Ch.232Chapter 232. Breaking Off Relations

Now that Garam has left as well, I have to handle everything on my own from now on.

Having Annabelle with me was my only comfort in the middle of enemy territory.

“It’s quiet all around.”

“Yes, and that makes the presence even more distinct.”

The subtle waves emitted by spirits are particularly sensitive to the energy possessed by living beings.

However, the problem is that while detection is possible, it’s impossible to identify the appearance or identity of the person in detail.

“I should go check. It might be Irie.”

There’s a risk it could be a guardian like the vampire I encountered before, but if I was going to avoid such dangers, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place.

Since I need clues, I need to head toward where I sense the presence.

“…You.”

The place I arrived at was a bedroom located on the upper floor of the imperial palace.

In the center was a bed with an old man lying as if dead, but what caught my attention wasn’t the old man but the cloaked man holding his limp hand.

Though his back was turned to me, the man with the familiar blonde hair made me feel a sense of recognition.

“The emperor of this country…”

The voice that followed also felt familiar.

“My father always said that people cannot survive unless they become someone’s slave.”

In that moment of alertness, I gathered mana in my hand, but he continued his story without concern.

“It was a statement that penetrated all hierarchical relationships formed in human society. Employers and workers, gods and believers, leaders who guide countries and their citizens… And also the power behind the throne and puppets.”

The man finally let go of the old man’s hand and rose from his chair.

The green eyes that turned toward me were as empty as the weight in his voice.

“Yes, a group needs an idol. Groups that fail to have such a focal point tend to collapse before long.”

I knew the owner of those eyes.

That’s why I had to sharpen the magical power I gathered in my hand even more.

“But why have you come here?”

“Why have you rejected the path prepared for you and come here instead?”

Crown Prince Orion Seis.

The man who was scheduled to ascend to the emperor’s throne at today’s succession ceremony.

“…Tell me now.”

Finding his rebuke detestable, I pointed the spear I had formed in my hand at him.

“Where is Irie? Right now.”

“Haven’t you heard the circumstances? She also agreed to what’s happening here…”

“You think I’d accept that?!”

The inevitable riot that would occur when the vampires’ control disappeared. A country predicted to be divided by this could not possibly stop disasters like the Demon Lord’s army or the Void Predator.

So to save as many people as possible, they created a refuge, and when people evacuated there, they would use this land as a sacrifice to seek mutual destruction with the disaster…

I understand intellectually that this is the best choice.

I also understand that she reluctantly orchestrated this for the greater good and intends to sacrifice herself as well.

“…Why did you drag me into this and then make decisions on your own?”

But with nothing more than a one-sided notification and not even a proper farewell…

How could I let go of parting with the person I care about most just because it’s unavoidable?

“Why are you making me angry by deciding responsibilities I never wanted on your own…!”

So I need to meet her.

Talk to her, and if possible, persuade her…

“…Hero Hyoseong Woo.”

In front of me who came for that purpose, he quietly gestured to bring out those hiding in the darkness one by one.

“I don’t want to harm you, who should become an idol.”

The crowd wrapped in black cloaks began to focus their attention on me, revealing empty gazes.

When dozens of troops gathered around him, I knew well from fighting similar doppelgangers in the past that their power was not to be taken lightly.

“Nevertheless, if you don’t back down, I too will have to be prepared to crack the idol.”

As those troops were about to charge at me, he began to let out a cold voice.

“Please withdraw from here. You are the era that is about to unfold…”

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

A series of explosions from the weapon I threw to cut off his words.

As his doppelgangers were crushed and splattered blood, I jumped in between them and swung my deployed weapons indiscriminately.

SLASH, CRACK!!

The wind storm raised by my weapons. The doppelgangers falling one by one, being slaughtered.

After cornering the original who was left alone against the wall, I pointed a dagger at his face and threatened him.

“…You seem to be misunderstanding the situation. I’ve broken through things much worse than this to get here. And I know you’re the original.”

I could tell he was the original because the sensation felt through the spirits was clearer.

To show him this wasn’t just bluffing, I pressed the knife against his neck, but he just stared at me calmly without showing any sign of pain.

“I see, it was a losing battle from the moment I faced you.”

With an attitude suggesting he wouldn’t even blink if his throat was cut right here…

Just as I was about to stab him with my dagger in frustration at his reaction, a question I couldn’t ignore leaked from his mouth.

“…What did you do with Vivian?”

“Why would you…”

“You know she’s a being derived from my ability, right?”

A trembling hand.

And a violently beating heart.

I tried to hold back my rough breathing lest it show, but I couldn’t suppress the cold sweat flowing from my forehead.

“…I see.”

Did he guess her condition just from that reaction?

After that, the prince who brushed aside the dagger pointed at his neck muttered with his head lowered.

“That too is as foreseen.”

“What…?”

“Don’t worry. For me to interfere with a doppelganger, I need to make direct contact with the subject.”

The answer came amid my confusion.

But that too was something I couldn’t understand at all.

“Even from a distance, she would prioritize orders… but since she’s already been enchanted by the curse of oblivion and illusion, the control is completely gone. The current her can be considered a separate individual.”

“Wait, what are you saying…”

“And that would be the same even if I died by your hand here. Just as what has been twisted does not return, a being created through an ability that twists the laws remains in this world even after the user disappears.”

Even if I killed him here, Vivian wouldn’t disappear.

That essentially meant the reason I had held back my weapon was gone.

“…You, didn’t you send her to stop me?”

No, maybe it’s a lie…

To that anxious question, he placed his hand on his neck and answered.

“Her role has already ended with summoning the otherworldly being, and the rest was done by Scheherazade who wanted to protect this place. I have no intention of interfering with that.”

“You call that an answer…”

“But she will be of great help to you as a human who has awakened her abilities as a witch. Especially since she only remembers you and only follows you.”

Step, step.

The man narrowed the distance that I had backed away from.

His eyes were tinged with a complicated color that made it impossible to think he had just been threatened for his life.

“…So won’t you be satisfied with taking her with you?”

But what came out of his mouth was a plea that felt earnest.

It was enough to make me realize that he was not a machine or an incomprehensible transcendent being, but a human being I could understand.

“Why on earth…”

Having realized this, I became even angrier.

“Why did you do this?”

What I had been avoiding all along…

I even felt betrayed by the individual known as Prince Seis whom I had accepted.

“Did you have to destroy everything to feel better?! Was there really no other way?!”

“Are you curious about the reason now? For you, I should be someone whose throat you could cut and move on from…”

“Shut up and tell me! Why did you do such a thing?!”

I grabbed his collar, even throwing away my dagger.

I know that alone isn’t threatening, but how could I remain calm in this situation?

He has the same face as the guy I cared about.

Knowing that their roots are the same, how could I regard him as just another murderer?

“…I thought you had accepted that a doppelganger and its original with broken connections are separate entities, given your acceptance of Vivian’s existence.”

The prince who rebuked me like that quietly closed his eyes while his collar was still grabbed.

The answer came after some time had passed.

“…Do you know?”

What followed would be the story of what triggered him to cause all this.

“When countries fighting for hegemony were falling one by one… Do you know the feelings of my grandfather who had to bow his head to heteromorphic beings just to maintain the framework of the country?”

“…”

“Do you know? The feelings of my father who, despite having to succeed the country after my grandfather, eventually resigned himself to the reality that he could only live as someone’s puppet.”

Prince Seis turned to look at the old man lying in the bedroom, turning his gaze away from me who remained silent.

I didn’t know what emotion was contained in that gaze.

Whether it was sadness or resentment…

Because I knew nothing about it, I couldn’t answer his question about whether I could understand his feelings.

“…Do you know?”

He spoke to me, who was ignorant.

“The feelings of an heir who was born in a world where everything goes according to someone else’s will and had to grow up without knowing anything… The feelings of discovering that the world he knew was broken when his self, which should have been castrated at someone’s whim, remained intact?”

His life up until now.

By telling me fragments of it, he wanted to ask if I could understand it as a fellow human.

“It was something I couldn’t share with anyone. Just thinking for myself and accepting it myself was the only approach allowed.”

Could one truly accept the reality that from birth, one’s environment was created by someone else, and even those one loved had submitted to someone?

“And because I had a self, I could know. That even if those who held my leash disappeared, what awaited in their place was only destruction like now.”

Unlike his grandfather and father who lost their selves and became servants, he had to accept the situation with his intact self.

The reality of not being able to take pride in a bloodline that should have glory and history.

That even if the beings who caused this were driven away, what awaited was a future where the predicted division would accelerate.

“Then should I just quietly wait for such a future?”

It’s natural to feel disgusted by such a reality.

Since there was no answer anywhere he went, he might have thought it would be better to die.

“Even if I were to escape from slavery, should I conform to that fate because the situation is not favorable?”

Yet he was alive.

In the process of accepting with his own will a reality that didn’t go as intended, he wanted to achieve a purpose born from that resentment.

“…I wanted freedom.”

The desire created at the end of that was precisely the reason he caused all this.

“Since nothing ever went as I wished, I wanted to resist the fate I had to follow with my own will, at least at the end.”

Despairing at the cruel fate of not being able to obtain freedom despite having a self, and hating the disasters that bestowed such a fate.

He developed the goal of collapsing that world even if it meant bringing in outer gods.

THUD!!!

It’s something I can understand.

I too have thought more than once about hating the world and wanting to smash everything in sight when faced with a reality where no answer is visible.

“…Are you saying I should sympathize with that?”

But while I could understand, I couldn’t sympathize.

Because this world isn’t kind enough for actions to be justified just because there’s a reason.

“Not for some greater good or anything… You just felt suffocated living your own life, so you caused all this on your own without telling anyone because of your independent choice…!”

It was he who hastened the time of destruction without giving time for mental preparation, not the outer gods or the Demon Lord’s army.

Even if the country was destined to perish someday, the one who hastened that time was none other than him.

Not telling anyone, deciding on his own, and making everyone bear the responsibility…

Isn’t that just a selfish action done to relieve one’s own frustration?

“Yes, I did this for such a selfish reason. Just like you.”

Yet he brazenly faced me and said it.

Disregarding the pain of his slapped cheek, he was trying to claim that I too was a being like him.

“What are you…”

“Knowing that many people rely on you, yet rejecting that position and coming here for your own selfishness… In the sense that we both betrayed the greater good for our own will, aren’t you the same as me?”

Crunch!

Teeth grinding in anger.

Along with that, I tried to raise my fist, but in the end, that fist didn’t strike his face again.

Because I too was aware.

I was aware that even now, I was ignoring people outside who were asking for help, and had come all this way to protect just one person precious to me.

“…At least I don’t destroy with my own hands what I can protect.”

But what am I supposed to do?

I too am just one human being like those people asking for help.

Just a human who wants to cry when it hurts, rest when tired, and hold the hand of a loved one when they’re about to leave.

“I just wanted the people around me to not leave. But why…”

Yet if I try desperately, I only wish for a modest hope…

I only wish to live with the people I love, so why can’t this world just let people like me live comfortably?

“Why are you forcing this fate on me too? Why…”

Damn this world. Damn this fate.

What sin did I commit?

What did we do wrong to be played around with by such terrible things?

“…The ritual site at the top of the imperial palace.”

A voice continued as I felt my throat tightening with such lamentations.

Responding and raising my head, I saw that he had already turned his back to me and was trying to take a seat in the chair he had been sitting in before.

“She is preparing the ritual there, so go there. I can neither stop nor persuade you anyway.”

“…You.”

“But you will have to return. The prophet that she is, she will know you’re coming and will have prepared means to send you back.”

Is that resignation?

Or is he cursing me for not playing along with his intentions?

“You may go now. I must continue to watch over His Majesty’s final moments.”

Either way, his gaze was already fixed on the old man’s corpse lying in the bedroom.

After silently staring at that sight, I finally turned my back on the spot and prepared to head to the place he mentioned.

At least I didn’t think he would lie after coming this far.

“…Orion Seis.”

Although the original and the doppelganger are separate, if their foundation is the same…

Thinking that some of what my trusted friend had shown must remain in him as well…

“I truly thought I could be friends with you.”

But since that too is just a possibility, it’s impossible to fully accept him.

With that realization and prepared to sever the connection, I prepared to silently move toward the destination he mentioned.

“Don’t you know better than anyone that I don’t deserve such a thing?”

Faintly heard from behind.

While deliberately ignoring the infinitely lonely voice.