Ch.146Season 2 – I’ve Come to Catch My Big Brother

# The Next Morning

“Y-you are…”

“Our father… No! Your Majesty?”

“You can call me father, dad, or whatever you want. Or should I transform into a monster to prove it?”

Karune and Laira had just regained consciousness.

The two imperial princesses were shocked to discover that this sewage-like village was actually the human settlement they’d only read about in textbooks.

But even more shocking was the fact before them.

The human claiming to be their father… no, their father from the past… left them with utterly dumbfounded expressions.

“Th-this is impossible! Father from the past…”

“But… the energy I felt before I was knocked unconscious was definitely Father’s.”

“So you both believe me?”

“It’s not about believing…”

“You’re His Majesty himself, so we have no choice but to believe…”

While talking, Karune was subtly looking for a way to escape this situation.

But knowing the person before her was her father somehow made it impossible to act freely.

Even if she managed to push past her father and escape, this underground village was reportedly 1,000 meters below the surface.

Now she understood why the Empire had never found the humans’ final settlement.

“S-so what are you planning to do?”

“Huh?”

“We’re perceptive enough to understand. The reason you, Father from the past, came here. It’s because of the First Imperial Princess in the current palace, right?”

“First Imperial Princess…?”

“S-Sophia, I mean.”

“!! Sophia! Is she safe? Have you seen her?”

“Well, we are part of the imperial family after all…”

“We have seen her, but…”

They recalled when Sophia was first forcibly brought to the future.

The two described how extraordinary the event had been.

“The entire Empire held the biggest celebration ever!”

“Even the birthdays of siblings with the Han surname or other imperial consorts never caused such excitement.”

“When you—I mean, His Majesty—entered the Empire with her, there was truly an unprecedented roar of cheers.”

“It was that significant…?”

Apparently, all citizens of the Empire came out to bless the new imperial consort and the future version of myself.

However, there was something troubling.

“But there was something strange.”

“Strange?”

“That imperial consort Sophia who entered the palace. She had shackles around her ankles.”

“…What?”

The future children of mine who were closely guarding the imperial consort all saw it.

They witnessed the heavy iron chains between the legs of the First Imperial Consort as she walked gracefully in her white dress.

“Damn it… Sophia!”

I already knew she had been taken by force.

After all, I had witnessed that scene myself until the very end.

But how could the future Han Shinwoo, who is still me, put such restraints on his own woman?

My fists clenched tightly, and I could feel dark energy flowing from my body.

However, I couldn’t lose control and risk revealing our location to him.

So I took a deep breath to calm myself.

“Huff, it’s okay. I’m going to rescue her anyway.”

“Rescue her…?”

“D-don’t tell me you’re planning to storm the palace? Father from the past.”

“Yes. That’s why I came here in the first place.”

I explained my purpose for coming here to my two daughters, who were covered in cold sweat, while simultaneously freeing them from their restraints.

“By the way, did it hurt? If you wanted to, you could have untied these ropes yourselves, but thanks for waiting.”

“N-no, it’s fine…”

“Your Majesty. Are you planning to let us go?”

“No, I want to stay with you two.”

“Stay with us…?”

“Then you could have kept us tied up and dragged us along. Why give us the opportunity to escape?”

“Huh? Well…”

I wondered if this truly qualified as a conversation between daughters and their father.

But since this wasn’t a normal world to begin with, I wasn’t surprised anymore and decided to explain things step by step.

“What kind of father would drag his daughters around tied up?”

“Fa…ther…?”

“Daughters…? A-are you referring to us?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“I-I am deeply honored to be called a daughter by Your Majesty!”

“I will do my utmost to live up to that title!”

That wasn’t quite what I meant…

Upon hearing my words, they abandoned any thoughts of escape and knelt on one knee to pledge their loyalty, as if they had received an incredible gift.

The road ahead seemed long, but there was precedent with Shina.

Before showing them the already-changed imperial princess, I decided to take the two around this underground village as a preview.

“Well then, girls? Shall we go?”

“Y-yes!”

“We will follow you anywhere!”

***

This was before Karune and Laira had even regained consciousness.

Based on information from “someone,” imperial troops who had obtained details about the time machine had almost reached Leon’s group after crossing the fortress walls.

“Listen up, everyone! We’re dealing with a prince who carries the Han surname! Stay alert and prepare for battle!”

“Yes, sir!!”

“I-I never thought we’d receive orders to capture Prince Leon…”

“Ugh… I’ll consider it lucky if we don’t die.”

“But would he really kill us? We’re from the same Empire after all.”

The imperial soldiers.

The humans recreated by Han Shinwoo were either furries with animal-like bodies or monster-human hybrids like Lia—humanoid in form but not quite human in appearance.

With these 100,000 recreated humans, the Empire was formed—the only nation on the current Earth.

And in the brief history of this Empire, Leon was the first prince to betray his father, Han Shinwoo.

News of Leon had spread throughout the Empire, and now the imperial army had brought about 100 elite soldiers beyond the fortress walls to apprehend the prince.

“Everyone! Don’t be too tense. Even though he betrayed us, Brother Leon is still family. He wouldn’t rashly attack his own kin, right?”

“That’s right! No matter how much our brother betrayed us, do you think he’d go so far as to kill his own family?!”

“N-no, Your Highnesses!”

“Sigh… it’s taking forever just to bring back one person.”

“Ugh! Hey! Half-brother! If you’re so annoyed, why don’t you get off?”

“As if you wouldn’t stop me if I actually tried…”

Three imperial family members were leading these elite soldiers, each equivalent to at least B-rank Hunters.

“Mmm~. Even at dawn, the outside world is beautiful.”

Cria, Leon’s sister and the Empire’s fourth child.

“I don’t understand what you find so appealing about this place, sister…”

Cartina, Cria’s younger sister and the Empire’s ninth child.

‘Damn it… I’m already busy taking care of my mother, and now they want me to clean up their mess…’

The Empire’s tenth child, Han Lightree, the first son of the puppet master Riverine who once belonged to the Villain’s Troupe, had been assigned by seniority to capture the first prince of the Han family.

This force, which could have conquered several advanced nations before humanity’s extinction, was now moving to bring back just one person.

Lightree, who had been grumbling about being dragged into family business that wasn’t his own, suddenly became solemn.

“Everyone stop!”

“W-what?!”

“Hey, half-brother… are you really leaving?”

“N-no! Lightree. How can we take on Brother Leon with just the two of us if you’re gone!”

“Damn it, that’s not it! Something enormous other than Prince Leon is coming toward us!”

“Huh…?”

“Toward us?”

It was the crack of dawn.

Even the monsters that had been causing disturbances outside the fortress walls were quietly sleeping.

It was an extremely quiet time, so if someone were approaching, they should have heard something.

“I don’t hear anything…?”

“My mother is Imperial Consort Lia, so our bodies are half monster blood. That means we can see as clearly at night as during the day.”

“That’s right! If even our eyes can’t see anything, then there’s nothing there. Half-brother! Are you lying because you don’t want to go?”

“Hey, you two sisters. Shut up for a bit. I’m trying to pinpoint the location.”

“S-shut up…?”

“How rude! Your manner of speaking! Even though you were born after us!”

Cartina was squawking beside Lightree, who had closed his eyes quietly.

But when Lightree opened his eyes again.

“Above us!”

“Yes, that seems to be the case!”

Criya, who finally noticed, looked up at the night sky illuminated by moonlight.

There, on top of a half-collapsed high-rise building, was a human looking down at the imperial troops moving toward the time machine with a smirk.

“Is that… a human?”

“A h-human?! You mean those things from the books?”

“Wait a moment… I feel like I’ve seen that face somewhere before.”

The leader of the Villain’s Troupe with blood-red eyes and a black coat jumped down toward them.

“C-could it be Katarina?!”

“Katarina… the human that His Majesty personally killed, according to the textbooks?”

“Damn it, it seems Prince Leon has allied himself with something unthinkable.”

“Oh, brother! Has he really gone mad?!”

Suddenly, the three children of Han Shinwoo.

Katarina, who was falling toward Lightree’s head, drew her sword and clashed with the uppercut that was coming up to meet her.

Clang!

The force was truly magnificent.

Even though Katarina hadn’t come with the intention to kill and had held back her strength, she was surprised to find herself pushed back into the air.

And that brief opening was the difference between life and death on the battlefield.

“Cartina!”

“I know, Sister Cria!”

The first and second daughters of Lia jumped up on either side of the defenseless Katarina in mid-air.

They threw chains to each other, quickly binding Katarina.

Then, judging that their opponent couldn’t escape:

“Tear her apart.”

“Understood.”

Crack!

They tore Katarina precisely in half.

Simultaneously.

‘Hmm~ So this is how it feels. Interesting. Then shall I try ‘returning’ now?’

Time rewinds to moments before.