Rather Than The Son, I’ll Take The Father - Chapter 150

The light was restless as I entered the gateway. I was intimidated, but I still had to think about my safety, so a small amount of stardust fell before my eyes.

Not long after, I encountered the beast. However, the beast timidly watched me as I walked past him while being hit with twinkling star dust.

But what did Gilbert look like?

I waved the lantern, which had become colorless due to the star dust, and narrowed my brows. Since I wasn’t interested in Gilbert even when he was a handsome man, it was natural that I didn’t even remember his beast appearance…….

I heard a heavy gurgling sound in the distance, as if something was crawling, covered in mud.

I walked a little longer while pretending not to know, and I witnessed beasts that looked like wolves, but without jewels on their foreheads.

I asked a wolf, one missing an eye.

“Do you know of a human who became a beast?”

The wolf didn’t even growl when I suddenly pushed my face at him. I was so proud of it that I laughed.

“He is my adopted son. Even if he became a beast, his terrible personality will still be the same, but please don’t eat him.”

The wolf’s lone pupil shone intensely. I reached out and touched its snout. He must have smelled the blood on my shoulder. But the wolf didn’t show it and politely accepted my hand.

“Is the wolf I know in your pack? If that’s the case, I’d be a little sad.”

The wolf, now with Eleonora, had been on the verge of dying in the Eire Forest. Aedis had guessed that it was forced to cross the gate because it had been kicked out of the pack.

“Good bye. See you later.”

I let go of the wolf and kept walking forward. Today, unlike the last time I met Eleonora, beasts would come out.

Still, thanks to the ability inherited from the beast, this place didn’t seem brutal. Well, if Shaula were there with me, there would already be a bloody feast.

I pressed the fur hat Aedis had given me with my arm, which was still numb.

The sound of muddy footsteps followed my footsteps.

The sound remained at a certain distance, as if to follow me but not catch up.

If I turned around and shined the lantern, its appearance would be revealed, but it would probably run away. It seemed that it lost its confidence once it changed into a hideous appearance.

“…… ah.”

I dropped the lantern to the ground. As I surrendered to the pain I had been enduring all along, I staggered. I could already feel that the poison had spread considerably.

I hit the ground and took a deep breath.

It was half acting but half real.

Thanks to that, the light that sprinkled stardust on me along with the lantern flickered for a moment in surprise.

Then, even though evening had filled the sky, darkness came and cast a huge shadow.

It was a shadow formed by a gigantic beast approaching me after barely gathering the courage after the light had disappeared.

Since he had been transformed into a beast by Kadan for the purpose of attacking Cyclamen Castle, the silhouette alone felt grotesque.

Perhaps to help me as I temporarily blacked out, a very small light appeared after a few seconds. Instead of timidly sprinkling stardust like before, the light bounced around my shoulder, focused on me.

I spoke to the beast, who had an exceptionally foreign appearance due to Kadan’s tricks.

“I won’t stop you if you want to continue living that way.”

“…….”

“You still think you were right?”

“…….”

“Is there anything you want to say to me?”

My eyelashes trembled from pain. Gilbert’s gaze lingered on my shoulder.

“It’s not often that I give you an opportunity like this.”

Aedis said that it was up to me to decide whether Gilbert would live as a beast or he would live as a person inferior to the beast. He said that if Gilbert wanted to come back as a person, he would have to pay a steep price.

The light that had just moved from my shoulder to the back of my hand flickered.

Would turning Gilbert back into a human be a good thing or a bad thing?

The light that read my thoughts embroidered like constellations in the air. I didn’t know if it was a good thing, but it was obvious that it was helping me.

Tsk, was it because it didn’t have much of a sense of humor. Or was it because he resembled that beast?

I pulled myself up.

“If you don’t have anything to say, that’s fine. You don’t have an aura, so it wouldn’t be bad to live like that until you die.”

As I tried to continue on my way by relying on the small bouncing light, a hand held my arm.

“…… Sorry.”

The voice was muffled and cracked. I looked back indifferently at the man restraining me.

“What are you sorry about?”

“…….”

A low sigh escaped my lips.

“Gilbert, do you still have any pride left when you have been following me so ugly?”

Gilbert flinched when I called his name. Soon, his face was stained with worry.

“Blood…….”

“Your father made this.”

“…….”

“Are you satisfied?”

“No, it is not…….”

“Then?”

Gilbert’s face contorted.

“If I could turn back time…….”

Was talking to Gilbert a waste of time after all?

As I thought of Regen and treated Gilbert like a human for the last time, I felt like he was filming a regretful drama by himself. Still, it seemed that he had reflected enough to say that he regretted it.

Gilbert released my arm.

“Sorry.”

“…….”

“Ignoring your will.”

I tilted my head.

“That’s a half-hearted answer.”

“…….”

Gilbert looked confused. He must have completely forgotten that he tried to kill me.

Well…… How then did he realize that he ignored my will?

“You are no longer the son of the Kallakis family. Are you still sorry for me?”

“…… I thought it would be the case.”

Gilbert said quietly.

Why was he accepting reality so easily? Did he even realize the preciousness of living as a human being?

Gilbert even made a promise.

“I will get away from you….as much as I can.”

“…….”

“I won’t show myself again.”

“…….”

After accepting the reality, my head kept tilting at the answer that seemed to show that he had matured.

What’s going on so suddenly? Did he regain his humanity that he had lost from the day he was born? Or had other beasts already bullied him to their hearts’ content instead of me.

Before I could answer, Gilbert’s eyes changed.

“But. Before that.”

Sensing a change, Gilbert blocked my path.

I heard a sharp rushing sound, and the wind swept around.

A man with silver hair, like Gilbert’s, stepped out of the space where no light could reach.

Then, the light quickly wrapped around my body. It was an extremely defensive form that did not seem to be the ability of the beast that Kadan highly regarded.

Whoa, I heard a sigh.

There was a glow in Kadan’s bright red eyes as he stared at me.

“…… I thought Sister-in-law was the only one who called me. There was also an intruder.”

I laughed.

“Why are you so nervous?”

“You have something to give me, Sister-in-law.”

“I don’t know what that could be.”

“Let’s not be like that between us. There is a promise you need to keep, right?”

Kadan licked his lips. The sneer on my own lips grew thicker.

“Oh, do you have any proof that we made a promise? Are you appealing to my conscience?”

Gilbert cut off the conversation by raising his hand.

“Don’t talk anymore.”

“…… Huh.”

He asked Kadan, who wore a grim expression.

“Didn’t Father promise something to me?”

Yes, fight among yourselves.

I backed off meekly and tapped the light hovering around me anxiously.

“Can you control the poison so that it doesn’t spread more than now? Don’t cure it completely.”

A halo of light spread around me. It was more like a fairy’s magic than a beast’s.

“You can’t? Isn’t this a good deed?”

As soon as I smiled, the light bounced up and down resentfully. It wanted to convey something to me, but it was not easy to express the way it wanted, so it seemed frustrated.

Still, I realized one thing. The beast said that I could use my power only when it was related to good deeds, but there were no restrictions on voluntarily helping me.

Kadan and Gilbert continued to fight. With immortality at hand, Kadan wouldn’t hold back for long. Either way, I sat down some distance away and caught my breath.

“Which of the two do you want to win?”

When I talked to the light, the light cluster formed into the shape of a question mark.

If I push Kadan here, he will try to take over Gilbert’s body. For over 500 years, he had preserved his life by changing his body periodically. Besides, Gilbert had said he would sacrifice himself.

“What will happen to you when I die?”

This time, the light made eye-shapes, and stardust fell like tears.

…… That beast, what the hell did he pass on to me? I had never heard of anything that resembled a personality.

I hid my embarrassment and asked the second question.

“What if someone else takes over my body?”

I hadn’t even asked the third, key question yet, but the light’s movement suddenly changed.

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