The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

Chapter 161: Aftermath

The cause of Lucas' death was the madam's anger upon discovering Aria's existence. She saw a glimpse of the ecstatic Lucas as he hid around the manor just to procure knowledge from this maid. Both of them were an eyesore to her, who swore that she would never let Lucas live on happily.

The reason for her actions was not just because Lucas caused her pain and troubles. There was a much larger reason for it. It was not because of the prophecy that came with Lucas' birth. That was just a part of it, but there was something that scared her much more than the prophecy did.

There was a man that came to her. A man wearing a hood that warned her of Lucas. He didn't say that Lucas will bring her bad luck. He specifically said that in two decades, Lucas Delmonte will end their lives and ruin the Delmonte name as a whole.

The man's identity was unclear, but before he left, he stated some pivotal information that made the madam believe him more and more. When Lucas was born, he did not cry much. He showed extremely intelligent tendencies. As if he was working side by side with the unknown man, he brought each and every one of the man's predictions into realization.

As he grew up, her fear also escalated. One day, she came to a conclusion with herself.

Why should she act kind when she was going to be repaid with her own bloody corpse? Thus, in order to suppress Lucas' growth, the madam began to plot a lot of things. She set everything up. When the baptism came, it was actually not because there was a legit prophecy, but because the madam made up a complete lie, a story that she wanted everyone to believe.

She just wanted to protect her own life and glory in her own eyes. Was she wrong for wanting such a simple thing? To her, it was a natural occurrence that Lucas should be put to rest. As he continued growing, her attacks towards him started to increase. Until the boy retracted and ostracized himself, the madam did not relent in the slightest.

She continued pushing and pushing until the boy finally hid in his shell, shutting himself out of the world. Only when that happened did she breathe out a sigh of relief.

But the funniest thing of it all was that the unknown man's words did come true. When Lucas Delmonte was twenty years old, he successfully brought the downfall upon the Delmonte family after cutting himself off from the name and shirking responsibility. With his intelligence, he garnered evidence and presented everything towards the supreme court, and made it so that the Delmonte family wouldn't even be able to live the life of a peasant. Lucas wanted them to suffer, so he did.

In the end, the madam went crazy, and Lucas killed her off after she lunged at him spouting mindless words, repeating the words that the unknown man that came to visit her said. Lucas was disturbed by the revelation and viewed the madam as an extremely foolish person who didn't know how to differentiate between right or wrong.

If only she treated him right, then wouldn't he not be here right now, fulfilling the prophecy and killing her when he was two decades old? The madam's head was cut off that day, and Lucas went back to the institution to continue working with Aria. A huge weight was lifted off from his shoulder, and he was finally able to live in peace after that.

Even after he killed her mother, he only found out that the culprit of his miserable early life was nowhere to be found. In the first place, it was was unknown how the culprit came in contact with the madam and was able to give such specific information.

He did not linger on the matter too long since he focused more on his work and did not have that much time to bother about something that had long passed.

That was why the original story was supposed to go to. Because Aria wanted to speed up Lucas' growth before he was able to protect himself from death, the madam acted quicker and couldn't take it anymore. Her own life being endangered made her act right then and there, dragging him to the window and banging his weak body towards the glass, shattering it all.

Red covered her eyes as she did it. The murderous hue. She looked down in a mixture of emotions. Anger and joy fused together to create the mess of a mind she had. Anger because of the terrorizing sight Lucas' limp body created. Joy because the trash was finally disposed for good this time. She escaped the room, and when Aria entered, that was when she saw the horrendous scene.

A lot of things changed. It deviated from the script.

Aria held regrets, so many regrets. The image of Lucas' lifeless body was imprinted firmly inside her mind.

When she woke up, she opened her eyes to Lucas, who was still laying almost breathless in front of her.

It was akin to the scene she triggered inside the alternate world. The boy was hanging on to the final thread of life, a fleeting one that could disappear any moment now.

"Lucas!" Aria's anxiety spiked once again. She had received the stress for after she died, but that didn't compare in any way sort or form to Lucas' safety right now. "Oh my God.. please don't die in front of me again. One time is already enough, no? Don't you still have to work tomorrow? Come on, Lucas? You have been suffering here for how long? Can't you just hold on for longer? Don't come and meet death, avoid it. You can do it, right?"

Aria found it hard to speak. Perhaps it was because everything only happened because it was related to her. It made her associate all of his suffering with her.

It got hard to breathe.

"No.. Aria. When you entered, an attack suddenly came flying from the ceiling and hit me.. That's why I'm in this state. It's not because of you. It just happened, so its not like I have been suffering for a long time.. Before, this, I was living inside the.. Urgh!" Lucas coughed a mouthful of blood, causing him to frown and enact a series of unstoppable coughs.

"Lucas.." Like the event with Noel before, Aria was already roughly aware of what will happen. Lucas should disappear from this world the same way that Noel did back then. She was still unwilling, but she was powerless in front of the System.

Not to mention, people like her, Lucas, and Noel are not supposed to live in this period of time. Hearing Lucas' words, Aria wanted to know the continuation of Lucas' sentence. Where had they been stuck at before Aria entered the floor? Were they kept inside this Tower, or were they moved to a separate place and kept formant until it was time?

It was a very strange topic. Being able to cross eventual death by time. Being exempt from dying like this, how was it possible? It also made Aria wonder who else were salvaged by the System. It seemed rather pointless for the System to do such things if it was going to kill them right after she entered.

Was it really just a gimmick to instill trauma into her? Being the System, it should know best that Aria wouldn't be affected by these kinds of scenario for long. She would recover from the tragedy as time went by, because she was an anomaly who had kept her consciousness for years to no end. Traumatic events had less of an impact to her.

This was the System who recognized her origin and gave her the [Tempered Body] trait. Then, it should be perfectly aware. So why was it that it still wanted to reenact these scenes in front of her?

More importantly, what was she supposed to do every time she was sent into the alternate world? For these two worlds, she tried to change the flow of the events and ended up making it worse. Was she just supposed to watch as her former comrades' past self suffer under the hands of fate? Not do anything and just watch from the sidelines, not offering them any helping hand?

How could that be? What would that entail, why would such a thing happen? It was completely pointless.

Aria gritted her teeth as she clutched Lucas' body. "I'm so sorry, Lucas. If I just let you live on peacefully in that world.. You would've survived. I just didn't want you to suffer like that. I was selfish, haughty, and arrogant. I shouldn't have done all that. I really shouldn't have.." Aria repeated words of apology the same way she did to Noel.

Lucas didn't reply with words, but Aria saw the edges of his lips curl up, making a simple, contented smile before he disappeared into gleaming shards.

The man finally passed away for good.