Chapter 500: In The Know

In final preparation before they Ethan was examining a few details with the system when a knock sounded from the entrance to his chamber.

He dismissed the screen with a thought and turned toward the door. "Come in."

The door opened, and Jillia stepped inside.

"My lord wishes to speak with you," she said. "Privately."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Did he say what about?"

Jillia shook her head. "Only that there is something he wishes to discuss with you."

Ethan nodded and followed behind Jillia as they walked towards Nathan’s quarters.

When Jillia opened the door, Ethan found him standing by one of the chamber’s windows.

Nathan turned as they entered.

"My lord," Jillia said quietly. "I brought him."

"Thank you." Nathan’s gaze moved to Ethan before returning briefly to Jillia who immediately understood she had to give them some space.

She then bowed her head and stepped outside, closing the door behind her.

"She said there was something you wanted to discuss with me." Ethan nodded

"There is." Nathan regarded him for another moment, almost as though deciding how he wanted to begin.

Then he said, "I wanted to thank you."

Ethan blinked in surprise. Of everything he had expected Nathan to say, that certainly hadn’t been it. "Thank me?"

"For this." Nathan gestured vaguely. "For choosing to come here and bringing your people with you, for even gaining the Demon Queen’s assistance."

A little smile appeared on Nathan’s face. "None of this would have been possible without you."

Ethan stared at him for a second before his brows drew together.

"Why are you thanking me for that?" he asked. "She’s my mother too. I want to get her out of there just as much as you do."

Nathan’s smile lingered. "I know."

He looked away briefly before releasing a breath.

"There is something I did not initially intend to tell you," Nathan said. "I thought it would be better to play along."

"Getting Irene away from the Dragon Emperor has been my goal for years..." He paused. "I saw no reason to complicate things."

Ethan wasn’t entirely sure where Nathan was going with this anymore.

But Nathan then turned and said "But I think you deserve to know that I am aware."

"That body belongs to my son...but the soul inside it does not."

Ethan froze. For several seconds, he said absolutely nothing except stare at Nathan with widened eyes.

Since arriving in this world, Ethan had kept one truth entirely to himself.

As far as everyone in this world was concerned, Ethan Alexander Stark had always been Ethan Alexander Stark.

He studied Nathan’s face, searching for any indication that this was a guess, or some strange attempt to provoke a reaction from him.

But there was none. Nathan wasn’t guessing.

Although, once the initial shock began to settle, Ethan realized that Nathan being the one to discover the truth actually made some sense.

His father’s magic revolved around the mind and soul.

Astral Magic allowed him to enter consciousness, perceive the connections between people, interact with memories and mental imprints, and even manipulate the minds of others.

So if there was one person capable of realizing that the soul occupying Ethan Stark’s body was not the one born into it, it was probably him.

Ethan stayed silent for another moment before asking. "How long have you known? And how did you find out?"

He saw no need to pretend about it.

"For quite a while," Nathan answered, then paused for a moment before starting with an explanation.

"When I first gained Astral Magic, one of the first people I established a connection with was my son."

"In those early days, Ethan and I would spend some time with Irene in her Mind’s Island. Those moments brought her joy."

Nathan’s expression softened at the memory.

"We could not meet her face-to-face, but through my magic, we could still be together. For a little while, at least, it gave us the semblance of a family."

Ethan’s brows furrowed. "But I have every memory from this body," he said. "If that happened, how do I not remember any of it?"

He remembered his childhood, the people around him, and countless insignificant moments. If the original Ethan had repeatedly entered Irene’s Mind Island, those memories should have been there as well.

"Because I made sure you wouldn’t." Nathan answered, "After every visit, I altered his memories to remove those experiences so that when he woke, he would have no recollection of ever seeing Irene or me."

"But the visits eventually stopped as we couldn’t keep subjecting him to what came with them."

Ethan knew exactly what Nathan meant. He had already learned about that phenomenon through Eduardo after Nathan had taken him to see Irene.

The crushing pressure Irene endured in the physical world could intermittently bleed into her consciousness, causing the same sensation to manifest throughout her Mind Island. And so anyone present when it happened would be caught in it alongside her.

For an ordinary child, repeatedly experiencing something like that was hardly harmless.

"And there was another problem," Nathan said. "His memories."

A trace of regret entered his expression.

"Every visit meant altering my son’s mind again afterward. At first, I convinced myself it was necessary. It allowed us to see our son but the more I did it, the more I began to fear what repeated alterations might eventually do to him."

Nathan lowered his gaze.

"I couldn’t keep using magic on my own son like that, so I stopped."

Ethan continued listening as Nathan spoke.

"Eventually, I learned that the girl carrying Carrion’s power was in Gritnia and under your protection," Nathan continued. "That was when I decided to reach out to you again."

His expression grew heavier. "But when I tried, I couldn’t find my son."

"I searched for his soul’s signature, but I could no longer trace it within the Astral Sea. No matter how many times I tried, there was nothing."

"And that could only mean one thing...My son was dead."

Ethan said nothing.

Nathan’s face had hardened a little bit.

"I searched through the imprints he had left behind. Everything that could tell me what had happened to him before his soul disappeared." His jaw tightened. "And eventually, I found his final moments."

Nathan looked directly at Ethan.

"I learned that my son had taken his own life because of his terrible experiences with a Morgenstein vampire."

For a moment, Nathan said nothing more. His gaze lowered, and when he continued, there was a little bit of sadness in his voice.

"It broke me," he admitted. "But some part of me also knew that I was responsible."

"I knew what my son was supposed to be. I knew what he was born as... And I should have understood that sealing his hybrid nature would affect more than his body and his power."

His hands slowly curled.

"It affected him. His confidence, his will, even parts of the personality he should have possessed naturally. Suppressing what he was left him hollow in ways I failed to anticipate."

"It made him uncertain of himself, easier for others to manipulate, and when everything eventually became too much for him..." Nathan paused. "He didn’t have the strength of will to endure it."

There was a bitterness in his expression now, but it was directed entirely at himself.

"So yes, I regretted it. I still do. Because I was the one who made the decision to seal that part of him."

After a few silent minutes, Nathan continued. "But there was something else I had to reconcile."