Ch.36Walking a Different Path

# 1.

Lactea Babylonia.

The Emperor, Reina Babylonia’s older sister and the Vice Commander of <Black Wolf>.

Like other members, she resides in S-rank, specifically at the highest S+ rank.

However, there is one difference: while other members suffer significant power restrictions due to the constraints of <Black Wolf>,

“Bear with it even if you can’t breathe. You’re used to it, aren’t you?”

“Kuhuk!”

Lactea maintains her original power despite the <Black Wolf>’s restrictions.

“L-let… me… go…!!”

“Shh. Your chattering makes me want to kill you.”

She easily subdued the rebellious Luna, then turned her gaze toward the other members.

“【Snap out of it.】”

Simultaneously, a black and red aura mixed with white-gold energy spread outward.

【Vice Commander – <Lactea Babylonia(S+)> uses Skill 1 – <Verbal Command>.】

The innate quality of a ruler, born of royal blood, that restricts others’ actions through words alone.

The three members who had been staggering toward them collapsed with a thud under the overwhelming pressure.

Crack!

At the same moment, their masks shattered.

The masks that had been controlling the members’ actions broke simultaneously, as if by agreement.

Dalan was the first to regain his senses.

He carefully bowed his head, submitting to the compulsive force of the verbal command.

“I’ve shown an unseemly display.”

“Clean it up.”

“Yes, Vice Commander.”

Dalan gathered Ruby and Hanryang, bowed to me once more, and exited the tent.

Concise commands and unquestioning compliance.

As I pondered why such an impressive woman, who seemed a superior ruler even to myself, had joined <Black Wolf>,

Lactea smiled faintly and met my eyes while firmly gripping Luna.

“Commander, your orders.”

Nahan barely managed to tear his gaze away from her utterly beautiful appearance, which bore no trace of the overwhelming presence she had displayed moments ago.

‘At least the situation is resolved.’

Although we failed the sub-quest and Luna went berserk, if we just deal with Mother now, everything should return to normal.

But why?

-…That’s too cruel.

-…I trusted you.

The look in Luna’s eyes when I cut down Mother kept haunting me.

‘Why?’

The person called “Mother” whom I encountered in Luna’s memories was literal garbage.

An auctioneer who took in orphans, imprisoned and abused them, then sold them to scum.

The scar on Luna’s face,

The rusty chains that strangled her neck,

Even that bizarre form of love.

All of it stemmed from Mother’s nightmares, memories that should be forgotten, and yet.

Why, Luna?

“Let go…!!! Mom…!!!”

Why are you so desperately fighting, even risking your own life, afraid of losing that Mother?

‘I’ll save Luna. But Mother… wouldn’t it be better to eliminate her?’

Besides Luna thinking of her as a mother, there’s absolutely nothing beneficial about this person.

“…Commander?”

“Wait. I’m thinking.”

“Yes, Commander.”

While contemplating Mother’s fate, Nahan suddenly recalled a conversation with his Big Brother.

It was the day they were collecting money from a young man drowning in debt because his father had abandoned him and fled. After the collection, Big Brother lit a cigarette and asked:

-You an orphan?

-…Pardon?

-I’m not insulting you, just asking. So look me in the eye.

-Yes, Brother.

Big Brother leaned against a shabby door and smirked at the crying young man.

-It’s a good thing.

-What?

-Having no family. It’s a good thing.

The cigarette butt fell with a soft thud.

-That’s how family is. No matter how shitty they are, you can’t easily throw them away.

I learned later.

That Big Brother had also lived with a gambling-addicted father before escaping to the streets.

That even after becoming the head of Seoul’s top organization, he still couldn’t cut ties and occasionally visited to send money.

-He’d beat me for not having money, beat me for annoying him, beat me just for breathing. Real son of a bitch.

-Then why not abandon him? Like you just told that guy to forget his father and not pay the debt.

-I wish I could. I really wish I could, but…

Big Brother ground out his cigarette butt and scratched his head, muttering:

-I keep remembering the times he was good to me. How he’d beat me and then cry himself. The cheap chicken he’d bring home saying he was sorry. …Fuck. This is depressing. Let’s go drink soju.

-I’m underage.

-…Always so damn proper.

A few years later, Big Brother died.

Cause of death: excessive bleeding.

Stabbed by a stray knife while trying to save his gambling father who had gotten tangled up with a rival organization.

-That’s how family is. No matter how shitty they are, you can’t easily throw them away.

How much I agonized as the chief mourner at the funeral.

If only Big Brother had been an orphan like me.

If only I had stopped him from going when that gambling addict met his violent end.

Or better yet,

-He’s my son!! Of course I should get the condolence money, you bastards!!!

If only I had killed that man myself.

“…Lactea.”

“Yes, Commander.”

The optimal choice, derived from past failures, took hold in Nahan’s mind.

“Kill her.”

The target was…

As the cold gaze of the Black Wolf began to shift from Luna to move slowly elsewhere.

…Splat!

Something black and sticky barely managed to grab the Black Wolf’s ankle.

“…no, …don’t.”

Mother’s mumbling, which had sounded like noise until now, became clear upon contact, and Lactea moved quickly, perceiving it as an attack.

Mother crushed her severed torso as she raised her head toward the Black Wolf, pleading:

“Not Luna. Just kill me.”

“…What?”

Just as he was about to shake off his ankle, thinking this was another attempt at deception.

【”Nahan. I hope you walk a different path than mine.”】

【According to the contract between <Black Wolf(Ex)> and <Aria(???)>, the world assists you.】

【<Mother(S-)>’s memories flow into you.】

Along with an overwhelming voice, Mother’s memories began to flow in.

# 2.

Mother.

A woman as emotionally barren as the ashen wasteland she drifted into.

The leader of the Wandering Troupe – Disappearance, and the Empire’s foremost human trafficker.

“That’s her. The woman who takes in orphans, raises them, and then sells them off.”

“Taking them in, raising them, then selling them. No sane person could do such a thing.”

“Exactly. She’s extraordinarily wicked. Well, not that we have any right to judge.”

From the start, the region was crawling with criminals, and good people were nowhere to be found, but Mother was particularly notorious.

That’s why the villains who drifted into the ashen wasteland were curious about her life.

“What’s her motivation anyway?”

Why would she earn money by selling children she had raised with care to those noble bastards?

“Who knows? Just for the money, I guess?”

Money, after all, can blind even the wisest of sages.

“No. I heard she’s blinded by the desire to become stronger.”

She’s from the Top 10, right?

They say she makes potions that enhance aura using children’s hearts?

All sorts of theories circulated among the villains, but none hit the mark.

Mother.

The reason she drifted to this ashen wasteland was only one.

“The promise to keep my daughter alive. I must keep it.”

“As must you.”

It was because of a promise with a mysterious armed group called <Eclipse>.

“…Selena.”

-I’m going to be a strong mercenary like you, Mom!

-Haha! You can’t even do a sit-up!

-That’s not true!? I can do one now!?

-Even an E-rank mercenary can easily do a hundred.

-Eh…

A child as bright as the moon, unlike her own darkness.

-An incurable disease?

-I’m sorry. The periods of unconsciousness will grow longer, and eventually…

-No… That can’t be right…!! She’s never even had a cold!!

An unidentified incurable disease that caused her to lose consciousness, and even astronomical sums of money could only maintain her thin thread of life.

-I, I can’t anymore.

-Shut up. I’ll bring it soon, okay?

-But the amount already overdue…

-Listen, money’s only useful if you’re alive, right?

-…One week. I’ll give you just one more week. We can’t do more than that.

Even with the earnings of a Top 10 mercenary, she couldn’t afford the treatment costs, and just as she was considering whether she might have to let her daughter go,

Eclipse came with a proposal.

-If you do exactly as we instruct, without error, we promise to cover all treatment costs and even develop a cure.

Her mercenary instincts screamed.

This suspicious offer was clearly a poisonous flower with a dazzling appearance.

But she had no choice but to accept.

-Mom! Don’t I seem a little better?

-Yes, my daughter.

-Right! I need to get better soon and start training. Even if I start late, I can still become like you someday, right?

-Yes. Of course.

In her miserable mercenary life without a single ray of light, Selena was her only brightness.

-…Is that true?

-Yes. They agreed to handle everything in exchange for employing me permanently. So Selena, don’t worry and just rest.

-…Mom. If it’s too hard.

-Quiet. Don’t… don’t say any more.

-…Okay. Sorry.

That day was the last time Selena spoke before falling into an indefinite sleep, and she abandoned her name and drifted to this ashen wasteland.

The job was simple.

“Bring in abandoned orphans, rehabilitate them, and put them up for auction.”

I am the seller,

The nobles are the buyers.

In other words, human trafficking.

“Don’t make that face. These orphans would die anyway, isn’t it better for them to live comfortably under nobles?”

“I understand, now get out.”

“So cold. Anyway, hand over all the proceeds to me, and I’ll deduct the operating costs and give you the rest.”

Time passed mercilessly.

1 year,

5 years…,

10 years…

Ten years had passed since Selena fell asleep.

Mother quietly waited only for the cure, no longer visiting her.

If I, tainted by evil, visit you, you might be harmed by that alone.

“Auction begins.”

There was no longer any sense of guilt.

“Auction ends.”

Come to think of it, I was doing exactly what that scum said—giving orphans who would die anyway a slightly longer life.

“Auction begins.”

Of course, children who cried during the auction often lost their lives that day, thanks to Number 1, who exuded the same aura as that scum,

“Auction ends.”

But perhaps it was better to die quickly than to live a life worse than death.

“…Is this better?”

Occasionally she doubted herself with a sense of déjà vu, but she was already too broken to find a proper answer.

As if trying not to lose her last thread of goodness, she would only whisper to the children she brought in,

“Smile. That’s how you survive.”

Mother silently continued her work.

“Auction begins.”

Time passed mercilessly.

“Auction ends.”

Mother came to loathe herself so terribly that she began wearing a mask, unable to bear the sight of her own face. Ten years later from that day,

“Auction ends.”

After concluding the auction as usual, she went outside to find more orphans.

“…?”

For the first time in years, part of the ashen fog lifted, and moonlight streamed in from outside the wasteland. Beside that brilliant moonlight stood a child who asked her:

“…Mom?”

-…Mom. If it’s too hard.

-Quiet. Don’t… don’t say any more.

Overwhelmed by the sudden flood of memories, Mother murmured while still gazing at the moonlight:

“No, I’m not your parent.”

At the same time, she wondered:

Would Selena still look at the person I’ve become and,

“But if you want, I can be.”

Still smile and say she wants to be like me?

At that moment.

The dirty child under the moonlight,

…grip.

Firmly held her tainted hand.