D.I.O - CH 306

If an eagle was born among chickens, how would that eagle see the world?

When Seyoung initially understood the world, he felt a terrible sense of alienation.

He was different from everyone else. This was even the case with his mother, the one who brought him into the world; in essence, Seyoung didn’t feel the slightest sense of belonging.

“Mother.”

“… Huh? Yes? What? Huh? Did you just say something?”

Following Seyoung’s birth in the hospital, Hye-ran first [conversed] with her child during the drive home after she picked him up from the newborn nursery wing. Those around her advised Hye-ran to take some time off and recuperate at a birth care center, but she was confident in her own health. No matter how pleasant the center was, Hye-ran had confidence that her house was far safer and more hygienic, so she decided to care for her child there.

Right as she walked into her house, Seyoung opened his mouth and spoke up.

Hye-ran had been cradling Seyoung in her arms.

“Quietly… I have something to tell you, so don’t make a fuss.”

“…”

Obviously, there was no way Hye-ran couldn’t make a fuss. Her baby wasn’t just a month or a week old… he had just been born three days ago. And his vocalizations weren’t anything like whining but, instead, fully formed sentences.

“Don’t look so taken aback. Don’t look too disappointed, either.”

“D-disappointed?”

“Yes. Disappointed.”

Seyoung viewed the world in this way.

Hye-ran couldn’t walk around with her child. She couldn’t even dream of publicly holding his first birthday party. Of course, Seyoung could remain patient for short spurts, so it was possible to take him to his grandparents’ house occasionally. Yet, in general, Seyoung was arrogant and cold.

“Don’t think of me as your child, as I don’t have any particular feelings when it comes to you being my mother.”

He said it so directly and callously that it was hard to believe a child as cute as an angel could say such a thing.

“However, since you went through the pain of giving birth to me and are the one who’ll raise me, then in your later years, I will make sure you live a life of luxury, a life anyone would envy. You must have already guessed that I have the ability to accomplish such a thing, right?”

Seyoung was an incredible genius, one that had never been seen throughout human history, but he didn’t understand the concept of human emotion. This was why he told his biological mother that he’d pay her back for whatever he received.

“W-wait… can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Are you… my child?”

“To be precise, yes, I am your biological child. A pure human, not an alien or something else.”

Having said this, Seyoung didn’t feel any attachment to or affinity for humans. In his eyes, aside from himself, humans were an inferior species.

Perhaps this way of viewing and understanding the world was a natural result for Seyoung. After all, how could a soaring eagle regard a chicken crawling on the ground as a relative?

Simultaneously, however, Seyoung understood that humans ruled the world he was born into, regardless of their inferiority. He also knew it would have been more advantageous to buy time by acting like an average child for a while before telling his mother the cold, hard truth.

‘That isn’t necessary, though. This woman is soft.’

Seyoung instinctively grasped this reality. Thus, he showed his mother his true self, and through her help, he was able to grow even faster. Seyoung took this route because he wanted to develop the power to control the world and not be ruled by anyone.

If he had grown up the way he had envisioned… Perhaps humanity would have faced a Demon King-like existence earlier, a higher being who viewed humans as lesser beings and wanted dominion over them.

However, there were always unpredictable hardships and unexpected occurrences….

“Oh, hot damn. You surprised me.”

Such an unexpected occurrence arose much quicker than Seyoung expected or ever imagined.

“What the hell is with this little kid? You surprised me.”

“Ack… ugh…” Seyoung bled out on the ground after being stabbed. He wasn’t caught completely off guard, but still, he suffered a mortal wound. No matter how much talent he possessed, a child less than a year old still had limited physical abilities.

“Ah! Seyoung!”

The screaming Hye-ran also wasn’t in good condition. She had suffered various injuries, so her entire body seemed powerless as blood constantly flowed from her numerous stab wounds.

“Why… why?”

Hye-ran couldn’t contain her astonishment at the look of utter ferocity filling her relative’s normally good-natured face.

“What do you mean why….”

She had been careful and wary of her surroundings. However, Hye-ran had never thought that the person in the neighboring apartment, her own cousin, could do such a vile thing.

“I just did it because I wanted to.”

The catchphrase of a certain movie, ‘Every murderer is someone’s neighbor,’ was being carried out in reality. As the local neighborhood serial killer, Hye-ran’s cousin had been keeping his head down for a long time due to the heat from an ongoing police investigation. When he learned that Hye-ran was living alone as a widow, he visited her.

“Seyoung… don’t hurt Seyoung. I’ll give you whatever you want… if it’s money-”

“Ah~ Ah no~ that won’t do. You’ve seen my face, so you’ll have to go. Besides, this little bastard knocked out some of my teeth; there’s no way I’m letting him go.”

The man was wearing work gloves as he laughed and kicked Seyoung in the head.

Bam!

Seyoung had been moaning after collapsing and rolling on the floor, and he was unable to even scream. Yet, the man soon made a curious expression.

“This kid is quite strong. Don’t people usually die after they’re kicked like this?”

Having killed many living things, from small animals to adult women, the man knew the location he needed to aim for and the amount of force required to kill his target. However, in Seyoung’s case, the baby didn’t even faint, let alone die. Instead, the man saw that Seyoung was glaring back at him with wide-open eyes.

“This cheeky little bastard….”

The man wiped the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and picked up a knife. Typically, he would have inflicted a bit more pain on his subject before planting the final killing blow, but this time, he didn’t prolong the process. This was because he felt a sense of danger from Seyoung, who was lying on the floor.

As a serial killer, he was no longer a complete human nor a beast, but something in between. Consequently, by roaming through modern society as if it were a jungle, he developed more sensitive instincts than the average human.

Hence, the man sensed that the infant in front of him, a child too young to even be considered a kindergartener, was a beast.

‘I need to stay alert and not let my guard down.’

This thought was why he firmly grasped his knife. Outwardly, he maintained a snarky attitude, but inwardly, he was nervous.

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‘Kill.’

Fortunately for him, his opponent had lost the strength to resist after a few blows. However, the moment when he went in for the killing blow….

“No!”

Slash!

It was Hye-ran, not Seyoung, who was stabbed by his knife. Even though she was severely weakened, Hye-ran had desperately thrown her body to shield her son.

“Ah~ This lady is really….”

The man wasn’t surprised. The maternal love of a mother and what such a mother would do for her child wasn’t something new to him.

“Please. Please, I’ll do anything….”

“Go away!”

Slash! Whoosh!

He slashed wildly, but Hye-ran desperately clung onto Seyoung, defending him. Her flesh was cut open, revealing her insides as blood gushed out, but she didn’t care.

“Lady, you’re really bothersome. If you show maternal love like this, won’t that make me look like a bad person?”

The man could no longer restrain himself as a smile bloomed on his face. A bad habit of his had shown itself. Born as an elite member of society with a golden spoon in his mouth, the man had awakened and embraced a murderous streak within himself, which had cruelty twisted his fate, making him into what he was now.

However, he had carelessly forgotten that he was dealing with a beast, and this was a huge mistake.

In his efforts to attack Hye-ran, he had forgotten Seyoung momentarily, and the man was soon met by a blow aimed at him from below.

Bam!

A flash of silver light rapidly swung through the air like a thunderbolt and forced the man’s chin up. As his fairly well-trained body stumbled, the man gritted his teeth and looked at what had struck him.

“A… a ladle? This cheeky little bastard attacked me with a ladle….”

Grinding his teeth, the man tried to straighten his posture, but his concussed brain wouldn’t let him maintain his balance. Seyoung swung his arm as if it were a whip, using the ladle like a pendulum at the end and dealing a powerful blow beyond the man’s expectation.

And as he stumbled, Seyoung swung the ladle once more…

Bam!

That was the serial killer’s last memory.

“Mother.”

Without looking back at the fallen man, Seyoung rushed towards Hye-ran, applied pressure to close her open wounds, and pushed her falling intestines and organs back inside her body. Alas, Hye-ran’s injuries were too severe. The murderer had carried out numerous brutal killings, and his knife wasn’t just for show.

“Seyoung… Seyoung, are you okay? Are you safe?”

“Is it really time to worry about others?”

Though he was chastising his mother, he couldn’t hide his shaking eyes.

His mother was dying.

“Why…”

When Hye-ran took the blow meant for Seyoung, the murderer didn’t show any sense of surprise. The maternal love a mother held for her child was nothing new to him.

Yet, this wasn’t the case for Seyoung.

“Just… why?”

Seyoung was confused. He had noticed that she [knowingly] put his life before her own.

“What do you mean why?”

Hye-ran smiled even as she struggled with the pain surging through her. She looked at Seyoung as if he were a child for the first time, as he had always acted and spoken like an adult.

“Now that I get a good look at you, Seyoung, I see that you’re just a little child who acts and talks like a genius.”

A child born with an Irregular’s talent could be called a monster, but even so, Seyoung was only a child, and his ego was still underdeveloped.

The absolute and unconditional love shown by Hye-ran at that moment had a tremendous impact on him. If Yongno’s ego was established from anger and fear, and Lea Schmidt’s ego came from loneliness, then it could be said that Seyoung’s ego was formed from Hye-ran’s love and sacrifice.

“Seyoung, my child… There isn’t a particular reason why I love you. I don’t need you to be special and shower me with riches later on, nor do I want you to bring honor to my name by becoming someone great.”

Blood flowed down from the corner of Hye-ran’s mouth. Her injuries were so fatal that even if she were taken to the hospital, there would be little to no hope of saving her.

“But… but… not like this….”

“Don’t cry, Seyoung. It’s okay,” Hye-ran said with a bright smile, as if she was truly happy.

“Because I’m your mother.”

***

His consciousness gradually grew clearer, and Arthur chuckled.

‘Oh… I must have fainted and zoned out for a moment.’

Arthur felt a strong sense of exhaustion, but he refocused his mind and held Ascalon firmly in his grasp. Despite thinking that he had momentarily passed out, that brief amount of time was fleeting. As he raised his head, Arthur saw Tan’s figure… with Ascalon pierced through the latter’s chest.

“This can’t be. No way… no way… just by mixing some souls together….”

Tan growled like an enraged beast, and the space around him shuddered and wavered. Yet, it was more accurate to state that a feeling of horror, more than anger, stirred him.

“A Transcendent Weapon….”