Chapter 127: The Weight of a Shattered Childhood

After her parents passed away, Luminas began to live in a daze.

She locked herself in her room, refusing to come out.

As her only remaining relative, Orlando, however, paid her no mind.

He continued his usual routine, frequently shuttling between ancient ruins and the academy.

He would only return occasionally to sort through some materials before swiftly departing again, as if he had completely forgotten about the child living in his home.

Though the maids sympathized with the young girl who had lost both her parents, they dared not speak up to Luminas, who remained silent and unresponsive.

The household continued to operate as usual, utterly unchanged.

But only Luminas knew that this home had already died.

Her beloved mother and father, the two people who would lovingly pat her head, would never return.

A desolate year passed, and what finally broke the oppressive silence was an ordinary afternoon.

Suddenly, many people arrived at the house. Heavy footsteps echoed through the corridors. Luminas opened her door, her eyes vacant as she watched the strangers.

She did not understand what they were doing. She merely observed them moving in and out, following Orlando’s instructions, roughly carrying out the family’s belongings, seemingly clearing out the rooms.

Suddenly, her gaze froze.

In the hands of one of the workers, Luminas spotted a stack of familiar, yellowed papers.

These were her parents’ most cherished possessions, the manuscripts they had meticulously written late into countless nights, detailing their research on the ancient ruins.

“Stop it!”

Luminas rushed forward like a madwoman, halting the workers. She snatched the manuscripts from their grasp, clutching them tightly to her chest.

“Grandpa! What are you doing? Why are you throwing them away? Those are Mom and Dad’s things!”

Facing her furious questioning, Orlando, standing at the end of the corridor, offered only a cold, emotionless reply.

“I need a room for experiments, so I’m clearing out the useless things.”

“Useless things… How could you say that? These are the only things Mom and Dad painstakingly compiled and left behind!”

“So-called value is judged by results.”

Orlando’s tone was calm, as if he were stating the simplest of matters.

“No matter how much time is spent, something without value remains without value. That fact cannot be changed.”

Luminas stared at his cruel expression in disbelief, her body trembling with rage.

“Are you saying that, in Grandpa’s eyes, all their efforts were meaningless?”

“Yes.”

“Just because they weren’t the chosen ones, everything they did was worthless?”

“Regrettably, yes.”

“No!”

Luminas clenched her fists, roaring with all her might, “What they did was not worthless! Absolutely not!”

“Because they… they gave birth to me! I am special, I am the chosen one! I will inherit their legacy and prove to you that they, who gave birth to me, were meaningful!”

Tears welled in her eyes but did not fall. Luminas’s gaze was more resolute than ever before.

“Oh…”

Orlando tilted his chin, scrutinizing the small girl before him from his superior height.

“How will you prove it?”

Luminas stared intently into Orlando’s eyes.

In the depths of her once stagnant, dull eyes, something seemed to shatter.

Then, a strange blue light suddenly flared.

The blue light seemed capable of piercing through all illusions, of peering into the river of time.

It was the divine authority of Akacia, the God of Wisdom.

“Like this!”

Finally, a shift appeared in Orlando’s expression.

He gestured to the bewildered workers to put down their clutter.

“Interesting. Very well, when you turn ten, I will personally verify if you are truly the chosen one.

As for these things, you may dispose of them as you wish.”

The workers dispersed, and Orlando turned and left, leaving seven-year-old Luminas standing alone in the empty corridor.

Wiping away her tears, she laboriously dragged her parents’ belongings, little by little, into her room.

While sorting through the dusty items, she discovered an exquisitely wrapped, long gift box tied with a ribbon.

Carefully untying it, she found a beautifully crafted rapier resting silently on a velvet cushion.

The blade was forged from superior mithril, pure silver in color, with patterns like flowing clouds etched into its surface.

In the dim room, its elegant curves emitted a cool, beautiful light, reminiscent of the Milky Way.

A small card lay quietly in the box, bearing a line of delicate script:

“My dearest Lumi, Happy Birthday!”

Luminas bit her lip, refusing to let the tears fall.

She extended her hands, mustering all her strength, and laboriously lifted the rapier.

“Please watch closely, Father, Mother…

I will become stronger, I will become the chosen one. I will… prove to Grandpa that your choice was not wrong!”

Thus, from that day forward, Luminas’s childhood definitively came to an end.

She became like a tireless machine, pouring all her life force into that ethereal quest for proof.

In the early morning, before the first ray of sunlight could pierce through the mist, the sound of her rapier whistling through the air already echoed in the backyard.

The rapier, somewhat too heavy for a young child, repeatedly chafed her skin, and blood-stained cloth bandages were replaced again and again.

Late at night, when the servants were deep in slumber, her room remained brightly lit by candlelight. She hunched over her parents’ manuscripts and ancient texts, forcing herself to decipher the arcane characters, never daring to stop for a second, even when her head throbbed and her vision blurred.

Every sleepless night, she would stare intently at her own blue-glowing eyes in the mirror, desperately reminding herself:

“You are special! You are the one favored by Lord Akacia, the chosen one!”

Under this almost masochistic self-exertion, her swordsmanship grew increasingly refined, and she became more adept at wielding Akacia’s divine authority.

However, at the same time, the expressions on her face grew increasingly淡薄. Her human emotions, like impurities, were gradually stripped away, eventually disappearing entirely.

Her parents’ former colleagues would occasionally visit. At first, they would kindly offer a few pointers, but eventually, they could say nothing, only revealing astonished gazes.

“Truly worthy of Mr. Orlando’s upbringing! She’s simply extraordinary!”

“To be capable of future observation at such a young age is nothing short of genius!”

“Perhaps one day, she truly will become as great as Mr. Orlando.”

“Indeed, it seems the two in heaven can finally rest easy!”

People praised her without reservation. However, the man whose recognition she most desired—Orlando—cared nothing for it.

For many years, they lived under the same roof, yet remained strangers, never even exchanging a single word.

Time flowed, seasons turned, and three years quickly passed.

Although Luminas had not grown much taller, her figure remained small and delicate. Yet, the former frailty had vanished, replaced by an apathy utterly unbefitting her age.

Finally, the appointed day arrived.

It was Luminas’s tenth birthday.

There was no cake, no candles, no blessings.

Luminas entered the cold, empty laboratory and looked at Orlando, who stood emotionless in the center.

This had once been her parents’ room, but it was now unrecognizable, filled with cold magical instruments, bearing no resemblance to its past self.

“Stand over there.”

Orlando offered no pleasantries, merely pointing to a massive transparent crystal ball and speaking coldly, “Place your hand on it. This is the test. Good.”

Luminas exhaled softly, walked forward, and stood on her tiptoes to place her hand upon it.

The magical circuits on the crystal ball began to operate. A faint blue light flickered in Orlando’s murky eyes.

Through the crystal ball, he intently observed every subtle change in Luminas’s lifeline, unwilling to miss any detail.

He was the greatest archaeologist of his era, having deciphered countless ancient civilizations and a legendary figure who had advanced the existing magical system by a full fifty years.

He was also a diviner seen once in a millennium, whose eyes could accurately foresee major events a year in advance, never once making an oversight.

Luminas tensed her entire body, her heart pounding incessantly. In the depths of her being, she seemed to feel a power scrutinizing her from head to toe, from body to soul, even into every corner of her future.

She knew that this result would determine whether she could become the chosen one, whether she could prove the worth of her deceased parents.

After a long while.

The crystal ball ceased its operation, and the blue light in Orlando’s eyes faded.

His face showed no surprise, no disappointment, no expression whatsoever.

He simply walked past Luminas without a word, heading towards the door.

“Wait!”

Luminas panicked slightly. For the first time in years, an anxious expression appeared on her face.

“What’s the result? Am I special? Am I the chosen one?”

“Regrettably, you are not the chosen one either.”

A single, light remark instantly shattered Luminas’s world.

“This… this is impossible…”

Orlando did not reply, nor did he pause for even a second. He simply pushed open the door and walked out.

Luminas’s pupils trembled uncontrollably. All her strength drained away in an instant, and she collapsed to her knees on the floor.

These three years, she had sacrificed her childhood, her happiness, almost everything.

Yet, what she received was such an understated conclusion.

Was she truly worthless?

Then, were her parents, who gave birth to her, also worthless?

Was all of this a mistake?

‘It can’t be…’

Luminas clutched her head, her hands tightly gripping her hair.

‘Why? Even though I’ve awakened Lord Akacia’s divine authority, why is this still the outcome?’

The devastating mental blow nearly shattered her sanity.

Yet, even so, she refused to give up so easily.

“No… it’s not over yet…”

Luminas murmured, stubbornly climbing back to her feet.

“Prophecy… prophecy isn’t entirely accurate. I’m only a teenager now, and there’s a long future ahead… As long as I work hard enough, one day, one day my destiny will change!”

Thus, she began an even more brutal training regimen.

She wielded her sword like a madwoman, devoured magical texts, desperate to prove to that man—that she was right, that she was special!

But, like a small pebble tossed into the ocean, her actions failed to stir even a ripple in Orlando’s eyes.

It was complete disregard, as if even a second glance would be a waste of time.

For Luminas, it was a humiliation a hundred times more intense than being scolded or cursed.

At the same time, what filled Luminas with even greater dread and despair was the apparent stagnation of her talent.

No matter how hard she tried, her future observation abilities could not improve by even a fraction. They remained the same as years ago, capable of seeing only a few seconds into the future at most.

Her swordsmanship also hit a bottleneck. Her physical strength had reached its limit, and to progress further, she would have to focus more on white magic.

However, fate seemed to play a cruel joke on her. Her affinity for elemental magic, or white magic, could only be described as ordinary, far from special.

Others, unaware, continued to praise her, calling her a rare genius, worthy of being Lord Orlando’s granddaughter and a descendant of the Tingel family.

Yet, Orlando himself remained utterly indifferent to her, continuing his life as he pleased.

The obsession with value.

On the other hand, cruel reality was progressively validating the prophecy’s accuracy.

This contradictory sense of fragmentation pushed Luminas to the brink of collapse.

What truly became the final straw was that night when she was fourteen.

That day, the laboratory door was ajar.

As Luminas passed by, she glimpsed through the crack a scene that would forever be etched in her memory.

Orlando, who was usually cold and ruthless, never even bothering to spare her a glance, was now staring at the massive crystal ball, a look of ecstatic, excited joy on his face.

He continuously mumbled a name—Celeste.

It was the first time Luminas had ever seen her grandfather wear such a frenzied expression, and the first time she realized that he could hold such high regard for someone else.

“Finally… finally found her!”

“Celeste… she is the true chosen one! The one destined to change this world! I must, I must find her immediately!”

Her grandfather repeated these words incessantly, then disappeared the very next day.

No farewell, no instructions, not even a letter was left behind. He abandoned the family without hesitation, then vanished completely without a trace.

Luminas felt as though she had fallen into a lightless void. She now realized that she had been abandoned by the world.

She had no family, no friends. The housemaids and servants, losing Orlando as their pillar, packed their bags and left one by one.

Reflecting on her countless days and nights of effort over the years, she found it all meaningless, even laughable. The very things she had painstakingly tried to prove received no recognition from anyone.

Standing in the empty courtyard, she wanted to laugh but couldn’t, wanted to cry but couldn’t.

In the day-after-day torment, the long-suppressed, unvented emotions finally became uncontrollable, transforming into deep-seated hatred.

However, she sorrowfully discovered that she couldn’t even find an object for her hatred.

Ultimately, she fixed her gaze upon Celeste.

She did not understand, nor would she accept it.

Why was this person she had never heard of the chosen one?

Was the difference between her and Celeste truly so vast? Did all her life’s efforts truly amount to less than the other’s innate talent?

She refused to believe it, refused to accept it.

Clutching this obsession, she entered Acadia Academy and met the legendary red-haired girl.

Then, she comprehended a cruel truth.

It turned out that geniuses truly existed in this world, truly existed as chosen ones.

Even if Celeste did nothing, she would still receive the favor of the gods. All of Luminas’s efforts were utterly insignificant before Celeste.

However, the more she understood the insurmountable gap between them, the deeper Luminas’s resentment grew, eventually twisting into a distorted obsession.

‘Just once, if only once.’

‘As long as I can pull that lofty chosen one down, as long as I can defeat her, no matter what means I use, no matter what price I pay, I will not hesitate!’

‘Because only then can I prove that everything I’ve sacrificed was not wrong, that it had value.’