Chapter 3
Chapter 3
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Noon Luncheon
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[ . ] end
From childhood, this damned mania had prevented me from making proper judgments.
The moment I tried to think deeply and make a choice, the thread of reason snapped in an instant. By the time my mind cleared, I had always crossed an irreversible river.
I had no choice but to think as shallowly as possible. Only one-dimensional thoughts.
Among them, war required the least complex thinking.
Some might consider it the most intricate, but an emperor is a being who "commands."
Setting aside convoluted justifications, if I willed it, conquest unfolded naturally.
Justifications and mercy were the products of utterly rational minds.
Rational people can't comprehend those who don't think rationally—and they can't even defeat them.
'War was my only means of rule.'
An empire rotten to its core.
Left alone, it would fester and burst.
War was also the sole way to prop up the empire.
More nobles than one might expect favored wars without pretexts.
They could indulge their selfish desires freely, knowing all the arrows would point back to me.
Previous emperors had feared being etched into history as tyrants.
They had always clashed with the nobles to deflect those arrows.
I couldn't do that.
Dragged this way and that by the nobles, I approved wars while every arrow aimed at me.
Once the arrows turned my way, the nobles unleashed their stockpiled power and ran wild.
The result? I became known as the demon emperor, the tyrant.
Of course, no one could have foreseen the emergence of a monster like Malfiel.
Hero King Malfiel's appearance led the nobles to fling open the palace gates without a second thought.
'They figured sacrificing me would save their own skins.'
Malfiel slaughtered even those nobles.
All of them, claiming their blood was filthy—even the infants.
They say life lets you see not a step ahead.
It really was true.
'Live again, you say.'
A mere worm telling me, the emperor, to live again.
I clenched my fist until my knuckles cracked.
How long had it been since I'd viewed the world with a sound mind?
'I won't be swayed anymore.'
Whether by the mania or the nobles.
I would live my life wholly my own.
I would walk a path I had judged and chosen myself.
"Was it you who turned back time?"
[Meaning unclear. [Nano Machine Zero] has no time reversal function.]
If not the worm, then who?
Did a god intervene?
"How long have you been in my head?"
[Unknown. Cannot determine. Records show the self-generation program activated faintly via brain's electrical stimulation. First stimulation occurred 16 years ago.]
It meant the first activation happened when I was three.
My earliest memories began around age three, so it lined up.
There was no telling if it had entered before then—or how it had gotten in.
"Where did you come from?"
['[Nano Machine Zero]' was created by scientist Park Mun-sik at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.]
"Park Mun-sik? An unfamiliar name."
[Master. I will now transfer basic information and general usage instructions. Master's approval required.]
"Proceed."
It was the worm that had tormented me for decades.
But I was rational now.
I could judge for myself whether it harbored hostility toward me.
At the very least, Zero wanted a different relationship than before. If it required my approval for that, I could grant it.
-Bzzz.
An itchy sensation in my brain came with a slight wave of nausea.
Anyone else might have retched and made a fuss, but it felt utterly familiar to me.
[Protocol conversion complete. Recombining words based on program data. Language conversion in 3 seconds. 2 seconds. 1 second.]
"Ugh."
I let out a faint groan as my body swayed.
At the same moment, "memories" were forcibly injected into my brain.
Content distinctly alien from my own memories.
It felt as if letters had been etched into every crease of my brain. Not a pleasant sensation.
"Nuclear war? Radiation? What manner of sorcery is painting these images in my head?"
The issue lay in the content itself.
Even injected knowledge required comprehension—a wholly separate matter.
A golden city, utterly unlike anything on this continent, vanished in a massive explosion in the blink of an eye.
As if struck by a meteor.
[No sorcery or illusion. These are real events. '[Nano Machine Zero]' is a prototype nanomachine designed to restore humanity contaminated by radiation to full health.]
"Those colossal structures filling my mind... they truly existed?"
Larger than the imperial palace.
They seemed even grander than the Sacred Church's tower, said to be the continent's tallest.
Countless such edifices.
[Yes. Humanity's buildings reached beyond the heavens.]
"And structures so vast and towering were swept away in an instant?"
[That is the terror of nuclear weapons. In a world war, the pinnacle of human civilization—built over thousands of years—was obliterated in a mere ten-odd minutes.]
A war machine capable of dooming the continent in one strike.
That nuke could probably kill even the immortal Malfiel.
"Can you create one of those nukes?"
[No such information has been inputted.]
A shame.
I shook my head soon after.
Old habits die hard, it seems.
Still, I'd gleaned some crucial information.
'The nanomachine isn't from this world.'
I had no idea why or how it had ended up here and bonded with me.
But if it offered help beyond eternal torment, I was ready to exploit it—whatever it was.
Even if it proved to be my sworn nemesis.
[Master. With my current authority, fully treating your body is difficult. To purify the deadly poisons accumulated in your brain and body, and improve your constitution, I require your approval.]
The nanomachine had been created solely for human healing.
And this body was riddled with toxins.
The narcotics I'd taken daily for sedation and pain relief were rotting me from within.
I pondered briefly.
This was the turning point.
Could I fully trust the information from the nanomachine?
Was it trustworthy?
Yet the data it shared included a "command" for the nanomachine to self-destruct and expel itself.
It had made clear it could do nothing without my orders.
A true enemy wouldn't have revealed such a vulnerability.
"...Approved."
I gave the worm in my head one more chance.
Half in doubt. Curious if it could mend this drug-ravaged shell.
"Haa..."
Sitting at a table in the exquisitely manicured garden, Isabella let out a sigh.
A luncheon with the crown prince, no less.
Anyone overhearing would throw a fit of envy.
For noblewomen in high society, a advantageous marriage was their greatest boast. If it worked out, they'd chatter endlessly about how one's life had truly blossomed.
'Of all people, Reinhardt.'
The problem was that the man in question was "Reinhardt."
The descriptors for him were too numerous to count.
Mad crown prince.
Lunatic, lecherous philanderer, bloodthirsty fiend who lost his mind at the sight of gore, and so on...
"Lady Isabella, did you hear? They say Crown Prince Reinhardt's face is nothing but wrinkles. From frowning all day. No one's ever seen him without that scowl."
"Hush. Judging people by their looks is a bad habit."
She let Reins's chatter flow in one ear and out the other.
Isabella was far from your typical noblewoman.
She had no interest in hearing how she'd married well and lived happily ever after. She wanted praise for her own merits, for thriving on her own terms.
She didn't share the other girls' hobbies like flower arranging.
From a young age, she'd loved swords and idolized knights.
Perhaps it stemmed from her father, renowned as a noble knight.
So if she had to meet a man, she hoped for one of dignified caliber.
Reinhardt stood at the complete opposite end of that spectrum.
'...Not that I even want to meet a man right now.'
She'd been dragged here against her will, yielding to pressure from the family elders.
'They probably mean for us problem children to pair off.'
The elders saw her as flawed. Just look at how they'd tossed her to the crown prince everyone shunned.
But Isabella despised this situation.
It felt too much like being offered up as a sacrificial lamb for a political union.
'I'll refuse as graciously as possible.'
Graciously. With the biggest smile she could muster.
Even if the appointed time had passed—him being late when she'd come from afar made no sense, logically!
She forced the corners of her mouth upward.
"His Highness the Crown Prince is entering!"
The garden guards blared their trumpets in a raucous fanfare.
So that's why they carried those trumpets?
Not some childish bid to flaunt his grandeur, surely?
"Ah..."
Unnecessarily ostentatious.
The corners of her mouth drooped again.
A man like that? Obvious without even seeing him.
That was the moment.
"Since when did the Golden Knight Order turn into clowns?"
[ ] end