"It's… a handkerchief," Kayden replied in an unusually calm voice, as though the item wasn't worth all the commotion it had caused.
Isildar raised an eyebrow. "As expected… he's eccentric."
Hugo didn't move immediately. Instead, he patiently waited for Fiona to finish what she was doing.
Once she was done, he stepped closer to Kayden and took hold of his hand. At that moment, he allowed his spiritual power to spread freely.
Kayden, however, remained cautious, carefully concealing his spiritual essence as if afraid that something hidden within it might accidentally be exposed.
Afterward, Hugo placed his other hand on the map laid out before them. It didn't take long before the map began to glow. Faint pulses of light spread across its surface before gathering at a single point.
Keeping his eyes fixed on Fiona, Hugo said quietly,
"Touch the brightest spot… then let the scene unfold before us."
Fiona nodded without a word and slowly reached toward the glowing point. The instant her fingertips touched it, the map began to change before their eyes. A phantom image gradually took shape, a three-dimensional scene growing as though it were emerging from the fabric of time itself.
At that moment, Hugo released Kayden's hand.
Kayden silently watched as Colton walked over and sat beside him, as if sensing that this was not a moment for words.
Leaning forward slightly, Kayden whispered so softly it was almost inaudible, as though speaking only to himself,
"It… looks like a television."
Colton froze for a moment. He stared at Kayden in disbelief before turning his attention back to the mesmerizing scene slowly forming before them. Without realizing it, he rested a hand against his chin, watching as though he were captivated by an exciting show.
Kayden observed him for a brief moment. A faint smile crossed his lips. 'He's like a child discovering the world… but he's nowhere near as fragile as he looks.'
Hugo waited quietly, hoping for even the slightest change visible or not but nothing happened.
He sighed softly and smiled at himself with quiet resignation.
"I expected this… honestly, I've tried it before. I just hoped I'd be surprised this time… that something would be different."
Colton suddenly raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean you've tried before? Why didn't you tell me? I could've helped."
"I once gave Adam my gloves. Nothing happened then either. Colton, the only thing you can help me with is spiritual support."
He turned back to his tools, searching them once again for the smallest trace of hope.
From a distance, Isildar silently observed the conversation before letting out an audible sigh.
"Have I become a beggar now?" he remarked dryly.
"If old Walter were here, this would've been much easier…" Ayrton muttered under his breath. "But he's unbelievably busy these days. I can barely get in touch with him anymore."
Kayden slowly raised an eyebrow, his eyes narrowing thoughtfully.
A forgotten memory resurfaced the day an elderly man had stopped him in the street. Simply recalling it sent a chill through his body.
'I was terrified out of my mind the first time I met Mr. Ayrton… and it was all because of him! I really should apologize properly.'
He glanced briefly at Ayrton, studying his expression.
He didn't need to analyze much to realize there was something unsettling in Isildar's tone.
'Does he hate Adam?'
He had no concrete proof only a feeling. Yet sometimes intuition was stronger than a hundred pieces of evidence.
Still, Kayden wasn't the type to throw accusations around.
He pushed the thought aside and said seriously,
"Mr. Ayrton, we'll be leaving now… Colton, let's go."
The three of them left. Silence filled the journey home until Henry suddenly broke it, his voice thoughtful.
"What does purity mean?"
After a brief pause, Kayden answered, "It means being free of impurities… or flaws."
Yet his voice lacked conviction, as though he were merely repeating a definition he had memorized long ago without truly believing it.
Colton suddenly stopped walking, folded his arms, and looked at Henry.
"I feel like your timing couldn't have been worse. Just look at me I'm obviously the complete opposite of purity."
Henry waved his hand and laughed.
"I didn't mean you as a person… or as a demon. But that actually explains it. So a pure person would be your opposite… or at least the opposite of what you represent."
For reasons he couldn't quite understand, Colton found the question strangely insulting, as though there were something offensive hidden within those words.
Still, he said nothing. He simply stared ahead in silence.
After a while, he spoke lazily, his gaze drifting toward the sky "To me… a truly pure person is just another kind of lunatic. Nothing is completely pure."
Eventually, the three of them arrived at the garden.
They stepped into the small yard, where two swings swayed gently in the evening breeze.
Colton dropped onto one of the wooden benches, stretching out as though exhausted from thinking, while Kayden and Henry immediately raced toward the swings.
"There are two of them," Colton pointed out without even looking in their direction, still lost in the previous conversation.
"…Am I babysitting two children?"
Henry chuckled softly.
"The great Colton. Don't you want to join us?"
He sat on the second swing after the brief childish competition between him and Kayden faded away.
Following a short silence, the conversation resumed naturally.
"I'm completely exhausted," Colton replied with dry sarcasm.
Kayden spoke again.
"Actually… What Colton said makes sense. Think about it. There's evil within good, and there's a certain kind of good within evil. Absolute purity and absolute evil… both are forms of imbalance."
He lowered his head, staring at the grass beneath his feet toward the place where his old injury had once been.
"Purity is like the color white… It looks clean, but it's uncomfortable. It makes people uneasy. I don't think anyone is completely pure… are they?"
Henry slowly nodded before looking at Kayden thoughtfully.
"If someone were completely pure… would they be easy to deceive?"
Then he pointed at Colton with a grin. "Imagine Colton was a perfectly pure angel. Do you think manipulating him would be easy? What do you think?"
Kayden looked toward Colton as well. "What do you think?"
Colton answered, his eyes half-closed as they always were whenever he became serious. "I don't know… but I think deceiving kind people is one of the easiest things in this world." He paused briefly. "But it's not interesting at all."
Then he smiled faintly at Kayden. "Someone once told me… that we should smile at everyone, even our enemies and convince them we're kind."
He let out a quiet chuckle. "That's called hypocrisy."
Kayden looked at him. "I didn't say it like that."
The garden gate opened. Arthur quietly stepped inside. Colton stood to greet him before sitting back down as Arthur settled onto the bench beside him, placing a tired hand on his thigh.
Arthur spoke calmly. "I see you've both learned how to hide your presence."
He raised an eyebrow. "How did you figure it out? Where are the injuries?"
Henry answered immediately, as though he had been waiting for the question.
"I actually burned my hand. I was holding the talisman while it was burning. Then I remembered what you told us, and… it took several attempts before I finally succeeded."
Kayden answered just as simply, making no effort to soften the truth.
"Pretty much the same… except I completely forgot the explanation."
Henry shot him a sideways glance filled with amused advice.
"Don't admit things that quickly."
Kayden lowered his voice until it was barely audible.
"He's our father."
The twins continued chatting lightly about their experience concealing their presence.
But Kayden's warmth quickly turned into caution when Arthur suddenly asked,
"Colton… did you bring what I asked for?"
Then he added gently,
"And if you can't find it, don't push yourself. You've been working nonstop. Your body needs rest… all of us do, even those they call immortal."
Colton adjusted the edge of his coat before taking out a carefully folded document. Beside it, he placed a weapon wrapped in a simple cloth.
"Actually, dealing with the staff at that harbor was easy enough. Finding the weapon was the part that took time."
Arthur leaned forward, carefully examining the pistol as though he were looking at something he had lost countless years ago.
"Where did you find it?"
Colton answered, "He escaped aboard a small boat. He was planning to head north. I tracked him down… then recovered the weapon without causing any trouble."
Arthur smiled and gave Colton's shoulder a sincere pat. "You did an excellent job."
Colton slowly shook his head. "It was nothing worth mentioning. If you need anything else… just let me know."
Henry, meanwhile, became lost in thought.
'Father is incredibly powerful… He's seen so much. He's faced things beyond imagination… Which means…'
His thoughts were interrupted before they could continue.
Arthur had quietly joined the earlier discussion about purity and deception, as though he had been listening from the very beginning.
"People who are completely pure…" Arthur said.
"They're terrifying."
He paused. "But those who aren't pure… they're even worse. They're more frightening than demons themselves."
Colton glanced at Kayden for a moment before lifting his eyes toward the darkening sky, as though asking it for an impartial opinion.
Then he sighed quietly.
"If I ever met someone who was completely pure… I'd either stay far away from them… or kill them."
Arthur let out a quiet laugh.
"In that case… you'd better avoid children."
After a brief silence, he continued,
"But preserving purity? That's incredibly difficult. Purity doesn't last long in this world… unless its owner is a monk… or insane."
He paused one last time.
"But unfortunately… truly pure people do exist. They're incredibly rare…"
"And sometimes, their existence is more of a curse than a blessing."
Kayden looked at his father. "Do you think those who are truly pure… are really perfect?"
Arthur didn't answer immediately.
He leaned back against the wooden chair, running his fingers along his jaw while staring up at the sky.
"Perhaps," he finally said in a thoughtful voice. "To preserve what people call purity, one must come close to perfection… or at least to the image of perfection they have created in their own mind."
But Kayden didn't give him the chance to continue.
He interrupted at once, his eyes narrowing with open distaste. "I hate perfection."
Henry turned toward him in surprise.
"Why? Perfection is suffocating—that's only natural—but it's also fascinating."
Kayden gently pushed the swing forward.
For a moment, he seemed lost in thought before speaking.
"Because what comes after perfection… is unknown. No one truly knows what lies beyond it."
"It's like what comes after death… an endless void that cannot be predicted."
"And that ignorance… awakens a sick desire inside me to tear apart the aura they surround themselves with. To stain everything they claim is pure or perfect… to disfigure that flawless image they cling to."
Kayden let out a quiet sigh and lowered his head slightly before continuing.
"Perfection isn't a real goal… it's a carefully crafted mask."
"They don't pursue it because they genuinely want to become better."
"They pursue it because they're afraid of rejection."
"They fear other people's reactions… their judgment… their eyes."
"So they bury the ugly parts of themselves. They erase them and build a shining personality in their place—one without flaws, pure as they claim, as close to perfection as possible."
"So people will accept them So they can accept themselves ,But in the end… it's nothing more than a sick desire to stand out."
"Fear wrapped in gold , You could also say… they're like children."
"A child desperately strives for perfect grades just to satisfy their parents."
"So what if their 'inner child' is incomplete? What if it's immature?"
"What if it simply failed to achieve the results everyone expected?"
Kayden found himself remembering how, in his previous life, he had done everything in his power to satisfy his own parents, trying every possible path until he had nearly destroyed himself with his own hands.
A faint smile appeared on his lips, though there was no warmth in it.
"In truth… perfection strips away a person's humanity."
"To me, reaching perfection is like placing a ceiling over everyone's heads."
"Once that ceiling exists… where is there any room left for creativity? So what's the point?"
Kayden tightened his grip around the swing's chain.
A faint creaking sound echoed every time his body shifted.
His eyes remained fixed on a distant point, as though they could see beyond the world before him.
"The purpose of imagination is creation.To keep moving forward."
"To pursue everything new, everything that stimulates the mind…instead of sinking into a state of mental decay."
Arthur raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Those words were the last thing he had expected to hear from his son.
He quietly repeated them to himself, almost to make sure he had heard correctly.
"Mental decay?"
Kayden heard the remark, but his gaze never shifted toward Arthur, as though the question didn't deserve an answer at that moment.
"That's why I don't think perfection is a good thing , If a person never makes mistakes… they'll never learn , They're like a child learning to walk…They fall a hundred times before they can finally stand."
"We should keep striving…We should keep trying."
"We should do everything we can until we reach satisfying results. But perfection? It limits everything , It closes the doors to creativity and change."
"It makes everything fixed… rigid…"
"It's like dying for a purpose that was never worth dying for."
At that moment, Kayden turned toward Henry.
Henry had been sitting silently the entire time, his arms folded across his chest.
His face remained expressionless, but his eyes shone with deep analysis.
Kayden knew him well enough to understand one thing.
Henry would never let a conversation like this end so easily.