Volume Five: Returning from the Other Shore - Chapter 476: Again

"Greetings, my dearest mother."

She performed an elegant curtsy and said this to the lady.

My mind went completely blank.

What did she say?

Dear Mother?

Whose mother? Givinia's?

Madam... Winsani Goldleyman, is Givinia Sorel's mother?

No! If nothing unexpected happens, it's an adopted daughter? It's not impossible that a former adoptive mother and daughter could become enemies...

"Wait a minute, A Ye."

She sensed what I was thinking and gently shook her head.

"Madam, she is indeed my mother, my biological mother. The bond of blood is undeniable."

... No way?

I looked at the lady a few meters away with a puzzled expression. She also looked blank, staring wide-eyed at Givinia as if she were looking at a monster that had emerged from the abyss.

She genuinely didn't know about the existence of her daughter, Givinia.

Wait a minute, isn't the lady actually over two hundred years old?

She herself has said that she hasn't had any intimate relationship with anyone in the past two hundred years... which means that if she wanted to keep the child, it could only have been before she joined the organization?

It was then that I realized a problem, a problem I had never seriously considered.

When I first met her on the passenger ship to the North Realm Continent, my first impression of her was that she looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, which was of course just her apparent age.

How old is Givinia, exactly?

If the lady really did give birth to her before joining the organization...

"Hey... if that's the case, then... wouldn't you be almost two hundred years old?"

"It might sound old, but rest assured, I am indeed seventeen years old, that's no lie."

"But--"

"Including the 'time' I've experienced, it's indeed almost two hundred years, but my situation is a bit special. The time I've experienced doesn't equal my actual age. I'll explain to you later... no, it's best not to say."

After saying that, Givinia looked at the lady, at the woman she called her mother. Feeling her gaze, the lady clicked her tongue softly, her chest heaving violently.

"What's wrong, Mother? After your touching reunion with your daughter, is this the only thing you're going to do? Look at me like this, all I can do is stare blankly."

"You..."

"Or would it be more affectionate to call you 'Mom'? Good morning, Mom."

"No... you... it's impossible..."

"What's impossible? I'm right in front of you! Haha~"

Givinia smiled sweetly, a smile that was clearly very gentle, but it gave me the creeps.

"Do you really not want to acknowledge me as your daughter? Or did you feel guilty when you let go of the baby's neck, and then just left me in the burning mansion to fend for myself? You turned 'certain death' into 'nine out of ten chances of dying,' I should really thank you."

"I... thought..."

"Did you think I perished in the fire along with the mansion? Or did you think that even if someone rescued me, I would have been nothing but dust long ago after two hundred years? You don't mean—"

"--Haven't you ever considered that you haven't actually escaped everything you hate?"

The girl's smile was so gentle.

But in the lady's eyes, it was like the savage grin of a ferocious beast.

When did he meet Givinia? Probably more than two years ago. On a whim, he was selecting subordinates from among the lower-level staff and quickly took a liking to this girl who was very well-mannered. The girl's subsequent performance also satisfied him, to the point that he made her his Direct Subordinate.

Although she later noticed that the woman occasionally acted strangely and sometimes moved erratically, always using layers of projections to protect her mind in front of her, and that she was constantly trying to erase any traces that might be detrimental to her, the lady didn't pay much attention to any of it—she was too arrogant. What kind of trouble could a mere mid-level member of an organization cause? Not to mention that the benefits she brought far outweighed the risks.

But reality slapped the lady in the face.

Why hadn't I noticed before? Givinia's hair is light brown, and her former so-called husband also had light brown hair. Looking closer at her face and body, although she didn't possess Gwendia's mature beauty, many details were remarkably similar. It was simply...

"No way... no way..."

Memories of the past, considered dark history, exploded in her mind: a powerless childhood devoid of freedom, a forced political marriage, an ugly and dissolute so-called husband, a wedding night that made her want to commit suicide, a cold and lonely life after marriage, the unavoidable pregnancy with his child that was destined to become a political bargaining chip, and the sudden surge of murderous intent after gaining power...

Finally, after destroying everything that caused her pain and erasing all traces of the past, all that remained was that little creature lying in the crib.

When I grabbed her by the neck, the child wasn't asleep or crying; she just stared at me with those inexplicably unsettling eyes.

Why did he let go just as she was about to suffocate, leaving her to die in the burning mansion...? Was it a sudden pang of conscience after his murderous intent subsided? If that was all, why leave her in that dangerous place waiting for the almost impossible rescuers? Wouldn't it have been better to bring her out?

Now, the lady can't remember why she stopped at the last moment, but that's no longer important.

This only link between her and her unbearable past, which she thought had long since vanished into the river of time, has now suddenly revealed her true identity. Regardless of how she did it, this fact is enough.

"Just as I thought..."

The initial shock gradually faded, and tainted emotions began to surface.

"The past is such a tangled thing; no matter how many times you try to wash away its stains, they keep popping up like lint balls on a sweater, impossible to completely sever... But that only lasts until today—"

"--That's right!"

Givinia, who was beside me—or rather, her Mind Projection —vanished instantly, and when she reappeared, she was already slashing hard at the lady's neck! But the lady's reaction speed was also extremely fast. She dodged Givinia's attack in a flash, and her slender, long hand crawled up the outstretched arm like a spider, and with a pinch, she locked it firmly!

"Foolish... Do you think I'm an idiot who only relies on superpowers? Do you think I don't know any physical combat skills?"

"Of course I'm not that naive, but I can guarantee—"

With a twist of her arms, just as the lady was about to flip Givinia over, she used the lady's momentum to flip herself in mid-air and kicked at the back of the blonde-haired woman's head! The lady had to let go to block the blow, while Givinia used her freed hands to tightly hug her legs, and at the same time, the leg that was originally going to kick the back of the head suddenly hooked and locked the lady's neck!

"--In terms of physical prowess, I'm better than you!"

I only saw a blur before my eyes, and the lady was thrown out by Givinia. Before she could regain her footing, a second projection of Givinia appeared beneath her, and an uppercut nearly struck her in the cheek! Then came a third...

The fourth, the fifth... In the end, the lady only has one spiritual body, which is her true form, but Givinia's projections can create many at the same time! This is a case of many against one from the very beginning!

Only the spiritual body can directly injure a spiritual entity—therefore, Givinia's projected thoughts could directly clash with the spiritual body of the lady, yet neither of their abilities could directly harm the other. Givinia's second ability, the Air Bomb's explosion and vacuum creation, naturally couldn't harm the spiritual body, and the lady's sound waves couldn't interfere with the projection of thoughts, thus creating this strange phenomenon.

Two top-tier psychic ability users are fighting hand-to-hand—and it's a group fight where many are outnumbering one—to determine the winner.

The lady's two hundred years of life were not wasted; she had honed considerable physical skills, but they were no match for Givinia. Givinia's every move and every shift was extremely refined, and she could easily overwhelm the lady with just one projection in a one-on-one fight, let alone now that she had released so many projections.

"If this continues—you're really going to lose!"

Two Givinia punches rained down on the lady's body. While she struggled to defend herself, Givinia from behind swept her leg towards her knee, while Givinia from the side struck her side with her knee! Just as the lady finally managed to dodge, Givinia's heel fell from above, slamming directly into her face—

"Get out of here!!!"

An invisible wave swept over the lady, and all of Givinia's projections flickered and disappeared in an instant, leaving only the first one, which had dodged to a distance and tilted its head to look at her.

"What, Mom, you're finally willing to use your voice that 'interferes with the mind rather than the matter'? Your control over voice is divided into mental and physical levels, and only the latter is useless to me. If you had used the former earlier, you wouldn't be in such a sorry state."

"... It's not your place to say that... Shut up!"

"Is it because of your pointless pride? Your daughter hit you, so you only retaliate with your own fists?"

"I told you to shut up!"

For this girl, who didn't even know her real name, was later designated G, and then Givinia, living meant walking on a precarious log bridge surrounded by pitch-black darkness. To survive, to live like a human being, she had to be extremely careful with every step.

She carefully considered everyone's thoughts, carefully weighed every word, carefully predicted the development of every event, and carefully dealt with every enemy... While other children were still toddling on the lawn learning to walk, she had already begun to read people's expressions and act accordingly.

That's just who she is, even since infancy.

Memories of infancy are rarely long-lasting.

Due to factors such as the fact that their personalities had not yet formed and the passage of time being too long ago, almost no one can remember what they experienced as an infant.

But she was different.

Even after so many years, she still remembers the raging fire around the crib and the hands gripping her neck.

A woman's hands.

A mother's hand.

From that moment on, an emotion she couldn't yet comprehend flowed into her heart; before she could feel joy or sorrow, that feeling called hatred stained her infantile heart.