As soon as Noah’s life signs had stabilized, Fynn had given Noah’s father, the city lord of Concordia, a call. Their family’s spicy old ginger had immediately connected many different things together and issued his verdict – rest at home.
Since Noah was fully healed, there was no need to go to the hospital. Not only would he have more privacy and comfort at home, but he would also be safer and better cared for.
His son just needed to rest and recuperate. And what would happen if he was allowed to stay in the hospital? Forget the privacy issues, the noise, the people, the reporters crowding around the hospital, etcetera, what was the real deal-breaker was… wouldn’t his baby son start soothing the whole bloody hospital as soon as he came about?!
Out of the question! Home! Ship him home right this instant!
…
One had to give props to Cordia daddy; he knew his son very well.
And thus, Fynn took a team of peacekeepers to safely escort unconscious Noah home. After Noah got tucked into his own bed, Fynn ran off to continue his investigation.
Knowing that everyone was safe and sound should have put Noah’s mind at ease.
But it did not. Not at all.
In fact, instead of feeling relieved, a feeling of dread welled up in his chest.
Why?
The answer could be summed up with one word.
Levi.
“Blackie,” Noah painfully swallowed.
“What?”
“In your memories… there are unnatural periods of silence and big black spots.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Yea?” Blackie responded nonchalantly.
“Gbc’a ‘sfj’ wf! Qts vb sbeg wfwbglfr tjnf yijmx rqbar?! Qts lr atfgf cb Ofnl?!”
Ktlr alwf, Dijmxlf ofii rlifca obg j ktlif.
Qtfc tf olcjiis rqbxf jujlc, tlr gfrqbcrf kjr vgs, “Lf lr mfcrbgfv bea, jt. Tbe jgf j njiejyif gfrbegmf ab atf Degfje; ater, atfgf jgf wjcs qgbafmalbc wfatbvr lc qijmf ab fcregf sbeg wfcaji jcv fwbalbcji kfiiyflcu. Qtfc agjcrofgglcu wfwbglfr ab sbe, yf la ws bkc bg atja bo atf bglulcji bkcfg bo sbeg meggfca lvfcalas, atf wfwbglfr jgfc’a rfca lc atflg gjk obgw yea ub atgbeut jc jeabwjalm mbcafca oliafg.”
Blackie paused, “I mean, who knows what kind of tragic thing the original owner of the memories went through. What if he was brutally raped? Receiving full memories of the traumatic experience would be in no way beneficial to you. It would be like you’ve personally experienced it too. Why would we unnecessarily subject our employees to what could be considered as mental and physical torture?”
Unable to take the suspense any longer, Noah snapped, “What are you trying to say? What happened to Levi?!”
“Technically… nothing. He wasn’t injured and just needs some R&R to fully recuperate,” Blackie coughed awkwardly.
“Then why censor him out?!” Noah spat through gritted teeth.
“…As I said, if memories I transfer to you contain bits that might be highly upsetting or painful to you, they are automatically censored out. Nothing happened to Levi… but, uh…”
Noah’s patience reached its limits, “Enough talking in circles! Turn off the filter and transfer the entire thing!”
Blackie shut up. He hesitated briefly, but since the warning level of the censored content wasn’t in the traumatizing range, he decided to just do as his silly host asked and send over the uncensored version.
Noah soon realized that Blackie’s content filter was really capable. It definitely wasn’t making trouble for nothing.
The reason why it so diligently erased Levi’s existence from the memories was because…
The sight of him was too heartbreaking.
At first, when Levi had regained consciousness, his response was dull, like a small child unable to comprehend what was happening around him. Sluggish and at a loss, he looked around as if searching for meaning.
But then, when his blue eyes landed on Noah’s motionless form, like flipping a switch, the confusion abated replaced with hysteria. As if the entire world around him was falling apart. As if everything he ever cared for was slipping through his fingers, unable to be grasped, forever lost.
Various people swarmed around him, yet it was as if they existed in a separate reality. Not a single one could enter inside his bleak and desolate world.
In his crumbling world, there was only him and the pale figure in his arms.
No matter how many people addressed him, paramedics, peacekeepers, Healers, Soothers, Fynn, and Shaw…
Forget responding, he didn’t even seem aware of their presence. As if he could neither hear nor see anything beyond the target of his fixation.
No matter how the world around him changed, like a catatonic patient in a mental hospital, like a lonely stone statue, he had no reaction. He just sat there, staring pleadingly with his bloodshot eyes at the boy in his embrace, as if begging heaven and earth for his two amber eyes to open.
In his collapsing world, nothing else existed but the motionless body in his bosom.
As the memories slid through Noah’s mind like grains of sand through an hourglass, he could do nothing but silently watch Levi’s anguish.
Watch his agony turn to numbness, frantic desperation into hollow dullness.
Noah wished to speak, wished to scream, but not a sound could reach the other.
He wished to touch, wished to hug, but as if nothing but a mirage, his fingers could only pass through.
He had been there, back then, his body turned halfway to mush, yet he didn’t think it had been too painful.
Right now, he was here, his body 100% fine, yet why was it suddenly so unbearably painful?
The ache was as sharp as a dagger and as debilitating as if someone had brutally ripped out his still beating heart out of his chest.
How could pain be such a fickle thing? Easy to ignore one moment, yet suffocating the next.
Back then, he had shed blood but not a single tear. Yet now, not a single drop of blood was shed, yet the tears that welled up were not much different from blood: hot, sticky, and impossible to blink away.
In the two decades of his existence, Noah had never truly hated anyone. But right now, a mere thought of the terrorists whose actions caused Levi to go through such an ordeal made hatred bubble up inside his chest like a corrosive acid.
Yet, as biting as it was, he couldn’t even spare it a thought, for all of his thoughts were already too dedicated, too preoccupied with the desolate brother-in-law inside his memories.
At first, paramedics tried to separate them, but Levi refused to let go of Noah. He sat there frozen, like a machine whose operating system had crashed.
And in a way, it had. His chaotic thoughts had reached a deadlock that he was unable to extricate himself from. On the one hand, he thought that he should let Noah go, being near him, this Enforcer, was clearly dangerous, clearly not good for his baby at all. On the other hand, he couldn’t bring himself to release him, knowing that in this lifetime, he might never have the opportunity to hug his precious darling again.
His already hazy rationality fought with his feelings until nothing was left but instinct.
And that instinct was entirely in the “don’t let go” camp.
A peaceful resolution didn’t work, and even a Soother at the scene didn’t wish to poke at the hornet’s nest that was Astar Levi. He was clearly mentally unstable at the moment; a forceful separation could very possibly trigger a violent retaliation.
In the end, in fear of aggravating his condition, they chose to simply treat Levi’s motionless form as an ornament. As if he was nothing but an accessory worn by Noah that could just be ignored.
His presence didn’t impact Noah’s treatment anyway, and Noah’s passive soothing field was probably the only thing keeping this bomb from exploding. Their own hasty attempts at soothing, instead of helping, might just end up undermining all that Noah had shed blood and sweat for.
And thus, for hours, Astar Levi stood alone amongst the crowd. From the beginning until the moment exhaustion swallowed up his consciousness, no one extended their hand to pull him out of his collapsing world.
Author Note:
Just when you thought I was done abusing poor Levi… turns out it wasn’t quite over yet. Whoopsie. My bad. (; ﾟ 3ﾟ )~♪
Michaela and… Somebody? Thank you so much for the ko-fi! ❤❤❤
Thanks to everyone’s kindness and generosity, this author was especially fired up today!
You must be wondering, but wait, if you were fired up, why is today’s chapter late??
Heh, heh, I’ll have you know that today’s chapter wasn’t late because this author didn’t have the time to work on it, but because this author was too fired up writing to stop my creative streak to release a chapter. (／≧ω＼)
Thanks to today’s productivity, the next several chapters have very high chances of being released on schedule. (/≧▽≦)/
thanks for the chapter!
The title of the chapter really sums up what I’m feeling right now😭
thank you for the chapter!!
screams in pain AUTHOR WHYYYT
Oh no, that’s not the kind of abuse I wanted to see for Levi 😭😭😭 I feel so bad for him now!
Still, I don’t want him to get his romance with Noah easily, am I mean? 😂 After all that stalking, sticking and psychotic possessive ness I don’t feel he deserves an easy time with Noah… but ughhh so pitiful! 🥺
Thank you for the chapter ❤
Somehow I think his stalking, sticking and psychotic possessiveness will only get worse from now on. Additionally to the crushing amount of guilt… 😆😆😭😭
You reckon? I feel he will become gloomy and avoid him because of that guilt and Noah will have to give chase because he cares so much about his good brother 😂
…. which I guess you are right… will probably make it even worse! 😂😂
If you could scare him away with something like that he wouldn’t be Levi… I mean he is the kind of man who would marry his not-so-future-brother-in-law he at most knew for three days and exactly a week before the wedding with this guys sister.🤔😋
I think he’s pretty determined! Not a bad thing in general but the whole situation is kinda crazy 🤣🤣
Aw, thank you very much:)♡♡♡♡.
All I can say is, this chapter’s name really is well deserved…. Y-Y
Thanks for the chapter! 🙂
Thank you so much for this lovely chapter!! OMG poor levi he’s probably gonna be traumatized 😭
Thanks author-sama (/≧▽≦)/ and poor Levi (T-T)
Levi╥﹏╥