The Arks - Chapter 370

But the kicker in the letter is that the baby brother had suffered severe head trauma to the front of his skull, which was not fully developed yet. Thus, the physical abuse that the child suffered at the hands of Kris had inevitably killed him.

And this alerted the Arks as well since the affairs of the Five Kings were being handed over for Mavislin to monitor. But because Baldwin felt that it was a small conflict, he failed to inform Mavislin about it. Thus, brushing the matter off.

But the mother couldn’t bear to see her son tossed to another Domain. Not because she was worried for him, but rather, she was worried that he would harm the other kids as well. She was drowning in shame as she blamed herself.

Had she controlled him, disciplined him, or said ‘no’ to him once, he wouldn’t have taken an innocent life. A paralyzing fear of remorse surged through her body as her tears gushed down. Her hands couldn’t stop shaking. But she didn’t dare to hurt her son.

She had all the time in the world to look through those letters and she did just that, only to find more problems with her child. He was a thief and sabotage. He was a murderer and bully. He took innocent lives to fuel his boredom.

He made girls cry when he yanked their hair out. He may not have directly killed anyone, but his beatings to the younger children would cause permanent damage and at times, killing the child. Like how he had killed the Midford boy.

“I’m so sorry… It’s all my fault that you turned out like this. If I wasn’t so smothering to you, you wouldn’t have done such a crime…” wept his mother, who held onto a small bottle.

“I don’t deserve to be a mother… I’m such a failure… I caused another child’s death because I was too weak to stop my kid.”

His mother allowed her tears to smudge the papers below. She knew that she couldn’t live on with this guilt and looked towards the door.

“I wish he was here with me. But I don’t think I would him to see like this either. We belong to the house of Dalles but I am ashamed of what my offspring has done. I hate this name that I bear. I hated this life that I have lived.”

Kris tried calling out to his mother, asking what was wrong and why was she crying. Lamentably, this was only a mirage of the past. He had no way of fixing or altering it in any way. A feeling of horror spiked within his voice as his mother took out a small bottle.

The memory of what sparked his journey. But it wasn’t what he had envisioned. He glanced at the empty bottle, which had the engraving of a flower with a berry in the middle. It was the flower of the infamous plant, Atropa Bella Donna. Deadly nightshade.

A sudden gust of wind came by as Kris turned to see who was there. He was staring at his younger self. They were a decade apart of the same person but they had similar expressions. Pale with fear and despair. The current Kris was watching as his younger self cradled his mother.

Knowing the effects of poison, Kris, at a tender age, could confirm that his mother had poison in her system. But this was in the past, back when medical history was still poor in those areas. Hence, Kris had no cure for his mother.

Kris felt a lump at the back of his throat as he witnessed this painful memory. He knew that his mother would never wake up again until he found the cure.

“Have you forgotten what happened next?” asked a voice within Kris’ head.

The voice sounded like his own, yet it wasn’t one he could familiarise with.

“You remembered the promise you made that day. But do you remember what you did next?” asked the voice, once more.

Kris shook his head and clenched his fists. He only remembered that he dragged his mother’s body onto her bed and tucked her in.

“She’s sleeping, right? I tucked her in and the next day, I placed her in a glass tank to let her keep sleeping. That’s why I gotta find a cure to wake her up from this slumber! I need to….” begged Kris, as he looked up to find the voice.