Lackey's Seducing Survival Odyssey

Chapter 1721: All I ever wanted was for her to be happy and… I wanted to be part of that happiness.

“Your mother… died.”

Jonathan slowly closed his eyes after uttering those heartfelt words. The words felt heavy in his chest, carrying years of unspoken truths and painful memories.

Although his mother had abandoned him long ago, Aether had never openly hated her.

At least, he had never shown that hatred in front of his friends. Whenever her name came up, he never spoke with bitterness, nor did he rant about revenge or complain about the years she had stolen from him.

Instead, he would occasionally ask whether anyone had heard news about her, quietly checking on her well-being as though she were still an important part of his life.

That much he loved her.

That was the part Jonathan could never understand.

The woman had abandoned him and cast him aside for years, yet Aether continued worrying about her as though she had done nothing wrong.

No matter how many times Jonathan tried looking at the situation from different angles, he could never comprehend why someone would continue caring for a person who had treated them so cruelly.

Why would he do that?

Why would someone care for the well-being of a person who had cast him aside like nothing?

That’s something not even his friends managed to understand.

And it wasn’t only his mother.

There was also his ex-girlfriend.

Neither woman had left him with pleasant memories, yet Aether seemed incapable of letting either of them go.

This was something none of his friends ever understood… he never moved on with his life.

Sometimes Jonathan felt as though invisible chains were wrapped around his friend’s heart, dragging him backwards whenever he tried to move forward. The people who hurt him the most somehow occupied the largest space within his thoughts, and despite all the pain they caused, he never truly stopped caring about them.

That was why Jonathan immediately recognised the lie from earlier.

When Aether claimed he had been searching for his friends, Jonathan almost laughed.

The excuse was absurd.

This was the same man who had spent years obsessing over his mother and wondering about his former lover.

There was simply no way that his first priority after returning would be searching for his friends.

Dream on!

Even the rest of their group would call bullshit if Aether tried presenting that story as the truth.

Still, Jonathan had chosen honesty.

Instead of offering comforting lies or giving his friend false hope, he had decided to tell him the truth directly.

He expected tears, denial, anger, or perhaps complete emotional collapse. In fact, he had already begun preparing himself mentally to comfort Aether through the inevitable breakdown.

‘This is for the best,’ Jonathan thought as he steadied himself.

Then a strange sound reached his ears.

Munch… Munch…

Jonathan’s brows slowly knitted together.

The unmistakable sound of someone eating echoed through the room, completely shattering the heavy atmosphere he had spent the last several minutes building.

Confused, he opened his eyes and turned toward Young Aether.

What he saw made him question whether he had somehow imagined the entire conversation.

Young Aether was calmly eating cookies.

Not nervously.

Not absent-mindedly.

Not as a coping mechanism.

The boy was genuinely enjoying his snack.

His expression remained completely relaxed as he casually chewed another bite, paying more attention to the cookie in his hand than to the devastating truth Jonathan had just delivered. A few crumbs fell onto his lap, yet he looked entirely unconcerned by either the mess or the conversation.

“A-Aether?”

“Hmm?”

Young Aether glanced toward him while continuing to chew.

Jonathan stared at him for several seconds before speaking again.

“I… I just told you that your mother is… dead.”

“Hmm… okay.”

Young Aether nodded as though Jonathan had informed him that the weather might be cloudy tomorrow. After responding, he casually reached for another cookie and continued eating without the slightest change in expression.

“…”

Jonathan could only stare.

The reaction was so absurdly normal that it actually felt more disturbing than a breakdown would have been.

For a brief moment, Young Aether even looked confused by Jonathan’s expression, as though he genuinely couldn’t understand why his friend was staring at him so intensely.

“Aether.”

“Yes, buddy?”

Jonathan narrowed his eyes and carefully observed the young man’s face.

“…”

There was no shock.

There was no grief.

There was no anger, denial, or even visible sadness.