Chapter 132
Chapter 132
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 132
Chapter Title: The Emperor's Taunt
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“Record Parchment.”
The moment Prim opened her eyes, she urgently tried to summon the Record Parchment.
“…….”
For some reason, it wouldn’t appear. Thinking it might be a glitch, she called it several times, but there was no response.
With her limbs bound and trapped in the cell, Prim could only stare blankly beyond the iron bars.
Everything had happened so suddenly that her head throbbed.
Then, from far off, came the crisp click-clack of footsteps.
The approaching person was humming cheerfully, clearly in high spirits.
When they reached Prim’s cell, they thrust a lantern right in her face.
“……!”
The lantern light revealed the shape of the visitor’s face.
“Good heavens, you look so pathetic all tied up.”
It was the emperor, Luisa.
“Prim. You must have thought me a fool.”
Prim winced at the intense light glaring in her eyes.
“Did you really think I was just sitting idle while you schemed for years?”
“…….”
“Raising all those troops—did you seriously believe I wouldn’t notice?”
Prim hung her head and said nothing.
“What do you think allowed you to plot your rebellion for so many years?”
Luisa gripped the bars and burst into laughter.
“I let it happen! You silly little bitch!”
The emperor bared her white teeth and cackled. The victor’s laugh echoed through the cell.
“I’ve been waiting to see your hope crushed at the very last moment.”
“How…… How did this happen? How…… Lu Yan…….”
Prim’s voice kept trembling.
“You thought Lu Yan was a gift from the heavens, didn’t you? Hahaha! You haven’t changed a bit. Still just a lovesick, foolish cub.”
She had figured that after striking Prim in the back of the head once before, she wouldn’t trust people easily.
But Prim was Prim after all.
She had sent Lu Yan to her and kept supplying troops, filling their ranks with her own forces.
All while instructing Lu Yan not to approach too openly.
She had lured Prim into walking into the trap of her own accord.
Desperate for forces, Prim had trusted and kept close the hand that secretly aided her.
Prim, who had listened silently to Luisa’s words, let out a hollow smile.
“Tell me, Luisa…… Why do you hate me so much?”
Her pleading voice carried a hint of tears.
The pink eyes peeking through her golden hair seemed somehow sorrowful. Luisa stared into those pink eyes for a long while.
‘Fundamentally, you and I are born different. Even the noblest human emperor is ultimately beneath my feet. That’s the nature of your kind—you get crushed when I step on you.’
The words of another being with pink eyes flashed in her mind.
“You keep poking at something inside me. Inferiority complex? I love watching you lose your humanity bit by bit.”
Luisa recalled the time the previous Bachinum had left and a new one was born.
Everyone praised the new Bachinum. Of course they did—it was the Bachinum.
But this child wasn’t arrogant.
She truly knew how to trust people and give love, easily winning hearts and giving hers in return.
It was utterly revolting.
‘I’ll be your mother. You must have been so lonely, all alone in the palace.’
‘……Yes!’
The new Bachinum had genuinely rejoiced at words spat out as mere formality for a scheme.
Her purity and brightness made the inferiority complex, hidden deep in fear, surge uncontrollably.
“All living beings are wicked and ugly. You’re no different. How does it feel? After all this, don’t you want to kill everyone you hold dear? Born into superiority, adored by all—you were bound to be spotless and pure. But now, scarred and broken, you’re as ugly as me!”
Luisa’s shoulders trembled as she vented her rage.
“……So next time, be reborn as a worthless worm, not a Bachinum. I might even show you some pity then.”
With that, Luisa readjusted her lantern, straightened her bent posture, and stood tall.
She was thrilled with the additional abilities she had harvested when Prim fainted earlier.
“……It won’t be long until I become the complete Bachinum. I’ll kill you and achieve perfection.”
The remaining powers clung tightly to Prim’s soul—they could only be fully reclaimed upon her complete death.
Smiling at the thought of claiming that power, Luisa left the cell with light, jaunty steps.
* * *
[Right before it all went down? And yet you pulled it off somehow. How exactly?]
“Curious?”
[……Yes.]
Dun opened his mouth to finish recounting the tale of past heroes.
* * *
Prim, now sentenced to death, was hastily brought before the nobles.
The gathered nobles had to approve that the evidence of her treason was solid.
Luyan placed Prim in the center of the hall and began listing out her secret hideouts, the numbers of her amassed troops, and the military support documents she had received—one by one, before the nobles.
Murmurs rippled through the room.
The key nobles, summoned urgently via teleportation magic circles to the palace, began sharing opinions.
“……Thus, since Prima Vera has been plotting treason systematically, I believe executing her as soon as possible is necessary to maintain peace in the empire. Does anyone object to advancing the execution to this morning?”
No one objected.
The evidence of treason was overwhelming and crystal clear. Speaking up would brand them a traitor.
Even the pro-Bachinum faction, who knew Prim’s true identity, stayed silent this time.
“I object.”
Suddenly, from the crowd of nobles, Collin Altide hesitated, then raised his hand urgently.
All eyes turned to Collin.
The man had become a beggar lately, and rumors said he’d gone mad.
He must be lashing out rebelliously after falling out with the emperor recently.
Luyan ignored Collin’s objection and continued.
“……With majority consent, the execution will proceed as planned.”
Luyan clicked his tongue, rushing the decision.
‘I need to execute her before that monster Noah with her insane combat skills arrives.’
Luyan had always kept an eye on Noah’s unnatural movements and power.
He’d even sent monsters to kill her, but whatever she was made of, she wouldn’t die.
With her hot-blooded temper, she’d charge in if she saw Prima Vera being taken.
Sending her far away on that dwarf armor pretext had been a satisfying choice to avoid last-minute interference.
As Luyan wished, everyone agreed on the treason charge, and Prim was swiftly dragged to the execution grounds.
A guillotine was set up in the crowded square. Word spread quickly that someone was being hastily executed for treason.
Superstitions held that seeing a corpse brought bad luck, so executions were always quiet affairs—unless it was a major crime like treason meant as a public example.
Half out of fear, half curiosity, people gathered before the guillotine.
“Seeing the dead brings curses. Get purified with Illitia’s talisman stamp. It’s free.”
Religious peddlers began slinking about, promoting their faith at the site of death.
They stamped talisman-like marks on the bodies of those come to watch Prim’s execution.
Prim, her head wrapped in white cloth, was led roughly up to the guillotine.
The executioner yanked the cloth from her head.
Harsh sunlight pierced her eyes from afar. Red tinged Prim’s pink irises.
‘Self-destruct…….’
Just the thought made scattered mana in her body gather at her solar plexus, tightening.
If the Record Parchment had been active, a clear category like ‘Self-Destruct Activated’ would have appeared.
The executioner forced Prim to her knees and pulled out a parchment listing her crimes at length.
It was time to proclaim the prisoner’s offenses to all.
From her vantage, Prim spotted Luisa seated comfortably high up.
The emperor had come down from the palace to watch her execution.
Prim glared steadily at Emperor Luisa.
Her solar plexus kept tightening.
* * *
Dun was still en route.
They’d gotten briefly lost in the maze forest midway.
The story continued after escaping the maze forest.
[Phew, we’re finally out. Even I struggle with illusions. So, after Min Ji-cheol snitched, did they catch Noah?]
“Yeah, Noah got caught in the end. Min Ji-cheol risked his life to track her down, desperate to save his own skin.”
[What happened after she was caught?]
“What do you mean? Kim Woo-sung, the association chairman, grabbed her and dragged her off to some secluded spot.”
[Did Kim Woo-sung bring Min Ji-cheol along?]
“Nah, he didn’t. Once someone’s betrayed big once, it’s hard to trust them again.”
[This Kim Woo-sung guy’s surprisingly tolerant, still keeping Min Ji-cheol around despite the suspicion.]
“Min Ji-cheol managed too much for Kim Woo-sung to just cut him loose. Better to turn a blind eye—it was voluntary confession, after all, so his punishment was lighter.”
Raikulrin nodded, relating it to his own kind and situation, as if understanding.
“Anyway, true to his gangster roots, Kim Woo-sung grabbed some tools and went to threaten Noah real viciously.”
* * *
“I’m damn good at catching rats. You’ve been siphoning goods and spreading weird rumors behind my back, right?”
“……No, it wasn’t me! Please believe me, just once!”
The captured Noah wept, insisting her innocence.
“Oh, your mind’s so rattled with fear you can’t think straight.”
Kim Woo-sung pulled out a dull pocketknife and pressed it to Noah’s throat.
“Spit it out. What’s your goal?”
“Sob, sniff. I just…… I just wanted to make some money. They say the hunter biz pays big…….”
Kim Woo-sung grabbed Noah by the scruff and dragged her to the prepared pit, shoving her in.
With a nod, his attendant supervisors picked up shovels and began burying her.
“W-what are you doing?!”
“Devious rats need rat poison and a burial.”
“Y-you’re really going to kill me?”
Noah’s shocked face crumpled in horror.
“Ah, I had no idea! No wonder the pay was insane! Fuck!!!”
“What?”
“I’m a hired actor! They said pretend to be ‘Noah’ with some lies for 200 million, so I said sure, but fuck, dead people don’t collect!”
Sensing something off, Kim Woo-sung raised a hand to stop the supervisors from burying her.
“That lie detector in the trunk—bring it here.”
At his order, one supervisor handed him the lie detector.
“You’re a hired actor?”
“Yes!!!!”
Noah shouted indignantly.
The lie detector confirmed her innocence.
“There’s even comms logs with that bastard Min Ji-cheol!”
Noah pulled out forged evidence and thrust it at Kim Woo-sung, whose eyes blazed with fury.
* * *
[Ah, a reverse frame job.]
“Yeah. He was already on thin ice, but with trust shaky, getting reverse-pointed made him skip checks and peg that guy as the final villain. For the record, that ‘Noah’ was a regular actor we paid off, so she passed the lie detector clean.”
* * *
Rage blurred his vision.
Kim Woo-sung stormed to Min Ji-cheol, grabbing his collar and throttling him.
“We’ve known each other so long—how could you…… how could you go all the way!!! How could you!!!”
“I swear, just once…… Just once I betrayed…… Sob, it’s so unfair. Be—gack! Gurk!! Kek!!!”
“Someone who wouldn’t betray wouldn’t have done it even once.”
* * *
“In the end, Kim Woo-sung kills his own best weapon with his own hands.”
[……Was all that scripted? Did you predict Min Ji-cheol would confess to the chairman?]
“We had tons of plans; that was one. Couldn’t leave it to luck when stakes were that high.”
Looking up, the sun was rising. They’d dawdled telling stories, and day had broken.
[What happened after the secretary died?]
“Even after the secretary’s death, leaks continued, so Kim Woo-sung realized it wasn’t Min Ji-cheol. He tried outsourcing for a reverse trace.”
* * *
The trace was a spectacle.
Noah was linked to CSK Media, which tied to a group called ‘Happy NPC.’
That ‘Happy NPC’ group connected to Haesung Electronics, which had supplied Kim Woo-sung with various electronics.
Haesung Electronics, a supporter of his, was involved in the Gate secondary damage prevention reconstruction project run by ‘Safe Home.’
And ‘Safe Home’ looped back to another company pretending to support him.
The chain circled endlessly, returning to Noah.
People helping people, forming a web of relations—and he was caught in it.
“Aaaargh!!”
Suddenly, everything terrified him.
He couldn’t trust anyone.
All his supposed allies had been profiting behind his back, excluding him.
He’d promised to lift them up, but they’d cast him aside, hoping he’d fail.
“Hey, you can’t do this to me. We’re in the same club—how could you!! How could you!!”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about…….”
The connections Seol Do-yoon had fabricated and fed to Kim Woo-sung were unknown to the other companies involved.
“Kim Woo-sung, I get your business is tanking, but pull yourself together quick.”
“I hit the nail on the head, huh? Scared ‘cause I called out your true feelings?”
“……You’re insane.”
Kim Woo-sung called an old classmate he’d known longest.
“Help me out a bit. Investors pulled funding suddenly. No one I can trust anymore. Forgot we’re sworn brothers? What? How can you be so heartless!!”
Few would back a powerless, unstable Kim Woo-sung.
Despite his pleas, his circle was ruthless.
Later, some reached out to aid the shaky Kim Woo-sung Pharmaceuticals.
“Chairman Kim, here’s all the money I’ve saved. The Korean Hunter Association grew this much thanks to you—get it together and keep pushing forward.”
‘This one’s in on it too? Yeah, they all are!!’
But by then, Kim Woo-sung distrusted them all and brushed them off.
Kim Woo-sung Pharmaceuticals’ stock plummeted helplessly until someone acquired it.
* * *
[The rest is obvious.]
“Yeah. Trampled by Abyss goons, then tossed into a gate.”
[What about the other groups aiding the Abyss Project?]
“We snatched the sponsor list from Kim Woo-sung and handed it to the cops. Bribed their way to longer sentences. And with that, the treason tale ends.”
Raikulrin sighed as the tale of Dun’s pitiful past and thrilling rebellion wrapped up.
Dun, who’d been animatedly recounting, looked around. They seemed near their destination.
“Cutting it close, but where are we now?”
Raikulrin, snapping out of the story, lifted his head to survey their surroundings and pinpoint their location.
[We’re almost at the destination.]
In the distance, a crowd of people had gathered.
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