Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 978 978: Trying to Fix that Never broken?

Xara, of course, noticed his sudden disappearance. The moment she realized he was gone, her frown deepened into something sharper, more troubled.

She knew this man—knew how stubborn he could be... Still, it unsettled her. Without wasting time, she returned to her hidden base, her footsteps heavier than usual. But the second she stepped inside, a strange sensation crept over her.

Something felt... off.

This place was sacred. Only she ever entered. Every inch of it—every corner, every shadow, every drawer—was burned into her memory. So when she stepped into the room and saw the drawer just slightly ajar, the documents not quite in their proper place, the difference so minor most wouldʼve overlooked it... she knew immediately.

Someone had been here.

Her heart sank.

There was only one person who could possibly know this place even existed—Aether.

But how? How the hell had he gotten inside?

She rushed to the drawer, flipping through the pages with shaking hands. It didnʼt take her long... Just a glance at the document left half-open, and she knew.

She knew exactly where he went.

Without a second thought, she stormed out. Her feet carried her faster than her thoughts, through rough terrain, through the whispering wind that clung to her skin. She finally arrived... only to find him.

Standing there beneath the lonely, twisted tree—alone.

Aetherʼs figure looked smaller from afar, shadowed by conflict and hesitation. His expression was lost in thought, eyebrows drawn, lips parted as if still searching for something in the air.

”What are you doing here?”

Aether turned, startled. His face shifted through emotions—shock, guilt, confusion, then awkwardness.

”How did you...?

”I have my own ways,” she said, interrupting his stammer before it could form. Her steps were slow but deliberate as she walked toward him, her tone serious, unwavering. ”Now tell me... what the hell are you doing here?”

Aether scratched the back of his head, a nervous smile tugging at his lips. ”Just... visiting the past, I guess... Trying to understand you better,” he replied, eyes darting toward her, then down to the ground.

He looked up again—due to the illusion he wore, her height towered above his—and found himself facing her expression: sharp, annoyed, but burning with something more... something deeper.

Xaraʼs lips twitched. Anger was there, yes, bubbling beneath the surface. But there was also restraint. She wanted to lash out at him, to scold him for breaking into her sacred space, for pushing too far.

Yet... the moment she saw him, truly saw him... that intention dissolved.

He wasnʼt doing this out of annoy her. He was trying to reach her... Understand her.

So she breathed, calmed herself, and asked instead, softly but directly, ”So? Did you visit them? Do you understand me a little better now?”

Her voice didnʼt shake, but there was something hollow in it—something raw.

Aether met her gaze, then slowly turned away. His silence was heavier than words.

Xaraʼs smile was faint and weak, barely there. But she didnʼt push.

”I did visit them,” Aether finally said, eyes fixed on the distant house nestled quietly beneath the trees. ”It seems you have a brother. And a sister.”

He laughed lightly, though it didnʼt reach his eyes. ”Funny. Your sister—she looks almost exactly like you.”

Xara gave a small hum, lips curling into something wistful. ”Yeah... she does.”

”But,” Aether added with a little edge in his voice, ”her mouth was a bit bitchy. No offense. She didnʼt respect anyone. Not even your parents.”

Xara chuckled at that, low and soft, as her eyes lingered on the far-off house.

A long silence followed.

Then Aether asked, quieter this time, ”Do you... still love them?”

The question struck harder than he expected. Xara didnʼt answer at first. The breeze picked up, ruffling her long hair as she turned her face away, eyes dimming.

”Yeah,” she finally said, almost inaudible. ”Even if they donʼt remember me... even if Iʼve changed beyond recognition... yes, I still love them.”

Aether looked at her closely.

She looked beautiful in that moment—tragically so. Her features were delicate, but there was something glass-like about her.

Xara stared at the ground, then spoke, her voice distant. ”People change, Aether. Weʼre not who we were. Sometimes the things we feel... they shift too. What you feel for me now might be love. But once you spend real time with me... once you see everything... you might realize itʼs not.”

She paused, glancing sideways at him, the weight of vulnerability thick in her chest.

”Thatʼs why I showed you my secret,” she confessed. ”Because if youʼre going to love me... I want you to love all of me. The real me. The broken, flawed, messy me. Not some image or fantasy youʼve built up in your head.”

She knew... she knew herself more than anyone thatʼs she ran away...

She knew she wasnʼt perfect—far from it.

Her past was littered with terrible decisions, things she could never take back.

But despite that... or maybe because of it... she loved him. She loved Aether—not just his presence, not the comfort he brought, but the very darkness that lived inside him.

The possessive gleam in his eyes, the way he looked at her like she belonged to him—those things awakened something inside her that she could neither suppress nor explain.

She felt it. She craved it... And deep down, she needed it like breath itself.

There was no confusion anymore.

Her love for him wasnʼt distant or maternal.

It wasnʼt something pure or selfless.

It wasnʼt the love of a guardian or the affection of a mother toward her son.

No... it was real, raw, and dangerously human.

She loved him as a man.

She had accepted that truth from the moment her legs carried her over the cold mountains in search of him.

The moment their lips met and she kissed him back—not out of impulse, but out of longing.

When her sanity trembled, when her restraint cracked—she knew. She was falling... And for the first time, she didnʼt want to stop herself.

She could have pretended... It wouldʼve been easier. She couldʼve stayed silent, couldʼve maintained the illusion of control, of distance.

She couldʼve acted like none of it happened—like her heart hadnʼt been shaken, like her body hadnʼt responded to his touch, like her soul hadnʼt already started to unravel for him.

She could have hidden behind the motherly mask she wore for years... But she didnʼt.

Because his love—his madness, his obsession—reached into the deepest parts of her, the places even she had long buried.

It touched something that had been dormant for so long, something fragile and fierce... And for some reason, only he had the power to bring it back to life.

That was the reason she showed him her deepest secret.

Not for trust.

Not even for guilt.

But because she wanted him to see her completely.

She wanted to feel again.

To be understood.

To be known... And she wanted him to know that even if she was a lost cause… she still chose him.

She didnʼt want to pretend anymore. She wasnʼt going to hide behind morality or try to paint herself as a noble woman with a noble heart.

She wasnʼt that. She wasnʼt good... She never had been.

And with him, she couldnʼt lie. Not even to herself. Every part of her—the violent, the obsessive, the aching and the broken—was real... And he had seen it.

If Aether had only remained her adopted son, she mightʼve kept up the act. She couldʼve maintained the illusion of distant care and impersonal warmth. But he wasnʼt just a son anymore—not to her, not in her heart.

He had become something else.

Thatʼs why she had to reveal everything. Every piece of her soul. Every scar, every ugly truth, every craving, and every shivering thread of emotion tangled within her.

She stepped closer to him, no longer hiding—no longer pretending.

”My family... they were broken apart by my own actions,” Xara whispered, ”Even though I loved them... deeply... everything I did only pushed them further away. My choices—my mistakes—made it hard to love me back. I know I was wrong... but by the time I realized that, it was already too late.”

She paused, her hands curling at her sides, eyes lost in distant pain.

”You probably donʼt get it... but the pain... the fear in their eyes when they looked at me,” her voice cracked, ”it was like thousands of knives, stabbing into my heart. That look—like I was some kind of creature they couldnʼt even recognize... it broke me.”

She turned her gaze to Aether now, slow and heavy, her eyes filled with torment, ”They looked at me like I was a monster, Aether... The same people who once held me, kissed my forehead, told me stories at night... now they stared at me like I was nothing but some cursed thing. Do you know how much that hurts?” Her voice cracked again, lower this time, bitter with regret. ”It hurt so much... I couldnʼt take it. I ran away.”

”...” Aether remained silent. He stared at her, but it was no longer just her words he saw—it was everything beneath them. Her voice trembled, but her eyes... they held a desperate ache.

Longing... Loneliness...

Something shifted inside Aether.

And in that moment... something inside him clicked.

Something that had been stuck inside him, something blocking his thoughts, that stubborn haze in his heart—finally broke loose.

In that moment, it clicked.

He finally saw her—not as a powerful woman, not as someone dangerous or twisted—but as someone like him.

In a strange, twisted way… they were the same.

Both he and Xara… were broken.

Broken.

Not broken by the world.

Not broken by fate.

But broken by existence itself—by simply being born different.

She wasnʼt shattered by outside events... she was just born this way, with cracks already running through her soul.

And the people who once loved her?

The ones who were supposed to understand her?

Until they saw those cracks... And once they saw them, thatʼs all they could see.

The flaws... The wrongness!!

It was like seeing a perfectly white sheet of paper—pure and untouched—but with a single black dot in the corner.

People didnʼt notice the white.... They stared only at the black.

Even though the white big... yet they foucs on black part!

They judged... Thatʼs how the world always was.

And somehow... Aether, of all people—he, who shouldʼve understood her the most—he hadnʼt realized it until now.

His hand trembled as he stared down at his palm. ʼHow dare you forget yourself...ʼ he thought bitterly.

His new life, the roles heʼd taken, the responsibilities... they had made him forget what he truly was.

He too... was born broken product!... To others!!

Aether turned slowly toward her, something unspoken stirring in his chest. ”Iʼm... sorry,” he said quietly, and before she could react, he leaned forward—and kissed her.

It was sudden, but soft.

Xara blinked, her eyes wide, her breath hitching against his lips. When he pulled back, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

”What was that for?” she asked, her voice soft and uncertain.

Aether gave a small shrug, a helpless smile touching his lips. ”I donʼt know,” he murmured, then without warning, pulled her into a tight hug.

Xara stood frozen in his arms, her heart racing as confusion swirled in her chest. His embrace was tight—desperate—like he was holding on to something that might disappear if he let go.

She didnʼt understand.

Why now?

What had changed?

Aether, who douted questioned her actions, who feared her madness... now held her like she was precious.

Like she wasnʼt something broken, but something worth holding.

All this time, he had been trying to make sense of her madness... to justify it, to dissect it, to fix it.

Yeah... he trying to fix something that never broken!

But not once had he considered accepting it.

Until now.

For so long, he had been consumed by worry—about the future, about his other partners, about the chaos he was surrounded with. But in all that, he had never once stopped to ask... how Xara felt.

What she carried... What it meant to be her.

Yes, she was insane.

Yes, she was unpredictable.

But she felt. She bled. She loved.

What she did wasnʼt normal—but it was her.

And she had long accepted that truth. That no one could ever truly love her for what she was.

”...Aether?” Xara whispered, confused, her voice barely audible against his shoulder. ʼWhatʼs gotten into him?ʼ she thought, bewildered.

But then something even stranger happened.

Her eyes widened.

Her arms slowly lowered as her mouth parted in shock.

His body—it was changing.

She could feel it.

He was growing taller... his frame expanding, reshaping... his illusion unraveling right before her eyes.

His boyish features matured into something sharper, more defined. Handsome. Older.

”…Wait… What the hell...?” Her voice shook as she stepped back slightly, staring up at him.

Her expression twisted into horror—not out of fear, but shock.

The illusion was breaking away.

And now—finally—she was seeing the real Aether.