No Hero

Volume 9, The End NO.10: Eternal

My vision was filled with numbers again, and the world once again returned to its original state. But to save X, there was no other way… Wait.

Microchip, can the notifications be turned off?

“…”

They really turned off.

So, um, how did this happen? Before, these functions could never be turned off. How did this suddenly happen?

Additionally, there were several other things that weren’t quite right, the most glaring one being… that Charles was still alive.

After he acted against Gēge, after Gēge gave the order to kill him, and after I realized his significance level was approaching Gēge’s, Charles was still alive.

Does this have anything to do with Gēge doing so many strange things?

It must, right? Gēge definitely did this on purpose. It’s just that letting Charles become more significant than him is absolutely unthinkable. Huh, just how high is Charles’s significance level now?

Microchip, evaluate Charles Endelis’s significance level.

Evaluating. Level of significance is ninety…

Never mind!

Microchip, permanently shut down the significance level evaluation function, and only turn on battle related notifications during combat.

Most of the time, it’s better to look at a clean, numberless world.

Charles was right. Everyone is significant.

“Ah Ye, kill him!” The Sun Emperor roared, “Don’t tell me you’ve really stopped listening to me? Is a lowly butler more important than me?”

The young master clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles went white, and his eyes were so wide it was almost as if his eye sockets would split open. Glaring fixedly at his older brother, he was nevertheless able to say to me through his gritted teeth, “Charles, go!”

The Sun Emperor smiled coldly, saying, “If you dare leave, the adjudication squad members on the battlefield will simply turn around to engage the Extraordinaries troop. Hmph, the Elysees family may certainly be good at hiding away, but in the end, I was able to force their hidden strength out into the open.”

With this one brief statement, the Sun Emperor had made it impossible for me to escape, no matter how quickly I could run. Even if I were to make a move and attack the opposing party, the young master was standing to the side, body riddled with scars, and the microchip in his brain was giving him only the option to follow the fundamental meaning of his existence and protect his older brother. How could I possibly I attack the Sun Emperor?

With just this one sentence, I had been trapped between a rock and a hard place. Sun Emperor, what need do you have to force out someone’s hidden strength? Do you truly even know what fear is at all?

“Charles…” The young master clenched his teeth. He had released his fists by now, but extended his metal fingernails instead, transforming them into his even deadlier claws. He howled, “We went through so much just to escape. Don’t throw away your life in vain, hurry and go!”

“Ah Ye!” The Sun Emperor’s expression darkened. He pointed at me and continued, voice not changing at all, “Dark Sun, kill him!”

The young master turned his whole body around, movements stiff like a broken-down android. His expression had already become Dark Sun’s as he coldly said, “Not leaving is a mistake. You’ll only lose your life for no reason.”

He lifted his claws, the light from his flashing metal fingernails practically painful as it shone into my eyes.

“You have already done your utmost to help me rescue X, knowing full well that there was no hope for success but still making the mistake of persevering. Since this is the case, will you not let me choose to make a mistake and lay down my life for no reason as well?”

I closed my eyes. If my own death could allow the young master to understand and no longer use scores to judge people, that would be wonderful.

“Ah Ye, have you still not made your move?” The Sun Emperor’s angry voice resounded. “Kill him!”

I took a deep breath, waiting to meet my end. I heard the sound of a fist striking flesh, but unexpectedly, there was no pain all. Confused, I opened my eyes. The scene before me was astonishing.

The Sun Emperor had fallen to the ground. A trickle of blood was leaking out of the corner of his mouth, and half his face was starting to swell up into a large lump.

The young master was backing up step-by-step incredulously. He looked at his own fist, then back at the Sun Emperor, murmuring, “No way, there’s no way I… Anyone who harms Gēge must die, I…”

Hearing this, my expression changed completely. The young master would not commit suicide, would he? I immediately stood and rushed forward, preparing to prevent him from doing something foolish at any given moment.

The young master raised his head and stared at me blankly. In a daze, he said, “Charles, I… I hit Gēge. This isn’t right. T-the meaning of my existence is to protect Gēge. I—”

I cut his comment off, saying sincerely, “With all due respect, Young Master, you certainly struck true. Recently, the Sun Emperor has very much been in need of someone to smack him awake!”

The corner of the young master’s mouth twitched, and it looked like he wanted to smile. However, alarm struck him once more, and his smile was unable to appear. The young master’s entire body went rigid, as though he were a marionette.

“Isn’t this easy to understand?”

The young master and I turned to face the Sun Emperor, who was now sporting a large, extremely painful-looking lump on one half of his face. It gave me a certain sense of satisfaction.

He gave a cold, short laugh, saying, “If you are able to lay a hand on me, then the meaning of your existence is no longer my protection.”

With guilt, the young master yelled, “Gē, I didn’t mean—”

The Sun Emperor roared, “There’s no use denying it! The microchip can’t control you at all. Any fundamental meaning to your existence no longer means a thing! You were never an obedient child, both when you were young and now that you’ve grown up!

Petrified and panicked all at once, the young master was at a loss for words, and the syllables coming out of his mouth were impossible to put together into coherency.

“Gē… I-I’m obedient… E-even if I don’t listen sometimes, the microchip… existence… significance level—”

The Sun Emperor expressionlessly cut off the young master’s incomplete thoughts. Frigidly, he said, “The microchip has long since become unable to control you. There’s no need for you to lie to yourself, and don’t even think you’d be able to lie to me! Who do you think I am? No one can lie to me! You…”

I stood behind the young master anxiously, watching his back tremble with fear.

“Ri Xiang Ye, you don’t need to protect me anymore,” the Sun Emperor said cruelly, “because you are no longer the Dark Sun who lives and dies for my sake; if need be, you could even set about killing me!”

The young master bellowed, “Impossible!”

The Sun Emperor’s lips curled, and he even deliberately turned his injured face for the young master to see as he said, “Look at my face and say it again. Is it truly impossible?”

The young master fainted.

“Sun Emperor!” I roared, promptly supporting the young master to the ground. Only then did I notice that his face was covered in tears. Even in unconsciousness, his face was terrified. Suddenly, new loathing welled up and fed my initial resentment. First was X’s death, then even the young master was abandoned? The Sun Emperor was truly deserving of his title; he genuinely had no need for any sort of personal attachments, not even with his only relative in the entire world!

Once I had ascertained that the young master truly had only fainted, I stood and stared at the solitary Sun Emperor. I could not see if there were people hidden in the surrounding area ready to protect him, but then again, with x-speed, was there anyone who could stop me from killing this emperor?

Everyone says I am quite fast.

I extended my claws and charged at the high and mighty king—

“E.X. is alive.”

My claws stopped in front of the Sun Emperor’s face. The distance between them was less than ten centimeters.

Faced with a vampire’s razor-sharp claws, the Sun Emperor nevertheless said calmly, “Charles Endelis, you pass.”

…Huh?

Is this still a test? I found it hard to believe as I stared at the Sun Emperor, but I grit my teeth. I could not let him lead me by the nose; perhaps he was only stalling for time…

Impatiently, the Sun Emperor said, “Do you think I don’t know how fast you are? If E.X. really had died, what would I be doing standing here in front of you? Do you think I’m tired of life? Ah Ye still hasn’t gotten married and had any kids. I have to stay alive no matter what!”

“… But how could X have survived?”

The Sun Emperor laughed for a moment, saying, “He was never in that truck in the first place. Long before then, I had people spirit him away and replace him with a fake. X didn’t even spend the night in the Sin Elimination Committee. This was a condition he gave for his cooperation; before sunrise, I would have to let him escape from the Sin Elimination Committee.

“I personally saw him in the truck.” I did not dare to hope, but the Sun Emperor’s actions really were off; his appearance here fundamentally made no sense. However, could this be possible? Is X still alive?

The Sun Emperor gave a cold snort and said, “In this day and age, can you really trust your eyes? Since you’re a vampire, you must have heard of ‘shapeshifters’ before, right?

I had indeed heard of them, but they were practically a countryside legend, and I had certainly never met one.

“I heard the shapeshifters went extinct a long time ago.”

“They haven’t gone extinct. Though there really aren’t too many of them left, they’re still around. They’re especially fond of disguising as dogs and wandering through the city.”

Dogs? No, they were wolfmen! I remembered. When we were in the Sin Elimination Committee, there had indeed been an especially giant wolfman that had been captured. Could that have been him?

I asked, refusing to get my hopes up, “You are actually able to incite the shapeshifters to action?”

That would truly be too terrifying. The shapeshifter clan’s power is so formidable that, if they follow the Sun Emperor, I am afraid the whole world would be…

The Sun Emperor said lazily, “Don’t tell me you think I’d use the shapeshifters’ powers to control the world? That I’d replace all the important figures in the world with shapeshifters or something crazy like that?”

He suddenly gave a short laugh, though because it pulled at his swollen face, his expression suddenly became somewhat odd.

“If that happened, this world would really become too boring.” The Sun Emperor regained his serene expression and said, “It was just an exchange of terms, that’s all. They would send someone to meet their death, and I would shelter their race. Not only am I not allowed to exploit the shapeshifters, but no matter what great powers capture one of them, I must help rescue each individual. “

My head was a tangled mess, and my only thought was that this was simply inconceivable. I could not help but acknowledge how much I wanted to believe him. If this is true, X must still be alive!

But…

“In any case, there is no way X would cooperate with you.”

The Sun Emperor snorted coldly and said, “What no way about it is there? I need only propose enough of a benefit to draw someone in, and any- and everyone would cooperate with me. For E.X., say: ‘help him permanently escape the Church’s pursuit, and ensure that Charles Endelis will never be linked to him again.’ This benefit was enough to convince him to cooperate with me.”

Permanently escape the Church’s pursuit? That is true, X is already “dead.” Of course the Church will no longer hunt down a vampire that has already been killed.

I was suddenly able to understand to some extent. It was not as though X had never tried something like faking his death. Ultimately, however, he had still failed because the Sin Elimination Committee would never believe that he had truly died. On the other hand, this time, even I had assumed that X had been killed, and, judging by Sin’s reaction, the Church believed it too.

The Sun Emperor had hunted me down, and, not scrimping at all on providing for the Church, had let X be captured, which meant even the young master and I had no choice but to come forward and rescue him. We had nearly lost our lives in the process a good number of times. In all, he had made such a fine mess; who would believe that it was just for the sake of helping X fake his death?

Even I would not believe it. That said, the Sun Emperor most certainly would not have done so many things just for X’s sake, but even now, I was nevertheless still unable to clearly discern the Sun Emperor’s true goal.

“It could not be that all this was simply a test, could it?”

If so, even if the Sun Emperor really did help X fake his death, I would still want to smack him until the other side of his face was swollen as well.

The Sun Emperor turned his head, shifting his gaze away from me. He did not answer directly, saying instead, “This all was entirely for Ah Ye.”

I was quite furious as I said, “The young master is among those who suffered the most harm during this time! Have you not seen how much pain he has had to bear? His wounds have been opened and re-opened again and again! How could you say it was for him?”

The Sun Emperor continued to look away from me and spoke as though he were talking to himself, “An Te Qi once reported to me that there is no way to extract the microchip from Ah Ye’s brain. Even if there were, there would also be the chance that he would not want it to be removed, because if it were removed, even if his body were to retain the same abilities, a person’s mind cannot conduct operations in the same way as a machine. Ah Ye’s speed, coordination, and even judgment would decline. Without the microchip, his overall ability would fall by at least 30%.”

I held my tongue in silence. Though I was still furious, since I realized the Sun Emperor was unexpectedly rather willing to give an explanation, I decided it could wait until after I was done listening to him. I myself was truly too curious to know what all of this had been for in the end.

“This unremovable microchip was engraved with the statement that the fundamental meaning of Ah Ye’s existence is to protect me.”

This was indeed true. The young master had said it countless times, but this had never been a cause of angst. Even without the microchip, he so dearly loved his older brother that he would not hesitate at all in the face of death for the sake of protecting the Sun Emperor. There was no difference, microchip or no microchip, so there had been no need to mind it.

“But I must die at some point,” the Sun Emperor said indifferently.

I stared blankly for a moment. Was this not common sense—Wait, the young master would pay any price to protect the Sun Emperor, but what happens when the Sun Emperor reaches the end of his lifespan and is about to die?

“If you were to… pass away, how would the young master react?”

With a dark expression, the Sun Emperor said, “He would die.”

I stared, wide-eyed.

“This is a base setting, and there is no way to alter it, so An Te Qi has always been researching how to take this setting apart. Only recently did his research return results. During a modification surgery, he secretly conducted revisions on the microchip.”

“So, the young master will have no issues, then?” I asked, but my hopes were not very high. If there were no issues, the Sun Emperor would not go out of his way to raise the matter again.

“No, An Te Qi fundamentally had no way to determine if this was true. The functions of the brain are too complex. There was no way he could use Ah Ye as a test subject for debugging, and while he has previously used Ah Ye’s clone, DSII, for experimentation, DSII is useless for tests of brain function. So, while the changes this time were theoretically feasible, there was simply no way to be sure when it came to reality.”

The Sun Emperor gave the unconscious young master a glance and said with mix of satisfaction and worry, “Either way, Ah Ye would always protect me, regardless of whether that damned setting is there. However, I absolutely had to be completely certain that this alteration had succeeded. Moreover, An Te Qi was of the opinion that if Ah Ye didn’t realize he was no longer controlled by the microchip, he would still be in trouble when the time came.”

So, this was the element I had neither known about nor been able to deduce.

It was all entirely for the young master.

“You cannot be telling me there was no method even slightly simpler to help the young master understand, are you?” I truly did not know whether my reaction should be to laugh or do something else. All in all, was this just for the sake of having the young master understand this one thing?

“Do you think I’m so bored I have nothing better to do? You think I’d cause such an uproar for the sake of one thing? If you’re going to do something, do it right the first time!” The Sun Emperor snorted coldly. “Let’s say you had a mortal enemy that you’ve been hunting for a thousand years without success. If you suddenly heard they were hit by a car and killed, would you believe it?”

Of course, I would not believe it. If someone were to become my mortal enemy, they certainly would not be the kind of person who could be killed by a car… Except for the Sun Emperor; he really was an ordinary person who could be killed by a car. Still, if there ever came a day that someone told me the Sun Emperor was killed in a traffic accident, I absolutely would not believe it.

“Not even you’d believe it! So, without a commotion of this scale, how would the Church ever believe it?”

This statement I agreed with.

“In addition to how the matter of the Church hunting X affects you, the Elysees family is another uncertain factor. It was necessary that I ensure that, come hell or high water, Curtis would not violate Sadina’s preparations and betray you, you useless Family-Head-in-name-only!”

I was stunned. I finally realized how many things the Sun Emperor had been doing at the same time.

He tested everyone both physically and emotionally close to the young master, especially me, as I was the one who would accompany the young master for the longest amount of time. This also meant, however, that anyone or anything dangerous by my side would have to be eliminated.

The Sun Emperor tested Curtis’s loyalty to me while allowing X to fake his death to escape the Church’s pursuit. He swept away all these threats simultaneously, and even used these issues to force the young master to slowly become more and more upset with him, until the young master finally broke through the idea of a meaning to existence.

Once I had thought through it all, I could do nothing but laugh bitterly. “So it turns out that this really had nothing to do with Luo Ye, even if he were the one to instigate the whole thing.”

“Luo Ye instigated it? You really esteem him too highly; this was all instigated by my father, Ri Ji Yan! If he hadn’t taken out his rage over my mother’s affair on Ah Ye by stubbornly taking him away and modifying him like this, there would have been no reason for such trouble today!”

The Sun Emperor snorted coldly, a thick detestation visible in his eyes as he looked over.

“To safeguard Ah Ye’s thousand worry-free years, an intellect like yours certainly isn’t enough. You’ll have to find time later to come over and shadow me.”

I understood completely. Even if Luo Ye were the Sun Emperor’s biological father, the Sun Emperor had only seen him as a chess piece from start to finish, and even treated him as a redshirt for cannon fodder. Once he had outlived his usefulness, the Sun Emperor had mercilessly killed him—and even been so angry as to riddle him with countless bullet holes.

“Let’s go.” The Sun Emperor looked toward the young master worriedly, saying, “Bring Ah Ye over to let An Te Qi have a look. It should be that the change he’s experiencing is too great, so he had to reboot. Although this isn’t the first time he’s had to reboot, still…”

Seeing the Sun Emperor’s expression, I smiled gently.

Still, Master, you fret each time it happens.

“Of course, Master.”

The master shot a glance at me. He did not say anything and simply squatted, lowering his body as if to pick the young master up. However, his expression quickly changed when he tried to stand. I thought of the young master’s weight and immediately reached over to catch him, ultimately carrying the young master horizontally in my arms.

The master looked at the young master, then back at me. For the first time, I was unable to see arrogance in his eyes. The emotion in those eyes was actually… dismay?

As we walked, I listened to the master’s grumbling.

“Before, when I had finally found Ah Ye after so much difficulty, he had also fainted like this. At that time, I doggedly carried him on my back. Back then, he weighed just over ninety kilograms, and the weight nearly made it impossible for me to walk.

“Then, because Ah Ye would always keep getting hurt despite my every effort to stop him, all I could do was have An Te Qi modify him to be even stronger. Now he weighs more than a hundred kilograms, and I’ve already aged out of being a young man in his twenties.”

The master sighed and said in a frustrated tone, “I’ll never be strong enough to carry Ah Ye again.”

I said quietly, “The young master will be exceedingly glad, Master, for it is finally his turn to carry you.”

The master stared, then smiled.

“Oh…”

The young master suddenly stirred. The master immediately rushed over, his anxiously worried expression plainly visible. He was still that same master who saw his younger brother as more important than the entire world.

The young master opened his eyes. His muddled expression dropped away in a flash, and he spontaneously showed a panicked one instead. Raising his eyes, he saw me. He first stared blankly, then he saw the master standing next to me. The panic vanished, and the muddled expression returned once more.

I smiled gently at him. The young master blinked a couple times, as though he realized something.

“Gē!” He tentatively gave a shout.

“Hm?” The master frowned as he swept his eyes over the young master from head to toe. Seeing him covered in wounds, the master’s complexion became an ashy gray, as though he were the one injured.

“You’re okay, right?” The young master surreptitiously glanced at the master’s face, half of which was still swollen up like a steamed bun. Guilt immediately came over the young master’s entire face.

“What could have happened to me?” The master peevishly began nagging like a broken record, though with a steamed bun lump still attached to half his face, any observer would not have known whether to laugh or to cry. “Let me tell you, you end up like this every single time! If you could avoid getting hurt for one month, I would thank the gods by donating a hundred billion yuan to charity.

Guiltily, the young master said, “There should be one month where I didn’t get hurt… ah, no, that time was only twenty five days.”

The master made a great show of rolling his eyes.

Seeing the master’s expression, the young master seemed to feel that there was no issue and quietly let out a sigh of relief. Patting me, he said, “Charles, why don’t you let me down? Aren’t I heavy? I can walk on my own.”

“You’re not allowed to let him down!” the Sun Emperor immediately roared. “If he’s carried by someone, then he can still avoid suffering more wounds for a few hours. Carry him properly for me, butler. If you dare put him down, I’ll fire you!”

“But, Gē, I can wa-alk!”

“Not allowed!”

The young master let out a laugh. “It’s finally your turn to say not allowed, huh? Gē, before it was always me saying you weren’t allowed to do this, or you’re not allowed to do that. I had to work really hard to take care and make sure you wouldn’t go around killing people!

The master immediately denied it in one breath, “Nonsense, it was clearly me making sure you wouldn’t go around getting hurt. Don’t make any random movements, butler, and don’t let him down!

I smiled as I watched the bickering brothers. “Of course, Master. I will carry the young master properly.”

“Ah! Charles, how did even you end up standing on Gēge’s side?”

I said deferentially, “Of course I stand on this side; I side with you.”

The young master huffed angrily as he looked at me. There was no need for him to open his mouth. I could see his expression saying, “Then why don’t you hurry up and put me down?”

I smiled and said, “However, young master, you yourself stand with the master, so I, too, would stand by the master’s side, as a matter of course.”

The young master stared, looking at me suspiciously, then looked at the master, seemingly not understanding how or when the two of us had banded together.

“Ah Ye! You’re O.K., right?”

Everyone hurried over to us, battered and exhausted as they were. Astonishingly, DSII was the one leading them. He happily shouted, “I led everyone over. Like Gēge said, we need to bring everyone over and have fun together!”

The young master let out a surprised cry. Immediately, he struggled out of my arms and leapt to the ground, moving strangely with erratic steps as he ran over.

The master rolled his eyes at me and said, dissatisfied, “Didn’t you just say you would properly carry Ah Ye? If I see you even keeping up with him, I’ll thank the heavens!”

I smiled gently as I watched the young master become completely engulfed by good friends, subordinates, and heroes.

“I will most definitely keep up with him properly. After all, I am quite fast. Everyone says so.”

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