Chapter 234: Chapter 234 - Death Seekers
The next morning arrived rapidly.
Theo’s alarm rang very early in the morning, giving him ample time to prepare.
Even so, he still lingered in bed for a while, allowing his thoughts to run wild.
His gaze fell on the lightning spear Iris had given him.
Without hesitation, he stored it inside his spatial ring before getting dressed.
’Let’s go,’ he thought.
...
Only an hour later, Theo stepped outside his mansion’s gates.
A sleek black SUV was already waiting for him, its engine humming softly.
Before he even moved, the front window slowly rolled down.
Adrian leaned out the window with a casual and calm expression.
’’Get in, kid,’’ he said, tapping on the car door. ’’We’ve got a plane to catch.’’
Theo simply nodded once.
Without another word, he opened the rear door and climbed inside.
The moment he sat down, the car’s engine roared as Adrian sped off.
Within minutes, they’d reached the highway, heading straight for an unfamiliar airport.
Unlike how it normally went, Theo and Owen were both completely silent.
The scenery outside gradually changed from rich neighborhoods to long stretches of open road, but neither paid any attention to it.
Several minutes passed before Adrian finally sighed.
’’Don’t think too much about it, kids,’’ he said, keeping his eyes on the road.
Both of them glanced up, yet neither said a word.
’’The dead are long gone,’’ Adrian continued calmly. ’’I doubt they give a fuck about this memorial either.’’
Theo raised an eyebrow, completely pulled out of his thoughts.
Adrian noticed it immediately through the rearview mirror.
’’What?’’ he said with a snort. ’’You expected some heartfelt speech from me?’’
Theo’s mouth opened slightly, but no words came out.
Meanwhile, Owen simply looked at his instructor as if he’d heard this many times before.
’’I understand you both need this closure,’’ Adrian continued, tapping a finger against the steering wheel. ’’You’re still kids, after all. But after this, you’ll have to move on for good, or it’ll come back and bite you in the ass.’’
Quietly looking out the window, Theo couldn’t help but ask a question.
’’Is that what you did as well?’’ he asked. ’’In your youth.’’
Adrian remained silent for a few seconds.
Then a faint chuckle rang through the car.
’’No,’’ he admitted. ’’And I fucked up my training ’cause of it.’’
’’Hell, I almost got buried beside their graves because of my stupidity.’’
Silence fell inside the car once more.
It wasn’t even that Theo and Owen didn’t want to say something.
Rather, it was that they didn’t even know what they could say.
Before long, the car slid to a halt at a private airport, right beside a familiar private jet.
’’Let’s go,’’ Adrian said, kicking his door open.
Theo and Owen quickly stepped out after him.
As they made their way over to the jet, several ground crew members were already waiting for them.
’’Everything’s ready, sir,’’ one said.
’’Good,’’ Adrian replied without slowing his pace.
Within moments, all three of them sat down inside the luxurious plane.
As the plane took off, the silence finally broke.
It started with Owen asking Theo about his new mansion before getting invited to live there himself.
Before long, Theo began talking about the auction and the items he’d bought.
From the seat across the aisle, Adrian quietly lowered the magazine in his hands.
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
’There we go,’ he thought. ’That’s all they needed.’
He knew damn well how they’d been pushing their thoughts aside before.
But faced with a funeral, those feelings were bound to spill over.
’This is why I hate those damn superficial things,’ he thought, flipping to the next page. ’Forcing these kids to face the finality of death is beyond fucked.’
With that, he picked up a tiny beer can and chugged it in one go.
...
Nearly three hours later, the aircraft gently touched down in a city near former Santa Barbara.
After leaving the airport, another black SUV was already waiting to take them the rest of the way.
It didn’t take long before the car began climbing a mountain road, surrounded by a dense forest.
The higher they climbed, the more vehicles began appearing on the side of the road.
First, it was only a few cars.
Before long, entire rows of parked buses lined both sides of the road.
Theo quietly stared out the window, his eyes wide.
’There are this many people?’ he thought, completely taken aback.
Hundreds of people were walking up a stone path toward a higher area on the side of the mountain.
Only a minute later, their SUV finally came to a stop.
’’We’re here,’’ Adrian said, switching off the engine.
Owen and Theo stepped out of the car right away, but froze in place.
A massive flat area stretched out just below them.
At the center stood three massive black marble stones.
The two side stones were engraved with countless small white names.
The stone in the middle was different, having only a few large names engraved on it.
But that wasn’t all.
Countless people stood all around the area, waiting for the ceremony to start.
Civilians dressed in black, hunters in casual clothes, government officials... hell, he even spotted a few members of the Imperial Church of Seven Virtues.
’’The second reason why I hate memorials,’’ Adrian’s voice rang out behind them. ’’Most of the people here have nothing to do with the disaster.’’
He slowly walked up beside them, slipping both hands into his pockets.
’’See those politicians, organizations, and churches?’’ he asked. ’’They all just want to be seen here to gain popularity.’’
A bitter expression appeared on Theo’s face.
As much as he’d like to refute Adrian’s words, he knew he couldn’t.
’’Who cares about them,’’ Owen said. ’’We’re just here for us.’’
Adrian let out a chuckle.
’’Atta boy.’’
Theo nodded slowly, completely agreeing with Owen’s words.
Then, without wasting any more time, the three of them joined the streams of people heading down to the memorial.
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