Chapter 72: Molecular Mana Manipulation
Yelena took a slow breath and leaned back for a moment, letting her thoughts gather as she gazed at Charlotte, who was watching her with intense curiosity. Then, with a soft, proud chuckle, she said,
"You know...if it were anyone else, anyone else at all, who found out they had unlimited potential, but no way to ever unlock it...they would’ve fallen into despair."
"And not just a little sadness, Charlotte. I’m talking about the kind of despair that eats you alive from the inside. That leaves you feeling like you’re nothing."
"...Like the world gave you a treasure chest and then melted the key in front of you."
She picked up her glass again, the remnants of the exotic bird broth still steaming gently, and took another sip before setting it back down carefully.
"I mean it. If that had happened to me, if someone told me that I had the potential to become something incredible, like a king, even, but I would never be able to access it, never be able to take that step forward, I don’t know what I would’ve done."
"...I would’ve felt so worthless. Like my entire life was locked behind an unbreakable door, and I’d been forced to live in the hallway forever."
Her voice softened for a moment as the weight of that thought lingered.
"To have that kind of power buried inside you and to be told, ’No, you can’t ever touch it’, that’s cruel. It really is. And honestly, I couldn’t even bring myself to feel sorry for him at the time. Because the thought of it alone made my heart ache. I didn’t even want to imagine how he must’ve felt."
She paused and then leaned forward, her eyes brightening with pride, her voice taking on a renewed energy.
"But the thing is, Mika isn’t like everyone else. He’s...he’s something else entirely. That boy, he doesn’t crumble. He doesn’t break."
"He’s the kind of person who, when told the rules of the world, doesn’t just accept them, he laughs at them. Spits on them. Tries to twist them until they snap."