The Eldrim Cards

Basically, the world was far more complicated than he was originally aware of, but that was no surprise. If even his seemingly ordinary family kept so many secrets, how could the nations of the world avoid them?

As his thoughts reached this point, he turned back towards his mother, and brought up the question he was originally going to avoid.

"Why would Patrick be targeted because of your family?" he asked, though he already knew some of the answers. Heck, if nothing else, just their access to Vaults and the recipe for Radix Augmentation were enough for them to be hunted from all over. He did not ask a more specific question, though, because he wasn’t sure how comfortable his mother was talking about this topic in front of Irene. Now, since she had mentioned it of her own accord, he didn’t mind asking her and leaving it up to her how much she wanted to share.

Marilyn let out an exasperated sigh.

"My family... the roots of my family appear to be pretty prestigious, and maybe that was the biggest reason behind my family’s downfall. The Soren family is actually one of the oldest families of this region, and has been here long before Kolar was founded as well. Some historical records from Emperor Iskunder’s original campaigns to unite the lands under one empire make mention of the Soren family too.

"Not only that, everyone in my family was, or at least appeared to be, extremely talented in climbing the aetherian ranks, though I suppose you can guess the secret behind that on your own. By all means, we should already have the qualifications to be an Ascendant family at least, after all these years, right?

"Unfortunately, the biggest undoing of my family wasn’t curses, or enemies, or conspiracies. It was ego. It was arrogance. What undid my family was living in a fantasy of the past, rather than in the reality of the present. My father... was an arrogant man, and so was my brother. Arrogance is fine, but arrogance beyond your strength..."

Marilyn looked at Nero, and the teenager almost blushed. He had a feeling that she was making a side comment on his behaviour lately! But that was different! If Nero acted arrogant, it was calculated, not true arrogance.

"Anyway, no matter what the state of our family now, for the Soren family to have existed for so many centuries, it is only inevitable that they accumulate many secrets and secret recipes. Just the secret of why our family has so many talented cultivators is worth investigating.

"After my father passed away, only my brother and I were left. My brother inherited my fathers great pride and anger, making him an easy target. In the end, he was forced to run away from the country to protect himself. I might have ended up in the same position as him if it weren’t for your father." Nero was taken aback. His father? Was his dad some kind of super-secret badass? He already knew that his father was really strong, probably, but he had no idea of how strong he really was. But wait... that didn’t make sense. His father was only thirty-eight years old right now. How strong could he really be? Especially back then?

Noticing Nero’s odd expression, Marilyn chuckled, and elaborated.

"It’s not easy for me to state the shortcomings of my family like that, but that’s what the truth is. In fact, I was also like that when I was young - angry, arrogant, prideful. Fortunately, I met your father early, and he taught me how to be demure and docile, how to hide my strength and avoid attracting attention."

Nero nodded along, wearing a completely straight face. Yes, his mother, the well known special operations agent, whose old job entailed killing high value targets, and current job entailed facing and eliminating the corrupt officials of Kolar, was a demure and docile lady... and the sun rises from the west, and curses are actually misunderstood and they just want to be friends.

Nero and Irene shared a look, and it seemed like both of them were thinking the same thing. Fortunately, they had the common sense not to let their thoughts show on their faces.

Marilyn, who naturally noticed their shared look, misunderstood the situation.

"I know you’re doubting your father," she said with a sigh. "I know he seems to be a big deal now, going off mysteriously on missions all the time, using his contacts to save Patrick, but that wasn’t always the case. Heck, you know that most of the time he just continued to lazily do his pharmacy job.

"I think the reason why now he has suddenly started to become so active is because someone superior has ordered him to do so. Otherwise, he would be more than happy to just lazily spend his days at home, training you and hanging out with the neighbors. He is exceptionally talented at hiding his edge. That is perhaps his most admirable, and yet infuriating quality."

Irene suddenly chuckled.