good friends who accepted him exactly the way he was and even admired his quiet perseverance. Their support had been one of the few constants that kept him grounded through the years of uncertainty.

"Father, who is my mother?" he had asked nervously that day, his voice barely above a whisper. "What race is she? What does she look like?"

His father had sighed, the expression on his face carrying both fondness and regret. "Even if I told you, you might not believe me..." He smiled warmly and rested a hand on Kaidel’s shoulder. "You will see who she is once she returns, and everything will make sense."

"..."

"Now that you’ve grown up to be a young man, I am confident I can finally return without worrying about you, can I?" his father had asked, gently patting his head one last time. "You’ll be a good kid, right Kaidel? Take care of your grandma, of the village, and your friends."

"But..." Kaidel had cried, the tears falling freely down his cheeks. "When are you going to return?!"

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