Ch.225Though it may be hard to believe, it is the truth.

Chapter 225: Hard to Believe, But It’s the Truth

When the story ended.

Warp travel, interstellar journeys, and casual orbital bombardments.

Hyperspace jump routes that allow fleets to move naturally regardless of their size.

All sorts of bizarre space monsters, including those that get stuck in jump routes.

Even by the standards of this SF world filled with all these elements…

Perhaps because it was full of such far-fetched tales about parallel worlds and whatnot.

Artraia and Samiya’s faces were filled with expressions of utter disbelief and astonishment.

If it hadn’t been Riel and me who brought this up, they probably wouldn’t have even listened and might have ruthlessly purged us for wasting their time with nonsense.

While those two might show some deredere behavior, that only applies when they’re in front of me.

Their public personas are clearly far from that.

One rules as the sole emperor of a theocracy.

The other is the leader of a military dictatorship who completed internal purges without shedding a tear.

‘Ah, thinking about it now, I’m in a more dangerous position than I thought.’

Though it probably wouldn’t happen, if I were to carelessly cheat on them…

———————

“See, there’s nothing inside.”

“Arto, from now on, we’ll be together forever.”

———————–

A vision flashing through my mind…

For some reason, I had to feel a chill as my mind replayed a scene where I was left with just my head, sitting in a small boat with Artraia or Samiya.

But since I couldn’t dwell on these thoughts forever.

‘Ahem, I keep getting distracted.’

I shook my head to clear my thoughts.

Then I nodded toward the two women who still wore incredulous expressions and said:

“Hard to believe, but it’s all true.”

I spoke with much more strength and conviction than before, having fully recovered while telling the story.

But the two women only showed complicated expressions.

Was it because they still couldn’t believe what I was saying?

Or perhaps the system didn’t like the way I was speaking?

-Ding♪

[Pause]

Right after I said those words.

With the familiar notification sound, the world froze once again.

A new event message appeared before my eyes.

[Quest: Suspected Mental Instability]

[Artraia and Samiya, after hearing your story, are not taking it seriously.]

[They suspect that while your body has recovered, your mind might not be fully sound yet due to their intense squeezing.]

[If you don’t dispel their doubts quickly, you’ll be seen as someone who tells lies in front of the leaders of two nations.]

[Succeed in persuading Artraia and Samiya.]

[Reward: Friendship +10, Possibility of acquiring a positive trait]

‘…’

Is this damn system claiming that these two women think I’m crazy?

From my perspective, it was frustrating enough to drive me mad…

But thinking about it a bit, it was actually quite reasonable.

Although the First Emperor was actually some unknown entity born tens of millions of years ago, the very one who ruined various empires while traversing parallel worlds.

And this time he descended into our universe tens of thousands of years ago in ancient times.

Which happened to be when the Pioneer Empire and the lost ancient civilizations were active.

This being, who had conquered numerous parallel worlds, became an incel with anger management issues.

And the first nation that spawned in this universe with him happened to be filled with people who thought and acted just like him.

The ancient civilization of Baltium, which had judged the universe to be virtual reality.

He became the greatest scientist in Baltium and created the now incomprehensible “Reality Piercer” (lost) and “Dimensional Fission Bomb” (missing).

The creator and Baltium caused a massive galactic war that involved not only the Eternia Holy Empire at its peak.

But also the Ten-Ron Guardians, who now remain uninvolved in any affairs like natural formations, but back then participated as the Ten-Ron Federation.

They were defeated, leading to Baltium’s downfall.

Yet he alone survived and successfully evaded Eternia’s pursuit squad for a long time.

Eventually, he ended up marrying the captain of that pursuit squad.

“I will restrain him!”

“Really?”

That captain, who was actually Eternia royalty, functioned as an empress and restraint for the First Emperor, preventing the madman from doing crazy things.

The place the First Emperor chose to live happily with his empress was the backward western galaxy, where only primitive civilizations existed.

At the very edge of a galactic arm was a primitive planet…

Which is right here, Ka’Zan, now functioning as the great capital of the Holy Sebelli Empire.

And after living happily together for thousands of years like in a pure love story.

Just as the empire was taking its first steps as an interstellar nation.

The empress died while giving birth to Artraia.

As a result, the only restraint that suppressed the First Emperor’s dark side disappeared.

The First Emperor underwent a dark evolution and became a “sponsor” who secretly deployed the Holy Sebelli Empire’s fleet to save Prosnack, which was facing extinction despite its considerable potential due to diplomatic failures.

Afterward, to fully utilize Prosnack and remove Eternia’s watchful eye.

He faked his death as if he couldn’t overcome the sorrow of his empress’s death.

He infiltrated Prosnack, manipulating them from within.

Finally, he recently revealed his true colors by imprisoning Prosnack’s supreme commander and disguising himself as the commander.

After destroying Eternia’s vassal, the Kerzin Federation.

He now plans to directly attack Eternia!!!

…If I said all that, honestly, even I wouldn’t believe it.

Who would believe such things if I just babbled them all out?

Setting aside the fact that I myself didn’t know about any of this until recently.

Even if someone told me, how could I believe such an insane story?

‘That wasn’t in the setting book…’

To be frank, if the First Emperor himself hadn’t possessed Riel and chatted with me, I would have dismissed it as nonsense too.

So I could certainly tolerate their ambiguous reactions.

‘Still, actually experiencing it face-to-face gives me an indescribable feeling.’

Of course, while telling all this, I omitted the fact that Riel was a humanoid.

Her headset antenna was perceived as just a fashion choice.

Moreover, it was detachable, and underneath were normal elongated Sebellian ears.

Since I had been referring to her as a person (Sebellian) all along.

There was no need to reveal Riel’s true identity.

Anyway, while I nodded inwardly at the thought that it was natural for them not to believe me.

Separately, I couldn’t help feeling a bit frustrated.

‘I understand, but it’s sad that they react like this.’

Since my own persuasiveness was the most important factor in convincing them.

After releasing the pause.

I proceeded to persuade these two intelligent people with extreme dedication, repeatedly using the pause function.

Of course, they wouldn’t be moved by words alone.

“Artraia, what would it take for you to believe me?”

“…Honestly, no matter what you say, it’s hard to believe such a far-fetched story…”

Faced with their still ambiguous attitudes, I decided to play my final card.

“If you believe me, for about a week afterward…”

“Alright, that’s enough.”

The moment they heard this, their expressions changed instantly.

“We absolutely believe everything you say, Arto.”

“That’s right, how much in this world would be worth believing if we didn’t believe Arto-san?”

“…”

Looking at them, I truly understood why they say one action is worth more than a thousand words.