Chapter 1674: Cooking the Cooker~
Beta blankly stared at Lackey, the pink lights in her visor dimming slowly as the silence stretched between them. The hum of machinery somewhere deep in the facility filled the quiet, and her fingers, resting loosely at her side, curled slightly as she connected the dots one by one.
It was true that Epsilon had indeed been involved with a merchant from another Empire in exchange for transportation contracts. Every division knew about that relationship, but what they didn’t know was the merchant’s identity. Neither the person’s name nor gender had ever been revealed to anyone besides Epsilon and the President.
If what Lackey was saying was true, then the mysterious merchant was most likely a woman. Somehow, Epsilon had gotten her pregnant and fathered a child with her.
That possibility explained far more than she wanted to admit.
It explained the appearance of a bloodline they had never encountered before.
More importantly, it explained why Epsilon, a man famous throughout the Empire for his composure and calm demeanour, had suddenly panicked and behaved strangely during his own auction.
Looking back, his unusual reactions suddenly seemed far less mysterious. He had probably been doing everything in his power to hide the existence of his son, only for that secret to be dragged into the open.
How laughable.
’That’s some interesting juicy news~’
An amused smile formed beneath her helmet as she crossed her arms.
"So you’re saying that you’re Epsilon’s son? The child he had with that merchant?"
Lackey nodded immediately.
"Yes. I am his son. The son he abandoned in that wretched place."
He gritted his teeth so hard that the muscles in his jaw visibly twitched.
Anger burned within his eyes, yet beneath that anger lingered a.... Longing. He genuinely looked like a son abandoned by his father.
[+1 AP]
"Why did he abandon you?" Beta asked curiously as she studied his expression, a faint ache unexpectedly surfacing within her chest.
"Why did he abandon me...?"
Lackey lowered his head and allowed his voice to trail off.
"Well..."
Meanwhile, his mind worked furiously.
He could not afford to waste this opportunity. He had finally found a weakness, a crack large enough to squeeze through, and he intended to exploit it with everything he had.
He needed to cook the cooker!!
Suddenly, he laughed.
"Haha... you really don’t know why?"
Lackey shouted at her as if he were angry at her... or himself?
Beta tilted her head in confusion.
"I know?"
"Oh, come on. Look at me.... Look at me carefully. Look at this face. Tell me honestly, would you want a broken son that looks like this?"
His voice carried a mixture of bitterness, pain, and self-mockery that sounded painfully genuine.
"..." Beta fell silent.
Her gaze lingered on the damaged half of his face.
Until now, she had only viewed him as a test subject, nothing more.
Yet as she stared at him now, she found herself understanding the logic behind his story.
Epsilon was a man who bathed in wealth, influence, and prestige.
He already had a family within the Empire and a reputation that countless people admired.
Why would such a man openly acknowledge a son who looked like this?
Ugly, disgusting... a defective product!
The thought felt cruel.
And because it felt cruel, it felt believable.
Lackey noticed her hesitation and continued with a longing and painful tone,
"Aft-After he abandoned my mother like a used product, she still begged him to accept me."
His voice shook slightly.
"She begged him to acknowledge me despite everything."
He laughed bitterly before gesturing toward himself.
"But look at me. Just look at me."
The damaged side of his face seemed even more grotesque beneath the room’s lighting.
"I swore I would get revenge on him.
I swore I would make him regret abandoning us, and I spent years chasing that promise."
His fists slowly clenched.
"Even though my mother always told me everything was fine, I could hear her c-c-crying every single night.
Every time I heard those tears, my heart felt like it was being torn apart!"
His breathing gradually became heavier.
"All she could do was watch him from afar while carrying all that pain by herself.
Do you have any idea what that feels like?
Do you know what it’s like watching someone you love suffer for twenty years because they can’t let go of a man who abandoned them?"
His eyes slowly turned bloodshot as years of buried resentment surfaced within him.
"For twenty years, I watched her suffer.
For twenty years, I watched her cry herself to sleep.
For twenty fucking years, I stood there feeling completely powerless."
His shoulders trembled violently; the straps tightened as grief and anger intertwined within his chest.
"That’s why I hid myself among her transport goods. That’s why I disguised myself as a slave and came here."
Beta tilted her head.
"To take revenge?"
The question hung between them.
Lackey froze for a moment before his expression slowly crumbled.
His eyes trembled, and a single tear slid down his cheek.
"N-No..."
His voice broke as he lowered his head.
"I just wanted to know whether he still loved... my mother... and me sniff..."
Another tear followed the first.
"That’s all I wanted to know."
His lips quivered as he struggled to continue.
"And... N-No, sniff... sniff... if he doesn’t love me... then that’s fine."
A weak laugh escaped him, sounding more painful than crying.
"After all, to someone like him, I’m probably j-j-just a nobody... awweeee...." "
As he shook his head, tears continued flowing down his face while his shoulders trembled helplessly.
"..."
Beta blankly stared at the grown man crying before her.
He had come all this way just to see his father.
No...
Looking at his face now, she realised it wasn’t even about him.
The pain twisting his expression wasn’t for his own miserable life. It wasn’t for the years of abandonment or loneliness he had endured.
It was for his mother.
For her happiness.
For her peace.
For her chance to reunite with the man she had loved for over two decades.
Beta found herself strangely unsettled.
Who in the world would go to such lengths for their mother?
Even the K-Series she watched felt lacking in comparison.
"Sniff... sniff... My mother... my lonely mother... sniff... sniff... Please... f-for her sake... please... l-let me go... sniff... sniff... and I am sorry for threatening... I don’t know if he comes even if you kill me..."
Lackey’s voice trembled with grief as tears continued streaming down his face. His reddened eyes shook with desperation, and every word carried a painful sincerity that tugged at the heart.
The change in his expression was so dramatic that even his own log seemed surprised by the intensity of emotion he was pouring into the act.
Then again, his life was literally on the line.
Of course, he would give everything he had.
Any idiot would struggle desperately when their life was at stake.
As for an actor?
An actor didn’t merely play a role.
An actor became the role!!
[+10 AP]
"Sigh..."
Beta let out another long sigh.
"To think that old bastard had the nerve to seduce a woman, get her pregnant, and then abandon her... That’s honestly disgusting. Fucking asshole!"
She shook her head in disappointment.
"Tsk. Tsk."
"Fuck... if I had known this beforehand, I wouldn’t have bought you. Sure, he and I have our grudges, but even I’m not evil enough to kill someone’s kid."
Her voice carried annoyance, though reluctant sympathy had already begun creeping into it.
Hearing those words, Lackey nearly collapsed from relief.
Finally.
Fucking finally!
His racing heart began calming down.
A second later, the magnetic restraints wrapped around his body released with a loud hiss. The locks disengaged one after another as though they had been straining with all their strength to keep him pinned down.
Lackey slowly sat up and rubbed his wrists.
Across from him, Beta stood with her arms crossed.
"I’ll inform your father to come collect you," she said. "Of course, that’s after the bastard pays me back every single Aevum I spent buying you."
Lackey smiled gently.
"Thank you. I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but I’m glad you were the one who bought me."
Beta raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? You’re glad?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
She genuinely sounded confused.
She had nearly cut this boy into pieces.
What kind of person would be grateful for that?
What the heck?
Lackey looked at her and smiled with his usual charming smile,
"Because I can see your beauty beneath that suit."
Beta froze.
Lackey continued without hesitation.
"You listened to me. You understood me. You released me without demanding proof, and honestly, I’m not even sure my father would have done the same."
He brushed his hair back and offered what he thought was his most charming smile.
"You’re very beautiful~"
For a moment, complete silence filled the room.
"...Okay."
Beta dragged out the word awkwardly before turning away to gather the tools scattered across the floor.
Not because she was blushing.
Absolutely not.
Inside her helmet, her thoughts were disgusted, ’What the fuck was that?... Did he just hit on me?’
Meanwhile, Lackey maintained his charming smile, expecting at least a tiny increase in affection.
Bro... he was literally using his charming ability to earn some affection points.
As much as he hated to admit it, his attraction toward women was absurdly powerful.
It wasn’t just effective; it was ridiculously effective~
To put it simply, his success rate with normal women was very crazy and with crazy wicked women... well, very fucking crazy!
Yet... nothing happened?
Not a single point.
’What? Not even one?’
He blinked in disbelief.
Then his gaze drifted toward the reflective metal mirror attached to the wall.
His expression immediately froze.
The hideous face staring back at him finally reminded him of something important.
’*...Shit.*’
He was still in ugly mode.
Of course.
Of fucking course!
His so-called charming smile probably looked horrifying right now.
Instead of appearing handsome and charismatic, he had likely looked like some deranged goblin attempting to flirt.
Suddenly, Beta’s reaction made perfect sense.
’*Sigh... whatever. At least I got released.*’
Lackey rubbed his sore wrist with a thoughtful expression while glancing at the remaining cuff still attached to his other hand.
His plan had been simple. He would use Beta to contact Epsilon, get out of this shithole before she decided to do something even more insane, and then worry about everything else afterwards.
Just as he was thinking that, Beta suddenly froze.
"Wait..."
She had been gathering the scattered tools from the floor, but now she stood completely still as if something he had said moments ago had finally registered in her mind.
"You mentioned twenty years of suffering?" she asked slowly. "But... we only established contact with the other Empires a few years ago. Three years at most. Even if I account for the time differences between our Empires..." Her voice gradually became colder as she picked up a sharp knife and slowly rose to her feet.
The pink glow beneath her visor brightened slightly.
"It’s impossible."
Lackey’s heart skipped a beat.
