Chapter 112: Shield and Bait

"The authorities don't need one or two geniuses. They want an army."

"Even if every soldier is only at the Practitioner level, a force of hundreds or thousands of Practitioners is more than enough to handle the vast majority of anomalous events."

The second hand on the living room clock completed its circuit, and the minute hand ticked forward with a soft click.

Richard searched his mind for concepts to match what his mother was telling him.

He understood the logic.

In the terms of his past life, the Scholar and Secret paths were artisan workshops. Their output was exquisite but limited, and when a master died, the craft died with them.

Hunter families were factories. Their products weren't as refined, but they guaranteed a steady output, keeping the assembly line running generation after generation.

The official system needed exactly that kind of factory.

"The Ashford family is just a single cog in that machine."

His mother's voice grew even softer.

"In terms of scale, we wouldn't even rank in the top twenty. The Adams and Montagu families are deep wells; they can draw a bucket of water at random and it will be enough to drink."

"The Ashford pool is a shallow pond."

"In your grandfather's generation, he himself was a Major Adept.

Among his peers, there were seven or eight Practitioners, two Minor Adepts, and a few ordinary people who showed no circuit after testing."

"When it came to my generation... your uncle is a Hunter, but he stalled out right before Minor Adept."

"Your aunt Isabella walked the Scholar path and teaches in the Department of Classics at Imperial Capital University.

She just advanced to Minor Adept in recent years, which is how she secured an associate professorship in her early thirties."

"As for me... I'm crippled."

"Of the remaining cousins, one was maimed on a mission and had to withdraw, while the rest are merely ordinary Practitioners who haven't even touched the true threshold."

"Even more lacked circuits entirely, and were sent off to live as ordinary people."

At some point, a light drizzle had begun outside. The patter of raindrops against the glass was so faint it could barely be heard.

"If a Hunter family goes three consecutive generations without someone breaking through to Major Adept, they will begin to be marginalized in the Imperial Capital."

"Resources stop tilting in your direction, because investing in your family isn't as worthwhile as investing in those with superior bloodlines."

"In the circles of the Imperial Capital, there's a phrase for families like that—'a fading lamp'."

"The lamp remains, and the wick is still lit, but the flame grows smaller and smaller. Everyone can see it's about to go out."

"The Ashford family is rapidly approaching that line right now."

Margaret rested both hands flat on her knees, palms down.

"To your grandfather, dealing with me was simple: I was a sunk cost that warranted no further investment."

"But a sunk cost is still a cost. The ledger couldn't just be wiped clean like that."

"Ten years of resources were allocated from the entire family's resource pool.

Your grandfather managed that ledger. He couldn't just tell the other elders, 'The investment went down the drain, let's forget about it.'"

"So, he needed to give them an explanation."

Richard began to understand.

"Your grandfather had only one condition at the time: I could leave, but I had to leave a lifeline for the family."

His mother's fingers tightened.

"The agreement was simple. I could leave the Imperial Capital, marry Rogers, and live an ordinary life.

The Ashfords wouldn't interfere with my life, they wouldn't send people to follow me, and they wouldn't exert any influence on my marriage."

"There was only one condition."

She looked up and met Richard's eyes directly.

"If any of my descendants carried a latent circuit, I was obligated to cooperate with the family and have them screened at the appropriate time."

"The testing protocol was standard, an old method the Ashford family had used for decades.

I was tested with it too before I started, using a copper ring.

A fever for two days, the fever breaking on the third, and the circuit activating. The whole process was stable and safe."

"So you didn't stop it," Richard said.

"So I didn't stop it," his mother repeated.

"When I saw you experiencing rejection, the first thing I did was take the pendant off your neck."

She recalled the sequence of every step.

"Once a supernatural item breaks contact, the ether infiltration stops immediately.

I put the pendant on your nightstand, resting it on a towel."

Having confirmed the state of his circuit and explained the cause and effect, Margaret shifted the topic:

"You know now that there are things behind the veil."

Her gaze left him, settling on the landscape painting that had hung on the living room wall for years.

"The death echoes, evil creatures, and wandering spirits written about in books—those are just the shallowest layer."

"The things in the shallow layer are terrifying, but they lack consciousness.

A boulder rolling down a mountain doesn't choose who it crushes. If it hits you, it's bad luck; if it misses, you're safe."

"But my guide told me something back then: in front of the veil, strength is a shield; behind the veil, strength is bait."

"The stronger you are, the bigger the things that catch your scent."

The embers in the fireplace finally quieted down.

The entire living room was left with only the faint hum of the floor lamp's filament and the hoofbeats of a late-returning carriage.

His mother waited until the sound of the carriage faded completely before she continued.

"I can tell. You probably don't want to stop at the Practitioner stage.

Since you want to delve deeper into this path, every step forward will come with a price."

"At the lower stages, the price is time and energy. You can afford those."

"But the higher you go, the less you'll be able to foresee the cost."

"The truly terrifying price is that you yourself will change, and you won't even realize you are changing."

"You will become calmer, more rational, and more capable of enduring."

She looked at Richard. "They all sound like virtues, don't they?"

Richard didn't answer, waiting for her to continue.

"But if one day, your sister falls down..."

His mother's hands clenched on her knees.

"Your first reaction won't be to help her up. Instead, you'll evaluate whether her injury is worth stopping for."

"From that moment on, you've paid a price you weren't even aware of."

The living room remained quiet for a long time.

The sound of Evelyn rolling over upstairs drifted down through the floorboards. The bed frame let out a soft creak before silence returned.

"I've seen people like that."

Her voice dropped very low.

"They took every step correctly, every decision they made was impeccable, and in the end, they became incredibly, incredibly powerful people."

"But they had no one left beside them."

"They were either dead, or they drifted away."

After saying this, his mother's shoulders slumped. She had finally unloaded a heavy burden she had carried on her back for a very long time.

"Since your circuit is whole, I don't have the ability to stop you, and your father won't be able to stop you either.

He doesn't know about these things, and I don't plan on telling him."

Her gaze fell back onto Richard's face. "But remember one thing."

"The reason I chose to leave that world back then was because I wanted to truly live."

"Living in itself is wonderful. To be able to breathe, to eat, to watch you and Evelyn slowly grow up."

Her fingers gently touched her own chest, the location of her crippled remnant circuit.

"The value of those things is greater than anything behind the veil."

"If there ever comes a day when you feel you can't go on, just come back."

"Come home. Come back to Briston. The air here might be bad, but it's home."

Richard took his mother's ice-cold hands in his.

"I know."

His mother patted the back of his hand. There was no weight behind the gesture; it was much like when she used to coax him to sleep as a child.

"Go to sleep. You still have to go tutor tomorrow."

Richard stood up and walked to the door, resting his hand on the doorknob.

"Richard."

"What is it?"

His mother remained seated on the sofa, not turning around to look at him.

"You are much stronger than I was."

"That reassures me, and yet it doesn't."