Chapter 30: We are Family

Chapter 30: We are Family

"Your parents—I killed them with my own hands."

When his grandfather had first mentioned his intention to share the secret, Karen had prepared himself; though he was still confined to his bed, he had mentally carved out a buffer of expectation.

Yet he truly had not anticipated that his grandfather would skip the prologue entirely and plunge straight into such a devastating revelation.

Perhaps, just as he himself had remarked earlier, it was a matter of seizing the moment and speaking what was bound to be spoken.

"Your parents, like myself, were Inquisitors of the Order of Light."

Karen noted that Dis used the term "Inquisitor," rather than "cleric."

According to Pu'er, while the names might vary within the orthodox churches, they all adhered to a specific sequence:

"The Purifiers—Servants of the Divine;

The Inquirers—The Enriched by the Divine;

The Reflectors—Shepherds of the Divine.

The fourth tier is the Inquisitor."

The first three tiers resembled grassroots civil servants, but upon reaching the rank of Inquisitor, one entered the realm of "officialdom" in the traditional sense; judging by his grandfather’s former position, an Inquisitor was akin to a regional chief.

Thus, the position held by "Karen’s" parents was by no means low.

With three Inquisitors emerging from the Inmeles family, they could well be considered a "prominent clan" within the hierarchy of the Order of Light, or at the very least, a force not to be underestimated.

"During a mission to suppress aberrant demons, their souls were corrupted. This corruption was irreversible, beyond remedy or redemption. At their own entreaty, I chose to grant them release."

Hearing this, Karen felt no great shock.

Even Pu'er had said that Dis was a man who deeply cherished his family, and that Dis had spared him only because he possessed the grace of being "Karen," his grandson.

Even if "Karen’s" notebook had contained sketches implying that his grandfather had murdered his parents, Dis surely had a painful, compelling reason.

Though Dis related this matter in a tranquil tone, Karen could sense the profound agony that must have rent the heart of this family-cherishing man when he took the lives of two of his own kin with his own hands.

But, corruption... irreversible?

When that copper coin, the "Source of Sin," had corrupted Ron earlier, it was evidently reversible and treatable; Dis had performed a "purgation" for Ron, and Ron had subsequently returned to normal.

Yet his "own" parents had been beyond saving.

The disparity was like Ron merely consuming spoiled food that caused diarrhea, curable with a prescribed dose of medicine, while his "own" parents had swallowed paraquat, leaving absolutely no hope of survival.

"Since then, you became a child without parents, and since then, I began to regret. I regretted why I had brought your father and your mother into the faith, and I regretted even more how many members of the Inmeles family had been lost throughout history because of the Order of Light, because of devotion.

Nearly every generation of the Inmeles family has endured the sudden grief of losing a loved one.

More ludicrous still, though we operate a funeral parlor at home, we do not even possess the right to hold a proper funeral for our departed kin."

Karen recalled Pu'er mentioning that the corpses of clerics would be "reclaimed."

"Therefore, I made a resolution. The Inmeles family shall withdraw from the Order of Light forever once I am gone.

I hoped that Mason, that Winnie, that their children, that you, that my family might avoid setting foot into the vortex of this world's dark side, that they could live out an ordinary life as normal, ordinary people.

Even if ordinary people are destined for birth, old age, sickness, and death, and destined to be accompanied by various misfortunes, it is still far happier than witnessing those distortions and cruelties with one's own eyes, or having one's soul defiled so deeply that it cannot find rest even at the end."

At this point, Dis smiled with a touch of self-deprecation:

"In the end, I am a selfish man. The furthest boundary of my vision extends only to the entryway of my own home.

Perhaps, in my youth, my heart harbored the doctrines, and I too shouted slogans about sacrificing everything for the Light of Order, hoping to defend the glory of the Inmeles family within the Order of Light;

But the me of today

Only wishes for my family to be healthy, to be safe, and, if possible, to live a little more happily."

Dis’s gaze began to drift toward the window;

Karen understood that Dis was no longer merely "narrating" to him; rather, he was laying bare the innermost voice of his heart.

There were certain words he could not speak to the rest of the family, words he could only keep buried deep within.

"I, Dis Inmeles, am precisely such a worthless man."

This was the most sincere confession from the depths of a solemn old man's heart.

"Then, you fell ill. You were gravely ill. I strained every nerve, hoping to protect you, but I did not succeed. You still departed."

Karen fell silent.

These words

Were equivalent to laying their relationship bare between them.

"I lied to Mason and Mary, telling them I was taking you to a hospital in Belwyn City that excelled at treating your difficult affliction. But in truth, when I carried you away, you had already stopped breathing. You were already dead.

I lost my son, my daughter-in-law, and I caused you to lose your parents;

And then,

I was about to lose you as well.

For a time, I suspected this was a punishment from the God of Order for my infidelity. He knew of my defection from the Light of Order, so He deliberately visited this calamity upon me to wrench you from my side as well.

While you were being resuscitated, I repented. I even swore that if the God of Order would restore my little Karen to health, I would consecrate the remainder of my life without reservation to the Order of Light, guarding the Light of Order.

And the Inmeles family would continue to inherit the glory of the Order of Light, becoming its most loyal defenders. I would bring you into the faith, and I would pass everything down to you.

Because our devotion, at least, would have received its reward.

But,

You still departed.

The God of Order did not grant my prayer; perhaps, He did not even hear it."

Dis’s voice grew lower and lower;

Finally,

He slowly raised his head,

And continued to speak with great composure:

"As I faced your lifeless body, I said a sentence to you, and to the sky."

Pausing for a moment,

Dis spread his hands open,

As if in recollection,

Or perhaps in preparation,

No,

More like savoring a memory;

He said:

"The God of Order, raised by a whore!"

The moment these words were uttered, Karen felt a sense of trance, as though the light and shadow before him had shifted ever so slightly.

Karen knew clearly that this was his own psychological effect.

Even if he didn't believe in any religion in his past life, and didn't like to kowtow and pray for blessings whenever he saw a divine statue, he still wouldn't do anything to insult a god, let alone curse loudly; he didn't even dare to swear, always feeling it would violate a taboo.

Yet right before his eyes,

in a world where religion clearly possessed genuine, extraordinary wonders,

an Inquisitor of the Church of Order,

had right in front of him,

blasphemed and insulted a god.

"He made you leave me, but I simply refused to agree, because you were still young, reclusive from childhood, and you hadn't even had the chance to unfold your life yet, with so much left unseen and unheard.

You shouldn't have departed like that; to you, it was unfair.

To your father, to your mother,

to me,

and to the entire Inmmeles, it was unfair!

So, I found Mr. Hoffen.

Mr. Hoffen is a retired Holy Pastor of the Church of Principles, but his knowledge and capabilities were far from being as simple as just a pastor; he knew too many secrets, and he understood how to manipulate and implement them.

I had saved his life once, and I was despicable enough to use that debt of gratitude as blackmail, so he finally agreed to help me.

With his assistance,

inside an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Berwin City, I completed an exceptionally high-specification God-Descending Ritual.

Do you know,

Karen,

after the ritual was completed,

I didn't rush to flee, even though I knew the commotion there would draw the attention of the government and many great churches, but I still spent a full three minutes.

I pressed my ear against your chest,

and I heard the sound of your heart beating.

That kind of joy left me intoxicated.

This wasn't me performing the 'Awakening Technique' on your remains; that would just be an empty shell, the flickering of a dying candle, a form of self-deception.

Rather,

inside my grandson's body,

a soul filled it once more,

my grandson,

glowed with vitality again.

My grandson,

he,

had come back to life."

Karen took a deep breath; he knew that the one who had returned was not "Karen", but himself.

So, his own self, who had already died in an accident, had his soul summoned by Dis into "Karen's" body, ultimately achieving "resurrection".

His resurrection in this world was not random, nor did it rely on luck; all of this was Dis's purposeful plan.

For a moment,

a trace of guilt actually arose in Karen's heart because, due to his own reasons, Dis's plan to resurrect his grandson "Karen" had not actually succeeded.

"I believe that the reason why that Alfred is willing to be 'submissive and respectful' to you is probably because he guessed something, like linking you to that God-Descending Ritual in Berwin City.

Hoffen and Pu'er both helped me a lot when I was preparing the God-Descending Ritual, but perhaps at the time they didn't think I could actually complete such a high-specification ritual, so they carried the mindset of fulfilling the final wish of an old man heartbroken by the loss of his grandson.

But to their surprise,

the God-Descending Ritual succeeded.

And then, they began to continuously advise me to kill this descended evil god while he was still weak."

Karen pursed his lips,

he wasn't worried that Dis would kill him now that the conversation had reached this point.

Because if Dis really wanted to kill him, he would have done so long ago.

The old man was not an indecisive person;

indeed, an old man who dared to greet the God of Order as a son of a whore, how could he possibly do things in a hesitant, wishy-washy manner?

But,

Karen still asked with a bit of curiosity:

"Grandpa, then why didn't you kill me?"

Karen knew that asking this was a bit like looking for trouble.

But it was only in front of Dis that he dared to ask this.

Hearing this, Dis asked, "What did you call me?"

"Grandpa."

"Then you are my grandson."

Karen suddenly let out a laugh, lying on the bed, he no longer looked at Dis but turned his head to stare at the ceiling, asking once more:

"Why?"

Dis stood up, looking down at Karen lying on the bed:

"Why what?"

"You know what I'm asking, don't you?"

"Then, what is the difference between the you now and the you inside your mother's womb?"

"There is a huge difference," Karen said, "a huge difference."

I am not that "Karen",

no,

to be precise,

I am not like "Karen" at all.

He was autistic, cowardly, and timid, while himself, he was like his complete opposite.

Dis shook his head and said:

"What I am asking is, for me, what is the difference?"

"For you..."

"When my grandson was still being conceived in his mother's womb, yet unborn, where did my affection for this child come from?

Did I know what his personality would be?

Did I know what kind of person he would be?

Did I know what beliefs he would hold when he grew up?

Even,

I didn't even know if he was a boy or a girl.

Yet I still loved him, I looked forward to his birth, and I even fantasized about him waking up and crying in his cradle after he was born."

"Is it because of the bloodline..."

Karen asked, "Is it because of the blood flowing in this body, just like yours, that belongs to the Inmeles bloodline?"

"No."

"No?"

"The reason I was full of expectation for that unborn fetus was because I knew that when he arrived, when he learned to speak, he would call me... Grandfather."

Karen fell silent,

He finally realized that he had misunderstood Dis, had misunderstood him all along.

He had habitually applied Dis's mindset to everything, but Dis was Dis; his way of looking at the world was different from that of ordinary people. Beneath his serious exterior, he was actually profoundly peaceful.

"After the divine descent ritual was completed, I pressed my ear to your chest. When I heard the heartbeat bursting forth anew inside your body, I felt as if I had returned to that time when your mother was pregnant with you—when I stood strictly to one side, yet my heart was full of hope that you would arrive early, safe and healthy.

I had a premonition,

That when you woke up,

You would call me Grandfather,

But I wasn't certain; in truth, my heart was also a bit anxious.

So, after bringing you home, when you woke up for the first time, our family gathered around you.

You looked around in complete bewilderment, scanning all of our faces, but when you didn't call out to anyone, my heart felt a bit uncomfortable.

But I could understand,

After all, having just been 'born,'

Faced with a world so entirely unfamiliar,

How could you possibly open your mouth to speak and call out to people the moment you woke up?"

Only now did Karen recall the expression Dis had when looking at him when he first woke up—relaxed, solemn, relaxed, and solemn again.

When he had recalled this scene before, he thought it was because Dis had realized he wasn't the original "Karen" and was agonizing over whether or not to kill him.

But in reality, the man knew from the very beginning that the original "Karen" could never come back.

He was merely worrying, worrying about why he hadn't called out to them immediately.

"Hehehe..."

Dis suddenly began to laugh,

"Two days after you woke up, you started calling out to people, and you did so very enthusiastically—your cousin, your younger cousin, your uncle, your aunt, your paternal aunt, including me, this grandfather.

Do you know,

Those successive cries of 'Grandfather' you gave, with that fawning undertone, made it a bit hard for me to adjust at first."

"Hahahahaha..."

Hearing this, Karen laughed aloud as well.

He had been terrified back then, utterly terrified. Arriving in an unfamiliar world, he could only rely on his "family" to provide him with protection and the necessities of survival.

Just like a human infant newly arrived, he had actually arrived anew into another unfamiliar world.

Dis reached out,

And tucked the corner of the blanket for Karen,

"The gods high above took away my grandson, and I, Dis, insisted on stealing him back.

From the moment you opened your mouth to call me Grandfather,

It no longer mattered whether you were a true god descending or an evil god descending."

Dis bent down,

And lightly pressed a kiss onto Karen's forehead,

"I lost a family member, yet I gained a family member, didn't I?"

Karen nodded with utmost sincerity,

And said,

"Yes, Grandfather."

I like this family, I like this family very much.

I like the sensible cousins Mina and Lunt, I like the sweet Chris;

I like Uncle Mason, who is a bit cynical and unconventional but has always carried the responsibility of an elder, I like Aunt Mary, who has a sharp tongue but a soft heart, and I like Aunt Winnie, who looks rigorous but is warm-hearted inside;

And I like you too, Dis.

You have no idea how cool you looked just now when you profaned the gods.

"Rest well and heal your wounds."

Dis turned and opened the bedroom door;

Just then,

Karen forced his body up with his hands, leaning sideways toward Dis's retreating back as he spoke:

"Grandfather, I will make sure the family lives a peaceful and happy life in the future, I promise."

Dis did not look back,

Instead, he simply waved his hand,

And said,

"No need for you yet."

Then,

He appended another sentence:

"Before I leave."