Chapter 130: Rite of Passage [1]

I went back to my room not long after Yversa left, and the moment the door shut behind me, I turned off [Calm Mind].

It hit me immediately.

All the anger, disgust, and hatred that the ability had been suppressing came rushing back at once.

My hand moved before I even realized it.

Crack!

The chair beside me shattered against the floor, one of its legs snapping off as pieces of wood scattered across the marble.

"Fuck!"

I stood there breathing heavily, my fist still clenched.

That woman...

That selfish, evil fucking woman.

How could someone do that to their own child?

She isolated him.

Ignored him.

Allowed people to torment him.

She even paid some of them to do it.

And when none of that worked, she had someone drown him.

Her own son.

All because she wanted him to awaken.

And what made it worse was the way she had told me everything. There had been no guilt in her voice. No hesitation. No regret.

If you had died, I would’ve simply made another child.

My jaw tightened.

To her, Yves dying wouldn’t have been the death of her son.

It would’ve been the failure of a tool.

"Fucking hell..."

I sat on the edge of my bed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

I knew this world was cruel. Hell, I was the bastard who wrote most of it that way.

I’d written monsters who slaughtered villages. Nobles who sacrificed hundreds for power. People who would betray their own families without blinking.

But knowing people like that existed on paper was completely different from standing in front of one and hearing her casually explain how she had arranged the murder of her own child.

And she had hugged me afterward.

Kissed my forehead.

Called me her son.

My stomach twisted just remembering it.

Could someone like that really be called human?

Because right now, Yversa felt less human to me than some of the monsters I’d encountered in the forest.

The shadows in my room stirred.

Ezio emerged from them and stopped in the middle of the room. His eyes moved from me to the shattered chair, then back to me.

"I guess the dinner didn’t go well."

A dry laugh escaped my mouth.

"Everything was going well." I rubbed my face. "Not until my mother—"

I stopped.

Even saying that word made my tongue feel bitter.

"—not until Yversa decided to tell me the truth."

Ezio’s expression changed slightly.

"She purposely isolated me because she thought strong emotions would make me awaken. Those knights who mistreated me? Some of them were paid by her. The maid who drowned me?"

My fingers curled into the sheets beneath me.

"She sent her."

Ezio didn’t say anything.

I looked down at my hands.

"Do you know how fucked up that is? Knowing your own mother looked at you one day and decided, Maybe if I make his life miserable enough, he’ll finally become useful?"

My voice grew quieter.

"And when that didn’t work, she decided killing me was worth trying too."

I laughed again, but there wasn’t anything funny about it.

"She told me I was nothing but a tool. And if I had died, she would’ve just given birth to another boy."

Silence filled the room.

What pissed me off the most wasn’t even what she said.

It was how she said it.

There had been no hesitation.

No guilt.

Nothing.

She genuinely believed she had done nothing wrong.

For a moment, I wondered what the original Yves would’ve felt if he had been the one standing there instead of me.

He had spent years wondering why his mother abandoned him.

Maybe some part of him had blamed himself.

Maybe he thought that if he’d awakened, if he’d been stronger, if he’d somehow become the son she wanted, she would’ve come back.

And the entire time...

She had been the reason he was suffering in the first place.

My nails dug into my palms.

At least he never had to hear her say it.

Ezio’s eyes narrowed.

"I’m sorry to hear that. I don’t know how you feel because I’ve never had a mother in the first place, but one thing I know is that she’s a bad mother."

I stared at him.

"Bad mother?"

A bitter chuckle escaped me.

"Calling her a bad mother is an understatement. She’s a fucking wench."

I dragged both hands over my face.

"I should’ve known. Yves spent most of his life alone. No one came when he was being beaten. No one came when he was being humiliated. His own mother abandoned him, his siblings treated him like shit, and his father barely acknowledged his existence."

I lowered my hands.

"And now I find out the one person who was supposed to give a shit about him was responsible for half of it."

My chest felt tight.

"I’ve always been alone."

The words slipped out before I could stop them.

"And I’ll always be on my own."

"Well, you got me."

I looked up.

Ezio had walked closer and was standing in front of me.

For some reason, his words made the anger in my chest loosen just a little.

Naturally, I couldn’t let him know that.

"Unfortunately."

"Hey, what do you mean by unfortunately?" He glared at me.

I opened my mouth, already preparing to insult this ugly bastard, but something stopped me.

No one came when he was being beaten.

My expression slowly changed.

Wait.

There was someone.

Someone who had been there the entire time.

I stared at Ezio.

"Ezio."

"Hm?"

"Why did you never protect me when I was a kid?"

Ezio raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? I always protected you."

"No." I shook my head. "I mean when I was mistreated. When I was bullied. When Arnold used to beat the shit out of me."

I stared directly into his eyes.

"You were my Shadow Guardian."

The room suddenly felt much quieter.

"So where were you?"

Ezio raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? I always protected you."

"No, I mean when I was mistreated and bullied. Isn’t that your role as a Shadow Guardian?"

Yves’ suffering could have simply been avoided if Ezio had intervened when he was being bullied.

"Because I was told not to," he replied.

"By whom?"

"The Greatest Shadow."

He was talking about Altair, the family head of the Schatten Family.

"A Shadow Guardian is told to only intervene if the child they choose to serve is in danger of dying. If they aren’t going to die, no Shadow Guardian is allowed to interfere because a Laurent is supposed to fight on their own."

Ah, how could I have forgotten about that?

A Laurent child had to fight on their own until the Rite of Passage, so the guardians couldn’t do anything if the ones they served were getting beaten by other children.

This made me pissed, but it also made me understand because I was the one who made them that way.

"But still, Ezio, when Arnold burned my face and my limbs and healed them over and over again, couldn’t you have stopped him?" When I spoke, my voice came out a bit shaky.

Ezio, who had been standing there silently, shook his head and sighed.

"I couldn’t. I was watching, so if anything happened, I would’ve saved you."

"Hah." I smacked my leg with my hand and stood up.

"So you watched while I got tortured over and over again by that piece of shit of a brother and still chose not to do anything? I’m not going to lie to you, Ezio, but that’s inhuman behavior!"

I paused and then pressed a finger against his chest.

"You lack empathy."

"An assassin shouldn’t be affected by his own emotions, so I couldn’t feel such a thing," Ezio replied with the straightest face. He didn’t even blink.

I was very angry and wanted to punch this ugly bastard right in the face, but I stopped myself from doing so—not only because I refused to, but also because it would’ve never landed.

I was getting consumed by negative emotions, and not even once had I considered thinking from his point of view.

He was raised by the deadliest of assassins in a place where emotions were considered useless for an assassin who had to remain calm at all costs.

So empathy would be the last thing he could ever feel.

Therefore, I couldn’t judge him for not doing anything for Yves.

I breathed in and then breathed out to calm myself down.

"Sorry for lashing out at you, Ezio. I wasn’t in my right mind," I apologized.

"You don’t need to apologize." He shook his head. "You had a valid reason. Plus, after what your mother said to you, there’s no way in hell you wouldn’t be angry."

"Right..." I ran my fingers through my hair.

"Anyway, I have to sleep. Tomorrow morning is when the Rite of Passage starts, so I better get enough sleep."

"Yep, you got some beating to give to some people," Ezio said with a sharp smile.

"Yeaaaah. I can’t wait to bash in Arnold’s face."

I changed into my pajamas and slipped under the blankets.

"Goodnight, Yves."

Ezio seeped into the shadows and teleported up above the roof.

"Goodnight, Ezio," I said as I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.

The memories came back again, and I silently suffered through the mental torture inside my blankets until I eventually fell asleep.

...

It was 8 a.m.

When I woke up in the morning, I felt like shit. Even though I had said I needed to sleep early, my brain wouldn’t let me, so I was only able to fall asleep late.

I had already taken a shower and was dressing up. Just like always, I chose a full black outfit—a long-sleeved black shirt with buttons running down the middle that hugged my body tightly, along with black pants held tightly by a black belt around my waist. I wore long black boots that swallowed the ends of my pant legs.

My hair, like always, was tied into a ponytail.

"Looks perfect," I said as I looked in the mirror.

"Tsk, stop gawking at yourself in the mirror. You don’t look that good," Ezio clicked his tongue in annoyance while sitting on the couch.

I glanced at him and smiled. "Yeah, right."

I moved away from the mirror and grabbed my katana from beside my bed before sheathing it. The metal of the blade was already deteriorating because of how much I had used it, and as my energy grew stronger, the metal couldn’t handle the power very well. That’s why I needed to get a new weapon.

Thankfully, in the Rite of Passage, we were provided with new katanas to use, and they were all of the same grade.

I sheathed the katana and placed it on the bed.

"Let’s go, Ezio."

Ezio sank into my shadow and stepped out of the room.

My boots clicked loudly against the marble floor as I walked confidently, with no smile on my face, only a cold expression.

Some of the servants flinched at my presence, while others scrutinized me with their eyes.

But well, that would soon change.

I was headed to the main hall, where everyone was gathered. That included the elders and the other important members of the family.

I was pretty sure most of them wouldn’t like my presence there. After all, I was a stain on the family.

But whatever.

Funny enough, I was running a bit late, but Ezio had told me that it hadn’t started yet, so I took my time.

I arrived at the two huge doors where two enormous knights were standing.

The knights gave me a look that practically said, Was this bastard actually arriving this late?

They only stared at me for a bit longer before opening the huge doors.

As soon as they did, I heard the murmuring of dozens of voices inside the hall.

So I stepped in.

And as soon as I entered, I felt more than a hundred gazes staring at me intently.

The hall was huge, and on my left and right were stands where a lot of family members sat. It was kind of a weird sight because all of them had snow-white hair. They looked like they had clouds sitting on their heads.

Further ahead in the middle were the other kids, and above them was a throne that belonged to the Duke.

I didn’t stop walking even though the gazes felt unbearable, nor did I show any discomfort. I simply kept the same cold focus and walked forward.

They were trying to pressure me and see if I would run away like a coward, but unfortunately for them, I wouldn’t.

"So the trash actually awakened," someone said from the stands.

"Yeah, I don’t know whether that’s a miracle or a curse," another said.

"Whether he awakened does not matter. I don’t think he’ll get that far," someone scoffed.

"I mean, he’s at Peak Ascendant, which is really impressive. I bet he can beat at least one or two people."

"We’ll see about that," one snorted.

I was resisting the urge to show them my middle finger, but I also wouldn’t really do that if I loved my life. They could just end me.

I stopped right behind the other kids, who had turned their heads to look at me for a moment before all of them looked forward again.

Ah shit, I couldn’t wait to relieve my stress on them.

I looked forward and saw that the wives were standing on both sides of the throne, my mother among them.

And she was staring at me with a light smile on her face.

Wretched woman.

We remained standing for a moment before two people appeared near the throne.

One was 2.2 meters tall, while the other was 1.9 meters.

It was my father, and the other man was his Shadow Guardian.

He had short black hair combed neatly and black-ink-colored eyes. Another thing was that he was as pale as Ezio, almost like a corpse. They even looked alike.

He was Altair Schatten.

Everyone in the stands stood up and bowed their heads, including us.

"We greet the family head!" we said in unison.

Van Der Vaal nodded and sat on his throne.

Everyone else sat after him.

Altair walked down and started speaking.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you all have been well. Today is the day we gather to witness the children of the Laurent family transitioning from merely being kids to adults," he said with a smile.

"In this Rite of Passage, each one of you should fight with everything you have if you want to come out on top and don’t want to be trampled by the others."

Altair gave a bit more of a motivational speech before moving on to the real deal.

"The rules are as follows."

"You cannot kill each other. Anyone who abuses this rule will be punished with death," Altair said with a bright smile on his face that shook some of the kids.

"Of course, you’re allowed to cut off someone’s limbs, but not their head, because you know... people die when their head gets cut off."

"Your Shadow Guardians will not be with you, so forget about them. And make sure you’re not bringing anything with you, or else you’ll be disqualified."

I already knew the rules, so there was nothing to worry about.

"Choose your katanas."

He snapped his fingers, and the shadows between us stirred. Dozens of racks filled with weapons appeared in front of us.

I chose a katana similar to my old one, but this one was much stronger.

After everyone chose their katanas, the racks sank into the shadows again.

"And one last thing. Only the last one standing wins," Altair said with a smile before all of us were swallowed by the shadows.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself alone in a forest.