CHAPTER 370: PROMISE ME

It was an exhausting day.

Lucivar had done everything that he could for the day in order to prepare for the confrontation.

His eyelids were heavy, and his body was screaming for him to rest the moment he came back and his eyes landed on the tantalizing bed. But that exhaustion disappeared completely—the moment he heard what Leandra said.

Almost as if the switch in him was flipped, and he was now as alert as ever.

"We’re going to talk about it, whether you like it or not."

From the look Leandra was giving, she meant every word she said.

Both of them were going to have this talk right this moment, and there was no way out of it.

Lucivar pushed himself up to sit on the edge of the bed, facing away, unwilling to meet Leandra’s gaze.

"What do you want to know?" He eventually asked, rubbing his face uncomfortably.

Expecting Lucivar to make an excuse or still attempt to get out of this conversation, Leandra was caught off guard when he didn’t even retaliate and accepted the situation. She was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say, but quickly recovered.

She scooted over and sat beside Lucivar, though he was still avoiding eye contact.

"When did it start?"

It was the first question that popped into her mind.

Leandra already had a guess, but she wanted Lucivar to tell her.

"When do you think?" Lucivar chuckled weakly. "It started after we got to the academy."

Hearing this, Leandra nodded her head as it was as she expected.

It still took several days for them to reach Sunhold City after Delilah’s death, and during that time, she never once saw Lucivar use the phone despite having it with him the entire journey. All he spent doing was staring at it in silence, lost in grim contemplation.

Looking back, she knew that Lucivar was contemplating how he could change for the better.

He was making steps in his mind on how to leave his weak and pathetic self behind.

Of course, what he thought of being ’better’ was different than what normal people would think.

’As expected, he only started when he got some alone time. As soon as he wasn’t doing anything or the others weren’t bothering him, the feelings caught up.’ Leandra exhaled deeply from her nose, feeling pity for him. ’Even Mirel became less talkative after that tragedy.’

Everyone was grieving in their own ways.

But the most-unhealthy one was Lucivar, who couldn’t let go of Delilah, who couldn’t move on.

In fact, he now became even more reliant on Delilah.

"It’s hard for me to sleep," Lucivar continued, twirling his hand near his ear. "Her voice keeps playing in my mind. She kept telling me how proud she was—to get stronger so I can protect myself, and even encouraged me to move faster. I need to get stronger faster and faster. So that next time, I can prevent the same thing from happening."

"Lucivar..." Leandra held his shoulder. "Her death is not your fault."

"Is it?" Lucivar finally turned towards her, smiling acutely. "I should’ve tried holding on so that damn Fire Primordial would be the only one who falls. I could even take the blow—and die for her, that way, she wouldn’t need to save me. Or better yet, I could’ve broken her leg so that she couldn’t come down to save me."

"..."

Leandra stared at him in disbelief.

He had been blaming himself for the tragedy, and yet, he never once showed it to anyone.

Instead, he channeled it solely to get stronger no matter the cost.

Delilah was the catalyst that started his path to becoming stronger by any means necessary.

It was ironic.

Kindness that Delilah showed gave birth to the absolute evil that had taken over Lucivar for good.

Lucivar looked forward again, placing his elbows on his thighs.

He was silent, recalling the night of the tragedy vividly as if it had happened yesterday.

"What else did Delilah say to you?"

"..."

As soon as she asked that question, Lucivar knew exactly what the answer was.

Other than saying that she’s proud and that he needed to become stronger faster, she also always said that he could do anything in order to grow stronger, but he couldn’t harm—the family. No matter what, he must always keep the family safe.

It was her only request.

But Lucivar couldn’t possibly say that to Leandra.

"That’s it. Most of the time, she only listened."

"I see..."

Leandra’s eyes narrowed as this confirmed what she had been suspecting all along.

’He thinks Delilah’s voice is only in his head,’ She thought, clenching her fists tightly on her lap. ’He thought he was hallucinating, that it was not real, but it is real. Someone is playing him, but he was too broken to realize it. He’s smart in everything, but he’s oblivious—to Delilah, and whoever was behind this knows this.’

’It’s most likely someone close to him, but who could it be...?’ She bit her lower lip in frustration.

She was already used to seeing Lucivar on the winning side.

She was already used to seeing him trampling on others.

Seeing him being brutally played like this... It doesn’t sit right on her.

"Every time I grew stronger, I always called her," Lucivar said, and then a self-ridiculing laugh escaped his lips. "Go ahead, you can laugh. I know it’s kind of pathetic, but I can’t really deny that it calmed me down a lot."

"It’s not pathetic. You simply value Delilah, and that’s beautiful." Leandra answered sternly.

But this only made Lucivar scoff, as that’s not how he sees it.

If he could, he would’ve abandoned this habit of his as it had now bitten him on the back.

Because of Delilah, he now couldn’t ascend to the third Divine Elevation, and frankly didn’t know how to even bypass this bottleneck. All he could hope for was that somehow, confronting Master Tobias for his wrongs would be able to help him.

But he doubted it.

Exhaling roughly, Lucivar turned towards her.

"I know it can be rather uncomfortable to watch, but if I’m making—a phone call, ignore me." Lucivar scooted back and lay down on the bed again, intending to sleep. "After all, it’s only in my head. It’s not real. Maybe I’m already mentally ill, who knows?"

Hearing this, Leandra turned towards him—mouth opened to speak.

She needed to tell Lucivar that it wasn’t only in his mind.

Someone was actively talking with him, and it all came from that rose sticker.

No matter what atrocities he had committed, this is cruel.

Being played emotionally like this is worse than being killed, and if Lucivar knew, he’d agree with her.

Lucivar had done a lot of things for the family, and he deserved to have the others on his back, regardless of their disagreement. It was what it means to be a family. But—as she was about to warn him, Lucivar already shut her down.

"Go to sleep, Leandra." He said, eyes closed. "Tomorrow is going to be a rough day."

Leandra looked at him with a complicated gaze.

She couldn’t understand why the world never gave her the chance to properly say it to him.

Now the mood was already gone.

It was already too late.

’Fine. In that case, I’ll be the one who’ll find out the culprit.’ Leandra thought and lay beside Lucivar.

Both of them lay beside each other in silence.

But Leandra was still staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep at all with her pounding heart.

"Hey, Lucivar..."

"Hmm?"

"Tomorrow we’re going to confront Master Tobias... I want you to promise me something."

"A promise? What promise?"

"Promise me—that no matter what happened, you’re going to protect us. In return, I also promised that I’m going to protect you no matter what. Regardless of who Master Tobias really was, we’re still a family. And families don’t abandon or hurt each other."

"..."

Lucivar remained silent for a good moment.

Long enough for Leandra to think that he had already fallen asleep, but he didn’t.

He was contemplating of making that promise.

"I promise."

Eventually, he decided to promise that.

Since Delilah wanted him to keep this family safe and whole, it wasn’t a problem to make that promise.

After all, he had already been doing it even before this promise.

Only when Leandra heard his answer could she close her eyes peacefully.

Morning came.

Lucivar woke up from his three hours of sleep in a mess—robbed of one more hour of sleep because of Leandra, who wanted to talk to him last night. But even so, he didn’t regret it as he now felt somewhat more refreshed than usual.

His body was exhausted from the lack of sleep, but his heart was lighter somehow.

It was somewhat of a peaceful day.

Lucivar and Leandra showered and headed downstairs, where they met up with the others after checking on Ravenna, of course. The three of them went to the training facility of the academy to work up a full sweat to ease their nerves for the upcoming confrontation.

And working out together made them reminisce about their first time meeting.

Before the academy, they used to train together like this all the time.

It was quite therapeutic to do it again, helping them remember the bond they shared as a family.

No sign of Bakar.

At first, the others were worried, but fortunately, he had left a message with the dormitory receptionist, promising to return before they left for Vanessa’s birthday party. He must still feel emotional about what they were going to do today.

None of them had received a formal invitation from Vanessa, but they were planning to show up anyway.

Since she wasn’t inviting them properly, they could surprise Master Tobias properly.

He wouldn’t anticipate seeing them at the party, and that’s a good thing.

Perhaps, having the conversation with Vanessa around would be beneficial for them.

It would be harder for Master Tobias to lie.

Not that he could with Lucivar being there, capable of seeing through any lies with ease.

After their training session, a messenger from Elira came to them.

She handed over a folder containing the result of the investigation, including all possible locations Bob might have gone, based on their investigation around Master Tobias’ mansion. It was quite thorough—detailed enough to even list places Tobias might use if he had done something to Bob.

As for the gem, Elira needed more time.

But she promised that she would get the result by the end of the day, possibly before night came.

Lucivar thought it would be a hectic day, but it was a rather slow one.

At least now, before the confrontation, it was serene.

However, he knew that it was nothing but a façade.

’It’s the calm before the storm,’ He thought inwardly. ’I can already feel the storm coming.’

Even then, Lucivar needs to do this.

From the attack, he knew that his strength with the opposing avatar isn’t that far apart, but there’s only one of him and three of them. Death will be certain if he can’t go through this— bottleneck of his.

He could only hope that getting rid of Master Tobias would help.