Aegon appreciated that Liliana knew herself so well. It was just as Xiu said. She was never forbidden from being with him, but she chose to stay away because of her guilt and fear of facing him, someone she almost killed.

He wondered if things would have been a little different if she had actually mustered up her courage and reached out to him.

'Hmm. Nope. Xiu would still be my mother.'

But he could see himself bonding with Liliana over their shared interests. They could have become great friends, and perhaps he would have learned more about his creator side.

As she sat by his side, Liliana sighed.

"I know it's too late for this, but I'm sorry for what I did back then. I don't want you to forgive me, but I do hope you can let me have a place in your life."

Aegon glanced at her and replied calmly, "I forgave you long ago, actually. You brought me into this world, for which I'll be eternally grateful. So really, you don't have to apologise."

He shrugged.

"Maybe if I had a rough childhood, things might be different. But I grew up fine, surrounded by nothing but luxury and lots of love. Xiu made sure I had everything, even things I never needed."

Liliana chuckled.

"Xiu can be overwhelming towards people she loves. Back then, she used to cling to me so much. I guess I also spoiled her a lot."

She then shook her head and said, "In any case, that was everything I can tell you. More things happened after that, but they're either irrelevant or you can just find out on your own easily."

"Hmm," Aegon hummed and stood up. "I have a lot to think about, so I don't know what to say. But you're my mentor, and I hope we can continue this relationship for a long time."

Liliana smiled brightly upon hearing that and jumped to her feet. She then reached out towards his head, but stopped as hesitation took over her.

Seeing it, Aegon moved his head closer and let her pat him. "A mentor certainly gives praise, no?"

She visibly relaxed hearing him and ruffled his hair lightly. "Thank you, Aegon. You don't know how much I longed for this day. To be with you."

Her smile widened as she said, "I couldn't be a mother to you, but I promise I'll be the best mentor for you."

"I'm happy to hear that," Aegon said.

"Good. Now sleep and rest. We'll continue in the morning," Liliana said, and then left the tent.

Aegon remained standing for a few seconds, then sighed and dropped onto his bed. He closed his eyes and thought about everything he learned today.

It was a bit too much for him, and he couldn't come to any proper conclusion about what to do with it. Ultimately, it just proved a few things he had already guessed and also told him about the great sacrifice of his grandmother.

'Thanks for everything, Grandma. I hope we can have this relationship in the next life. Wait for me.'

With that, he slowly drifted to sleep, his mind still filled with the information he had just received, going through it multiple times as he questioned many things and also came to a few conclusions.

....

In the morning, Aegon woke up and went about his normal routine before joining Liliana. They noticed a similar understanding in each other's eyes and nodded.

They both decided not to bring up what they had discussed last night, as Aegon clearly needed some time. They simply focused on their work instead.

Fortunately, they were both workaholics, so once they started deciphering, they got engrossed too deeply in it to care about anything else.

They spent hours deciphering the journal of that crazy researcher named Brandon Fowler before taking a short lunch break. Then once again, they found themselves stuck at the table, staring at runes.

That became their daily routine, something others would find extremely boring, as they did nothing but handle basic necessities to survive and stay in good condition when they weren't deciphering the runes.

Hours turned into days, before those days turned into weeks, and eventually more than a month passed since they started working on the journal.

As they were translating the last page, Liliana said, "Seems like he died during the experimentation. His theories are pretty good, but extremely dangerous, as he died in his first proper experiment."

"What did you expect from a guy who decided to mess with two dangerous things simultaneously?" Aegon replied without even looking up from his notebook.

"I meant to ask, are you still doing this?" she asked, turning towards him.

"Is that even a question, Senior?" Aegon responded. "Of course I will. But not through his methods. The only good thing about him was his theories, and half of them are stupid."

"You think so?" She chuckled. "You did complain a few times, but I didn't think it was that serious."

"Not serious?" Aegon finally looked up, his expression full of surprise. "Senior, this guy was mental. Look at this one and you'll understand."

Pointing at a certain page in his notebook, Aegon exclaimed, "He wanted to crossbreed a cow with a pig. Why? Just why? Hell, why is this even in the journal?"

"Well, it's a journal for a reason," Liliana smiled. "He included lots of useless info. Though I don't know what he wanted to achieve with this experiment."

Aegon threw his hands up and said, "If I ever met this guy, I'd beat him for sure. He was creating chaos in this world. I lost half my mind reading this."

"We have to go through rough patches to get to the good ones," Liliana consoled him. "There are important parts too. Does any of it solve your problem?"

Aegon pushed the matter of the crazy researcher to the back of his mind and smiled in glee.

"A lot of it. I know why he failed, so there are ways I can avoid failing. But I'll still read this one more time to confirm my hypothesis, and then we can work outside. Gods, I don't want to read it though. It's horrible."

"Persevere, child. Patience will bring good fruits."

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