Chapter 636: Chapter 636

Faced with the right hand extended by Leon, the seven or eight-year-old Andre Prince showed a timid expression and unconsciously took half a step back, then frantically shook his head:

"I’m not going! They definitely won’t forgive me!"

"Of course, isn’t that obvious?"

Leon, maintaining his extended hand, retorted with a face full of exasperation:

"Take a good look at all the crap you’ve done over the years, who in the world would freaking forgive you?

Honestly, if I were your dad, the regret I’d leave in the City of Regret wouldn’t be a misunderstanding between us, but more like why I didn’t just... uh... why did I ever bring you into this world? They’d have to be crazy to forgive you!"

Wait... are you even trying to convince me?

Originally hoping to receive some consolation from Leon, to hear something like "Parents will never blame their kids," Andre Prince instead got hit with a brutal sarcasm that doubled the heartbreak. His already fragile state of mind was shattered by a verbal sucker punch, trembling with fear as he shook his head desperately:

"No! I don’t want to go to the Realm of the Dead! Or the City of Regret! They won’t forgive me, so then I..."

After delivering a swift slap to the young prince’s face, Leon casually wiped off the grease paint on his hand and told the stunned Andre Prince with a huff:

"Could you stop making a scene? No one’s obligated to forgive you. The reason I suggest you apologize isn’t to make your parents feel better, it’s to help you feel a bit less miserable!"

"You, like the persona you’ve painted for yourself now, are just an overgrown man-child!"

Looking at the boy prince clutching his face, Leon sneered:

"Being an adult isn’t marked by height or a beard, but by stepping out from your parents’ shadow, starting to take responsibility on your own, facing and accepting your mistakes.

Even though you’re older than me, you’ve been so well-protected that you’ve hardly faced any challenges, which leaves your mindset still stuck at a juvenile level."

After delivering another slap from the opposite direction, Leon, feeling finally at ease, looked down at the bewildered young prince and extended his right hand again, speaking each word firmly:

"If you really think you’re not, then grab my hand and prove it to me!"

"I... I’m afraid to go..."

After getting slapped twice, Andre Prince’s mental age seemed to regress back to his "body’s" eight years. He turned his head away, unable to look Leon in the eye, whispering while tears welled up:

"I want to see them one more time, but... but they must be really, really angry. If they see me..."

"Why are you still hitting me?"

"Sorry, it was a reflex."

After wiping the grease paint on his clothes, Leon gazed at Andre Prince, and asked:

"So what if they don’t forgive you? How much worse could things get?

After all, you’re already dead. Even if they’re mad, they can’t kill you twice. At most, they’d just scold or hit you a bit, but you get to see them with your own eyes after all these years, talk to them, maybe even get held in their arms again.

For the fake parents you painted, you risked desecration by the Clean-up Bureau, stirring up all this trouble. Now you just need to take a few slaps to see your real parents, what’s there to hesitate about?"

That’s right... compared to seeing them again, what’s there to hesitate over?

After hearing Leon’s words, Andre Prince bit his lip tightly, trembling as he raised his eight-year-old hand tentatively towards Leon’s palm.

Yet even having made up his mind, that small arm was still weighed down as if carrying a mountain. He tried several times but couldn’t raise it to Leon’s hand level, only able to jaggedly wave it beneath.

"Could... could you lower your hand a bit...?"

After several fruitless tries, the eight-year-old Andre Prince couldn’t help but plea:

"You’re too tall; lower your hand a bit, I can’t reach..."

Glancing at the young prince’s trembling arm, Leon, whose tone was perpetually cold and eyes always full of disdain, softened his voice for the first time and gently reminded:

"Andre, the path you’re about to take can’t be helped by anyone. What you need to hold onto is not my hand, but your own conviction. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ N(o)vᴇl(F)ire.nᴇt

Only with firm resolve can you possibly cross the No Return Path, reach the City of Regret, apologize to your parents, and make amends for your past mistakes... Finally, if you manage to grab my hand, then you’re no longer a child."

Am I no longer a child...?

Upon hearing Leon’s words, the eight-year-old Andre Prince looked up at the steady hand above him, then through its fingers at the face that no longer held disdain, prompting a slight smile with tear-filled eyes and softly queried:

"So... you’re also trying to save, not just Feiliya and the others, but even me?"

"I haven’t saved you."

"I’m merely telling you that besides this dead-end, there’s another path you can take, and whether to walk it is your choice; besides, you’re not being saved by anyone, you’re merely learning not to always run away, but to face things head-on with courage."

Avoidance... Facing it...

After Leon’s words, Andre Prince’s trembling hand finally steadied, reaching upwards silently and placing itself into the warm, steady palm that then gripped it tightly.

After grasping the tiny hand that belonged to the eight-year-old child-forged by grease paint, Leon’s face showed approval for the first time, all while muttering a silent salute to the "trustworthy older brother" within him.

In helping Andre Prince "regress" to his eight-year-old state, his bronze-level "good brother" badge performed miracles beyond imagination. Without this assurance, things might have turned disastrously.

There’s no such thing as a worthless badge, only treasures whose potential hasn’t been realized!

Reminding himself never to underestimate any badge’s power, and with his Golden-tiered "Master Performer," Leon held onto Andre’s increasingly stable hand, gently asking:

"I’ll ask one last time, are you ready?"

Though no longer guarded against assaults on his soul, Leon, instead of seizing the chance to subdue him, gently asked if Andre was ready, to which Andre Prince nodded gratefully, declaring with resolute eyes:

With an affirmative answer, Leon then utilized the authority of the Three-Headed Canine Deity to establish a connection with the Gate of the Deceased, clutching Andre Prince’s soul and pulling it out.

After extracting Andre Prince’s soul from "Krolock Under the Sunset," Leon opened the pathway to the Gate of the Deceased while kindly warning:

"When you get there, make sure never to mention knowing me. If anyone suspects anything, and wonders why you have my aura, just say I was the one who killed you, and there’s bad blood between us."

"Okay... wait, what?"

What’s that about? Didn’t you say you had connections there, and plenty of acquaintances?