Chapter 149: Chapter 148: Orion Says

The leader of the largest rebel force threatening the empire’s safety was subdued by a hero…

It was impossible to predict the repercussions immediately, but it was clear that the Imperial Family would not take this incident lightly.

Eliminating the greatest threat aimed at the leadership would be considered a boon for them.

“…Hero Woo Hyo-sung.”

About a week had passed since the resolution of such a disturbance.

I responded to the summons of the current imperial power, the Crown Prince, and once again had the opportunity to face him in the audience chamber.

The number of guards and retainers around him was several times greater than before, indicating the significance of the current moment.

“I heard you played a crucial role in capturing the leader of the rebel army.”

“It wasn’t an achievement I accomplished alone. I happened to be near the target, and it was the combined effort of everyone protecting the Imperial Family.”

“You were overly humble before, too. Given your abilities and achievements, you could stand out more.”

From the stern voice behind the mask, I tried to face him with the utmost respect.

No matter how many times I thought about it, I didn’t feel suited for such a position; the situation had already unfolded.

Even to understand Park Byeong-bin’s intentions, I needed to actively engage in the current situation.

“Have confidence. No one in this empire will doubt the abilities of the one who protected both His Majesty and me…”

“…Thank you for the high praise, but may I ask you something?”

But even with intentions, the cost would never be light.

In response to my question, Crown Prince Seis graciously allowed me to ask.

“Speak.”

“The leader of Nihil whom I captured, what will happen to him?”

“We plan to execute him in front of the public and display his severed head in the capital. Those who raise a rebellion must be strictly punished.”

As expected.

That’s probably what Park Byeong-bin also thought.

“With my succession ceremony coming up in a few months, using the empire’s most heinous enemy as a sacrifice to open a new era would be symbolic. Don’t you think?”

“Yes… your words are wise.”

A traitor’s end is never honorable and is always recorded in history as a subject of mockery.

Yet he chose to entrust everything to me, who did not follow the same path, destroying everything he had built so far.

“…That’s only natural.”

…Damn, bastard, are you really satisfied with this?

Without properly explaining to me, you chose to miserably squander your life and everything you’ve achieved.

“Are you not pleased?”

Crown Prince Seis spoke to me softly as I trembled with vague regret.

Startled and freezing, I felt the gaze from behind the mask intensify.

“It seems my words are unclear. Do you perhaps pity the traitor you captured?”

“It’s not that. Just that Vi–”

“Vi?”

“Vivian, I’m worried about her. I haven’t seen her since that day.”

Worried that my true feelings might be caught, I mentioned Vivian.

I had been so focused on him that I had forgotten, but Vivian’s safety was just as important.

“Rest assured, she is safe.”

The Crown Prince’s gaze softened as he spoke.

His dry voice that followed indicated his kindness had returned.

“However, since she was directly attacked, she must be thoroughly protected in an isolated place for a while. I trust you understand, given her role.”

“Ah, yes. That much…”

Yes, no matter how much she clings to me, she cannot be allowed to make contact with the outside while she is in danger.

But for now, it might be for the best.

“It’s all thanks to you.”

As soon as I felt reassured, Orion Seis cut in with his words.

His characteristic firm attitude felt like it was driving a wedge into the current situation.

“Driving away humanity’s despair and protecting humanity’s hope, it’s all thanks to you. If this fact is made public, your status will surely rise to equal or even surpass mine.”

He, too, like him, saw me not just as any hero.

But as someone who could rise higher.

“Someone like you appearing before me must be the result of Friga’s guidance.”

“…Thank you for the high praise, Your Highness.”

But is it really acceptable to accept this?

No matter how dissatisfied I am with being a hero, I’ve only just shed that label.

Can I truly see this flow as an opportunity and reach out rashly?

“…Then let’s conclude the official talk here.”

As my heart began to pound harder with anxiety, Crown Prince Seis had already finished discussing my treatment and announcement with his retainers.

Even though I hadn’t heard the details, he was already raising his hand to conclude the topic.

To send me back after finishing his business…

“I have personal matters to discuss with him, so the rest of you leave this place.”

No, to send away the retainers around me.

“Leave, Your Highness. What do you mean…?”

“I dislike repeating myself. All of you leave. I will make no exceptions for the guards.”

His loyal retainers were bewildered, but the Crown Prince responded to their words with a cold voice.

“Do you suspect that my benefactor and the hero who saved the nation would harm me?”

Daring to sully his trust without knowing their place.

The retainers and soldiers, who received such displeasure directly, glanced at each other before bowing their heads and leaving one by one.

Though there was some hesitation in their actions, none ultimately defied him.

The crowd that filled the large audience chamber disappeared, leaving only emptiness.

“Raise your head and stand up. There is no need for formalities in this place.”

In that empty space, the Crown Prince, who was left alone with me, began to rise from his throne and slowly descend the steps.

The leader of the empire himself.

A person who reached the pinnacle of humanity and the one who brought people like me from another world stood at eye level with me.

“Hero Woo Hyo-sung. Do you know why I arranged this private meeting with you?”

“…I don’t know.”

“You proved your loyalty to the empire, so it’s to give you the treatment you deserve. If you truly want to be trusted, you need to prove that trust not only in public but also in private.”

It was a reasonable story.

If he truly considered me the hero who saved the nation and saw me as equal to him through this incident, he would need to prove that he could trust me without his loyal retainers around to foster a genuine relationship.

“So be pleased. I decided to show my face only to those I can entrust my back to, and you have met that condition perfectly.”

Crown Prince Seis slowly raised his hand to his mask as if to prove it.

But for some reason, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu from his words.

From showing his face only to those he trusted to the act of unlocking the mask…

“…Huh?”

And that sense of déjà vu was soon brought to reality.

The face revealed under the mask was very familiar to me.

“Here, I will offer my neck to you.”

Yes, I knew his face.

I had only faced him once, but I had repeated the events of that day in my mind countless times over the past week.

“Your Highness, that face is…?”

“…Nothing special about it. Except for the strong royal lineage.”

As he said, it was a handsome face that exuded dignity, but not particularly unusual by this world’s standards.

Unlike me, who clearly looked like an outsider with distinct Eastern features, he was unmistakably from this world.

“But your expression looks like you’ve seen a ghost…”

The problem was that his face looked exactly like someone from my world.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“What’s going on? You…”

That the traitor and Crown Prince Seis were the same person.

Can this really happen in reality?

No, maybe it’s an illusion, like last time when the demon cast a charm spell.

“Don’t misunderstand. It’s not that I acted as the rebel army.”

But the cold voice at this moment was pulling me back to reality, unable to accept the situation.

And the snapping sound that jolted me back to my senses.

The space around him distorted, and then figures identical to him began to appear.

Everything, including their faces, attire, and atmosphere, was identical—beings that could be called ‘clones’.

“We look the same, but you can consider the current him and me as separate individuals.”

Yes, his ability was to create identical beings.

Using that power, it would be possible to control someone with the same appearance as a separate individual.

The key was which one was the main body.

Among the one I knew and Crown Prince Seis in front of me, which one had been leading the situation, and what had been their goal?

“How on earth…?”

No, there was something I needed to know first.

The power he showed was beyond the realm of common sense, unlike magic or holy power.

The only way to obtain such power was by summoning outsiders, and the empire was known to be obsessed with summoning heroes for this reason.

“Aren’t people in this world unable to gain abilities? Then how… how did you, a person of this world, get abilities…?”

“I plan to give a brief history lesson here, if you don’t mind.”

Crown Prince Seis prepared to answer my question with a cold voice.

There was no familiarity or kindness toward me like the one I knew.

He simply spoke in a cold, mechanical voice, staring at the person he was conversing with with empty eyes.

“As I said before, I arranged this private meeting to solidify our trust. So I intend to tell you a story that will address your various questions…”

“……”

“If there is no answer, I will take it as a positive.”

It was an arrogant attitude, but I couldn’t press him.

His position, the truth, and the confusion I felt.

All of it was forcing me to listen to what he was saying.

“…You probably know this. The beings called disasters started appearing in this world about half a century ago.”

The story continued after a long silence.

He continued explaining, still accompanied by his clones, with empty eyes fixed on me.

“However, even without disasters, humanity has always been exposed to crises throughout history. One of them is the war between humans and non-humans… It was a fierce war against beings that were not human.”

Before the disasters arrived in this world.

An explanation of events that happened before the ‘Age of Humans’ that my other persona, Tacchia, experienced.

“Among such non-humans, the most dangerous are undoubtedly the beings known as witches.”

Witches.

They were beings I couldn’t ignore.

The reason I found myself in this situation was because my friend had taken such a being hostage to provoke me.

“You know how dangerous they are, right?”

I thought I should accept such a dangerous being if they loved me and didn’t harm me.

“As you know, the danger posed by witches is incomparable to demons or the undead. Their innate abilities easily twist physical laws, and the witches who wield them have thoroughly twisted moral senses.”

Crown Prince Seis’s eyes gradually narrowed.

His furrowed brows indicated that he, too, felt a sense of displeasure.

“Humanity, having won the war against witches, found hope in the remnants they left behind when disasters struck the world. Do you know what those humans did in their desperation?”

But what followed was not about the witches, but about the humans who faced their power.

The result was predictable.

The being before me now was the result.

“Combining the power of witches with humans… If successful, it would produce beings who could wield witch powers in a righteous manner.”

The reason I encountered such a being for the first time today was not that everyone in this world could receive such a benefit.

Only a few.

Unlike heroes who could be produced endlessly, only a few humans in this world could inherit such power.

“…It was difficult to pay the price, so you summoned outsiders using Vivian’s ritual?”

“The privileges enjoyed by a few cannot save everyone.”

It made sense.

The abilities awakened by people from another world originated from witches, and why they regarded a cooperative witch like Vivian as a higher being.

“One of the fortunate things is that the power I awakened, having enjoyed the privileges of a few, is perfect for managing groups.”

But what I needed to know now was not the origin of the abilities awakened by outsiders, but why the person before me, who provoked me and chose confinement, led me to this position.

“Since I could fully control this power, I secretly spread my clones throughout the empire. Fearing my identity might be revealed, I wore a mask in public.”

As he explained, he flicked his finger between his clones.

One clone started to step back as if following his order.

There was no trace of humanity in the cooperative manner, unlike the one I knew.

“I saw the world from the perspective of a commoner, a noble, a soldier, a worker like you, and a hero. To plan for leading this country in the right direction when I inherit it…”

At the end of such mechanical movements, he brought a sword in his hand.

Crown Prince Seis gradually pulled the sword’s hilt, reflecting his empty eyes on the sharp blade.

“…But for some reason, one of my clones defied me and started rebelling against the empire.”

And then, with a swish, the Crown Prince’s neck was severed by a sword strike…

No, it was a clone, not the Crown Prince.

The clone that brought the sword had its neck severed by his strike and fell to the floor.

A stream of blood spurted from its neck, staining the floor…

Even though it was a clone, it was different from when he created it.

Even though it was shocked, it didn’t explode but remained there, vividly convulsing after death.

“A clone never defies its main body… My ability is based on that premise.”

Yes, a clone created by the main body is not imperfect like one created by a clone but perfectly mimics the main body.

And such a clone never defies the orders of the main body.

That would be an absolute rule in his ability.

“However, upon investigating this time, it appears that the clone went out of my control shortly after being with you.”

A clone derived from himself, whose main body aimed to protect the empire, should never rebel.

-Thump, thump.

My heart pounded, and a ringing filled my ears.

As I felt dizzy, he approached me and looked down at me, who had bowed my head to avoid his gaze.

“Why did the clone that went out of my control after meeting you sacrifice itself for you…?”

“Why do you think that is?”

A power I possessed that perhaps created a rift in his ideal rule…

An openly hostile question.