“You two, stay over there,” Ewan said, and kept Nana and Stefan away from the room, not even letting them near the stench. Even though there were misgivings about the news of pathogen spreading from these kids, he didn’t want to risk it, especially with Nana and Stefan who were still Step-0. Moreover, he didn’t want the reek of their vomit to mix in with the intolerable stink—he was already struggling with his sharp sense of smell.

  “Boss, should we check them out?” Kidd asked in a nasal whisper, pinching his nose even when his Ryvia blocked the smell.

  “What are they mumbling about? Can you understand anything?” Ewan asked when Nana and Stefan walked a distance from the dugout.

  “I think I heard some names, but I can't be sure of it,” Kidd said.

  “Let me listen for a while, we’ll decide then. Contain the area with your Ryvia, don’t let anything spread out,” Ewan said, and moved closer to the cluster, without eliciting any ripple from the children, detaining his exhale.

  Soon, the blurred mumbles sharpened, and he heard them iterating names with some incoherent details. The more he listened, the clearer the words became. Minutes of blending their mutterings even gave him an organized specifics of a name.

  Benny Anselin, Step-1 First Surge Severynth, Hynes Colony, Lostrax Continent. And more muddled details followed but Ewan missed them all, for this much was enough to freeze him in his place. His mind churned with the possibilities; his thoughts rampaged to conclude the reason for what he heard. Yet only one verdict stayed intact before him, and it was an absurd one—these kids had information on people.

  Before acting on the findings, however, Ewan backed off to a safe distance with his heart thumping against his chest and inspected his body and soul, rechecking again and again to be sure. Kidd and Iris joined in too and scanned him from head to toe, healing him to provoke a response but they got none. In the end, they validated his negative result. Even if he accepted the news he got at Fallsard at face value, which seemed more and more unlikely by the second, the pathogen wasn’t airborne.

  Instead, the hysteria and the fear of a deadly disease could be a hastily enacted gag measure by Ashevagord. For if this sort of information became public, if a log of everyone’s personal information just floated about on the ocean, absolute mayhem would engulf Airadia.

  ….

  “Do you think they have information on me?” Kidd peeked at the dugout in the distance and asked with glittering eyes as Lance came over after parking Stormfalcon in the nearby waters.

  “Do you want them to have your information?” Stefan retorted.

  “I’ll be famous,” Kidd muttered, his gaze lost in a blurry dream with a clownish grin pulling on his lips.

  “Nana, stay here with this retard. Lance, keep an eye out,” Ewan said. “Stefan, come with me.” He’d already taken and tested the children’s blood, moving the wind with his Ryvia to avoid contact. But all he found was some common problems that linked to the living state of these kids, they carried no deadly pathogen that could affect an Asheva. And so, he moved on to grab the treasure of information.

  “Have you practiced your soul search spell?” Ewan asked, but when his words fell, Stefan’s steps slowed down and he halted behind him.

  “Ewan, they’re children…,” Stefan said. “I can't…”

  “They’ve already suffered a fate worse than death,” Ewan said, turning to look at Stefan. “Nothing you do will save them; you cannot help them.”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “I don’t want to save them, I just don’t want to hurt them even more…,” Stefan said, lowering his head. “I’m sorry.”

  Ewan walked over and grabbed his collar, pulling him closer. “Stefan, smother your guilt if you can't get over it. You can indulge it when we are on the warship, we’ll protect you and cover for you,” he said, scowling. “But when we’re out here, you need to shove it in a corner and forget about it. These kids are half dead, but if they weren’t, and they attacked me, Nana, Lance, or Kidd, if they tried to and could kill us, would you move?”

  “It would be self-defense then,” Stefan breathed out the words.

  “No, that would be a passivity,” Ewan said. “You take down the threat before it can threaten you. And you use whatever you can to gain an advantage.”

  “Can you kill a newborn, Ewan?” Stefan asked.

  “If I must, if its existence threatens Nana, any of you, or even me,” Ewan said with a pause. “My conscience might torture me for that decision, but I will have a peaceful smile on the sleepless nights because all of us will be alive.”

  “What if it’s your son?” Stefan asked, and Ewan finally stumbled for words and his grip quivered.

  “What if he threatens no one? What if his only sin was to be born without arms and legs? What if his only mistake was to be born to a useless father?” Stefan choked on his words, tears drenched his blindfold and rolled down his cheeks, and he broke down. “I killed him, I drowned my own newborn son in the ocean, Ewan. I killed him because I decided he could have no future in that war-torn city.” He collapsed on his knees, his hands trembling, and he cried. “He had a useless father who couldn’t even protect him, who couldn’t cover his weakness. I watched the water flood him, I watched his cries go silent, I killed him, Ewan, I killed him…”

  Stefan’s voice dimmed and his sobs loudened, and Ewan stood over him, sorting through his emotions. The war ridden Drarith couldn’t accommodate weakness, let alone disability—it had no place for idealism. Callous logic and rationality would say that his son would’ve had a life worse than death in that city. Stefan gave him an easy death; he chose to end his son’s suffering before it began.

  But what if the dreaded future had played out differently, what if the kid lived a life filled with smiles even in that ocean of misery. Stefan’s decision as a father robbed his son of his chance at life, and no matter how anyone excused it or consoled him, that core of the guilt would eat away at him.

  It would see him live in agony, and it would see him die with regrets.

  . And it has 40+ chapters ahead of the Royal Road release on it!

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