Rebirth of the Disgraced Noble-Chapter 91: The Silver God is Our Hero... At least that’s What it’s Supposed To Be
The arena had fallen deafeningly silent. The sudden appearance and dissapearance of their source of entertainment happened too quickly for their minds to process.
Aden couldn’t possibly care for them or their states of confusion, infact, if he had his way, he would have wiped out every single being here out of existence, but after giving it a microsecond of thought, he decided against it.
"B–boss?" The eldest child called out with a voice barely above a whisper.
Aden didn’t turn around to face the heart wrenching call-out, but he waved his hands in a circular movement and encased themselves in a dome of silence that somehow felt suffocating to both himself and his... Kids.
Aden still didn’t turn to face them, he just couldn’t. Was it guilt? He didn’t think so— no, he didn’t want to think it was. But the children couldn’t perceive his thoughts.
"Boss... It really is you... Haha"
Aden unknowingly clenched his teeth as the dried, raspy and painfully traumatized voice of the eldest reached his ears. His eyes remained fixed on the ground, the crimson stains serving a strange sense of comfort to his irregular heartbeat.
The other two kids were still huddled around the eldest, their eyes distant, empty. The flame of desperate survival they once weilded had been brutally snuffed out by the recent happenings.
The eldest, however wasn’t allowed to lose hope.
No matter how many times they were whipped to expose Aden’s whereabouts, no matter how many bones were broken and healed, no matter how many times they were subjected to hallucinations, he wasn’t allowed to lose hope.
Not hope that Aden would return to them, not hope that they’d survive, no. It was hope that his younger siblings wouldn’t see him in a moment of weakness before their deaths.
But now... Now that the source of their sufferings had manifested before them before their moments of death and denied them that release, the expected emotions that should’ve surfaced within the very depths of his soul never came.
As he stared at the broad, slouched back wrapped in white tattered clothing, all he felt was hatred.
Boundless hatred.
The eldest bit his lips hard till they bled. His arms wrapped around his younger ones and pulled their unresponsive bodies closer to his sides.
"Aren’t you going to say anything?! You think you’re the hero here, don’t you?! You think just because you’ve gotten a little stronger means you the right to save us, don’t you?!"
A low chuckle suddenly left his lips as he struggled to his feet. His knees knocked against each other with each step as he walked towards Aden. The sounds of his strained breaths clearly sounded in the dome of silence and hammered even louder against Aden’s ears.
"Turn your head and look at the people you’ve saved," he whispered.
The voice was laced with such spite, such repulsion, such disgust, that Aden— for half a breath— thought about healing the kids and leaving.
But something other than pride held him in place.
Slowly, his neck turned, then his feet dragged against the floor as the rest of his body turned to meet the kids.
His expression was clearly neutral, but the control over his optical expression was still lacking.
Their skin was marked with dried patches of their own blood. They were skinny when he met them, sure, but bones weren’t supposed to be this visible to the naked eye and their skin as thinly stretched across their bodies as they were, carried a sickly hue that screamed abject neglect.
A wicked smile formed on the boy’s lips as he followed Aden’s eyes. Despite how oppressive staring into them felt, he never once thought of looking away. He wanted to see every single flicker of emotion he hid behind his mask of neutrality reflect in his dim, blue irises.
"Are you happy with yourself, Silver God?" he mocked.
He turned his back against Aden and crouched before the other two as he cleaned the dried patches of blood on their face and neck with his own saliva.
"You remembered the children you made use of and saved us at the perfect time, even when you had no obligation to," he spoke lowly. "The others would’ve showed their appreciation as well, but as you can see, they’re not in the greatest states of mind."
For the first time, Aden didn’t know what to do. No plan, no manipulative tricks, no prediction.
For a while, he remained rooted to his spot, his hands hanging loosely by his side, as he rummaged through the haze of his mind while dutifully ignoring the tightness in his chest.
Then it hit him.
A memory buried deep in his mind bubbled upwards. The memory of his Master— Kaelthorn, and himself during his training sessions.
When the Entity first reared its head and took over his body, during their training session. He remembered every single moment of it, but one singular moment in time remained as vivid as it was back then.
The moment he shed tears unrestrainedly at his Master’s neglect for his safety, the indignation that followed, and the words his Master said to burn all of that away.
’I’m sorry,’ Aden recalled. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦
He blinked twice, and refocused on the kids. The eldest was still grooming them with his saliva, while mumbling something under his breath, but the moment Aden steeled his resolve, the eldest turned his head just enough to watch him from the corner of his eyes.
Aden clenched and unclenched his fists, took a breath before his lips parted to release a low, hoarse voice that echoed—
"I’m sorry."
The words bounced around the dome of silence, defying its very concept of existence, but even that echo died out and the painful silence returned.
"... Is that it?" The eldest spoke dryly. "A sorry, a pat on the back and its all rainbows and sunshine again?"
He shook his head and turned towards Aden fully. A slight quiver on Aden’s lips registered in his eyes, but that wasn’t worth pondering over.
He smacked his dry lips, but that didn’t solve anything.
His thin, dry finger pointed towards Aden’s chest, and in a low voice, he ordered. "Just go."
