Above Your Head

Chapter 18: I\'m Not Your Father (5)

"We will make preparations, so come again later, please."

"Hoho, I understand. See you later~"

As if she had been relieved of some burden, Alreina quickly left the house before I could stop her. I stuttered.

"Dad?"

I could not understand what was happening. Just why, for what reason, was I getting handed over to some unknown aliens?

But my father continued to speak with a calm expression, as if he had been preparing for today since a long time ago.

"Dong-min."

"Yes, Teacher."

"Go to the old man immediately and tell him that the promised day has come."

"The… promised day?"

"He will understand if you tell him that."

"Hmm, I understand."

Pat!

Dong-min disappeared in a split second. Rather than it being like high-speed movement, it was more like leaping through space.

After that, my dad turned to Bo-ram.

"Bo-ram, starting from this moment, you will release all the seals, including the first-class transformation."

"Huh? Hahaha… You indeed have a lot of authority in our Magic Tower, Teacher, but--"

Clink!

Wiiiiing----!

"Wh, what?! Impossible!"

Bo-ram shrieked as she waved her hand.

The steel wristlets on her arms released a pillar of five lights. It seemed like that was the cause of it.

"Return to the Magic Tower and ask the Tower Master to take out Gungnir immediately."

"Wh, why are we taking that out now? Will World War 3 start? Also, if I held Gungnir in my transformed state…"

"For now."

Compared to Dong-min, who had acted immediately regardless of if he had questions, Dad interrupted the words of the flustered Bo-ram.

"You will know when you tell the Tower Master, alright?"

"That… Ah, I understand. I will be right back!"

I stared at Bo-ram with a blank look as she opened and left through the front door. It seemed like she didn\'t know how to leap through space like Dong-min.

I did not know what that was.

"Dad? What are you doing right now?"

"What Eun-jeong entrusted me to do."

"Why are you bringing up Mother\'s name in this situation…"

My father spoke with his usual calm attitude while looking at the very confused me.

"Eun-jeong had the power of Foresight. She may have already expected this day to come since before you were born."

"…"

I remembered Bo-ram\'s explanation of how my mother had the bloodline of a Great Witch.

So does that mean that my mother really had special powers?

"Ah, who is that lady over there? Did you promise your future to each other?"

I shook my head at those dangerous words.

"She is just someone I met on the street. I don\'t even know her that well."

"Wow, it is kind of sad if you cut it like that."

Celestia had a sulky expression, but I was too confused to care about her. What I said was also the truth.

It seemed like my father also did not care much about her. He looked at Celestia and said, "Can you leave if you do not have any relationship with my son? There are some personal things I have to talk to him about."

"Oh my, is it something I should not know?"

A bright smile appeared on Celestia\'s face.

Her beauty was so outstanding that the average man would agree to some nonsensical requests like [Can you kill a person for me? ^^] but of course, my father replied with a nonchalant expression.

"That is right."

"…"

Celestia was bewildered that her beauty did not work its magic. I drove her away and entered my father\'s bedroom.

There was a picture of a girl wearing a white wedding dress hanging in the corner of his room as usual.

\'Mother…\'

My mother, who passed away after giving birth to me, was my father\'s childhood friend.

But even so, they were not that close and merely knew each other.

However, my mother came to know that she was suffering from an incurable disease not long after entering high school, and she confessed that to my father.

And she said, \'I want to leave proof that I existed in the world.\'

And my father agreed to those words. He even married my mother, who was dying soon, even though it might ruin his life.

\'That\'s a moving story.\'

This is not something that only I knew about; it is widely known.

It wasn\'t because of my father\'s carelessness, or that we were surrounded by light-mouthed people.

Whatever the case, was it not shocking that two high-schoolers married each other and even gave birth to a child?

It would naturally attract attention from people around them.

\'But that may also be a lie.\'

I had only thought about my father\'s extraordinariness and not much about my mother. I always thought she was another average student.

But for her to have the talents of a Great Witch.

"What is Foresight?"

I tried hard to stay calm but unconsciously got on my guard.

"And what is the promised day? Have you… been fooling me until now?"

I knew that I had no right to resent him, at least.

Even if he was keeping some secrets from me, it was the same for me.

I have never told him about the memories that influenced the formation of my sense of value and ego and my ability to see titles above the heads of people.

For me to grumble like this when I was the one who felt a sense of inferiority towards my father and raised a wall first?

Not knowing the reality of this world but still feeling the ideal clearly, I have felt anxious like I was walking on ice.

I felt it in every moment; the delusion that this precious daily life might collapse or that a nightmare may suddenly become a reality one day.

As a result, I turned a blind eye to all the anxiety and ignored it. If I did not have strong mental power, it would not be strange if I fell into despair and went astray.

If only I had told my father all of this when I was young, and he taught me about the [World View] properly.

I saw my father looking at me with a sad expression.

"I\'m sorry."

"…"

My father did not make any excuses.

There must have been a good reason for that. He still would not tell me the truth, even if there was a reason why he could not tell me.

My father threw back a question instead.

"You were attacked on your way back, right?"

"Did Mother also foresee that? That the ones aiming for her blood would attack me?"

I regretted saying that the moment the words left my mouth, it was an unnecessarily sharp reaction.

But my father didn\'t get upset and only shook his head.

"Even if she had the blood of a Great Witch in her, she was not worthy enough to offend a Primordial God. The reason for the attack would be because of your paternal bloodline, not maternal."

"What? No, if your blood was the problem, instead of someone like me…"

"Dae-ha."

I flinched at his calm but solemn gaze because I disobeyed him about not belittling myself several times.

My father ended up letting out a sigh when he saw that I couldn\'t bring myself to apologize.

While I was bewildered at his attitude that was unlike his usual self, he spoke, "Compared to the weight of your existence, my lineage as a pure human being is not worth that much, Dae-ha. It is only sold at a higher price in the sperm cellar."

"…What?"

I asked again as I couldn\'t understand his words.

Of course, it was not because an extraordinary person like my father was a pure human being.

The reason I was bewildered was because of the underlying meaning of his words. His words implied that, right, as if…

"What you are thinking is right."

My father looked at my expression and nodded.

"You are not my son."

"What… did you say?"

My brain stopped working. I felt dizzy and nauseous.

But regardless of that, my father looked at me calmly.

"I said that you are not my son."

He reconfirmed that I heard him correctly and inflicted an additional blow.

"Also… You are not an Earthling."

I could not respond to those unrealistic words and remained silent.

That was something I have thought hundreds or thousands of times.

My father and I are not alike.

Unlike him, who is an all-around genius, the only thing I am good at is gaming. Compared to him, who looks like a world star, I have an ordinary appearance with a figure that can only be considered average.

It was more typical to have some doubts at this point.

However, I had gone through numerous tests, whether I wanted to or not.

"I received… a genetics test. I think I have done it about ten times at different organizations, but you managed to fool them all?"

It was a result that even I, who tend to be suspicious of things, accepted. But now, you are telling me that all of that was false?

However, the words my father said next were more shocking.

"You do not have DNA."

"…What?"

I asked again, dumbfounded. Is there a living thing in this world that does not have DNA?

But regardless of that, my father continued.

"What they saw was fake DNA that was modeled using my genetics as the base. Eun-jeong placed it."

My father said as he looked at the picture of my mother with an expression as though he was reminiscing about something. The expression only briefly appeared before he returned to before and continued.

"Sit and listen."

At that moment, the words \'I will listen while standing\' came up to my throat.

But how childish of a retort would that be?

I somehow calmed myself down and sat down. My father started to explain.

"Actually, I had been really interested in Eun-jeong since the beginning. The reason we were not able to get closer was because everyone around her was cautious of her. She was actually a special existence, but her parents did not know it since they were normal human beings."

It was said that she had the bloodline of a Great Witch, but it seemed like the power was not transmitted through genes.

It was a strange occurrence that happens once every hundred or thousand years.

"But she came looking for me one day."

"Saying that she loved you?"

I said that in sarcasm, but my father nodded unexpectedly.

"Yes."

"…"

\'This human is so full of himself.\'

My father looked at me and continued, "But the reason she said that in a hurry was because she was walking to her death."

"I guess… It was because of an incurable disease."

"Of course. Eun-jeong said that she was a being born with the power of a Great Witch, so she was no different from being immortal. It was to the point where she could revive even if she were burned to ashes."

She could have been able to live but decided to give that up.

But of course, she never hoped for her own death, but her death was still her own choice.

"Because she wanted to give birth to you."

He had spoken indirectly, but I was not an idiot, so I understood the underlying meaning of his words. I gritted my teeth.

My father was saying something tough to believe.

"What you meant is… Mother passed away because she gave birth to me?"