Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 663: Emotions

The reason Asher was smiling was simply because of the time he had just shared with Azaron; his perfect memory couldn’t help but replay it endlessly and obsessively at the moment, each word and subtle gesture looping within his mind with almost unnatural clarity. He had never known the love of a father; despite giving up on his parents in his past life as Ethan, just as much as they had given up on him, his emotions couldn’t help but stir, rising in quiet contradiction to the indifference he once believed he had accepted.

’I hope it is not a one-time thing,’ a thought flickered into his mind, a cautious side of him giving him insight that Azaron might only be this open just today alone, and that was because he was almost mentally manipulated by the Emperor, and Azaron couldn’t kill said Emperor due to reasons beyond his control, reasons that likely extended far deeper than he currently understood.

He continued to walk in silence, only the sound of his footsteps echoing faintly as he moved; after a moment, another thought occurred to him, ’I wonder how Lily was,’ he thought to himself, unable to use the word ’mother’; after all, she was dead, and she hadn’t been here to build a relationship with him since his transmigration in the last year, leaving behind only fragments of identity and unanswered questions.

Even in his past life as Ethan, back on Earth, there were women who gave birth to even more than ten children without complications, and they were just normal people. As Asher thought about it, he sighed and shook his head; as someone who had been with Jennifer and had read immense medical books, he understood that biology was both mysterious and miraculous at the same time, a field that often defied even the most logical expectations.

’A dying wish to protect me, huh?’ his mind still refusing to leave Lily; ’it seems my thoughts that Father was going to have me banished and that I was going to be assassinated the moment I left the Ducal Wargrave territory were just my own imagination from the too many novels I’ve read in my past life,’ Asher mused to himself as he walked, faintly amused at how fiction had once shaped his perception of reality.

For the first time since his transmigration, Ethan couldn’t help but feel a bit of pity for Asher... the real Asher who had committed suicide, whose life had ended before it truly had the chance to unfold.

The mother’s dying wish, it was now useless, as Azaron, who had spoken about protecting Asher, had failed at it precisely a year ago, simply because he didn’t want his children to grow up delusional and like other spoilt noble brats, blinded by comfort and false security.

Ethan felt like an imposter for the first time in a whole year of his transmigration, the realization settling uncomfortably within him as his thoughts continued to spiral.

But... although he was selfish, he wasn’t a monster.

Ethan couldn’t help but sigh as thoughts and emotions he had never experienced before towards Asher consumed him, all because of a mother’s dying wish that refused to fade even in death.

Malrik would be the first to decapitate him, perhaps taking him for an Emovira capable of transferring its soul or memories into a human body, seeing the mentally weak and emotionally broken Asher as the perfect target. Azaron, the ever calm and composed figure, would likely imprison him, perhaps indefinitely, until he found a way to bring the real Asher back, regardless of the cost.

With consuming thoughts weighing heavily upon his mind, he stepped into his room as the door opened with calm ease; as usual, he walked towards the window, where he simply stood and gazed at the ever-expanding Wargrave territory that seemed endless from his vantage point, stretching far beyond the horizon like an empire that knew no bounds.