Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1790: Shifting the blame!

Young Aether and his friends’ wives stayed in the shelter for the next few days.

By then, the complete disappearance of the Delta Tower had already spread across the entire division. Every military channel, emergency broadcast, and encrypted government network echoed with the same impossible report.

Surveillance satellites had captured nothing except a violent distortion of space before the tower simply ceased to exist.

Due to the overwhelming number of cursed humans, it took several days before the military could completely eradicate the remaining monsters.

Throughout that time, Maiuri and Sasha remained with Young Aether. Strangely, unlike what had happened inside the house, neither of them experienced another episode of uncontrollable desire.

Whether it was because of the situation or they lost interest, no one knew. Even so, Young Aether never let his guard down.

He stayed close to them, protecting them whenever a person tried to hit on them in the shelter.

After all, those two were beauties on their own.

Although he had destroyed the portal, uncertainty still lingered in his heart.

There was no guarantee the president behind the operation wouldn’t find another way to reopen it and continue their mission.

Still… he had done everything he could with the limited strength and resources available to him.

That was all he could do.

“Jonathan!”

Maiuri’s voice rang through the shelter the moment Jonathan stepped inside. She immediately ran toward him, wrapping both arms tightly around his body as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“You’re alive…”

Sasha hurried over as well, embracing him from the other side with trembling hands.

“I… I really thought I was going to die…”

Jonathan quietly placed a hand on each of their backs, comforting them while allowing them a moment to release the fear they had been carrying for days.

Several survivors smiled at the reunion.

Others simply lowered their heads in silence.

Not everyone had been fortunate enough to welcome someone home.

Meanwhile, Young Aether stood several meters away with a faint smile. To anyone watching, he looked genuinely happy that his friend had returned safely.

Inside, however, his thoughts moved in an entirely different direction.

‘Hmm… He came back after just two days. That means only around four hours passed over there… Interesting.’

His eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

‘And judging by that expression… someone has already filled his head with questions. He’s furious. Which means…’

Jonathan suddenly began walking straight toward him.

Without hesitation, he grabbed Young Aether by the collar.

The movement drew the attention of nearby soldiers.

Jonathan’s icy gaze remained locked onto Young Aether.

“Answer me…” he said, his voice low enough to send a chill through the surrounding air. “What exactly have you done?”

Young Aether looked at him calmly before the corners of his lips slowly lifted.

“What have I done?” he asked almost playfully.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific, my dear friend.”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

Jonathan yanked him closer until only inches separated their faces.

Young Aether merely tilted his head.

“I don’t know.”

“DON’T YOU DARE PRETEND IN FRONT OF ME!!”

Jonathan’s roar echoed throughout the shelter, causing nearby conversations to stop instantly.

Young Aether released a quiet sigh.

“Again…” he said, gently removing Jonathan’s hand from his collar before smoothing the wrinkles from his clothes with deliberate calmness.

“Watch your fucking tone, okay? You’re making a scene.”

His eyes met Jonathan’s without the slightest hint of fear.

“Let me guess.” His voice softened, almost sounding disappointed. “You’re trying to connect me to everything that happened here. You think I caused the Delta Tower to disappear. You think I planned this.” He let out a small, bitter laugh.

“After everything… you still doubt me?”

For a brief moment, genuine hurt crossed his expression.

Jonathan’s jaw tightened.

“It never happened before,” he replied. “Then you appear… and suddenly an entire tower disappears. A dimensional gateway collapses. Thousands die. You expect me to believe that’s just a coincidence?”

Young Aether stared at him for several silent seconds before slowly shaking his head.

“I expected many things from you, Jonathan.”

His eyes briefly shifted toward Maiuri and Sasha.

“Why don’t you ask your beloved wives?” he asked quietly. “Am I responsible for what happened here?”

Jonathan remained silent.

His grip loosened ever so slightly, but his eyes never left Young Aether.

“J-Jonathan…” Maiuri finally spoke, stepping forward. “He never left our side. He stayed with us the entire time.”

Sasha quickly nodded.

“If it weren’t for him… we wouldn’t even be standing here. He protected us every single day.”

Both women moved beside Jonathan, their expressions filled with worry.

Jonathan looked from his wives… to Young Aether… then back again.

Confusion slowly replaced the certainty in his eyes.

Maiuri took a slow breath before recounting everything that had happened from the beginning.

The deeper Jonathan listened, the quieter he became.

The anger burning behind his eyes gradually faded.

“If not for him using his powers, we would have turned into those monsters and died out there. He protected us every single day. He barely even slept, saying that in a situation like this, someone might come after women when law and order begin to fall apart…”

Jonathan’s eyes softened as his fists slowly clenched.

He understood that his friend had stood beside his wives and protected them.

But then…

How had this happened?

Where had everything gone wrong?

The entire Delta Tower had vanished.

Nothing.

Not even microscopic debris remained.

Every piece of research.

Every classified database.

Every encrypted server.

Every single fucking record.

Everything had been stored inside that tower.

Now… It was all gone.

Without evidence, without survivors, and without even a crime scene, there was no longer any way to determine who was responsible.

Their division had lost everything.

Years of Military development…

Countless classified experiments…

Reduced to absolute zero in a single day.

Now they would have to rebuild everything from the ground up.

And all of it had happened shortly after Young Aether arrived.

The quarantine hospital had suddenly suffered a catastrophic outbreak.

Then the Delta Tower disappeared.

Along with thousands of soldiers.

Even so…

Looking into Young Aether’s calm eyes, Jonathan couldn’t find the expression of a guilty man.

Instead, there was only that familiar arrogance.

That unwavering confidence.

It made Jonathan question everything he thought he knew.

“Come with me.”

Jonathan turned around without waiting for an answer.

Young Aether followed him through several empty maintenance corridors until they reached an isolated section beneath the shelter.

No one could see them.

No one could hear them.

Jonathan slowly turned around.

“It’s just the two of us now, Aether…” His voice had lost its anger, replaced by exhaustion. “Just tell me the truth.”

His fists tightened.

“I won’t hurt you.”

Young Aether blinked before letting out a quiet chuckle.

“Huh? Hurt me?” He stepped closer and casually flicked Jonathan’s chest with a finger. “You think you can hurt me, little boy?”

He laughed softly.

“Don’t make me laugh.”

Jonathan stared at him silently.

Then…

He lowered his head.

A bitter smile appeared on his face, one filled more with disappointment than hatred.

“I thought I was being truthful, my friend…” he said quietly.

“I even hurt my own wife for you. I brought you everything you needed. I trusted you. I PROTECTED you.”

His voice trembled.

“And this…” he whispered. “This is what I receive for being your friend?”

Young Aether raised an eyebrow.

“Oh boy~”

He shook his head with faint amusement before leaning close enough for his lips to reach Jonathan’s ear.

“Truthful?” he whispered.

A cold smile spread across his face.

“As if you weren’t hiding something from me… fucker.”

!!!

Jonathan’s entire body stiffened.

His pupils shrank.

He instinctively took half a step backwards, staring at Young Aether as though he had seen a ghost.

“Y-Y-You…”

His voice refused to come out properly.

Young Aether only smirked.

“Don’t act so surprised.” His eyes narrowed. “Did you really think you could hide your little war preparations from me? Huh?”

Jonathan slowly lowered his head.

His teeth bit into his lower lip hard enough to draw blood.

“So…” he muttered. “This is revenge?”

“Is that why you did all of this?”

He looked back up, his eyes burning with both grief and anger.

“Ten thousand people are dead… because of you!”

His fists trembled so violently that the veins across his arms became visible.

Young Aether merely shrugged.

“Believe whatever you want.”

He looked completely indifferent.

“It’s not like I’m a saint either.”

Jonathan stood there in silence.

After several long seconds, he spoke again.

“So that’s all it was…”

His voice had become almost hollow.

“I hurt you… so you hurt me.”

A painful smile appeared on his face.

“Was that really all there was between us?”

Young Aether simply shrugged again.

Not a trace of guilt crossed his face.

Jonathan slowly shook his head.

Pain filled his eyes.

“No…” he whispered. “This isn’t you, Aether.”

“You’re not someone who slaughters innocent people.”

“You protect people.”

“You’ve always protected people.”

His memories surfaced one after another.

“You protected that old lady.”

“You protected those children.”

“You protected every woman who couldn’t defend herself.”

He stared directly into Young Aether’s eyes.

“You wouldn’t do something like this. My Aether… would never do this.”

Unable to contain the storm raging inside him, Jonathan slammed his fist into the concrete wall.

BOOM!!

Blood slowly trickled down his trembling knuckles.

Yet the pain in his hand was nothing compared to the one crushing his heart.

Young Aether rolled his eyes before replying in a voice so cold it almost froze the air around them.

“What about you?” he asked.

“You waged war against my people, and you expected me to stay silent?”

He took another step closer.

“Jonny… this is the path you chose. You hid things from me. You went behind my back.”

His gaze remained completely emotionless.

“And you paid the price.

Nothing more.”

His words twisted the truth with terrifying precision.

He spoke as though none of this would have happened if Jonathan hadn’t kept secrets from him.

As though Jonathan himself had pushed the first domino.

The blame shifted.

Slowly and Naturally~

Until it settled squarely on Jonathan’s shoulders.

As if he were responsible for the thousands of deaths.

Not the man standing before him.

Not the one who had personally set everything into motion.

There wasn’t even the slightest hesitation in Young Aether’s voice.

He believed every word he said.

Or perhaps…

He had convinced himself that believing it was easier than accepting the truth.

Jonathan’s eyes widened.

The anger within them gradually faded, replaced by something far more fragile.

Confusion, then guilt.

“So…” he whispered.

“I did this.”

His lips trembled.

“I… I killed my own people.”

His voice grew quieter with each word.

“I… killed them? Haha…”

A weak, broken laugh escaped his throat before dissolving into silence.

His eyes slowly filled with tears.

Unable to bear the crushing weight inside his chest, he clenched his fist and gently struck the wall.

Once.

Then again.

Neither hit carried any strength.

They were merely the actions of a man trying to convince himself he was still standing.

Young Aether watched quietly.

A faint, almost imperceptible smirk appeared on his lips.

Satisfied.

The seed had taken root.

Then, almost casually, he spoke again, as if… it was just a walk in the park.

“Oh… and I was the one who opened the hospital.”

The soft knocking against the wall stopped instantly.

Jonathan turned around in confusion.

“What? The quarantine hospital?”

He stared directly at Young Aether.

“What about the Delta Tower?”

Young Aether blinked before frowning with an almost insultingly innocent expression.

“How would I know?”

He pointed at himself.

“Do you seriously think I have the power to erase an entire military fortress along with thousands of soldiers?”

He let out a short laugh.

“The fuck?”

“If I had that kind of power, why the hell would I spend my time running for my life every other day?”

He spread both hands as though the accusation itself was ridiculous.

“I was angry because you hid things from me.”

“So I infiltrated the quarantine hospital… opened the gates… and let the infected loose.”

He shrugged.

“That’s all.”

“As for the Delta Tower’s disappearance… I had nothing to do with it.”

His expression never wavered.

Not even for a second.

Frankly…

He hadn’t been responsible for the tower’s collapse itself.

His objective had only been to destroy the dimensional portal.

Everything that happened afterwards…

Even he hadn’t anticipated.

So technically…

That part wasn’t entirely his doing.

At least… that was the story he intended to believe.

Jonathan blinked several times.

His mind instinctively began connecting the pieces.

If Young Aether truly possessed the ability to erase an entire fortress from existence…

Why had he struggled against monsters?

Why had he needed Jonathan’s help before?

Why had he bothered hiding inside shelters?

The logic… Disturbingly…

Made sense!

“Then…” Jonathan asked slowly.

“Who did it?”

Young Aether simply shrugged.

“How should I know?”

“…Right.”

Jonathan lowered his gaze.

“How would you know…”

For several seconds, silence lingered between them.

Then Jonathan slowly lifted his head again.

His eyes narrowed.

He stared at Young Aether with lingering suspicion.

Even if the explanation sounded reasonable…

Something deep inside him still refused to believe that this entire disaster was nothing more than coincidence.

Young Aether rolled his eyes.

“Oh, come on. I just admitted that I opened the quarantine hospital and released the cursed monsters. Do you really think I’d hesitate to take credit for the collapse of the Delta Tower?” He let out a short scoff.

“Huh? I mean, that’s an impossible feat. If I had actually accomplished something like that…” A proud grin spread across his face. “I’d be bragging about it right in front of you instead of hiding it.”

He shrugged with the expression of a man who had absolutely nothing to conceal.

As if… If he had truly done it…

He would have proudly admitted it without the slightest hesitation.

And that was exactly what made the lie so convincing.

He had already confessed to unleashing the cursed outbreak.

He had openly accepted responsibility for the deaths of over ten thousand people.

So why would someone willing to admit that hide an even greater achievement?

That single thought quietly settled inside Jonathan’s mind.

And just like that…

He nodded.

The explanation made sense.

At least… enough that he stopped questioning it.

His thoughts shifted away from the Delta Tower, and toward the one crime Young Aether had freely admitted.

The quarantine hospital.

The outbreak.

The countless civilians who had become cursed monsters.

That was something Jonathan couldn’t forgive.

Yet…

Neither could he completely blame him.

If only he had been honest with his friend from the very beginning…

If only he hadn’t hidden the military’s preparations…

If only he had trusted Aether instead of keeping him in the dark…

Perhaps none of this would have happened.

Those thoughts gnawed relentlessly at his conscience.

Unable to find the strength to argue any longer, Jonathan bit his lip before releasing a slow, exhausted sigh.

“Let’s go home.”

His voice was noticeably colder than before.

Without waiting for a response, he turned around and quietly walked away through the dim corridor.

Young Aether remained where he was for a few seconds.

“Heh~”

A small, wicked chuckle escaped his lips.

Watching Jonathan accept every carefully crafted word filled him with quiet satisfaction.

A slow smirk spread across his face.

“I really do have a wonderful friend~”

He gave a playful wink toward Jonathan’s retreating figure before casually slipping both hands into his pockets and following after him.