Two weeks have passed, and Asher’s birthday is only two weeks away. It was early in the morning, and he had just woken up, so he decided to do his Mana-Training after having breakfast. He continued training for five hours and, when he came out, it was 12 in the afternoon. He found Emmy waiting outside the training grounds for him.
“Young Master, we have found the kid with a nearly similar description to the one you described, but the information is not exactly the same. According to the information you gave me, this kid was supposed to be an orphan with no family members. But he has a twin sister,” Emmy told Asher.
“Sister?” Asher asked, surprised by this new information.
“Yes, according to the report, this kid has a sister, although she is quite ill and usually stays at home,” Emmy said while pulling out a hologram projection from her watch. “This kid has committed murder, theft, and many more things. Although he used all the money to treat his sister, he is quite weird. He is 10 years old and, although they live in not-so-privileged surroundings, he has managed to survive. The way he carries himself is quite similar to you, Young Master. And his eyes….ar-“
“No wonder you found him quite similar to me, didn’t you?” Asher asked calmly.
“Forgive me, Young Master. I don’t mean to doubt the integrity of the head of the house,” Emmy got on her knees and waited for Asher’s response.
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“How?” Emmy muttered softly to herself. Although she believed that Arthur would never cheat on Sylvie, she was a maid who came to the Greville House with Sylvie, and her loyalty to her was greater than her loyalty to Arthur. So, seeds of doubt began to arise when she saw the kid with the traits of the Greville Family.
“You are forgetting that there used to be another person like my father in this family,” Asher said, clearing the clouds from her mind.
“No way?!” Emmy was shocked.
“Yes, they are Ivar Greville’s children. We are going to go meet them. Emmy, make sure this news does not reach anyone else, no matter who, until I say so,” Asher said with a hint of coldness in his voice.
“Yes, Young Master,” Emmy immediately replied.
“Let’s go,” Asher told Emmy as he moved towards his room to shower and get ready to go out. He wore a white jacket over a black T-shirt, black jeans, and got in his car.
“Tell the security to not follow us when we are in the vicinity of those kids,” Asher told her. He didn’t want any chances of information leaking out.
“Should I drive?” Emmy asked Asher for confirmation.
“No need,” Asher said in a bored voice.
The driver was ready to move out of the car, but when he heard Asher, he was a bit delighted. He was a 40-year-old man who worked to provide for his family, but he was not married and only provided money for his sister’s kids. He had been driving for Asher since he was 5 years old and was glad to see that Asher trusted him enough.
Asher didn’t really think much about this. His driver was the one who sacrificed his life in his previous life when he was weak and targeted by many people. He was sure that there would be no issues with him regarding information leaks.
They were moving out of Soran and heading towards the border area of Soran. The people who lived there were those who could not afford city life. They were some people who had lost arms and could no longer go into dungeons to make money, or orphans whose parents died in dungeons. Although laws were followed in such places as well, they were quite lax compared to cities. Murder and crimes were rare occurrences, but unless you were caught, you were pretty much a free soul in such areas.
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Inside an underground bunker filled with various machinery and weapons, there were two men gathered around a person whose whole body was filled with black veins. He looked like a mess.
“His whole body is experiencing Mana Rejection. If this goes on, he will surely die,” a man in a white lab coat told the man standing beside him.
The man beside him had black hair and red eyes. He had several bandages wrapped around his waist and there cut marks on his forearms. He condition looked like he just fought a hard battle.
“Nate, do you know a method to save him?” the man asked.
“I can’t. Asher’s mana core is broken. He overchanneled his mana in the fight with the Association. I told this bastard to wait for a few more years to fight that man, but he never listened to me!” Nate’s voice was full of anger and concern.
“Wait, I can rebuild his mana core with my bloodline ability!” the man beside him replied.
“LUCAS, ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MIND?!” Nate shouted at him.
“Fixing his mana core, which is already broken, will result in you emptying your own mana core until there’s nothing left. This is not like your own core where you can just rely on your ability to channel nearly unlimited mana,” Nate tried to convince Lucas before he did something stupid.
“Doesn’t matter. I have already experienced losing my loved ones once. Not again!” Lucas stared right into Nate’s eyes.
“What do you mean by before?” Nate asked, as he knew Lucas was an orphan, and his mother died when he was too young to remember.
“Shut up and concentrate on Asher now,” Lucas said as he started channeling his own mana into Asher’s core, trying to fix it.
Lucas’s eyes started losing focus, but he continued fixing Asher’s core. His mind was getting dizzy. Emptying your mana core meant destroying your mana heart and using up every bit of your lifespan.
“Lucas, you can still stop. We can find some other way to fix him,” Nate couldn’t bear to watch his friend die.
“And what way? Will he live that long?” Lucas said, seeing a blurry figure of Nate.
“But you know Asher is not stable. If even you die now, it will be up to me to take care of him. I am not confident that I will be able to keep Asher sane. He might just destroy this world if nobody kept tabs on his mental health,” Nate said reluctantly. But he knew that Asher was no longer the same.
He overclocked his mental capability to handle mana, and though it gave him immense power, his gradual loss of sanity was concerning.
“Even though I met Asher long after ‘that’ incident *cough*, ” he stopped but continued,
“You and I both know that Asher changed after that day. Maybe he didn’t change, he just unleashed his true self, but that doesn’t mean I will leave him like that sister of his!” Lucas said, barely maintaining his consciousness.
Hearing the mention of that woman, Nate remembered the death of his brother.
“Don’t blame her too much, Lucas. My brother died that day, but if he was given another chance, he would still do it. She was just manipulated by that Rothschild bitch!” His eyes burned with fury as he spoke.
Asher’s body was slowly getting rid of the black veins. His mana core was slowly fixing itself.
Lucas’s body was slowly losing its color. Blood was dripping from his eyes and nose. He was going to die soon.
“Nate, don’t let the world know about my death. Just destroy my body right here after my death. Asher will need time, and my existence will give him the time he needs. Even though I am still weaker than him, nobody will openly attack us until they know I am dead,” Lucas muttered to Nate, his eyes unable to see anymore. He was using his senses to transfer the mana to fix Asher’s core.
Nate didn’t reply, but Lucas knew he would comply with his wishes. Asher’s body was now devoid of any black veins. Although he was still in a deep coma, his life was no longer in danger. He would still need some time to wake up.
That was the day Lucas Von Greville left the world.