Only I Am A Reader-Chapter 559: Researching Origin, Doubts

"So, this is where it all started?"

Wandering around the remains of a large construct, Aurora felt something gripping at her heart.

With so little left around, it was truly hard to tell what this place once was, but for some reason, she could almost see how things were in the past.

Small rooms crowded with small beds, bland food that barely kept its consumers from falling into a state of emaciation, a stale routine cycle that filled the residents' time so they wouldn't cause trouble…

It was barely mentioned as a footnote in the report she received, but just standing in the area where the grayscale orphanage once was evoked strong feelings.

'It does feel lonely.'

Although she didn't remember much of her own back story, May believed that she didn't have an unfortunate childhood. Whether it was Gene, Cassian, or the millions of orphans created by the war of extinction, she definitely had it better in comparison.

'But… Does that really justify what he did?'

As a Hero who believed in absolute justice, Aurora Dawnbringer wasn't the type to look back at things. To her, the wrongs of today deserved punishment regardless of the unknown past.

However, in the curious case of Cassian who went around doing things ambiguously, Aurora couldn't control her curiosity. The sequence just didn't make sense.

At first, he easily let himself become her stepping stone, allowing her to rise into the position she needed to exercise duty in a more open manner.

But not too long after, he broke out of the confinement that he practically chose all so he could attack Aurora, or more precisely his team… Only to perform an act of charity not too long after.

At that point, listening to Gene's snippets about how she was saved was the final straw. The curiosity got the better of Aurora. In fact, even the foreign thoughts in her mind were just as curious from the very start.

To the point that when she finally decided she would look up his situation, these usually contradicting thoughts provided her with a clear memory of a very secret location.

The most trustworthy intelligence dealer on the black market!

As an outlet that utilized not only high observation tech but also the help of psychometry ability users, the information they provided had an average accuracy percentage of 96%.

The obscene amount of money they demanded was equal to the quality of their product.

Undoubtedly, Aurora was more perplexed over the fact that these foreign thoughts had such a secretive piece of information.

What was even more surprising was the fact that she received the information she wanted as soon as she paid. Apparently, someone else had used that service to investigate Cassian's past.

As someone who easily dealt with mental attacks before, Aurora couldn't help overthinking her case. The foreign thoughts had been more organized, less annoying… Perhaps friendly as well.

Still, they never really revealed their true nature or source, it was like Aurora had another person living inside her head. With all that input, it wasn't strange to suspect some kind of Split Personality disorder.

However…

'How would it know things I didn't know?'

Regardless of whether her personality was split or joined together, it didn't make sense that it would have external knowledge.

No matter how far she read into recorded cases with similar symptoms, only split personalities that had a whole different set of memories belonged to a sole case that also had a Sleepwalking Disorder.

With one personality being awake while the other was asleep, each could have their own set of lives, memories, favorite food, and even separate friends. The two somehow coexisted without knowing the other existed until a single point of entwinement occurred and both personalities almost spiraled into a storm of madness.

However, in Aurora's case, not only did she fully confirm the lack of any sleepwalking, but the fact that she calmly contemplated the idea denied the fact of unawareness.

It made even less sense to explain it that way, but that vital piece of information truly came out of nowhere.

'Not that it matters at this point.'

In any case, despite buying the backstory of the notorious Cassian, Aurora refrained from reading the files she received for a very long time.

The righteous part of her still felt that it would be wrong to do so, she even considered tearing everything up, but just a few weeks ago, the foreign part of her went as far as taking the reins of her body to read everything.

And here she was, standing at the very first cornerstone of Cassian's past. While the report naturally didn't have the true ins and outs of everything that happened, it had enough substance for each reader to create his own stories.

Filling the void within the lines as one read was certainly easy, and once done, the emotions tied within easily flowed out, and Aurora couldn't deny that she felt some sympathy.

'If this is really true.'

The fact that his family was murdered in cold blood was enough to traumatize anyone, let alone a child, and even then, he still acted in a controlled manner.

On the day of the attack that made everyone fear his name, there was only a single casualty, and the subsequent attacks that followed had zero.

The only reason he was considered a major Villain was because his one target was the son of a world-renowned Hero, which was viewed as a maleficent statement against the Hero Community as a whole.

Of course, the silent nature of that death was the actual reason behind the threat level and the horror that everyone felt, but his bounty's priority was an already decided matter regardless of his terrifying abilities.

In the end, despite the existence of far more dangerous Villains on the scene, including mass murderers, the hunt for Cassian was ten times as active, all the way up until he fell in Aurora's hand.

'What was the point then?'

However, the information in Aurora's hands contradicted the main motive that held everything together.

If that sole casualty was truly a psychopathic killer, then… Wouldn't Cassian's actions classify as Heroic?