Chapter 873 - The Truth
In the cave, Agata realized Theo had been staring at a letter for so long, making her a bit worried. The size of the paper was enough for her to know that he could read the entire message in just two minutes. Yet, it took him so long to look away.
"What's wrong?" Agata tilted her head while approaching him. Although she wanted to look at his expression, she stopped not far behind him so as to not accidentally glance at Theo's letter.
Theo turned his head for a second and said with a wry smile. "It's okay. I need some time alone."
"Okay." Agata nodded and stepped back.
"Thanks." Theo let out a long sigh, never expecting to be influenced by a single letter. He decided to read it again to make sure he didn't miss a single word.
'Theo, everything I wrote in this letter is true. It's up to you whether you want to believe it or not. And also, this letter is not my way to ask for your forgiveness… It's just I believe you deserve to know the truth.'
'First of all, you actually had an older brother, a blood-related older brother, called Owen. A few weeks before I gave birth to him, the Mind Elder came to visit us and placed a seal in your brother's mind so that when I gave birth to him, your elder brother would be a soldier of the Griffith Family, who wouldn't care about feelings and bonds as long as it benefited the family.'
'If I went to the Griffith Family at that time, your brother could be saved, but I couldn't bring myself to get treated. So, in the end, Owen died before he could come to this world.'
'After that, I had some problems conceiving a child because of the trauma, and we decided to adopt Edward. A few years later, I decided to start a new life and gave birth to you.'
'Because the Mind Elder was afraid that you would be dead if he manipulated your brain again, he didn't do anything when you were still an embryo. Instead, he planned to wait for you.'
'However, we knew that the talent you'd shown not long after your birth would certainly shake the entire family. Hence, Ray and I decided to suppress your talent by letting you suffer this whole time. We didn't have any excuse, and if you wanted to kill us, we wouldn't fight back. Just… don't blame Edward. He had only been adamant in following our decision. We forced him to do all the things.'
'The Griffith Family would suspect us if you showed any talents and brought you back to the family. And we didn't and still don't want you to be controlled by this family.'
'You were a smart child, and I knew you would know the truth sooner or later. With your heart, I believed you would help us. And that was what we feared. The Griffith Family might notice it, and the Mind Elder would visit you personally.'
'Even if we brought you to another place, they would track us down before we could do anything else.'
'As for the reason… There is only one reason. After coming to the Griffith Family and learning the family's secret, we found a certain prophecy from the Griffith Family's ancestor.'
'He said, "I will come back after seven generations." That was his only message. However, the Griffith Family seemed to believe this message as prophecy.'
'The ancestor was someone close to a God Level figure. According to the record, his level was 996, and… I don't know if you have heard about this or not, but he had a power that connected him to the world itself. People even called him God of Magic because they believed he would break past that barrier.'
'Unfortunately, he passed away and left this message behind. As someone who was close to that level, people believed that he had a glimpse of the world's truth and his word was similar to that of prophecy. In other words, he would really come back after seven generations.'
'Ray had been the brightest and the most talented person in the Griffith Family, and with me, they believed we were the couple that would give birth to the family ancestor reincarnation.'
'But Ray's father was someone whose greed far surpassed anyone in this world. Instead of respecting the ancestor, he wanted to control the ancestor himself. That was why he sent the Mind Elder to manipulate Owen's mind.'
'So as to not make them think you were the reincarnation, we suppressed your talent with everything possible. And I admitted that along the way, our plan deviated from pushing you away from the family to developing hatred to the family.'
'For that, we don't have any excuses. When everything is over, we'll visit you again. You're free to kill us at that time because we know you should have surpassed us. If reincarnation does exist, I hope that you don't need to endure such a childhood again.'
'You don't need to worry about the Griffith Family again. For the past two decades, we've been gathering some connections to finally stop the Griffith Family. I'll do my best to prevent any threat from the weakened Griffith Family.'
'Stay safe. I believe that in the future, you can break the last limit of the Mythical Rank and reach the God Rank. You'll be the one to decide your own life. Goodbye, Theo. No matter what you choose, you will always be our pride.'
Theo's expression became even darker. His body was trembling, and he couldn't help but gnash his teeth.
Ultimately, he crushed the letter in his hand. His face was filled with complicated emotions that no one could see what he felt and thought right now.
There was hatred, anger, disappointment, pity, and so on. People said you would change because of your environment. His parents became like this because of the Griffith Family. And he also changed because of his parents.
These mixed feelings were rampaging in his heart that he didn't know what to think anymore… As for what he would do from now on, no one could predict it.