Published at 4th of April 2023 8:32 pm

Chapter 229 Fake Hero [3]

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The sweet aroma of Jasmine tickled my nose.

Opening my eyes, I found silver strands covering my face.

-You are awake, he-Sir

A black shadow peeked at me from the corner. The silver strands pulled back and I realized I was lying on Susan's lap.

Silently, I watched both of them.

'If Caim is here then only a few hours have passed at most after I entered my soul.'

Eth's farewell still lingered in my mind, and so did the strange dream and the gaps in my memory. While I was trying to sort out my feelings, I tried to stand only for Susan to pull my head back into her lap.

"What are you doing?"

Although it wasn't my intention, a cranky voice left my throat, but Susan calmly pointed out the issue.

"You were crying in your sleep and saying sorry repeatedly."

"!!!"

My eyes widened and, reflexively covering my face, I blurted out. "I have dry eyes, so they water whenever I sleep."

This time Susan again tried to stop me from standing, but with her level and stats halved, I was able to forcefully pry away.

As Caim and Susan stared at me, they didn't point at my poor excuse… and I was thankful for that.

Slap-

I slapped both my cheeks hard. 'This isn't the time to mop around.'

Turning back to Susan, who was staring at me with a bewildered expression, I decided to proceed.

"You must have a lot of questions. Ask away because I also have something important to discuss with you."

The light in her eyes flickered and she understood the intent behind my words.

*

I explained to Susan that I was the one to kill Abomination. She didn't ask me anything else and accepted those facts.

From the looks of it, she was feeling guilty and wanted to apologize, as her [Ugly Squid] was the nail in the coffin of my death, but seeing as how I was alive in front of her she was unable to bring the topic up.

I wasn't able to use [Appraisal] on Epic-grade and Legendary-grade skills and didn't know what [Ugly Squid] did. Well, I wasn't able to before but I could do that now.

It was time.

Taking a deep breath, I bowed.

"I'm sorry. I've been lying to you till now. There is no organization backing me. For most of the part, I've been acting alone."

"What…?" Staring at my motionless stature, the harsh reality sunk it's fangs into her. "No, Y-you are trying to fool me now."

Susan stiffened. Her already white skin became paler and her lips quivered. For her, whose goal was to escape her cage, my words would be the biggest betrayal.

Her eyes shook from fear and loss, but I didn't reassure her. Even if our paths didn't diverge today, she needed to grow by herself, not with the help of assurance from someone else.

To my surprise, however, she recovered faster than I anticipated.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you died today, with the death the oaths that had been binding you are no longer there." Unconsciously or not, she gripped the handle of her sword, but I ignored it. "This is your chance to escape your cage."

She bit her lips. "Are you telling me to come with you?"

I nodded.

At my response, a hollow laugh left her lips.

"Why now when I've been believing your lies till now? Or are you planning something again, Mr. 6th Irregular?"

Although she spoke sarcastically, she was only putting up a strong front. Suddenly, being told that the oasis she was trying to reach was nothing but fleeting mirage made her reject my new advances to help her.

She wasn't thinking logically. Fear was clouding her mind.

Sighing, I sat down with crossed legs. It was to show I won't fight back even if she tried to attack.

"You don't need to come with me if you don't want to. I won't be against your choice."

I decided to elaborate a bit more to make her relax her wariness.

"If you want, I can help you escape. At this point, you are dead to everyone. I can bring you out of the Ward and you can leave from there. "

"But if you are worried that I'm trying to trick you, you can report about me to Ward."

Since she called me 6th Irregular, she must have known about the Underworld incident and connected it to me.

"It won't be under the wraps for long that I was the one to defeat the Abomination. After that, authorities naturally suspect me of being the 6th Irregular."

"You can use this chance when they have yet to confirm my identity and secure a better foothold for yourself in human society. By reporting me, you'll get support from the masses, and since the Oaths are no longer there, you can reveal your identity as the 5th Irregular."

"How is that going to help me? Retaliation will… it will only bring greater punishment…"

The fear of fighting back had been strictly ingrained in her bones and I meant that literally.

Thanks to her physique, her bones can store mana in them. She had been repeatedly operated on time and again. Her flesh and muscles had been torn open to dissect her bones and fed potions excessively by the scientists to heal faster to progress their research.

Honestly, it was commendable that she was even able to think of escaping.

"This time it won't."

I spoke further.

"Your identity as 5th Irregular will bring unconditional support from humanity as a whole. While if you report me and say I had been blackmailing you till now, it will bring Headmaster to your side. Headmaster knows about the meetings between us, so he will realize that you are telling the truth."

Headmaster was a cautious man. With the help of CCTV footage only accessible to him, he closely monitors talented cadets to filter out spies.

Before I knew this, and still got closer to Susan. It was to drag Headmaster out and confront him to get his support. But I was unlucky enough that he had gone to Tartarus.

"…Give me some time to think."

Nodding, I rejuvenated Caim and left him with her.

*

"It is time I analyze everything."

Standing with my back to the tree, I opened my status page.

======

Name: Nathan Hunt

Rank: Iota

Grade: -/-

Titles(s): [Successor of the First King], ■■■■■■■■■■■, [Ego Weapon (Cursed)], [Hated One], [Overlord of Chaos]

True Name: -/- (Locked)

-Reach Legendary grade to get a True Name

Stigma: [Iridescence]

*

[Stats] (Click to expand)

*

[Skills] Slots – 6/5

-> [Pierce [Common]]

-> [Synchronization]

-> [Golden Turtle [Unique]]

-> [Appraisal [Legendary]]

-> [Multiply [Unique]]

-> [Ignition [Legendary]]

Penalty: Due to an excessive number of skills, the performance of all the skills will be decreased by 10%.

*

[Techniques]

-> [Armory of Eridu [Legacy]] Mastery – Proficient

*

[Equipment Perks]

-> [Domination Decree Lvl2]

-> [Absolute Evil Lvl1] (Passive)

======

First were the skills. Since weapon skills weren't blocked inside the Tower, I was able to use all of my skills.

Consequently, I was supposed to have lost [Ignition] because of the limited slots. But, I suddenly received a notification of the skill being used after waking up earlier.

"So, this was the other [Miracle] Administrator talked about."

Somehow or the other way, the portion of my soul core with Leon must have materialized. The materialized soul core used [Ignition] and killed the Abomination.

"But [Ignition] wouldn't kill the Abomination. The only way I can think of is the soul core and Abomination becoming one. This way when the soul core dies from the Penalty, it will also kill the Abomination."

Of course, a Monarch or someone with a weapon made of [Fragment of Eternity] could've summoned Leon too. I had no way of knowing what happened with him.

But since the [Miracle] included me, I considered my theory to be correct.

With this, the last piece of the puzzle was found, and I got the complete picture of the incident.

"While I defeated the Abomination, Leon was able to save a portion of my soul core before he was summoned somewhere else."

Things became messy from here. It was a headache, if nothing else, that the part before defeating Abomination was easy to understand.

"Leon was summoned thanks to [Miracle] ability of X. And my soul core fused with Abomination was also thanks to [Miracle], after which my soul core used [Ignition] to kill itself(Abomination)."

Chances were slim but not zero than Administrator lied, but right now, my focus was to get the order of events straight, not trying to see if she was lying or not.

"Since the Abomination snatched my soul core before I became Overlord, it could use my System-skill."

As for who summoned Leon? I had zero idea, honestly.

'After gaining my prize from Administrator, I decided to confront the being inside me regarding Eth's death. But I don't know what happened after that.'

For some reason, there was a gap in my memory.

'I was suddenly standing in a hell confronting a black figure.'

My memories of that dream were hazy, only remembering tids and bits.

If I recall the details of that place, only one location came to my mind: Tree of Damnation and the 5 Rivers of Ruin, the birthplace of Demons.

'That black figure showed me something after saying that I might remember this dream, so I had dreamed of that place at least once before.'

I was killed, and then I met Eth, who shouldn't have been alive anymore. From Eth's words, it sounded like he was also surprised that he was revived for a moment.

'Eth then confirmed that the one who brought me into this world was himself, the one who had gone through regressions and he had almost given up.'

Then I woke up after saying goodbye.

"This was everything that happened."

'Now the important questions are the memory gap, and if the dream I saw was made by the being inside my soul.'

But I was almost sure that both of them had nothing to do with the being inside my soul.

It was because of what the black figure showed me and if I wasn't wrong...

'I finally know what the being inside me meant when he said that I would die within a year.'

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