Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1874: Was It… All a Lie? Part-2

Allen Hatcher’s POV

“You have such a lovely grandmother… don’t you?”

The moment those words came through the phone speaker, a chill ran down my spine.

Every bit of strength seemed to drain from my body at once… I stared at the fallen phone.

For a brief moment, it felt as though he were standing right in front of me.

That voice alone was enough to make me feel small, as though everything I was had been reduced to nothing beneath its weight.

W-Why was he with my grandma?

Don’t tell me… h-he he—

“Relax, Allen. If I intended to do something, you wouldn’t be hearing her voice in the background,” he said in a cold, measured tone, as if he already knew exactly what was going through my mind.

I swallowed hard before barely managing to speak. “W-What are you doing there?”

“Well, I was worried about my favourite employee. He didn’t come to work today, so I thought I should pay a visit to his house.”

He said it so casually, as though visiting my home without warning was the most ordinary thing in the world.

“Have you eaten today, Allen?”

I froze and meekly nodded as if he could see me or something.

“Good. You should.” He said gently.

My throat went dry when I heard him asking my grandmother to prepare a warm coffee for him. I could hear her gentle voice in the background before her footsteps gradually faded away.

The moment she was gone, his voice changed into cold and indifferent.

“I told you not to take unnecessary actions without my permission.”

My face turned pale.

“Why do you keep disappointing me, Allen? Look at Jonathan. I barely need to supervise him, yet somehow he understands the simplest rule between us. He follows instructions, keeps his head down, and most importantly… his parents are still alive. What a lucky bastard… ahaha.”

There was a brief silence before his voice lowered.

“You, however… keep making things unnecessarily difficult. Very difficult. And when people make things difficult for me, I eventually have to make difficult decisions for them… again.” His voice became dangerously quiet.

“And you are the one responsible for what happens next.”

My eyes trembled as I shook my head. “D-Don’t hurt my grandma… P-Please—”

“I would never do that,” he said calmly. “Why would I hurt her? I would never touch an innocent soul. You know that, right?”

There was something sly beneath his words, something that made my stomach twist.

He wasn’t reassuring me. He was enjoying the fact that I needed reassurance from him.

“…” I remained quiet, unable to force another word from my throat.

“But… who knows? Accidents happen, Allen.” he continued.

“Maybe one day, while she’s walking to the grocery store, a public bus suddenly loses control and accidentally hits her.

Maybe the milk provided by the corporation has expired, and she accidentally drinks it.

Maybe someone tries to rob her, and accidentally gets killed.

The world is full of tragedies. I would hate for your grandmother to become one of them.”

“I-I understand… P-Please.” I interrupted, my voice shaking as vividly as if I could already see every one of those possibilities happening before my eyes.

“Maybe…” His voice suddenly hardened. “Her own grandson kills her for her inheritance.”

“P-Please….” I begged, my voice barely more than a whisper.

“Listen, Allen. We are working together as partners, and I expect my partners to understand one simple thing. Partners don’t hide things from each other. They don’t make unilateral decisions. And most importantly… they don’t force the other partner to clean up their mistakes.” His voice remained cold and controlled.

“So next time, if you dare do something without telling me first… I will remind you exactly what you have already lost because of your stupidity.”

Tears finally slipped from my eyes. My body trembled uncontrollably as the memories of my parents flickered through my mind, each one cutting deeper than the last.

“I… I un… gulp… understand.”

“What? I couldn’t hear you.”

“I… I understand.”

“…”

I wiped at my face with a trembling hand before forcing the words out clearly.

“I understand, Sir.”

“Good. Now that we’ve settled your little mistake… let’s talk about my son,” he said in a calm, indifferent tone, as though everything he had just said had been nothing more than a small lesson.

“How was he?”

The question sounded almost concerned, almost like that of a father genuinely worried about his child.

“…” I swallowed hard; the fear had tightened around my throat so completely that the words refused to come out.

“Allen?”

Hearing my name finally broke through the fear. I forced myself to speak.

“H-He is fine… now. H-He said that he will keep moving forward.”

“…” There was silence for a moment before he finally spoke.

“See? I knew you could pull it off. You were always more capable than Jonathan.”

He said it as though he had always known I could do it… as though he had been expecting this exact outcome from the beginning.

“Haha… No matter how hard I pushed him down, a few words from his friends were always enough to make him get back up. That’s what I love about my son. Isn’t he lovely?

It’s such a shame I couldn’t see his face when he broke down. Tell me, Allen… how did he cry?

Did he cry like a child who finally realised nobody was coming to save him? Like the boy he was when his mother abandoned him? Like a dog that lost its leash? Haha… Such a pitiful boy~” he asked, sounding genuinely excited by the thought.

My lips trembled as tears continued to fall from my eyes, but his next words made even my breathing stop.

“Let me guess… he told you there was nothing left worth living for, didn’t he? He couldn’t see a future anymore, so you told him he should live for you.”

“Am I wrong, Allen?” he asked… as if he had been with us all this time.

H-How did he know all that?

I… I could never understand this man.

“I guess I’m right. He’s still the same as ever. Leaning on someone he loves just to keep himself alive like some damn parasite… Tsk, tsk… When is he finally going to stand on his own?” His voice carried a faint disappointment, almost like that of a father criticising his own child.

“As his father, I should be disappointed in him. But perhaps I shouldn’t blame him just yet.”

A pause then…

“Maybe I simply haven’t broken him enough.”

He spoke as though he were testing something on my friend, patiently observing how much pressure it would take before he finally shattered.

“To think he still believes and trusts his friends… And after everything I’ve done… he still trusts his friends.” A quiet laugh escaped him. “Remarkable, isn’t it?”

“…”

“Allen?”

“Y-Yes… Yes, sir. He’s just a pathetic thing. I-I gave him a little support, and he started acting like he owned everything… ahaha.” I forced out a pathetic, hollow laugh.

“Haha… There you said it!” His amusement returned. “You’ve done splendid work, Allen. Now, the only thing he has left is… his friends.”

He paused, allowing the silence to linger before continuing.

“His friends are the last pillars holding him together. I wonder what happens when he discovers that even those pillars were placed there by me.

Would he cry again and search for someone else to carry him? Or… Would he finally give up on everything, reject this very reality, and watch his mind collapse piece by piece before he kills himself?”

My heart trembled beneath those words. I could barely feel my fingers anymore.

“No, no… I won’t do it that soon. He deserves to see everything first, doesn’t he?”

“Watching the woman he loves marry someone else…”

“Standing beneath the blazing sun, smiling and pretending everything is fine… and saluting his little brother like a slave…”

“There are so many beautiful things waiting for him.”

“We cannot ruin the fun that easily…”

“…” My eyes turned dull as I slowly nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. And… I really don’t mind you helping my son, Allen. In fact, I hope you help him whenever he feels down.

That’s why I hired you, so you could feed my son with the money I pay you.”

“…” My expression grew even duller as I lowered my head.

Then his words turned serious and cold.

“But there is one thing I expect from you. You inform me.”

His voice turned dead serious,

“Whatever you decide to do, whatever little heroics you think are necessary… you tell me first.”

“After all, we’re partners. Partners don’t betray each other. That’s not good for a partnership. Trust is the only thing that keeps people like us working together.

And if you ever act behind my back again—”

Beep!

He simply cut the call.

I stared blankly at my phone for several seconds, unable to move. His final words remained inside my head, hanging there like a sentence I already knew I could never escape.

I slowly lowered my head as tears gathered in my eyes, my vision becoming blurred.

“Sniff… Sniff…”

I cried silently.

I… I really had nothing I could do against this man.

No matter what I did, he was always one step ahead of me.

Even my attempts to protect someone only seemed to become another weapon in his hands. I had thought I was helping Aether, but somehow, even that had become part of his plan.

“Sir, are you alright?”

Someone asked me.

I immediately shook my head and forced a smile, desperately trying to hide the tears still clinging to my eyes. “I’m fine, thank you,” I said as I washed my face, rubbing my eyes before looking at my reflection and trying to make myself smile.

The man staring back at me didn’t look fine.

He looked like someone who had already betrayed the person he was supposed to protect.

I clenched my fist before picking up my phone.

When I returned to the private room, however, I stopped the moment I saw Jonathan.

My face turned pale for a second before I forced a smile. “Look who finally got here… so late,” I said, even though I had no idea how he had gotten here.

Must be that man, right?

Just how much had he planned?

How much of this had he already known?

It was as though… we were nothing more than puppets in his scheme, dancing along a path he had prepared long before we even realised we were being watched.

Jonathan walked over and said, “Thank you, man, for being there for our friend,” before leaning closer to my ear and whispering, “You’re dead, you fucking asshole.”

My eyes dulled even further.

I had betrayed Aether.

And so had he.

I forced another smile. “Of course…”

Jonathan smirked before shouting, “It’s on me tonight, because this is officially drinking therapy for my bro.”

And then… we started drinking together.

The room slowly filled with the smell of alcohol and the meaningless laughter of people pretending everything was normal.

Jonathan kept hitting me whenever he got the chance, sometimes hard enough to make my body jerk, yet whenever Aether looked in our direction, he immediately acted as though it were nothing more than a joke between friends.

I knew this fucking asshole.

I knew exactly what he was doing.

And the worst part was… I still played along.

Because somewhere inside me, I had already become the same kind of person.

After Aether passed out from drinking, Jonathan looked at me coldly.

The amusement disappeared from his face.

“You motherfucker, how dare you go behind our Master’s order?”

Before I could even respond, he grabbed my head and slammed it against the table.

Thud!

“Argh!” I groaned as warmth spread beneath my nose. My head felt dizzy, and the room seemed to sway around me. I could taste blood in my mouth as I struggled to focus my eyes.

“I… I’m sorry,” I said weakly.

Jonathan kicked me away from the table and looked down at me with a contemptuous expression.

“Sorry? Do you think your sorry will soothe our Master? Huh? Who do you think you are? We follow Master’s orders, and this fucking thing…” He pointed at the passed-out Aether.

“…is a mere golden goose! Nothing else!”

He grabbed my collar and pulled me closer, his face filled with anger.

“Do you think we would be in this great position, with a job that pays millions, if not for our Master? Do you think you’d have anything without him? The money, the position, the life we have now? You should be grateful instead of pretending you suddenly have a conscience!”

His words struck somewhere deeper than his fists ever could.

Because I knew there was truth in them.

I weakly smiled at him, even though my face was already throbbing with pain.

“Millions? What are you going to do with it? Trick our friend just to lick that man’s ass. When you die… you’ll rot in the ground like everyone else.”

My voice was weak, but there was something bitter behind it.

“Money won’t make you immortal, Jonathan.”

Jonathan’s face twisted with fury before his fist struck my face again.

And again.

And again.

“At least I’ll rot in a golden casket, unlike those motherfuckers who barely earn enough money to feed themselves!” he shouted between punches.

“And don’t act like you aren’t into this! You’re responsible for everything too! You knew exactly what you were doing, Allen! You took his trust, his friendship, and his weakness, and you used them! So don’t fucking stand there and pretend you’re better than me!”

Another punch struck my face.

I stopped resisting.

Not because I couldn’t.

Because I didn’t know what I was supposed to defend anymore.

I looked at him with dull, empty eyes as he continued punching my face.

He had an excited expression, almost as if he had been waiting for this moment. There was no regret in his eyes, no hesitation, no trace of the friend who used to laugh beside Aether.

Just greed and obedience.

Just the cold certainty that whatever we were doing was acceptable as long as our Master rewarded us for it.

And somehow, that hurt more than the blood running down my face.

Look at him…

He wasn’t wrong, though.

I wanted to hate him.

I wanted to tell myself that he was the disgusting one. That he was the traitor. That he was the one who had abandoned Aether.

But I couldn’t.

Because every accusation he threw at me landed where it belonged.

I too was disgusting.

I too had accepted the money.

I too had lied to Aether while looking into his eyes.

I had listened to him trust me, watched him place his faith in me, and still chose to deceive him.

Perhaps that was the cruellest part of all.

Aether never suspected us.

Even after everything he had suffered, he still believed that the people standing beside him were real.

And we were the ones proving him wrong.

Both of us were betraying Aethe—

“ALLEN!!!!!”

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Third Person’s POV

Allen, who had been lost in his thoughts, suddenly snapped back to reality when a voice echoed from directly behind him. He barely had time to turn around before a metal rod came crashing into his face.

Thud!

“ARHH!!”

Allen fell from the chair, causing Noah to fall from his lap as well.

Clutching his broken mouth as blood poured from his lips, Allen slowly looked up. His vision blurred for a moment before he saw Jonathan standing over him, gripping the metal rod tightly in his hand. His face was twisted with fury.

“How dare you betray our President!”

THUD!

Jonathan slammed the metal rod into his face again.

Splash!

Blood sprayed across the floor as Allen’s head snapped to the side from the impact.