"What happened?" Narrowing his eyes Eldric looked at them before asking the question. Thinking for a moment, he couldn't come up with an answer by himself. After all, there didn't seem to be any problem till the morning. And yet, they were sitting here with a grim expression.
"Something did happen." Cedric's voice was now filled with seriousness as he signaled his son to sit beside his sister.
Even though Eldric was a bit confused, he still listened to his father and took a seat. In the hazy memories of his predecessor, he never saw them having such a grim expression. For a moment Eldric felt his heart thumping at the feeling of something ominous.
Sitting in silence he waited for them to speak. And sure enough, both Cedric and Elara looked at each other before Cedric began to speak.
"I wanted to tell you about some things first." Clearing his throat, he slid forward a bit as his voice echoed throughout the room.
"You see... Your elder sister Aria wasn't always like this." Looking at his daughter sitting there in silence, Cedric's eyes were filled with pain. "Before we adopted you, things were much different in this house."
"From her birth, she was an intelligent and playful girl who loved to cause trouble everywhere. There were times when even we would be scared to death by her shenanigans." Thinking about how his daughter used to cause so much trouble in her childhood, a smile ran across his face as he kept on speaking.
"Everything was fine... Both Elara and I were working good jobs. We were even going to get promoted to a higher position. You could say that after Aria's birth, things were always going our way.
Every day was filled with laughter and happiness."
Speaking till here, he paused for a moment.
"Everything was fine... Till her fifth birthday."
As soon as he spoke those words, Elara tightened her grip on Cedric's shoulder while recalling that painful memory.
"For her fifth birthday, we wanted to do something special. And thus we decided to make a trip to one of the bigger cities where the headquarters of our faction was.
Everything was going great. We reached there a week before her birthday and traveled to the beautiful locations. It was perfect."
Cedric's eyes seemed to be in a daze as he recalled about that time. But soon, the smile disappeared from his face as his face twisted with anger and grief.
"We thought everything would stay that way... But...
On the day our dear Aria turned five, the city walls were breached. An innumerable number of beasts rushed inside, slaughtering every single living thing in sight. Even our faction was wiped out and the entire city was razed to the ground.
We three, however, were lucky enough to escape. We fought our way out, but... our Aria was injured, We didn't even notice when it happened.
After escaping from there, we rushed to a healer as fast as possible. Unfortunately, it was too late. The damage was already done."
Eldric listened quietly as Cedric told the past events. After arriving in this world, he never paid any attention to the so-called family members much less think about them. After living here for a week, he was somewhat curious about why the elder sister of this body was like this. Initially, he thought it was because she was born this way. But now, after listening to Cedric he realized that things weren't as simple as he thought.
Also, till now, he had only read about the beasts breaching the cities in the books of his school. It was the first time, he heard it from someone who had experienced it personally. But instead of being sympathetic or curious, it made him nervous. Since cities much bigger than this can fall, then who is to say that nothing will ever happen to Aetheria?
The more Eldric thought about it, the more he realized how unpredictable and dangerous this world was and how feeble his own life was.
While he was lost in his train of thought, Cedric continued his story.
"And after that day, your sister lost herself. What you are seeing now is merely a husk of her former shelf. Her body might be here, but her mind isn't."
Listening to him, Eldric couldn't help but wonder, what was the point of telling him all this? Do they think he is somehow capable enough to cure her? He didn't think so... But he couldn't just directly ask them. Instead, he was waiting for Cedric to tell him that.
"After that incident, we lost everything. With the destruction of our faction, we needed to look for another job and hence joined a different faction. But the pay wasn't as good as the previous one.
We were making half the money we used to make before and even the majority of that money was spent on the monthly outburst that Aria has.
Years passed and we adopted you. Even though we wanted to give you a great life, we could not."
Cedric couldn't bring himself to speak further. He just let out a sigh and closed his eyes. Elara pinched him on the shoulder, signaling him to speak further, but Cedric just sat there in silence with no intention of saying anything.
Gritting her teeth, Elara finally decided to take matters into her own hands.
"There is a rule in this world... No matter which city you go to, you can not escape from this rule.
Any mortal... Any person who hasn't gone through evolution needs to be married before the age of thirty. If they don't, then they will be teleported away to a different place and will be forcibly matched with someone else.
Son..." Elara clenched her fists so hard that blood began to drip.
"I know it isn't fair and I know it is us being selfish. But I want the two of you to get married tomorrow."
"..."
"...."
"...."
"HUUUUH!?"
Eldric's first thought was that he heard it wrong. After all, even though he was adopted, they were still family. No matter the age and day, it wasn't something ethical.
For a moment he even thought that his mother was joking. But looking at her serious face he knew she wasn't.
The room plunged into a long awkward silence as Eldric kept on looking at Cedric and Elara, but the two of them didn't dare to meet his eyes.
"Why so sudden?" Knowing this was a difficult decision for them too, Eldric wanted to know why they were in such a hurry.
"It's not sudden." It was Cedric who spoke first. "You might hate us and resent us for it, but it was decided from the day we adopted you."
"..." If the previous Eldric had been alive, he would have screamed and demanded an answer. But the current Eldric just looked at them in confusion. The usual emotions that should have been present in the real Eldric were completely missing from him.
"You have to be a bit more specific."
Listening to him, Cedric let out a sigh.
"For seven years after the incident, we searched for a cure. We looked everywhere, but we didn't find one.
After meeting numerous healers, all of them came to the same conclusion... Aria can not be healed. Perhaps there is a potion or miraculous herb, but at our level, it is impossible to even know about it much less afford it.
Watching our daughter like this, we were afraid. We knew that it was going to be impossible for her to live a normal life... And we are even willing to support her as long as we live.
But... We can not do anything about the rules of this world. I talked with a lot of my friends, hoping to marry my daughter to their son once she turned twenty, but no one was willing. After all, who would be magnanimous enough to marry such a girl and take care of her monthly treatment? It is a thankless task."
With every word he spoke, Cedric felt like someone was slowly dragging a blade through his heart. Thinking about the mocking faces of his friends who thought he was joking, he couldn't help but clench his teeth.
"Thus your mother and I decided that since we can not look for a groom outside, then we will raise one ourselves."
Speaking this sentence almost exhausted Cedric as he didn't dare to look at Eldric.
"...." Eldric on the other hand was confused. Looking at the couple in front of him, he couldn't help but click his tongue while thinking to himself. 'Good guy... No wonder you were treating me so well. Turns out you have already planned to do much for me.'
The more he thought about it, the more things slowly began to clear up for him. At first, Eldric thought that this was the love and care of a parent. But now he understood... It definitely was the love and care of parents, but the meaning was different.
"Trust us, son... We didn't want to do this. We even thought about it for a long time and decided that if you were able to join any university, then we wouldn't even talk about this... After all, you too are a family member. You do not love you any less than Aria."
"Why such a hurry? Why so sudden?" Contrary to Cedric's and Elara's expectations, Eldric asked a rather simple question. They were ready to hear him curse and feel betrayed, but for someone whose entire life turned out to be a lie, he was rather calm.
"One reason is that, in a few months Aria will be thirty years old.
The other reason is that your mother and I have been assigned a rather difficult mission by the faction. We need to leave within a few days."
"We are afraid of what will happen to Aria once we are gone." Holding Elara's hand gently, Cedric looked him in the eyes "Thus, we are asking you this."
"You don't have to do anything... I have already arranged everything for your future. Every month, the healer will come here for her treatment. It will cost you a bit, but you can easily pay it through your salary."
"Even this apartment will be yours." With every word, Cedric's voice was getting more and more excited, but Eldric could clearly feel the desperation behind it.
He didn't reply immediately but thought for a long time. He thought about any other option that he might have, but there were none.
He didn't have a place to live and didn't have any money. If not for the previous owner's family, he might have had difficulty surviving after leaving the school.
Looking at the couple in front of him who were growing nervous with every passing second and a woman who was sitting in a daze beside him, he couldn't help but let out a sigh before giving them a nod.
"Fine..... Let's do this."