Chapter 1503 1503: The Shard of Memory

Arthur stared at his father, who was in turn staring at a small shard that he had in his hand. The shard was one he had seen countless times while growing up and had asked his father and mother about it, only to be told it was garbage. But his father never threw it out, and his mother seemed to understand it meant something to the man.

The shard was from a vase that Arthur had tripped over while playing with Oren as a child. It had fallen over, shattered, and drawn blood from his younger self. Arthur cried at the time, and his father looked terrified to see so much blood. His mother was more calm-headed as she pulled out a runic card that they kept for emergencies and used it.

The feeling of being in contact with a rune was so comfortable that Arthur had asked his mother multiple times if he could use a card again. Of course, it was expensive, and his mother would berate him every time he became too annoying.

The wound was gone, but his father's memory of it seemed to never fade. He kept looking at the shard even while telling his story, as if seeing how it was covered in his son's blood a long time ago.

"I knew that what I wanted to achieve would do more harm to you than good," he said. "But it was necessary to survive. It was either that or that you would never be born. I accepted living in a time loop, either as a drunken man or a goddamn hobo. But… every time I was alone in one of those infinite cold nights, I would think of our house."

Arthur listened silently. He had the urge to comment that the house had now turned into an apartment complex after the bank seized it, and they had to relocate to a smaller one in the peripheries of Kera. But he knew that the man before him was already down and needed no more kicking while he was at rock bottom.

"You might doubt my words," Seref said with a smile as he looked at Arthur. "But you can know, right? You can look deep down into my soul and know… what kind of hell I have suffered?"

"Is that another power that you have given me?" Arthur asked with a smile. "Is this infinite amount of spiritual energy also a gift of your schemes?"

"It looks to be a gift of your other ancestor, the Seika of Souls," his father said with a sad smile. "There are many things that I don't understand about you. I'm guessing that even if the legacy wanted to send me back, you can tell, or even stop it. But I'm not sure if you should. It has saved the world countless times."

"Tell me about the creature behind it," Arthur said. "The Liberated. Who are they? What's their motivation? How do we know they stand on the side of humanity?"

"I asked the same questions a few cycles ago," his father said with a nod. "I learned that their name tells their story. They were once called the Slaves, an interdimensional race that could travel between worlds and share a collective mind. However, the gods had enslaved them and used them in their schemes. Their name was erased from the world, and they were given the name the Slaves."

"It was during the time that Ragnar rose that he managed to free them, giving them the name of the Liberated. Their mission changed into an obsessive urge to take down the gods for what they did. They began traveling through worlds, doing everything they could to hatch a plan against them, in preparation for Ragnar's descendant's return."

"That worries me," Arthur said, sharing his feelings for the first time with the man in front of him. "If they want to bring down the gods, they would have no problem sacrificing this world if it increased their odds by one percent."

"The only good thing about this is that they cannot interact with you as part of an oath they took to Ragnar," Seref said with a smile. "The next best thing is to approach your family members, or me, for their plan. But I've seen the things they did. They are good creatures who strive for freedom and peace for all worlds."

Arthur nodded but didn't share his father's blind belief in them. If they could hatch a plan that could span thousands or millions of years, then their ambition could stretch farther than simply taking down the gods. Maybe they wanted to become the gods.

The motives of the Liberated would have to wait before Arthur uncovered them, as he still had the issue with his reawakening. Even after his father told him his story, Arthur gained no insight into completing his quest.

In the end, he had to ask the man in front of him. He was the most knowledgeable human to ever live, and as much as Arthur hated to rely on him, he had no one else to ask.

"A reawakening of the legacy?" his father asked in surprise. "How did you manage to obtain an ichor of the gods?"

"I would love to tell you if there wasn't a possibility that you would go back in time and fuck things up," Arthur said with an angry smile. His father could only laugh warily and then begin to ponder.

Arthur was surprised to see his father already knowing the requirement to reawaken his legacy. However, he didn't have the fear that his father would steal the ichor to reawaken his own legacy, because the Liberated who created the legacy were still alive and in control.

The sudden realization that the Liberated made a slave of his father filled Arthur with rage and could only laugh at the irony of their ideals being no more than pretty words and promises of freedom. However, he knew that his father could decline the legacy at any time, but it would endanger both Arthur and humanity.

"A reawakened legacy has been the research topic of some of the most powerful astral beings in the universe," his father said, interrupting Arthur's train of thought. "It has been utilized as a method to hijack the powers and items from powerful legacies, but none of them proved successful as long as the legacy owner was still alive or they hadn't given control of the legacy to the user."

"Like in my case," Arthur said. "The Scholar Guardian is dead, and he has given me control of the legacy. That's why I had the option to reawaken it, but everyone seemed against it."

"That's understandable, as reawakening the legacy means becoming a slave to your own goal instead of the goals of others. It's like pointing a gun at your own head and pulling the trigger if you didn't ace the next midterm exams."

"Uh, giving analogies is not your strong suit, is it?" Arthur asked.

"I'll have you know that I was once a teacher in one cycle," his father said while glaring at him. "My students loved my humor."

"All students love their teacher's humor as long as it wastes enough time," Arthur said with a roll of his eyes. He felt a little bad to see his father's shocked expression and horrifying realization. "Again, is it dangerous?"

"You've already done it, so why ask now?" his father said with a shrug. "I'm guessing you want to know how to get out of this space, right?"

"Right," Arthur said. "I don't even know why the legacy brought me back to Avarice and then to this place."

"You forget something," his father said with a smile. "The legacy is no longer the one in control, but you are. You were the one to bring yourself to this place and this house."

"What?" Arthur asked in shock. "I didn't even think about my awakening for years!"

"Maybe you did not," his father said with a shrug. "But your subconscious seemed to have always rejected your power because you obtained it in an unsatisfactory way. You never accepted the power because you weren't in control when you did obtain it."

Arthur was silent for a few seconds and then realized that his father might be right. He had helped his party reach the fifth floor this time instead of dying on the third. He had finished the dungeon that should have killed him.

"Then why are we here?" Arthur asked as he turned to his father.

This time, his father looked at him with a terrible sadness that made Arthur forget about his hatred for the man. It looked like Seref had aged a few years ever since he began telling his story.

"I think… that you wanted to hear my story," Seref said as his eyes reddened. Two streams of tears rolled down his face as he looked at the shard in his hands. "You wanted a reason for your father's villainy. You wanted a reason to forgive me, so you brought me here to tell you the truth."

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