My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Emilia was tending to a magic beast while a few of House Ravenscroft’s troops remained nearby. The larger force was setting up camp not far from where she sat.

She sat on a hill overlooking the reserve forces, her hands moving gently over the magic beast’s injuries as her eyes remained fixed on the soldiers below. Her expression was low and troubled.

She had actually sent someone to find Linga Felt, but the man was gone, along with his entire family.

All because she couldn’t bear to see a child cry.

She had lost whatever clues she might have gotten from him.

Not that it would have helped her find her child anyway.

It wasn’t as though her child was simply missing. He had been given up by his father, so Xander should have known where their son was.

Even so, he had no right to do that to her child.

Emilia’s fingers slowly tightened against the magic beast’s fur before she finally lowered her gaze.

”How do I find Linga Felt?”

”There’s no need to look. I took him.”

The soft voice of her sister came from behind her.

A thin fog shifted across the grass, curling around Emilia’s feet before slowly gathering into the figure of a woman. Terra’s footsteps were quiet as she approached, her presence almost blending into the mist surrounding them.

”You’ve had this knot in your heart for years. That’s why you advanced so slowly. You couldn’t let yourself move on. You trapped yourself in the exact moment you lost your child, my dear sister.”

Terra stopped beside her and looked down at the magic beast Emilia was tending. A faint smile touched her lips before she turned her eyes toward Emilia.

”I envy little Godric for that... having a loving parent. I also envy you.”

Emilia’s hands stopped moving.

”Is that why you took Linga Felt? To hurt me, Terra? I am no threat to you. I don’t even care about the title of Duchess anymore.”

Terra chuckled softly.

”Neither do I, actually.”

She turned her palm upward and studied it for a moment, as though there was something written in the lines that only she could see.

”I never cared for it. I was born with many things, and I am better than most people. But even I have to admit there are things a lowly commoner can have that I cannot.”

Her fingers slowly curled into her palm.

”Something even my illegitimate older sister had that I, her sibling, could never have, no matter how much I excelled.”

”What are you talking about?”

Emilia’s brows furrowed. She turned fully toward Terra, trying to understand why her sister was speaking like this.

Terra shook her head, her blonde hair drifting gently in the wind.

”It’s fine. You wouldn’t notice. Those who have never lacked something rarely notice the people who do. Just like I can’t relate to the suffering of those born into poverty because I was given the better birth.”

She lowered her hand and looked toward the distant soldiers.

”I think people have a hole in their heart. One that is never filled. This hole is an abyss of desire, wishes, greed, love, and aspirations. There is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s what we call our humanity.”

Her voice remained calm, but there was something strangely sincere beneath it.

”I don’t have to be ashamed of it. That tang of jealousy I feel whenever our father looks at you... Even if he acts like he doesn’t care, he still can’t hide how much he does.”

Emilia stared at her.

She didn’t understand what Terra was trying to say, but she continued listening.

”I’m the legitimate child, yet I’m the one he never looked at or even looked for. I was right by his side all my life, but he never truly saw me.”

Terra’s smile faded slightly.

”When he looked at me, I knew he envisioned a world where it was you and not me.”

”Why are you telling me this?”

Emilia asked calmly.

She had never imagined that the seemingly perfect Terra felt this way.

Terra was always composed. Always beautiful. Always talented. There had never seemed to be anything in her life that she lacked.

”I don’t think Father cared about me, a worthless bastard.” Emilia whispered.

Emilia paused, then slowly shook her head.

”I had to prove my worth.”

”No.”

Her answer came quietly.

Terra looked at her.

”You didn’t have to prove your worth to him. You had to prove it to the world. He would have chosen you either way.”

Terra’s expression softened.

”Unlike me, I never stood a chance.”

Terra’s eyes lowered for a moment before she continued.

”But you know, I accepted it. I gave up on this world.”

She took a slow breath, and the faint smile returned to her face.

”Giving up is the hardest thing in the world, especially when it’s something you desperately want.”

She turned toward Emilia.

”But as much as you think I don’t care about you, I actually do.”

For once, there was nothing cold or calculating in Terra’s eyes.

She was simply herself.

”Because you’re my sister.”

Emilia remained silent.

Terra stepped closer, her voice becoming softer.

”I don’t want you to be forced to give up on your son.”

Her eyes met Emilia’s.

”So I did what you wouldn’t be able to.”

A faint layer of fog gathered around Terra’s feet.

”That’s why I took Linga Felt.”

Emilia’s eyes seemed to flicker as she looked at Terra. It was always difficult to understand her sister. You never truly knew what was in Terra’s heart or what was going through her mind.

That made trusting her difficult, especially for someone intelligent. It would take a fool to let their guard down around Terra.

But Emilia had never been on guard around her.

”I know Godric’s secret, and I have the biggest clue. I can tell you the source of all this death and destruction, and trust me, it’s only the beginning.”

Terra paused, her eyes drifting toward the distant battlefield.

”Though I have a theory.”

”Tell me, Terra. Tell me what you found out.”