Chapter 369 — Think

Damian talked for a long time.

He told her all of it, the old beggar who had appeared in Alessio’s childhood, the tattered novel read aloud in exchange for scraps, the novel about a world with Aura and Monsters and portals that turned out to be this world, the manipulated memories, the sealed ones.

Elizabeth’s Seer ability and what she’d seen in his past, the hooded figure, what the sealed memories felt like when they broke open, the way the information arrived not gradually but all at once, like a door swinging wide.

And how one had unlocked the moment Elizabeth was about to die.

He didn’t rush... Just laid it out piece by piece, calmly, the way he’d learned to talk about things that had weight.

When he finished, Luna said nothing.

Several seconds passed.

She opened her mouth, closed it, looked at the ceiling, then back at him.

"...Okay," she said. "Give me a moment. This is... this is a lot to take in."

She reached across and picked up his glass.

"Luna–"

She drank it all in one go.

Then she started coughing immediately, her face going red, eyes going wet. She pressed her free hand against her sternum.

"What– why is that– it’s burning–" She coughed again. "What is wrong with you and Dad?! Why do you both drink this?! It’s burning my throat... My stomach!"

Damian watched her.

’This girl...’

"...Why did you drink?"

"Because–" She coughed. "–you just told me all of that out of nowhere." She gestured vaguely. "I knew about the past life... I thought you lived in a normal world with regular cities. I thought it was just memories." Her voice steadied as the coughing faded. "But this... An old man manipulating your entire life like pieces on a board, a novel, sealed memories unlocking on a schedule you don’t control." She shook her head slightly. "This is..."

She trailed off.

Several seconds passed before her face became serious in the way it only did when she’d pushed everything else down.

"So... the memory unlocked." Her silver eyes met his directly. "And you went straight there..."

"Yes."

Her eyes went sharp. "How did you know the memory was real? That you weren’t just hallucinating, or misremembering, or–"

"I knew."

"Damian." The edge in her voice had something underneath it. "You went alone into a situation involving professional assassins, S rank enemies, Imperial family politics–" Her jaw tightened. "Elizabeth is an A rank awakener, she has bodyguards and she has resources. If something could actually kill her, what exactly were you planning to do about it by yourself?!"

He was quiet for a moment.

"I knew Vash and the others would follow."

"And why did you think that?"

"They saved me once before." His voice stayed level. "I gambled they’d do it again."

The silence that followed had weight to it.

Luna’s eyes were very bright.

"You gambled." Her voice came out quiet, and the quietness was worse than if she’d raised it. "You gambled with your life."

"Luna–"

"Do you think you’re the same person you were on those streets?!" Her voice cracked at the edges. "Do you think you’re still Alessio, where nobody gives a damn whether you live or die?!" She stood up, her hands pressed flat against her thighs. "Have you ever, even once, thought about what happens to everyone if something happens to you? What it would do to Mom? To Dad? They went to the frontlines knowing you were here, knowing you were safe... Have you thought about what it would do to them?!"

Her voice dropped.

"Have you thought about what it would do to... me?"

She turned and walked to the window, her back to him.

Her shoulders rose and fell asleep she tried breathing normally.

’Her Empath is amplifying everything right now... And she drank Phoenix on top of that.’

Damian said nothing. He watched the line of her shoulders, the slight tension in them, the careful stillness she was holding herself to.

After a while she came back.

She sat down on the bed beside him instead of the chair, close enough that her shoulder was almost against his arm. She reached for the bottle, and this time he caught her wrist.

"That’s probably a bad idea."

Luna slapped his hand away.

"You are the absolute last person to be talking about bad ideas."

She poured her own glass, drank it, made the same face and put the glass down.

Then she turned and looked at him. She removed her shoes and pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged, fully settled, like she was prepared to stay for as long as it took.

"..."

Then she just looked at him.

The silence stretched. Long enough that Damian found himself resisting the urge to fill it.

’She’s watching my emotions right now...’

There was nothing to hide from her in this room. There never had been, not since she’d told him what her skill actually was.

He let her look.

"You know," she said finally, "the Damian who grew up with me was kind, innocent and genuinely, irritatingly smart... He was bored all the time, which drove our parents crazy. He used to come find me just to brag that he’d scored 91 deliberately in every subject, even though I never asked." A small, real smile crossed her face. "He still got nervous before tests like a normal person... He existed in those moments."

Damian said nothing as his hair had fallen forward, covering part of his face.

He remembered about the theory scores. The Academy had specially invited him for academic performance, not combat aptitude, when most specially-invited students were prodigies in combat.

"But the moment you awakened your past life memories," Luna continued, "most of that disappeared... The confidence wasn’t forced anymore. The way you sat, the way you walked into rooms, the way you talked... Everything said I’m in charge and I don’t need to announce it. It was the arrogance and pride of someone used to being the boss." She tilted her head. "And I’m not saying I hated it, I kinda liked it... But it’s like Alessio’s personality became the surface and Damian got buried underneath."

She paused.

"Think about your actions since you awakened those memories... Actually think about them."

He did and he didn’t need to think for long.