Ch.233Chapter 233. From Cradle to Grave

For the sake of humanity’s survival, his grandfather chose submission, and his father developed an admiration for submission itself…

The heir who would follow them had to accept a life of being someone’s puppet from birth to death.

If only the one assigned to watch over him hadn’t been so capricious.

‘Why do you leave only me intact?’

‘It’s simply a way to pass the time.’

‘A way to pass the time…?’

‘The life of a noble being is terribly dull. To add a little stimulation to such a dull life, I thought it might be nice occasionally to create and observe variables like you.’

Merely for light entertainment, she wanted to create and observe a variable unknown even to her own kind.

Watching with anticipation how a young leader whose sense of self should have been castrated would adapt to and navigate his circumstances.

‘Of course, I can’t guarantee what will happen if others discover that you exist outside of what was predetermined… both my fellow members and other humans.’

He had to bear everything alone.

Though everyone outside the castle accepted him as a great figure, inside the castle he had to spend each day in fear, wary of those who held his leash.

He created doppelgangers with his innate ability and secretly spread them throughout the empire because such a life was arduous.

Out of desperate desire to be freed from his current life, he repeatedly formulated and revised plans based on information gathered from beneath the surface.

Simply because he wanted to be free.

Because he wanted to feel freedom, even just once.

‘Humans are beings who cannot survive unless they become someone’s slave.’

But his father, through long years of obedience, had even awakened a longing for a life bound to someone.

It wasn’t just because he was enchanted by them, but because he knew the environment surrounding him was precarious.

Because if he didn’t submit to them, only destruction awaited.

Corrupt leaders who only sought to usurp power despite impending disasters. The anger and madness of the masses gradually rising as they succumbed to exploitation…

For a leader obligated to protect the last hope, it was impossible to withstand the obvious prediction that society’s framework would collapse at the slightest trigger.

‘I must find the cause.’

So he sought to find the fundamental problem that led to this situation.

He wanted to know why humanity submitted to them, and why humanity faced a crisis of division.

‘…Calamity.’

He soon discovered the reason.

The harsh truth that it wasn’t just humanity’s problem of being too eager to fight each other, but that the balance of this world itself was already broken.

‘As long as the calamity doesn’t disappear, freedom doesn’t exist.’

Monsters born from twisted environments, the dead rising from graves, and invaders from other dimensions…

It’s impossible for humans to drive them away, but if they borrow the power of non-human beings, there might be a possibility.

‘Outer gods…’

Beings who might be the origin point of the calamities befalling this world.

But precisely because they have such influence, resolving the problem might only be possible by borrowing their hands.

If he could control them even a little…

If he could borrow their power to completely eradicate the calamities disrupting this world, beyond mere intervention…

‘Summoning them is the only way I can be liberated.’

The extinction of humanity is ultimately just a matter of sooner or later.

Then rather than waiting, he would hasten that time, but create a situation he could somewhat control to save at least a small number of people.

If that was the only way to maintain humanity as a species and grasp his own freedom…

‘…It is not we who should lead the era.’

But he would never set foot in such a future.

He foresaw such a future when he finally managed to capture a variable that emerged during his preparation.

‘You probably think this: when the age of nothingness comes, you should be the one to lead those who remain, as the one who made the plan.’

Though called a variable, they shared the same roots, and he too had the same ideals as himself.

Even establishing a revolutionary organization wasn’t to change the empire, but to save people in the coming era…

Though their methods differed, their purpose was clearly the same.

‘You know, don’t you? No matter how much we long for freedom, once we act with our own will rather than someone’s coercion, we must bear that responsibility.’

But how could a choice to sacrifice the many to save the few ever be respected?

Even if that was the only way to avoid total catastrophe, who would make the instigator of such actions the central figure in rebuilding society?

‘Both you, and I who share your roots… from the moment we decided to execute this, we can never grasp freedom in the world that follows.’

Yes, what he intended to do was to drive many people to their deaths for his own freedom.

Though it might come eventually anyway, by determining that timing himself, the responsibility would clearly become his shackle.

‘Then have you found a protagonist to lead the era in place of me who will bear the responsibility?’

‘Isn’t it clear that it has escaped your control?’

His doppelganger who chose to give up the opportunity to become an idol and instead elevate another’s reputation.

And another self who dreamed of the same ideals as him.

‘Orion Seis. My true self. Our places are prepared in the deepest part of hell.’

Before that being disappeared, absorbed into himself, he conveyed one final realization gained from escaping his control.

‘Surely, being buried there will be painful… but if we choose to enter by our own will, wouldn’t that final moment at least contain freedom?’

Freedom as a complete villain rather than an unstable idol…

Though he could enjoy it for only a moment, he thought it might be more liberating.

If he entrusted his mission to another, he wouldn’t be swayed by responsibility or fear.

If he could be satisfied with just the final choice of his life.

If he embraced all sins himself and accepted his own will to disappear without a trace along with the destruction that would descend upon this land.

“I know better than anyone that I don’t deserve such a thing.”

How could someone who had made such a resolution be allowed beautiful relationships like friendship?

Seis, who had endlessly muttered words containing such sentiments, grasped the limp hand on the bed and swallowed his bitterness.

Just watching over his father’s deathbed until the very end.

Feeling that the only freedom granted to him was to witness the moment this land perished.

-Crash!

But at that moment, the collapse of space began.

Debris burst from the collapsed outer wall onto the bed, mercilessly crushing the corpse whose hand he had been holding just moments ago.

Blood and flesh exploded in all directions.

And through it all, a massive shadow appeared.

“You, youuu…”

What broke through the collapsed outer wall into the bedchamber was a being once called a Hero.

But by now, his body was as broken as the monstrosities rampaging throughout the empire.

“What the hell did you do to our bodies!”

Yet barely holding onto his sanity, the former Hero appeared before him, burning with hatred.

Facing him, Seis spoke in an emotionless voice.

“I didn’t force anyone. Wasn’t it your choice to pursue power?”

It was necessary.

To gather those who spread malice without hesitation while pursuing power and authority even in such a world, and to use them as bait to draw in calamity for mutual destruction.

“Shut up! Everyone who followed your words turned into monsters! Monsters!!!”

Though he belatedly realized he had been manipulated, his body had already collapsed, unable to maintain balance.

Even his barely maintained sanity was being devoured by madness, and finally, only vengeance toward the mastermind of all this burst from his mouth.

“I’ll kill youuuu!!”

That was the end of an otherworlder led by someone’s selfishness.

A miserable end for one who was blinded by the authority elevated in false peace and pursued power until the end.

“…This too must be the karma I have to bear.”

Though that hatred was aimed at him, he silently prepared to face that malice alone.

Even if he hadn’t personally initiated bringing them into this world.

He knew that bearing all the sins this country had committed was the price for the freedom he sought at the end.

****

Inside the imperial palace, which had collapsed miserably as time passed.

A vampire traversing the barely standing structure swung her hand violently toward a mass of monstrosities blocking her path.

-Crack!

The angel shattered into pieces with the violent burst of magical power.

The vampire, moving with tattered steps through the opened path, clutched her empty chest and smiled faintly.

“This… becoming such a miserable state might be the first time in my life.”

Her heart, the source of regeneration, had been completely ripped out, burned to ashes, and disappeared.

Though she managed to escape the scene, it was obvious her body, barely holding together, wouldn’t last long.

As even her innate vitality was lost, her precariously maintained body would soon collapse.

“Your Highness… are you alive?”

The vampire, sensing her end, headed to a place filled with countless corpses.

After removing them one by one, she finally found the one she was looking for.

“…Hehe, it seems you’re sound asleep.”

Eyes emptier than usual. And skin drained of blood.

The vampire placed her hand on his head and murmured softly through lips seeping with blood.

“I wonder why. Knowing it was the end, I wanted to see your face.”

If she hadn’t come here and had accepted death, she wouldn’t have had to endure this pain by prolonging her life.

Yet in this moment of clinging to life so pitifully, how could there be a feeling of satisfaction in her empty chest?

“…It must be because staying by your side is the most fitting thing for what I desire.”

Yes, she had always been bored.

Being a great being, nobility—all that was just superficial.

Living eternally, her life was filled with tedium, which led her to pursue more stimulating things.

She chose suffering as her aesthetic in pursuit of such stimulation.

Only when experiencing the most painful, miserable, and agonizing things did she feel vitality in this empty life.

“Being by your side—the most miserable leader in this world—is the most fitting act of suffering.”

Meeting the leader before her was considered the greatest fortune for someone like her.

The position of heir to a country destined for destruction, and days spent carrying worries that couldn’t be shared with anyone.

Yet serving someone who chose to destroy the world they lived in rather than give up freedom, and who wanted to embrace all the sins arising from that, was the most miserable thing of all.

“You, so stubborn, righteous, weak, and infinitely pitiful…”

He must surely resent her for providing the catalyst for such an end.

Nevertheless, she wanted to accept that too, and pressed her blood-soaked lips to the head in her hands.

“I truly thought you were lovable.”

If she had a heart, wouldn’t it be beating most strongly at this moment?

With such a vague thought, she finally laid down at the collapsed site, embracing the head in her arms.

“I’d like to sing you a lullaby like before… but coincidentally, I’m too tired, so it seems difficult.”

What came to mind in her gradually fading consciousness were memories of the past.

Recalling that moment, the woman drew a faint smile on her lips and held the head in her arms more firmly.

“But don’t worry. Even someone like me can stay by your side until you wake up…”

Remembering when she held the child’s delicate body like a warm cradle.

To become a tomb embracing her cooling lord.

“…Sleep well, Your Highness.”

Recalling the birth of the most miserable leader in this world.

To comfort, even if alone, the final emptiness that followed.

*****

-Crash.

At the highest level of the imperial palace.

As soon as I arrived, a thunderous sound made me reflexively look up.

In a place without even a ceiling to block my view, I saw a sky filled with dark clouds.

Through the occasional cracks visible between them, flashes like lightning burst forth, repeatedly making the sky rumble.

-Crash, CRASH!!!

Something is about to happen.

I can feel that time is approaching right before us.

“So you came after all.”

I knew even before coming here that this was the result desired by the owner of the voice I now hear.

That this was the result wanted by the woman welcoming me with her back turned, standing in the ritual site at the highest point of this land.

“…Irie.”

Yet why did I set foot here?

Despite knowing she bears more responsibility than anyone for the greater good, why did I come here… just to say an unfinished farewell?

“Let’s go back.”

Before I could answer that, what came out was a desire from my unconscious that I myself hadn’t realized.

“Let’s go back together. To where everyone is…”

It was evidence that I too, no different from the Crown Prince, could only pursue selfishness over the greater good.

Proof that I was just a human, not a hero.