Chapter 302 Volume V - Chapter 20: A Story from the Past
When I collapsed because of my injuries... I expected to wake up in a hospital, covered in bruises.
But... instead of waking up directly, after a really long time... I had a dream.
It wasn't hard to realize that it was a dream. After all, all my memories were still there and I was not in my own body, I was a child. I was in the old times... at home with my family.
Normally, I would try to savor such dreams, as long as they weren't a nightmare. I would try to live the childhood I didn't have, to spend time with my parents, to scrape their faces into my memory that I was beginning to forget.
But... this time was different. It was neither a sweet dream nor a nightmare.
The darkness of night had fallen on our house in the middle of tall trees. The crescent moon was overhead, and through the window of my room, I could see its faint glow and itself, strangely beautiful among the clouds.
I was in my bed, covered with a blanket. I had pulled it up to my neck against the cold winter and pulled my legs and hands toward myself to keep warm under it.
Apart from all that... there was also someone sitting across from me. He was sitting on a wooden chair, a man with silver hair just like mine. His eyes were also the same as mine. No... we were directly the same, I was like a copy of him.
But the difference between us was also quite obvious. My father was a man who did not smile easily. No matter how much tenderness and love he had for me... he was that kind of man. He was the same now. His eyes were slightly squinted as always, and he didn't make a sound as he waited for me to fall asleep.
"Dad."
He paused for a moment. His emerald green eyes returned to mine, his lips curving upward slightly as he smiled in the simplest way he could.
"Yes, Adrian?"
"My mom always told me stories... Why don't you tell me some?"
It was a childish request. But... I was indeed a child. It wasn't an overly strange request, considering I was about seven years old. I had already been sleeping without a bedtime story for several nights, especially since my mother was sick, and the prospect of hearing one from my father was exciting.
My father was silent about my request for a while. For some reason, in my childish mind, I thought he would refuse me, maybe even get angry... But he took a deep breath, leaned back even more in his chair, and did something different from all the scenarios in my mind.
"Listen well, then. Because this story is an important story. But as soon as it's over, you must go straight to sleep."
My eyes were wide open. I nodded as fast as I could as all my sleep disappeared and my father smiled strangely, almost painfully, at my excitement and began to tell his story.
Just like my mother, he started with the classic introduction of every fairy tale.
"Once upon a time... There was a family that was very rich, and powerful like a royal family, and recognized by the whole world. The whole world was afraid of this family, this family was that rich and powerful. But... this family also had a problem. After the first child, the family never had another one."
I quickly interrupted my father with a curious thought that suddenly appeared in my mind.
"Why couldn't they have children?"
"Because the mother of the family fell into a sleep from which she never woke up after giving birth to her son. The father of the family was also very..."
My father paused for a moment, his eyes shifting slightly toward the ceiling, and after a brief pause, he continued.
"Sad. He couldn't have another child because he was sad."
It seemed too strange that someone couldn't have children because they were too upset... but I didn't think too much about it. I was curious to know the rest of the story. It seemed to be a little... different from what my mother always told me.
"Anyway. The child of this family was trained in the best ways because he was to replace his father in the future. He grew stronger and stronger, older and older. He became his father's pride and joy, even exceeding his expectations."
He paused to catch his breath, then continued without pause.
"In the end, he became a big man, the only son of this family. He became a real success. But as he grew older, he was slowly confronted with a request from his father."
"What did his father want?"
"His father wanted him to get married. He even made a list of girls who could be his wife. He asked him to meet one of the girls on the list. The young man agreed, even though he didn't really want to. There was nothing better he could do... so he started seeing a few of them."
It really was a different story. That's why it was so much more exciting and intriguing for me. All my focus was on my father, I didn't want to miss a word.
"But he couldn't make a connection with any of the girls. His father was even angry with him because he couldn't find anyone to marry for a very long time, and they even fought. Finally... the young man decided to run away from home for a short time to clear his head. He went away and hid his identity because his family was known to everyone."
As he continued speaking, I saw his hand move. It went to his chest, his fingers closed as if he was grasping something there.
"And on one of these nights... he came across a dungeon gate."
The moment I heard the word "dungeon", my interest in the story grew exponentially. This young man was definitely going to fight someone, I was sure of it.
"The dungeon was actually a low-level one. However, there was a team that came to investigate it. This team included researchers and a few other people. And yet... unexpectedly, the dungeon broke and creatures came out of it! Almost all the people who came to investigate the dungeon... died."
I was speechless. What kind of creatures were there that everyone had died? What was the young man going to do?
"The young man, being a strong man, cleaned the dungeon himself, full of creatures that looked like giant cats. He stopped its breaking, and then he met the only survivor among the humans."
For a moment his expression softened, his lips curled up slightly.
"The survivor was a young woman among the researchers. She had jet-black hair like the night itself, black eyes of the same color, and... she was very dedicated to her research. So much so that even after the young man tried to help her, she kept asking him questions about the dungeon. She was also very cold, not even interested in the young man himself, except for the dungeon."
My father paused to check if I was asleep and looked at me for a moment. When he saw that I was looking at him with eyes that were practically sparkling, he sighed and continued.
"The young woman was injured, so the young man not only helped her with her research but also helped her recover. She asked him to meet her again later to learn more about the dungeon. And the young man agreed. Then they went their separate ways, and after a short time they met again and started talking to each other."
"And what about the father of the scary family? Was he ever angry with his son for running away?"
"Of course, he was very angry! But this was the first time it had happened and he forgave him because of their quarrel. He postponed the marriage for his son's sake and made up with him. However, his son continued to meet the woman he had met without his knowledge. As time passed, the two became closer. They started to meet more often. They got to know each other better."
His eyes narrowed, his smile reappeared on his face and this time, it was wider than ever. He was lost in thought, as if he had forgotten that he had told this story to me, his own son.
"Then... the young man told the woman he met who he really was. She was horrified, of course... she even avoided him for a while. But as time passed, she accepted him. They confessed to each other that they loved each other. The young man... was afraid of his father, so he never told him about this woman. He thought that because she was 'different' from them, he might resent him more than ever. And... he was right."
The smile fell from his face. His eyes narrowed even more as he slowly steadied himself on the floor. He tightened his grip on his chest. Something that could be seen around his neck, something that looked like a chain, swayed slightly with his movement.
"When his father found out about this woman, he was so angry that he ordered his soldiers to separate her from his son. When the son found out, he packed all his belongings and ran away from home for real this time. He went to the woman he loved and told her that his father's soldiers were after them. And then... the two of them ran away together. They traveled far away, to places where the young man's father would never find him. After a while... this young man and woman had a child."
He opened his mouth again, but for a moment it just stayed open. He just stood there, frozen... But... even then, he continued.
"Yet the young man's father found the two of them... He decided that his son was no longer the son he had raised, that he was someone else, and he decided to kill both the woman and his own son. Father and son fought over this. It was such a fierce battle that it lasted for minutes. Both father and son were badly wounded. But... in the end, there was a winner. And that winner... was the father."
His hair fell in front of his head, which was constantly bowing, hiding his face. He continued his story. This time without stopping, as if not even realizing that what he was telling was a sad story rather than an epic tale.
However... my childish self at the time had succumbed to sleep and I was unable to listen to the rest of the story. My dream ended at this point. I could never hear the rest of it again.
*******
As my eyes slowly opened with a flash of light on my face, I couldn't help thinking about the dream I had just had. When a doctor entered my field of vision and was checking my condition at the head of the bed where I was lying... I realized something along with the strange feeling of remembering this story again that I had forgotten so long ago.
"Adrian Caleo, how are you feeling?"
That story... my father was talking about himself in that story. He was the young man. Even if I didn't realize it as a child, now, when I see this memory again... I'm sure.
But this tale... or story... is strange. Because the woman and child he's talking about are clearly not me and my mother. They are definitely different people.
"Adrian Caleo... can you hear me?"
So, this story goes back before my father and my mother met? Did my father have another wife or even a child before my mother...?
Fuck... there's something going on here I don't know about. Where did this dream come from...?
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