Chapter 1279 (1/2)

Feeling extremely exhausted, Derek pulled up the worn cotton covers and tucked Tim into bed. His son squirmed uncomfortably to loosen the wrapping of blankets. “Dad, I’m not tired. My Vitality is so high I don’t even need to sleep anymore-”

“Well I need to sleep, buddy,” Derek said with a small smile. He believed he could hide it well enough that his son hadn’t noticed, but he was currently nursing a pounding headache from completely exhausting his Mana pool several times during the fight at the stadium. In the aftermath, he was all too happy to be sent home after being interviewed by a representative of the Zone 1 military.

But Tim would hear none of it, not after watching the teenage girl he had a crush on have her stomach blown to pieces in a spray of gore. It was all Derek could do to endure while Tim had insisted following the Priestess of Arbor girl to the hospital and staying there until sundown.

Only after darkness had fallen had Derek been able to gently pull Tim away and take the hour train ride home. And at this point, all he wanted was to sweet oblivion of sleep to wash away all his stress and pain.

For whatever reason, it reminded Derek of the day where he realized Tim’s mother had died. He was so numb that he couldn’t even tremble of shiver. The muscles of his body slowly slid toward apathy even while he was walking around.

Unfortunately, that apathy didn’t affect his mind in the least. Which left him with several haunting thoughts that made Derek expect that even after he lied down to rest, sleep would be a long time coming. Abruptly, he was forced to face the fact that his son wasn’t safe here; Derek could no longer protect him on his own. Both in the wider world and in his schools. And because of that, Derek felt…

Useless.

As Derek was closing the door to his son’s room, Tim spoke up again from underneath his blankets. “Dad… how strong is Randidly Ghosthound?”

Derek’s head pounded. The question was almost too much to bear. Derek had never thought he was a jealous man, but to hear the yearning in Tim’s voice as he asked that question… “Strong, son. Really strong. The strongest in the world.”

“Stronger than you?”

In the dark, Derek winced. “Yea, stronger than me.”

“Then why didn’t he save those people? Why did he let Kiersty get hurt?”

In fact, that was a question that Derek had wondered himself. From what he understood, Randidly Ghosthound had created Arbor, which was the creature from which Kiersty derived her Class and power. Yet after the Ghosthound had stopped Straud… he had simply left. “Even if you are the most powerful person in the world… you can’t do everything.”

“But couldn’t he have done this?” Tim’s voice was somewhat resentful. “Shouldn’t they be friends?”

Wanting to collapse on the spot, Derek could only shake his head. His body creaked like a house scheduled for demolition. “It’s… it’s kinda like the reason I send you to school, buddy, even if I already know the stuff you are learning. It’s not enough for just one of us to do it… you should learn too.”

“But she almost died,” Tim whispered.

So many people die every day. So many that we don’t know about. If something had gone wrong, if Randidly Ghosthound had taken only a little more time too… we would have died just like that. Every bright light of your eyes snuffed out immediately. And I-

Useless-

“It isn’t easy being the strongest, Tim.” Derek sighed and rubbed his jaw as he tried to calm his whirling thoughts. He definitely needed to shave, but there was no way in hell he was getting up early enough before work tomorrow to do it. He would need every second of sleep he could grasp. “Having power… changes you. Makes you colder. Never forget that everything has a cost, nothing in life comes freely. Even power. Especially power.”

With those words, Derek left Tim’s room and stomped slowly through the house to return to his own. Every step was a struggle against the inevitable collapse of his muscles. His brain spasmed painfully with each jarring step. But just as Derek crossed through the hallway and put his hand on his doorknob, there was a soft knock against the front door of the Moss household.

Derek grimaced. Because of the higher Perception that everyone possessed, a single knock was usually enough to capture the attention of the people within the house. But this person ended up knocking three times.

If this is another fucking reporter… With a dark expression, Derek turned his slow gait toward the front of his house. But his glower quickly vanished as he pulled open the door and found a lovely young woman with her dark brown hair cut to frame her face. Her expression was determined and forceful. She hit him in the face like a figurative bucket of water.

God,you are pretty, Derek thought in a daze.

“Does Tim Moss live here?” The woman asked. Her voice was low and her expression didn’t waver as she calmly returned Derek’s gaze as his expression shifted from furious to confused to guarded. It was clear that she was on a mission.

“...who are you?” Derek asked warily. Despite the woman’s serious expression, Derek was somewhat alarmed by the fact that she was looking for his son. If anything, his antagonism returned more strongly than the sleep fury of a semi-roused bear with which he opened the door..

Somehow, the woman seemed reassured by Derek’s expression. And then she did something that completely caught Derek by surprise. She bowed to him at the waist, her dark hair swinging quickly forward to cover her face. “I am… I am so sorry. Your son shouldn’t have to endure all of this.”