"…"
"(Sigh)… Okay, Dad, enough of the rodeos because that's not what I came to talk about."
"Huh?"
"I came here to ask you to stop worrying about me so much."
"... You know this is impossible, don't you?"
"But you don't have to worry about me at all times, either! As I said, I am no longer a child and I already know how to take care of myself. "
"There is no way for me not to worry about you, since you and your mother are the only things I still have, so that is out of the question."
"… But you don't even spend that much time with us… most of the time you stay inside this place, how do you think Mom feels about seeing this? She's not even leaving her room, every time I go to see her she is there, alone sitting in that damn chair by the lake, and you here, trapped inside this room. Did you know that the last time I saw you in person, it was almost 1 month ago? "
"... You are still a child Sophia, you do not know what you are talking about."
"No dad, mommy is clearly sick, even I realize that. But during those years you spent so much time worrying about the family's problems, and looking for some way to help her, that you even forgot that the most important thing for her was always spending as much time as possible with both of us. "
"Enough Sophia, I already told you that you are a child, and you don't know what you are talking about!"
"… I don't know, right… before I leave, tell me dad, do you even know how Mom and I celebrated our birthday during these years? Or at least remember what day our birthdays are? "
"…"
The whole place was filled with silence, Arthur was speechless, not because he didn't know the answer to that question, because all these days he was there looking, from a distance and for just a few minutes, but he was. Arthur did not approach because he knew that if he did, he would certainly not return to his focus, which was now 100% focused on finding a cure, if he approached them in those happy moments, the last thing that would come to his mind would be get away from them again, and go back to being practically confined inside that empty room.
But he did not want to say that to Sophia, and for that reason he remained in total silence when receiving that question, which was certainly hurting and very much his heart. Sophia, on the other hand, waited for her father's reply, but as he said nothing for a few minutes, she got up and walked slowly towards the door.
She opened the door, but before leaving she said "… As I said, you don't have to worry about finding a way to improve my cultivation… but spend more time with Mom, she certainly needs it."
Shortly after saying that, Sophia left the room and closed the door, and the moment she did that, Arthur was happy to see that her baby had really grown, and is becoming a woman, but she was also sad to realize that he didn't really spend any time with his family, the people most important to him, and yet he barely spoke to them for years.
And even though he saw them several times, most of the time it was when they were sleeping or at a distance, so the communication between them was practically nil, and seeing this he realized that he basically lost all the development of his only daughter, lost his birthdays, lost her evolutions, and distanced herself from her and her wife. Upon realizing this, Arthur found himself wondering if all these years of searching were really worth it, he literally found nothing, no way to end or lessen the disease, but even so he continued.
He continued to search intensively, and he also continued to distance himself more and more from his family ...
And now realizing that his actions were not good at all, not even for him, much less for his dear family members, Arthur lifted his head, and from his closed eyes little by little tears began to trickle down his face.
'Our ray of light really grew a lot… and love, she's really just like you…'