Louskas entered his room and lay on his bed, his mind exhausted from thinking. Questions swirled in his head, one leading to another, like a maze with no exit.
But he knew what he had to do now. He had to awaken his core and his shard… and he had to leave. It wasn't easy. Leaving his family after all these years of suffering was painful. But he had no choice.
In his past life, his weakness had been a disgrace to his clan, so they sent him to his mother's clan, the great Draven Clan. His grandfather took care of him there. But after losing both his parents, his grandfather grew weaker and soon became bedridden. With no one left to support him, Louskas had no choice but to leave.
Despite everything his family had done to him, despite the humiliation, he still loved them. He had dedicated his entire life to searching for a shard that could bring back the dead.
Lying on his bed, he suddenly laughed, a bitter sound.
"Was love really my reason? No… it wasn't. It was weakness."
This world was cruel, and he had been nothing more than an ant among beasts. He couldn't face its harshness alone, so he ran away, hiding behind an excuse—searching for a way to revive his family. It was a beautiful lie, one he told himself so he wouldn't have to face the truth.
For years, he had suffered at the hands of others. He had been beaten, robbed, humiliated—and he hadn't even been able to fight back. His fear wasn't just of the world but of people themselves. So, he chose isolation. He spent years in a wooden house, away from others, convincing himself that he was protecting himself. But in truth, he was nothing but a coward, running from reality.
How pathetic. How weak.
He had seen this same nature in many people—running from their problems instead of facing them, hiding behind excuses, convincing themselves of false hopes just so they wouldn't have to accept reality. How many of them wished for death? Not because they truly wanted to die, but because they sought relief, an escape from their burdens?
Disgust filled him as he thought of his old self—his weak, hypocritical self.
he didn't have many goals within the clan. But he had spent thirty years chasing a lie. And now, even the people he once called family had forgotten him. He was nothing but a slave to them.
And the thing he hated most… were slaves, especially those who were loyal to their masters.
He sighed and closed his eyes.
Eldron, the ghostly old man only he could see, had given him many pieces of advice, explaining the basics of this world. Louskas didn't trust him, but he was useful. The real problem, however, was that Eldron could hear his thoughts. Louskas had noticed it from the way he reacted to certain things. That was a serious issue. He needed to find a way to deal with it.
But that wasn't his priority right now. What mattered was finding a place filled with spiritual energy to form his core and awaken his shard. The problem was that the shard he possessed—one of the Shards of Oblivion—required a vast amount of energy to awaken.
Fortunately, he knew the perfect place. It had been on his mind for a long time, though he had never thought of using it for this purpose. It was isolated, untouched, and filled with the energy he needed.
As for the family vault, it was only an option in theory. It held a great amount of spiritual energy, but it was reserved for the clan's members. And since he was nothing more than a slave, even thinking about entering it was pointless.
But above all else… what truly mattered was what Kailos had said.
Louskas now knew what he had to do. But that didn't answer the biggest questions.
Who was he? Where did he come from? Who were his real family? And why did that other slave look exactly like him?
But the most confusing thing of all… was time.
In his future, he had lived as a normal person. But in this time, he was a slave. What did that mean? Had he come from nothing? Or was this an entirely different life, in a world separate from his own?
When he spoke to the workers in the clan, he realized that this version of him had been a slave for a long time. Which meant that in his past life—as a researcher—he had already existed in this world as a slave.
The thoughts overwhelmed him, a sharp pain stabbing at his head as the questions piled up.