Chapter 170 - 170: More Exposition
More Exposition
Osho blinked and immediately fell silent.
Everyone immediately noticed that it was a touchy subject, and tried to backtrack.
"H-Hey, you don't need to–"
"No, it's fine." Osho shook his head when he saw Ellie trying to take it back.
Hearing this, they relaxed a little, but it was clear that they didn't intend to rush him and allowed him to speak at his own pace.
He was silent for a while, as though chewing the words, but eventually, he spoke.
"Before you ask. No, Isaac isn't my surname. It's as much my first name as it is Osho." He said, and this piqued everyone's interest.
"Really? So... what is your surname?" Kurt asked tentatively.
"We'll get to that. But first..." He sighed. "The reason I distanced myself from the cult is that they failed to protect two people I care about." He said. The others were perplexed for a moment, but Ellie's eyes widened in realization.
"Your parents..." She muttered, and Osho nodded.
"Yeah. When I was chosen to be one of the 9 Stars, they said they would change my name to Isaac as they took me to do some intense training based on my path. I wasn't a fan of being distanced from them, especially since I was now chosen as a star which would put a target on their backs. So I had the higher-ups promise that they would keep my parents safe if they wanted me to be obedient." His expression darkened, and his grip on the sheets became tight. Had his skin been white, then his knuckles would be devoid of blood.
"They failed."
A solemn silence fell over the room as the others shared glances.
They'd seen Osho show emotions before, but this was the first time they'd ever seen him so angry.
He took a few breaths to calm himself, though, and his grip on the bed loosened.
"When I found out, I immediately wanted to leave. One can't just leave, though, so I had to fight three of my siblings to have the right to do so. That's how I was able to extricate myself. Osho is the name given to me by my parents, short for Oshoke due to my African ancestry. " He explained, and a few of them blinked.
"Wait, Osho isn't your full name?" Sam asked with genuine surprise.
"Not gonna blame you there since I always say Osho is my full name. But it actually isn't." He admitted. Only Ellie seemed unsurprised.
"Huh. So what about your surname? You seemed to know your parents, but you never use it." Irene asked.
"Truth is, I don't know it," Osho admitted. "I don't know what they did, but when they took me from my parents, they did something to make me forget that particular memory. Which is weird as I remember everything else about them just fine. I thought that perhaps my memories had been manipulated. But it's just that specific thing they made me forget. Why? I don't know." The way he answered gave them the impression that further questions down that line would annoy him, so they decided to leave it.
"So... Hold on, your title is the Wandering Star?" Irene asked.
"Yes." Osho nodded.
"And your parents just happened to die, which spurred you on to distance yourself from the cult to wander...?" She trailed off, but the insinuation was clear.
"I see what you mean, and I've thought about it many times before, but while I can't say for certain many things, one thing I'm sure of is that I'm not being manipulated or led down a path I don't want to go down." He shook his head.
"My parents didn't just 'happen' to die either. The cult is extremely mysterious. Some people think we should be left alone, while others will do anything to find out more about us. And to be fair, my parents were only 'outer' members who weren't that important. Hence, as soon as I was chosen and taken away, they were attacked. Not that I'm defending the cult. Honestly, I feel like they just didn't put that much effort into protecting them as they believed that they weren't worth it." A dark look appeared in Osho's eyes.
"I certainly let them know how I felt about that particular fact." When he finished, there was another moment of silence, then Ellie spoke.
"Something I'm confused about," She started. "Is when all of this happened. I've known you since we were kids, and while we weren't joined at the hip, I'd say we hung out with each other a lot. So the fact that all of this happened to you and I was none the wiser... How?" Ellie questioned with genuine confusion, and it was a valid question.
Osho was someone she knew the best other than her father, and such familiarity couldn't be built in a short time as they had to have spent a long time with each other. So it wasn't surprising that she was perplexed as to when all of this happened with how frequently the two of them interacted.
"Oh, that?" Osho tilted his head a little.
"Well, a lot of the time, I interacted with the cult within the Citadel. I didn't exactly need to go anywhere, and more often than not, they were the ones who came to me, not the other way around. I had plenty of chances to interact with them, I just had to not be near outsiders." He explained, and Ellie frowned.
"Well... I guess there were quite a few times we weren't together. So I suppose it makes sense..." She mumbled, but she seemed unhappy about not having realized sooner.
"Okay, I guess that's all the questions we have concerning your situation. But..." Sam turned and pointed at the unconscious boy on the bed.
"What do we do with him? He isn't gonna summon some big shot of your cult to come deal with us, right?" She asked with a trace of worry, but Osho shook his head dismissively.
"It's fine. Fighting among the stars isn't just common, it's actively encouraged. Besides, he had it coming for him. He provoked me and lost. He only has himself to blame." He said with certainty, and they were surprised.
"That's... so your cult believes in the concept of fuck around and find out?" Irene asked.
"Yeah. While we are secretive, they encourage going out and doing your own thing. Granted, it varies from member to member. If you go and piss off the wrong person and you were truly in the wrong, the consequences are yours to deal with." Osho shrugged.
"Huh. And I'm assuming that if your members were the ones who got antagonized, that's when they step in?" He was questioned further, and he nodded.
"Yeah. However, the former isn't an ironclad rule, and sometimes there are exceptions." He explained.
"I see. Okay, last question. If the cult really okay with you just... leaving?" Ellie asked again.
"Well, yeah." Osho sighed.
"Different stars have different natures and paths they follow. As the Wandering Star, being able to roam freely is more or less my own theme as I'm not exactly expected to stay in one place." He shrugged.
Also, it should be noted that most of his injuries had been treated by the mechanical arms and were rapidly healing. Other than conventional medicine, there were other special means that allowed one to rapidly heal. One of which was an injection that had been administered to Osho at some point during the treatment process which caused his cell activity to spike, allowing his natural regeneration speed to increase massively, and by now, he didn't look like he was going to drop dead from blood loss anymore. There were still some pretty banged-up spots, but he looked much better than he did a few seconds ago.
"So... now what?" Kurt asked tentatively.
"Well, when I'm done healing up, I'm gonna take the eggs you guys picked out and settle the issue with them." Osho immediately answered, happy that the topic was finally moving away from his past.
The others also seemed eager to move on as Irene asked.
"Right, what was wrong with them anyway? Inagi told me the eggs felt off, but he couldn't give a reason why." Hearing this, the others nodded as their beasts had given them similar responses.
"You're right to wonder. Well, after looking into it, it turns out that whatever Stellaris did to ensure that the eggs had at least Adept Rank Potential stunted their ability to get evolved." Osho said and proceeded to explain how the issue would only allow for them to be evolved a limited number of times.
"I can fix it, but it's a pretty taxing procedure, so I can only do a few eggs at a time. But I should be fast enough to do it before our lectures begin." He finished, and the others nodded thoughtfully.
"Alright, so who is gonna go first?" Irene asked, and everyone looked at Ellie who just smiled.
"Girlfriend privileges." She said shamelessly, and they all rolled their eyes.