Chapter 213 - The Devil In My Father

"What can you tell me about him?" said Reed as he kept a weather eye on the scenery outside.

With Mu shrouded in eternal darkness due to the lack of a parent star, the only way one could navigate the gloomy tombworld was by using equipment to scan one's surroundings or use the sporadic lightning bolt created by the world-spanning Anima storm that encompassed the planet to light the way...

"I thought you already knew about him, considering how you shared memories with..." said Lu'um, somewhat surprised. She had genuinely not expected Reed to not know anything about the former Emperor. Not that she had ever brought up any topics that were related to Him.

Reed shook his head in denial and said, "I only know bits and pieces about the Emperor from fragmented memories that I stumbled upon. The Wretch wasn't too keen on showing me His past, not that I would have cared to listen even if He had a change of heart." 

As far as Reed had been concerned back then, he already had a wonderful collection of bad memories from his own childhood; he had not been interested in adding to his collection...

"Then what do you know?" said Lu'um curiously. "Here's what we'll do; Tell me everything you know, and I'll fill in the gaps and correct the misunderstandings. It'll be faster than going over, well, everything from the beginning, right?" 

And so, Reed began to recount what he had glimpsed so many years ago...

He knew that the former Emperor wasn't a princeling, by any measure normal of the word. The man had been born a member of the gentry, but rarely ever acted the part. He was a maverick who lived to do what he pleased above all else. 

Lu'um smirked. "That sounds about right. When I was young, the Emperor entertained Itotia and me with stories about his misadventures. He used to peddle counterfeit artworks to snobby nobles to humiliate them later on when someone called them out for owning a fake. Or when he used to party crash at formal parties with his friends to steal dates away from actual princelings, much to their fury..." 

If something was considered sacred, polite, or formal, the Emperor considered it a target for his personal amus.e.m.e.nt. And that was why he found the First Princess of the Mulian Empire so fascinating when he first saw her. Never had he seen something so delicate and pure in his life; the moment the Emperor laid eyes on her, it was over already over for him. 

"The dumb idiot even trespassed into her damn bedchambers at night just to meet her! Had he not been spared by the Princess, he would have certainly been sentenced to a fate worse than death," said Reed, as he reminisced about the memory he had witnessed. "And then, as if to tempt his own early death, he continued to break into her bedchambers every night afterward..." 

Reed already felt his head beginning to hurt the more he thought about this so-called "Emperor."

Every memory he seemed to recall of him was one that only increased his disdain of the man.

He was pretty much everything Reed hated of someone; the man was a notorious braggart, liar, swindler, gambler, habitual womanizer, and a general pain in the a.s.s to anyone that knew him. 

"He wasn't that bad..." said Lu'um, but when she began to remember some of his more colorful stories, she backpedaled with, "Well... everyone makes mistakes in their youth. We can't hold him accountable for that, right? And he did eventually grow up a bit once he got older... I guess."

And then, there was the startling fact that the audacious bastard had actually eloped with the Emperor's eldest daughter, the First Princess, on the very eve of her wedding to her arranged fiancé. 

This, of course, had not been enough for the bastard either, for he had also taken the Mantle of Heaven as well, which was reserved only for the chosen inheritor of one of two the sacred Marks of Responsibility. 

As far as Reed understood, this damned fellow was the root cause of everything.

He was never supposed to have a part in the wider story of the universe. He was never meant to fall in love with the First Princess, become the owner of the Mantle of Heaven, obtain the Mark of Responsibility, or become Emperor of the Mulian Empire. 

The man was a living aberration, to put it politely. A snag in the grand tapestry that Fate had woven. An actor that seemingly broke the script and had completely turned everything inside out, for better or worse...

"What do you want me to say? If it weren't for his actions, none of this would have fallen..." said Lu'um as she stared at the bleak, desolate scenery outside of their ship. 

"...But at the same, you and I wouldn't have been born, you know. You and I were both created as contingency plans — had everything gone as planned, neither you nor I would have been created. And I don't know about you, but I like quite enjoy existing very much..." 

Reed frowned at the thought that his life had been the result of a cosmic blunder of catastrophic proportions, but in a twisted way, it did delight him knowing that he was an error. Even more so, when he thought that his existence was the byproduct of someone else's f.u.c.k up. 

"In any case, he wasn't as terrible as you think he was," said Lu'um with a tender smile. "He was a loving father, devoted husband, and a joy to be around for all that knew him. He was... a truly great man." 

"...That right? Well, you'd know him better than I ever will, so I'll take your word on it," said Reed skeptically. 

"Still, he seemed like a poor excuse of a father and a total clown to me... But then again, those were The Wretch's memories of the Emperor. Given how much He hated his father, I'm pretty sure all the memories I glimpsed were biased in some way against the old man..."

A difficult expression formed on Lu'um's face, and she said, "It wasn't always like that. There was a time when they had a normal relationship. Well, as normal as could be expected, I suppose. Their relationship only turned poisonous after the Emperor..." 

"Turned traitor?" asked Reed curiously. 

Lu'um nodded. "After the Emperor defected, both He and I were forced to inherit the Marks of Responsibility. I can only imagine how delighted my mother must have been when I finally got the opportunity to fulfill the role she failed to obtain." 

"Nevertheless, I still remember how kind the Emperor was to me as a child. He always used to spoil me and shower me with affection whenever he met me. In many ways, he was the closest thing I ever had to a father," said Lu'um before she added, "Ahh, that's right... I forgot you don't know. Not that it's your fault, of course..." 

Reed and Lu'um had reached an unspoken agreement long ago about s.e.n.s.i.t.i.v.e matters like their personal histories. They knew that there were memories that neither of them wished to talk about. Every individual had their own personal boundaries. It did not get any simpler than that. 

"I don't have a father," said Lu'um. "My mother was singularly devoted to the Emperor to the bitter end. She would not court any other man besides the Emperor. Therefore, my sisters and I were all born via artificial insemination. We were born from genetically modified zygotes as a series of clones. Each sister a refined version based on the previous sister's... imperfections." 

In pursuit of a perfected form of herself, Shaali modified four of her own eggs and gave birth to clones of herself. 

Four sisters were born from the mother's lifelong obsession— Yalya, Iola, Hara, and finally Lu'um. 

As the "perfect one," Lu'um arguably suffered the most of all the sisters. Though her mother was not one to show love to her daughters, she barely showed any love to Lu'um.

And as if the expectations Shaali had for Lu'um had not been crushing enough already, she was also treated the same way by her own older sisters — with indifference and a particular loathing of her that bordered a blood feud. 

One could only imagine how much those girls felt about being nothing more than testbeds, only to be ignored once the perfected product was finally created. And to be denied of their reason for existing... 

"They gave me a lot of grief... They used to berate me at every turn, taking p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e in my failures, and were often scheming to get me in trouble," said Lu'um. "Worst of all was that my mother would never reprimand them for their actions. Instead, she would reprimand me for not escaping their schemes, as if she was naturally expecting more out of me." 

Reed sighed and said, "Let me guess, that drove your sisters mad, right? They acted out like that to get your mother's attention, but their mother never gave them what they wanted. They wanted to be seen by her, but no matter how hard they tried, the only person your mother paid attention to was you." 

Lu'um stared at Reed with a mildly surprised look before he said, "Have you forgotten where I grew up? Orphans are needy children and can be quite vicious at times, too. It seems we share a bit of history, unpleasant as it might've been for us..." 

"Y-yes, you're quite right... It was a vicious cycle that my sisters couldn't escape. Though I'm sure the Emperor knew about my situation early on, which is why he visited our home frequently. He used to take Itotia with him whenever he visited our home under the pretext of her wanting to see me, but I'm positive that the Emperor just wanted to give me a moment to breathe..." 

"Even if it was for a single day or even a single afternoon, he wanted me to have experience something normal. Something happy. To give me good memories I could use to hold on and continue struggling whenever life got awful at home. I don't know how I would have gotten through my childhood without their kindness. The Emperor even let me stay with his family whenever I used to have a big fight with my family when I got older, too," said Lu'um. 

Reed mulled over what he had heard and said, "Sounds like he had a conscience. I won't argue that he didn't have a good heart, but it sounds like... guilt to me. Guilt that he never returned the feelings your mother had for him. Guilt over the circ.u.mstances regarding your birth. I really don't have a better way to say this, but... he should have just married her. Or made her a concubine, you know? I'm sure the Emperor of the Multiverse wouldn't have gotten in trouble for having two wives, right?" 

"Would you marry someone out of pity even if you didn't love back the same way?" asked Lu'um, genuinely bewildered. "If you did that, you'd be hurting that person even more than if you rejected them. Personally, I'd rather die than be in a sham relationship founded on pity. That's no way to live." 

"Sure, but are you sure that the Emperor felt that way about your mother? That he only thought of her as a close friend and never had any romantic feelings about her? I personally find that difficult to believe..." said Reed with a skeptical expression. 

Lu'um frowned and said, "That... I admittedly do not know. What I do know is that the Empress and the Emperor did not elope alone. They required a lot of help to escape Mu — Uncle Bernard and my mother helped them escape undetected. They also left Mu along with them, too, from what I remember." 

"It was a long journey that took a couple thousand years as the future Emperor and Empress traveled across the universe gathering allies to support their relationship and eventually, their claim to the throne. Their story is a legend in and of itself, for they managed to make the Mulian Empire bend to their will, an impossible feat never heard of in recorded history." 

"That's quite a bit of time for them all to be together, no?" said Reed. 

"Yes, that is true, I suppose..." said Lu'um.

"And for a perilous journey like that, there must have been plenty of tribulations. I have no doubt you understand how danger can quickly bring people together and deepen bonds. Therefore, we can at least infer that a possibility exists that there was something between them. And if that were the case, they should have just admitted it." 

Lu'um observed Reed's face as if looking for a sign and said, "...Are you looking for my confirmation? I'm getting the feeling that all of this talk is a pretext for something you really want to discuss, so just spit what you really want to say already. You're making me feel nervous with all of your verbal prancing. It's disturbing." 

Reed awkwardly chuckled and said, "All I wanted to get across was that I sympathize with the poor guy's troubles. Love can be such a pain in the a.s.s. Look at what happened to us, for example — say the wrong thing or get the context all messed up, and everything will end up going to shit..." 

"Are you seeing someone, Ka'an? Because if that's what you're trying to tell me, I don't care. Listen, I'm almost 5,100 years old. I've been alive for a long time. The Ancient Mulians don't measure our lifespans with individual years or even decades — we use centuries as our smallest milestone. You'll still get called a brat by most people if you haven't even lived a millennium, for reference." 

Lu'um massaged the temples of her head and said, "My people... don't really get 'married,' the way you understand it. At least not with terms that humans and other mortals use. You know, like the 'until the day you die' bit. My people can theoretically live forever. And forever is an unimaginably long amount of time. Some might even say an impossible amount of time." 

When the Ancient Mulians conquered death, they had unintentionally changed several parts of their own culture.

In a world where people did not age or die, the social dynamics of their society changed irreversibly. Eternal youth meant that it was difficult to distinguish who was older than who, and a deathless race created the issue of eternal and exponential expansion. 

Had the Ancient Mulians not prohibited themselves from having children at will, they would have stripped their home galaxy clean of resources within ten thousand years, give or take. In a hundred thousand years, their entire local galactic filament. In a million and a half years, their entire universe.

They would have turned themselves into a universal tumor and, eventually, a life-ending multiversal cancer. With their superior technology and numbers, no one would have been able to stop them...

Having a child — one with immortal genes — became a right one had to earn.

One could give birth to mortal children, but not a single parent wished to see their children, grandchildren, and descendants grow old and die like mayflies in the span of a couple of short centuries. That was too cruel a fate to endure.

Their deathlessness also degraded, devalued the concept of love in a way.

Humans and other mortal races loved each other dearly because they knew that their time was limited. Therefore, it was important to seek sustainable life-long relationsh.i.p.s, be they romantic or platonic. Every friend mattered and loving someone was precious because life was short.

It had to count and mean something, or else it was a waste of precious time. 

A centuries-old relationship was nothing more than a fling to them. Even ending thousand-year relationsh.i.p.s, though painful, was not that severe a loss. 

Most Ancient Mulians did eventually settle down on a 'permanent partner' of sorts once they got old enough, though. It was usually an old flame they were with during their youthful days, who wanted the same thing — a stable, permanent relationship with a m.a.t.u.r.e individual. 

"This older, permanent relationship is called a Dyad, and it's the closest thing we have to marriage as you know it. It's a thing that older people do when they're tired of floating around, to put it bluntly. When you get old enough, you've seen and experienced it all, I suppose you start wanting a slow, stable life..." said Lu'um. 

Reed's eyes popped the longer he heard Lu'um describe how the Ancient Mulians dealt with love.

It was alien to the extreme, but then again, the Ancient Mulians were literal aliens, thought Reed. He still regarded himself a mortal at heart, too, so the mindset of this immortal race was naturally difficult to understand. They operated on much freer, looser valuer than he was accustomed to. 

It all sounds so... distant at its core, but the more I think about it, the more it sounds rational. When you can live forever, it becomes harder and harder to find new stimuli and experience new things over thousands of years.

As sad as it sounds, boredom was probably the biggest threat to the Ancient Mulians. It makes sense that they turned into total hedonists; the poor bastards had no other way to stave off the eternal boredom of living forever... and even that didn't work for too long. T

That's some sad shit. I guess living forever does have its own shortcomings, huh...

When Lu'um saw Reed's sympathetic face full of pity, she scowled said, "Stop looking at me like that, you bastard. And for your information, I didn't partake in that sort of pitiful lifestyle. I had a reputation to uphold as a royal family member, and I wasn't so weak-willed that I needed to fool around with idiots to let off steam. I spent all my time honing my skills and studying to surpass my mother and older sisters..." 

Reed hugged Lu'um out pity and said, "You poor girl..." He'd always thought that he had the bleakest life between the two of them, but now his mind had begun to change with all he had learned.

Lu'um punched Reed in the gut and said, "In any case, what I'm trying to tell you is that I don't care if you've had a fling with some mortal girl while I've been gone. There's no point in being jealous of a fly fated to die in the blink of an eye. All I ask is that you do not lie or try to hide it from me. No more secrets, just as we agreed." 

"U-Ugh, as if I'd... fool around like that!" said Reed as he clutched his stomach. "I just wanted to clear the air on that topic. I haven't seen anyone since we parted ways. That's all I wanted to say." 

"Neither have I, of course," replied Lu'um sternly, as if it was a natural matter-of-fact.

"Okay." 

"Alright." 

Ah, f.u.c.k... I shit the bed this time. Goddamnit. This is why I despise talking about delicate topics when I don't have an escape route prepared. It doesn't help that it still feels super f.u.c.k.i.n.g weird being around her, let alone talking to her after all this time. 

God, I hope we arrive soon... The silence is killing me. At this point, I'd rather jump out of the ship and walk to Talfano City myself...

Unfortunately for Reed, it'd be another couple of rough hours before they'd arrive at Talfano City, their current destination. What Reed and Lu'um were seeking was the hidden inheritance that the former Emperor had left for Reed, but in reality, that was nothing more than a secondary objective for them. 

What Reed and Lu'um wanted from Talfano City was something else. Something far more precious and heretical than anyone could have ever imagined. 

For the coming war, they'd need the very best generals and strategists possible if they were to stand a chance of winning. And with the circ.u.mstances as they were, they couldn't afford to be picky. 

Thankfully, Talfano City held the key to one such individual who possessed an unprecedented level of strategic value. 

A man who had, during his prime, had successfully defeated the Ancient Mulian Empire. An impossible feat only reproduced one other time in recorded history by the Infestation. 

If they were to fight against Devils, they'd need a proper Devil on their own side. 

What they were really looking for was the 17th Emperor of the Mulian Empire, who was also known as...

The Great Traitor.