Chapter 95: Why are you doing all of this?!

“What…?”

The words slipped from Lia unconsciously, her eyes widening in disbelief as they fixed on the object that had appeared in Lucian’s hand out of nowhere, as if it had flickered into existence from nothingness.

He hadn’t taken it out of his pocket—or out of anywhere.

She had clearly seen it with her own eyes.

His bandaged palm—with slightly rough fingers, scarred—was empty the moment he’d raised his hand.

And yet, in the very next second—

The dark, marble-like object, an F-ranked monster core, appeared.

Her gaze didn’t move, fixed on his hand as if trying to confirm what she was seeing wasn’t an illusion, even rubbing her eyes twice.

Seraphina’s eyes glinted with a quiet sharpness as she leaned forward, her expression suddenly curious, her eyes narrowing faintly as she observed, trying to understand what had happened and how it happened.

Even she felt that it might just be her eyes playing tricks on her, but knowing her son—and how much he had already surprised them—she was certain this was another one of his powers.

At least, that was what she believed.

But still, she couldn’t understand how he had done that.

Lucian simply smiled, amused by both of their cute, curious, and disbelieving reactions, chuckling inwardly.

“It’s another skill of mine,” he said, breaking their attention from the core to him.

“What does it do?”

Lia asked immediately, her eyes sparkling in wonder and pure curiosity, her gaze lowering again as they locked onto his palm, replaying the moment it had appeared out of thin air. For her, it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.

She had seen monsters, and she knew that they could grow stronger using their cores.

There was also the affinity that she and Seraphina possessed.

All of these things were enough to excite her, but it was just that…

She hadn’t seen anything magical, truly magical, until now—aside from the strange, black power her brother had used once.

“As you can see, it lets me store items,” Lucian answered briefly, not going too much into detail about the skill.

Lia seemed dissatisfied with such a small answer, but he just decided to ignore it for the moment.

“Anyways…”

Slowly, he leaned forward—despite the ache in his muscles as he moved, despite the stiffness in his back—and placed the dark object on the floor before them.

Turning his palm upward, another core materialized, which he then placed down.

He continued doing the same process again and again, until he had none of them left in his inventory.

Core after core began to appear, accumulating on the ground between them, forming a small cluster that grew slowly with each passing second

At one point, he even attempted to summon multiple items at once, but failed to do so.

His current limit was only two items at a time, since he only had two hands and could only summon them over his palms—not without them.

It seemed that the skill [Inventory] needed physical touch to be stored or removed from the space.

‘What if I lose one of my hands? What then?’ he thought inwardly, even asking Akasha about it.

[Try cutting one off, then let’s see how it works,] she said, making his lips twitch into a faint, humorous smile.

Both Lia and Seraphina watched in silence.

At first, it was fascination, an almost childlike wonder at the impossible unfolding before them.

But as the number grew… the wonder began to shift, getting mixed and even overwhelming with the growing unease as he poured the crystals again and again.

Only after about a minute did he stop. A minute that felt the longest to both of them.

For a moment, none of them spoke.

Lucian was somewhat confused by their silence, which felt heavy for some reason.

Before he could question—

“How…” Lia opened her mouth, breaking the silence.

“…how many are they?” she asked, her voice trembling slightly—not from excitement, but something far more uncomfortable.

Her gaze shifted from the pile to Lucian, her expression tightening as she slowly realized what this meant.

With the number of cores Lucian had placed down, it was too many, at least if she considered the fact that one core meant one monster’s death.

Lucian tilted his head.

“I think… about 30,” he answered after a brief pause, thinking about how many wolves he had fought yesterday.

He didn’t clearly remember the exact amount, since he had been too busy trying to survive and kill them. There was no time for him during that situation to pick each of them and count them down.

Seraphina’s fingers twitched at his words.

Her gaze lingered on the cores for a second longer before lifting slowly to meet his.

“Did you kill all of them…?” Her voice was calm, controlled, if not for the faint tremor in her words.

Because if Lucian had killed this amount of monsters, then…

It only meant one thing.

Lucian nodded faintly.

Both Seraphina and Lia froze.

Lia’s eyes widened again, this time in horror.

All of it clicked.

She now clearly understood how and why he’d come so wounded, so bloodied.

He hadn’t just fought one monster, but dozens.

Thirty.

Her hands clenched tightly till they turned white. Her lips parted.

“Why?”

Her body trembled, her gaze lowered slightly, looking at the cores wanting to crush them, to kill their owners themselves as if that would heal her brother’s injuries.

She lifted her head, her lips tightening into a trembling, thin line struggling to hold back everything threatening to spill over.

“Why are you doing all of this?!”

Her voice rose suddenly, and her shoulders trembled violently in anger and with a helpless frustration.

Lucian looked at her.

For a moment, he felt like saying something…

But he didn’t say anything in defence, not reacting despite her sudden outburst.

He simply watched her as she slowly stepped toward him.

Neither Seraphina nor Lucian moved from their place, and neither did they say anything.

Seraphina just sighed quietly as she slowly closed her eyes. In understanding, knowing what Lia was feeling right now.

Because she was feeling it too.

The suffocating helplessness.

Lucian was throwing his life away, walking a path soaked with danger—where even he didn’t know if he would survive or not—and they…

They could do nothing about it.

They couldn’t fight beside him, couldn’t protect him—not when they couldn’t even protect themselves.

Even if they tried, they couldn’t stop him.

And that realization hurt more than anything else.

Lia closed the distance between them in a few quick steps, reaching as she grabbed the collar of his shirt tightly, her face inches away from his, forcing him to meet her gaze.

Lucian’s expression faltered faintly as he saw her eyes trembling, her lips pressed together as she bit down on them in frustration, anger, or helplessness.

Her breathing was heavy and uneven, and he could feel her warm breath against his face.

“Why are you throwing away your life? For what?” Her voice trembled, a mix of anger, fear, and frustration.

Her vision burned, blurring as her eyes struggled to hold themselves steady.

“Why?!” she screamed suddenly.

“The authorities might come to secure us. The government will probably do something about it, so why are you trying to do everything yourself?!”

Her grip tightened further.

“Why do you want to act like some hero?!”

The words from her mouth came out harsher than she intended.

She couldn’t understand him, his choices, his goals.

The reasoning behind all his reckless actions.

Why would he go out there alone… fight monsters… risk his life over and over again without any hesitation? As if he’d already accepted his choices, had already decided what he’d have to do?

And that—

That lack of understanding twisted inside her chest far more than the fear itself. It was making her more frustrated than anything else.

Lucian didn’t speak immediately.

Instead—

He slowly closed his eyes in resignation.

Lia’s lips twitched at that, and her fingers tightened further over the fabric of his collar.𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

She opened her mouth again, to argue, to scold him more—

But before she could speak—

Lucian opened his eyes, lifting his bandaged hand, and placing them gently over hers.

“Why?”

He muttered quietly, repeating her question, as if he were talking to himself rather than answering her.

Lia paused, feeling the warmth of his rough hands along with the texture of the bandage wrapped over his knuckles.

“I…” he paused mid-sentence, not wanting to continue further.

But seeing both of them grow worried over these things—feeling uneasy, carrying the quiet fear of watching him change into something darker before their very eyes—made it hard to ignore.

Lucian let out a visible sigh, his shoulders lowering as he finally gave in.

“I just want you… both of you to be safe,” he said, his words simple, but they held a lot of weight… at least they did to him.

Lucian turned toward his mother for a moment before returning to his sister, whose eyes had widened in shock.

“I want both of you to be fine… to live a good life…” he said with a soft, gentle smile forming on his lips.

But the smile didn’t really reach his eyes.

Then—

Slowly, his grip over Lia’s hand tightened just a little.

His expression shifted, the softness in his eyes dimmed, turning lifeless. His gaze was hollow with… fear, raw and unfiltered.

The fear that was deeply buried within him from the moment he had started walking again.

From the moment he had seen another day after his death.

Lia’s breath hitched, her grip faltered, her fingers loosening as she stared at him, at his current look.

Her body trembled slightly.

“And I don’t want any of you to die.”

As he said that, unconsciously, his eyes flickered over Lia, remembering her death in his past life.

Lucian’s jaw tightened, his teeth clenched slightly.

“Not until I’m living,”

His voice rose, slightly louder than before, making both women’s bodies tremble as a cold chill ran down their spines.

Give me more power stones.

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Thank you for reading.