My Cute Rebellious Son
**KABOOM!**
The glass shattered with a sharp crack, and the red liquid inside gushed out like fresh blood.
“......Son?”
Eva stared at the scene for a moment in a daze, then slowly turned her head and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“What? What do you mean, Mom?”
“You’re rebelling against your mother right now?”
“Ha ha, you could say that. This is one of my bucket-list items—openly rebelling against my own mom. I’m feeling great about it this time.”
She grinned and scratched the back of her head as she spoke.
“......I must have taught my son all kinds of bad habits while I wasn’t around. It’s because I couldn’t be there for him.”
“Aigoo, you really need to watch your words. After all, it’s not like I raised you alone and turned you into this discerning kid.”
She laughed softly and slowly stood from the chair.
“Even if I think about it, that stimulant you gave me doesn’t seem to carry any good intentions.”
She tilted her head and continued, “If I drink this, I won’t be able to stay myself anymore. Am I wrong?”
“......Did Eva tell you?”
“That would be crazy. You can feel it the moment you look at it, right?”
It struck me as truly strange.
It was ridiculous to spill all your plans to someone you hadn’t even fully recruited as an ally yet.
But Eva poured out every detail as if I were already on her side.
She was far from stupid.
A 7-Star mage who could personally create new life forms—how could she possibly not know I wouldn’t betray her?
No, that couldn’t be. Logically, the more rational choice was to assume she had some hidden agenda.
‘For example... a potion that makes you obedient the moment you swallow it.’
Before we stepped inside the dungeon, Eva had said those words. No matter how much I hated doing it, I would obey once I saw Mom’s eyes.
From that moment, I started to suspect Eva was trying to impose some kind of restriction on me.
If I had swallowed the stimulant without a second thought, I would have become a puppet like Eva’s way, just like Eva.
“Mom just... wanted our bond to get a little closer...”
“Ha ha. You don’t usually call ‘making your son your slave’ getting closer, Mom.”
“......So you’re refusing to help Mom? You don’t mind watching that demon Astorius run wild?”
Eva, who sacrificed countless people for her own twisted curiosity.
Megen, who slaughtered countless demon beasts to protect her own twisted sense of justice.
Of those two, who was really good and who was really evil?
My decision.
“It doesn’t really matter, does it?”
Who was good and who was evil was completely irrelevant to me.
Right now, I was barely able to protect myself and my friends—let alone worry about who was good and who was bad.
“Don’t force your personal relationship on me.”
“......You really need to dig into Mom’s heart that deeply?”
Eva looked at me with eyes that held a faint malice.
“Humans who make children out of curiosity and then abandon them out of curiosity aren’t usually called parents in public. They’re called psychos.”
“Haa...... Well, yeah. I knew you didn’t want your son to join your plan. But did you really think Mom would just let her son go so easily?”
“That’s unlikely. I was just thinking about how to escape using all my power right now.”
Eva closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again and tilted her head with genuine curiosity. “So what now? My son might not know, but there’s an anti-magic barrier installed around here. It’s impossible for him to escape by using magic. Plus, he’s only 1-Star. Can he really run away from Mom and Eva with that weak body?”
“Um, if I think hard enough, maybe it’s possible.”
“No. Impossible.”
“Why are you so sure?”
Eva pointed at herself when I asked. “I know. Well, I don’t know anything about my son. Your mana circuits, your body... Mom knows every single little detail...”
“No. You know nothing about me.”
I shook my head firmly. “You don’t know what kind of life I’ve lived, what hardships I’ve faced, or the people I’ve met.”
I opened my tightly shut eyes and spat out every word without missing a single one. “You have no idea how miserable a life that human has lived because of your simple curiosity.”
For just a split second, both Eva and I’s eyes widened in shock.
“......I see. Understood. If that’s my son’s choice, Mom won’t stop him.”
Eva let out a deep sigh, took out a notepad from her pocket, and muttered while scribbling something down.
“First experimental subject, Sion Cardena... After seventeen years of research, we’ve concluded that artificial life forms can possess the values and emotions of ordinary people. End.”
She soon put the notepad and pen back in her pocket and said to Eva, “Eva?”
In an instant, I saw the future—Eva’s tentacles piercing my stomach.
“Your mother.”
“Take my son as part of you.”
But I didn’t avoid her attack.
**THUD!**
“Yes!”
Eva’s tentacles pierced straight through my stomach.
“Even with a son, Mom was happy... hm?”
Eva approached me calmly as I stood there with a pierced stomach. Then she raised her voice, sensing something odd. “......Strange. There’s no way I wouldn’t feel pain if my body could withstand it.”
It was because my face was completely calm.
**BOOM!**
Eva’s tentacles dove straight for my heart.
A critical strike aimed at a vital point in a life-or-death situation.
In that desperate moment, I said,
“Um, this should be around a 1 out of 10 on a 10-point scale.”
“What?”
**WHOOSH~!**
A weird sound like air being sucked out, and my body turned into scattered leaves and blew away.
“Whoa, I’ve never maintained a clone this long before.”
The body inside the dungeon—the clone—vanished, and my split vision returned to normal.
My real body was now standing in an alley about 50 meters away from where Eva and Eva were.
In other words, everything I had done—met with Eva on schedule, walked the alley together, had that tense conversation with Eva—was actually my clone.
Since the clone was made of Tao Power instead of mana, no matter how skilled a 7-Star mage Eva was, she couldn’t detect the lie.
‘Is she crazy enough to think I’d go in there as my real body?’
After all, information gathering was the main point. Why wouldn’t I use a clone?
Safety first, always.
“Well, now it’s time to make a break for it.”
I fiddled with the location-tracking artifact in my pocket.
It was a purchase from the Achievement Store last night at a discounted price of 1000 points.
This artifact would tell Charlotte my location.
If I destroyed the artifact with all my strength, the connection with Charlotte would break, and Charlotte had promised to open a dimensional gap the moment she confirmed the connection was severed.
In short, once I smashed this artifact, I could return to Charlotte’s side immediately.
However, right now the anti-magic barrier Eva had set up prevented Charlotte from opening the gap.
So the only two things I could do right now were:
First, run far enough outside the barrier’s range and send a signal to Charlotte.
But that seemed impossible.
“Ah, there you are?”
As I walked out of the half-destroyed dungeon, my eyes met Eva’s.
From that guy charging at me to kill me, I didn’t even think about escaping.
So the only choice left was the second method.
To literally tear apart the anti-magic barrier itself.
It was an absurdly over-the-top way, but...
A 7-Star mage who personally set up the barrier would normally take a lot of time to collapse it with normal methods.
Moreover, I didn’t know anything about magic. In other words, I had to cut through the invisible spell with a sword—which was basically impossible.
But I had the power to turn the impossible into possible.
Sion’s ultimate technique—the **Hollow Slash**, which could cut through everything except the target.
With this technique, it was possible.
“Huuu......”
I took a deep breath and focused all my senses in the Nature Realm.
The faintly trembling earth, Eva rapidly approaching while swinging her tentacles, the speed at which she arranged her mana, and the anti-magic barrier that tightly surrounded this entire area—all of it was laid out like a palm before my eyes.
Among them, I placed my hand on the hilt of my sword, aiming for the anti-magic barrier.
Then, with a single breath, I drew my sword and activated the **Hollow Slash**.
At that moment,
................................!!!!!!!!
The anti-magic barrier existing 100 meters in front of me split right down the middle.