Chapter 129. Pursuit (1)
When I emerged from the underground dungeon—
Leon and Lucas were discussing the suspects in the case.
I subtly signaled Leon.
Leon blinked briefly before naturally addressing Lucas.
“....Understood. Then I’ll take my leave.”
“I’ll report to you as soon as the investigation progresses.”
Lucas drew a short breath before continuing.
“However, I will not submit a separate report concerning the condition of the scene.”
As he said that, Lucas looked in my direction.
....Had he known?
Apparently, he had noticed me but pretended otherwise.
Assimilation [C+] had nearly been discovered even by Luseria.
It was still an incomplete ability because I hadn’t secured the complete Genetic Factor.
Lucas had noticed me but knowingly pretended not to. As expected, he wasn’t completely inflexible.
He was the same as he had been in my previous life. And the same Lucas I remembered.
That made one thing even more certain.
There was no possibility that Lucas had betrayed the royal family and colluded with the enemy.
Someone else had bypassed Lucas’s surveillance and murdered Queen Marceline.
There was an extremely high probability that the culprit was the Monarch of Darkness.
The moment we rounded the corner—
Leon immediately questioned me.
“Did you examine it?”
“Just as Commander Lucas said, it appears impossible that she took her own life.”
“I see….”
“Whom does Commander Lucas suspect?”
“Commander Lucas identified Walter as the primary suspect.”
Walter was Queen Marceline’s biological son and the Third Prince. His motive for murdering Marceline would be—
“Commander Lucas suspects he wanted to eliminate the evidence connecting him to the treason.”
Killing a witness to destroy the evidence.
Walter had a motive to eliminate Queen Marceline and erase every piece of evidence proving his involvement in the treason.
Even Leon’s absurdly powerful Present Vision [L] couldn’t extract information from the dead.
“I suppose I’ll have to meet Walter.”
Leon muttered as he turned his gaze toward me.
“Adrian, will you accompany me?”
I shook my head.
Walter wasn’t the culprit.
At the very least, he wasn’t the one who had personally murdered the Queen. However, he might have been involved in the treason or ordered the assassination.
In other words, he still needed to be investigated.
But Leon’s Present Vision [L] meant that he wouldn’t need my help.
“I’ll investigate separately.”
“Then we’ll meet again later.”
Leon and I briefly exchanged glances before parting ways.
Then I stopped.
“Your Highness, please don’t investigate too deeply, just in case.”
Marceline had been murdered in the royal palace’s underground dungeon.
The culprit might still be somewhere within the royal palace.
If the culprit was the Monarch of Darkness, as I suspected, he wouldn’t leave someone pursuing him alone.
“You could be placed in danger.”
“....Understood. You should also be careful.”
Leon appeared to sense something as well and nodded solemnly.
After separating from Leon, I investigated the exterior of the royal palace.
However, I couldn’t discover a single clue.
As I returned to the royal palace, I organized my thoughts.
Judging by the circumstances, there was an extremely high probability that the Monarch of Darkness was responsible for this incident.
Therefore, I needed to reconsider the information about the Monarch of Darkness.
In other words, the question of “Who is the Monarch of Darkness?”
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have been able to think or reason about that.
Whenever someone investigated “Who is the Monarch of Darkness?” all the information they obtained would be forgotten.
Until now, I had instead been determining “Who is not the Monarch of Darkness?” and eliminating the possibilities one at a time.
But that was no longer necessary.
Successor’s Will [EX].
I could now recall and consider the question of “Who is the Monarch of Darkness?”
The information I possessed about the Monarch of Darkness could be summarized as follows.
1. The Monarch of Darkness is a Tangible Being who can be seen and touched.
2. The Monarch of Darkness is a Sentient Entity capable of thinking and acting independently.
3. The Monarch of Darkness is the strongest Monarch.
4. The Monarch of Darkness is not the Emperor.
That was the information I had already established.
The information I discovered through the Vanished Social Club was—
5. The Monarch of Darkness is an entity that is created.
Memoria, the Commander of the Dark Legion.
An information-based life-form.
A Legion Commander receives a portion of its Monarch’s Authority.
In other words, the Monarch of Darkness probably wasn’t fundamentally different from Memoria.
Presumably, the Monarch of Darkness possessed the Authority of Oblivion, allowing him to devour the memories and souls of his true targets more perfectly and completely.
Based upon this information—
If the Monarch of Darkness had murdered Queen Marceline, his reason was simple.
He feared that information related to him would be revealed.
The identity of the person the Monarch of Darkness had devoured might have been exposed, revealing his existence.
That meant Queen Marceline possessed important information about the Monarch of Darkness.
There was something between Queen Marceline and the Monarch of Darkness that couldn’t be allowed to come to light….
‘But was it really necessary to kill her?’
Couldn’t he simply erase it with the Authority of Oblivion?
Yet Queen Marceline had been murdered.
Therefore, if the culprit was the Monarch of Darkness, there were two possibilities.
Either he had exhausted his Authority while holding the Vanished Social Club—
Or there was something that even the Authority of Oblivion couldn’t erase.
After all, the Monarch of Darkness wasn’t an entity that couldn’t be observed.
He was merely the Being of Observational Uncertainty.
Therefore, it was entirely possible that something existed that couldn’t be erased even through the Authority of Oblivion.
‘Hmm.’
Let me think about this further.
Queen Marceline had joined forces with Luseria—
In other words, the Dark Merchant Company.
Her objective had been to remove Leon from power.
Queen Marceline wanted to depose Leon and enthrone her biological son as King.
Lucas had focused on that point and identified Third Prince Walter as the suspect in this incident.
‘....Wait.’
Something was strange.
‘Why did he identify only Walter as a suspect?’
After all, Queen Marceline had two biological sons. Walter was the Third Prince and her second son.
Marceline had another son—
The Second Prince, her firstborn.
The Second Prince.
The Second Prince was….
Who was the Second Prince?
Now that I thought about it—
‘I’ve never seen the Second Prince.’
I had encountered Third Prince Walter immediately after arriving at the royal palace.
But I hadn’t encountered the Second Prince even once. I hadn’t seen him during the social gathering either.
Even the nobles had never discussed the Second Prince.
I had only known that the Second Prince “existed”.
I couldn’t remember his name.
I retraced my memories and attempted to recall the Second Prince’s name.
But even then….nothing came to mind.
At that moment—
“You caused something rather interesting.”
Someone muttered as he passed beside me. I glimpsed the side of his face through my peripheral vision.
It was a face I knew.
What was his name again?
It was probably....
Probably—
‘Probably...?’
His name wouldn’t come to mind. It was as though it had been erased from my memory.
I stopped walking.
I slowly turned my head and activated Predatory Instinct [S]—
Only then did I understand.
....Queen Marceline wasn’t the true mastermind.
She had been nothing more than a puppet.
The one who had hidden within the darkness and manipulated the kingdom—
The one who had controlled the kingdom’s politics and attempted to seize every person of influence—
The one who had divided the kingdom, encouraged Imperial intervention, and ultimately destroyed the kingdom—
Was—
==< Character Information >==
Name: Blake Vatenberg
Classification: Kingdom Animalia, Class Mammalia, Family Hominidae, Human
Gender: Male
Age: Nineteen
Traits: ?? ?? [?], ??? [?]
Second Prince Blake Vatenberg.
He was—
“That’s far enough.”
Adrian’s voice suddenly rang out.
This time, Blake’s footsteps abruptly stopped.
When Blake slowly turned his gaze, he found Adrian staring directly at him.
Adrian’s red eyes looked as though they had been soaked in blood.
But they were clearly focused—
Adrian was unmistakably aware of Blake’s existence.
◆ Successor’s Will [EX] is resisting the Authority of Oblivion!!
◆ 1,562 Sanity has accumulated.
Adrian suddenly stopped like a broken machine.
His eyes lost focus and wandered as his consciousness sank into the void.
After confirming Adrian’s condition, Blake turned away and resumed walking.
One step.
Two steps.
And just as he took his third—
“Who decided that?”
A message flashed before my eyes.
My consciousness, which had been falling into the void, was suddenly pulled back.
I could see Blake slowly turning toward me. His flawless face and perfectly proportioned features—
Ash-gray hair that seeped through the air like mist and black eyes that seemed to devour light, assimilating with the darkness.
“How did—”
Before Blake could finish his question—
Killing intent without the slightest hesitation pierced through me.
‘Danger!’
I immediately threw myself aside.
At the same moment—
Crackle!
Spikes of ash erupted from the floor, instantly covering the place where I had been standing.
I quickly turned my gaze.
Blake immediately swept his hands through the air, drawing down a layer of mist.
Rumble—!
Mist-like Mana surged from Blake’s body.
Blake raised both hands above his head. An unnatural sensation permeated the entire space.
....This wasn’t an opponent against whom I could afford to weigh my options.
Berserk [?] consumed all available Sanity.
However, the battle against Memoria—
Because Memoria had perfectly replicated my abilities, fighting him had been the same as fighting myself.
I had learned something during that battle.
Berserk [?] could be activated multiple times, and several Super-Combination Skills could be applied simultaneously.
During the Vanished Social Club, I had also confirmed the amount of Sanity required for each rank of Berserk [?].
Therefore, if I could deliberately control the amount of Sanity consumed—
◆ Your current Sanity is 4,586.
◆ Consuming 334 Sanity.
◆ Berserk [?] will be applied at rank [B].
As expected, my control was still inadequate.
I had consumed far more than the 100 Sanity required for Berserk [B-].
Even so, I had successfully controlled the amount consumed.
◆ Activating the Transcendence Skill, Berserk [?].
◆ Activating the Super-Combination Skill, Accelerated Heartbeat [E]!
◆ Activating the Transcendence Skill, Hyper-Regeneration [A]!
Thump!!
A violent pulse shook my entire body.
My blood flow increased explosively, and my muscles and nerves became extraordinarily sensitive.
But that wasn’t the end.
◆ Your current Sanity is 4,252.
◆ Consuming 1,023 Sanity.
◆ Berserk [?] will be applied at rank [B+].
◆ Activating the Super-Combination Skill, Draconification [E]!
Intense power boiled within my body. My bones and muscles twisted as though screaming. My blood surged with an alien pulse, and my five senses expanded.
And then I finally matched it—
The 3,200 Sanity required for Berserk [A].
◆ Your current Sanity is 3,229.
◆ Consuming 3,229 Sanity.
◆ Berserk [?] will be applied at rank [A].
Crack-crack-crack!
My bones tore apart, and large bones protruded from beneath my elbows.
Protruding bones sharpened like blades.
Bone Blade.
Memoria had reinforced the cutting edges of the Bone Blades with a new material created through Nutrient Creation [A-].
Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that.
I had exhausted all my Sanity.
But it didn’t matter.
I used the basic skill, Nutrient Synthesis [B]. I coated the cutting edges of the Bone Blades with Keratin.
The Bone Blades could now receive the effects of Monomolecular Blade [S].
It possessed the absurd ability to sever bonding structures at the molecular level, completely ignoring one hundred percent of durability and defense to inflict direct damage.
Furthermore, Draconification [E] converted one percent of all reduced damage into Energy measured in kilocalories.
That meant I could replenish calories during battle.
“I don’t know whether your younger brother told you about me, but—”
Rumble-rumble-rumble—!!
“I don’t go easy on someone just because he’s a Prince.”
No comments yet. Be the first to leave a review!