Sold To The Cruel Pr Chapter 77: A Place For Her

Chapter 77: A Place For Her

Theron could not stand that close to her anymore, so he stepped back.

Killed, she says...? She was taking responsibility too...?

Slowly, everything began to fall into place. The Aurelion lattice that he had set off to find her... that had killed the monsters.

So who was this creature’s mother?

His eyes dropped to the thing beside her.

This... was a baby?

He had seen creatures of all shapes and sizes before, but this one did not look like the others they had captured. And then...

Wait.

"How do you know his mother?" Theron asked, the question leaving him with visible confusion. None of it made sense.

"The cage was open that night, and I brought Helena out because she was in labor. Then—"

"Wait." Theron raised a hand to stop her, taking another step back as he tried to piece it together. "Helena?" he repeated.

"Hamilton’s mother. The creature in that cage."

Theron’s eyes widened. "You knew it was a female?"

Ever since these creatures had first been discovered centuries ago, there had been endless research into them. Their numbers had only beco more visible in recent years, after the discovery of the Aetherstones, but long before that, they had existed in scattered pockets throughout the woods of Greenvale. There were more of them now, yes, but even after all this ti, the truth about them remained frustratingly incomplete.

One thing researchers had never managed to uncover was how they reproduced.

Labor?

Aveline had said it so casually, as though she had seen it with her own eyes, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

So these creatures gave birth?

Like mammals?

Then why had no one ever witnessed it before?

Theron was suddenly full of questions.

Aveline looked at him, incredulous. She had just told him that he had killed Hamilton’s mother, and he was worrying about Helena being a female?

"Only females can give birth, Theron," she said flatly.

Was he truly that oblivious?

Theron looked down at the creature now sitting half-listless at Aveline’s feet, as if it would pounce on him at a single command from Aveline.

This... was a baby.

His mother was dead.

His?

Aveline had known it was a male, then. How?

He shook the thought away.

He rembered what she had said earlier—that they were both orphans. That explained why this creature mattered so much to her.

And once that realization settled in, the weight of her accusation changed.

I killed his mother.

Theron clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles ached.

When Aveline said it like that, it felt different.

He had believed he was doing humanity a favor by slaughtering those monsters, by capturing them, by helping the researchers. If they understood these creatures better, then perhaps they could protect themselves against them.

That was what he was taught. That was what everyone around them believed. That was the truth, or so he thought.

But now...

What was happening?

Theron felt the ground beneath him shifting, the certainty he had carried all this ti slipping away one brittle piece at a ti.

Everything he thought he knew suddenly felt suspect.

What was the truth?

His eyes lifted to Aveline’s, and the mont he did, his heart lurched painfully in his chest. A sharp ache spread beneath his ribs, so sudden and intense that he clutched at himself.

Aveline saw the color drain from his face.

In the pale morning glow, his brows had drawn tight, and his lips parted around a breath that seed to hurt him. He looked as though the ground beneath him had split open.

"Theron?" She reached for him at once.

He gently patted her hand and stepped out of her grasp, taking a few unsteady paces back as if distance might help him gather the pieces of himself again.

Everything he had done... everything he had justified as necessary, as right, as for the greater good...

What had it all been for?

What had the past ten years of his life even ant?

He had left Aveline to suffer alone, and all this ti, he had believed he was living, moving forward, building sothing. But now those certainties were collapsing one after another.

Why did he ever find his parents?

He could have remained an orphan.

At least then Aveline would have had no reason to stay away from him.

"Theron, what is it?" Aveline asked, trying to catch his face.

But he turned his back on her.

She stood frozen, watching him in growing confusion, unable to understand what had shaken him so badly.

Then, with visible effort, Theron composed himself.

Had he been lied to?

He did not know.

He did not trust anyone around him. Not his mother. Not the advisors who had stood at his side. Not anyone.

Right now, Aveline felt like the only thing keeping him tethered to the truth.

The only one who could still show it to him.

"Aveline." He turned back to her, and this ti there was sothing raw in his voice, sothing desperate. "You should co with . You know them. You can save them. No one understands them, and that is why they judge them. You care about this creature... but there are more like him there. Co with ."

Aveline’s heart gave a small, uneasy leap.

This... this was more than she had expected.

More than she knew how to carry.

The weight of such a responsibility made her breathing turn shallow even before she had agreed to anything.

Theron hurried on, as though afraid she would vanish before he could say the rest.

"There is an academy," he said. "They study Aetherstones there, and other related research. You do not have to stay with . Join the academy. Learn the basics. You already know more than most people, Aveline."

She was silent for a long mont, thinking it through.

Theron looked desperate. Truly desperate.

And if it ant being sowhere away from him—sowhere safer, sowhere steadier—then perhaps she could have the best of both worlds.

Warm baths.

Warm food.

dicine whenever she needed it.

And answers, maybe even answers about what was wrong with her.

"Will I get paid?" she asked at last.

Because that mattered too.

Theron’s eyes widened. "Food and room will be provided. I’ll make sure no one bullies you there. Why do you need to be paid?"

Aveline lifted her gaze and t his eyes directly.

"Because I want to buy myself back," she said.

Theron’s eyes widened.