Both Lyria and Livy returned from their evening training.

  After their bath, they decided it was better to head for dinner instead of disturbing Eric. He might be busy with something or had already gone to dinner.

  While they were having dinner, a worker appeared and reported that Eric had already gone to sleep and not to disturb him.

  Lyria and Livy felt strange. Normally, Eric always slept after 10 pm, but it was only 7 at the moment. They assumed Eric had his reasons and didn’t think much of it.

  After returning to their room, they attempted their usual Mana training, but for some reason, they couldn’t concentrate.

  "Ly, what should we do? We can’t seem to open our Mana Space no matter how much we try!" Livy asked in a worried voice.

  Livy and Lyria had this conversation many times over the years, but there was never a solution. They could only speculate, and as they grew older and wiser, things became clearer to them.

  Someone had clearly done something to their Mana Veins!

  Anger rushed into Lyria's eyes. Her amber eyes shone with intense killing intent, visible even within the dim light of a single burning candle inside the room.

  Every time they thought of this, both Lyria and Livy felt a deep, suffocating feeling inside them and utter despair. Eventually, all that remained was sky-burning wrath that could incinerate the whole world.

  Lyria took a moment to calm herself before replying in an icy tone: "It's clear that those people from the Moonveil family did something, and we didn't notice a thing. Grandma told us before that Mana Veins cannot be damaged easily unless someone intentionally messed with them or there was some sort of rare accident that can only happen in the presence of high-Ranked Mana Wielders on a battlefield. We didn't participate in or witness any such battle ever, and we rarely left our homes without our mothers, so there can only be one possibility. Some bastards from our old family did something to us without us knowing anything!" She gritted her teeth in agony and frustration.

  Livy was dejected. She didn’t want to blame the entire family just because they were kicked out, but they weren’t leaving them with any choice!

  Just how much must they hate them to impose such terrible fates upon them?

  This was the same as crippling two children for life! Even killing them—who were barely eight years old back then—was more acceptable than this. But the Moonveil family not only crippled them but was also planning to send them to another noble house as servants!

  Every time Livy thought of this, she felt that no matter how much she wished to forgive the Moonveil family, she simply couldn’t.

  “It was 'someone' who did this, right? There can only be one person, right?” Livy uttered with a dejected tone.

  Lyria snorted. “Perhaps only one Rank 4 was enough, but that doesn’t mean others didn’t know about it! We, the most capable among all the same-age descendants of the Moonveil family, failed, but not a single person raised a suspicion about it! All of them were discussing ‘excitedly’ which of the other two High Noble families we would be sent to as servants!” She was seething with anger; her voice lashed with uncontrollable killing intent.

  Back then, both of them were naive and thought that the Elders were right—that they were complete failures.

  When the final date to become a Mana Wielder passed, both of them were thrown into such a ruthless fate. Although they resisted becoming mere servants of other families, neither of them even considered that someone might have done something to them.

  The Elders even had ‘smiles’ on their faces while they discussed which of the other two High Noble families of the Sagestead Kingdom to send them to—and they did it right in front of them! And in front of all those other disciples and children of the family, while those scions laughed and mocked both of them.

  Livy recalled that humiliating scene from the past and trembled.

  She felt as if a large bucket filled with ice-cold water had been dropped over her head. All her sleepiness after the hard evening workout disappeared; she suddenly felt wide awake but equally more disheartened.

  Back then, they were filled with panic and guilt—'guilt' that they were failures and had caused the family to suffer humiliation, and they were berated so harshly by the Elders of the family.

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  Because of that guilt, they somehow accepted that they were the ones who were wrong and the Elders were right. They were the ones who were terrible for failing their family’s expectations and wasting their 'hard-earned resources' that had been spent on them.

  By resources, it was just food, clothes, and a roof over their heads.

  Back then, they were so filled with guilt that they even subconsciously accepted that perhaps going to another family as slaves might be the ‘right’ answer for atonement.

  Recalling all that, Livy’s eyes turned moist, and tears started streaming down.

  That guilt remained even after they were rescued by Christine.

  Only recently, after growing up significantly, did they realize just how cruel their family had been to them—to barely eight-year-old children.

  Lyria glanced at Livy’s tears and sighed. She could completely understand how Livy was feeling.

  She recalled clearly just how terribly they had blamed themselves internally back then. That ‘guilt’ had been deeply ingrained within them without them ever truly noticing.

  Even after arriving at the orphanage, for many years, they couldn’t escape this guilt, which haunted them continuously in their subconscious.

  Even though they knew they had nothing more to do with the Moonveil family, even though they were filled with hate, that guilt was always there, as if it had been deeply glued into them.

  Thankfully, they always underwent extremely harsh training with Eric and Bella Noll, and after these sessions, they were simply too tired to think about their past and this guilt. Otherwise, perhaps they would have deteriorated automatically due to this cursed ‘guilt’ hanging over their minds all the time. They would never have been able to reach their current physical capabilities and would have just cried and been depressed all day—especially considering their hopeless future right now—and perhaps they eventually would have committed suicide together to end this torment.

  Lyria took a deep breath.

  She could understand what Livy was experiencing at this moment. The cruelty of the Moonveil family was secondary. It was just a moment of action and results, but that guilt was permanent and stuck to them like glue the longest—at least until they grew up and understood what had actually been done to them. In fact, they didn’t quite manage to pinpoint this ‘guilt’ feeling and how it had been used to defeat their minds until a few years ago, when Eric said something...

  With a soft tone, Lyria reminded Livy, “Liv, remember what Brother Eric told us about guilt when we were once very depressed and told him everything about our past and how terrible we felt about being failures?”

  Livy recalled.

  Four years ago, when they were ten years old, because it was raining heavily, they didn’t do any training and had free time. Due to the atmosphere and their mood, they eventually told Eric everything about their past.

  By then, Lyria and Livy had grown very close to Eric, and they completely trusted him and Bella Noll with their lives. So they didn’t hide anything and told him all the events they remembered, including how they had always been filled with remorse for being useless even after leaving their family.

  Back then, when they told Eric all this, they still hadn’t realized that something might be wrong with their Mana Veins and that someone might have done something. They still thought they were the reason for their failures and had been the disappointment of the entire Moonveil family.

  After they let out all their frustration, Eric suddenly laughed for a long while. They would have thought he was laughing at their miserable fate if they didn’t know Eric well enough and knew he wasn’t the kind to laugh at their suffering.

  After his laughter died down, Eric said something to them—something Livy remembers clearly, though most of his words were still confusing to her and Lyria even to this day.

  “‘Guilt’ is one of the tools created by people in power to control lesser humans. It is a fantastic method, along with morality, to take over someone’s mind and make them dance in their palm. But to the affected individuals, it’s a ‘disease,’ a sickness that will rot within their minds for years and make them too depressed to resist or do anything productive.”

  “Humans think that without feeling ‘guilty’ about something, they will do crazy things. It’s laughable, as before such logic was pushed on them, humans still lived well enough. Only people living in their ‘la-la’ land would think crimes happen because people don’t feel guilty. Perhaps you won’t understand this, but only pathetic, weak, and—most importantly—‘morally righteous’ fools suffer from ‘guilt.’ People with power will do what they like with a smile on their face. ‘Guilt,’ or rather ‘morality’ as a whole, is for other lowly humans to experience—not for people holding power.”

  “As for both of your situations—just what are you remorseful or guilty about? Spending their pitiful money on you? First of all, did they ever ask your permission to birth you? Did any children ever make ‘phone calls’ or ‘telepathic talks’ to their parents to quickly do those ‘things’ and birth them? No! All children were selfishly birthed by their parents—either because their hormones pushed them like the slaves they are, or because they had their own agendas to believe it was ‘their’ blood—in other words, their god-given perfect slaves to carry their interests forward.”

  “Remember, Ly, Liv—parents have the duty to take care of their children without asking anything in return. If they can’t even do that, then they are just utter trash and hypocrites. They only understand markets and business, and they bring nothing but business into their family and homes. These kinds of parents are simply trash—not worth even the least bit of respect.”

  “Just remember—whatever ‘great’ wealth they spent on you while you were just mortals and little eight-year-olds is something they must do, whether you are productive to them in the future or not. Children are not cattle or slaves they purchased from the market, after all. And if they can’t even do that and still talk about it or try to control you with their past ‘contributions,’ then just behead them all! I will always support you both!”

  Both Lyria and Livy blushed recalling Eric’s last sentence.

  Back then, both of them still thought it was their fault. And when Eric said he would still stand with them even if they did something everyone would look down upon... although they didn’t know why, they were very touched.

  Just the words Eric said—‘I will always support you’—moved their hearts deeply.

  After Lyria and Livy recovered from their red faces, Livy spoke. “By the way, I always have this feeling that both Brother Eric and Grandma actually always knew—or at least had the idea—about our problems but never spoke to us about it.” For unknown reasons, she didn’t even feel like blaming them for hiding it.

  Lyria nodded. “Perhaps they knew, but being in this countryside town, there’s no such expert who can cure us. Even if they informed us, it would only make us even more depressed and desperate, so they hid it for our well-being, I think.”

  “But Grandma never went easy on our training. W-We cripples, n-no future... B-But she taught us all the way with utmost care—almost like she was certain that o-one day… w-we would also be free of o-our fates…” Tears once again streamed down Livy’s eyes.

  Thinking about their present and future situation was always heartbreaking for both of them.

  Lyria stayed silent.

  She was very grateful for the love and care both Bella Noll and Eric had given them over the years. And her killing intent toward the Moonveil family was still deadly high—but… no matter how much killing intent she had toward their old family, she wouldn’t be able to do anything if she remained a cripple for life. Even protecting themselves within mortal society could become a challenge.

  “Let’s just go back to sleep for now. Tomorrow, we can consult with Brother Eric and seek Grandma’s knowledge—perhaps she might know someone who can help us with our troubles.”

  Livy nodded. It was better to have some hope rather than none at all. She slowly lay down on their massive bed.

  Both of their large beds were joined together into one big bed.

  Livy hugged Lyria from behind and fell asleep.