Reincarnated Hero System-Chapter 1221: Deborah’s Secret

"Mrs Deborah Laneford, pray tell, how the hell are you still alive?"

The table was silent for exactly one second after Evan's question.

In the next, Matthias rose to his feet, his right arm pulled back and engulfed in the inky black power of negative life energy as he said,

"That's it, I'm killing this brat."

His fist shot toward Evan, but it didn't even make it halfway across the table before two hands reached out to intercept it, Deborah's from his side and Eliza's from directly in front of him.

Though the two women blocked his fist, the resulting shockwave overturned everything on the table, cracking both the tabletop and the ground beneath it.

Matthias's eyes widened, his expression turning into one of incredulity as he shouted, "Deborah, Eliza, did you not just hear what this dumb bastard said?!"

Deborah's expression darkened as she looked up at him. "We heard him just as clearly as you did."

"But sit down for a moment, Dad," Eliza said immediately after, her tone cold.

With that, she pushed him back, her unexpected strength catching Matthias off guard and sending him tumbling into his chair, leaving him stunned.

She then turned toward Evan, who was still looking at Deborah, her eyes dead calm as she demanded,

"Evan, you have exactly five seconds to explain yourself, because it sounds to me like you are insinuating that my mother is supposed to be dead."

Eliza was furious, genuinely furious, and considering what Evan had just asked, she could hardly be blamed for it. It would have been stranger if she were still smiling after hearing him ask her mother how the hell she was still alive.

Evan, however, didn't even look at her as he replied. "There is nothing to explain, Eliza. I meant exactly what I said.

When we first met, despite the obvious hints, I never connected you to the Laneford family, not because I was foolish, but because, according to everything I knew, the recorded history of this planet and basic logic, you shouldn't have been a member of the Laneford family at all.

Matthias Laneford's children shouldn't exist because, as far as the planet's records show, Matthias Laneford's wife, Alden Kaur's daughter, was murdered 35 years ago by the Eighth Finger of the Demonic Hand, Dominik Velak.

That is why I am completely baffled to see her alive and well before my eyes."

"You…!" George muttered under his breath, his eyes narrowing, but whatever he intended to say was cut off by the sound of Eliza rising to her feet.

Her gaze turned icy as she shouted, "What the hell are you talking about?!"

Before she could continue, Deborah spoke calmly. "Calm down, Eliza. Sit down."

She looked down at the table, all the pastries scattered, muttering, "I spent so long baking all of this, and now it's all a mess."

Seeing how casual her reaction was, Alden swallowed the words he had been about to say and instead turned to her. "Deborah."

But Deborah didn't even look at him as she replied, "Don't bother, Dad. There's no point denying it when he already knows everything anyway."

Eliza's expression changed into one of pure confusion as she stared at her mother.

"Mum… what are you talking about?"

She didn't want to believe the conclusion her mind had just reached, and just as she asked, Matthias immediately interjected.

"No, Deborah, I am against this."

Before he could continue, Eliza thrust a hand toward him. "Not now, Dad."

She turned back to her mother, leaning across the table as she asked, "Mum, what do you mean by 'there is no point denying it'?"

Deborah sighed, pressing her fingers to her temple. "This is not how I wanted you to learn about this."

Eliza could clearly see there was a story here she had been completely unaware of. She glanced toward her grandfather and her uncle, but George quietly averted his gaze, refusing to meet her eyes.

"What… the hell?"

Nothing was making sense.

Deborah sighed again, then turned toward the servants who had rushed over after sensing the earlier burst of energy.

"Come, clean this up."

They hurried to obey, lifting the fallen cake stand, wiping away splattered cake and spilt drinks, restoring the table to pristine condition before quickly retreating.

Deborah then spoke again. "Sit down, Eliza. We need to talk."

Matthias immediately objected. "No, Deborah, you are not saying anything."

The man seemed prepared to pull her away if that was what it took to stop her, but the moment he grabbed her, Deborah weaselled her arm out of his grip and asked.

"And when exactly should I say it? Till when will we keep the truth from her? Have you forgotten that hiding it is exactly why she never understood why we restricted her movements so much, which is precisely what drove her to leave Vitalis in the first place?

And how did that turn out, huh? Less than a year later, she was face-to-face with her mother's murderer."

Deborah's voice darkened at the end, and before Matthias could respond, Eliza slammed her hands onto the table.

"Stop interrupting her, Dad!"

She immediately turned to Deborah, her voice trembling. "Mum, explain."

Her emotions were in complete disarray. Confusion, shock, disbelief, everything crashed into her at the same time, and she had no patience for her father's repeated attempts to interrupt what her mother was trying to say, the explanation that would clear up the irrational conclusion she had pieced together from what little had been said.

Deborah looked at her and, in the calmest voice Eliza had ever heard from her, confirmed a shocking reality.

"Your fiancé's words are correct, Eliza. Thirty-five years ago, shortly after your father and I got married, I was killed by Dominik Velak, the Eighth Finger of the Demonic Hand, the same one responsible for that entire undead disaster you faced in the GWE."

Eliza's brain wasn't even properly processing the words her mother had just spoken.

'Dominik Velak killed mum? Why? No, how?'

None of it made any sense. Deborah was right in front of her, so how could she have been killed 35 years ago?

"…how?" she muttered quietly.

Deborah responded almost immediately.

"It's rather simple. Your Unique Skill, Child of Life. Before you possessed it, that skill was mine."

Silence followed.

Evan didn't say a word. Everything Deborah had said so far matched what he knew from the Laneford Arc of Aidos Online, the short arc of the game's main story that came during the Chapter where the player had to resolve the aftermath of the Demonic Hand's First Disaster: The Dullahan Attack.

"Having come face to face with him," Deborah said, beginning her explanation, "you know that Dominik Velak wielded the Child of Death Series Skill."

Eliza nodded silently, and Deborah continued.

"The Child of Life and Child of Death skills are natural counters to each other. Dominik understood this, which is why, before Graugro and before the other undead incidents he orchestrated across the planet, he sought to eliminate the Child of Life's wielder first.

Using his, well, common sense, he figured that one of the places with the highest likelihood of the Child of Life skill appearing was the Laneford family, already known for its life attribute manipulators.

So, he created a scenario to draw out as many of our members as possible.

He had an undead Kraken attack one of our ports, and the Navy Admirals who led the forces that defeated the Kraken were all wiped out by his Undead Dragon. They were then revived as undead and sent after the remnants of the forces they once commanded.

It was only natural that the Churches and the Laneford family were drawn into the conflict with such a large-scale undead threat, and I personally went to the front lines to assist in recovery efforts against the undead pouring from the seas, unaware that I was walking straight into his trap."

Deborah paused for a moment before continuing.

"The Dominik Velak you fought four years ago was only a shadow of the Desecrator of Souls he truly was."

When she said that, Eliza remembered that during the Dullahan Attack, Evan had said Dominik Velak was originally an Epic Level Existence. He never revealed his exact level, but Epic Levels started at Level 500, so compared to that, the Dominik they fought really did pale in comparison.

"I'll spare you the details," Deborah said, "but on that day, no living being left that port alive. Every soldier, every Holy Knight, every Priest deployed there died. He waited until we were exhausted after vanquishing his undead and had lowered our guards before appearing to vanquish us as well.

I, too, met death on that day."

But if that was true, then how was Deborah alive now?

That was the unspoken question Eliza had, and her mother answered before she could voice it.

"That skill of yours, Eliza… there's more to it than you've realised, and I personally didn't want you to know everything because I wanted you to value your life. You only have one, after all."

Deborah paused, then smiled wryly as she corrected herself. "Well, you would have had only one if you didn't possess that skill."

The moment she said this, Evan immediately connected the dots and understood what had happened, but he remained silent and let Deborah continue.

"The Child of Life and Child of Death skills both have failsafes," Deborah continued. "Failsafes that even their wielders may never learn of unless told. I doubt Dominik knew of them, or he would have brought someone capable of manipulating law energy to prevent mine from activating."

For the first time since she began speaking, she moved her gaze from Eliza to Evan. "Destruction Essence, was it? That's what I was told you used to kill him. You unknowingly prevented his own failsafe by damaging his soul beyond recovery."

She then looked back at Eliza. "If the soul is not damaged beyond a certain threshold, perhaps 30 or 40%, the Child of Death revives its user as an Undead. The same applies to the Child of Life. Upon death, if the soul remains intact enough, it revives its wielder once. The cost of that revival is the skill itself."

Eliza's eyes widened in surprise at this revelation. Evan was no less shocked by it.

The reason Deborah no longer possessed the Child of Life Skill was that it had been consumed to bring her back to life.

"The energy required for that resurrection is immense," Deborah said calmly. "It takes time to accumulate, and if the body is destroyed during that period, it would be very unfortunate for them.

Luckily for me, your father had kept mine perfectly intact, so when the energy build-up was complete, my soul had a full vessel to return to. I thought the Skill was gone after that, but its Rune remained within my soul, just not tethered to it anymore.

Over the years, it absorbed ambient magic and world law energy until it regained the energy it had used to revive me and fully reconstructed itself. Once restored, it sought a new host, since I could no longer wield it."

Deborah smiled faintly. "And I happened to be pregnant at the time, with my unborn child already possessing the same strong affinity for 'Life' that had made the skill choose me. The skill didn't have to search far for a new wielder, since its former owner was already carrying a suitable one within her."

Deborah's explanation revealed exactly how and why Eliza had come to inherit the Child of Life Unique Series Skill.

It was a story Eliza would never have believed if it hadn't come from her mother's own mouth, and if she couldn't tell just how strongly her father had opposed her learning the truth.

The reason George had appeared in the GWE during the Dullahan incident wasn't just because he was concerned about Eliza. It was because he wanted to protect her from the man who had murdered his sister once before.