Chapter 482: A Painful Seperation [Part 3]
Of course, Shin could understand where Northern's shock came from.
While he said he had a genius intellect, the talent he had managed to awaken was at first considered mundane.
But the thing about the clan was that they didn't place any importance on talent and talent abilities.
As long as one had soul essence and could move superhumanly, the Kageyama arts were more than enough for a scion of the clan to be as strong as any drifter out there.
However, this kind of strength was only significant in assassination or human confrontation.
Northern closed his mouth for a moment and then opened it, "I apologize for the way I sounded."
The atmosphere was kind of serious; his initial response almost seemed like a ridicule to his father and the seriousness of the matter at hand.
But it was Shin, and he understood Northern very well.
He smiled and said:
"I understand where the shock came from. What you know of me is what I portray to you; it is the same thing with everyone else. And this is the kind of life I have been living so that my elder brother could succeed my father and not me."
Northern opened his mouth slightly, "I see."
Shin was obviously telling no lie; his breathing pattern was regular and clear.
Which made Northern think back on the past events as he grew up. He had seen Shin maneuver through several situations; it was always not easy, he would struggle...
The fight with the beast was just one of them.
Shin would struggle with the monster before eventually killing it. Even at times during the hunting, it was always like this.
So Northern was used to thinking that even though his father was indeed a good fighter that had the basics ingrained into his muscles, he was a weak drifter.
But now that Northern was thinking about it from a new perspective... 'So... all those fights have been him portraying a weak person to me?'
Northern almost wanted to disagree with his father and call it bluffing.
'It's just so impossible to portray weakness so accurately in that manner. He managed to deceive?'
Northern shook his head internally, 'No, no, no way.'
Then something occurred to him. He moved his eyes to meet Shin's.
"When you say you are a genius, what exactly do you mean?"
"It's not difficult to think about. I have a very rare sense of adaptability. In the entire clan, I am the only one in seven generations that had managed to customize the clan art to his own specifics."
Northern raised his head slightly as he finally understood what was coming from, and then it all made sense.
If Shin had such adaptability sense, then it would make sense that he was able to reduce himself to subpar just to make people feel he wasn't good enough.
'A strong person can pretend to be weak, but a weak person cannot pretend to be strong.'
Northern sighed; everything kind of made sense now. But there was still one question that bothered him.
He stared at Shin then asked, "But why? You were already away from the clan; you were in some remote place."
Shin breathed in and out.
"When you do something for so long, it becomes a habit. And I kind of enjoyed it. The Kageyama art brings me nothing but misery."
"Then after doing all this favor for your brother so he could become the Patriarch, I'm assuming your plan worked, so what's wrong now?"
"He wanted me to serve him, as his right-hand man..."
"That makes a lot of sense; surely he wouldn't want to let a resource like you go."
Shin glanced at Northern strangely upon his response before carrying on.
"I started messing up missions intentionally; it was my way of throwing tantrums. But it was messing up the family's reputation. When it got so much, my brother couldn't have it anymore, then he shipped me to the border."
Northern nodded as he followed; with Shin's pause, he inquired.
"So, what part of all of this is enough story to mess up with mother?"
Shin sighed heavily; he lingered before speaking.
"It's my acts while claiming to disrupt missions and the things I did in order to cause my brother, the Patriarch, grief and worry, to become a disgrace to him."
"Oh crap, what did you do, Shin?" Northern squinted his eyes.
'Here it comes.'
Shin breathed shakily as he listed them out.
"At a time, I was supposed to kill a certain queen. I raped her viciously and left it for the king to see. She hated herself so much she later hung herself to death."
Northern's mouth fell. He was expecting something vicious when Shin said he messed up missions. But this?
Northern suddenly felt his mind go blank for a moment. Shin continued anyway.
"Another time, there was a petition for an entire lineage to be wiped off the face of this world. Not only did I not kill their last descendant, I gave her my seed. And the Kageyama does not just spread their seed to anyone."
"By seed, you mean your..."
Shin nodded, causing Northern's mouth to open to an "O".
Moments later, Northern managed to shake away the shock and asked:
"So you have a child. A female child somewhere, yes."
Northern frowned, "That was what sent mother away."
Shin sighed; his breath shivered.
"It wasn't the entire case. Your mother was angry that day and threatened to leave. But she
didn't."
Northern raised a brow, "She didn't leave?"
Shin looked into Northern's eyes, his resonating with dark sadness.
"My family finally approached me because they needed my help. I refused, and they used underhanded methods to bring my daughter before my eyes. Eisha was heartbroken and disappointed not because I had a child but because I never told her that I did.
"I mean, how could I have? I knew of her difficulty to give birth due to her race. I couldn't bring myself to tell her something that would have her heart wrench every time she thought about it. I wanted her to know we were in this together and I am not depending on some child
somewhere."
His voice broke in between words now and then as he spoke.
"She entered the room and was going to get her important stuff. But when I entered to meet
her, she was gone."
Northern frowned.
"What do you mean gone?"
Shin looked at his son with his eyes barely holding in those burning tears.
"Northern, your mother... Eisha was kidnapped, six months ago."
The room suddenly got darker.