Villain Seduces to Rise in Status

(continued)

”Well, of course.” Sirius nodded. ”You’re someone whose bloodline should have been extracted by that woman, yet it wasn’t. Hell, you even escaped that place. Somehow you learned a soul refining technique. Somehow you have flames of a chaotic nature. Somehow you even formed a soul armor, which can only be formed after many life-and-death battles. What do you think us old-timers will think?”

Cale took a slow breath. He had known something like this would happen, but he hadn’t expected it to be questioned this early. The plan had apparently sprung a few leaks.

”Aren’t inheritances everywhere? Portals open here and there, so what if—”

”Ah, is that so? Okay, I’ll believe you. But the main reason isn’t that anyway.”

Cale narrowed his eyes. ”Then what is it?”

”Why is your soul’s age greater than your real age?”

”W-what...”

Cale began to sweat. This man had raised a concept he himself hadn’t considered.

’Isn’t it obvious that people wouldn’t be able to guess that? Why is he...’

Sirius smiled. ”See that? You never thought of this. Kid, the world is far bigger than these five continents around us. Now imagine your father, who sees his newborn with a soul aged thirty or forty years. What would you think in such a case?”

Cale looked down with a grim expression. ”I... would of course think someone else was inhabiting the child’s body.”

Sirius snapped his fingers. ”Exactly! You’re obviously someone who has either been reincarnated or possessed. Now... if you showed no abilities and were weak most of your life, but then suddenly appeared with a refined body and skills unknown to anyone here, what do you think would happen?”

Cale sighed. ”I see... I fucked up, huh.”

”Well, of course you did.”

Cale looked up at him. ”But then why didn’t any of you kill me?”

”Isn’t it obvious? It’s somewhat problematic, but you’re now someone under our care, so at least you’ll be left alive. The rest is up to you. And you’re not the first one, you see.”

Cale leaned back, thinking. ”So that’s why Father is like that. Never showing his true self, always keeping a fake persona in front of me.”

”So you knew...”

”Haha... I was never even thought about by my parents. My father acts in front of me, and my mother is a greedy bitch who doesn’t even care about me. I haven’t even been hugged by any of them... heh. I never asked for praise, but to think such a thing was going on... Indeed, I’m a cursed one.”

Sirius sighed. ”That’s just how political marriages work. Don’t beat yourself up too much over it.”

But then Cale’s thoughts snapped back, and he jerked upright.

”Wait, you said I’m not the first one? What do you... no! It’s you! It was you! Soul age! How did I not think to check yours too? Haah, yours must be over a thousand. Why are you still alive? No, how can that even be possible? Everyone has seen you as a child when you were born, and many have seen you as a teenager too... so you cannot be thousands...”

Sirius grinned. ”Would you look at that. You learn quite quickly. I am indeed someone who has reincarnated, like you. But unlike you, I retain some of my strength, and all of my memories.”

”How does that work? Who the hell are you?”

”No, Callisto, we should be asking who the hell you are. You’ve seen my eyes. They show the truth of everything. Your soul’s age, your second body, which is a Progenitor’s body and will be coveted by many. Your various techniques, and of course your memories. Who knows what other treasures might be hidden in them.”

Cale tried to rise, but the invisible pressure still pressed down on him. Yet Sirius had never once put pressure on him.

Cale sighed. ”I’m Cale, all right? I am Cale. I don’t know how many lives I’ve lived, but I only remember being Cale Regulus Midgar. I was the same person then, and I’m the same man now. I won’t tell you how it happened or how it’s even possible, but I’m no enemy to you or the family.”

Sirius’s eyes widened a little, and then he laughed loudly.

”Hahaha! You think I would have killed you if you were? Still an idiot, I see. At my age, such things don’t even matter. Just a simple blood relation? Does it matter whether it’s there or not?”

”So... that’s why Rexa—”

”Yes, it doesn’t matter anyway. You said you’re Cale, so I couldn’t care less. Do you think I’d marry my daughter off to some random person?”

Cale sighed and relaxed a little. ”Um... if you’re not going to kill me, can I assume we’re on the same side?”

”Well, isn’t that what I just said?”

’So this guy was just scaring me the whole conversation! Ugh, if I weren’t so weak, I would have slapped him a few times at least!’

”Okay. Now, who the hell are you? Why are so many of our family dying?”

He fired off a series of questions, some of them quite irrelevant.

”Stop, stop! I’ll answer, okay!” Sirius shouted, unable to think straight.

”Of course you’ll answer. You scared the hell out of me!”

”Hmm, alright, alright. So, to answer your questions: who am I? Well, you can consider me your ancestor of sorts.”

”Ancestor? Come on. Answer honestly.”

”I am not lying. I’ll explain in a rather complicated way, then. Do you know how our bloodline supposedly carries the blood of dragons? Not a cheap imitation, but the real bloodline?”

”Uh... I don’t. I mean, all I know is we’re descendants of dragons. But that can’t possibly mean we were born ’from’ dragons. Right?”

Sirius grinned, proving Cale wrong. ”Oh, we were indeed born out of dragons, hehe. That’s the interesting part. Thirteen thousand years ago, our ancestors were really dragons. But humans and other races, who were quite afraid of our race sitting at the top, started to mass-slaughter ours.”

”Isn’t that... serious? Are you sure you should be talking about it so jokingly...”

”Kahaha, Cale, you sure have a way with words. You don’t even mean it. Let me continue...”