Transcendent Gene
Chapter 55: Settling Affairs [3]

Chapter 55: Settling Affairs [3]

Frankly, the Old Lady knew this conversation was coming.

Gio was always that type of kid.

He loved to explore, he loved to grow stronger, he loved to fight, and he loved to rebel.

He looked for ways to use his Original Gene for combat and tried his best to create a foundation so he could eventually be scouted.

He had been trying for so long without saying anything to anyone, but she’d noticed it.

After all, she was always watching over him.

The Gio who existed in the old timeline was nothing like the one she knew. He had an aversion to the battlefield and always preferred smaller roles in the backline. Even when he did great things, he tried to hide his achievements as much as possible so he could maintain his stable life.

It was a surprise that he didn’t start that way.

He started as the rebellious child the Old Lady knew.

That child died in the mine site disaster. When he was left on his own for two years after that, he learned that battle was only good for dying early. He learned what it felt like to starve again. He understood the pain of having wounds that would never heal.

He gained an absolute trauma that pushed him away from the battlefield that was only broken when it had no choice but to break.

The battlefield that he always associated with death; he had no choice but to chase it if he wanted to prevent death.

As such, the Gio who sat before her now was different.

He was still the rebellious child who had dreams of being a Sequencer, but he was calmer. He had a better understanding of himself and the world around him.

She could sense the difference in the air around him. It was even clearer in his words.

"I’ve given it a lot of thought, and I realized this is a conversation that needs to happen if I want to do everything I have planned. Without your approval, none of it is possible."

There was a strange air between them. On one hand, this was a conversation between mother and son. On the other hand, they did not have such a relationship.

Gio’s words felt like those of a son hoping his mother would support his dreams. Even though she thought she didn’t have much control over him, he felt different.

"I have a plan in mind. It isn’t just a wild dream anymore. I know you want me to stay in Gastle, but I can’t do that."

He wasn’t saying much. There was a lot of emotion in his words, but that was the end of it.

’Does he not want to tell me more?’

The Old Lady furrowed her brows as she continued listening.

He told her about his partnership with Raymond and continued into his plans to gain a Bloodline Sequence and start training, but he refused to elaborate on too many details.

Was it because he thought she wouldn’t accept his plans if he told her?

’No. It can’t be that.’

That was the case when he came to speak to her about the Blackwing Blood Serpent. The look in his eyes was different this time.

Rather, there was no look in his eyes at all.

’He shouldn’t be able to show those eyes. Not to me or anyone else.’

Those eyes belonged to someone so skilled at keeping information hidden that not a single emotion leaked from their gaze.

When one looked into such eyes, one could almost see the locked doors binding what they truly wished to see.

"...that’s all I have right now. It’s a new plan, so it isn’t completely developed, but for the next year or two, I have everything thought out."

"..."

The Old Lady didn’t respond even after he finished. She was too deep in her own thoughts.

In her head, she tried to rationalize what she noticed and looked for a way to understand how Gio matured so much in such a short period of time.

Unless she could somehow predict the impossible feat of regression, she wouldn’t be able to put it together at all.

The most she could do was make assumptions on top of the assumptions she’d made before.

At most, she could imagine that the time he spent away from Gastle in the past few years was filled with an unbelievable amount of hardship.

Only that kind of struggle could produce those eyes so quickly.

"Gio..."

She said his name, causing his eyes to meet hers.

"Will you tell me what you’ve experienced?"

He shook.

It was a question filled with so much sincerity that he couldn’t just ignore it.

Her eyes were filled with emotion unlike his own. She was truly worried about him, truly wondering what could have possibly motivated him so much.

He felt a pang of guilt in his heart as he opened his mouth.

"I–"

The words, "I regressed from the future," got stuck in his throat before he could say them.

"It isn’t that I don’t want to tell you. It’s that I can’t."

The words that came out instead hurt him just as much as they hurt her. He felt them stabbing into his chest even as he said them.

"Right now, I can’t say anything about why I’ve become this way or what happened. It’s best for everyone if it stays like that."

He sighed and stopped hiding his emotions.

"All I can say is that I will always be the same person you adopted back then, and you will always be my Aunt. I can absolutely promise that part will never change."

She looked at him for a moment longer before nodding.

"Fine."

Even if everything else changed, that was the most important part, wasn’t it?

’There wasn’t a single lie in his words.’

Over all these years, every time he called her "Aunt," he did so for a purpose.

He either wanted something or said it because she made him, always having a tone without much sincerity in it.

Was this the first time?

’Has he ever called me Aunt like that before?’

She felt a warmth in her chest as she realized that he truly did accept her as family.

’People are born to change. Without change, there are no people.’

Drastic changes were hard to get used to, but that didn’t make them unnatural. It only meant that she wasn’t there when the change occurred.

So, she accepted it.

It was fine that he’d changed. His core was still the same.

And this changed version of him...

"Are you saying this version of you will show me something different?"

Gio nodded immediately.

"From now on, I’ll only succeed."

It was an ambitious claim that didn’t mention the aspect of safety or care for one’s body at all. Nevertheless, the Old Lady still accepted it.

"If you’ve chosen your path, I won’t get in the way of it. You know that I’ve only ever wanted you to succeed."

She always wanted him to stay away from being a Sequencer because of his Weaknesses over anything else, but could she really force him to stop?

Could she ruin his life for her own selfish desires?

Like any parent, first and foremost, she wanted her child to not only be safe but also happy.

And if supporting him meant she could help him stay safe while he followed his dreams, then she would choose that path without hesitation.

All she needed to hear was his sincere truth to make that decision.