Chapter 328
Chapter: 328
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 328
>Chapter Title: No. 21's Days (4)
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Justin, the branch chief, clung to No. 21 relentlessly right up to the end.
"Even if a hundred guys like you came at him all at once, Bart wouldn't bat an eye! So just relax completely and leave the kid entirely to the Assassin Branch!"
Of course, No. 21 scoffed inwardly.
As if that would ever happen. He was among the top talents in [Oberon's Hand], the only one from his training cohort to receive a "number."
He didn't take the Holy Emperor lightly, of course, but the limitations of a homunculus body were all too clear.
It had pathetically low weight and durability that bordered on pitiful. To land a proper hit on someone, he had to spin around several times just to get any real impact.
Even then, if the opponent ended up with a mere bruise, the striker's bones would crack. At that point, even divine power could only patch things up so much.
"Above all, the senses are seriously dulled. If I really tried to sneak in, I'd get right up close without them noticing half the time."
That was why No. 21 was convinced. The Holy Emperor, now inhabiting a homunculus, absolutely needed him. There was no room for doubt.
And yet, the reason No. 21 felt so powerless lately had nothing to do with that.
The greatest threat to the Holy Emperor right now was, of all people, his own son—someone No. 21 could never touch.
* * *
At first, Kaien charged straight at the Holy Emperor, swinging a weapon.
He had confirmed several times that attacking the Holy Emperor himself carried no consequences.
"If I take down Father, I can manipulate the others' souls and get out of here!"
Kaien wielded all sorts of weapons.
Sometimes a sword stolen from someone, other times a large rock picked up in the courtyard, or even a small table knife.
He'd sneak weapons past the guild members, then strike when the Holy Emperor was off guard. His timing was so perfect that even No. 21 occasionally found himself admiring it with a click of his tongue.
Crash! Clang!
Fortunately, the Holy Emperor always subdued the boy successfully before No. 21 or the guild members could intervene.
"Tch, so close! I almost had it!"
"That's just your illusion, Kaien. You'll never succeed in the future either, so why not give up now?"
The Holy Emperor would chide him gently each time, but wrestling evenly with a child already made him seem utterly unreliable.
"If more time passes..."
No. 21 couldn't help but entertain the thought.
What if Kaien grew up and eventually surpassed the homunculus's physical abilities? And if their father-son relationship never improved? Could attempts on the Holy Emperor's life still end as mere incidents?
If the Holy Emperor could no longer control the boy, how could others—who could barely even contact Kaien—stop him?
Days passed like that, shadowed by such complicated worries as No. 21 shadowed the Holy Emperor.
Around that time, a subtle shift occurred in the relationship between the Holy Emperor, Kaien, and No. 21.
It started when No. 21 began noticing their eyes meeting frequently.
"...What?"
At first, No. 21 was suspicious.
Before and after attacking the Holy Emperor, the boy seemed to be checking on him specifically, but he dismissed it as his imagination.
What reason would Kaien have? They'd never even spoken directly.
But it didn't take long to realize it wasn't his imagination.
It was around the time Prince Logan led the Lilium detachment to rescue the crisis-stricken Sigismund territory.
For some reason, the Holy Emperor skipped even the morning council and suddenly secluded himself in the prayer room.
"If you see the guild's informant who always comes here, pass this on: I won't be able to visit 'that child' for a while."
No. 21 found it odd when he heard this from Chief Chamberlain Louis.
The Holy Emperor wouldn't postpone child-related matters unless it was extremely urgent. Especially not his promise with Kaien, whom he'd been particularly concerned about lately.
"What the hell? What's going on around that man?"
The Holy Emperor didn't emerge from the prayer room for a full day after that.
As No. 21 anxiously patrolled the palace, Guild Master Greta's serious words suddenly came to mind.
"Kekeke. Something big is brewing beneath the continent right now."
"Big conspiracies?"
"Yeah. Massive events we might not handle without this irrational empire holding together..."
Was her worry valid? If so, what were these conspiracies, and what was the Holy Emperor doing to counter them?
His sudden prayer room visits were becoming more frequent. Could he really handle all this alone?
And—
"In this situation, trying to assassinate the Holy Emperor... might actually..."
Feeling an intangible anxiety creep in, No. 21 spent the entire week circling the Holy Emperor.
Naturally, he had no time to check on Kaien during that period. He left the boy entirely to the Assassin Branch guild members, and several days slipped by in a haze.
A short gap, if you could call it that.
But plenty of time for a sharp-minded Kaien to hatch a little scheme.
"Long time no see, Father. I've been pretty bored without you."
When the Holy Emperor finally returned to the homunculus body after days away, Kaien greeted him especially warmly that day.
"I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise. No excuse will suffice, but I've been terribly busy with important matters."
"No, it's fine. Don't worry about it. You're the emperor of the Holy Empire, after all. You must have mountains of things more important than someone like me. I get it."
Kaien replied innocently, then smiled amiably and invited the Holy Emperor to join him at the table.
"By the way, Father. Want to eat with me for once? Now that I think about it, except for my first day here, I've never eaten anything with you."
"......"
"We're family, right? And don't just pretend to eat in front of me like before. I didn't say anything then, but I was pretty hurt that day."
The Holy Emperor stared at Kaien for a moment, then slowly sat down with a somewhat stiff expression. His demeanor seemed off, so No. 21 quickly signaled the guild members.
"Anything happen while preparing the meal?"
"No, nothing. We've been watching without a single gap."
"Good."
No. 21 nodded, but he still felt an intensely ominous premonition.
Perhaps it was the Holy Emperor's unusually pale face. Or maybe Kaien's pitch-black eyes, smiling with curled lips but no hint of mirth.
"...Kaien."
The Holy Emperor paused, staring at the food before him, then spoke in a slightly cracked voice.
But before he could say more, Kaien cut him off swiftly.
"Wait, before that, hear me out first, Father?"
"......"
"While you were away, I did a lot of thinking on my own. About my current situation. And how to resolve it. I pondered hard with my limited knowledge."
Kaien paused, resting his chin on one hand with a rather innocent expression.
"You said it before, Father: that some part of my brain is badly damaged, so I can't feel the normal emotions others do. That I have no choice but to observe how ordinary people live and mimic their reactions repeatedly."
No. 21 recalled hearing something similar. He'd asked why the Holy Emperor disciplined the boy physically but never lectured him.
The Holy Emperor had said Kaien was no different from someone born blind. Teaching him about emotions and morality was like demanding a blind man describe and distinguish colors.
"Honestly, that didn't sit well with me. In my view, the 'normal' people in the city weren't much different from bandits—just a bit more refined. They were all thoughtless idiots."
"......"
"So I have to observe and imitate those guys? Does that even make sense? If that's 'normal' and 'right,' I don't want any part of it! No motivation at all. So I thought..."
Kaien leaned forward toward the Holy Emperor, grinning wickedly.
"Who do I take after to end up like this? You, of course, Father! So who should I imitate most? Obviously you!"
"......"
"In my eyes, you're quite different from the other idiots. I figured mimicking you would be pretty fun. After all, out of everyone I've met so far, I like you the best!"
It sounded like affection at first glance. But No. 21 couldn't take Kaien's words at face value.
Did "like" from a boy who didn't understand emotions mean the same as ordinary "fondness" or "love"?
"But you know? I really meant to at first. But after deliberately observing you for so long, I started noticing some pretty interesting things, didn't I?"
In the cold silence, only Kaien's bright voice echoed strangely.
"Why do you come see me so anxiously every time, Father? Why are you so desperate to control my actions? Why do you insist on punishing me even when it's so hard? Why? What does it mean?"
"Because you're my father? Because you feel responsible for me? Because you care for me as your son? Save it. I wouldn't understand anyway, and I wouldn't believe it."
"Instead, I decided to judge based on what I can see with my own eyes—what only I can do."
With that, Kaien slowly raised one hand and spread it wide before the Holy Emperor's eyes.
A hand so pristine it was hard to believe he'd lived a harsh life—no scars at all.
"Look. There's a crack in this hand, Father. It formed after I completely devoured Jerome, and it won't heal—a big one."
...Crack?
No. 21 couldn't make sense of what Kaien was saying.
But something invisible was definitely there. The Holy Emperor's face darkened further as he stared at the hand.
"Observing you made it clear what you're so worried about, always checking so anxiously."
The Holy Emperor looked away from the hand, gazing at Kaien's face with sunken eyes.
"Kaien."
"Yeah, that's right! I figured out why this crack appeared! It's not just from devouring souls! When I do what you tell me not to—commit that 'sin'—this crack grows bit by bit, even if faintly!"
"......!"
"And I feel something small wriggling inside it sometimes! So I thought: if I leave it to widen like this, eventually something enormous will burst out from within!"
Grip.
Kaien clenched his fist as if grasping an invisible crack, then thrust his face right up to the Holy Emperor's, baring his teeth.
"How about it, Father? Am I right? A person's soul isn't just that one outer layer, is it?"
"That's......"
"If my soul ever shatters completely, it won't be the end, right? Something else is lurking inside, quietly waiting to emerge into the world?"
No. 21 thought he needed to stop this now.
He didn't fully understand their conversation, but the atmosphere was heading somewhere bad.
"Come on, be honest! That's what you're really afraid of, isn't it? You're anxious not knowing when it'll burst out, so you keep trying to rein me in! How am I wrong?"
Above all, the Holy Emperor's face.
Even with its faint expression, it carried an unsettling aura, like he might vanish any second.
"Your Majesty...!"
As No. 21 stepped forward to call out—
Clink.
The Holy Emperor slowly picked up utensils in both hands and spoke calmly.
"Stop circling around it and say what you want, Kaien. Insisting on a meal means you have a proposal for me, doesn't it?"
"......!"
Kaien stared at the Holy Emperor with wide eyes for a moment.
Then—
"Puhahaha!"
He burst into roaring laughter, falling backward. He laughed so hard tears welled at the corners of his eyes.
"Ahaha! The more I see, the funnier you get! I don't care what happens to my soul, but you're willing to do anything to protect it?"
With that, Kaien calmly closed his eyes and placed a hand on his chest.
"Yeah. I figured you'd noticed long ago. That this crack sometimes grows... but occasionally shrinks a little too."
"......"
"Like you said before, I don't know what my soul truly wants. So I've been letting it get wrecked by devouring anything. But watching this crack made one thing clear."
His eyelids lifted slowly, inhuman black pupils glinting coldly.
"My soul probably wants to pay you back for all this, Father. So when I vent a little on you, the crack visibly narrows."
Clink.
A plate of dessert with a strange blue glow slid slowly toward the Holy Emperor at Kaien's gesture.
"And you know it too. That's why, even knowing I'll attack you, you always pretend not to notice. Because just intending to harm you makes my soul improve a bit."
Kaien spread his arms wide, beaming purely at the Holy Emperor—a smile that could pass for an angel in a holy painting, if not for those inscrutable dark eyes.
"So I've prepared something for both of us! Come on, Father! Eat with me?"
That day, Kaien succeeded in poisoning the Holy Emperor for the first time.
At the same moment, No. 21 painfully realized that the glances from Kaien he'd occasionally sensed weren't just his imagination.
"Your Majesty!"
Rushing to the Holy Emperor in panic, No. 21 locked eyes directly with Kaien, who mocked him openly.