Chapter 888: 888
"Do you think my irrational fear and disgust toward him stem from nothing but simple misunderstanding?" She stepped closer, her eyes boring into Leiko’s with a terrifying intensity. "If not for the fact that I carried you in my womb all those months, I would have ended your life the exact moment you spoke his name in my presence."
The easy smile vanished from Leiko’s lips, replaced by an intensely serious expression. He didn’t flinch from her gaze. "But what choices do you have left now, Mother?" he asked, his voice steady despite the pressure. "The current turn of events has backed us into a corner. We are in an undesirable situation, and we need a way out."
"We know now that the Silver Kingdom has the backing of the werewolf godlings who came along with Lunara," Leiko continued, stepping closer to the map. "But we are completely blind to whether Ragnar gained new allies during that wedding, apart from the ones we already knew about."
"We can’t keep guessing and limiting the movements of our men. Ragnar is taking full advantage of his current position and pressing on harder than they have ever done before."
Walking right up to his mother, his gaze steady. "We have to show them that we, too, have a great backing of our own. And unlike them, whose alliances are partly unknown and built on smoke, ours is very much real."
Yuki stayed completely silent at his words. The raw fury in her eyes gave way to a complicated, heavy look as she truly stared at her son.
"How long have you been in contact with him?" she asked quietly. It was her first real question, the first time she had sought to understand anything beyond her initial explosive anger over the situation.
Leiko glanced at her, his posture tightening. "A long time, Mother," he said. A sudden look of annoyance flashed across his face, a rare crack in his calm facade, before he spoke again. "I was wrong from birth, Mother. I have long since learned that no ordinary child comes into the world expecting bloodshed, or harboring a deep, visceral craving to claw through the very flesh of the one who gave birth to them."
"Even Father himself is troubled by his own divinity, and he is a god. Now imagine myself, I am no divine being, yet I inherited his traits of madness. A madness that is only further spurned and twisted by the demon blood flowing through both your veins and his."
"Father was not around to teach me control," Leiko continued, his voice sharp "Though I highly doubt he would have anyway, he would rather I lean entirely into the savagery. Neither were you, Mother, you were always so occupied with the kingdom and leadership."
He caught the brief flicker of shame that passed over his mother’s face at his words, but he merely scoffed, refusing to soften his tone.
"This isn’t said to earn pity points from you," he finished coldly. "I say this only so you finally understand the reality of the situation, and exactly why things had to happen this way."
"With you both being absent, I latched onto the first familiar hand that reached out to me. At first, he came to me as a dream, constructing a hidden dreamscape where I could vent the raw violence flowing through my veins without destroying everything around me."
"But over time, that sanctuary turned into a classroom. He spoke to me about my lineage, teaching me about our true origin as demons born from the depths of The Abyss."
"He has been the only constant my entire life. Mother, the fact that you have a rational son standing before you right now, someone who can actually speak instead of howl is thanks entirely to him and his lessons. It was only later, as the years passed, that he finally revealed his true identity." With that he paused.
"He introduced himself as my grandfather. The very figure you always commanded me to fear and forbade me from ever asking about. He was a terror to you, perhaps, but he never was to me. To me, he was a guardianth, e one who oversaw my growth and forged me into the man I am today."
Looking at Yuki, he continued, "He somehow knew this day would come, and he wants to do everything in his power to be of help to you. But he is well aware of your aversion to him, and hence, he is offering this salvation through me."
Yuki stayed silent. She looked at her son, then looked back over the map, her expression skeptical. "How can he possibly be of help? Is he planning on letting loose those twisted monsters he created underground, or does he think he alone can change the tides of a continental war? We are not lacking in top-tier powerhouses, Leiko. What we need is a solid, massive army backing our front."
A strange, knowing look crossed Leiko’s face. "He predicted you would say exactly that. But you misunderstand, the help won’t be coming from him. It will be coming from your brother. My uncle, Emperor Chen."
He stepped closer, a rare spark of genuine excitement bleeding into his tone as he spoke. "Grandfather believes that regardless of your current fractured relationship with my uncle, he can influence him enough to mobilize his empire for you."
"Imagine the surprise of everyone, Mother, when the reclusive empire of the southern continent moves for our kingdom. Moves for our people, and under our banner! That standing alone should make all the superficial alliances Ragnar built crumble into dust. No human nation in the world is ready to make an enemy of that empire," Leiko said, his voice rising with dark anticipation.
Yet, as he looked at his mother, he found she was completely unimpressed. Not a single line on her face had softened.
"That indeed is a very good plan," Yuki said, her voice dropping into a chillingly calm. "But that is exactly why I don’t like it."
She looked at her son, her gaze piercing right through his excitement. "Everything you have just told me shows exactly how well he understands both kingdoms. He understands our differences, and he knows our weaknesses. Even you, Leiko, your entire life, your desperation for control were a precise calculation in his playbook."
Yuki walked closer, stepping into his space until she was looking up into his eyes. Slowly, she reached up and placed a soft palm on Leiko’s chin, a rare, haunting flash of maternal touch.
"That was an oversight on my side," she murmured softly. "I had thought the sheer name of Björn and his ascended status would be enough to deter him. And I thought your birth... I thought your birth would have been of absolutely no interest to him."
Her hand dropped. Yuki walked past him, her boots clicking softly against the marble floor as she paced around him, her hands clasped tightly behind her back.
"But I have thought wrong," Yuki said, her voice echoing in the quiet room. "I underestimated the depth of his patience."
"The look in your eyes and the way you speak of him remind me of myself and my brother when we were so young," Yuki continued, her voice drifting back into the dark memories of her youth. "We held that exact same admiration for him. We looked up to his strength, his insight, and his absolute certainty."
"But with us, he was too impatient. His mask slipped far too early once we matured enough, the moment we were ready and capable of being used as tools to further his "grand goals."
She turned her gaze back to Leiko, her eyes heavy with a warning he had never heard before. "With you, it shows that he has changed. The man you speak of is kind, nurturing, and patient. He was willing to guide your growth through the dark, and he has somehow raised you to be an independent individual who seemingly lacks the taint of his control."
"That should make me happy," Yuki whispered, but the cold dread in her posture contradicted her words entirely. "But it doesn’t. It only terrifies me. It shows that he is also capable of growth. It means he has learned from his past mistakes, and he is far less predictable than he used to be."
Yuki suddenly stopped pacing. Her breath caught in her throat as a chilling realization crystallized in her mind, her eyes widening slightly as she stared at the floor.
A look of profound pity softened Yuki’s features as she stared into the eyes of her son. "You must think yourself to be completely in control," she said, her voice an aching contrast to her usual sharpness. "You must think his strength is yours to manipulate, yours to command at your leisure."
"You are wrong. I won’t pretend I can fully prove it to you right now, but you are entirely wrong. Yet... it is okay." As she spoke, an immense, suffocating presence spread outward from her body, far heavier than the barrier she had erected moments before.
