67 Invisible Prison with Small Moments of Peace

After Larz finished saying what he had to say and left, Kurt and his mother enjoyed a silent dinner as the woman seemed to be going through many different thoughts inside her head.

Kurt wanted desperately to ask her many things but he knew he was just going to receive the same old 'you will know when the time is right' answer.

He hated that feeling. He was never a fan of mysteries in comics or movies, he always hated receiving only bits and pieces of information instead of the whole thing. He was the kind of fan that didn't mind spoilers for a story because he was just too impatient to get all the answers.

But at the same time, he knew he could trust Sabiri. Her and Dorothy were the only ones in his new life he knew he had no reason to doubt on. So if she wanted him to just wait more, that is exactly what he would do.

"Are you going to school tomorrow?" she asked as took a sip from his soup.

The boy quickly analyzed her expression to try and guess what kind of answer she was expecting, but the woman had an amazing poker face, as if she had practiced hiding her true feelings day and night.

"Shouldn't I?" he replied, "I already missed one day. I don't wanna start falling behind again..."

"Again?"

"Ah! I- I mean..."

"It's okay," she smiled at him, "you don't need to hide anything from me anymore, remember?"

Kurt stared at her for a second and decided to try and be a little more honest for once, "The thing is...

I wasn't exactly a great student in... In..."

"In your previous world?"

"... ... Yes..."

"You don't have to feel uncomfortable about your situation, Kurt. Lots of individuals from other worlds come here all the time."

The boy turned his gaze away, "R- Right... Sorry... It just feels like I've been wearing a mask for the last thirteen years and am still getting used to walking around without it..."

"Must have been a heavy mask."

"It was... And... I think sometimes part of me misses it a little..."

"You still don't feel safe talking about your past?"

"My past is... A little embarrassing. I was pretty much a failure in life no matter what way you looked at it..."

Sabiri just remained silent, much to his shock.

"You're not gonna say anything? Usually, when I say that people try to tell me I'm wrong and that I just didn't look at things from the right angle..." he commented while throwing a tiny glare at Dorothy.

"I suppose I could... But it wouldn't really feel very honest, would it? I didn't see the Kurt from another world, only the Kurt that I raised with me. If you wanna claim that you were a failure, who I am to correct you?"

Kurt couldn't tell if she was being kind or harsh but he was at the very least glad she was simply accepting everything without making a big deal out of it. It made it easier to speak to her.

"Well, as I was saying... Everything about me pretty much sucked... I was weak, not very smart, not very brave, and overall, just not very useful..."

"Useful?" she repeated before taking a drink from her glass, "How old were you in your previous life?"

"Fifteen."

"Ah. Just two years older than your current age. Is it required for someone in your old world to be 'useful' at this age?"

"It's the age where you're meant to start getting at least an idea of what you want to do with your life."

"I see."

"And, that's basically why I want to try and be a little different this time and continue going to school. I don't want to return to the old Kurt again who would just run away from things. I want to become the new current Kurt that puts on an effort!"

Sabiri had finished her meal and was now just staring at him with her eyes wide open while the back of her hands held her chin with her elbows above the table, "Go on."

The red-haired lad was taken by surprise by her calmness. He began to feel like he could say anything by that point and her expression would be the same.

"Am I not boring you?"

"Not really," she admitted while smiling at him, "I've been having many stressful conversations and discussions lately. Talking with you like this is honestly very relaxing. It keeps my mind away from my worries. Please continue."

"You sure?"

"Of course! I waited years to have this kind of conversation with my son!"

"Even though I'm..."

"You're my son," she affirmed with a gentle smile, "You may have a shaky background, but I love you and want to take care of you. Nothing else matters."

"..."

She could tell from his silence that he needed some help to keep going, "Tell me more about your world. What was your family like? The food. The land. The creatures.

I wanna know more about my own kid, please!"

Kurt couldn't tell why but he started to feel a sudden sense of relief. Every day and night for the past years he would worry that getting his secret revealed would cause him to grow apart from his mother, but there she was, just listening in to everything with a big grin on her face.

He proceeded to tell her everything he could think of. His obsession with comics, books, and movies, his difficulty with studying and making friends, his relationship with his old family, as well as a couple of differences between their worlds such as how advanced the technology was, the fact that beings didn't have super-natural abilities like turning into dragons, or how each country for some reason just had its own language even though they were all the same species.

Sabiri kept hearing everything as if she was a student in a lecture who was incredibly into the subject being discussed. Sometimes she would ask him to pause to ask how one thing worked, or why someone not just tear a criminal into pieces, or why people didn't have self-defense as one of the required subjects to study.

The more Kurt talked the more the two of them continued to relax.

Things like the faction games, the bet with the emperor, the night of pain, the curse. All these things just faded into the back of her head while she watched her boy getting excited while talking about the old life he had.

At a point, Kurt even started to cry once he realized this was the first time he was allowed to talk about all these things and began to notice how much he was keeping things bottled up inside and how suffocating it was.

"Does it feel good, putting everything out?" Sabiri wondered as she approached to hug him.

Kurt began to blush while wiping his face, "Yes! Oh my Gosh! I wasn't expecting to feel like this. I don't know what's wrong with me. Who starts crying from talking?"

"Ah... Ha... You would be surprised... Talking can be very liberating sometimes..." she commented while thinking about her night with Saramin, "come to think of it! You seem pretty close with your sister!"

"Sister? You mean Sara?"

"You probably don't remember but she seems to really like you from the way she acted last night."

"I... Really wish I could remember more about last night..."

A sense of guilt began to take over Sabiri. Sometimes looking at Kurt like that made her wonder if she did the right thing in messing with his memories like that, but the simple fact that he could even smile today after what happened was more than enough proof that she had nothing to regret.

"Well... Al you need to know is that she's a good girl. And seems to care about you a lot. Hopefully, you two will grow a little closer as time goes on. Finding good friends is never easy."

"Feels kinda cheating when the good friend is your half-sister though..."

"Oh, trust me, it's not. In fact, you should probably keep a safe distance from the rest of your siblings..."

Sabiri quickly glanced around the room to confirm that a couple of servants were hearing their chat, causing her to refrain from saying much more in fear of anything wrong falling into the emperor's ears.

"It's getting late. You should go rest some more now. You don't wanna return to school dead tired."

Kurt nodded at her and lifted his arm so that Dorothy could land on it.

"Oh!, By the way, mom! I never told you about Dorothy, did I?"

"It's fine, dear. You can talk about it later."

"No, listen! It's really cool! She is-"

"Kurt!" Sabiri interrupted while raising her voice.

She could tell that a couple of the spies planted inside the mansion by Lian Garen were just waiting to hear more about his son's mysterious pet and all of its secrets.

"Let's talk about it later!" she repeated as she glared at him, "Understood?"

"Oh... O- Okay..."

Sabiri hated the look on Kurt's face. Nothing could give her more joy than spending time talking with her son about throwaway topics. But she knew it was too risky to speak about relevant subjects such as his ruler inside that house.

One wrong move and the emperor could get his hands on dangerous information or Kurt might start making too many questions, resulting in his curse activating and erasing his memory again.

It was already a miracle that Kurt still even liked her at all when so much of the memories inside his mind are probably of her teaching him how to fight while beating him up over and over again. She really didn't want to risk losing these nice couple of minutes together with him from his memory as well, so she decided to settle for quitting while she was ahead.

"Night, mom!" Kurt whispered before entering his room.

"Good night, my little boy."

And thus another day where she had to walk on eggshells came to an end, just so she could continue again the next day.

Always being stuck in this invisible prison where she couldn't even properly fully enjoy the company of her own son as a reward.

Tomorrow, Kurt would return to school, and she once again would need to think about whether or not she did everything she could in order to make sure he would be safe by himself.

Did I train him properly? Did I send enough security? Did I teach him right? Am I doing the right thing? Did I do a good job as a mother? These were the questions Sabiri always asked herself before going to sleep as she stared blankly into her ceiling.

Every day her heart would feel tight once she saw Kurt leaving the safety of the mansion, and every day she would melt in relief once she would see him returning safe and sound.

And each time, she needed to hide her feelings entirely in order to not raise any suspicion. From either Kurt or the emperor.

The good wife. The good mother. Just waiting for someone to come and wake her from her nightmare.

As she glanced outside her window and stared at night with a full moon, the same kind of night as the one where Kurt was kidnapped and unlocked his healing talent, she couldn't help but wonder if things would have been better if the black knight had taken him with her that night.

"Where are you now...?" she whispered as the pressure of her day finally reached its limit and placed her in a deep sleep.

Little did she know that Kurt was about to face a great danger much sooner than she expected.