Chapter 51: The Child Of Chaos [1]

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“Mirai.”

“Mirai, wake up, dear.”

“It’s already quite late. Are you going to sleep all day?”

“You’ll be late for school if you don’t get up soon, honey.”

Mirai slowly opened her eyes, confused by the strangely familiar voices she had never actually heard in her entire life.

When her vision finally cleared and she saw who stood before her, confusion deepened.

“What’s wrong, sleepyhead?”

“Are you okay?”

“Huh? Who… what?”

She stared at the two middle-aged people in front of her, a man and a woman. Both had black hair like hers, and their facial features clearly marked them as born in Yamato.

“W-Who… Who are you?”

Mirai tilted her head in bewilderment, only to notice that her hands were tiny. Then she realized her entire body was small, as though she had regressed years in age.

“What’s going on…?”

Her mind felt foggy, tired, and dizzy. She couldn’t think clearly.

“Is something wrong, dear?”

“Who else would we be? Your parents, of course.”

“Eh?”

Mirai’s eyes widened as she looked at the two who called themselves her “parents.” She remembered seeing their IDs countless times throughout her life, searching the VPI database, desperate to learn anything about the parents she could never meet.

Her father and mother, the ones who had died in the hospital the moment she was born, consumed by the monstrous aura pouring from her infant body, which had killed over half the people present.

“Mom… Dad?”

Mirai’s large red eyes quickly filled with tears. Seeing her parents had always been her greatest, most impossible dream.

She had longed to meet them, to say hello at least, anything.

But they had been gone before she could form memories, before she could even develop a sense of self.

“Is it really you?”

Mirai didn’t understand what was happening, but perhaps, just maybe, like in the novels she read, she had been reincarnated or sent back.

Maybe her deepest wish had finally come true, and she had returned to a past, or entered a timeline, where her parents never died.

Where she was just a normal girl.

“Well, yes. Who else could it be, dear?” her father said, readjusting his glasses. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Is something not right?” her mother asked gently.

“No… I just… I’ve always wished I could meet you,” she cried. “I always wanted a mom and a dad!”

She ran to them and hugged them both tightly, feeling their warmth as they laughed softly.

“Hahaha, what’s gotten into you?”

“Let’s go have breakfast, alright?”

Mirai stepped out of her room and noticed it wasn’t the chamber inside the ice castle. That dream, where she lived in a chaotic world with a hypocritical prince and a group of insane people, was just that: a dream.

“Maybe… it was all a dream…” she whispered with a light smile, noticing her room filled with all the toys she had ever wished for. “Wow, I have so many toys!”

She ran around, playing with them for a moment until her parents called again.

“Mirai! Breakfast!”

“Ah, right! I have to go to school! Yaaay!”

Mirai jumped happily and ran to the kitchen. The house was modest, just an apartment with three rooms, the kitchen connected to the living area.

But it felt perfect. The small table was set for exactly three people. She sat down, beaming at the breakfast: a tall stack of ten fluffy pancakes topped with whipped cream, strawberries, and generous syrup.

“Wooow!” She drooled. “Mama, did you make this?!”

“Yes, it’s your favorite, right? Here, make sure to drink your milk too,” her mother said, sitting down to enjoy breakfast with her husband and daughter.

Mirai smiled brightly as she began eating. The pancakes were delicious. She stuffed her cheeks full, looking like a little hamster.

“Calm down, don’t eat so fast, haha,” her father laughed, patting her back gently.

“But they’re yummy!” little Mirai protested, eyebrows furrowed. “It’s all so nice…! I’m so happy! Heheh!”

“Is that so?”

“…?”

Then Mirai heard another voice, quiet beneath her parents’ conversation and the low drone of the television.

She turned and saw someone sitting right beside her, someone her own age.

He looked almost identical to her: black hair, red eyes, and streaks of red running through his black hair.

But he was a boy.

“Are you enjoying yourself, Mirai?”

“…? Huh? Ah… who… who are you?”

“I am what you could have been.”

“…What?”

Mirai looked around. The world began to slow. The bright colors of her family and home gradually drained away.

“I am a possibility…”

The boy stared into her eyes, his face forever expressionless. He lifted the glass of milk, drank it slowly, leaving nothing behind, then licked his lips.

“I am you.”

The realization struck like ice. Mirai finally understood this was not reality.

Her hope that it could be real had been so powerful, her greatest delusion, her deepest fantasy.

“This is not your family. It’s mine.”

“Eh? What… What are you talking about?!”

Mirai became agitated. She screamed and ran toward her parents, begging them to look at her.

“Mom! Dad! Who is he?! What is he doing here—”

Then she saw their faces again.

Mirai screamed and collapsed to the floor, crawling backward, shaking her head violently. Her eyes filled with despair as cold sweat drenched her body.

“A-Ahhh…! Aaahhhh!”

Her parents were shriveled, dry corpses. Their skin had rotted and mummified into blackened charcoal, crumbling away as they turned toward her.

“Mi… rai…”

“Help… us…”

“N-No…! No! No! NO! Mom! Dad…! I-I didn’t…! I love you! I…!”

“If you love us…!”

“Then why…!”

“WHY DID YOU KILL US?!”

Her parents rose, exuding an aura of darkness. Behind them, the boy remained seated, calmly eating her pancakes.

“N-No…! I didn’t…! I didn’t want to kill you! I didn’t want to do it! I wasn’t aware I was… harming anyone! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!!!”

Mirai screamed, panicking. She curled into a fetal position, sobbing apologies over and over as her parents slowly advanced.

“How pitiful.”

The boy watched her with his unchanging expression, yet somehow he looked disappointed.

“You lost everything, and yet you’re weaker than me. Why is that the case? How useless.”

“W-Who…! WHO ARE YOU?!”

“Didn’t I already tell you? I am you. I am a possibility. The Dimensional Labyrinth, do you know what it is made of?”

“…Eh?”

The boy slowly floated into the air. The entire house tore apart, revealing an endless void beyond.

A gigantic demon emerged, crimson-skinned, covered in glowing black tattoos, with eight long arms and three heads. Golden horns gleamed, and white eyes stared first at him… then at her.

The demon opened one massive palm. The boy leaped onto it.

“It seems you’re still enjoying a good life despite lacking everything I never had. While I watched my world end in the maws of a Monster I could do nothing against.”

“…? I don’t understand what you’re talking about! Isn’t this a dream?! When will it end?! What’s happening?”

“It makes me so frustrated… But don’t worry.”

From the void, something else emerged, a monstrous mass of countless limbs and eyes, devouring emptiness itself and spawning endless chaos.

“I will make sure to take every little thing away from you. So get ready, me.”

“W-Wha… Why… Why are you doing this?”

Mirai barely stood on a piece of floating debris, facing the boy who looked so much like her, like a twin.

“Your world is the only one at the end of everything that has not been swallowed. Everyone had their turn. But not you. I will make sure you join us.”

Endless darkness and red flames rushed downward, shaping into a giant hand poised to crush her.

She could only scream and cower in terror.

Yet the impact never came.

The hand made of shadows and flames trembled and hesitated.

The boy looked upset. He glared at the two monstrous entities beside him.

“Why do you hesitate?! She’s not really me! I am your only son! ONLY I AM!!!”

“…”

“…”

The aberrant endless chaos.

And the king of all demonic beings.

They hesitated, unable to harm Mirai as he demanded.

“Fine… I’ll take care of her myself.”

Before Mirai could comprehend what was happening, an endless sea of darkness swallowed her.

The boy’s glowing red eyes watched as she drowned.

“See you soon.”

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Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep