Illusion Report

Damian fell silent for a few seconds. It was unclear whether he was composing himself or reassessing the situation.

"You—I told you not to move. What are you doing? Aren’t you just asking for trouble? If you hadn’t interfered with my business, it wouldn’t have hurt you, so why did you have to close my Path? Did you think you could stand up to a Resident? Or do you just want to go against me?"

The initial shock and fear—if he even knew what fear was—quickly began to fade from Damian’s voice as he spoke.

"I know why you had to stop me. It’s because of your mother, isn’t it? Her Path turned her into a guide dog for Residents to enter the human world, right? That’s what that Resident said back then, wasn’t it?"

Damian’s anger was gradually returning.

He was usually reasonable with Chaisi, sometimes even listening to him like a real younger brother—but that was limited to trivial, everyday matters.

Perhaps feeling betrayed by Chaisi on such a crucial matter, his voice began to tremble slightly with rage.

"Do you think I’m the same as your mother? Can a garbage Path like hers even compare to my talent? Are these two things—"

He waved a hand, gesturing toward the Resident standing before Chaisi. "Are they the same thing? Aren’t you supposed to be smart? Your grades are so good, I don’t believe for a second you haven’t thought this through! But just because you don’t like it, you have to stop me. You’re so selfish!"

Chaisi hung his head. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything but a field of red.

Damian wasn’t wrong. If it weren’t for that garbage-like Path his mother had, he wouldn’t be here right now.

"You don’t talk about it much, but I know you really want to serve the Kai Family in the future."

Damian said coldly, his tone just like Kai Luonan’s. "I see you’re not cut out for it at all. You don’t know how to be flexible, how to adapt. You’d be useless to the Kai Family."

He turned his head to the Resident and asked, "I want to summon the most powerful Resident who will obey me right now, to show him. How can I do it?"

The Resident inhaled with a delighted gasp.

"You can summon a Resident from your Path. Come, let me help you... I know a few names that would absolutely become your capable subordinates."

Chaisi listened in silence. He watched Damian turn and walk over to the piece of pajama fabric on the floor. The Resident hurried to the other side, towering over his younger brother and leaning down, its face aglow with eagerness, its features floating.

He suddenly wanted to laugh.

’Uncle Kai, what should I do?’

’If I spend the rest of my life atoning to you, if I use everything I have to win worldly fame, power, and fortune for the Kai Family... will you forgive me for what I’m about to do?’

Perhaps it was the combined effects of blood loss and a concussion, or perhaps he had already gone insane, but a smile broke through the blood on Chaisi’s face.

Blood that had, at some point, streamed down his face, seeped into the corner of his mouth, salty and metallic—he slowly licked the blood from his lips.

Thirteen-year-old Chaisi was no stranger to violence.

He was about to make his move.

He needed Damian unconscious. He needed to knock him out.

His right hand was useless, but it didn’t matter. He had never let go with his left.

The blood-soaked carpet muffled the sound of him getting to his feet. The world was suddenly gagged, shoved deep underwater, utterly silent.

Until the base of the lamp crashed into that still-developing skull, making a dull thud that Chaisi would never forget for the rest of his life.

Damian had never been so docile. His legs gave out, and he pitched forward onto the floor. As the back of his head separated from the lamp base, it fell, pulling a string of blood beads with it.

The Resident whipped its head around in shock, its eyes meeting Chaisi’s. In the dead silence, two seconds passed.

...The Resident was still there. The Path was still there.

’How the hell do I close this Path? Does it only listen to Damian’s commands, too?’

Half of Chaisi wanted to roar with rage, the other half wanted to laugh hysterically, but he couldn’t move a muscle.

The Resident laughed for him.

"You didn’t expect that did you the Path is still here oh my god this child is so precious but not you I can’t let you stay so just die die die die die die die!"

Its voice broke off, but its sharp hand shot straight for him.

"Since your mother gave you this life, she can take it away, you know."

’If Damian’s death is how tonight ends...’ Chaisi Monroe thought with a certain coldness, ’then I’ll just have to carry that with me for the rest of my life.’

Back then, Chaisi was still too young. He didn’t yet know how long a lifetime could be.

From some distant, hazy place, he watched himself dive to the floor, dodging that sharp hand and rolling away.

Chaisi rolled to Damian’s side, and the Resident’s hand pursued him relentlessly.

Was it subconscious self-preservation? Or was it conscious murder?

He had forgotten. He would rather never remember.

All Chaisi remembered was grabbing his brother’s arm and yanking that soft body in front of his own—when Damian’s back, still connected to the Path, was pierced, it was as if a firework of blood had exploded beneath the ceiling.

Uncle Kai burst into the room a dozen or so seconds later.