My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 1079 - 1080: Another Clause
Previously on My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger...
"I would like to add another clause to the contract."
A voice drifted over a weeping mother.
Emilia’s tears refused to stop. She lay on her bed covered from head to toe beneath her blankets, her pillow long since soaked through.
She prayed.
She begged.
The goddess did not listen.
She never did.
God turned a deaf ear to those who suffered.
Desperation was a sickness, and that sickness drove people to pray to anyone who would listen.
If there was despair, then surely there was none greater than this. For a mother, what despair could be greater than losing her child?
"I would like to add another clause to the contract," the voice drifted over the weeping mother once more.
Emilia blinked through her tears, convinced she was hallucinating.
Hearing distant voices.
"Godric... my Godric... give him back to me..." she cried quietly.
Emilia Hightower was a strong woman.
She always had been.
Yet life always seemed a little unfair to her.
She grew up without the love of her parents. Everything she had, she earned herself. She was shunned, mistreated, looked down upon.
The Hightower family rejected the bastard.
Everything she possessed she worked harder for than anyone else.
When she had finally reclaimed her birthright and earned the right to carry the Hightower name, Emilia had been happy.
Then she had a child.
A healthy baby boy.
He was her everything.
The love she never received as a child she swore to give entirely to him.
He would lack for nothing.
Her Godric.
Then why?
Why did this happen?
Why would this happen?
If her enemies wanted her to step down, she would have.
She would have given them anything.
Anything at all.
Just leave her son alone.
She wanted nothing else.
"Please... give my son back... my baby... please... ahhh..."
She could barely breathe.
The situation was bizarre.
Her own husband had handed the child over to a cloaked figure, and afterward he had not spoken a single word to her.
He simply walked away.
There were countless magics in this world.
Surely one of them had compromised him.
Was he suffering from a curse?
The effects of some unique skill she had never heard of?
All she remembered were the tears streaking down his face as he walked away.
She had mobilized the palace guards, the knights, the Imperial Knights, even the forces of allied noble houses.
The entire capital had searched.
Nothing.
Not even a trace remained.
Whoever took her child did not care about making enemies of two Great Dukedoms.
She wanted to close her eyes and convince herself this was all a nightmare.
"My child..." she whispered.
She would do anything for his return.
Her heart overflowed with grief and despair.
But more than that...
It overflowed with resentment.
"Why always me?"
"It’s not just you."
Emilia sat upright so quickly the blankets flew from her body.
Her eyes widened.
The grief vanished from her expression, replaced by sharp focus.
Now she was certain.
She was not imagining things.
Something was here.
"What... who is there? Show yourself!"
"I would like to add another clause to the contract."
The voice repeated the exact words it had spoken at the beginning.
Emilia hurriedly wiped away her tears.
As a noble she knew weakness could not be displayed.
Only excellence.
"Who are you?"
"Do not weep, child. I see you. I hear your resentment, and I have answered your call."
"My call?"
She narrowed her eyes.
She could not see anyone.
That meant she was dealing with some ominous entity.
She had no intention of being taken advantage of.
"Are you some sort of demon?"
"I am me," the voice answered.
"Well then, me... please leave."
Her tear-streaked face remained cold.
"Is that truly your wish, Emilia Hightower? The unloved child of the Hightowers. Perhaps being rejected by one’s own father runs in your blood. Your son seems to have inherited it."
Emilia froze.
The insult was not directed at her.
Yet somehow it was crueler because it targeted Godric.
"Should you desire for me to leave, I shall. After all, you were the one who called me here. Gods are cruel, not deaf. At least from a mortal’s perspective. Even gods cannot give love equally to all."
The voice paused.
"However..."
The single word caused Emilia’s heart to skip.
"What would become of your poor child?"
"Y-you know where my child is?"
She knew it was bait.
She knew she was being manipulated.
But even if she was knowingly stepping into a fire, she would do so for her son.
"I would like to add another clause to the contract."
The voice repeated the same words once again.
"What contract?" she asked.
"An agreement that is not my place to discuss. Nevertheless, when two souls come together in matrimony they become one. They share joys and sorrows alike, including agreements."
An ancient scroll suddenly materialized before her.
The parchment looked weathered and impossibly old.
Most of the words remained obscured, hidden from her sight.
Yet one signature stood clearly visible.
Xander’s.
"Xander..." she whispered.
"He... what did he sign?"
"Well, what can I say? Such things happen when you sign a contract with a demon."
"A demon..." Emilia whispered in horror.
"I am giving you a chance to add a clause of your own. This only works because you are the wife of one of the signatories."
The voice paused.
"Would you like to add another clause to the contract?"
Only now did Emilia realize something unsettling.
She could not tell whether the voice was male or female.
It seemed close.
Far too close.
Yet she remembered something Xander once told her about ancient horrors.
The closer something sounded...
The farther away it actually was.
’Xander... how could you do something so despicable?’
Until this moment she had given him the benefit of the doubt.
Convinced herself he had been under the effects of some terrible power.
"I grew up among nobles. I know nothing is free in this world. What is it you ask for in exchange? Clearly I can tell I’m speaking to a demon as well. I suppose Xander and I really do deserve each other."
"Hmm. Perhaps. What I want is simple. Think of me as someone who is always there for the downtrodden. I have watched you for years, Emilia. In exchange, I ask only one favor."
She nodded.
"I agree."
The contract shifted