Ch.148Chapter 148. Orion Seis

The Leader of the Empire’s most formidable rebel faction has been subdued by the Hero’s hand…

While the immediate consequences remain uncertain, one could surmise that the Imperial Court would not take this situation lightly.

Eliminating the greatest threat to the leadership would certainly be considered a fortunate turn of events for them.

“…Hero Hyoseong Woo.”

About a week after the resolution of this incident.

I found myself once again in the audience chamber, facing the Crown Prince—the true power behind the current Empire—who had summoned me.

The number of guards and retainers surrounding him was several times greater than before, indicating just how momentous this occasion was.

“I heard you played a decisive role in capturing the rebel leader.”

“It wasn’t an achievement I accomplished alone. I happened to be near the person he was targeting, and it was the result of everyone working together to protect the Imperial Court.”

“You’re too modest, as always. Given your abilities and accomplishments, you could afford to showcase yourself more.”

I tried to face him with the utmost courtesy as his gruff voice came from behind the mask.

No matter how many times I considered it, I didn’t feel like I belonged in such a setting, but the situation had already unfolded.

I needed to approach the current circumstances proactively, if only to understand Byeongbin Park’s intentions.

“Have confidence. I can say that there is no one left in this Empire who would doubt your abilities—abilities that protected even me and His Majesty…”

“…Thank you for your high praise, but may I ask one question?”

However, regardless of his intentions, the price would certainly not be light.

To resolve this doubt, I asked a question, and Prince Seis graciously permitted me to do so.

“Go ahead.”

“Bi… What will happen to the Leader of Nihil whom I captured?”

“We plan to execute him publicly on a set date and display his severed head at the Imperial Palace. Those who rebel must be dealt with severely.”

The answer was as I expected.

I’m sure Byeongbin Park thought the same.

“As it happens, my succession ceremony is scheduled to take place in a few months, so using the Empire’s most vicious enemy as a sacrifice would be symbolically appropriate for ushering in a new era. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes… your words are most wise.”

The fate of a traitor is never honorable, and they are typically recorded in history as objects of ridicule.

Yet he chose to destroy everything he had built and entrust everything to me—someone who refused to join him on his path.

“That’s the natural outcome, I suppose.”

…Damn you, is this really what satisfies you?

Throwing away your life and everything you’ve accomplished for reasons you never properly explained to me—is this really the best choice you could make?

“Are you not pleased?”

As my body trembled with vague regret, Prince Seis casually spoke up.

I stiffened in surprise, feeling his gaze intensify noticeably from behind the mask.

“You seem unsettled by my words. Perhaps you sympathize with the traitor you captured with your own hands?”

“That’s not it. It’s just Vi…”

“…Vi?”

“Vi, I’m worried about Vivian. I haven’t seen her since that day.”

Fearing my true feelings might be exposed, I mentioned Vivian instead.

Until now, I’d been so focused on him that I’d momentarily forgotten, but Vivian’s well-being was equally important.

“Rest assured, she is safe.”

The Prince relaxed his scrutinizing gaze.

His subsequent dry voice conveyed that his generosity toward me had returned.

“However, since she was directly attacked, she must be thoroughly protected in an isolated location for the time being. I trust that you, knowing her role, will understand this necessity.”

“Ah, yes. That much…”

Indeed, regardless of her attachment to me, after her safety was compromised, they couldn’t carelessly allow her contact with the outside world.

But perhaps that’s for the best right now.

“It’s all thanks to you.”

Orion Seis cut off my thoughts with those words.

His characteristic resolute attitude felt like he was driving home the finality of the current situation.

“Driving away humanity’s despair and protecting humanity’s hope—all of it is your achievement. If this fact were announced to the public, your status could certainly rise to equal mine or even beyond.”

Like that guy, he too seemed to want me to rise above being just an ordinary Hero.

“The appearance of someone like you before me must surely be the result of Lady Friga’s guidance.”

“…Thank you for your high praise, Your Highness.”

But should I really accept this?

Despite my dissatisfaction with being a Hero, I had only just shed that label.

Should I really reach out for this opportunity, viewing the current flow as a chance?

“…Well, let’s conclude the official discussion here.”

As my heart began to pound more intensely with anxiety, Prince Seis, having already announced my treatment and commendation to his retainers—though I hadn’t caught the details—was now raising his hand slightly.

To send me back, having completed my business…

“I have personal matters to discuss with him, so the rest of you may withdraw.”

No, to send away the surrounding retainers, except for me.

“Withdraw, Your Highness? What do you mean…”

“I dislike repeating myself. Everyone withdraw. No exceptions for the guard knights.”

His loyal subjects expressed dismay, but the Prince responded to them with a cold voice.

“Do you doubt that the benefactor of His Majesty and myself, the hero who saved our nation, would harm me?”

How dare you question my trust without knowing your place.

The retainers and soldiers who received this displeasure face-to-face glanced at each other before bowing their heads and beginning to withdraw one by one.

While there was some hesitation in their actions, none ultimately disobeyed.

After the crowd that had filled the spacious audience chamber disappeared, only emptiness remained.

“Raise your head and stand. There’s no need for formalities in this setting.”

The Prince, now the only one remaining with me in this empty space, rose from the imperial throne and began descending the steps.

None other than the leader of the Empire.

When this figure—the pinnacle of humanity and the one responsible for summoning otherworlders like me to this world—stood at eye level with me:

“Hero Hyoseong Woo. Do you know why I arranged this private meeting with you?”

“…I’m not sure.”

“You’ve proven your loyalty to the Empire, so I want to treat you accordingly. If I truly want to trust someone, I need to demonstrate that trust through actions, not just in public settings but in private ones as well.”

This made sense logically.

If he truly considered me a national hero through this incident and believed I had risen to his equal… then to foster a genuine relationship, he needed to demonstrate trust by dismissing all his loyal subjects without concern.

“So be glad. I have decided to show my face only to those I can entrust my back to, and you have perfectly fulfilled that condition.”

As if to prove this, Prince Seis gradually raised his hands to his mask.

Yet somehow, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu from his words.

From his statement about showing his face only to those he trusted, to the act of unlocking his mask…

“…Huh?”

And that sense of déjà vu was soon pulled into reality.

The face revealed behind the mask looked incredibly familiar to me.

‘I’ll offer you my neck right here.’

Yes, I knew his face.

Though I had only faced him once, I had replayed the events of that day countless times over the past week, etching it deeply into my mind.

“Your Highness, that, that face…?”

“…There’s nothing particularly special about this face. Except that I’ve inherited the strong bloodline of the imperial family.”

As he said, apart from being a handsome face with a sense of dignity, it wasn’t unusual by this world’s standards.

Unlike me, whose distinctly Asian features clearly marked me as an otherworlder, anyone could tell he was a person of this world.

“But your expression looks as if you’ve seen a ghost…”

The problem was that his facial features were identical to someone who seemed to come from the same world as me.

“What’s going on here. You…”

“Why are you there…?”

How could the rebel and Prince Seis be the same person?

Could this really be happening in reality?

No, could this be another illusion like before, when the succubus cast an aphrodisiac spell on me?

“Don’t misunderstand. It’s not that I was pretending to be a rebel.”

But the cold voice I heard in that moment was pulling me back to reality.

And as soon as I regained my senses, there was a snap of fingers.

With that sound, the space around him distorted, and figures identical to him began to appear.

Not just their faces, but their attire and aura as well—everything was identical, entities that could be called “duplicates.”

“Only our appearances are the same. The current him and I can be considered separate individuals.”

Yes, his ability was to create identical personalities to himself.

Using that power, it would be possible to control someone with the same appearance as himself as a separate individual.

The key question was which one was the original.

Between the person I knew and the Prince Seis before me, which one had orchestrated the current situation and what had been their goal all along?

“How on earth…”

No, before that, there was something else I needed to know.

What he just demonstrated was unlike magic or divine power—it clearly belonged to a category that defied common sense even in this world.

The only way to acquire such power was through summoning otherworlders, and it was common knowledge that the Empire was obsessed with summoning Heroes for this purpose.

“I thought people of this world couldn’t acquire abilities? How could you, a person of this world, have an ability…?”

“I’d like to give you a brief history lesson, if that’s alright?”

Prince Seis prepared to answer my question with a cold voice.

There was no friendliness or goodwill toward me like I had seen in the person I knew.

He merely spoke in a cold, mechanical voice, staring at his conversation partner with empty eyes.

“As I mentioned before, I arranged this private meeting to strengthen our trust relationship. So I’d like to tell you a concise story that will resolve many of your questions…”

“…”

“…If there’s no answer, I’ll take it as agreement.”

It was an autocratic attitude, but I couldn’t possibly challenge him.

His position, the truth, and my confusion—all of these things demanded that I listen to whatever he had to say.

****

“…You probably know this: the beings called calamities began appearing in this world half a century ago.”

The conversation resumed after a long silence had passed.

He continued his explanation while still accompanied by the duplicates he had created, his empty eyes fixed on me.

“But even before the calamities, humanity has always been exposed to crises throughout history. One of these was the war between humans and non-humans… a fierce war waged against beings that were not human.”

Before the calamities came to this world.

And an explanation of what happened before the “Age of Humans” that my other personality, Tachia, had experienced.

“Among such non-humans, the most dangerous were undoubtedly beings called witches.”

Witches.

A being I couldn’t overlook.

After all, I was in this situation because my friend had taken such a being hostage to provoke me.

“You know how dangerous they are, don’t you?”

I had thought that if such a dangerous being loved me and wouldn’t harm me, I should accept them.

“As you know, the danger posed by witches is incomparable to that of the Demon Tribe or the Undead. While their innate abilities easily distort physical laws, the witches who wield them have thoroughly distorted ethical consciousness.”

Prince Seis’s eyes gradually narrowed.

Along with his furrowed brow, it showed that he too was capable of feeling displeasure.

“After winning the war against such witches, when calamities later befell the world, humanity found hope in the remnants they left behind. Do you know what humans did in their desperate search for that hope?”

But what followed wasn’t about witches, but about the humans who encountered their power.

I could immediately guess the outcome.

After all, what stood before me now must be the result of that.

“Integrating a witch’s power into a human… if successful, it could result in a being with personality wielding a witch’s power in the right direction.”

Yet the reason I was only encountering someone like him today wasn’t because everyone in this world could receive such benefits.

Only a select few.

Unlike Heroes who could be endlessly produced, only a limited number of humans in this world could be born with such power.

“…Is that why you summoned otherworlders with Vivian’s ritual? Because the price was too steep for most to pay?”

“Because privileges enjoyed by only a few cannot save everyone.”

That made sense.

It explained why the abilities awakened in people from other worlds originated from beings called witches, and why Vivian, a witch cooperative with humans, was regarded as a higher being than himself.

“One fortunate thing is that the power I awakened as one of those privileged few is perfectly suited for managing groups.”

But what I needed to know right now wasn’t the origin of the abilities awakened in otherworlders, but why the person before me… and the one who had provoked me into choosing captivity… had led me to this position.

“Since I gained full control of this power, I’ve secretly spread my duplicates throughout the Empire. Fearing that their true nature might be discovered, I too wore a mask when appearing in public.”

To explain this, he flicked his finger between his duplicates.

One duplicate began to withdraw from its position, following his direction.

Its cooperative attitude showed none of the humanity I had seen in the person I knew.

“I saw the world from the perspective of citizens, nobles, soldiers, laborers like you, and Heroes. All to formulate plans for leading this country in the right direction when I eventually succeeded to the throne…”

At the end of these mechanical movements, what the duplicate brought was a sword.

As Prince Seis gradually pulled the sword’s handle, he began to reflect his empty eyes on the blue surface of the blade.

“…But for some reason, one of my duplicates began to defy me and rebel against the Empire.”

And with a slash! The Prince’s head was severed by the swinging blade…

No, not the Prince’s, but a duplicate’s.

The duplicate that brought the sword had its head cut off and collapsed to the floor.

Blood gushed from its neck, staining the floor…

Despite being a duplicate, it was different from when that guy created one. Despite the shock, it didn’t explode but remained in place, clearly showing post-mortem convulsions.

“A duplicate never defies the original… my ability is based on that premise.”

Yes, duplicates formed by the original, unlike those formed by other duplicates, are not imperfect and perfectly mimic the original.

And such duplicates never disobey the original’s commands.

That must be an absolute rule in his ability.

“But upon investigation, I found that the duplicate broke free from my control shortly after spending time with you.”

A duplicate derived from himself should never rebel against the original who sought to protect the Empire.

-Thump, thump.

As my heart began to race and a ringing filled my ears, he approached me. As my mind grew dizzy, he looked down at me as I lowered my head, trying to avert my gaze.

“Why did a puppet that broke free from my control after meeting you sacrifice itself for you…”

“What do you think is the reason?”

A question filled with clear hostility—suggesting that my ability might have somehow fractured his ideal governance.