Finding Out (3)

Losing all hope for his father, Ellis felt there was nothing more to hear. Standing up, he walked toward his father, ready to settle some of the twenty-three years' worth of debt as his father's son.

Ellis broke the sofa and threw his father to the ground. Taking care not to kill him accidentally, he unleashed a barrage of punches. Watching his father's face swell, his eyes turning purple and green, blood staining his face, and teeth breaking, he felt an odd sense of satisfaction.

But when Ellis felt like his father couldn't endure it anymore, and not wanting to take things to the extreme for now, he stopped and stood up. Looking down at his father's battered appearance, Ellis found himself uncertain about what judgment he should pass on him for the time being.

But he will at least ask for his mother and sister opinion first, and will at least try to make his life anything but easy.

But he decided that he would at least ask for the opinion of his mother and sister first, and in the meantime, he could try to make his father's life anything but easy.

"Beware; never to let your feet, or Denis's, touch our house. Don't even come near it."

The house was his mother's, after all, she got it from his grandfather, when she got married, or so Ellis heard, and his father was just freeloading off them.

Or maybe not? As he did provide the living expense?

Shrugging, he started walking away, and considered how he could help his mother with the divorce, as he didn't want her to be labeled with him any more. Given the current state of society, he wondered if the courts were still functioning. 

…

Sitting alone at the table with her mother, Clara recalled everything that had happened with her brother. She also realized that she had a lot of things to say to her mother.

Finding the timing perfect as Ellis was not here, Clara hesitated briefly, unsure where to begin. After a moment though, she decided to go directly and said.

"I heard from Ellis that you apparently love him and confessed your feelings."

Selena, upon hearing her daughter's question, asking about something till now she didn't how she did. Something she never expected to be able to do, but was able to go through it in the end. Her yesterday's confession.

Then remembering her son's troubled thoughts, which she had overheard fragments of earlier in the afternoon, she was uncertain about what to say.

She felt cornered, unsure of how to respond. Avoiding her daughter's gaze wasn't a solution, but comforting others had never been her strong suit, and in this situation, it was even more challenging.

But feeling she owed her daughter an explanation, she tried to formulate her answer carefully, wanting to clarify the situation so her daughter wouldn't misunderstand her.

"Y-yes, but there is a reason, first-" 

Clara, unable to tolerate hearing excuses from her mother, interrupted her and asked.

"Then why did you tell me before that I shouldn't do anything more with Ellis? Why did you say I shouldn't make things worse and that it's something wrong that shouldn't be done?"

Feeling increasingly cornered by her daughter, Selena's heart ached even more. Her eyes, once fixed on the ground, became moist, and she didn't know where to move them. Her unclear sight only deepened her distress.

Still fidgeting with her hands, she tried to summon her courage and reply again. 

"I-- I just-"

"Is it wrong for me to love him, but right for you?"

Being interrupted repeatedly, Selena felt suffocated and overwhelmed. Her tiny courage failed her, and she began to feel a gnawing fear, as if she had done something terribly wrong, or perhaps she truly had?

While her breathing grew irregular and her heart tightened with fear, Selena struggled to speak despite her anxiety. Then, suddenly, her skill, developed from resisting the fear of fighting monsters in the dungeon, began to activate, helping her regain control.

From the corner of her eyes, the notification of the skill leveling up started appearing. Finally finding some peace inside with the skill's effects, her turbulent emotions began to calm.

Then feeling reassured that her daughter wouldn't interrupt her three time repeatedly, Selena gathered her composure and tried to respond once more.

"You know, that-"

"Will you steal him from me this time, not just let us break up?"

For the first time, Selena felt a surge of anger and irritation towards her daughter. Unable to contain it any longer, she shouted with all her might.

"I want to be happy too!"

And Clara, seeing her mother burst into shouting for the first time in her life, flinched, closing her mouth and choosing to retreat into silence for the moment.

Selena, finally able to say a complete sentence, felt some of her pent-up emotions release and began to calm down.

While feeling a little embarrassed inside but trying not to show it, she continued.

"I don't think what I said back then was wrong, and even now, it still holds true."

She knew what she was doing currently was wrong, but after enduring a lifetime under her father and living with someone she despised, when she felt like she could get released away from them, the awakening happened. Seeing how on bad thing after another was happening to her, she felt even more miserable.

But when she read her blessing, which expressed feelings she hadn't know of or even fully recognized, she felt different, like everything in her life that had always felt wrong or illogical started to make more sense.

She felt like she had finally found a reason to live, even going as far as realizing that her entire life had been about giving birth to him, loving him and being loved by him.

She felt that her entire existence had been solely for her son, and it now felt like the most natural thing in the world.