Chapter 299-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty the Emperor!"
Amid the frantic shouts, the man who had collapsed on the floor slowly came to. The hellish projection on the wall had vanished, leaving nothing but a pallid blank.
Two dutiful guards helped him to his feet and briefed him on the situation.
"Your Majesty, over a dozen Demonic Domains have appeared in the upper district! The Royal Knights Order needs your orders!"
The Emperor's expression was dazed. Propped up between the two guards and half-dragged outside, it took him a long moment to collect himself. He shoved them aside and barked: "Have them deal with the Demonic Domains as quickly as possible... No—the upper district has the most ability users anywhere. Call every last one of them back. I'm going to kill her!"
The man finished speaking and clutched his throbbing head. He couldn't remember how he had drawn those things here. This body was far too frail to contain his exalted soul.
He had assumed Ye Zheng would maintain the surface peace out of caution, buying him time to prepare a new body. Yet Ye Zheng had chosen, without a moment's hesitation, to plunge the world into chaos!
"Your Majesty, please retreat to safety! The Pope has gone mad—the Empire needs you!"
Terror still lingered on the guard's face. Ye Zheng's earth-shattering act had left him shaken beyond recovery. He refused to believe anything Ye Zheng had said—it upended every conviction he'd held since childhood!
Which warrior in the Empire hadn't grown up on tales of the God of Hope? So the rumor that the Pope worshipped the Demon Dragon as a heretic wasn't slander from political enemies after all. Ye Zheng must have fallen under the Demon Dragon's sway long ago. She was no prophesied hero—she was a demon, a world-ending evil god!
And yet the true culprit stood right beside the young guard, who was too consumed by grief and fury to notice.
The Emperor observed the guard's reaction and let out an imperceptible breath of relief.
Who would suspect that he was the one who had summoned those horrors? To the people of the Empire, "Demonic Domains are a calamity caused by the Demon Dragon" was as self-evident as the sun rising in the east—an ingrained conviction. Ye Zheng's recent exposé of the Dragon Bones hoax had, conveniently, only reinforced the idea that Dragon Bones attracted Demonic Domains. No one would trace the blame back to him.
Ye Zheng, to her credit, had enough self-awareness not to wildly accuse him. Of course, even if she told the truth, as long as she sided with the Demon Dragon, no one would believe a word she said.
No matter how revered Ye Zheng had been, her glory and prestige had always rested on her status as the Saintess of the God of Hope, the Pope of the God of Hope. The moment she stood against the God of Hope, she was nothing!
This disaster would once again be blamed on the Demon Dragon—just as it had been five hundred years ago. The Emperor let out a cold laugh.
The guards helped the Emperor stagger toward the shelter within the Imperial Palace—one he had built five hundred years ago as a precaution. He had managed this world for five centuries. How could it all be undone by an ordinary girl not yet twenty!
The Emperor's expression shifted. He stopped abruptly, changed direction, summoned more guards, and headed another way.
All along, everything in this world had been nothing more than chess pieces for him to move at will. He had always harbored this instinctive contempt for Ye Zheng—she couldn't possibly have come this far; she should have been dead long ago. Yet here she was, alive and kicking, having cornered him to this extent.
He no longer had time to find a body that could legitimately inherit the throne. It didn't matter if he lost the crown he'd worn for centuries—as long as he killed Ye Zheng!
Percy, Percy... His meticulously managed Hope Project had been ruined by Ye Zheng, but she had been born too late. The moment Percy drew his first breath, the Hope Project had already succeeded.
Once he entered a body truly capable of housing his soul, he would at last command the power from on high!
*
Heath gazed out the window at the greenery. This castle was remote and seldom visited; mercifully, no Demonic Domain had descended here yet.
But perhaps it was her own heartbeat pounding too loudly—she kept thinking she could hear screams.
The upper-district aristocrats could gather the nation's most gifted ability-user bloodlines. What the upper district lacked least was outstanding ability users. The Empire's most prestigious Ability Academies were all located here, and the bulk of the weapons and armor crafted from Demonic Domain creatures sat in aristocratic collections...
The upper district should have the fewest casualties.
So Heath judged.
Any ability user of moderate talent had found a way to squeeze into the Middle District. Those stationed in the lower district would be overwhelmed by a large-scale invasion—by all logic, it should suffer the heaviest losses. But... Ye Zheng was there.
Even though, right now, people probably didn't want Ye Zheng around anymore.
"Your Highness, what exactly are you trying to do?"
A voice suddenly came from behind. Heath flinched and turned. Percy stood there, wrists bound, staring at her.
"What happened to the people guarding you? Did you kill them all?"
"No. I only knocked them out. I have no intention of harming anyone. Undo these cuffs now, and I won't cause you trouble."
"Also, give me back the Holy Sword."
Percy wore ability-suppressing handcuffs, his face deathly pale, urgency etched between his brows.
Heath understood at once. Percy had been feigning unconsciousness, biding his time. He had heard everything the Radio had broadcast, and now he was desperate to get out.
"Even if you go out now, what can you do? I'd wager your greatest value is staying right here." And awaiting her judgment.
Percy's expression was terrible. He demanded: "The Demon Dragon has descended along with the Demonic Domains. You're a princess of this Empire—why would you choose to side with Ye Zheng?"
"She's not the Chosen One at all. Stop letting her deceive you!"
"Oh, that." Not a flicker of emotion crossed Heath's face. "Didn't you hear what Ye Zheng said? The God of Hope doesn't exist. Since the God doesn't exist, of course Ye Zheng isn't some Chosen One—because the Chosen One doesn't exist either."
Heath's matter-of-fact tone enraged Percy completely. His handcuffs rattled and shook.
"Let me out! I will purge all evil in the name of the true God!"
Percy had of course heard Ye Zheng's earth-shattering speech. He didn't believe a single word. Ye Zheng now wielded the Demon Dragon's power, had forsaken the God of Hope, and had finally shown her true colors.
His mind flashed back to the first time he'd seen Ye Zheng. She had stood beside the haughty Sykes in a white dress, her downcast smile like the moon's gentle reflection on earth.
A year ago, he never could have imagined that beneath such a gentle, pure exterior lurked a soul so fractured and terrifying.
How had she gazed upon the faces of those who sincerely adored her while so coldly unleashing the calamity of destruction?
"Evil... You think the Demonic Domains raging outside were brought by Ye Zheng?"
Heath mused: "If the God of Hope doesn't exist, then we need to rethink everything we thought we knew about the Demon Dragon."
Who had truly brought the Demonic Domains... She already had a theory in her heart.
When it came to suspecting her own father, Heath never hesitated.
When seven Demonic Domains had appeared simultaneously in the lower district to obstruct Ye Zheng's plan, Heath had recalled the flashes of madness in the Emperor's eyes. She'd had a premonition even then.
"Compared to Ye Zheng and the Demon Dragon, my father the Emperor is far more likely to have summoned the Demonic Domains."
Heath shared her suspicion without reserve. But the composure and rationality she displayed now looked, in Percy's eyes, like a cold-blooded monster—a monster of the same species as Ye Zheng.
Percy's blue eyes dimmed. He had no desire to argue further. He raised his cuffed hands and swung them viciously at the side of Heath's neck—
Heath's less-than-agile body dodged in a graceless lunge, as if she'd been expecting the attack all along.
"Wait, Percy. I can undo your handcuffs. I can give you back your sword."
"I have only one condition."
Seeing the surprise and hesitation on Percy's face, Heath tentatively extended her hand toward him.
"Cooperate with me. Look into my eyes and let my hand touch your forehead."
At that, Percy tensed again, retreating a step.
"Don't you want to know why you exist? Don't you want to know the truth of this world?"
Heath coaxed, as though she held the key to every truth.
"Percy, I didn't bring you from Ye Zheng's grasp back to the upper district just to kill you."
"Otherwise, I had countless opportunities along the way, didn't I?"
Percy stood frozen. In his hazy memories, the floodwaters had receded and he'd been found half-dead by knights of the Sei Curia.
Ye Zheng had no reason to spare him. She had a thousand reasons to kill him. Had this Princess Heath truly risked everything to spirit him away from Ye Zheng's threat?
While he stood there in a daze, a cold, sweat-slicked palm had already pressed against his forehead.
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