Chapter 248: The Breakdown.

Hearing Lyra’s question, Kael paused for a moment.

"Well... about that."

He began explaining.

This time, Kael went through everything that had happened after arriving at Ezra’s location. He carefully explained how he had discovered the parasite, how he had fought it, and what had happened afterward. He didn’t leave out the details, especially when it came to Dreamwalking.

With the arcane knowledge he had recently acquired, the concept itself hadn’t been difficult for Kael to understand when Varek first explained it to him. But to an ordinary person, something like entering another person’s consciousness was far harder to comprehend.

So Kael took his time explaining it.

He told Lyra how he had entered Ezra’s consciousness through the Hive Mind, what he had found inside, and how he had fought the parasite directly within her mind. He explained how the parasite had been feeding on Ezra’s consciousness and how he had eventually destroyed it.

He even told her about Ezra’s current condition.

There was no reason to hide anything from her.

By the time Kael finished explaining everything Varek had told him about her recovery, Lyra was completely shaken.

Her legs had grown weak beneath her.

Kael noticed immediately.

He had told her everything, including the possibility that Ezra might not wake up anytime soon.

It wasn’t certain.

She could wake up at any moment.

But there was also a chance that her recovery could take a very long time.

Perhaps even years.

Lyra’s face slowly lost its color.

She had heard those words before.

Years ago, when their mother had first fallen unconscious, the doctors had told them the exact same thing.

They didn’t know when she would wake up.

She could regain consciousness at any moment.

Or she might never wake up at all.

And Lyra had been forced to watch her lie there in that hospital bed for years, slowly growing weaker as her body remained motionless.

Now her best friend had fallen into the same condition.

How could she possibly remain unaffected by it?

Kael hurriedly reached out and caught her by the shoulders when her legs finally gave way.

Lyra looked up at him.

Tears were already streaming down her face.

"Kael..."

Her voice trembled.

"What should I do?"

Kael remained silent.

"It’s all my fault."

Lyra’s tears continued falling.

"I should have walked her home. I should’ve never left her alone."

Her voice cracked.

"She was the one helping me all this time. She was always there whenever I needed her, and now that she’s the one who needed my help..."

She clenched Kael’s clothes.

"I couldn’t even help her."

Her breathing became increasingly unsteady.

"I’m a bad friend, aren’t I?"

Kael opened his mouth but nothing came out.

He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t her fault.

He wanted to tell her that she had no reason to blame herself.

But for some reason, his mind couldn’t even form the words.

It was as though his thoughts had suddenly become tangled together, leaving him unable to construct even a single sentence that could properly comfort her.

So instead, Kael pulled her into his arms.

He held her tightly and slowly patted her back.

He didn’t know if the gesture would help.

But he hoped that, at the very least, she could feel that she wasn’t alone.

Time passed quietly.

Lyra continued crying against his chest, her sobs gradually becoming weaker as exhaustion began taking over. Kael could feel the strength slowly leaving her body until she eventually collapsed completely against him.

She had fallen asleep.

Kael looked down at her.

After holding her for a few more minutes, he carefully lifted her into his arms and carried her back to her room.

He moved quietly as he laid her down on the bed, pulled the blanket over her, and made sure she was comfortable.

Then he stood there.

For a long moment, Kael simply watched her sleep.

His expression gradually became solemn.

Lyra had blamed herself for what happened, but in all honesty, none of it was her fault. If anything, the blame belonged to him.

His own cowardice and tendency to put things off had led to this.

Kael had known there was something wrong with Ezra.

He had suspected it from the moment she came to heal him, and later on had even gotten the full picture of her condition. Yet instead of pursuing the matter immediately, he had put it aside.

He had relied on his memories from his previous life.

Ezra hadn’t encountered anything like this in his memories, so he had convinced himself that there was no immediate danger.

And because of that, he had done nothing.

He had kept the matter to himself, thinking that he would deal with it when the time came.

But what if he had started investigating the moment he noticed something was wrong?

What if he had informed Varek sooner?

Perhaps they would have figured out a better remedy, one that wouldn’t have left Ezra unconscious because of her soul and spirit being damaged.

Kael lowered his gaze.

This was exactly what he had done before.

When their mother had first fallen unconscious, Lyra had desperately tried to find a solution. She had looked for answers, searched for possibilities, and kept moving forward despite having no guarantee that any of it would work.

And what had Kael done?

He had avoided it.

Rather than face something that seemed too complicated and far beyond his abilities, he had pushed it aside. He had retreated into his room, played games, and allowed Lyra to carry the burden by herself.

It wasn’t just their mother.

He had done the same thing with countless other problems in his life.

Whenever something seemed too complicated, too difficult, or simply beyond what he believed he could handle, his instinct had always been to put it off.

Later.

I’ll deal with it later.

He had always told himself that.

Even now, after being given another chance at life, he had repeated the same mistake.

Kael looked at Lyra’s sleeping face.

"Perhaps I’m still no different from the loser my future self was."

The words were barely a whisper.

He had become stronger.

He had gained power, wealth, knowledge, and abilities that his previous self could never have imagined.

Yet beneath all of that, perhaps he was still the same Kael.

The same cowardly and avoidant person who would rather postpone a difficult problem than face it head-on.

But he didn’t allow it to take root, because there was no point. Sitting here and hating himself wouldn’t solve anything. It wouldn’t wake Ezra, it wouldn’t help their mother, and it wouldn’t change what had already happened. If anything, drowning himself in guilt would only become another excuse to do nothing.

Kael took a slow breath. No, he couldn’t go down that path again, he couldn’t afford to. He had spent enough of his life running from things he didn’t know how to solve, and he wasn’t going to do it anymore. What had happened had already happened, and the only thing left now was the future, one that would depend entirely on what he chose to do from this point onward.

With that thought, Kael gave Lyra one last look before quietly turning around and walking out of her room, closing the door softly behind him. His footsteps carried him toward his own room, and once inside, he walked over to the bed and sat down on its edge.

The room was silent, and Kael lowered his head, his hands resting loosely against his knees. He had made mistakes, there was no point pretending otherwise, but recognizing them was meaningless if he kept making the same ones. He needed to start looking for solutions, not tomorrow, not when things became urgent, but now.

Kael slowly raised his head, his eyes calm again. Whatever happened in the past could no longer be changed, but the future was still in his hands, and this time he wouldn’t simply wait for it to happen.