Conflux System: I Can Merge Anything-Chapter 35: The Difference Between Alive And Breathing

We all have empathy. But we may not have enough courage to display it.

Zane might hate some people but he had a heart. Morality. Especially for his fellow Gutterborns.

And Xavier had killed one gutterborn to save another one.

The act itself didn’t bother Zane, it was the intention that stung.

Xavier saved Zane because he wanted him for his own agenda. And threw the other gutterborn with no remorse. No regret. No guilt. As if he too considered them filth with no value for their lives.

Zane became sure of it when Jaryun had brandished his stick on the old man.

Xavier was stealing candies at that time.

At the crux of it, he saved Zane because he had something to do with him. He needed Zane so his life was important. He couldn’t care less about the others so he didn’t mind them dying.

The same behaviour as Halocrats Xavier had and the only relation Zane would make with them was no relation at all. Friends were a far cry.

Zane explained all that to Xavier and was about to leave for good.

But Xavier held his hand from behind.

"Wait."

Zane would have retorted but he sensed the change in the air and slowly turned around.

He opened his mouth but before he could say something...

"When I tell you to wait..."

Xavier spoke and his deep voice pierced Zane’s heart.

"You already lost your right of defiance, empathic man."

He snapped.

Zane ran his mind for an exit but Xavier’s grip was strong.

The only reason he didn’t panic was because his merged skill wasn’t triggered. Yes, he felt the intent of anger and threat but if the skill didn’t act it meant he won’t die.

Still, the skill could act at any moment. Xavier was a nutcase and if Zane didn’t handle it well, he would have another problem in hand.

I really should have gone home.

"What do you want?" Zane asked.

"I don’t have a heart, you say?"

Should I lie? But he will ask me to be his friend again.

"Y-y-yes. You don’t." Zane said with trembling lips, hoping the merged skill to stay silent.

Xavier clenched Zane’s right hand tighter.

"You don’t know one thing about me and yet you gave the verdict of my chest being empty."

Zane stayed silent. He would only answer when asked, lessening the chance of making Xavier angrier.

Xavier gritted his teeth.

"Yes, I saved your life out of my own personal interest. Yes, I don’t give a shit to that gutterborn in the church and that pathetic old man. Hell, I’ll kill them myself if I get the chance. Do you know why?"

Sweat formed on his forehead as Zane shook his head.

"Because weakness disgusts me."

Zane gulped. He felt Xavier was exposing himself right now and he wasn’t ready to witness that.

"And I don’t mean scrawny arms, thin legs, and malnourished bodies. Weakness of spirit, death of heart disgusts me."

Zane said nothing.

"The gutterborn in the church was there because he was supposed to, because he was afraid. The old man took the beating for no fault of his because he lacked voice. And they are just two examples, there are countless people with no tongue of their own, with no thoughts of their own, and with a life filled with no choices of their own."

Zane was forced to think. Whether he liked it or not, Xavier was right. Slums were filled with such people. Living under the burden of history being told from generations to generations.

Xavier raised his free hand and thumped it on his chest.

"I have a heart, kind man. I have a heart that knows what it wants. That beats openly only for myself. And I was looking for those who have the same heart as me. The people who died were already dead.

Someone who couldn’t even want to, wish to fight for themselves, why should I bother to fight for them?

The gutterborn I threw to save you, his leg was broken and yet, he still visited the church with that broken leg because he was afraid of breaking the rule, so I only saved him from the trouble. If that old man had even once held the stick of Jaryun for his defence, I swear on my life, I would have died protecting that man."

Xavier looked left and right and pushed Zane towards a dark alley, away from the people.

"So yes. I treat different lives differently. I saved you because you had the guts for calling the slab a stone, you had the steel in your fists to fight an Enforcer, you almost punched him. You begged Jaryun not to kill you because you wanted to live. You had tried everything so begging was the last option for you. You wanted to live. I saved you for one simple reason, Zane."

Xavier let go of Zane’s hand and held his shoulders.

"You were alive."

Xavier shook Zane and the gutterborn had no words.

He wasn’t expecting such a thing and there were no lies in that.

His anger had also receded and he had revealed his disgrace for something particular.

"Why did you call me kind in a taunting manner?" Zane questioned.

Xavier sighed.

"Because you want to help those who don’t want help. I am sure you also think of them as cowards. Be it gutterborns or Commoners, those who don’t fight for their rights are cowards. I can never be kind to and for them because I know it will only hurt me. They will never change. They want no help. The only mercy I do is not hurt them myself. They have accepted their misery without knowing that misery comes only once from others, after that it comes from within."

Zane frowned.

Xavier was against helping the hopeless. So much so he was ready to hurt Zane whom he saved himself.

"So do you still think I don’t have a heart?"

Zane inhaled.

"No. You have a heart. But different from mine."

"Why can’t you unde—" 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Helping those who don’t want help sounds stupid. I agree. But they have lost hope. I see more people like them everyday. I live with them. Heck, I am one of them. They are cowards. They don’t hate Halocrats because they are too busy fearing them. They became accustomed to living like this.

However, they might have lost hope but they haven’t lost it enough to not recognize it. I’ll try to survive and make sure they survive too. If their lives get better, my life will be better too. We belong to the same forsaken section after all. I’ll become someone they can see their hope in. They have suffered enough.

They don’t want to ask for help because they believe no help is coming. To help them you have to make them believe they deserve to be saved. You can’t expect them to ask for your hand when you haven’t reached it out to them yourself, Xavier."

It was Xavier’s turn to become silent.

Zane didn’t blurted anything and eventually...

"So you’ll stay as you are?" Xavier asked.

"You won’t change either?" Zane asked in return.

Xavier shook his head.

Zane shrugged.

"Guess we both have something to teach each other."

Xavier brows quivered.

"Why would we teach each other?"

Zane smiled.

"Because we are friends."

It took exactly five seconds for Xavier to register the words and then his beaming face lit up the dark alley.

He laughed out loud and with Zane, came out of the alley.

But just as Zane accepted the friendship...

[ DING! ]

The system chimed.

A window appeared in front of Zane’s eyes and this time, his steps paused after seeing it.

This time it was different.

Major, Critical, nothing of that sort.

In bold capital letters on a bright golden window, the words read:

[ MYTHICAL QUEST GENERATED! ]