# Chapter 110
There were dozens of knights aiming muskets at Rite. Knights with gold brooches on their chests also simultaneously drew their swords.
“Where’s Arden?”
“What kind of relationship do you two even have?”
Perhaps a hundred. Rite corrected his count. His bloodshot eyes, from consuming unrefined magical fragments, scanned the people. The space was far too cramped to hold this many personnel. In such a confined space, guns were merely for intimidation, with little effectiveness to be expected. Before they could even load their weapons, they might have their necks torn out by Rite’s hands.
Tearing fragile skin wasn’t difficult. It would be easy to rip off the limbs and send the heads flying of knights in uniforms without leather or heavy armor. But Rite hadn’t forgotten his purpose for coming this far.
He wanted to stand beside him as a human. He wanted to become a person who wasn’t shameful. He didn’t want to disappoint. He wanted to live for the person who made his eyes dazzle and burn just by thinking of him.
‘You’re not a monster.’
For the person who had denied Rite’s existence for a long time while simultaneously redefining it.
Tension flowed between the hundred or so trained knights and the black monster with unskilled sword-handling. Though it was obvious which side had the advantage, strangely, the knights’ expressions were all ashen.
Rite’s only experience was binding one person. Whether the effects of the potion his master had made were wearing off, or if this was the limit of his ability, it had no effect on these mechanical masses. Nevertheless, hadn’t he come this far? Rite, who had been abandoned without strength, was now at the doorstep of the Emperor’s innermost sanctum. Not for the deity called noble, but for the one human who hadn’t given up on him.
There was no time to doubt himself. Rite tore off another scale fragment with his teeth. Blood flowed from his mouth as if he were chewing glass shards. The blessing in his blood kneaded his heart fiercely. His head spun rapidly, yet all his senses were dulled.
Perhaps due to his strange behavior or his extraordinary appearance, those in black clothing hesitated, then froze without blinking an eye. Even Daniel, the only one in a dark blue uniform, halted his steps half a beat late. His face gradually contorted.
Rite quietly moved his feet. The thick carpet on the floor also concealed his footsteps. No sound was heard inside the reception room. Rite walked between the knights without any interference. No one grabbed Rite, nor did they turn to look at him. It was as silent as if all time had stopped.
“……”
Only Daniel’s blue eyes moved slightly. His trembling eyeballs rolled unnaturally. They turned toward Rite passing by, but Rite went past Daniel and headed to the door.
And so Rite opened the door to the bedroom.
* * *
In the spacious bedroom, Rite’s eyes immediately fixed on one spot. Arden was there, with an iron bit in his mouth, his arms twisted behind him, bound.
Arden’s eyes frantically examined Rite. Though the distance was considerable, the broken horn and blood-stained arm were clearly visible. Rite discreetly hid his left arm behind his back.
“So you’ve finally come.”
At the voice, Rite turned his head. Rite’s eyes slowly scanned the Emperor. The only part that looked somewhat normal was his face. His hair, like crumbling straw, loosely covered his head, and his pale face with blue lips didn’t look healthy, but at least he appeared human.
Through the unbuttoned shirt, lines were intricately tangled. The entire left chest was a metal plate. Not human flesh. A red light, attached like a sensor, blinked rapidly. Just like announcing a beating heart. At the end of the lines was a machine with wheels. The Emperor was using it as a cane to stand.
The back of his calves were also full of lines. Rite couldn’t gauge what these lines were for. Not much human flesh remained. Most of the body had been replaced with machinery, yet the calves with lines still maintained human skin. If he had implanted machines for everything, it might have been less hideous. The blackened, decaying wrinkled skin looked more like a sculpture molded from solidified wastewater than a person.
There was also a stench. It was a foul odor mixing the smell of rotting pus and strong oil. It covered the heavy smell of blood on the floor and irritated Rite’s sensitive sense of smell.
“You’ve finally come.”
Rite couldn’t read the Emperor’s expression either. His two eyes, cloudy as if covered in smoke, seemed to be filled with joy, and his oil-stained voice sounded terrified. Eyes carrying ambivalent emotions traced over Rite. His gaze lingered on the remaining horn and black scales on Rite’s arm. His twisted lips quivered. Rite readjusted his grip on the sword.
“To think you’d grow so much in such a short time.”
“……”
“Without knowing that… I was underprepared. I was too complacent……”
Rite’s sneer cut off the Emperor’s words. Blue eyes, lifeless like those of a dried fish, persistently gazed at Rite.
“In that state, what more preparation do you need?”
He looked less alive than a dead tree. How many people had he killed to implant that mechanical heart beating from external stimuli? How many lands had he stained with blood to fulfill his excessive greed? While the country was full of plague, war, and desolate land, the man only looked at Rite. His bloodshot eyes, never blinking as if afraid Rite might disappear from his sight, stared at him.
Artalis’s words finally made sense. The Emperor was going insane. He was being eaten away by a formless fear, gradually losing his mind. Captured by fear, the Emperor was sinking into fate and prophecies, allowing himself to be devoured.
“If I’d had just a little more time!”
The Emperor’s murky voice cracked. The red light on his chest blinked increasingly faster. The Emperor continued, gasping for breath.
“If only I’d been given a bit more time, I could have too. If I hadn’t suffered side effects from hastily implanting the heart! You would have…!”
“……”
“I wasn’t even afraid of Artalis. Even in the middle of the battlefield, I had nothing to fear! But you… a mere parasite living in my body…”
“……”
“I should have killed you then. What was there to fear about a mere infant? Keeping you alive was…”
Arden retched with a choking sound. Rite’s gaze shifted to Arden. Even breathing seemed difficult for him. Every time he opened his mouth to breathe, the bit pressing down his entire tongue was visible. The blood flowing from his lips made Rite anxious.
The Emperor took in this sight. The Emperor smiled faintly, but Rite didn’t notice.
“Then I wouldn’t have been toyed with by this kind of fate……”
“That damn fate.”
His bloodshot eyes were intense. They were already returning to their original color, pushing out the yellow light. His pupils were elongated. The scales remaining on his right arm wriggled, making small sounds. The regular sound of gears meshing and turning mixed with the sound of scales writhing.
“I came here on my own feet.”
“It’s all part of Artalis’s plan…”
“If it were according to fate, I would already be dead.”
It was his fate to die the moment he tore through the Emperor and emerged. It was the Emperor who had extracted him.
“I didn’t follow fate; I just went the way I wanted.”
Arden’s eyes widened. Like cogwheels meshing to form a large machine, was fate like that too? The answer to Arden’s question fell.
“I don’t particularly hold a grudge against you. So if you want to blame someone, blame Artalis, not me. I’ve come to fulfill my wish.”
“Is that how she tempted you? By saying she would grant your wish if you killed me?”
The Emperor let out a short laugh like a cough. The brief laughter gradually grew until the Emperor started laughing while clutching his stomach. It was an eerie laugh like sharp nails scratching against metal, making one want to scratch out their ears just from hearing it.
“The same. Exactly the same.”
“……”
“You made a contract with the goddess, didn’t you?”
Do you believe that being? The Emperor’s eyes rolled wildly as he looked, but Rite wasn’t anxious at all. The phrase “one wish” was ambiguous. Since it would be impossible to define the boundaries of what constitutes one wish, if he phrased it well, Rite could become human and stay by Arden’s side without dying.
Let me live as a human by Arden’s side.
“I am the Emperor! I am the master of this country! Not that old goddess!”
“You also made a contract with Artalis, didn’t you?”
Eyes chaotically mixing two incompatible colors pierced through the Emperor.
“I think I know your wish.”
The red light on the man’s chest blinked faster than before. Rite knew well the feeling of clinging to a single wish.
“Emperor. Is that your own hand?”
“The past isn’t important. I’ve endured more hardships than this.”
Inferiority complex rooted to the core would only grow more vigorously when attempted to be hidden.
In the Emperor’s eyes, Rite saw a gleaming obsession. Power, authority, eternity. All were merely a magnificent cloak and crown covering his diminutive self.
Like a monster wishing to become human, the Emperor’s bare face would be the opposite.
“If your position was attained through Artalis’s power, you should have anticipated being brought down by Artalis as well.”
“……”
“Right now, I have one desperate wish.”
He wanted to be human. Enough to cling to anything.
“What are you so afraid of? With all those machines hanging off you.”
Rite approached the Emperor, pointing at the Emperor’s chest with the tip of his sword. The Emperor retreated bit by bit while clutching his machine, but his steps were unstable. The distance continued to narrow—the distance between Rite and the Emperor, and also between the Emperor and Arden.
There was no fear on the face of the retreating Emperor. Intoxicated with a sense of victory, he opened his mouth.
“You are my only fear. Once I kill you today, I’ll have nothing to fear anymore.”
“Sure. If you can.”
“I know exactly how to handle ones like you.”
The Emperor turned his body around. Rite’s field of vision now included the Emperor’s back and Arden. Arden’s eyes turned toward Rite. The night-sky-like eyes of both men met at close distance.
