Chapter 85: The Simpleton’s Heart.

Alya had always been a simpleton.

Even as a child, she was never able to hide her emotions like how her other siblings did.

She was the only one who cried when one of her brothers died while trying to claim the Founder’s Sword, she was the only one who slapped her elder brother, Raymond, the current Patriarch of the Ruinbringer Family, after he coldly called that death as nothing more than the result of his stupidity.

And she was the only one who ever dared to speak against her strict father whenever he punished her siblings for being incompetent.

Despite being treated as an unwanted bastard child and despite growing up as nothing more than a maid’s daughter, Alya always looked at the world with optimism.

But everything shattered on the day she awakened and the day she was branded as the most talentless Ruinbringer.

She was exiled from the family with nothing more than a handful of coins, handed to her like charity.

She wandered the streets of the Holy Empire, surviving however she could, until her master found her.

He was the first person to recognize her worth and the one who taught her everything.

But even after all that struggle she couldn’t reach the same heights as the Patriarch of that damned family.

So, instead, she found her own way to take her revenge.

She became a professor of the academy and by some twist of fate, the very first class assigned to her happened to be the World Class.

The class was attended by the only Ruinbringer descendant whose circumstances were the exact same as her own...

But unlike her, he was never exiled.

She had heard countless rumors about how spoiled he was. So, even before meeting him, she already decided to hate him and planned to make his life a living hell.

Very few people knew she had once been a Ruinbringer herself and even if they did, she wouldn’t have cared.

But now, the very boy whose life she had sworn to ruin sat before her with an expression eerily similar to the one she once had as he recognised her as a Ruinbringer and only after seeing that face, did she finally understand.

She truly had become no different from the people she once hated.

What did this child ever do wrong?

Why was I trying to make him suffer for something his father did?

Why did I believe those rumors without ever questioning them?

Why did I assume a child like him couldn’t have suffered just as much as I did?

How...

How could I do something like this?

Her thoughts spiraled into an abyss of self-loathing as the weight of her actions finally came crashing down upon her.

She couldn’t bring herself to utter a single word.

The only thing she could do...

...was lower her head in anger at herself.

Meanwhile, the boy continued.

"You know... my own father was ready to sacrifice me for the son he deemed talented." A bitter smile appeared on his face. "He even asked me to accept that sacrifice myself."

His voice grew quieter.

"Do you know what that felt like?"

"If the Goddess herself hadn’t intervened during the hearing, I would have been hanged for a crime I never committed... simply because, to them, I was born talentless."

He lowered his gaze.

"Back then, I used to hide away in a corner of the library just to escape. The old librarian took pity on me and would tell me stories about the great woman who had suffered the same fate... only to rise above it all and become the legendary Mirror Mage everyone respected."

A faint lonely smile crossed his lips.

"Those stories gave me the strength to endure that hell and helped me survive and you were supposed to be my idol, Aunt..."

"But in the end..."

"You turned out to be just another one of those scum who judge people by baseless rumors... and talent."

No... That’s not true.

Alya wanted to deny it, she wanted to scream that it wasn’t true but the words refused to leave her lips.

The boy slowly rose from his chair.

"I don’t need any reward from you. So... I will be leaving."

He turned toward the door but before he could take another step, Alya shot to her feet and wrapped her arms around him, hugging the boy who had suffered even more than she had.

"I’m sorry."

"I’m sorry."

"I’m sorry for becoming just like the people I hated."

"I’m sorry for being such a pathetic aunt."

She repeated those words over and over, her embrace tightening with each apology.

Meanwhile, the boy simply stood there in silence as if he was letting her pour out everything she had kept buried for so many years.

Only after what felt like hours did Alya finally calm down and slowly loosened her embrace and looked at her nephew properly for the first time.

She wasn’t just looking at her nephew. Nor was she simply looking at a boy who needed help, it felt as if she was looking at her younger self.

The little Alya who had once desperately needed someone to reach out...

But no one ever did.

***

Once they had both calmed down, they took their seats once again. Alya apologized yet again before asking about everything he had been through over the years.

How had he been? How was he coping? How were the others?

She listened patiently, doing her best to comfort the poor child who, in her eyes, had clearly been left deeply traumatized.

The more she spoke with him, the stronger her hatred for her own brother, the boy’s father, became and the more she hated that bastard, the stronger her protective instincts toward her nephew grew.

In the end, she promised to protect him from every kind of trouble and to make sure he would never have to suffer alone again the way she did.

Her master was the light that guided her through the darkness and now, she would become that same light for this boy.

And maybe, someday, she would kill the bastard who was the root of both their suffering.

Raymond Von Ruinbringer.