"Come in!"

As soon as the words left my mouth, the door to my room opened and my father walked in while the maid quietly closed it behind him.

His fists were clenched tightly and his expression was a complete mess compared to the composed one he had worn barely a month ago.

I could understand the guy.

Being praised as perfect in everything, this guy absolutely sucked at apologising and maybe it was finally getting to him after wasting nearly a month.

His eyes immediately narrowed at me.

"You have broken through to the Awakened Rank?!"

He sounded surprised.

"Yes." I nodded. "Thanks to all the pills and potions you and Lady Isolde provided, it was easy."

There wasn’t much point in hiding it. The disturbed mana surrounding my room was a dead giveaway anyway.

"Congratulations."

He spoke, trying to make his voice sound soft and considerate, only for his expression to betray him completely.

Slowly, he walked towards me and took something out of his pocket.

"I had brought a Core Refinement Pill for you... but since you have already broken through to the Awakened Rank, such pills would be useless now. Still, I want you to have it... maybe you can find a better use for it."

He said as he handed me a small wooden box. Inside was a brown-colored pill, one of a higher rank than the ones he had been giving me over the last few days.

But unfortunately, pills and potions were only useful until the Awakened Rank because beyond that, they hindered growth more than they helped.

"Thanks for the generous gift, Duke."

I thanked him as I waited to see what kind of apology he would offer. I was curious what he would do differently today.

He took another step forward and placed his hands on my shoulders.

"I am sorry for everything, Zenith."

He spoke, his eyes slightly softer than before and yet...

...I could still feel the soul contract binding us.

Which meant his apology wasn’t considered genuine.

I thought he would leave just like usual but instead...

"Why isn’t it ending?"

He sounded impatient and humiliated after doing this daily and I understood it better than anyone.

"I might have never given you any attention but have I ever done anything bad to you? Have I ever tried to harm you? So why... why aren’t you accepting my apology?"

Humane emotions were ugly and Raymond was learning that for the first time in his life. As I watched in silence, I once again felt proud of my third demand.

He was a bastard who never showed me any emotion, even in the face of death, and now...

Seeing him display these ugly emotions was fun.

"I believe you know the answer better than I do, Duke, don’t you? It was never me who judged the genuineness of your apology. It’s your own soul."

Soul contracts worked similarly to Talents in some ways. They bound one’s soul to the Will of the World through a contract and in such contracts, the judge was one’s own soul. So unless his soul itself accepted the apology as genuine, this contract would never be fulfilled.

He understood that well as his hands clenched even tighter.

"It’s because even as your mouth apologises, your heart has no understanding of what you actually did wrong."

I looked into his eyes before continuing.

"You know, sometimes it’s better to peer into your own soul rather than blaming others because no amount of some expensive pills would do that for you."

I didn’t sympathize with the guy, but I understood his frustration all too well.

After my master died, I had broken in much the same way. I buried myself beneath endless slaughter and eventually became an emotionally numb fool who no longer knew what he was supposed to feel.

It was Lily who pulled me back from that abyss and became my anchor.

Naturally, I had no interest in becoming someone else’s anchor. I didn’t trust in second chances and I certainly didn’t trust Raymond enough for something so absurd.

Still, seeing him stumble around in ignorance was annoying enough that even I couldn’t help but throw him a few words.

Raymond’s fists clenched even tightly, but he didn’t say a word and simply walked out of my room.

***

[Raymond’s POV]

For the first time in his life, as Raymond walked through the corridor he had traversed since childhood, he didn’t look at the paintings of Ruinbringer’s glory hung upon the walls.

Those stories had been there since his childhood. They had made him dream of achieving the same one day and adding even more glory to them. That had always been his dream, so every time he walked through this corridor, a small sense of pride would swell within him.

But today, all he felt was empty.

He still didn’t care about the apology or the boy, for that matter, but his words kept echoing in his head.

Peer into his own soul?!

When was the last time he had done something like that? When was the last time someone had reminded him to do that?

There were only two people.

One was when he was a child, serious and ambitious, aspiring to become the Patriarch by cutting down all competition. Back then, that fool, his brother, had said something similar. Naturally, he had met his end trying to claim the Founder’s Sword.

The second was the woman he had found amusing, an ordinary priestess of the Church of Love and Passion and Zenith’s mother, who used to preach about how he should have some love and passion in his life.

She was dead too.

Even back then and even now...

He still couldn’t understand what any of that meant.

Weren’t emotions supposed to be transactional?

Wasn’t parenting supposed to be cruel?

His father had drilled those principles into his mind so deeply that, combined with his Talent which made him numb, he had never questioned them.

Even when his brother died, all he felt was a strange disappointment and when Olivia died, all he felt was something slightly heavier.

But in the end, even as that heaviness lingered for days, even when the sound of rain felt unbearably loud during those times, he never felt sorrow because he had never understood what sorrow was supposed to feel like.

So, how was he supposed to feel guilt?

How was he supposed to offer a genuine apology when he simply couldn’t fathom what it was that he had done wrong?

He walked in silence and eventually arrived at his office, immediately calling his head butler inside.

The man, who had served the family since the previous Patriarch, bowed with a composed expression as Raymond looked at him and then at the small portrait of the previous Patriarch, his father, hanging on the wall beside him.

"Why is it that even after doing everything my father taught me, my children still find fault with me, Sebastian?" He asked. "I have never even punished them like my father did, nor have I ever demanded something impossible from them. So why do they still wish for an apology from me?"

The butler raised his head and looked at the Ironblood Duke, who was still a child in his eyes.

His eyes softened as he spoke.

"That is something this old servant cannot answer for you, Master. The late Patriarch taught you many things and you have carried his teachings faithfully."

"But the hearts of fathers and children..."

He smiled faintly.

"That is a road each man must walk himself to understand."

"Forgive this old servant’s impertinence but perhaps the answer you seek is not in your father’s teachings, nor in this old servant’s counsel."

"Perhaps it lies with your own self."