When Charlotte disappeared into the distance, the Hargrave family, including Amelia, gathered at the spot where Ethan had died. The elders smiled bitterly.
"Patriarch, this soul didn't die in anguish. There's regret, but not enough. It doesn't meet our condition," the first elder said.
The other elders nodded. Ethan's father calmly stroked his beard, his face unmoved by the loss. His heart was calm.
The patriarch nodded and walked away.
The elders shook their heads in disappointment before leaving. Even Amelia's face turned bitter. They had hoped Ethan's death would birth a resentful spirit, but it seemed the plan had failed. Ethan made sure to cause anguish for Charlotte, the one who betrayed him, and found peace.
What Amelia couldn't understand was why there was no anguish at his death. She knew Ethan must've realized she would marry his brother. If that wasn't enough to break him, then surely being disowned by his father should've. But somehow… it didn't.
She wasn't the only one thinking this. The elders, and even Ethan's father, would be questioning it too.
"The only way he didn't feel anguish," Amelia said, "is if… he never saw the Hargraves as family. Not once."
An elder walking behind her shot a freezing glare that made her shut her mouth. But Amelia was a princess. She shook her head, chuckled, and walked away.
Charlotte sat beside her sister's corpse and wept. Her hatred for Ethan had grown beyond what she could handle. But he was already dead, and now there was no one to vent her rage on.
After a month of crying, Charlotte brought her sister's body to the Hargrave family. They promised to care for her. As compensation, Charlotte became one of their guards, while they searched for a way to heal her sister.
…
…
…
[Condition Met… Unique skill Immortality activated]
In an endless dark space, one could vaguely make out the outline of a humanoid figure, floating without end. His path had no direction—no up, no down—just an eternal drift in the void.
In this place, all sense of direction was lost. Time and space no longer mattered. Suddenly, a blue light flickered within the darkness, softly illuminating the surroundings. It was faint, like a distant beacon in a sea of emptiness.
When that blue light pulsed, deep within the void, several ancient creatures stirred. Slumbering for countless millennia, they opened their eyes for the first time in ages. Their gazes carried both curiosity… and amusement.
As their attention turned toward the light, space and distance instantly lost meaning. One of the beings saw a pale-skinned human with jet-black hair, floating with his eyes closed.
"Hehe… a… human… child?"
One of the creatures sent a message out through its divine sense. Others like it received the message, their reactions ranging from mild interest to mocking amusement.
They began chatting idly with one another, catching up on what little they remembered from the past millennium… and in doing so, they quickly forgot about the pale-skinned boy.
Of course, that pale-skinned boy… was Ethan.
After Charlotte killed him, his soul had somehow been reborn in this endless void. But Ethan hadn't regained consciousness right away. It wasn't until the blue light appeared that his brow furrowed—and then, slowly, his eyes opened.
He saw a glowing blue screen floating before him. Ethan tried to move… but couldn't. He was weightless, suspended in a place with no gravity, no wind, no air. Just silence.
As the memories of what had happened slowly returned, Ethan's gaze shifted from confused… to afraid. But after a while, he forced himself to calm down.
'Something happened…' His expression darkened. He tried to remember more, but whatever it was eluded him. With a sigh, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind.
'After dying… that immortality skill activated. And now I'm stuck here… but how do I get out?' Ethan wondered, his thoughts echoing in the silence.
Since he couldn't move, he started thinking about other things. Anything, really, to pass the time.
Time flowed by. It's been three years since Ethan began floating. His body was no longer plump. He looked like a skeleton with a thin layer of flesh stretched over bone. His hair had all but fallen out.
In that time, Ethan had tried to end his own life more than once—driven mad by hunger and isolation—but he failed every time.
The system preserved his life, refusing to let him die of hunger. It provided the bare minimum of nutrition, just enough to keep him alive… and suffering.
'When will I leave this place…?' Ethan thought again, hollow and weary.
Time slipped by once more. Ethan didn't know how long exactly—it could've been centuries—but the loneliness had long since begun to gnaw at his sanity. He was no longer patient. He thrashed, screamed in his head, tried everything to destroy himself.
'Fuck! This is a curse! Is this how I'll spend the rest of my life?!' He couldn't speak, couldn't scream. He could only shout internally, over and over again.
He was going mad. The silence, the stillness, the utter helplessness… it all weighed down on him like an invisible chain.
"Hmmm… This human child is still here?"
One of the creatures stirred again, its gaping mouth letting out a lazy breath.
Its mouth was so massive, it could swallow a planet whole. Then, without warning, the creature moved. As it did, space itself twisted and cracked like shattered glass. It crossed trillions of miles in an instant, arriving behind Ethan.
Its enormous form shrank rapidly until it was no bigger than a cat, now floating lazily around Ethan, staring into his eyes.
Ethan suddenly felt a chill crawl down his spine. The void-born cat stared at him with an indifferent expression. Its mouth opened and closed several times—but no sound came out. Then it stopped trying.
"Kid… do you want to leave this place?"
The voice echoed directly in Ethan's head.
It wasn't human… and it wasn't quite beastly either. Ethan wasn't even sure he heard it. He just… understood.
Ethan couldn't speak. He could only blink.
He wanted to scream yes, wanted to cry out, but even that was beyond him. He blinked twice, hoping to signal his answer—but the cat tilted its head, confused. It kept repeating the question again and again.
'Damn it! System, do something!' Ethan screamed internally.
[Update Completed… do you wish to leave?]
"Yes!" Ethan mentally screamed without hesitation.
Suddenly, his entire body shattered like glass, fragmenting into countless pieces—before vanishing from the dark space entirely.
"Uh?" the cat murmured, startled.
'Black… what happened?' a divine sense message asked.
'I don't know… but interesting.' the black cat replied with a shrug, before vanishing from the void.
Somewhere deep in a forest, near the Hargrave mansion, space cracked open like a broken mirror—and a pale-skinned boy was thrown out violently.
He crashed hard against a tree before collapsing to the ground, unconscious.
"Mom! Hurry! There's someone naked sleeping here!"
A girl, around thirteen years old, called out to her mother who was a few steps behind her.
The woman wore a blue gown and carried a picnic basket. As she approached her daughter, she squinted ahead. "What's that, honey?"
"There's a boy here! Naked… and sleeping," the girl answered, a faint blush rising on her face.
The woman's expression instantly shifted to concern. She furrowed her brow and hurried over. When she reached Ethan, she checked his pulse—faint but steady—and saw just how thin and frail he was.
Her heart softened.
She assumed, like many others, that this was a child who had been abandoned. Sadly, it wasn't an uncommon sight around the city. When poor families couldn't provide for all their children, they sometimes abandoned one or more… just to keep the rest alive.
Shaking her head, she pulled out the picnic mat and wrapped it around Ethan before gently lifting him onto her shoulder.
"Honey, let's go."
The picnic mood was gone. Both mother and daughter walked in silence, hearts heavy. The girl prayed silently, hoping nothing bad would happen to her own family.
When they got home, they did their best to care for Ethan. They gave him medicine, tended to his wounds, and waited for him to recover.