Michael was a little bit surprised. He didn't expect the Will of the Origin Expanse to allow Tiara to speak about her race and how she ended up in the Origin Expanse. She had been restricted before, which ant that sothing must have changed. However, Michael was not sure what that might be.
Even though she didn't reveal many secrets about the Silverfang Tigerfolk, Michael was intrigued by the little pieces of information she shared with him. They decided to spend more ti with each other to talk more about the Beastfolks, her pasty, and if she desired revenge.
Michael was curious whether Tiara's hatred made her desire revenge, or if she would rather try helping the Silverfang Tigerfolk to find another place to live and call ho. After all, the ho they'd been given by taking asylum in the Origin Expanse was not quite like the normal areas in the Origin Expanse.
Tiara wanted to tell Michael more about the place they took asylum in, but a splitting headache overca her when she tried to speak about the asylum in detail. Nonetheless, Michael got enough information from Tiara to tell that revenge was not her highest priority. If possible, she would use her future achievents to free the Silverfang Tigerfolk from the asylum and find another ho for them.
After all, they were currently forced to obey the Will of the Origin Expanse, no matter what order it issued. If even one of the Silverfangs rejected the Will's order, everyone else would suffer and be thrown out of the Origin Expanse – if they didn't have a War Rune.
Michael tried to put Tiara at ease when she tried to force herself to reveal more secrets to him. She tried to fight the splitting headache, just to tell a few facts about the asylum and other places controlled by the Will.
"You don't have to tell more. I understand what you're trying to say. And…I understand how hard it must be for you to continue with your attempts. Thanks," Michael tried to reassure her with a subtle smile forming on his lips.
He stood up, patted Tiara's shoulder, and left the room – his emotions in a chaotic ss.
For the next three days, Michael didn't leave the Origin Expanse. He spent most of his ti with the subordinates that were bustling through his territory, completing one task after another. Michael chose to help with labor first. Physical exhaustion distracted him the most.
Unfortunately, Tiara and the Forest Elven of the EraldLeaf Adventurer team had to inform him that his Summons were uncomfortable working side-by-side with their Lord and Master.
They trusted Michael and liked him a lot as their Lord, but that didn't change a particular fact; He was their Lord, not their friend. Michael's responsibilities were different from theirs, and so was his strength. Most Summons were given basic or simple tasks. They had to do what their superiors asked them to do. Most of these tasks were focused on labor and the expansion of the territory.
anwhile, Michael had to control and supervise everything. He was the heart of their territory and the strongest combatant. Everyone, who had seen Michael fight was fully aware of his terrific combat prowess and knew that he was far from ordinary. He was special, and so was his status as the Summons' Lord.
Since he didn't want his Summons to feel uncomfortable, Michael decided to focus on sothing else. He began to spend more ti with Tiara, the EraldLeaf Adventurer team, and his monster subjects. Sun Demos, his tad Blood Oath Demon Monkey King, was included in this small list.
However, Michael didn't take the ti to train or to go out to hunt. He spent most of his ti talking and thinking about lots of things. This included the bitter fact that he had to accept the cruel reality of his brother's death.
Michael didn't want to bother the others at first, but he ended up talking to them for hours nonetheless, and it helped him quite a bit knowing that he had people to talk to by his side.
Nonetheless, Michael was low in spirits. Everything was a little different compared to before. It was just a little bit too hard for Michael to accept that there would be nobody to look forward to eting upon returning ho.
"...I should ssage our parents as well…shouldn't I?" Michael mumbled after spending three days in the Origin Expanse doing nothing more than talking, eating, and sleeping a little.
At first, Michael considered not ssaging their parents about Danny's death, but he dispersed that thought quickly. No matter what happened between them, their parents were still their parents – whether Michael and Daniel liked it or not. They should know.
They deserved to know.
Thus, Michael collected the Agriculture-type blueprints stored in the warehouses before he left the Origin Expanse with a weary heart.
He manifested the Runic Gate and stepped through it the next mont.
Erging inside his tiny room, Michael slumped down on his bed. He sighed deeply and opened the holographic screen of starnet ssengers.
His eyes widened slightly seeing dozens of ssages popping up on the holographic screen. Alice had sent him a few ssages, and so had Kaleb. Even the Barbaric Couple, Zeke Lavita, Lincoln Piedra, and the Barscht triplets had ssaged him.
Michael didn't open their ssages, but he could guess what the ssages were about. It was not hard to grasp the situation. Hence he first decided to talk to his parents. For that, he had to open his chat with his parents where he found a deciphered audio that had been sent to him three weeks ago – on the sa day the AI wrote a ssage about the error of Daniel's Lord ID, and that he was dead.
The audio ssage was deciphered, and it had an auto-delete function installed. Five minutes after the audio had been listened to it would be automatically deleted and the content destroyed on the starnet ssenger's server.
In the chat with their parents, Michael and Daniel had never been able to send text ssages. Such ssages were always deleted seconds after they had been sent, and the sa happened to audio clips as well. Thus, Michael would have to listen to the deciphered audio and reply to it using the sa code.
It was a hassle and sothing Michael would rather avoid if possible. He still listened to the audio ssage, nonetheless.
["We noticed that Daniel's Lord ID has been destroyed. There might have been an error, which deters the golden ti, but we can still make use of this. If we hurry up, we should have enough ti to complete the Resurrection Ritual to ensure that Daniel will be summoned in one of our territories – even if it's as a Summon. ssage us as soon as you can. We need so of his stuff to complete the Ritual!"]
The content of their parents' audio ssage was weird. Michael listened to it a second ti, causing his eyes to narrow, and his face to turn red.
'They don't even sound sad. What resurrection? Summoning him as a Summon…I did that already without realizing, you s….'
Michael felt conflicted staring at the deciphered audio. His finger hovered above the replay button but he hesitated to press it again. He didn't really care about his parents' voice or anything like that, but the nonchalant tone of his father was grating on him, making him feel nauseous.
In the end, three minutes of utter silence passed before Michael sent a reply to his parents' audio ssage.
"I summoned him, and I saw him die…right in front of … I summoned him…and I didn't even know that it was him. He…sacrificed his life, just to protect …" Michael said, feeling that a knot ford in his throat as he forced the words out.
Tears trickled down his cheeks and he realized only after he sent the audio to their parents that he was sitting on the ground, sobbing.
Even if the ti spent in the Origin Expanse with Tiara and his subjects had cald Michael a little bit, his parents' emotionless ssage broke him down once again.
He didn't have a great connection with his parents after they abandoned them – neither of the brothers had – but he couldn't think of them as good people anymore, not if they were that unaffected by their oldest son's death. Wasn't it already bad enough to abandon the kids with nothing but a deciphered chat and so money behind?
Nothing made sense anymore, and Michael wanted nothing more than to scream and shout at his parents, tell them how miserable he and his brother had been because of their decision, and what they had gone through.
Maybe, if they hadn't been abandoned, Daniel wouldn't have died…twice at that. Michael was sure that they could have done sothing to help them prepare for everything that awaited them as descendants of a cursed bloodline. Was that too much to ask for?
The anger and frustration that had accumulated over the years began to surface. Michael, who had always hoped that their parents abandoned them because they wanted to search for their lost sister, or that they had to abandon their children because they were hunted, began to hate his parents.
He was always very patient when it ca to relationships, and he always hoped for the best outco when it ca to relationships with other people – no matter what race –, but his parents had pushed beyond the limits of his patience. They made him not just hate them but despise them!
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