Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1862: They Live for Themselves First

^…^

Young Aether stood up from the bed without waiting for her response. He simply walked out of the wooden house.

Once outside, he began walking through the streets without knowing where he was going. His head remained lowered, his eyes dull, while his feet dragged heavily against the ground.

There was no destination waiting for him, and there was nowhere he particularly wanted to reach.

He simply continued moving because stopping would require him to decide what he was supposed to do next, and he no longer possessed the will to make that decision.

His body felt strangely lifeless, as though he were carrying someone else’s corpse around inside his own skin.

Every step was heavy, and yet he continued walking without reacting to the people passing around him.

No matter how hard he tried to push the memories away, his thoughts kept returning to the same moment.

The moment those voices had laughed.

Their laughter continued echoing inside his mind like a damaged recording that had become trapped in an endless loop.

Every time he thought it had finally faded, the sound returned again, clearer than before, carrying the same mockery that had shattered whatever remained of his trust.

“Aether… If they betrayed you, then kill them all. Isn’t that what you came here for?”

RIN’s voice echoed through the earpiece.

Yet the words never truly reached him.

After all, she was nothing to him, wasn’t she?

She was just another fake existence that had eventually revealed itself.

He continued walking, dragging his heavy feet along the pavement while the sky above him grew darker with every passing minute.

THUNDER!!!

Lightning tore across the cloudy sky, illuminating the entire street for a brief instant before darkness returned.

The clouds were thick and swollen with rain, hanging low over the city as though the heavens themselves were struggling to contain everything they carried.

Young Aether didn’t stop.

He continued walking beneath the darkening sky. He didn’t know how long he had been walking, and he didn’t care how much farther he would have to go.

He just… go!

Clink~

Young Aether slowly lifted his head and looked toward the source of the sound.

A traditional wine shop stood beside the street.

Young Aether stared at them for several seconds with an expression that contained absolutely no interest.

Then he walked inside.

The warm atmosphere of the shop surrounded him as soon as he entered, carrying the strong scent of alcohol, polished wood, and the faint fragrance of food from somewhere deeper within the establishment. Conversations filled the room, accompanied by occasional laughter and the clinking of glasses.

He walked toward an empty table and sat down, immediately slouching over it with his shoulders hanging heavily.

A waitress noticed him and approached the table with a professional smile.

“Sir, what would you like to have?”

Young Aether didn’t answer.

The waitress waited patiently for several seconds before leaning slightly closer.

“Sir?”

Young Aether slowly raised his head and looked at her with hazy, empty eyes.

“Give me something that makes me… forget everything.”

He spoke as though he were asking for medicine rather than alcohol.

He tapped his ring against the waitress’s ring, and the payment was instantly transferred.

[$10,000 Received]

The waitress’s eyes widened when she saw the amount.

She quickly recovered and smiled brightly before turning toward the shelves.

“Of course, sir.”

She selected one of the most expensive bottles available, a heavy bottle that clearly wasn’t intended for a teenager.

Another waitress noticed what she was doing and immediately frowned.

“What are you doing? That’s one of the heavier bottles we have, and he barely looks like an adult. One glass of that could knock him out, so why are you taking the entire bottle to him?”

The first waitress merely glanced at the payment notification before shrugging.

“He paid for it.”

She carried the bottle back to Young Aether’s table and placed it in front of him together with a glass.

“Should I uncork it for you, sir?”

Before she could finish speaking, Young Aether snatched the bottle from her hand.

He pulled the cork away with his mouth and immediately raised the bottle to his lips.

Gulp… Gulp… Gulp… Gulp…!!

The waitress watched in disbelief as he swallowed the alcohol without stopping. The entire bottle disappeared down his throat within a fraction of a few seconds, leaving nothing but an empty container in his hand.

He lowered the bottle and placed it on the table.

Tang!

The waitress stared at him with genuine shock.

“S-Sir, that’s too much alcohol to drink that quickly. You should slow down before—”

“One more.”

Young Aether’s cheeks had already begun turning red, and his eyes had acquired a faint haze.

The waitress hesitated.

“Sir, perhaps you should—”

[$10,000 Received]

She immediately stopped speaking.

Her professional smile returned.

“Of course. Anything for you, sir.”

She quickly returned to the shelf and selected another expensive bottle.

From that moment onward, the evening became a continuous cycle of bottles being placed on the table, Young Aether opening them, and the alcohol disappearing into him almost as quickly as it arrived.

He kept drinking like a man who desperately wanted to drown himself inside something stronger than his own thoughts.

But the irony was that… When someone wanted only a casual drink, alcohol could blur the world and temporarily convince a person that their problems existed farther away than they actually did.

But when someone truly wanted to forget something, That Motherfucker works directly opposite!

It makes them remember every single fucking thing!!!

And Young Aether was no different.

The more he drank, the more vividly he remembered.

The more he tried to bury those memories, the deeper they seemed to claw their way back toward him.

The kindness.

The trust.

The conversations.

The relationships he had believed were genuine.

The moments he had allowed himself to lower his guard.

The more he remembered, the more painfully fake everything seemed.

“Another…”

“Another… hic!”

“An… other…”

His words were becoming increasingly slurred, and his head began moving slightly from side to side.

“Aa…ther…”

He attempted to raise the bottle again, but his movements had become noticeably slower.

“Aaaa…”

The word dissolved into an incoherent sound as his consciousness sank deeper beneath the alcohol.

His entire face had flushed red, and his eyes were barely able to remain focused. His head occasionally dipped toward the table before he forced himself upright again, refusing to stop drinking despite the fact that his body was already struggling to keep up with him.

Meanwhile, a child with ice-blue eyes sat quietly across from him

He didn’t care… He simply continued drinking.

Soon, the wine shop began approaching its closing time.

Cli—

“Sorry, dear customers, but we are out of wine. Please visit us next time.”

Another waitress stood near the entrance, placing the closing sign on the door while gently pushing the new customers away from the entrance.

“What? The fuck are you talking about?”

“S-Sorry, sir, but we have completely run out.”

The angry customer looked toward the shelves in disbelief, while the waitress could only offer an apologetic smile.

Meanwhile, the same waitress who had been serving Young Aether approached his table awkwardly.

“S-Sir… It’s almost nighttime, and we are about to close…”

Her eyes slowly moved toward the table.

The table was covered with nothing but empty bottles.

There were so many of them that they had begun accumulating around his chair and beneath the table.

He had emptied their entire stock.

They had literally run out of wine because of one customer.

Some were genuinely surprised that he had remained conscious for this long, while others were quietly cursing him for consuming almost everything they had in storage.

“A… An… Ann…tttrr…ppsss…”

Young Aether lifted one finger unsteadily.

The waitress stared at him awkwardly.

“Sir…?”

Young Aether’s finger remained raised.

The waitress didn’t know what to do anymore, so she slowly walked toward the owner.

“Sir, what should we do? He wants another one.”

The owner simply shook his head.

“We have no stock left.”

He looked toward the empty shelves with a tired expression.

“And even if we wanted to give him more, we won’t have anything for the next week. The next inventory shipment isn’t coming until it arrives from Epsilon.”

The waitress stared at the empty shelves.

“So… that’s it?”

“That is it.”

The owner sighed.

Meanwhile, several of the waitresses had gathered together and started whispering among themselves.

“Hey, what do you think?”

One waitress glanced toward Young Aether with a calculating expression, her eyes practically glowing with the thought of money.

“He must be loaded. If we can get close to him, we might be able to squeeze everything out of him.”

Another waitress looked at Young Aether from head to toe before her expression became noticeably more suggestive.

“Not to mention, look at him. He’s fucking handsome, and I’ve never had a young one before.”

The younger waitress beside her immediately rolled her eyes.

“Bitch, you’re freaking thirty years old. What could your loose pussy possibly get from him?”

She gave a sly grin.

“Besides, let me handle this one. I know how to deal with rich customers.”

The older waitress’s expression immediately changed.

“The fuck? You’re the one who keeps sleeping with rich customers and taking their belongings every time!”

“What can I say? It works.”

“You shameless bitch.”

“You’re just jealous because they always choose me.”

The two continued arguing over who should approach Young Aether first, each one trying to figure out how they could trick him into spending even more money.

Clink~

The sound made both women turn their heads.

“…He left?”

They stared toward the entrance.

Young Aether had already walked out of the wine shop.

Outside, Young Aether stumbled onto the street with unsteady steps. His eyes were hazy, his cheeks flushed from the alcohol, and his body moved with an awkward imbalance.

He continued walking without knowing where he was going.

^Aether… should I call a cab? Aether, get yourself together! They aren’t worth it.^

RIN’s worried voice echoed through his earpiece.

Young Aether didn’t respond.

RIN became increasingly concerned.

^Listen, Aether… this isn’t you. Where did your haughtiness and overbearing attitude go? So what if they betrayed you? You are still you!^

She paused briefly before continuing.

^You can beat the shit out of them if you want. You have the power to do it. You don’t need to sit here and destroy yourself over people who betrayed you.^

Young Aether continued walking.

RIN’s voice became quieter for a moment before she added,

^And honestly… I’m still confused about one thing. Why haven’t you killed them yet?^

She couldn’t understand it.

The person she had known was cold.

Ruthless.

To RIN, Young Aether had sometimes seemed like a monster wearing human emotions whenever it suited him.

He could be merciless when necessary.

He could make horrifying decisions without hesitation.

He could look at situations that would make others hesitate and simply ask what outcome benefited him most.

But this…

This wasn’t him.

The man walking through the streets now didn’t resemble that Young Aether at all.

There was no arrogance in his posture.

No confidence in his eyes.

No ruthless calculation behind his silence.

He simply looked broken.

RIN couldn’t understand how someone like him could change so drastically within such a short period.

Perhaps the betrayal had caused some form of psychological collapse.

Perhaps…

^Could the Hyperube have done something to you…?^

She had seen Young Aether touch the Cube.

She had seen the strange events surrounding him afterwards… and he started acting weird from that moment, right?

THUNDER!!

Another thunderclap erupted across the heavens, its violent roar shaking the night as a flash of lightning illuminated the entire city for a fleeting second before everything was swallowed by darkness once again.

Sssssshhhhh!

Rain suddenly began to pour from the sky, growing heavier with every passing second until the streets were quickly covered by a shimmering layer of water.

Young Aether’s footsteps slowly came to a stop.

He raised his head toward the sky, revealing his dark, emotionless eyes that carried none of the life they once possessed.

The raindrops fell directly onto his unblinking eyes.

One after another, they struck his pupil and slid down his cheeks, indistinguishable from tears that he could no longer bring himself to shed.

“Heh… hehehe.”

A small giggle escaped from his lips.

The rain drenched his jet-black hair, soaked through his clothes, and eventually covered his entire body, yet Young Aether continued standing there and giggling quietly as though the storm had somehow become amusing.

Perhaps because the rain was doing something he could not.

It was falling without shame.

It was allowed to release everything it carried within itself, while Young Aether could only stand there with everything trapped inside his chest.

The people surrounding him immediately began rushing toward nearby shelters as the rain came crashing down with increasing force. Some covered their heads with their hands, others pulled their coats over themselves, and several desperately ran toward the nearest buildings.

Everyone had somewhere they wanted to reach.

Except him.

Young Aether remained standing in the middle of the road, completely indifferent to the storm raging around him.

As people hurried past, their shoulders repeatedly collided with his body because they were too desperate to escape the rain to notice the young man standing motionlessly in their path.

Thud!

“Hehe…”

Another person struck his shoulder while rushing past him.

Thud!

“Hehe…”

Another collision followed almost immediately, but Young Aether barely reacted.

Thud!

“Hehe…”

Again, someone slammed into his shoulder without even looking back.

Thud!

“Hehe…”

He continued laughing beneath the pouring rain, his unsteady legs wobbling violently beneath him as though his body itself had grown tired of carrying him.

Then another person crashed into his shoulder with slightly greater force.

Thud!

This time, his already unstable legs finally gave out beneath him.

His body collapsed without resistance, falling toward the ground like a broken toy whose strings had suddenly been cut.

Thuck!

His face struck the wet pavement.

Yet Young Aether did not move.

He simply remained there, lying in the middle of the road like a drunken man who had forgotten where he was supposed to go, while hundreds of raindrops continued striking his body.

The people around him barely spared him a glance.

Nobody stopped.

Nobody asked whether he was all right.

Nobody reached down and offered him a hand.

And perhaps that was fitting.

After all, he had already begun believing that nobody truly cared whether he existed.

His blank eyes stared at the rainwater gathering inches away from his face as countless droplets continued falling from the sky and disappearing into the shallow pools covering the street.

Drip…

Drip…

Drip…

His lips slowly parted as a warm breath escaped into the cold night air.

For a second, his entire body flickered from reality.

But he didn’t seem to notice it.

The sound of the rain dragged a particular memory from somewhere deep within his mind, a memory he had once treasured so deeply that he believed nothing could ever take it away from him.

A memory of his friends.

The people whose words had convinced him that he would never have to face the world alone.

The people who had made him believe that even if he lost everything else in this world, they would still remain beside him.