Chapter 793: April's Defection
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 793: April's Defection
Though she didn't know why, here, April could always let down her guard. She could become the little girl in her heart and do whatever she pleased.
She had come to the Academy, where her favorite mentor and her best friend were.
After being led to the Academy by her mentor, she met her dearest friend.
As for the classes... wasn't entering the Academy just the beginning of learning?
Learning how to be happy, learning how to get along with friends, learning how to handle conflict, learning how to reconcile with others...
In this Academy, there was only one reason to look forward to the end of the school day: seeing her mother, who would take her home, and her father, who was waiting for her there.
Occasionally, there were complex and difficult courses, but a simple furrow of her brow was enough to get through them.
What was this place?
What did it represent?
It was a kindergarten for the hearts of those who had never grown up.
Everything here was eerie yet harmonious. It was the world where April could most easily lower her defenses. She wanted to believe it was real, and she was willing to become such a person to experience such a life.
Or rather, this was her strongest desire—to live her life over again.
After all, not long ago, she had been prepared to die just to prove her final worth and defend the honor of her family.
But... was that truly the family's honor?
The family was a selfish, gargantuan monster. It placed shackles named "Family" upon everyone April knew, constantly squeezing every bit of value out of them until they finally sacrificed their lives.
No one in the family could spend their life in an ordinary way. Those who only thought of comfort merely proved they had no value.
Ultimately, they would become the laborers at the very bottom of the family hierarchy.
This didn't mean one could find peace in a remote place. The incompetent had no right to peace; only those close to the family's core power holders possessed freedom.
What kind of freedom?
The freedom of power!
Meanwhile, those at the bottom of the family had only one kind of freedom: the freedom to exploit ordinary people.
Ordinary people thought the family members who exploited them were evil. In truth, those members were both miserable and malicious; they were merely grasping at the last shred of freedom within their limited perception.
Compared to them, ordinary people had their own freedom—the freedom of being alive.
Even if it was an ordinary life, it was a sanctuary of rest that souls mired in pain yearned for but could never reach.
* * *
School was over.
April said goodbye to her friends one by one, looking forward to tomorrow. But this time, April stood at the school gate, looking around in confusion.
If it were the previous days, her mother would already be waiting for her. She would pat April's head, tell her she was wonderful, and lead her down a long walkway while listening to April boldly share the interesting things that happened that day.
"Little April, why haven't you gone home yet?"
"Mentor Chris... where is my mother?" April turned back to look at Mentor Chris standing at the school gate and asked subconsciously.
"Your mother didn't come? Then I'll go with you to find her." Chris took April's small hand and spoke without hesitation.
April didn't realize anything was wrong. She didn't choose to wait; she chose to go and search.
Deep down, April knew that her mother wouldn't appear just by waiting. She could only find her by taking the initiative. However, in her anxiety, April could no longer care about the truths she refused to face.
And so, April followed Mentor Chris on the path to find her mother.
For some reason, April felt a sense of familiarity with this road.
As she walked, a surge of long-buried memories she was unwilling to confront began to surface.
April's mental state gradually became unstable. The surroundings of the dream began to shatter, leaving only the road they were walking on to extend forward.
For the first time, the absurdity of the dream stimulated April's consciousness. The emerging memories made her feel afraid.
She... seemed to have done this before. Searching for her mother, together with her mentor.
But that was not a pleasant memory.
She subconsciously glanced sideways at Mentor Chris. An intense, sourceless sense of guilt toward Chris made her look away, unable to meet the kind, smiling gaze of the woman beside her.
She only remembered that the path beneath her feet was the way home.
...Was it really?
Doubt flickered in April's heart. This road seemed slightly unfamiliar.
"April, we're here."
"Huh?" April let out a confused sound. Everything here seemed to have changed significantly from her memory.
But the moment she saw where she had arrived, her face turned pale with shock!
Because the thing beside her was not her home.
It was a grave.
On the tombstone was a photograph of her mother.
"No... that's not right!" April subconsciously pushed Mentor Chris away, clutching her face with both hands, unable to accept the current reality.
"No... no! This is a dream! It's a dream! How could my mother be dead? It's impossible..."
"I saved my mother with my own hands! How could I not remember? She even sent me to the Academy this morning... Mentor Chris! You saw her!"
But when April looked at Mentor Chris, the other woman said nothing.
April hadn't even realized that she had known all along it was a dream; she had simply chosen to believe in its reality.
But when April looked at Chris's face, those unfamiliar memories surfaced once more...
Those were memories of Chris personally taking April back to find the truth—memories of things that had actually happened in reality.
Memories she didn't want to acknowledge!
"I don't want to have children. That's my bottom line. It would ruin my figure. I don't want to be a prisoner in my own home for a year, and if there's an accident, I might not even make it out of the operating room. That would be terrible." A familiar female voice echoed in her mind. It was her mother's voice.
"I don't want to take that risk. As long as the child is mine, that's enough..." But the words she spoke were horrifying.
"..."
"Your mother didn't love you as much as you imagine. Neither does this family. Why cling to these things?"
"The one who killed your mother was your father. Do you need me to trace back the details and reasons for you?"
Memories buried deep within the Ley Lines were unearthed by Mentor Chris, her voice echoing in April's ears.
The violent impact nearly drove April into a frenzy.
"No... no! This is a dream! Dreams are supposed to be beautiful! Why? Why won't that cruel reality even let go of my dreams! Why! Tell me why!"
At that moment, the Chris within the dream looked at the hysterical April and finally grabbed her right hand as she tried to harm herself.
"Because... April, it's time to wake up."
"What?"
April spoke instinctively, trying to pull her right hand back, only to find she couldn't budge it.
A sharp pain that clearly did not belong to a dream began to stimulate her nerves.
"Make one last choice with your mentor."
"What do you mean?"
April looked at the Mentor Chris in the dream with panic. In this moment, the mentor before her became both familiar and strange, until she pressed an ice-crystal-like object into April's restrained right hand.
"Will you choose to resist... or peacefully accept death?"
As Mentor Chris finished her sentence, the last remnants of the dream shattered completely. Her figure gradually blurred.
Then, she was replaced by someone else.
A stinging chill gave April a sudden jolt, and the person before her eyes became perfectly clear.
It was her father.
He was currently gripping her right hand with a face full of rage. Now, she suddenly realized that her wrist, held in a death grip, didn't actually hurt that much.
After all... her father was just an ordinary person.
"Finally awake, are you! Tell me, what the fuck is this in your hand! What is it!"
"What?"
April hadn't reacted yet, but as he yanked her wrist so violently, she simply let him manhandle her.
"What is this? Tell me what this is! Didn't you say you lost it? Tell me what this thing is!" The man pointed a finger at the object in her hand. The next moment, he swung a palm directly at her face, striking with absolutely no restraint.
Slap!
The crisp sound echoed in the bedroom. April finally saw clearly what she was holding.
It was... the Ice Sealed World.
The thing Mentor Chris had pressed into her hand... was the Ice Sealed World?
"How is that possible?!"
April subconsciously touched the spot on her face where she had been slapped. it stung, but compared to the pain of injuries sustained in battle, it was negligible.
However... that slap had landed squarely on her pride.
"You rebellious daughter! You really are just like she said—a witch come to destroy our Hawthorne family! You deserve to die!"
Hearing her father speak of her this way, April was dazed. She didn't know what had happened or why things had developed to this point.
But as her father spoke, several figures stepped out from behind him.
"Seize her! This rebellious girl who betrayed the family is a worthless bitch just like her mother. And make sure you get that Ice Sealed World back from her hand!"
"Don't come any closer! I'm not!"
April instinctively backed away, but the people moving in gave her no chance.
She tried to resist, only to find that the four people coming at her possessed terrifying strength.
These were graduated students from a Transcendent Academy!
And they were guys who had specifically undergone witchcraft body tempering at a Wizard Academy!
With just that initial contact, she knew she had no other choice.
And a sentence echoed in her ear.
"Make one last choice with your mentor."
It was her mentor's voice... from the dream. But this was reality, yet she heard it again... it might have been a hallucination.
But in that split second, she suddenly activated the Ice Sealed World. The ice crystal in her hand immediately erupted with a brilliant radiance!
She faced four enemies. Even though she was a former Teaching Assistant who had just left school, and her personal strength and Undying nature were still at their peak, she had lost her most prized methods. Without much skill in close-quarters combat, she was no match for these four.
Her only breakthrough was the Ice Sealed World!
However, the ice crystals that bloomed upon activation immediately caused her right hand to throb with pain. She had no protection spells, so her right hand could only continuously consume its Undying nature within the extreme cold.
The pain was unavoidable.
She lunged into the Ice Sealed World, and the four men grabbed at empty air.
"Father, listen to me..."
"April! What are you doing! Are you really going to revolt? Instead of obediently admitting your mistake, you're actually using the Ice Sealed World to resist? Is this how I taught you!"
"..."
April, who had been about to explain, was cut off by the man's furious tone. Her brewing emotions were abruptly stifled; his tone made it difficult for her to breathe.
She suddenly felt that this family was so strange, this world so suffocating. A sense of homeless nihilism enveloped her entire body.
She suddenly realized that her father was actually such a powerless man.
Revolt... what a strange word. Was it meant for her?
Obediently admit your mistake... what mistake had she even made?
And finally... what had he ever taught her?
In the end, he had done nothing but slip the family's shackles around her neck.
"I just wanted to live an ordinary life... is even that not allowed?"
This was the second time she had expressed her thoughts—or rather, her plea—to her father.
The first time, she had received a brutal beating. From then on, she understood that no one in the family was allowed to have their own thoughts. Even if they did, they had to be buried deep in the heart, never to be expressed.
"You are a member of this family! You have no right to say what you want! And 'ordinary'... ordinary my ass! What are you standing around for? Get in there and catch her!"
CRASH!
With a piercing sound of shattering glass, a figure burst through the bedroom window simulated within the Ice Sealed World. Then, that figure plummeted from the heights of the castle in a state of free-fall.
But the girl was not afraid at all.
In those brief moments of weightlessness in the air, April thought of so much... Complaints? Gratitude? Liberation?
She didn't know, but finally, the solid ground called her back to reality.
Her form seemed to smash through a sheet of ice as she "fell" out of the Ice Sealed World, landing without a single scratch.
Even if she had been injured, her powerful Undying nature and physical toughness meant a fall from this height wouldn't be enough to seriously hurt her.
That was right. April had chosen to flee.
She had to escape this place... because this was not home.
There was nothing left here that she cared about. Having tasted the ordinary, wonderful flavor of that dream, how could she endure the misery of reality?
At this moment, she was like a mouse in a dark corner savoring a lingering sweetness. Crouched in the gutter called reality, she looked forward to returning to the heaven called a dream, enjoying the sweetness she craved but could never truly possess.
All she wanted was an ordinary life and simple love!
Was even that a luxury?
* * *
Inside the bedroom.
"Sir... the young lady... she jumped out the window and escaped."
"Don't call her 'young lady' anymore, she's a traitor... What are you standing there for! Chase her! Sound the alarm! Mobilize the entire family security force! Catch her! And get that Ice Sealed World back from her!" the man ordered like a madman, frantically wielding the power of his family status.
To recover the Ice Sealed World, this family would not hesitate to use every ounce of its strength.
But then he thought about it and found it laughable. The thing they were desperately trying to recover would ultimately be given to those Players!
"What a shame~ You actually let her get away~" At that moment, a female voice rang out from outside the door.
"Don't you start with the sarcasm!" The man was still fuming, and seeing this female Player only made his blood boil more.
"Still so much hostility~ I clearly helped you find your most important item, and this is how I'm treated?"
"It's something that's going to be given to you Players in the end anyway. Don't act like I should be groveling in gratitude," the man snorted.
"You're joking~ Even if we don't find this fragment, we Players only lose one piece~ But what your family stands to lose is so much more~"