Chapter 378 - 370. The One Left Behind
"I hate you."
The words were uttered with a sting in his tongue and a pain in his heart. But it wasn’t a false claim. Zein did hate his father. He didn’t see the need to lie to his heart, and to the man he saw from the first and the last time.
Rather, it made him want to be the most truthful than any other time.
"For the longest time, I had hated you," Zein gripped the cold frame of the stretcher, remembering all the hatred he kept, the curses he hurled, every time he thought about the man he was supposed to call his father.
The man he never knew, the man he never saw. A faceless villain he based his hatred of a relationship on.
At least, until he could put a face on that villain.
After twenty-seven years, he found out who his father was, plastering his own face to the unmasked villain. And yet, his heart found no respite. Decades of unpleasant feelings, unlike a trace in the rain, couldn’t be erased with just a single shower. His heart was confused, even if his mind could rationalize the horrible outcome.
"Even now, after I know everything, I still hate you," Zein reached out his hand, brushing a strand of loose hair off the pale face. His fingers stayed there, until they were as cold as the cheek they touched.
"I hate...the way you think your sacrifice will do us any good," Zein opened his mouth to a strained voice he almost couldn’t recognize as his own. "I hate that you didn’t stay with her and ensure her safety beside her."
Zein hated it. He hated it still, how Roan left Lucia alone with that wicked man. He should have been with her. Even if they had to run to the end of the world and the edge of hell, even if they had to sacrifice other people, he should have stayed with her.
What kind of paladin away from the one he should protect?