My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Chapter 1210: Chapter 1211: Deep Resentment

She woke with an ache in her heart, accompanied by a dull sensation in her hand where something seemed to flicker in and out of existence. Luna stared at her palm for a moment, but before she could make sense of the strange feeling, it disappeared.

When she finally stood from the bed, there was nothing left.

By now, this had become typical for Luna. More than that, she had noticed that she was becoming angrier with each passing day. Her resentment had deepened into something heavier, something that seemed to sit beneath her skin and surface whenever she thought about the demons.

Her grandfather had told her that demons would be coming to the capital in preparation for the upcoming battle in Lysithara.

Everyone who held any influence over world affairs would be there.

But the presence of the demons disgusted her.

’All demons should be purged.’

Only then could this world have true peace.

Everything that happened was because demons were evil.

Those creatures were nothing more than monsters wearing human faces, anomalies in the world that needed to be removed.

Luna walked through the halls of the Brightwater family residence in the capital city. Almost everyone was here, except for her brother, who was still in the Anarchy Mountains.

She passed through a long corridor decorated with extravagant ornaments and polished stone. Maids bowed as she passed, but Luna barely noticed them. Her mind was elsewhere.

Eventually, she found her way into one of the courtyards.

Calling it small was technically incorrect. It was still vast by ordinary standards, but compared to the other courtyards within the Brightwater residence, it was relatively modest.

A young woman stood motionless at its center.

Her long pink hair swayed gently in the wind as she stared at her own reflection in the polished surface of her sword.

Luna approached her, but Iris didn’t react.

She was so lost in thought that she hadn’t even noticed Luna standing beside her.

”Staring at your sword doesn’t make you a better swordsman, you know. Well, swordswoman in your case.”

Iris’s eyes narrowed slightly before she finally glanced toward Luna.

”How long... when did you get here?” she asked softly.

”Oh, me? I’ve been here for a while.” Luna smiled teasingly. ”You seemed rather fascinated with your own reflection.”

Iris lowered her head and slowly lowered her sword.

”I wish that were the case...” she muttered, her eyes distant.

Luna’s teasing expression faded.

”Then what is it? You know you can tell me anything. I mean, we’re practically sisters.”

They weren’t related by blood, but after spending so many years together, they had become closer than many actual sisters.

Iris bit her lower lip. There were too many things she wasn’t sure about anymore.

”I guess I don’t know what I want anymore,” she admitted quietly. ”Revenge is really scary. I mean, Damon taught me to always take the path of an eye for an eye, but what if that blinded me to things I should have seen before?”

Luna looked away, her gaze settling on the pond nearby. The still water reflected both of their figures.

”What about your father?” she asked. ”He’s the only one you haven’t avenged.”

Her voice softened.

”You know, my brother really idolized him. I never met him, but he must have been an amazing person for even my brother to put him on such a pedestal.”

Luna knew how highly Damon thought of Carmen Vale. Whenever he spoke of the man, he made him sound almost like a saint.

And this was Iris’s father.

The man Damon had once been grateful to.

”Amon was the one who killed your father, wasn’t he?” Luna asked, turning back toward Iris. ”Did you find a clue you didn’t tell me about? What changed? Who could have hurt you?”

Her voice carried a quiet anger, and for a brief moment, the strange symbol on her hand flickered.

If someone had hurt Iris, Luna would make them pay.

Iris noticed the expression on her face and smiled faintly.

”I wish it were that easy. I think I like that no one knows who Amon is. That way, I can kill him as a faceless enemy.” She lowered her gaze toward her sword. ”I don’t think I want to see the face beneath the mask. But when I start thinking about who could possibly be under that faceless form...”

Her voice faltered.

”I... I get scared.”

Luna didn’t understand what Iris meant. Whatever burden she was carrying, Iris had clearly decided to bear it alone.

”Betrayal is a scary thing, Luna,” Iris continued softly. ”The fear of being betrayed might hurt more than you can imagine. So maybe not knowing is better than knowing.”

”I don’t think so.” Luna’s response came immediately. ”Why forgive traitors?”

”Don’t do it for yourself,” Luna said, her voice becoming heavier. ”Do it for your father.”

Iris looked at her without answering.

Luna stepped closer.

”Your father was murdered in cold blood. His body was taken and devoured, leaving nothing for you to bury. A demon did that to you. You got no closure. Nothing was left for you.”

Her voice trembled as the words spilled out.

”You were left with nothing in a world that wanted to torment you. You and your brother suffered. Pain, humiliation, starvation, sickness... You aren’t human if you can simply forgive someone for doing that to you.”

Iris’s expression changed.

She stared at Luna, slightly shaken by the venom in her words.

”Luna...” she whispered. ”Are you talking about me or yourself?”

Luna’s gray eyes trembled.

For years, she had buried her resentment deep inside herself, but now it was spilling out. She was a vessel carrying years of indignation, and there was a darkness within her eyes that seemed deep enough to lure someone into the abyss.

”Does that matter?”

Tears suddenly gathered in her eyes.

”What matters is that we were wronged, and the world is pretending as if we weren’t just because our situation became a little better.”

A tear rolled down her cheek.

”That doesn’t erase the years of pain, fear, and humiliation. It doesn’t erase the fact that our parents are gone. They aren’t coming back.”

More tears followed, running in warm streams down her face.

”There is no compensation for someone who has been wronged, Luna. Nothing will ever be enough.”

She seemed to realize she was speaking about herself only after the words had already left her mouth.

”Don’t expect the wronged to forgive. The dead can’t do it, so why should you?”

Her voice hardened.

”You can’t back down. Otherwise, your father will curse you from his grave.”

She stared directly into Iris’s eyes.

”Or did you never love your father?”

The words struck something deep within Iris.

Suddenly, she remembered.

The pain.

The shock of hearing that her father was dead.

The days she had spent waiting for the door to open, hoping he would walk through it as he always had.

But he never did.

She had been left alone.

And she had been afraid.

Iris’s expression slowly hardened as her fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword until her knuckles turned pale.