“I-I don’t want him to stay as level 3 all his life.” Misha lowered her head and admitted. “He won’t amount of anything as a low awakener.”
Mathew was listening with a serious expression but her final words cracked him up. “Ha-ahahaha! Won’t amount to anything. So, low awakeners don’t amount to anything?”
As he repeated her words, his voice started to turn cold. “Dear Sister, do you realize that more than 90% of the society is low awakeners?”
“Sure, in terms of strength, they can’t compare to mid and high awakeners. But should a person only measure their self-worth through their strength?
They can be researchers, businessmen, strategists, heck, there are too many things they could contribute in.” Mathew’s tone was on the verge of rage.
“Forget everything. Did you even ask Barry what he wants to become? Not what you want him to?”
“I….” Misha was stunned. Looking back, she never asked him. She did what she thought was best. Not what he actually liked.
“Your parents are shitty. Don’t be like them. Talk to your goddamn son.” Mathew walked to the exit and the doors opened.
Right when he was about to exit, he paused and said.
“I know the real reason you visited me. You want the miracle potion of the shadow guardians for your son.
I don’t want to crush your dreams, but I got it only through Enigma’s grace. Unless you join the guardians and risk your life, forget about it.”
Misha clenched her fists as she looked at her brother’s back. And then she thought of her son’s bleak face.
Yes. She did terrible things so far. She had been both a horrible mother and a horrible sister.
Even the concern she suddenly had for her brother was only a means to an end. She didn’t realize it until Mathew said, but yes, the biggest thought in her mind when meeting him was the miracle potion.
‘I am such a trashy person.’ She felt a sense of disgust toward her own behavior. ‘But…is there no chance of redemption?’
She recalled his parting words and raised her head.
“Wait! I’m joining!”
Shouting those words, she chased after him.
*** *** *** ***
“Excuse me, you do realize this can get you into legal trouble, right?” A person covered in black clothes from head to toe asked in a deep voice.
“I fully understand the risks.” Misha nodded. “Please let me join.”
“Wait a minute.” The guard tapped on his comm and started to verify her documents.
Misha waited nervously as she glanced around to find traces of Mathew.
Following her repeated requests, he agreed to give her a chance. She followed him all the way from earth to a space city between Mars and Jupiter. From there, she reached a secret realm.
Unlike others, she didn’t need to bring in the invitation letter. Mathew directly let her pass.
Soon, she found herself in training grounds filled with tens of thousands of members.
The secret realm seemed to be recently renovated and the construction of new facilities still seemed to be going on.
‘There are only a few staff.’ She glanced at the guard evaluating her files. He was a level 7 like her, yet he was doing this menial job. It was most likely due to security reasons. If anything happened, they could immediately control the situation.
‘It’s not like they have a choice.’
Most shadow guardians perished on Earth. The ones alive around earth—like her brother were captured by the Xanders and only recently released.
‘There are some guardians that weren’t captured. They did all the preparations.’ Misha knew what this meant.
‘There must be some powerful leader who coordinated this and oversaw things. Was it Enigma, Blue Flash, or perhaps Dreamer?’
As she wondered, the guard had tapped his comm again and nodded at her. “You pass the preliminary. Go in.”
He pointed to a tall rhombus building a few hundred meters away.
“Thanks.”
“Next!” As the guard yelled, a young man stepped forward and presented his files. Without waiting for the guard to ask, he answered.
“My parents were killed by the Order. I want revenge.”
‘This one is revenge, huh.’ Misha recalled the common reasons she heard and walked to the building.
‘My parents were killed by the order.’
‘I want to kill the traitors!’
‘I can’t serve in the army, but I can work part-time as a shadow guardian. I can contribute.’
‘I want to contribute.’
‘I want to contribute.’
Six out of ten, the reasons were because they wanted to ‘contribute’ something, anything.
Most of the time, people knew that something was the right thing to do. But they didn’t know how to do it.
So, they clung to any option they were presented. In this case, Shadow Guardians was the option to ‘justice’.
‘Justice brought more than ten thousand people here with utmost secrecy.’
Misha guessed that there were perhaps dozens of such recruitment spots across the solar system.
And she strongly believed that like in this one, every recruitment spot would have people from all sorts of backgrounds.
Young geniuses who wanted to live a meaningful life.
Middle-aged experts who were beginning to realize their life had been meaningless.
Old veterans who wanted to die a meaningful death.
‘But even getting here is difficult.’ As she joined the queue in front of the rhombus-shaped building, Misha sighed.
She was only able to enter the secret realm because her ‘brother’ allowed her to.
The rest didn’t get in—they were selected by shadow guardians who were always searching for potential candidates and were invited.
Of course, her privilege ended with getting in without an invitation. Whether she’d be selected or not depended on herself.
‘I must.’ She clenched her fists tightly and advanced in the line.
Misha was clear about why she was joining the shadow guardians.
It was neither for gritty reasons such as revenge. Nor was it for noble reasons such as promoting justice.
She simply wanted her son to live a safer life.
‘I won’t force him.’ She took a breath. ‘But I want him to be safe. So, I’ll get him the miracle potion. After I die, he can at least protect himself in danger.’
This wasn’t something Mathew could understand. But as a mother, her son’s safety was her top priority.
“Next!”
The tests begun.
