Just the sight of the man on the platform was making the emotions inside Aiden's body crazy. It was like a switch had been turned on.
Anger, disappointment, anxiety, and more emotions started mixing inside his mind.
All because of one person which Aiden had never even seen before.
However, it was easy to guess who he was. That man on the stage was his father, the one who had made the old Aiden come to life, the one who had abandoned him a long time ago, not caring about him at all.
The reason why he had abandoned him?
It was simple, Aiden hadn't been talented enough. The man on the stage was cruel and based on his previous actions toward Aiden, he would do anything to achieve his goal.
If he had abandoned his son for such a long time and only sent him a maid to see him ever so often, then it was clear that he didn't care about what would happen to him.
If he died or got hurt, Aiden was sure that his father wouldn't even blink or recognize for that matter as he knew that it had been years since they had last seen each other.
It was also clear that Aiden had changed a lot during this time, especially during that past month of training, when his body started showing improvements in terms of muscles.
When he heard Emma's voice whisper to him in his ear, he realized that what he had at the moment was a mental breakdown.
He could feel himself shaking and having an irregular breath. His heartbeat was accelerating at a frequency which Aiden had never felt before, he could feel his sweat slowly going down on the side of his face.
Aiden was scared of the man on the platform.
Aiden, this time, didn't refuse Emma's support as he grabbed her hand back. He was in a moment of weakness and he needed support.
He didn't care if he was supposed to be a coldhearted person, always trying to work for his own benefit. It just wasn't who he was.
When he had been an assassin in his past life, emotions were unknown to him as he had almost never felt those.
Before, he didn't know what were anger, sadness, love, betrayal, he didn't know what those were. But living in this new world made him discover what they were.
Those emotions which he felt now daily were guiding him on as to whether to make the right or wrong choices.
"Aiden, what's happening to you?" Emma whispered in Aiden's ears as people around them kept cheering over the four people who had just appeared on stage.
No one around had heard Emma saying the Reaper name's as there was too much noise.
Aiden hearing her ask that question came out of his trance, as he realized that he was still surrounded by so many people.
Looking on his right was Emma who was holding his, her head on his shoulder.
"Don't worry about it, it's nothing," whispered back Aiden, pronouncing his first words since his mental breakdown.
Emma was troubled when he heard him say that as she just couldn't understand why he had reacted in such a way.
He had been on the verge of either shouting or crying and now he was acting like everything was fine once again.
Emma had accepted that behaviour of his many times, but today was different, she had never seen him react this much.
She had to say something, she had to affirm herself over this whole matter.
However, she just couldn't bring herself to do a scene right now, especially with so many people around her.
Her mind, on the other hand, was in complete turmoil asking herself just what had happened for him to get in such a state.
The only thing that she could possibly think of was the appearance of the four founding families' heads.
This had to be the reason for his reaction, and then she remembered that he had been called to meet one of the founding families' heads.
She observed every single one of them, thinking that some of them might be showing a sign that they knew of the Reaper or that they had met him and that's when she caught the sight of a beautiful woman on the stage who was smiling directly in this direction.
'This has to be it, she's the reason that Aiden is reacting this way,' thought Emma, trying to figure out what could have possibly happened when Aiden had gone to meet her.
'Did she beat him up?'
'Did she force him to do something that he didn't want to do?'
Emma mind's was everywhere trying to figure out who could possibly have such an effect on Aiden who, in her opinion, was quite strong mentally.
She knew that his whole life must have been hard for him, so she knew that whatever happened between Melinda and him must have been big.
Big enough that it would cause Aiden to act this way.
However, she didn't know that she was currently accusing the wrong person.
She was completely wrong and all of her assumptions were false.
Nonetheless, it didn't matter, what mattered was that she was trying to support him as much as she possibly could.
Then, as she kept wondering about what might have happened between Aiden and Melinda, the cheerings around them stopped completely as one of the people on stage started talking.
"Thank you, thank you! Now, I think that this arena will be the perfect fit for a tournament like this what do you say?" shouted Thorin, excitedly.
The crowd once again went wild as they all shouted "Yes!"
Aiden couldn't believe his ears, there were so many people reunited inside this place for the sole purpose of watching kids fight against one another.
He had to admit that this was a lot different than whatever he had experienced before.
Then, Thorin once again started talking as he seemed to be the one that was the best at communicating.
Aiden was still wondering if he was the dwarf who had interrupted him in the street, Emma also had the same thought right beside him.
However, they couldn't confirm no matter how much they wanted to.
It's not like they could gather information on one of the strongest people in the world easily. It was impossible to do so.
"Alright, so should we start this? Or did I forget something again, ahaha," he said, as he started laughing again.
He was referencing to the previous fight where he had mentioned at the last minute about them fighting against their old teammates.
However, it was only him that was laughing this time as no one participating had found this part funny.
Some had a fake laugh out of respect toward him, but most were dead serious. They clearly didn't like that.
"Woah, I guess it wasn't something appreciated," said Thorin, looking at everyone's reaction. "Well, I don't really care, it's my tournament after all."
"Alright, who should go first out of all of you?" said Thorin, as he started thinking about it on the gigantic Arena.
"Hmm, it should be two people who had quite an impact since the start of the tournament, right? So that people will want to watch the rest," muttered Thorin to himself.
"I think what the first fight will be!" he announced after some seconds of thinking.
"The Reaper will be part of the first fight because of his popularity, ahaha," said Thorin as he could already hear booing from all around the crowd.
"And, he will be facing, um, you," said Thorin as he pointed at some random person in the crowd who didn't look too strong nor too weak.
But, it was important that everyone reaching such a late stage in the tournament was going to be extremely talented, so Aiden didn't think for a minute that he was stronger than his opponent.
He was going to be fighting him as if he would fight anyone else.
He would be giving his best to win that fight.
Emma who was right beside Aiden was worried about him, unsure, if he had been able to get his head straight yet.
If he was to get affected by his emotions when fighting, then Emma wasn't sure that Aiden was going to perform to the best of his abilities.
But, it wasn't like she could change Thorin's decision, so she simply whispered to him, "Good luck."
"Alright, I hope to see a good fight," said Thorin as the four founding families' heads disappeared from the stage to let the two participants stand on it.
'I'll show you, that you should have kept me in your family,' thought Aiden, talking about the Nightshade Patriarch.
He was determined to show him that he shouldn't have abandoned for no reason a long time ago.
Aiden didn't know why but he could feel himself wanting to take revenge for the past owner of this body.
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