"You lied to me," Jennifer said with a pout as he looked at the handsome young man in front of her with a face filled with injustice. "Why didn't you tell me that you are Lucien's friend?"
"I'm sorry," Lux replied. "I just thought that it wasn't a good time to tell you that I was one of his friends when we met earlier."
Now that his family, with the exception of his father, was at home, he decided to experiment a bit to see their reaction after introducing himself as Lucien's friend.
To his surprise, none of them said anything bad about him. They even looked sad after his name was mentioned.
This surprised Lux because his mother, young brother, and younger sister, with the exception of Jennifer, always treated him like he was the greatest shame of their family when he was alive.
His mother had been especially harsh on him, often telling him that his birth was a mistake when he was still alive.
Seeing her saddened look made the Half-Elf sneer inside his heart because he had a feeling that his mother was just putting up an act like she always did in the past.
"I always believed that he would change for the better," his mother, Sarah, said. "But he never changed despite my efforts to redirect him to the right path. I'm a failure of a mother."
'You certainly are,' Lux thought.
"My brother was my idol," Benjamin stated. "He always helped me with my studies, especially Calculus."
'Bullsh*t. Anything above MDAS is beyond me.' Lux was doing his best not to roll his eyes at his brother's shamelessness.
Between the two of them, the latter was a Math Genius, so he didn't need any help—especially not from him.
"Brother always gave me money to buy everything I needed, including trendy clothes and bags," Jessica said. "In fact, this bag I'm wearing is something I bought with his money."
'Damn right, you b*tch! You stole my credit card and maxed it out in a day!' Lux did his best to keep himself from slapping the liar in front of him.
"Um, my brother gave me gifts on my birthdays," Jennifer stated. "He was a good person."
'Well, you pass, I guess,' Lux smiled.
He gazed at everyone in the family before an idea struck him.
"If possible, can I see his room?" Lux asked.
"His room?" Sarah frowned. "I'm sorry. After he died, we turned his room into a storage room. There's nothing to see there."
"I see." Lux nodded in understanding.
He stayed half an hour longer before leaving the house. Jennifer accompanied him outside because she was the one who invited him to their home.
"You said that your brother had given you a gift on your birthdays, right?" Lux asked.
Jennifer nodded. "Yes."
"So, since he died, he hasn't given you a gift for six years, am I right?" Lux inquired.
"Yes," Jennifer tilted her head in confusion. "Is there a problem with that, Lux?"
Lux shook his head. "No. Actually, since I'm already here, why don't I give you a gift in his stead?"
The Half-Elf pretended to take something from his pocket. However, he actually used his Spatial Storage to take out a handful of gems and placed them in Jennifer's hand.
"Consider this your brother's gifts for the birthdays that he missed," Lux said. "Thank you for inviting me to your home, and next time, be sure not to invite strangers inside your house again, okay? You're lucky I'm not a bad person."
After saying those words, Lux walked away without looking back.
He didn't even respond when Jennifer called out to him. Instead, he ran away, leaving her behind.
When he was certain that he had managed to shake her off, he heaved a sigh and looked up at the sky.
'I guess I expected too much from them,' Lux thought.
It was at that moment when the images of his Grandma Vera appeared inside his head.
She was a person who treated him like a real member of her family and raised him with love and care.
Then, he saw the images of Iris, Alexander, Alicia, and the people from Wildgarde Stronghold.
They had been with him the longest, and all of them cared for him in their own way.
Before long, the images of his lovers appeared before him. This made his heart ache, especially when he thought of the possibility of never being able to see them again.
'I need to go back,' Lux thought. 'They are waiting for me.'
Lux clenched his fists together before pulling back his hood to cover his head. He then walked into an empty alley before shooting up into the sky in a blur.
His Draconic Wings flapped behind his back at a very fast rate, making him turn into a black speck in the sky.
As he hovered high above the clouds, he extended his senses, hoping to find any sort of reaction that would lead him back to the place where he rightfully belonged.
He didn't know what happened after he faced Daniel, but before he lost consciousness, he heard Eriol's assuring voice, telling him that he would not allow Daniel to have his way.
Lux believed that the God of Games wouldn't lie to him, so he focused his attention on finding a way back home.
But even after expanding his senses, he was unable to sense anything that might help him in his quest.
Suddenly, the skies above his head turned dark, and he found himself frozen in place.
A moment later, countless glowing golden orbs floated around him.
Lux felt all the hairs on his body stand on end when he saw that these glowing orbs actually had an eye on them.
They all looked at the Half-Elf at the same time, and for some reason, he felt as if these golden eyes were looking at him with varying degrees of emotions.
Some of the eyes looked at him with pity, curiosity, anger, sadness, disdain, happiness, excitement, and a myriad of other emotions that he couldn't describe.
However, one thing was certain.
He felt as if he was in the presence of a being that was akin to a God.
And that being spoke in his head and asked him a single question.
"If your life was a novel, what would the title be, and how would your story end?"
