Only I Am A Reader-Chapter 558: Villain Origin - The Only Path - Fin

Drip. Drip. Drip…

Although it started with just a few slow drops, soon enough, the whole city was completely drenched as if the clouds went all out and emptied their reserves.

As a natural result of such a hail-like shower, almost everyone ran into their homes or found some construct to hole down in. However, amidst all of this, there was still someone who was wandering through the empty streets.

'Where?'

Despite solidifying the conviction in his heart, the 12-year-old Cassian still had no idea about how he would reach the end point of his goal.

In order to receive proper retribution, there were only two paths he could take. If he couldn't obtain enough strength to crush his adversary, then he needed to reach an equivalent amount of influence.

If he couldn't exact justice through his own hands, he had to use political power to put that murderer on death row.

'Rather…'

Unfortunately, as an orphan who barely escaped the system, Cassian didn't have a proper starting point to pursue either path.

Given the random nature of Special Abilities, he still had a very slight chance of embarking on the first path, but political power was too out of reach for someone like Cassian.

After all, today was both his first and last day of school.

'That would be the only way.'

After aimlessly walking around under the rain, his head clouded with the horrendous scene he witnessed, Cassian finally found a robe dangling his way.

It was risky and uncertain, but he did have a chance of speeding through the process. Rather than just wobbling down and waiting for a pie from the sky, this was the only thing Cassian could do before letting fate take its course.

Knock, knock, knock.

After another hour of walking, Cassian finally found himself back where he started.

"Who would come here at such a time?!"

Staring at the familiar door in front of him, an annoyed voice clearly sounded from the other side. Just who was insane enough to move around in such rain?

"You…"

Still, the voice's owner ended up opening the door, and the person behind it was completely out of her expectations.

"You are back?"

As one of the few staff members of the grayscale orphanage, the caretaker normally didn't remember faces.

However, the person in front of her was a rare case who rose among the crowd. At least… That was supposed to be the case.

"...Come inside."

There were a lot of questions on the caretaker's mind, but seeing the soullessness in Cassian's eyes completely deterred her from chasing him away, especially when the rain was still going strong.

"What happened?"

The scolding words that were always at the tip of her tongue melted away as soon as took a better look at Cassian's case. In the end, the usually cold caretaker went as far as to bring him a towel to dry himself off before finally inquiring about his situation.

'Hold it.'

No matter how strong Cassian tried to be, he really really wanted to vent. He wanted to cry in someone's arms and tell them everything he had seen. Regrettably, however, he could only expose a single glimpse.

"...They disappeared."

"Disappeared?"

The caretaker's confusion only deepened. This wouldn't have been surprising if this was a random and recent adoption process.

However, Cassian's new family was the exact opposite of that. In fact, not even a week had passed since their last charitable visit.

The probability of them abandoning the child they picked up and cared for over a year was basically zero… At least that was what the caretaker thought.

"They didn't leave you any notes? Nothing?"

Of course, the probability that the child just misunderstood a simple situation like an errand run was more likely, but given how bright Cassian was, the caretaker was just as skeptical about that possibility.

"No, I came back from my first day at school and there was no one or thing there. The place was completely empty."

Cassian only felt worse when describing the situation in a way that made it seem like his deceased family had irresponsibly abandoned him. Unfortunately, that was the only explanation he could present.

His limited imagination couldn't possibly predict the exact cover-up story that the assailant's helper would come up with. As such, painting a vague picture of departure was the closest he could get to the final result.

"I see… How about you stay here for today? I will go with you tomorrow to check out the situation."

The caretaker was so overtaken by a strange sense of curiosity that she wanted to check things out right this moment, but there was nothing she could do when the rain was only getting worse.

"Thanks…"

In the end, Cassian got to stay in a small spare room for the day. Once he woke up the caretaker took him with her first thing in the morning.

"This house? They say the couple who lived here made a quick sale before moving out. The few known Heroes who have moved into the area made the prices skyrocket, you see?"

"Isn't this too quick?"

"The house itself was shabby, but the land now has value, it only makes sense for it to be demolished as soon as possible."

The only thing that Cassian and the caretaker found was the rubble left behind after the demolition job. The house was no longer there!

"Uh…"

The caretaker still felt that something was terribly wrong, but there was nothing she could do to dig further into the situation.

To begin with, she didn't have that much free time to begin with. Her coming here already put pressure on her crowded schedule. Now there was only one choice left to make.

"Seems like they really left. I will have to try and personally contact them, but until then… Would you like to go back to staying with us?"

The grayscale orphanage wasn't the type to go around collecting orphans from the street, but they accepted the majority of the cases they came upon.

Taking back someone who used to be a resident wasn't as troublesome as it seemed. Especially when it was someone as nice as Cassian. After all, the caretaker could still remember him distributing snacks to the kids a few days ago.

In fact, it was Cassian who should be the miserable one for his life to get degraded once again. Thankfully, the other kids were unlikely to treat him badly thanks to his acts of kindness over the past few years.

"...Yes."

It wasn't hard for Cassian to pretend that he accepted reluctantly because it was partially true. In reality, however, this was the most optimal decision to make.

The fact that he would end up homeless without the orphanage was only secondary, what Cassian truly cared about was the program that he heard of on the TV several times.

'It doesn't matter how dangerous it is.'

It was supposed to be negative propaganda about how the higher-ups started using orphanages as an outlet for their human experimentation, but all that mattered to Cassian was the nature of these experiments.

'I can't do much as a normal person.'

They were trying to give people Special Abilities!

…

..

.

"Did he really go through all of that?"

This was merely the start of the story of how Cassian, the Villainous Lord Of Shadows, came to be.