You Crossed a Line That Shouldn’t Be Crossed 2

‘I don’t want to die!’

William didn’t want to die.

He desperately wanted to live.

Life was too sweet to die now.

William, who had never experienced hardship or much pain, saw those things as merely stories of others.

People who suffered because of him.

People who endured all kinds of pain because of him.

He didn’t care at all what harm came to them. He wasn’t even interested.

And that remained true even now.

‘W-why am I in this state?’

William considered himself a special being.

In fact, since he was old enough to be self-aware, he had been revered as the <Chosen One> and was special, so he had never once equated himself with others.

Others had to sacrifice for him.

They should even consider it an honor to suffer for his sake.

“All the assassins you sent have been transported to the Arcan Empire. There, they’re experiencing the rare opportunity of making their useless lives useful for the first time as they endure the full course of torture prepared by the Arcan Empire’s royal family.”

Theodore spoke in such a calm tone that it felt even more terrifying to William who was listening.

“In time slowed to one-thousandth of normal, no one would know what I might do to you. What if I dragged you far away and killed you?”

William got goosebumps at Theodore’s words.

If that happened?

No one would know he had been killed!

No one would know who the culprit was!

“Or I could throw your corpse into the river, and you’d just be treated as missing. From a global perspective, it would simply be disposing of a piece of filth in the river.”

Feeling the terror of death at Theodore’s words, William abandoned his pride and begged for his life pathetically.

“Theodore Skyroad, please spare me! I’m the heir of House Artin! Y-yes! If you spare me, I’ll give you a massive reward!”

William’s appearance now was utterly disgraceful.

Theodore remained silent, still stepping on him, perhaps contemplating why someone who looked like him and shared his blood could be so base.

William Artin, revered as the Chosen One in the Britannia Empire, had grown up to be such a mess.

“Theodore, please spare me!”

Perhaps taking the silence as a possibility, William continued to beg for his life, calling him Theodore rather than Theodore.

This implied that even in this situation, he was denying Theodore’s existence as Theodore, and also denying the fact that he was the Chosen One.

“Originally, I would have just ended this with a warning. Sending assassins was a foolish act, the work of a complete amateur, but I had predicted it. The ugly struggle of filth jealous of the sun’s brilliance was obvious.”

Then Theodore bent down, grabbed William’s hair, and forcibly pulled it.

William screamed in pain.

“ARGH!”

“But, William. While I commend you for crossing the line on the first day, you must pay the price.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Yuria Arsein.”

When Yuria Arsein’s name came from Theodore’s lips, William felt a chill run down his spine along with terror. Then he remembered that his orders weren’t just to kill Theodore.

“That woman turned out to be quite impressive, you see. Your big brother has become a bit troubled. To think that even after I drew such a clear line, she would unexpectedly come in and shake me up. She truly was an impressive woman who exceeded my expectations.”

And Theodore’s hand began to apply more pressure.

“AAAAAH!”

In pain as if his hair was being pulled out by the roots, and in fear that if pulled any harder his neck might break, William screamed and then begged for his life again.

“S-stop! I was wrong! Spare me! Spare me!”

Theodore released his head. And as he removed his foot from William’s back and stepped aside, William quickly got up.

“Ugh!”

William, who nearly wet himself from the fear of death, looked like he wanted to run away.

‘I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.’

He was filled only with the terror of not wanting to die.

At least for this moment, he had forgotten about his plans to eliminate Theodore Skyroad… Theodore Artin, and he couldn’t even think about his lustful desires toward Yuria Arsein.

His mind was filled only with the thought that he needed to survive somehow.

“Pick up the weapon.”

Theodore took out a sword and threw it in front of him.

“Huh?”

“Pick up the weapon, William. If you want to live, you’d better pick up the weapon.”

At Theodore’s warning, William hastily grabbed the weapon. Raising the sword, he took a seemingly proper stance. Though he had trained half-heartedly, he was skilled enough to have reached second place in the first year of the Swordsmanship Department at Minst Academy without much effort.

For this reason, some in society evaluated him as having unfair talent, but William had only grown more arrogant, thinking this talent was natural for him as the Chosen One.

‘Damn, I should have trained more.’

For the first time in his life, he regretted not having trained harder.

“Now struggle as hard as you can to survive.”

“W-what? W-wait! Wait!”

As soon as Theodore finished speaking, William urgently told him to wait, but Theodore’s form disappeared.

“W-where are you? Where did you disappear to… AAAAAGH!”

William screamed as blood suddenly spurted from his shoulder and he felt a stinging pain.

Since no one had been able to inflict wounds on his body, which was revered as that of the Chosen One, William cried out in great pain.

“It’s time to pay the price for crossing the line, William.”

With Theodore’s cold words, he appeared in front of him again.

“Ugh, T-Theodore! Wait, what do you want…”

William tried to ask what he wanted while pressing his wound with his hand, but he felt something strike his face.

“GACK!”

It wasn’t a fist.

It was as if something invisible had taken form and struck his face.

It wasn’t strong enough to crack his skull, but it hurt as much as being punched in the face, and his nose broke, causing a nosebleed.

“If you want to live, you’d better do your best. Fake Chosen One, William.”

At the word “fake,” William felt his blood run cold.

‘I’m a fake?’

A truth that he intellectually understood but could not possibly accept.

In a panic from the fear of death, when he thought of himself as not being the Chosen One, he gritted his teeth and began to struggle desperately.

“AAAAH! I am the Chosen One! I am the Chosen One! I am the real Chosen One!”

William jumped up and frantically swung his sword in all directions, but Theodore’s form had long since disappeared, and he had no idea where or how he would attack next.

‘Damn it, what principle is this?’

He couldn’t tell if it was swordsmanship, magic, or some other special ability.

Just by the fact that he had trapped him in time flowing at one-thousandth of normal speed, there was a good possibility that he had another terrifying power.

Like a true Chosen One…

‘No! I am the Chosen One! I am the Chosen One!’

Denying the thought that had emerged in his mind, William swung his sword frantically.

“AAAAH! AAAAGH!”

But his roars soon turned into screams.

Invisible attacks began to leave countless sword wounds on his legs, calves, sides, and wrists, following the one on his shoulder.

“AAAARGH!”

In that pain, William dropped his sword and collapsed, screaming from the pain all over his body.

“AAAAAH! I can’t die! Save me! Please save me! F*ck!”

Covered in tears and snot, he collapsed disgracefully on the ground, begging for his life.

“As expected, you’re as disgusting as filth, William.”

And as Theodore reappeared, looking down at him with the most arrogant eyes, William, even in his terror, denied reality.

‘This is impossible! He looks down at me with such eyes? I, I am the Chosen One! This is wrong! All of this is wrong!’

Theodore (Theodore) looking down at him arrogantly.

And conversely, William himself, collapsed pathetically, shedding tears and snot while begging for his life.

When he became aware of this situation, he couldn’t accept this reality, and his mind became twisted, leaving him doing nothing but crying in pain.

In the midst of terrible pain and fear, he was not in his right mind.

Toward him, who had fallen into panic and was unable to make rational judgments, Theodore’s cold voice pierced.

“That level is exactly what suits you. Foolish William. This is the price for crossing a line that shouldn’t be crossed. I could cut off your limbs and kill you right now without any problem, right?”

“N-no! Spare me! I-I’ll never do this again, so please spare me!”

Theodore coldly mocked William, who was pathetically begging for his life.

“Really? Then I might spare you.”

---

“R-really? N-no! Please spare me! Please! Then I will never forget your grace. Sob!”

William was pathetically begging for his life.

Seeing his twin who had the same face as him, Theodore could truly realize how broken a human he was.

‘The fake Chosen One. However, being born as my twin, the Chosen One, his talent is certainly there.’

Theodore could tell that although William’s talent didn’t match his own, it was still outstanding to the point where it would be hard to find a comparison, except for himself.

This was evident from the fact that he had maintained second place in the Swordsmanship Department during his first year at Minst Academy, despite not making any effort and just learning swordsmanship lazily and half-heartedly.

In fact, he had the talent to soar even higher than mere second place.

“William Artin. You definitely had potential. Though not as much as me, who shines brilliantly like the sun above the clouds as the Chosen One, you had talent that could be evaluated as standing right above the clouds. But you were so blinded by ugly stubbornness and greed that you neglected everything, and eventually fell to become a lump of filth crawling on the ground. And by crossing a line that shouldn’t be crossed, you’ve ended up like this.”

Theodore knew that his words would only instill resentment in William.

But he didn’t expect William to repent anyway.

From the beginning, even if he did repent, he had not the slightest intention of forgiving him.

House Artin, the Britannia Empire, and William were all merely objects of his disgust.

“I won’t kill you. I’ll heal your wounds and send you back, so you can tremble in fear from now on.”

“Y-you’ll spare me?”

Theodore had no intention of giving William an easy death.

If he killed him too comfortably here, it would be too unfair to his past self until age 10.

“But you must pay the price for targeting what you shouldn’t have.”

However, Theodore decided to engrave one thing in William for the rest of his life.

“AAAAAAAAAAGH!”

William suddenly let out a terrible scream from the pain felt in a very unfortunate place.

It was a pain that suddenly appeared, incomparable to the pain from earlier.

“Crawl on the ground for the rest of your life. And I don’t care what tricks you try. No trick will work anyway.”

With this warning, Theodore used healing magic on William.

William, whose body had recovered, quickly got up and then ran away without looking back, gripped by fear.

Overwhelmed by the fear of death, he was running away without looking back, driven only by the thought that he needed to escape, not even realizing that he had become a body that could no longer produce an heir for House Artin.

‘How disgusting.’

It was truly disgusting and pathetic.

The fake who had been revered as the Chosen One while treating him that way was merely such trash.

But he didn’t feel any disappointment because of that.

Rather, he would slowly savor the sight of William collapsing as he struggled in despair and fear.

He would make the Duke and Duchess of Artin witness this as well, so they could see the very proud(?) appearance of William whom they were so proud of.

‘I’ll watch how proud you are of William, Duke Artin, Duchess Artin.’

He didn’t consider them parents at all.

His father was the Duke of Skyroad, and his mother was the Duchess of Skyroad.