Artifact Report

Chapter 278: Things Not Allowed
Damian already has everything in the world.

He has Uncle Kai, his mother, a path, and a future he can imagine and realize. As long as he is willing, every door in the world is open to him; as long as Uncle Kai is willing to let him stay in the Kai family, no matter what he wants to do, Chai Si will do his best to pave the way for him and protect him.

But Chase never thought that Damian could take away from him again what he had lost long ago.

The younger brother laughed a little helplessly and glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, as if waiting for Chai Si's reaction.

Damian turned around and said to his mother, "No, even if you kill Chase, you can't do that."

"Of course. Don't be angry."

Daisy Monroe smiled at Chase, just like when he was a kid and got mad when he asked for candy and got denied. "Mom really wants to come into the world and stay with you guys."

She is not a mother.

…What Mom said was, “You guys.”

She is not a mother.

Even the last, only, person in the world who belonged to Chase forever turned away tonight. Her eyes gently passed by him and landed on Damian.

He has no access and is insignificant.

“…You’re not my mother.”

The tears stopped. Nothing should have flowed from the empty nothingness.

"Yes, didn't I say that a long time ago?"

Daisy Monroe shook her head, as if she thought him foolish, and said, "But if you let me stay, I'll continue to be your mother—where are you going?"

Chai Si didn't even look at her. All he saw was the piece of cloth hanging on the wooden thorn, floating in the air.

Since the channel can be opened, it can also be closed; it is better not to have such a mother.

"Chase." Damian whispered.

He rarely used this tone.

Just like Chase said, Damian knew he had no right to refuse, but he didn't often use this to force him - this was one of those rare occasions.

When Damian lowered his tone, his voice and intonation were almost identical to Uncle Kai's.

"Don't take it off."

Chase stopped subconsciously. His muscles had already formed a habitual response to Damian's command.

"……Why?"

Damian didn't answer him. Instead, he said to his mother, "Can you please put your hand out of the 'hallway' now?"

Daisy Monroe didn't seem to expect this; she tentatively raised her hand and reached out, then gave a small, surprised laugh.

"Yes," she looked at Chai Si with soft and bright eyes, stretched out her hand again, and said, "Look, Mommy can touch you. I can hug you again...Are you happy?"

Perhaps people are made up of countless contradictory and incoherent fragments.

At that moment, Chai Si's greatest wish was to surrender to the fear brought by his mother, give up all resistance, walk to her side, let her arms embrace him again - and accept that in the next second, she would pierce his heart.

So what if she was a resident? So what if she loved Damian more? He had nothing to begin with.

But Chai Si still retained a bit of his sanity.

He was still two steps away from the cloth; he asked his brother again, "Why won't you let me close the passage? She's not my mother."

"It's not like I want to keep her just because she might be your mother. Of course I know she's not."

Damian was a little unhappy, and Chase could hear it. "I have something to say to it. Don't touch my passage."

He turned and asked, "As a resident, what will happen after you enter the human world? Will you stay there forever?"

"Ah, that won't do," Daisy Monroe said sadly. "Hunters can't stay in the lair forever, right? The same goes for residents. I have to return to the lair from time to time to stay alive... That's why I say you're the most invulnerable person in the world. You're invaluable. To us, you're the most important monarch in the world."

"monarch"--

Chase subconsciously glanced at the wooden medieval fortress.

Daisy Monroe chose the exact word that made Damian's face flush and his eyes light up.

"Then... you'll do what I ask of you, right? It's like helping each other, right?"

"Of course. We also know how to reciprocate."

"What if I ask you to fetch me the artifact from the lair?" Daisy Monroe asked. "What do you want? I can send someone to get it for you right now. The residents don't need the artifacts, so whatever we fetch is yours. What do you need?"

What is he missing?
At that moment, Chai Si wanted to laugh.

"Hmm... I want to be taller than Chase," Damian said, raising his voice and chuckling, "and stronger than him too!"

This moment of almost endearing childishness was fleeting because Damian immediately changed his mind.

"Wait, let me think... I want something that can keep both people and residents loyal to me. Do you have one?"

Daisy Monroe would nod. Why not?

Damian sniffed, a subconscious movement in his excitement. "So, I... I can have an army of civilians in the human world? And you'll all listen to me?"

Daisy Monroe looked at him like a mother and said, "Yes."

Wait. What?
Damian suddenly looked up at Chase and smiled at him, "Don't worry, I won't use it on you, brother."

"...Do you believe her?" Chai Si asked in a dry voice.

"Let's try," Damian shrugged. "It can't hurt me anyway."

Damian had a strange gift; he always seemed to know what to believe.

"Then—what about Uncle Kai? He won't agree—"

Damian glanced at him. "Do you think my dad would want me to close the passage? I wonder how happy he'd be if he knew he could have the lair."

Even though the thirteen-year-old Chase could see that Damian's plan was naive and that everything was going too smoothly, under this naiveté, his younger brother still grasped a truth that he had not grasped.

No, maybe he just didn't want to think about it.

"With my access, the lair will be ours. And we'll have an army of residents..." Damian said with joy, sweat breaking out on his forehead. "I'm going to bring in the most terrifying and powerful residents!"

Chai Si vaguely recalled the night when he was five years old. He stood up from his mother's side, followed the rope with his eyes, and saw a huge black shadow at the end of the road.

Chai Si never thought that there was one thing in the world that even if Damian wanted to do it, he would not allow it.

He freed himself from Damian's orders.

Chai Si took a big step forward, raised his arm, and grabbed the piece of cloth hooked on the wooden splinter - his fingertips seemed to touch the cloth, or maybe not, he didn't know.

Because the next second, his mother was standing beside him.

A heavy force that he had never felt in his life crashed into his internal organs like a locomotive, even knocking his feet off the ground and flying into the air like a rag bag - Daisy Monroe stood there, her overly long upper body arched high in the light and shadow.

Her face, her mother's face, was looking at Chai Si, neither surprised nor surprised, neither smiling nor laughing.

…It turns out it could have come out a long time ago.

The thought flashed through his mind, and Chai Si bumped into the corner between the bed frame and the wall, shaking off a cloud of wall dust; all the air in his lungs was gone, and his vision went black for a moment.

mom.

When he was five years old and was picked up by Uncle Kai, he wanted to look back at his mother, but a big hand covered his eyes; it was the same then, the gentle, safe darkness made people want to close their eyes and sink into it.

He forgot what Damian was doing at the time.

He only remembered struggling to his feet, glancing at his mother—no, that other resident—while leaping onto Damian's bed, his hand stretched out, touching the nightstand.

He has two choices.

Mobile phone or desk lamp?
After a moment's hesitation, Chai Si closed his fingers on the lamp base.

When he heard the sound of wind behind him, he was still lying on the bed, and his body twisted - the desk lamp pulled the electric wire, drew a semi-arc in the air, and smashed hard into the skull of Daisy Monroe who had just pounced on him.

Although he was only thirteen years old at the time, his height and strength were no less than that of an adult.

She stumbled backward and fell, stifling a cry of pain.

Chase didn't react at that time, but he realized later: Daisy Monroe didn't want others to hear what was happening in the room.

Damian was fuming.

After a few seconds, the still groggy Chai Si realized that the target of his brother's anger was actually him—

"Didn't I tell you? Don't touch my passage! Get out of here! I don't need you here!"

(End of this chapter)