Forgiveness

Lucivar wanted to start fresh, he had begun hating what he once was.

Seeing how his Mother and Edward were treating him once again reminded him of the pain.

He didn't deserve them—no, both of them didn't deserve him.

Opening the door to his room, he was met with an extremely small room that was the size of a utility closet. He could not sleep, with both of his legs fully stretched. Usually, he slept in a sitting position.

Pausing for a moment, he turned around, deciding to go to Edward's room.

Contrary to his bedroom, Edward's bedroom is a proper one.

It has everything a bedroom needs starting from a proper bed, a cabinet to put books in, and even a TV in the corner. Lucivar could only sigh lightly, it has been quite some time—since he last entered this room.

Not lamenting on the past, he sat on the soft bed and took something from his pocket.

A gold ball with a tinge of red that was not of material essence but intangible energy instead.

Gold energy swirled, and intertwined with chaotic vigor to create this sphere, and it emitted a mysterious pulling force, toward Lucivar—driving him in with an almost primal or magnetic allure.

Lucivar found this after he killed Dorian before, it came out of his corpse.

"Seems like only I could see this," He mused.

Earlier as he was escorted out, the titan guard didn't ask about this gold sphere.

He didn't even spare a glance even though the sphere was very eye-catching.

Because of that, Lucivar came to the conclusion that only he could see it.

"Is it tied to the natural energy of my bloodline?" He muttered, inspecting the sphere closely.

Since a Hybrid is practically seen as a higher form of a Human, it has always been a hot topic across the world. Lucivar knew a Hybrid is comprised of six ranks, and each rank was further differentiated into one to five stars.

Neophyte, Acolyte, Chrysalis, Savant, Paragon, and King were the ranks in order.

Additionally—in order to get stronger, Lucivar knew that the Hybrid would have two options, at least in the lower ranks. One is to absorb external energy from external energy sources— such as beast egos or power crystals, or the second method is producing more of their own bloodline's natural energy.

Lucivar has no access to detailed knowledge, so he only knows up to that point.

He didn't know anything about natural energy, or the method to absorb external energies.

"I don't even know how to check what kind of bloodline I have..." Lucivar muttered wryly.

Just then, he looked at the cabinet and saw Edward's book collections.

Deciding to look through the books—hoping to find something helpful, Lucivar could only be left disappointed as most of them were comics, or novels. It was wrong for him to expect his little brother to use the money that Lucivar earned to buy something useful.

Feeling exhausted from all the things that happened today, he lay on the bed.

Lucivar stayed there and looked at the ceiling in contemplation.

"I need to leave the city," He mused resolutely. "I killed my own Mother and brother, and soon people would start to question and find out about this. I need a fresh start—but before that, I need to settle one last matter"

Since he had the money, he could live somewhere else and start a new life.

He also needs to enroll in an academy.

Anyone who was caught being a Hybrid and didn't enroll in an academy would be punished.

Even a death sentence is a possibility, so Lucivar needs to enroll in an academy.

But before he left the city for good and did all of that, he still had one thing to do, "Bianca..."

Morning passed and came the blackness of the night.

In front of a particular house, a family of three could be seen walking back to their home and the three seemed to be extremely close. Bianca was one of them—and the man, who looked to be her father was wrapping his arm over her with a bright smile.

Similarly, the middle-aged woman wearing a thick coat also seemed to be in a good mood.

How could they now? Their daughter who was supposed to die today survived.

It was the reason why they were out until late at night to celebrate.

"Remember kiddo—you are not at fault for sacrificing Lucivar," Bianca's father whispered—as the family of three walked toward the door of their house. "Even though Lucivar helped us go through tough times, especially with me being sick, it's within your right to sacrifice him,"

"After all, you still have a chance to become a Hybrid, while he's not," He added assuringly.

Bianca still felt guilty, it was written all over her face.

Just then, her mother swooped in, and held her face gently, "Listen to your father, he is right you know. Despite his wrongdoings in the past, he's still the former governor, so Lucivar was probably helping our family to be on his good side"

"Even though he's now gone, we could still repay him by helping his family" She added.

Upon hearing this, the guilt began to lessen in Bianca's heart.

Persuaded, her mood was lifted, especially seeing how they had a productive day, today.

As her parents went to their room, Bianca headed upstairs to her own room.

She was very happy today, it has been quite some time since the family went out so she was really happy today. Opening the door to her room—she quickly took off her beanie, revealing her flawless golden hair.

Bianca hummed and took off her outerwear, but she froze when she put down her jacket.

"Must be quite a celebration to be back this late..."

A voice suddenly greeted her, and she could instantly tell from the voice who it was.

Her body stiffened, she didn't want to believe it—but she had to check so she slowly turned.

Only when she saw a silhouette of a man, on the single sofa in the corner of her room, utterly covered in darkness that her heart drop to her stomach. From the bright amber eyes, and the messy hair, she could instantly tell who it was.

"L- Lucivar..." She uttered, her tone tinged with dread and fear.

It was as if she had seen a ghost, Lucivar shouldn't be here, he was supposed to be dead!

Upon seeing her trembling uncontrollably, Lucivar slowly stood up from the sofa.

"Stand- Stand back! I'll scream if you come closer!" She threatened.

But even then, Lucivar didn't mind her threat and advanced slowly—each of his steps made a thudding sound, that sent an electric shock through Bianca's body, paralyzing her. As Lucivar came closer, Bianca only stared at his chest, unable to make eye contact.

Only when he stood directly in front of her, she whispered, "How are you here...?"

"I awakened my bloodline and completed the Rite of Fate—something that you would know if you were there," Lucivar replied—his voice was throaty and rasping. "But I have you to thank. Had you not pushed me, I would have stayed blind to the truth. The truth that only the selfish and evil are rewarded in this world,"

Even though it had been mere hours since they last talked, Bianca could feel it clearly.

She could feel the air coming from Lucivar was different, it was more, malignant.

It was almost as if she was facing an entirely different person.

Bianca's lips trembled, and she paled at the realization that Lucivar was not the same man he once was. Out of the utter fear she was feeling, her knees gave out. She was now kneeling in front of Lucivar like the scaredy cat she was.

"Are you going to kill me?" She asked, forcing out the words stuck in her throat.

Considering his standing now, it was a valid question.

Now that Lucivar was a Hybrid, he could kill a person and get little to no blowback.

If he wanted to, he could kill Bianca right now and receive no consequence.

However, Lucivar's answer was not as Bianca expected, "No..."

Surprised by the answer, Bianca raised her gaze to meet Lucivar's. Seeing the ice-cold face he was wearing right now, tears began to flow down her cheeks. It hurts her to see the face that always smiled at her turned this dark at the sight of her.

"Will... Will you forgive me?" She asked, slowly understanding how wrong what she did was.

Upon hearing this, Lucivar smiled and cackled, but he shed a single tear.

He was teetering between the desire to laugh at her question and the pain it caused him.

Just then, he stopped, and the room returned to its silence.

Out of nowhere, Lucivar's hand whipped, delivering a vicious slap across Bianca's face.

Pah!!

Bianca's eyes widened, her right cheek was red and throbbing from the burn.

"I forgive you..."

Hearing those words—Bianca turned while having her hand on her burning cheek but saw no sign of Lucivar, only the sight of her gaping window. She stood up and ran to her window, but couldn't find Lucivar anywhere.

He was already gone, and this was probably the last time she would see him.

Just like that, the day passed.

After confronting Bianca for one last time, Lucivar went back home and got some shut-eye.

Early in the morning, when the sun was still shy from appearing—he was already packing his clothes in a hurry. He was emotional last night and needed some time to sleep it off, but now he needs to move fast.

Lucivar realizes one thing as he recalls the Rite of Fate that happened yesterday.

He realized that it wasn't meant to be won.

No matter how much he thought about it—pitting a normal person against a Hybrid is not in any way, a fair fight. Obviously, the House of Ashbourne made that supposed rule as a joke, no Death Volunteers would come out alive.

Because of that, Lucivar knew that he was going to be captured sooner or later.

As he was packing, he suddenly stopped, he heard footsteps approaching.

"Darn it! Who is coming to visit this early in the morning?" Lucivar muttered and checked.

However—as soon as he peeked from the window at his front door, he instantly ran back to Edward's bedroom with sweat, beginning to drip down his forehead. It was three men—and from their attire, they were the city guards.

"My survival must reach the governor already, I need to go!" He uttered and took his bag.

Even before the guards could knock on the door, he had already left through the backdoor.

Despite it being earlier, there were a lot of people outside.

Most of the people around his neighborhood were hunters, so they were up early to hunt.

"Hey, Lucivar! I heard you volunteered, how did you get out?"

"Oh, it's Lucivar? It was noble of you to volunteer, but did you change your mind?"

Lucivar tried his best to keep a low profile as he made his way into the back gate, but he was quite popular around here, everyone knew him. Concerned, he looked at his house and found the three guards were already looking in his direction.

Without thinking much, he decided to run with all his might, darting to the city's back gate.

"Stop him!"

"Don't let him get away!"

People were momentarily confused and Lucivar managed to reach the back gate thanks to it.

Since the guards at the back gate were also not aware of what was happening—he managed to run through them, and dart into the forest. But the three city guards, quickly followed after him, their speed was incredibly fast.

Bang! 

Bang!

Lucivar covered his head when he heard loud banging sounds echoing.

Glancing over his shoulder, his eyes widened, "All three of them are Hybrids?!"

He thought that they were city guards, but it seemed they were not, they were the servants of the Ashbourne House instead. As expected—the House of Ashbourne sent people to him disguised as normal city guards to capture him.

Donning a city guard's attire was aimed to not scare him away.

But he saw right through their intention.

One of the guards had his fingernails hardened and fired it at Lucivar like bullets.

An inhuman ability that only a Hybrid would have.

"Can I even escape them...?" He mused, his heart pounding in his chest.