Alex was frozen when he heard his mother yell at him that way. He didn't want to believe that she had forgotten him like that, so he tried to touch her again.
"Stay away from me," she yelled again. The nurse quickly came behind Alex and pulled him out of the room. She returned him to his room, and Alex didn't speak a word until he was there, and even then, he said nothing.
Ace walked into his room and dismissed the nurse. He took a seat beside Alex. "That must have been tough," Ace said.
"What happened to her?" Alex managed to ask.
"She sustained some serious damage to her head, and that made her lose a chunk of her memories. As of now, she knows nothing about you or your father. We can't push to make her try and remember because the risk of her having a mental breakdown is way too much.
It's a ninety-to-ten chance here—ten percent that she will recover, and ninety that she will have a breakdown and become totally insane," Ace explained.
"I see. Is there hope that she will recover in the future?" Alex asked. His voice was quivering, his body was shaking, but he tried to remain as calm as possible. Ace noticed this; he wanted to say something that would soothe Alex's mind.
But the truth was heavy, and there was no way to sugarcoat it at all. "It's not completely impossible, but the chances of her miraculously remembering her life are close to zero.
It would take some sort of divine miracle for that to happen. Not that I don't believe in the concept of a god, but if there was a god, then we would not be living in the world we currently live in," Ace said.
Hearing what Ace said, Alex could not hold back his tears. He had a straight face, but his tears streamed down his face, and his body trembled.
"This may not be the best time to tell a child about this, but like I said before, I was a friend of your father. A close one, to be honest, and we had a lot of things in common, like our drive to stop the darkness.
He shared with me information about you and the darkness in you. So I know everything about you. I want to offer for you to come and stay in my research institute," Ace offered.
Alex felt there was something off with the way that Ace offered for him to stay in the institute, but Alex was no longer thinking straight at the moment.
His twin brother was taken away from him, his father died protecting him, and now his mother was severely injured because of him.
He was a curse; he cursed those that were around him. He caused them pain and death. He was a walking curse. He was certain that even his parents leaving was because of him alone.
'What is the point of my life at this point? I am a walking disaster, even after coming to this world. No, I am not to blame alone. This world takes part of the blame; this world has caused part of my pain. I want those crawlers to pass through what my mum and dad passed through.
I will make them all pay. I'll root them out of this world, every single one of them, and I will not stop until I stand on all their corpses.'
[Main mission updated: Destroy the Darkness: The darkness that fills this world is a constant reminder that you failed to keep your parents safe. It is a constant reminder of your failure. You must atone for your weakness and defeat the darkness at all costs and redeem yourself.]
This was the first time that Alex had gotten a mission, and the mission aligned with his thoughts and what he wanted.
"I want to fight crawlers. I want to kill them all. They deserve to die," Alex said while looking down, his fists balled.
Ace paused when he heard that. He understood the rage that was in Alex. He wanted to write it off as the anger of a child, thinking it would go away.
But as he looked at Alex, he could see real hatred. After all, this was a lad who had seen his father get eaten and watched his mother actually reject him.
The trauma from this would surely be etched into his soul. So Ace knew that Alex was being serious here, and taking him to his institution would not do any real good. But he had another idea.
"If you really want to fight them, you'll have to become a marine, and that means you'll have to come to the academy where I teach as well.
You'll be trained, and you'll fight the crawlers in time. But there is an issue, Alex. If you are going to go to the academy, I would have to tell those above about you and everything that you are.
It is a risk, a really big risk. They might decide to see you as a threat and decide to either take you out or actually use you for experiments.
That is the risk that you are faced with. I don't know if you are smart enough to understand that risk, but this is the honest truth.
I'll put in my best word and try to get you in, but whatever happens after that would not be in my hands," Ace said.
"It's fine. I want you to take the risk. I'd rather die or be used as an experiment to destroy the crawlers than live without doing anything," Alex said.
Ace was shocked when Alex said this. This was real hatred and anger. There was no cuddling it at all—Alex had been broken.
"Alright, Alex, I'll do what we discussed. You should take your time to adjust and recover," Ace said and left the room, giving Alex time for himself.