Role Playing the Dark Horse Character

Chapter 91: Depend on Me

Back then, Ranmu City wasn’t called Ranmu City; it was dilapidated, backward, like other cities abandoned by the nobles.

Narrow alleys, damp and foul-smelling, where the lowest of the commoners lived.

Humans oppressed by the strong vented their malice on weaker beings: stray cats on the streets, scrawny children.

Yet, in such a filthy place appeared a child with pure white hair and clear, pristine pupils.

Malice swarmed toward him.

Exclusion, insults, mockery—they called him a monster, a vile beast to be beaten to death, a calamity bringing misfortune.

A mistake to be eradicated.

“You are the treasure bestowed upon me by the heavens.”

Only his mother would say this, smiling as she stroked his white hair, gently kissing the pupils he so despised.

She held him in her arms, blowing softly on his painful wounds, as if by magic, easing the pain away.

“Beyond this building, in places we cannot see, there will be many, many people who will love my Dan.”

He nestled trustingly in his mother’s embrace, not knowing if her words were true, nor wanting to know.

Dan’s heart was small, only able to hold one person.

When he didn’t know how to face the malice of the outside world, his mother was the only one he could depend on.

As long as he didn’t care about others, he wouldn’t be hurt.

As long as his mother was there, he could survive in a world filled with malice.

As long as she was there.

Cold raindrops, warm blood—that day’s sky was just as overcast, without a trace of light.

The moment he gained his ability, its overwhelming power spiraled out of control before he was ready.

He killed many people.

Those who beat him, those who mocked him—but the only ones he wanted to kill were those who tried to harm his mother.

But in the ruins of the collapsed tenement, amid concrete and rubble, protruding rebar pierced his mother’s fragile body, staining the cold metal with the red of her blood.

“Don’t leave me…”

The only light in his heart was fading, becoming transparent.

His ability, Error Correction.

What Dan felt wasn’t despair, but an immense, boundless regret that engulfed his tiny heart.

He was the one who brought calamity to his mother.

He was the monster, the mistake that should be corrected and erased.

If only he had never existed.

But in the rain, his mother reached out, gently touching his face, trying to wipe away his tears of collapse.

“Don’t cry.” His mother knew her child, her smile as gentle as ever, even tinged with traces of blood.

This frail and fragile woman lifted her body from the rebar, showing no sign of pain.

As if it were an ordinary afternoon, she reached out, pulling her injured child into her arms.

“Mommy will always be with you, always, always, turning into your favorite bunny, staying by your side.” She gave her child the strength to live on, soothing the pain deep in his heart.

But the warmth of her embrace was fading.

“Until my Dan meets someone more worthy of his dependence than me.”

Her body grew cold, like the relentless rain falling from the sky.

In the damp, rainy night, he held his mother, clutching the bunny plush that could hold him back, kneeling alone in the ruins until dawn.

He could no longer feel warmth.

In the seemingly endless rain, he tightly hugged the plush that wouldn’t hug him back and stood up.

His mother would stay with him.

So he would make her return to her original form.

…

“She… is still alive.”

His body was manipulated, trapped in what seemed like an inescapable restraint, but Dan let out his own voice.

Black smoke stained the white clouds in the sky black.

Under this grim sky, the white-haired boy’s pupils dilated, but he couldn’t see his own expression.

Nor could he see the shattered look on his face, like glass covered in cracks.

His heart was small, only able to hold one person.

“I can’t… live without her.”

If that person left, he didn’t know what would be left of him.

How could he go on living?

“Hahahahaha!” The orange-haired youth laughed.

Lin Ruye looked at him, finding it amusing, finding it satisfying.

He was jealous of this person, jealous of the love he once had.

Now, he drew on his pain, reveling in his suffering.

Lin Ruye said, “What are you deluding yourself about?”

Those purple pupils, so similar to Lin Ran’s, held an entirely opposite emotion, filled with malice, like a roaring beast of desire.

“Then take a good look at your so-called ‘mother.’”

He deliberately loosened control over Dan’s voice, then manipulated Dan’s hand, making him lift the bunny plush, forcing him to see its now-dirtied, gentle smile.

Just like the blood left behind when rebar pierced his mother’s body on that rainy night years ago.

Then, the orange-haired youth revealed a malicious smile.

His hand, no longer under his control, exerted force. Amid the white-haired boy’s trembling voice, that gentle smile was torn apart from the middle, shredded.

“Just a pile of cotton.” Lin Ruye cast a condescending glance, summing it up loftily.

But Dan no longer paid attention to him.

He only stared at the debris on the ground, at the cotton clumps mixed with dust and dark blood.

He couldn’t notice anything else.

“I originally wanted to kill you myself.” Seeing Dan’s reaction, Lin Ruye let out a scornful laugh, cutting off his control over Dan.

He said, “But letting you destroy yourself seems even more satisfying.”

The white-haired boy was like an empty shell, devoid of a soul.

His blank expression retained traces of the extreme sorrow from moments before, his lips still trembling, but he could no longer respond to any external stimuli.

No one could be brought back from death, everyone told him so.

No matter what kind of ability, none could manipulate life and death.

Mother could not return, and he had long lost that warm embrace.

He was a monster, a calamity, an error that should not exist.

Why continue living? Nothing remained.

"Wrong, my existence," he murmured.

A fierce wind lifted the hem of his clothes, tousling his already dull white hair.

Cracks appeared on his pale face, red bloodstains spread from his exposed arms, his skin fracturing.

He would kill himself, correct this greatest, most unforgivable error.

At that moment.

"Oh, my little dog, what's wrong? Can't find your toy?"

The scattered debris in his gaze vanished.

In its place were approaching black high-heeled shoes and the hand extended by their owner.

That hand, against the backdrop of the filthy ground, was slender and fair, then snapped its fingers.

A rabbit plushie appeared in her hand, clean as new, bearing the gentle smile he knew so well.

Like a beautiful dream.

Dan trembled as he reached out, wanting to tightly hug his mother as he once did, to hold that rabbit plushie now devoid of warmth.

But the instant before touching it, he recoiled as if shocked.

This was his beautiful dream, yet he feared it would dissipate under his touch, revealing again the scattered debris, the soiled cotton clumps.

He dared not touch, could not touch.

The pain of his cracking body kept him awake, kept him clear.

He was the error, the monster that should not exist.

The only light in his heart had been soaked in that rain, extinguished, leaving him with nothing.

Yet in that moment, his fingertips were chased by the white rabbit plushie.

The life-sized doll was pushed before him, enveloping him.

"Why did you lose it again? Hold it properly this time."

Warm breath brushed his cheek.

He stood stunned, feeling through the rabbit plushie an open embrace and the warm hand gently stroking his hair.

Soft, gentle, as if it could take away all pain.

Like his mother.

"Mother..." he murmured.

"Easy now, I'm not your mom," came from behind the doll, revealing the person's curved, smiling eyes.

Her tone was light and casual, yet carried an indescribable sense of safety.

"But." She let go, stepping back two paces.

The warmth left, but that feeling of warmth seemed to linger.

Her smiling face revealed a wildness uniquely hers.

"If you don't know how to think, don't know what to do, don't know how to live."

A snap echoed again, the rubble vanished, and a rumbling sound came from behind.

The collapsed building rose, as if rebuilt from ruins, reconstructed amid the dust.

His home, the false refuge utterly destroyed.

The one who did all this gently opened her eyes, revealing crimson pupils, and said with a light laugh, "Then don't think at all, just look at me."

The scene before him blurred, warm tears slid down his face, falling to his lips, swallowed uncontrollably.

He could not control his expression, his features crumpling, crying as he had on that rainy night a decade ago.

Was this a beautiful dream?

A dream seen before stepping into death, after losing everything.

No.

His empty heart seemed filled again, his pained skin mending, like his scarred and broken heart.

His heart was small; even a sliver of light was enough for him to survive the cold rainy night, in this gray world.

Just a little light.

And she brought him radiant moonlight.

Tears soaked his collar, the white-haired boy sobbed and stepped forward, as if rushing into the light.

Like a young beast, wronged outside, returning to the trusted arms of its master.

"Depend on me, see me as your everything, that's all you need to do."

She spoke softly, stroking the trembling spine of the young beast, "Good boy."

Dan cried messily, like that rainy night a decade ago.

But it was not the same.

That time was destruction, his heart slowly dying.

This time was rebirth.

...

"Never expected this, really didn't," the orange-haired youth nearby clapped, as if applauding.

He looked at the black-haired girl with her back to him and said, "Illusion? You've been controlling my vision since just now? Deceiving my eyes?"

"Perfect timing, I didn't go looking for trouble, but you delivered yourself," he mocked.

Li Li patted Dan's back, motioning him and the rabbit plushie to the side.

Then she turned, saying carelessly, "Just passing by, but saw you bullying the dog I have my eye on."

She opened her eyes, tilted her head, and curved her lips.

Li Li lightly lifted her foot, her crimson pupils meeting Lin Ruye's purple ones.

"You need to check with the owner before hitting a dog," she said.

Then her high heel landed, making a crisp sound.

"Clack."

In an instant, illusions unfurled, sweeping with the dust in all directions.

All that was seen, heard, or perceived became unreliable, and in this hazy air, Li Li softly said, "And I have some things to ask you."

The thing she cared about most.

"Six years ago, what did the prophet say to you?"