The Anomaly Beyond The System

Chapter 62: Finally telling them the truth(2)

It took a few minutes for Seraphina to calm down.

Her hands were still trembling when she finally loosened her grip on Lucian’s wrists.

The warmth of his skin beneath her fingers grounded her, but it also terrified her—because it reminded her how close she might have been to losing him without even knowing.

She closed her eyes briefly, before finally opening them, staring directly at Lucian, who seemed to be worried.

She exhaled slowly, steadying herself.

“Did… did you really see a gob… whatever it was?”

She asked, but couldn’t even say the name ‘Goblin’ since she didn’t remember it properly.

Lucian sighed.

“Yes.”

The simplicity of his answer made Lia’s fingers curl tighter against his sleeve.

“How? When? And where?”

Lia instantly bombarded him with multiple questions, her voice rising slightly with each word. Meanwhile, Seraphina stayed silent, as she just waited for him to answer.

“Yesterday,” Lucian said.

His voice lowered unconsciously.

“At night, I saw a commotion near the road through which I was travelling. I stopped my car and then saw people running away.”

As he spoke, he let his shoulders stiffen slightly, as if remembering something unpleasant.

“After I stepped out of the car and walked towards it, I saw a monster. A small, humanoid monster. Something shown in many games.”

He glanced at Lia.

Her eyes widened as understanding struck her.

“Goblin?” she asked, her voice trembling faintly.

Lucian nodded slowly.

“Yes, and this goblin was after a man, who had been paralysed out of fear. I went to save him.”

Lia sucked in a sharp breath.

“The man ran away, but the goblin ran up to me instead. It attacked me.”

Lucian forced his hands to tremble slightly as he spoke. He let his fingers curl tighter, his breathing uneven just enough to seem like he was reliving the fear.

“So, I had no way but to fight it.”

He finished quietly, but his lips twitched slightly… something that none of them noticed.

This was the story he had crafted.

It wasn’t entirely false.

But not completely true either.

Just… rearranged.

What he had said was almost the same thing that had truly happened, aside from the fact that he had been the one chasing the monster, and not the monster chasing him.

And he hadn’t gone to save anyone.

Heck, he couldn’t care less about the man who ran away while leaving him to deal with the goblin.

But they didn’t need to know that.

Seraphina and Lia went silent.

Lia looked the most shocked.

Her mouth opened slightly, but no words came out. Her mind was clearly struggling to process everything at once.

Everything her brother was saying was too absurd to believe.

For a fleeting second, she even thought that he had just hit his head somewhere, or if he was getting delusional.

But if that was the case, then what about the news? What about the footage?

Were the reporters delusional as well?

Her thoughts tangled together, overlapping and crashing into one another until she felt dizzy just trying to make sense of it.

Seraphina’s hands rested against her lap now, but her fingers clenched tightly into the fabric of her dress.

This was too much.

Too absurd.

Whatever her son was saying was truly too difficult to accept.

She had been reading each of his expressions from the moment he started talking to see if he was lying.

But no.

He didn’t seem to be lying, or at least that was the feeling she had.

His trembling hands, his slightly tight voice, the way he paused before certain words, as if he was having difficulty telling.

All these things were just leaning towards the fact that he was telling the truth.

And yet—

She also noticed something else.

Something subtle.

Lucian had tried to lie, had tried to act, and he had done a good work at that.

But he forgot about one thing.

His eyes.

Seraphina had raised him, and even if she hadn’t seen him for almost 10 years, even then, she could read him—she could read his eyes.

She knew those eyes.

They were calm—no, too calm.

There was no chaotic fear inside them as he narrated a life-threatening encounter. No flicker of trauma.

His posture trembled.

His voice wavered.

But his eyes were steady.

That contrast unsettled her deeply.

And then there were the details.

There were many things she found weird.

Where had he been going?

Why had he been out so late?

Why hadn’t he mentioned any of this clearly before?

Didn’t anyone else report it?

Did the authorities come?

So many questions surfaced in her mind.

But she kept those questions to herself.

Because beneath all her doubts, her instincts whispered something else.

He wasn’t lying about the goblin.

Based on how he had come home, he did feel like he had gone through a fight.

Now it made sense.

Even if she hated that it did.

“This is too difficult to digest,” Lia said after a few seconds. Her voice was low.

She couldn’t take it in.

Everything he was saying felt like fiction layered on top of reality.

“Are you really telling the truth?” she asked him, as her brown eyes stared at him darkly.

She didn’t want it to be true.

She desperately wanted him to laugh and say it was a prank.

But—

“Yes, it’s true,” Lucian said.

“The goblin is true. The fact that faced it is also true,” he said calmly, as his dark-black eyes stared into hers directly.

He didn’t look away.

After a few seconds, she broke eye contact first.

“I believe you,” she muttered quietly.

“But… but it’s too much to feel real.”

Lucian paused.

His expression softened faintly. He nodded slowly.

“Take your time. Both of you.”

His voice was gentler now.

“I know it’s too much to take in. But that’s the truth. You have to accept that.”

He sighed internally, cursing himself for rushing this so much.

He should’ve prepared them better.

He should’ve layered the truth gradually, but time wasn’t patient.

It didn’t care about emotions.

[It’s not like you have all the time in the world just for them to process the reality.] Akasha’s voice echoed inside his mind.

‘I know,’ he replied silently.

‘But maybe I should’ve told them slowly.’

[Stop those stupid thoughts. They will just have to accept it.]

Lucian didn’t respond immediately.

He closed his eyes for a second.

‘You are right… I think.’

[You think? So you’re not sure?]

‘No, I cannot just listen to your orders, right?’ he said calmly.

‘I’m me. I’ll solve things my own way.’

Akasha didn’t fight against him.

[Fine.]

That was all she said, her voice fading into his mind as silence returned to his mind.

“Why didn’t you tell us any of this earlier?” Lia asked all of a sudden.

Lucian blinked once, pulling himself to process her words, since he was going through a conversation with Akasha.

Now he turned his attention entirely to her.

“What do you think I should’ve said?” he asked instead, his voice not sharp—but not soft either.

“I told you I fought a goblin. Don’t you remember the reaction I got?”

Lia froze.

Her shoulders stiffened slightly.

She did remember.

She had just looked at him like he had gone mad, but it wasn’t entirely her fault, either.

How could she have believed something like that?

And Lucian wasn’t blaming her.

He knew that he would’ve done the same thing if he were in her situation.

He might’ve even laughed at her. He might have told her to get some sleep.

But that understanding didn’t mean he could just let her win the argument.

“But—”

“Lia, it’s not like I could show you a picture of it,” he added with a faint sigh.

Her lips pressed together tightly.

She went silent.

She didn’t say anything further, but her expression clearly said that she was frustrated. Conflicted and angry.

Lucian gently patted her head, making her anger lessen slightly, even though she tried not to show it.

Then Lucian’s gaze shifted.

He looked at Seraphina.

She wasn’t watching the TV anymore. She wasn’t even watching them. She was staring at empty air, her eyes unfocused.

She was lost in her own thoughts.

Still processing.

Still thinking about what he had said.

Lucian’s chest tightened.

He reached out and lightly tapped her hand, finally bringing her back to reality.

She blinked.

“Are you… alright?” he asked quietly.

There was a subtle guilt in his voice.

He hated seeing her like this.

But this was the only way forward.

Seraphina took a deep breath.

“So, what now?” she asked finally, after a few seconds of silence.

Lucian’s eyes widened faintly.

He hadn’t expected that question so soon.

He thought she was still going through what he had said.

He thought she was going to question him more. Doubt him more. Demand more details. More proof.

But instead—

She was already thinking ahead.

“What do you mean?” Lia asked, confused, and still somewhat shaken by the revelation.

Seraphina turned her gaze toward her, who was leaning on Lucian’s shoulder now, still seeking warmth as he absentmindedly stroked her head.

Seraphina’s lips twitched faintly, but she still answered.

“If what Lucian is saying is true,” she said slowly, “then that means the world’s over.”

The bluntness of her words made Lia stiffen.

Her eyes widened again.

Her fingers tightened slightly around Lucian’s shirt.

“That is why I asked—what now. What will we do now?” Seraphina continued, her cold, icy-blue eyes staring directly into Lia’s.

Lia didn’t care about the coldness in her tone.

She had grown used to it.

That was how Seraphina was.

Direct, blunt, and unapologetically realistic.

That was how she usually talked.

But even so, Lia frowned deeply.

“But… even if it’s true, what is there for us to do?”

She looked between them helplessly.

Seraphina went silent.

Because even she didn’t know the answer.

“There is,” Lucian said suddenly, removing his hand from Lia’s head.

Lia’s expression soured slightly, but she didn’t say anything.

Instead, she looked at him.

“There is something we can do.” He repeated, sitting up straight.

“”What?””

Both of them asked simultaneously.

Because according to them, there didn’t seem to be anything they could do aside from waiting for help—or packing essentials and running as far away as possible.

“Awaken,” Lucian said.

The word fell into the room quietly.

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