Chapter 224: The Price of Truth

"I would die... but why?"

Yuuta’s voice was filled with genuine confusion. He couldn’t understand it. How could learning the truth about himself possibly kill him? The more answers he received, the more impossible everything sounded.

Isvarn, however, understood the reason all too well.

He knew about the Seal of the Seven Crowns.

It was one of the few ancient seals he had ever read about, and after witnessing everything surrounding Yuuta, he was now almost certain of his conclusion. The seal wasn’t simply hiding Yuuta’s past. It was protecting it.

Or perhaps...

Protecting Yuuta himself.

If someone forcefully revealed the truth before Yuuta possessed enough strength to bear it, the seal would react. The pain it unleashed wouldn’t be something an ordinary human could survive.

No one could simply tell Yuuta who he was.

He had to discover the truth with his own strength.

Only then would he have the power to endure what awaited him.

Isvarn looked directly into Yuuta’s eyes before speaking in a calm voice.

"Yes."

"That is all I can tell you."

"If you wish to uncover the truth, you must first become strong enough to survive it."

"I will help you reach that point."

A faint smile appeared on the ancient dragon’s face.

"From the moment I accepted you as my student... your path became my responsibility."

"I cannot reveal your past."

"But I can make sure you become strong enough to face it yourself."

Yuuta remained completely silent.

He wanted to ask countless questions.

He wanted to demand answers.

Yet after seeing the seriousness in Isvarn’s eyes, he realized asking again would change nothing.

The ancient dragon slowly unfolded his enormous wings.

A powerful gust of wind swept across the apartment yard as loose leaves danced through the air. The sunlight reflected against his white scales, making the old dragon appear even more majestic than before.

"Get some rest."

His deep voice echoed across the quiet garden.

"Tomorrow, I will begin teaching you the true fundamentals of Aura."

With a single beat of his wings, Isvarn launched himself into the sky.

The wind roared around Yuuta as the ancient dragon rapidly disappeared into the distance until only the empty blue sky remained.

Silence returned.

Yuuta stood alone in the middle of the apartment yard without moving.

His eyes remained fixed upon the place where Isvarn had disappeared, but his mind was elsewhere.

Far away.

Everything felt more confusing than ever.

The silence around him felt heavier than ever.

Instead of answering his questions, today’s training had only created more of them.

First Erza had made Aura sound far more complicated than he first believed.

Then came the mysterious origin of his eyes. After that, the fragments of his stolen childhood. Now even Isvarn was telling him that the truth itself could kill him.

Nothing made sense anymore.

Yuuta slowly lowered his head, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white.

He felt as though he had been walking through someone else’s life instead of his own. Every answer he uncovered only led to another question, and every truth he found only made him realize how little he actually knew. The more he thought about it, the more he hated the feeling of being kept in the dark.

Just as he was about to sink deeper into those thoughts...

"Yaaawn..."

A tiny yawn interrupted the silence.

Yuuta turned toward the sound and saw Elena slowly sitting up beneath the tree. Her sleepy eyes barely managed to open before she swayed from side to side, completely defeated by exhaustion. A second later, her little body flopped back onto the grass as she immediately fell asleep again.

Yuuta couldn’t help laughing.

The sight was so innocent that it instantly eased the frustration weighing on his heart.

Compared to the complicated world surrounding him, Elena’s worries were wonderfully simple. She had spent the entire afternoon running around until she exhausted herself, and now nothing in the world seemed more important than another few minutes of sleep.

Yuuta slowly walked over to her.

With every step, his thoughts became even more tangled. Anyone placed in his position would probably feel exactly the same. In just a few days, everything he believed about himself had been turned upside down. His childhood, his memories, his mysterious eyes, even the power flowing through his body nothing felt certain anymore.

He eventually reached Elena and gently knelt beside her.

The little dragon was sleeping peacefully beneath the shade of the tree, completely unaware of the storm inside her father’s heart. A few strands of White-silver hair rested across her face, gently swaying with the afternoon breeze.

Yuuta smiled before softly patting her shoulder.

"Elena..."

"Let’s sleep inside."

"You’ll catch a cold out here."

Elena slowly opened one eye.

"Hmm..."

"Papa..."

"Five more minutes..."

"It’s so comfy..."

Her tiny voice faded before the sentence was even finished. She curled into a small ball again and immediately drifted back to sleep.

Yuuta chuckled quietly.

"...You’re impossible."

Instead of waking her again, he slowly sat down beside her and leaned against the tree. Taking a long breath, he looked up toward the clear blue sky stretching endlessly above him.

"I think..."

"I should take a break."

His voice was quiet.

"I’ll understand everything eventually."

"Right now..."

"My life is just... a mess."

The breeze gently brushed across his face as he remained seated beside Elena. For the first time all day, he allowed himself to stop searching for answers and simply think.

Everything felt tangled.

Even his own reason for becoming stronger no longer seemed clear.

Originally...

His goal had been simple.

He only wanted enough strength to stand beside Erza.

That had been enough.

If becoming stronger meant he could protect the people precious to him and one day stand proudly beside the woman he loved, then he didn’t need anything else. He never cared about becoming a hero or changing the world. His dream had always been painfully ordinary.

But somewhere along the way...

Everything changed.

He still wanted to stand beside Erza.

That hadn’t changed.

But every step toward that dream kept revealing another lie about his life.

Somewhere along the way...

Finding the truth became inseparable from becoming stronger.

The moment he began chasing strength, it no longer felt like he was simply becoming stronger. Every step forward peeled away another layer of truth, revealing something he had never expected to find.

Yuuta slowly lowered his gaze toward his hands.

A faint green aura quietly flowed around his fingertips before disappearing back into his body. Even now, he could still feel the unfamiliar power moving through every part of him.

He had finally obtained the strength he wanted.

Yet...

Instead of feeling accomplished...

He only felt more lost.

"I finally gained power..."

"...and all it did was make me realize that everything I believed was a lie."

Yuuta lowered his gaze toward the grass beneath him, the bitter words lingering in the quiet afternoon. It felt as though every answer he had searched for had only torn away another illusion. Instead of finding peace, he had uncovered more lies than truths, leaving him with a heart heavier than before.

"It feels like..."

"...I’ve been following someone else’s script."

His voice grew quieter as he spoke, almost as if he were afraid of hearing his own thoughts.

"A script someone carefully wrote for me..."

"...without ever asking what I wanted."

He fell silent after that.

The wind gently rustled the leaves overhead while the green aura quietly flowed around his fingertips. Yuuta watched it in silence, unable to take his eyes off the strange power that now belonged to him.

Just a few days ago, he had desperately wished for strength, believing it would solve everything. Now that he finally possessed it, all it had done was uncover another layer of truth hidden beneath his ordinary life.

"The more power I gain..."

"...the more truth I discover."

"Grandpa was right."

A tired smile appeared on his face before slowly fading away.

"My origin..."

"My childhood..."

"Even the memories I believed were mine..."

"They all feel... wrong."

Before he could continue thinking, a sleepy mumble came from beside him.

"...It’s noisy..."

Yuuta immediately looked toward Elena and found her still asleep beneath the tree. Her tiny face had scrunched into an adorable frown, clearly unhappy that his voice had interrupted her peaceful nap. He quickly smiled apologetically before gently patting her head.

"Oh... I’m sorry, Princess."

"I almost forgot you have good hearing."

His gentle pat continued until the little dragon relaxed again. Elena let out a soft hum before rolling over, comfortably returning to sleep as though nothing had happened.

Watching her peaceful expression, another thought naturally surfaced in Yuuta’s mind.

Elena can hear even the smallest sound because she’s a dragon...

His hand slowly moved toward one of his ears.

Then... what about me?

For a brief moment, an absurd idea crossed his mind.

"Am I... an elf?"

The words had barely left his mouth before he laughed at himself.

"What am I even thinking?"

He rubbed the edge of his ear with his fingers before shaking his head.

"How could I possibly be an elf?"

"I don’t even have pointed ears."

"I’m not nearly as handsome as the elves I saw."

"Everything about me looks human."

His laughter gradually disappeared as his eyes drifted toward the strange birthmarks scattered across his arm.

"Besides these red eyes..."

"...and these weird birthmarks..."

"...there’s nothing unusual about me."

The thought should have ended there.

Instead...

It only created another question.

Then why were all those visions filled with elves?

The towering tree.

Their ancient songs.

The countless unfamiliar faces that somehow felt familiar.

None of it made sense.

Yuuta’s brows slowly furrowed.

Did they raise me?

He immediately frowned at his own conclusion.

If they really raised me... then why did they abandon me?

And where was that place in the first place?

The questions began piling up one after another before he could answer even one of them. The harder he tried to connect everything together, the more confusing it became. Every clue seemed to contradict the last, leaving him trapped in a puzzle with missing pieces.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through his head.

"Ouch..."

Yuuta immediately grabbed his forehead as the familiar headache returned. He squeezed his eyes shut while waiting for the throbbing pain to settle, taking several slow breaths before it finally began to fade.

He let out a weary sigh.

"...It’s happening again."

His hand slowly slid away from his forehead as he leaned back against the tree.

"Maybe Grandpa wasn’t talking about the truth itself."

"Maybe..."

"...he was talking about this pain."

"The more power I gain..."

"...the more these memories try to return."

A wave of exhaustion washed over him.

His body already felt drained from today’s battle, and now his mind felt just as exhausted. There were simply too many questions, too many mysteries, and not nearly enough answers.

Yuuta glanced toward Elena sleeping peacefully beside him before a small smile naturally appeared on his face.

"I should take a small nap."

"Maybe..."

"...I’ll think more clearly after I wake up."

He slowly closed his eyes while resting against the tree, allowing the cool breeze to wash over him. Within moments, exhaustion pulled him into a deep sleep beside his daughter.

When Yuuta opened his eyes again, the warm afternoon sunlight had vanished.

His surroundings were swallowed by endless darkness.

There was no apartment yard. No tree. No afternoon sunlight. Endless darkness stretched in every direction, silent and lifeless, as though the entire world had vanished while he slept.

Yuuta remained completely still.

His eyes wandered across the empty space surrounding him, trying to understand where he was. For some reason, the darkness felt strangely familiar.

It wasn’t the first time he had stood here.

The atmosphere itself carried an unsettling feeling, as though countless unseen eyes were quietly watching him from beyond the shadows.

A chill slowly crept down Yuuta’s spine as he instinctively looked around the endless darkness surrounding him. His brows gradually knitted together, and his heartbeat quickened with every passing second. There was no light, no wind, and no familiar presence only an endless void stretching beyond the limits of his vision.

"...Wait."

His voice sounded strangely small in the overwhelming silence.

"Is this... the Soul Realm?"

The question escaped his lips almost instinctively.

Yuuta slowly turned his head from one direction to another, searching for something anything that looked familiar. He expected to see the giant tree towering over the horizon or the endless field of grass where he had once stood. Perhaps even the mysterious elves whose songs still echoed faintly within his memories.

But there was nothing.

Nothing except darkness.

Yuuta slowly shook his head, trying to calm himself as Isvarn’s words resurfaced in his mind.

"No..."

"Grandpa said I can’t enter the Soul Realm whenever I want."

His expression gradually grew more complicated as he tried to piece everything together.

"If that’s true..."

"...then what is this place?"

The fear that had gripped his heart slowly gave way to confusion. The place around him felt completely different from the Soul Realm he remembered. There was no gentle breeze brushing against his skin, no distant sounds filling the air, and not even the sensation of standing upon solid ground. It was as though he existed inside an endless void where space itself had lost all meaning and time had forgotten how to move.

Yuuta hesitated for a brief moment before cautiously taking a step forward.

He waited for the sound of his foot touching the ground.

Nothing.

Not even an echo answered him.

Instead, the silence seemed to grow heavier, pressing against his chest until even breathing felt strangely difficult. It was a silence so complete that it almost felt alive.

As Yuuta carefully scanned the darkness once more, his eyes suddenly caught something in the distance.

A figure.

It stood perfectly still, barely distinguishable from the surrounding darkness. Had he not been staring so carefully, he might have mistaken it for another part of the void itself.

Yuuta’s entire body froze.

His pupils slowly widened as recognition struck him.

Even from such an impossible distance...

He knew exactly who or rather, what it was.

It was the same shadow.

The same mysterious figure that had silently extended its hand toward him inside the Soul Realm.

It hadn’t vanished.

It had been here all along.

The shadow remained completely motionless, offering neither a greeting nor a threat. It simply stood there in absolute silence, its presence blending into the darkness while its unseen gaze remained fixed upon Yuuta.

A cold shiver crawled across Yuuta’s body.

Every instinct screamed at him to turn around and run, to escape before that thing could come any closer.

Yet no matter how desperately his mind urged him to move, his body refused to obey.

He could only stand there, his eyes locked onto the mysterious figure that had somehow appeared before him once again.

To be Contiuned..