Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ The knocking continued for a while.
Since he had dishes to wash, Kieran chose to ignore it.
Cheadle naturally would not make the decision to open the gate on her own.
She simply sat on the stone chair and silently watched the gate tremble slightly under the repeated knocks.
The knocking lasted about a dozen seconds.
There was no voice calling from outside, and then everything went quiet.
The person knocking had likely given up.
Cheadle listened carefully.
She could hear faint footsteps gradually moving away.
A moment later, she withdrew her gaze.
Several minutes passed.
Kieran came out of the kitchen after finishing the cleanup.
Cheadle looked at him and reminded him at the proper moment, “The person who knocked just now left something by the gate.” “Mm.” Hearing the reminder, Kieran did not seem surprised.
He merely nodded to her and went straight to the gate.
He removed the bar and opened it.
Then he saw bag after bag piled before the threshold.
Most of them contained daily necessities and food.
The only person he could think of who would come knocking at this hour and leave so many things behind was Monica.
“There was really no need.” He muttered to himself, then carried the bags into the temple.
Cheadle sat properly on the stone chair and watched him walk into the courtyard with teasing eyes.
She had not gone out when the knocking sounded, but she clearly had a general understanding of what had happened outside.
He pretended not to notice her look and carried the large and small bags into the kitchen.
After that insignificant little episode, he casually found an excuse and returned to his room to train.
Cheadle was somewhat disappointed.
She very much wanted to keep chatting with him, but she did not make things difficult for him.
For the next two days, aside from preparing three meals a day to host Cheadle, Kieran spent almost all his free time training.
On the fourth day after Cheadle arrived at the temple, Hawk, who had been away from home for more than half a month, finally returned.
What surprised Kieran was that Hawk had not come back alone.
With him was a man so thin he looked like a walking stick.
Compared with the stick-thin man Hawk had brought back, though, something else surprised him even more.
“Hawk, you?” He looked at the stable flow of aura around Hawk in astonishment.
It was not the state from more than half a month ago, where aura had been allowed to leak naturally.
This was a Ten that looked quite seasoned.
A disguise.
He reached that conclusion in an instant and silently looked at Hawk.
Facing his son’s gaze, which seemed to contain a trace of accusation, Hawk did not know where to put his hands.
He rubbed his bald head, then scratched his shoulder, looking exceptionally uncomfortable.
Kieran did not speak.
He simply stared at Hawk in silence.
Cheadle and the stick-thin man merely watched quietly from the side.
“Kieran.” Hawk could not hold out anymore.
He lowered his head slightly and weakly rubbed his bald scalp with his palm.
“This matter…
is fairly complicated.
Yes, I will explain it to you, but you need to prepare yourself.” “Mm.
It is all right.
You can take your time.” As Kieran spoke, he glanced at Cheadle from the corner of his eye.
Now that he knew his father was actually a Nen user, and after hearing Hawk mention preparing himself, Kieran immediately reexamined why Cheadle had traveled so far to visit without warning.
From there, his thoughts inexplicably returned to the day he awakened Nen, to the resentment filled with pure malice that he had treated as a nightmare.
That night, he had been struck by that resentment.
Yet when he woke in bed the next morning, there had been nothing wrong with his body.
Because of that, he had assumed the resentment had been a nightmare caused by exhaustion.
Later, when he saw that Hawk was an “ordinary person,” he automatically ruled out the possibility that his body had actually been healed by Nen.
But in truth, Hawk was a Nen user.
He did not continue guessing.
He simply waited for Hawk’s explanation.
Hawk glanced at Cheadle beside him.
She gave a slight nod.
If Kieran could live this life as an ordinary person under the seal of the Divine Script, then there would be no need to worry about the cost brought by that post-mortem artifact transferring onto him.
They could hope that Kieran would live an ordinary, safe life.
Under that premise, from Hawk’s perspective, there was absolutely no way he would allow Kieran to come into contact with anything related to Nen.
But the situation had changed.
Kieran had awakened Nen on his own under the suppression of the Divine Script.
That alone was something no one had expected.
Even so, when Hawk considered that Kieran knew nothing about Nen, he had been anxious, but he had not lost control.
After all, without Nen knowledge as support, a Nen user who awakened on their own should have extremely limited growth over a short period.
That judgment had not been wrong.
The problem was that his growth had broken common sense.
In summary, once simply blocking him no longer produced the desired result, Hawk had no choice but to agree with Cheadle’s view that guiding him was better than shutting him out.
Hawk looked at him and said solemnly, “Kieran, first, do not be afraid.” “Hm?” Kieran sensed a certain weight in Hawk’s tone, and his expression immediately turned serious.
Hawk took a deep breath.
“You may be about to die, but…” “Hawk, you should shut up.” Cheadle’s face darkened.
She quickly walked over and gestured for Hawk to move aside, her voice openly disgusted.
“Go away.
As far away as possible.” Hawk wanted to maintain a father’s dignity in front of Kieran, but in the face of Cheadle’s forcefulness, he could only obediently slink off to the side.
Kieran frowned slightly, but he did not say anything.
After driving Hawk away, Cheadle came to stand in front of Kieran and said in a low voice, “My understanding of this matter is definitely not as complete as Hawk’s, but if all you need is to understand how this began and where it leads, then it is enough for me to explain.” “Mm.
Go ahead.” Kieran looked at Cheadle and waited.
It was easy to see that both Hawk and Cheadle were deeply wary of what they were about to describe.
Kieran, who already had some guesses of his own, did not panic because of that.
“The cause of the entire incident begins with Elena becoming pregnant with you…” Cheadle began her explanation, and Kieran listened quietly.
As she spoke, Kieran gradually learned the whole story.
And when he learned that the reason Cheadle and Hawk were so cautious came from the threat of a post-mortem artifact, he instead became even calmer.
“So the key to breaking this situation lies with this gentleman?” After listening to Cheadle’s account, he turned toward the stick-thin man not far away.
This was one of the rare Nen Exorcists who could attempt to remove post-mortem Nen.
He was also the person Cheadle had invited.
Seeing Kieran’s gaze fall on him, the stick-thin Nen Exorcist showed no reaction.
His expression was as cold and stiff as a corpse.
“Yes.” Cheadle first nodded heavily, then suddenly frowned.
“Hawk?
What are you doing?” She abruptly looked toward the release pond.
Hawk’s figure was moving up and down over there, busy with something.
Kieran and the stick-thin Nen Exorcist also looked over.
Under their gazes, Hawk was patiently fishing coins out of the release pond.
“I am worrying about the payment…” Hearing Cheadle’s question, Hawk, who had scooped up a large handful of coins, climbed over the railing and stood still.
“…” Cheadle slowly raised a hand and pressed it against her temple.
Her head hurt.
The stick-thin Nen Exorcist’s mouth tightened almost imperceptibly.
Kieran pressed his lips together and fell silent, his face blank.
‘Wasn’t he supposed to be a top-tier tomb raider?
How did he fall this far?’ ✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.