episode_0047

That day, I recalled the 18 heroes I had seen in the mausoleum.

However, besides the heroes I had raised with my own hands through 19 Heroic Age series—I had only truly awakened as Rain Grey in the 20th work, whose content I hadn’t even had a chance to see.

In other words, it meant there was yet another hero in this world who had not yet appeared. A hero I hadn’t even raised or known myself.

The true protagonist of the work, who was originally supposed to progress the story ‘normally’ with the Holy Maiden by my side.

However, ever since I began intervening as Rain Grey, the protagonist of this work has remained strangely silent.

Even at this late stage, they should have been gaining martial renown or having their exploits heard, showing a protagonist-like prominence in some form.

Perhaps they had been caught up in the Black Snake and died without me even realizing it?

No, did a protagonist even truly exist in the first place? If one did, what exactly was their identity?

Were they a puppet controlled by ‘someone like me’ from that other world, just like those I saw in the mausoleum? Or were they a transmigrator like me?

It wasn’t a problem that could end with ‘I don’t know’. I had to find out. By any means necessary.

And just as one needs to enter a tiger’s den to catch a tiger.

Similarly, to find a hero, I needed to bring about a suitable era of turmoil.

Even if it was just to understand the true nature of , born from human desires when the world faced a crisis.

A room in a luxury hotel in Germania, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Germania.

“As Lord Rain commanded, Ergo has successfully taken over the Chancellor’s ‘role’.”

“……You did well.”

“The six-headed Colonel of the Vultures reported that the ‘Army of the Dead’ to be deployed near the border is already prepared.”

Listening to the subsequent report, I calmly nodded. Despite this, the man adorned with numerous golden decorations over his black uniform, the organization’s third in command, Golden Mirror Robert, asked back.

“By the way, was it really necessary to go that far?”

“What do you mean?”

“Even without ripping open the skull, the rearmament of the western border was already underway, and the activation of Operation Order 66 was also proceeding steadily in secret.”

That was why the man, said to be the true power of this nation, the Grand Duchy of Germania, had died.

—It wasn’t that I held any malice towards Chancellor Gustadolph Whitley. He was simply necessary.

And I hastened something that would have happened anyway, even if I hadn’t seized the Chancellor’s position, by even going so far as to take over his body.

To the real Chancellor, it might have felt like a somewhat unfair death.

“Whether it was really necessary to rush things so much—.”

“Do you want an answer?”

“Ah, of course not.”

After speaking, Golden Mirror smiled meaningfully.

“Surely, there must be a reason beyond my foolish comprehension.”

As his golden monocle, contrasting most sharply against the black, gleamed.

……He was an utterly suspicious man whose true intentions were unfathomable.

In a sense, he was virtually the only truly suspicious man within the Black Snake. Yet, nothing would change.

I wasn’t becoming the real Rain Grey for him. It was for the other fools. Moreover, Rain Grey’s Black Snake didn’t exist for him either.

He merely existed and lived for the Snake.

That was why I still kept Golden Mirror alive, without killing him. Regardless of his usefulness.

“Ergo is faithfully carrying out the Chancellor’s role, as Lord Rain commanded. If he puts his mind to it, he could even live his entire life as ‘the real Gustadolph Whitley’.”

“…….”

It wasn’t merely imitation. It was an absurd technology that had reached the level of literally peering into a brain and mimicking its memories and personality.

Apparently, it was even a secret art that only ‘Golden Mirror’ could imitate in this world.

“By the way, it seems we should decide on a ‘name’ soon.”

It was then. I asked back, feigning indifference, at Golden Mirror’s words, which were somewhat more cautious than before.

“What name are you talking about?”

“That child. Ah, and including the new children as well.”

“…….”

I did not answer. Because in this situation, I wasn’t sure how the real ‘Rain Grey’ would act. In such cases, his most characteristic action was, as always, silence.

“If you would permit it, I would like to tell you the name I have thought of for that child.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Artifice.”

Golden Mirror Robert replied.

“Ergo of Artifice.”

It was indeed a fitting alias.

No, wait, I didn’t realize aliases were announced and decided like this, as if in a company meeting.

I was dumbfounded by the inner workings of the villainous organization and remained silent. Anyway, that meant the other two would also need such grand-sounding names.

For the other two, surely I wouldn’t have to call them in and tell them to each suggest a suitable or cool-sounding nickname? In two characters?

After thinking, I inadvertently recalled the aliases of the members one by one.

Black Sword, Golden Mirror, Saan, Dark Moon, Jinjo, Smiling Man, Mimang, Witch, Puppet, Tidal Wolf, Gluttony.

Added to them were Ergo of Artifice and the two whose names hadn’t been decided yet.

However, they already had another name.

Holy Maiden and Alina.

Perhaps there was no need to give them new names.

At the same time, I thought of the only man in the Black Snake whose ‘alias’ was unknown. A being in the game who was only ever called by his name and title, without any other information or content.

It was me.

—Rain Grey.

“It is, after all, merely a name I came up with from my limited perspective.”

Either unknown, or simply non-existent.

Or perhaps the name ‘Leader’ was his alias in disguise?

I could only guess.

“Our names are, after all, only relevant when the Leader-nim calls us by them.”

Until Golden Mirror, contrary to his usual manner, addressed me as Leader and continued speaking.

“Our esteemed Lord Rain of Original Sin.”

“—”

Rain of Original Sin.

“Ah, my apologies. Please forgive my impoliteness for uttering your alias.”

I did not reply to Golden Mirror’s slyly smiling words.

I simply recalled the magic name I had unconsciously uttered during my fight with Lord Roland then.

That name, etched like braille deep within my consciousness.

.

The pitch-black darkness that descended the moment I chanted it—I didn’t know what had happened to Roland within that darkness.

I soon realized. Something *had* happened in that darkness. It was just that I hadn’t seen what occurred there.

Because that name, the name Original Sin, was none other than ‘Rain Grey’s’ alias.

*

That night.

“Both children aren’t bad.”

Dark Moon Selena, one of the Black Snake members who were gathering one after another, said.

“In Alina’s case, thanks to Freya’s touch, she seems capable of immediate action as a . I had a chance to see her skill when she was alive, and it would be rude to even compare it to then.”

“……You’ve seen her in life?”

“The were quite famous in their own right.”

Selena scoffed, revealing her pointed dark elf ears hidden beneath her hood.

“It’s just regrettable that their skill didn’t even come close to their fame and sense of justice.”

“Indeed.”

Her words were true. And the result brought about by that righteousness and integrity was the current Alina. I, too, could only scoff at such a perverse outcome.

“By the way, to once again welcome children who have no connection to heroes.”

Just then, Dark Moon Selena continued, sounding bitter.

“It’s truly as Romeo said.”

“…….”

“As expected, did the Leader also keep his words in mind?”

I fell silent again.

As I remained silent, an unknown intuition that I needed to know those words consumed me.

Romeo’s words. The words she, before me, presumptuously guessed Rain Grey would keep in mind.

“……I have heard too many words.”

So I made up something appropriate. Desperately recalling the story of those two I last heard from Silan, and Romeo’s lines from when I played the game by moving a ‘hero’.

“Too many to keep in mind or recall one by one.”

Romeo the Playwright, Juliet of Tragedy.

One of the couples who had aimed to change their story into a comedy, but ultimately ended in tragedy.

“Well, for someone pretending not to know, you seem to remember things excessively well.”

To hell with memory.

Dark Moon Selena shrugged and laughed aloud, as if she didn’t dream that I was vaguely pretending to know and fudging my words.

It was as if she were having a casual conversation with a long-time friend.

“Just as even a playwright can’t remember the contents of the play they wrote……”

After laughing, she continued calmly.

“The Leader, too, will eventually forget even why we existed—.”

The line that an informal subordinate presumptuously guessed Rain Grey would keep in mind.

“That’s foolish talk. There’s no way the Leader would forget.”

“…….”

“Of course, he won’t forget. He couldn’t. Why we, why the Snake, exists—.”

Selena’s voice, as she spoke, was filled with absolute certainty.

With the conviction that Rain Grey would never forget.

—But just as even a playwright forgets the contents of the play they wrote, the Leader will forget.

Even why we, the organization called the Black Snake, existed.

Selena laughed with a voice full of absurdity.

I did not laugh.

Because those words accurately pierced through ‘the current Leader’, who remembered nothing about the Black Snake, let alone Rain Grey.

*

Some time later, the ‘Army of Death’ began to move in the Western Rhineland Demilitarized Zone, which bordered the Holy Kingdom.

And, in accordance with the agreement, the Holy Kingdom, unable to tolerate the Grand Duchy’s military presence in that area, immediately attempted a military response.

It was the fuse of the era of turmoil.