[LSB] Chapter 97: Meeting MEGAN

Almost two decades ago, after the unexpected daemon wave that killed Ellie’s parents, she had spent her time recovering inside a hospital. Treatment for those who have been victims of daemon attacks is totally free, and they would also receive compensation from the World Government depending on what they have lost.

The young Ellie, in particular, coming from an extremely wealthy family, was compensated with a hefty sum.

For children barely stepping into teenagehood, however, none of that wealth mattered.

Ellie was sad, angry, in mourning. Barely eating anything at all even though she was receiving priority care—a lot of her relatives had visited already, and yet she refused to talk to any of them.

Why would she, when it was obvious from their faces that they were only after her inheritance? No, they didn’t even mask their faces anymore.

“You’re young, Elizabeth. We’ll help you handle your dad’s business and make it grow, and then when you’re ready, you could take over!”

“No, don’t listen to him! They’re never going to return the company back to you! Give it to me instead, we’ll merge it with my company and you could just take it back when you’re older!”

“No. Don’t listen to–”

How many times has this been?

Again and again, they have been unrelenting with their advances to the point that Ellie had to watch them be dragged out by security again.

Finally, silence.

This was better than listening to her relatives quack and dance around her like monkeys. There was nothing to do in the hospital—she was not interested in watching the shows provided for her too. She knew that she had it better than most, but it didn’t matter to her—she lost her family too.

The only difference between her and the other people was that she was suffering from her privilege.

“Mom… Dad.” The young Ellie gripped her blanket tight, biting her lip as she did not want to cry anymore. She was tired, and although she didn’t quite understand yet the concept of death, she realized that it would have been better if she died along with her parents.

She missed them, so much that she wanted to wither away.

The young Ellie closed her eyes, immediately wiping the tears raining from her eyes.

Just sitting and lying down on the bed was making her feelings worse, she knew she needed to do something else, but she didn’t want to leave the room.

But she did. One night, when all the emotions weighed down on her to the point that all she could hear was a whistle that endlessly whispered in her ears from everywhere. Her own body moved by itself to get her out of the room, running away as she covered her ears from all the noise of the world.

She ran and she ran, but the hallway of the hospital seemed endless.

But then, she stopped running.

She stopped running as she saw one of the doors open, and lying inside the room was a familiar face. Familiar, and yet completely unrecognizable.

His cheeks were sunken, to the point that you could already see the shape of his skull. The bones in his finger and his veins, sticking out from his skin.

And yet the boy was just sitting there on his bed, unmoving and still. That is, until, he turned his shoulder toward the door.

Ellie instinctively hid behind the wall, but then immediately stepped out when she realized there was no need to since the boy was… blind.

Julian Winters.

“J—”

Before Ellie could say anything, Julian suddenly called for her name, 

“Ellie.”

“What… you knew I was here!?” Ellie gasped, covering her mouth as she approached Julian. But before any conversation between them could start, she suddenly rushed toward him, practically wrapping her arms around him and bawling her eyes out without any warning.

Julian did not say anything at all. He let her cry on his shoulder for minutes until she was satisfied.

Ellie sniffled, wiping her snot and tears with Julian’s blanket when she was finally done. She stared at him for a moment before pouting and saying,

“I… didn’t know you were also here. I thought… they separated us. Your mom and dad, they’re also—”

“Dead.” Julian finished her words, “They told me that father died trying to fight off the daemons while carrying me at the same time, and my mother also died saving me.”

“They… told me that too.” Ellie’s lips quivered, “They told me that they were brave and that I shouldn’t waste my life because they… they gave this to me.”

“Hmm.” Julian hummed.

“But… what happened to you?” Ellie asked. Now that she was close to him, she could see just how much weight he had lost compared to before she last saw him, “Are you… sick?”

“Why do you ask?” Julian whispered.

“Well… you’re so thin.”

“That is because I refuse to eat.”

“What? Why…?”

“I do not like the food here. They also gave me candy, but I don’t like it.” Julian sighed as he moved away from the bed, grabbing the large cane to help him walk properly.

“Oh no…” Ellie once again gasped as she saw Julian stand up—he barely had any meat in his body, like a skeleton almost, “...You should eat, Julian!”

“No. I don’t like the food here. My mother usually feeds me.”

“But our parents are gone, Julian.”

“I know.”

“No one… no one’s going to be there to feed you… or me.”

“That’s not true.” Julian struggled to walk as he walked toward Ellie, “I hear them visit you almost every day. They’re very noisy, but they could feed you.”

“That… they’re bad people. They only want Mom and dad’s money.”

“Hmm.”

“But you still need to eat!” Ellie insisted. She looked at Julian from head to toe, her eyes narrowing further and further the longer she stared at him, “What… if I feed you starting from now on?”

“Okay.”

“I know it’s going to be weird, but—wait. Are you sure?” Ellie’s eyes widened.

“Yes. I’m hungry.”

“W—wait here! I’m going to call someone!”

True to her words, Ellie started visiting Julian’s room every day—the doctors didn’t stop her. After all, Julian was finally eating.

If that was how the two could cope with the tragedy they have both gone through, then they were going to allow it and even nourish it.

Day after day, she visited. It came to the point that she even requested to move her bed in Julian’s room. But of course, that was denied.

It didn’t matter, however. She still visited him every day.

And each day, the two’s condition brightened.

“I am going to take care of you forever, Julian.” And it was also then that Ellie promised Julian, and to herself that the two of them would never separate, “But we’re only minors, so… I think we need help.”

That was also the time that Ellie finally spoke to one of her relatives, and gave her parents’ company away. She didn’t give it away for free, as the one she gave the assets to already had another company—one that develops life assistance devices, primarily AI multi-sensory environmental guidance and navigation, or MEGAN.

As a minor, she wasn’t legally allowed to do anything with her parents’ company anyway. And she was also not allowed to purchase MEGAN without a guardian.

And so, she gave away the only thing her parents left her for Julian.

She gave away a future filled with riches and comfort for Julian.

And so, for Julian, MEGAN wasn’t simply a tool, or a friend, or even family. She meant more than that.

MEGAN was the symbol of Ellie’s devotion to him. She and MEGAN were the sole reason he was still alive.

They were his guidance, and MEGAN was the one who taught him what was right and what was wrong.

His moral compass.

And right now, she was missing. She was most probably inside his Shadow Forge, and there was no need to panic—but Julian didn’t want to wait.

The Hatter crime family had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance, not at all.

Of course, since they were involved with the loan sharks who hurt Ellie, they might have truly been watching his every move as Victoria said, and stealing his LinkGear might have been their longtime plan.

But Julian did not have time to play the guessing game, nor did he care about their reason at all.

Yes. The Hatter crime family had absolutely nothing to do with her disappearance, not at all.

But unfortunately, they were in the way.

“Hmm.”

The sound of Julian’s hum whispered in the air, along with the drop of blood that was dripping from the head of the leader of the Hatter crime family, or at least, Julian presumed he was. He had to go through several floors to get to him, after all.

The entire building was now silent, quiet enough that the blood dripping everywhere sounded like rain to him, especially the ones flowing from his clothes.

Julian stretched his neck before pushing away the Hatter family leader’s corpse and sitting on his chair. He sat there in silence for a few moments before pulling out a small device from his breast pocket.

“Call Dr. Victoria Wilkes,” he whispered as he placed the device on top of the desk in front of him.

[Calling Dr. Victoria Wilkes.] And not even a second later, a hologram popped out from the small device, showing an image of Victoria floating on top of it.

Victoria did not say anything yet and proceeded to look around the room Julian was in. A loud breath could be heard escaping from the device before she finally spoke,

[You made a mess, Mr. Winters,] she said, [But I take it you’ve retrieved the LinkGear?]

“Hmm.” Julian hummed as he raised his other hand, and there it was, his LinkGear.

[Confirmed,] Victoria nodded, [I will send in a team to clean up. Will you be waiting outs—]

Before Victoria could finish her words, she watched as Julian wore the LinkGear on his head, not even caring at all about all the blood.

[Very well,] a smile crawled on Victoria’s face,

[We’ll handle all of this, Mr. Winters.]

***

“Ugh…”

Several moments later, Julian found himself groaning as he woke up in Artemia. Cyrus told him that Juliet had been taking care of his clone, and judging from the dry towels and buckets around his bed, she did more than he required.

He would have gone downstairs to the shop in any other circumstances to thank her immediately, but he rushed to get his bag this time and immediately chugged a vial of MP potions to recover his mana.

And as soon as he had the required MP to dive into the Shadow Forge, he plunged his hand into the shadows and went in.

And immediately, what welcomed him there… was a slap straight to the cheek.

[Master!?]

Julian heard the Avatar of Searadyn next, but he couldn’t focus on her at all as he was staring at the person in front of him.

“Ellie?” He muttered.

“No, stupid. It’s me, MEGAN!” The person in front of him who introduced herself as MEGAN smiled, waving the hand she used to slap him with a cheeky smile on her face, “And I’ve been wanting to do that for more than a decade now.”

Julian did not care about the slap at all, he tilted his head as he approached MEGAN and asked, 

“How…?”

“Well… Do you want the long answer…

…or the short answer?”

[LAST CHAPTER] <-----> [NEXT CHAPTER]

AUTHOR NOTES

Is that a random flashback? And Julian, though---skipping an entire arc about fighting the mafia to get to MEGAN. lol.