Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Although Adrian had been keenly observing everything about Lia, he didn’t really expect to find anything significant.

But this...

’Things are getting more and more strange...’

He didn’t know how significant it was, but finding another individual who possessed the pull was certainly significant.

Just as these thoughts were swirling in his mind, the hospital room’s door opened, and a middle-aged woman stepped outside.

Adrian’s eyes widened as soon as he saw her.

’Is she the one? No... the pull is still coming from inside.’

He was lost in thought when the woman came out and was thus unable to look inside the hospital room when the door had briefly opened.

The middle-aged woman had short hair, and there were a few visible wrinkles on her face. Her eyes slowly landed on Lia, who was sitting quietly. After a brief look of contemplation, the woman sat beside her.

Lia didn’t react to the woman’s presence.

After sitting there quietly for a while, the woman turned to Lia and smiled gently.

"Miss, you have been sitting here alone for some time with that expression. Did something happen?"

"..."

Lia didn’t even react to her words, still remaining motionless.

The woman’s smile remained the same even after being ignored.

"I know that this is a hospital and that most people here have some sort of grief in their hearts. Still, if you share it with someone, then it will feel less heavy."

She paused and then added.

"If you have something that feels too heavy to bear, I am here to listen."

Lia still remained motionless, not even looking at the woman. But then, she slowly opened her mouth with her gaze still on the floor.

"...I received the news that my dad has passed away."

The woman’s eyes widened.

"Oh! I’m so sorry to hear—"

"He was not a patient here. And it was suicide."

"..."

A heavy silence settled between them.

Lia leaned back in her seat and replied while looking into empty space.

"He had a dream; he wanted to start a cruise business. He was from a wealthy family, with my grandfather being a successful businessman, but buying a cruise was still too much money for us."

She paused for a bit.

"But Dad was too obsessed with his dream. So when my grandfather passed away, and he inherited the family business, he sold it. He also sold everything we owned, be it property, house, or anything else. My mom also wanted her father to fulfill his dream, so she helped him by selling everything she owned as well."

Adrian returned to sitting beside Lia. The three of them sat side by side, with Lia in the center.

"But that still wasn’t enough, so he had to take a few loans too. Still, he was able to fulfill his dream in the end and bought the cruise. Mom and Dad had celebrated that day so happily. The cruise business even ran smoothly for the first few months. But... six months later, the cruise sank."

The woman lowered her eyes. Her gentle smile had long disappeared from her face.

"On top of feeling devastated by the loss of the cruise, Dad was sued by the families of the victims who were all demanding compensation. He had bought insurance for the cruise and was planning to compensate the victims with that money. But he lost in court against the insurance company and was not given the insurance money. On top of having his dream crushed only months after it was fulfilled, Dad was now swimming in debt with no source of income."

Lia sighed.

"He used to be quite a caring person, but after all that... he changed completely. He began acting like he had gone mad; his behavior grew more and more violent each day. Even looking at him had started feeling scary. This news about his death... I don’t really feel much, to be honest. If anything, I feel kind of relieved. If he had remained alive, he would have continued to suffer and make people near him suffer too."

The woman pursed her lips. Complicated emotions were swirling in her eyes as she spoke.

"Girl, he was your father, and he was going through a lot. If nothing else, you should understand his pain, at least. After all, if you—his own child—won’t understand his pain, then who else will?"

For the first time, Lia raised her head and looked at the woman.

"Mom used to say something similar until she fell into a coma after being nearly beaten to death by him during one of his episodes of hysteria. If only he hadn’t had such an unreachable dream, then we could’ve probably lived as a happy family. But he ruined it all. Dad never thought about his family when he was selling everything off for the sake of fulfilling his dream, so why should I try to understand him?"

The woman opened her mouth, as if to speak, but no words came out. Seeing that, Lia sighed.

"Don’t worry, I don’t resent him. I don’t really care, not about him and not about Mom. I’m just too tired to care about any of it. Uncle and Aunt are paying for most of Mom’s hospital bills, but there are still some extra expenses from time to time. Each day of my life is just a struggle."

Adrian remained motionless as he listened to it all.

It all started making sense.

Her leaving the school early, working as a minor, her house being in such a bad state—he was starting to understand the reasons behind it all.

The woman still looked conflicted and lost for words, as though there were a lot of words at the tip of her tongue, but she simply couldn’t voice them.

Lia sighed and spoke again.

"Besides, lady, you don’t really care about me or my circumstances. You are talking to me because there is something you want to get off your own chest, isn’t that right?"

The middle-aged woman froze.

Moments later, her expression turned ashamed as she lowered her gaze to the ground. Then she spoke weakly as her lips quivered.

"I am a mother, and I have two daughters. One turned five last month. She is ‌a cute little angel who loves running around everywhere and has so much energy that neither I nor my husband can keep up."

The woman’s hands slowly clenched into fists as her expression became somewhat strained.

"The second daughter... She was born three years ago. And she was born disabled. She is unable to move anything below her shoulders. That means anything aside from her hands and neck."

Her voice became strained too as tears, one after another, began rolling down her cheek.

"The doctor—he said that she was born with missing neural nerves, which is the reason for her paralysis. And... and he... he said that it isn’t something that can be cured."

And then, the woman broke down crying.

The sound of her crying echoed through the quiet and empty corridor of the hospital.

Lia’s expression still remained reserved, and her eyes, too, looked tired and dull. It was as though the girl were unmoved, even as she watched the woman cry in front of her.