My Trash Talent Is Actually OP!
Chapter 54 - 54: The Burden Of Guilt

Nova did not say anything. She simply nodded and quickly pushed the gate open. She cautiously stepped back to let him in first, then placed a black arrow at the entrance.

The cemetery behind it stretched far deeper than expected. There were more graves than either of them could count. Most were unmarked, crooked from age.

The air was still. Heavy. Like something thick moved through it. Not even the smell of dead bodies or the burning incense from all corners—just silence beneath the surface.

Asher led them past broken statues and cracked headstones until he stopped at a tree wrapped in white ivy.

"I think I've been here before," he said. "Or I've seen it in a memory, I think. I remember seeing my mother here. A lot."

Nova knelt near the tree. "She used to come alone?"

He nodded. "She never said why."

Nova ran her fingers over the ground. There were no gravestones here. Just dirt. Dry, cracked, but oddly undisturbed. Not a single weed dared grow between the tree roots.

"Wait," Asher said suddenly.

He walked around to the other side and found a plaque hidden in the dirt. Brushing it away revealed a name:

Darren Morgan

Land of the Lost

He froze almost immediately.

Nova noticed and walked over to his side. She ran her eyes over the name and glanced at him. "Your father?"

Asher didn't answer at first. He stared at the name like it was something written in another language.

The ache in his chest felt older than he was, or perhaps it hurt that in this life too, his father was actually dead—like the last.

But then what bothered him most was why, in the cemetery behind their apartment of all places.

"I didn't know he was buried here."

Nova stepped beside him. "This is what your mother kept from you. She didn't tell anyone."

Asher nodded. He had seen a memory where he saw his five-year-old self being led away from the cemetery with his hands in his mother's, and she looked dead—or probably sad.

He simply replied, "It's probably because of what's behind it."

She nodded. "Makes sense. Hide a dragon's corpse with a human's. No one would ever check."

Then she knelt and placed her palm flat on the soil. Black smoke moved from her hand and sank into the ground, searching for a soul or a body to hold onto, but there was nothing.

She froze.

"…It's empty."

Asher blinked. "What?"

"This grave." Her voice was calm, but her face wasn't. She quickly withdrew her hand. "There's nothing here. No body. No remains. Just magic. Traces of something… gone."

Asher fell silent. He felt a shiver roll down his spine. "You're sure?"

Nova stood. "I'm sure. I can't even hold on to anything—not even a bone."

She trailed off and crawled over to another grave where she assumed there would be another body and did the same thing.

"There's a body, but no lingering soul. Not even a trace."

Asher turned to the plaque again. His father's name engraved. His mother's secret visits. The strange way his dragon-related class had awakened...

Then the tree with white ivy gleamed faintly before returning back to normal, catching his attention. He quickly rose up to his feet and summoned his dagger.

He cautiously stepped forward, placed his hand on the tree with the dagger in the other in case anything happened, but the tree just pulsed again and returned to normal.

But then something else happened.

"What are you both doing?"

A hurried voice came up behind them—a familiar voice. Asher turned and spotted his mother carefully walking along the side to get to them.

When she did, she stood between him and the tree with a very displeased look on her face.

"Mom?" he called, moving his gaze to the blood lilies in her hand, then frowned. "What are you doing here?"

Hannah didn't answer. Instead, she placed the flowers at the base of the tree and turned to him.

"I told you not to come here again, especially without my permission."

Asher was taken aback by her response, but he calmed himself down and replied, "Was sent by the guild to check out something."

"And what is that? There's nothing here. Nothing at all. They must have given you a wrong address... yes, a wrong address..." She laughed nervously and grabbed his hand to lead him away, but his dagger vanished and he grabbed her hand with his free one, pulling her back.

"What are you hiding?"

"I am your mother... I don't need to tell you what isn't important," she stated briefly, and he scoffed.

"You think I'd listen to that? I'm old enough now to decide what is or isn't important. Why was Dad buried here? Why do you keep hiding that from me?"

"Tell me, Mom, what exactly happened to him? And why are you suddenly startled?"

She didn't answer. She only struggled to pull herself out of his grip, but he only tightened it until her face squeezed in pain.

"I'll drop all the respect I have for you this moment and force answers out of you, Mom, because it would do you, me, and the girls good... I still don't get it..."

"You refused to tell me what happened to Dad and even what's wrong with you."

"I am only having mild flu."

"Lies!" he yelled, already frustrated.

"Flu doesn't last that long. I chose to ignore it because I felt you'd tell Alya later and she'd tell me. I didn't even think about it because I trust you."

He glanced at Nova, who immediately understood what he meant, and she continued checking the graves.

"Mom, please, an entire race is depending on this. Even Ria will be in danger if you don't give me answers... Why was Dad buried here?"

Hannah's gaze softened, and her eyes welled up. That look on her face got Asher withdrawing and instantly calm.

Tears poured out of her eyes, drop after drop, until she was sobbing loudly.

As clueless and dense as he was, Asher crouched low enough to look at her and sighed. "Fine... I'm sorry I yelled at you... I was just a little frustrated and upset that you keep hiding things."

He placed his hands on her cheeks and brushed off a tear that dropped from her eyes. "I won't raise my voice again, or mention him... Just at least tell me what happened?"

Hannah sniffled, her breath catching as she tried to steady herself. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came, only silence and trembling lips. She shut them again, then slowly, she tried again.

"The guild your father worked for... they erased everything him," she whispered, "They hid everything, his class, his power, what he truly was."

Her gaze dropped to the ground as though the weight of the truth was too much to carry, and it actually was.

"He died in a dungeon raid, and one of his friends was waiting. He didn't just kill your father, he took his soul. Dragged it into the Land of the Lost, where I could never reach him."

Her voice cracked, raw pain bubbling up in her throat. "And I couldn't do anything."

Asher smiled assuring her that he wouldn't judge her then he whispered, "Go on"

"I never awakened a class," she continued, "My mana was too low.... I couldn't fight beside him, couldn't protect him. I was just... just a liability."

Tears welled in her eyes, spilling freely now. "I was pregnant with you. And because of that... I couldn't move, couldn't run, couldn't even scream for help. I stood there... watching it all fall apart."

Her sobs grew louder, "He died because of me. They took him because I was too weak to stop it. And now his soul is gone, lost, chained somewhere I can never reach."

"The dragons… they also tried even through they were busy fighting off the beasts and those trying to kill them, they didn't do anything I did."

Asher stood there, silent and stunned, watching his mother unravel piece by piece in front of the grave that wasn't really a grave.

"It was all my fault," she sobbed. "Everything. It was all my fault."

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