Chapter 26: Mother

Mother

"Mother, please, don't report me, I don't want to do this either." Long ago, the man who was still Er Dan knelt on the ground, grabbing the pant leg of a woman in her forties, pleading sadly.

B-rank Sentinels have a four-hundred-year lifespan; their appearance decades ago differs little from now, perhaps because they still retain some youthfulness, making them fairly handsome.

He crawled on his knees, his eyes filled with longing and panic, tears in his eyes, his face and torso already covered in green, like a segment of verdant tree trunk.

He reached out, letting his mother touch the area where his aberration had already begun.

The smooth skin beneath his palm was dry and rough, like the bark of an old tree beside the orphanage gate; Qing Zhi couldn't help but step back.

The stacked bowls and plates behind him tilted, clattering to the floor; a shard of porcelain scraped Er Dan's leg, and the shard bounced up from the ground, rolling far away with a clatter.

Qing Zhi shook her head hesitantly, her eyes flickering; she felt pity for the child's plight, but she could not do this, she could not harm the Guide.

Were it not for the efforts of the Guides and Sentinels, humanity might have already perished; they cannot do this……

Qing Zhi reached out her hand to Er Dan, wanting to touch his head: "Er Dan, I will work hard to earn money; a D-rank alleviant costs only fifty thousand, we can scrape together enough."

"Time? What I lack most is time." He suddenly roared; Qing Zhi shuddered, withdrew her hand, they clasped hands, and her gaze toward the child became utterly alien.

Clearly, before differentiation, Er Dan was a good child who respected elders and loved the young; how did everything change?

Seeing his mother's alien gaze, Er Dan suppressed the fire in his heart, lowered his voice and said, "Mother, do you know how fast a D-rank aberration progresses?"

"Isn't it enough to just not use abilities to last a year?" Qing Zhi ultimately couldn't bear to part with her child; she pretended not to hear his outburst, and spoke according to what she had learned at the Federal Academy.

Er Dan looked incredulously at the mother who had always doted on him, wondering why his mother was unwilling to let him live.

"You're just an ordinary person; what do you know? The Federation says that only to comfort people."

The more Er Dan spoke, the calmer his voice became.

He noticed that his mother's temples already had white hair, the lines on her face more numerous than before; the once beautiful face had faded with the passage of time.

Her hands had become rough, her knuckles enlarged, and she no longer had the strength to lift him.

Indeed, his mother was merely an ordinary person, an ordinary person without any special qualities.

His knowledge about Guides and Sentinels is pitifully little; isn't it just that he says whatever he wants?

It is only fitting that a mother who pities her child makes some sacrifices; he is the family's mainstay.

The mother is already old; her decisions are no longer effective.

Thinking this, Er Dan straightened his waist and stood up; an adult male's stature is enough to look down upon his weak, frail mother.

Er Dan felt a hint of pain in his heart, but it was not obvious compared to his ambition.

He had encountered a Guide, a rarity seen once in a century; who says this isn't his opportunity?

For ordinary people, the differentiation period mostly occurs between ages fourteen and twenty, with only a few differentiating due to some stimulation.

And he happened to meet a Guide who had differentiated after being struck by the loss of his father—a child of his squadmate.

In that battle, only the two of them survived.

The feeling of being guided by a Guide is something an alleviant can never match; therefore he hid the frail child he called his brother, telling him that the danger had not yet been lifted.

The child was very well-behaved, not noisy, silently cooperating.

But his movements were noticed as abnormal by his mother, who silently followed and discovered everything.

"Mother, look, my aberration has already begun; I will die soon."

"You don't want your only child to die, do you?" He whispered, sounding both pleading and threatening.

The Guide's awakening level is very low; even the contamination of a D-rank Sentinel cannot be fully resolved.

It doesn't matter; that is his sole treasure.

"Moreover, the Guide himself is willing; if you don't believe me, you can go ask." He spoke frankly and confidently, causing Qing Zhi to waver, wondering if everything the child said was true.

And that truly is a Guide.

Her hand hooked the edge of the wooden table, and the flowing water wetted her fingers.

In fact, she only saw a thin figure with its back to her, spine protruding, and she immediately ran out without stopping.

Imprisoning a Guide is a capital offense; one will be sent to the front lines to face alien species until death in battle.

Her son should not do such a thing; that Guide must have agreed to this, right?

After all, it's her own child; he would surely not deceive her; it must be so.

Her dark eyes dimmed, as if veiled by a layer of gray gauze; her clenched fingers relaxed, and the streaming water fell like gushing blood, sliding between her fingertips to strike the no-longer-smooth dishes.

"As long as the Guide is willing, that's fine."

Qing Zhi's dark eyes trembled; she could not bring herself to go downstairs to the attic to inquire, her heart filled with fear and dread.

After a very long time, Qing Zhi also did not understand why her child gradually lost reverence for the Guide, gradually becoming alien, which made her feel terrified.

Why did that Guide die so soon, and why is her child's gaze so hideous?

Why do so many children at the orphanage go missing when they reach the differentiation period? Why did she once hear the voices of missing children in his manor? Why, in her dreams, do those children silently accuse her, their eyes filled with indignation, hatred, and disbelief as they look at her?

She closed her eyes, unwilling to look, as if indulging the child for the first time, becoming a mother who is blind and deaf.

Only in occasional moments of leisure would she think, perhaps she had really made a mistake; then she would work even harder, not allowing herself any leisure.

Perhaps the children of the orphanage still need her……

She comforted herself.

……

"You have no evidence; even a Guide cannot arbitrarily dispose of a Sentinel. Federal law clearly states that every person, whether Guide, Sentinel, or ordinary person, possesses human rights."

"All people are born free and equal in dignity and rights."

Fu Guang and Wen Ya faced the Sentinel who mouthed legal justice while acting in stark opposition; he could hardly conceal his killing intent.

Evidence is not unobtainable; it merely requires time, and time is the most precious thing, which must not be wasted on this scum.

Wen Ya rose to her feet, stepped forward; when a Guide enters a Sentinel's mental landscape, he reads the Sentinel's memories.

Although it was a bit nauseating, it was sufficiently swift.

Qingzhi heard the movement, turned her cloudy eyes, a glint appeared in her eyes, her face twitched slightly, she spoke in a hoarse voice: "I have evidence."

Er Dan shouted, eyes about to burst, "Mother." then Bai Gao dislocated his jaw, he could only make whimpering sounds.

Qingzhi lifted her face full of fine wrinkles, she recalled that she had seen the original guide.

The child's eyes were bright, yet they said cautiously, "Being by your side I feel very warm; can I call you Mom?"

The young children gathered around her, calling her "Grandma."

Yet she had never been a competent mother or grandmother.