The Anomaly Beyond The System

Chapter 184: Your name will be Aiden Cross

After looking at him for a few long seconds, Damien finally extended his arms and handed the newborn back to Seraphina, who gently received him in her arms, one hand beneath the baby’s tiny body while the other carefully supported the back of his fragile head.

Lowering her head, her eyes softened as she looked at the tiny creature lying peacefully in her embrace, scrunching his face from time to time while his head shifted ever so slightly from side to side.

His body was wrapped tightly in a white cloth.

For a few quiet moments, the room became strangely peaceful, a soft silence accompanying the birth of a child.

"Wh... na..e ...ve .... deci..d?" Damien asked in a low voice, prompting Seraphina to lift her head toward him.

Her expression became thoughtful, and after a long moment of contemplation...

Her gaze drifted back down to the newborn resting against her chest, and a warm, gentle smile bloomed across her face.

So breathtakingly beautiful that, for a brief instant, Lucian’s thoughts stilled... his focus lingering solely on her face, where even the previous exhaustion seemed to have almost completely faded.

"Yo... na..e wi... be... Aiden."

The broken words reached Lucian’s ears... yet the final word somehow came through more clearly than the rest.

’My name,’ Lucian thought quietly, though for some strange reason, he didn’t feel anything even after hearing it.

She had given him a name.

Aiden Cross.

The name he once carried, and the name that belonged to the boy before everything in his life fell apart...

Before he eventually became Lucian Foster in the upcoming future.

Before every horrible memory, every scar, and every nightmare had been created by the very man standing beside her at that very moment.

"It’s ... go..d nam..." Damien spoke after hearing the name she had chosen for their child.

’I don’t want your fucking opinion.’

Even though he couldn’t clearly hear him due to the distortion, Lucian could guess that he had just complimented her... and even that was somehow making him boil with irritation.

[Why are you so angry over him? He doesn’t seem that bad to me.] Akasha’s voice chimed in his head—or perhaps within his consciousness.

’...’

Lucian didn’t answer immediately, because that was exactly what unsettled him so much.

Despite the neutrality in his gaze and his detached demeanour, he didn’t really look like a bad person, just a calm, composed man ever since he had woken up.

Anyone seeing him now would probably assume he was simply a quiet husband accompanying his wife after childbirth.

’But that’s only a façade,’ Lucian finally replied.

’This fucker will keep a very good image when he’s outside.

Only once he’s inside his own house... only when no one else can see will he show his real colours.’

Despite speaking with such certainty, a faint sense of unease quietly surfaced within him.

Time slowly passed by.

The peaceful atmosphere inside the hospital room continued for several more minutes before a few doctors entered alongside a handful of nurses.

They first examined Seraphina’s condition, checking the results of the delivery and asking a few questions that Lucian could barely understand through the muffled sounds reaching his ears.

While speaking, Seraphina seemed a bit out of it, and her lips parted every now and then, as if trying to speak... or ask something, though she ultimately remained silent.

The older doctor observed the newborn for quite a while.

Then...

The doctor finally nodded before speaking.

"Yo... ar... di...charg...d."

’You are discharged.’

Lucian silently guessed from the clipped and incomplete words, though they were becoming slightly easier to distinguish now... albeit very slowly and only barely.

After another few hours slipped away, he was once again lifted by his mother back into her arms, his head resting close against her chest.

Then, along with Damien, who was already waiting outside, the two—along with the newborn—made their way out of the enormous, luxurious hospital building before walking toward a luxurious white car.

Two guards standing beside it immediately stepped forward, opening the door for Seraphina to step inside while holding Aiden in her arms.

Damien entered shortly afterwards.

Moments later... the car smoothly pulled away from the hospital.

Lucian watched through the child’s eyes as they set off.

Toward their home.

If Lucian could even call it a home.

To him... it was merely a beautifully decorated cage filled with expensive items, where both he and his mother were beaten by that so-called father of his.

The baby’s head instinctively turned. His dark eyes settled upon Damien for a brief moment, who sat opposite them with his laptop resting across his legs, typing away at his work.

Throughout the journey, Damien and Seraphina rarely exchanged a few words, making the entire ride an extremely silent one.

Though he was the only one making any noises in between—or rather, his body was.

Seraphina quietly watched her child’s movements with a soft gaze—or was it a hollow stare? He couldn’t tell... though that left him a bit confused.

By the time they arrived at their home, Lucian—or rather, Aiden—had once again drifted off to sleep, his tiny body unable to remain awake for long.

The gentle swaying of the car, combined with the warmth of his mother, had slowly lulled him into unconsciousness before he had even realised it.

And when his eyes opened once again... he found himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling—or perhaps a nostalgic room.

Time slowly crawled forward, with him trapped inside the body of a newborn, only able to stare at the ceiling above his crib or at his mother’s face whenever she came to see him again and again, checking on him almost countless times throughout the day.

Then—

"Waahhh...! Waa...!" The cries escaped from Lucian’s mouth without warning, and along with them...

He suddenly felt something unpleasant spreading beneath him, warm and wet... an almost disgusting sensation.

’No way...’ His thoughts froze, and as soon as realisation struck him, he felt completely mortified.

It seemed his body was really not under his control—not even the slightest bit.

Almost immediately, Seraphina hurried over and gently lifted him into her arms. The moment she realised what had happened...

She froze.

Her eyes widened ever so slightly.

For several awkward seconds, she simply stared at him, mostly because she didn’t really know what she was supposed to do.

Lucian would’ve probably found that look cute if he weren’t experiencing the most humiliating moment of his entire lifetime.

Thankfully...

His suffering didn’t last long, as the housemaid—someone he didn’t clearly remember—entered after Seraphina called for assistance.

After listening to her words, she gently took over and carefully cleaned the newborn before replacing the soiled diaper with a fresh one.

The entire process lasted only a few minutes, but to Lucian...

It felt like hours.

’Akasha, please... erase this memory from my mind.’

He could only say those words with an embarrassed, almost despairing feeling welling up inside him.

It was simply...

Far too humiliating.

Unfortunately...

His misery only seemed to make someone else happier.

[Fufufu~~] Akasha simply chuckled like some villainess, witnessing the whole thing through his eyes.

And judging by her laughter, she was clearly enjoying it.

Lucian wished he could simply close his eyes, close his ears, or do anything—but that was simply impossible. This was a memory, and it seemed to be deliberately making him see and feel each and every moment.

"This is h..w y... do this, La...y Sera..hina." The housemaid softly demonstrated each step while speaking to Seraphina, who watched the entire process, carefully memorising everything.

When the housemaid finished explaining... Seraphina gave a slightly nervous nod.

But just as both women thought the child would finally calm down...

"Ah waaaahh...!" His cries erupted once again, this time even louder than before.

And the hunger once again settled into Lucian’s mind—the powerful sensation filling his tiny body.

Several moments later, both women finally understood what he wanted, and after a brief moment, Seraphina carefully held him close before slowly feeding him from her breast.

The hunger gradually faded, and comfort replaced the discomfort.

’Again...?’

His eyelids suddenly became unbelievably heavy as exhaustion came out of nowhere.

Then... his consciousness faded once more as he fell into another deep sleep.

...

Several days passed.

The same cycle repeated for Lucian, trapped inside his past self as a baby.

Wake up. Drink milk. Shit. Sleep. Wake up again.

Repeat.

Over and over again.

And mainly cry, over and over again.

’Can I not stay quiet for even a single minute?’

He felt this way because his cries always made Seraphina worry for absolutely no reason.

At some point, the memories were slowly beginning to feel like something real, almost painfully so.

Because he wasn’t merely watching the events unfold before him.

He was experiencing them down to the most minute detail with startling clarity, and that was slowly taking a toll on him.

Not just because the emotions were overwhelming.

But because there was absolutely no movement in his body, no change in his view—since all he did was lie in the crib or rest in Seraphina’s arms.

Nothing else.

Eventually, as more days passed, Seraphina herself gradually recovered from the operation, and by then she was able to move freely around the mansion without assistance.

Which meant she began carrying Aiden with her more often through the halls of the mansion, and through the baby’s eyes...

Lucian was finally able to see more of the mansion, and occasionally he caught glimpses of Damien, though only briefly.

That man was rarely around. And whenever he did appear, he was almost always occupied with work.

But during those passing days...

Lucian had slowly begun noticing something.

Because of his irregular sleeping cycle, he didn’t get much time awake; still, there were occasional moments when faint voices reached his ears from somewhere beyond the room.

Arguments, quiet at first, then gradually becoming more frequent.

Arguments between Seraphina...

And Damien.

Lucian couldn’t understand what they were saying.

His hearing hadn’t fully developed, and without his heightened vampire senses, the conversations were reduced to mere fragments that never formed into real words.

But all he could see was...

He knew nothing about what they argued over, yet one thing had gradually become painfully obvious.

Damien—that man was slowly becoming more detached from the house.

During the first few days after Aiden’s birth, he still spoke with Seraphina and even came to check on his son every now and then.

That, however...

Didn’t last very long.

As the days quietly slipped by, those brief conversations became shorter, and the visits almost dwindled to nothing.

Until eventually...

The two of them had almost stopped speaking to each other altogether.