Chapter 104 - The Wrong Approach

"At first I thought maybe you saved yourself through your powers but I knew it was impossible for you to revive yourself if you were completely dead and I had certainly killed you... That was how I figured out you were not the Alphius that I had known." 

"Oh..." It was the only thing Hecathe was able to say as he immediately realized just why exactly he was able to come to this world and take over this body that easily. 

In the real world, Hecathe had been hit with that goddamn truck that had crushed him and his zelium ultra fury, while at the same time, Marvin had probably killed Alphius in this world. 

Alphius had a lot of mysterious powers and one of those powers was probably the reason why he was able to contact Hecathe before his death. 

The phone was certainly not Hecathe's... It was created by Alphius! And the texts that Hecathe received were also from Alphius...! 

Hecathe gulped as he suddenly figured some things out. 

Now there was one more thing about that certain incident that Hecathe wanted to know.

Why did Alphius say Hecathe was the only one who could save him...?! 

Was it because there was a dead Hecathe in this world as well...? Or was it because of some other reason? 

Why was it that Hecathe was the only one who was contacted by the man? 

Since this was a parallel universe, there should have been an Alphius in Hecathe's original world as well.

Compared to Hecathe and the parallel universe Alphius, wasn't the latter clearly the better option...? 

Bring an Alphius from another world to solve Alphius's problem... It made more sense somehow. 

At least, it made more sense than dragging Hecathe in between. 

"I was relieved to see you alive..." Marvin continued with this one-sided conversation, "But then I was also mad at you for not being the original Alphius." 

"..." 

"You only shared his body," Marvin sighed. 

Hecathe rubbed his head as he heard this and immediately tried to interject, "Wait, stop. You need to pay more attention to your words. You're starting to make it sound weird." 

Marvin naturally ignored Hecathe and continued, "You were not the same person and that made me mad. I was angry at you and at him as well so I once again tried to kill you." 

"..." 

Hecathe couldn't help but wonder if he had been wrong about Marvin. Was this guy really the hero of this world...? He sounded extremely dumb and impulsive to be a hero... 

"Oh wait, that's what a hero is," Hecathe voiced out his thoughts by mistake. 

A hero was supposed to be like this, wasn't he? 

Someone dumb and impulsive who was controlled by his emotions... 

Hecathe was suddenly a bit surprised to realize that Marvin was the perfect example of a naive hero who ends up losing everything to finally learn what was precious to him. 

"And then I failed at killing you," Marvin sighed as he once again ignored Hecathe and continued, "I wanted to shoot you for the second time... I wanted to kill the you who tried to impersonate Alphius but I couldn't... For the first time in my life, I missed a shot and it made me seem suspicious under the watchful gaze of the three willows of spring." 

"I mean, it was kinda dumb of you to miss the shot on purpose in front of those cringy three," Hecathe folded his hand as he also continued on with his side commentary. 

"They questioned me later on and I was locked up the same way you had been." 

Hecathe clicked his tongue, "I bet it didn't feel nice." 

"It was awful," Marvin breathed out and Hecathe almost wanted to laugh as he heard the man narrating his (not so) sad suffering. 

Marvin, "I had only been a bit hesitant to kill my friend for the second time, and even that... Was said to be wrong of me to do." 

"Well, your friend was the one suspected as your father's murderer so I really don't understand why you would have felt hesitant." 

"But you didn't!" Marvin exclaimed as he finally managed to hear Hecathe's side commentary. 

Hecathe, "..." 

"You didn't kill him...." 

Surprisingly enough, there was a single tear trailing down Marvin's cheek and Hecathe could no longer say anything as a response to that. 

"You weren't the one who killed him..." Marvin repeated with a defeated sigh, "I was a fool to believe that you did." 

Hecathe's eyes narrowed down on the man as he attentively listened to this portion. 

"You were framed, were you not...?! You were framed by those bastards who just wanted to see you dead! And like an idiot, I fell into their trap and believed their nonsense! It was my fault!" Marvin cried out, and perhaps because of his intoxicated self, it could clearly be seen that this boy was truly meaning every word he said. 

He was really sad, angry, frustrated, and simply suffering through a mess of emotions at the moment. 

Hecathe sighed as he decided to finally take some pity on the boy. 

"Yah! Are you not tired yet?" Hecathe clicked his tongue as he questioned, "You've already said so much. Stop it and go to sleep if you don't want to wake up regretting every life decision you've ever made." 

Marvin finally shut his mouth and stared at Hecathe for a solid minute straight. 

"This is why people forbid kids from drinking," Hecathe commented with a sigh as he walked over closer towards Marvin. 

"I can't forgive you, Kid." 

"..." 

"Because I'm not Alphius," Hecathe shrugged his shoulder as he revealed the secret that had already been discovered by this boy, "We hardly know each other and you've only offended me once by shooting me- Okay, cut that and let's make it two since you also punched me like a drum." 

Marvin tilted his head in confusion and his eyebrows creased together as he heard this. 

"The things you are sorry for... As much as I've heard, I feel like there are only two people that you should apologize to. One is Alphius.... and I get why you keep saying sorry to me because I'm basically in his body right now, but I'm not Alphius and I cannot forgive you in his stead." Hecathe stated firmly as he made sure that he got the message through this teenager's intoxicated mind. 

"And as for the second person," Hecathe sighed as he continued, "It's yourself. You should be sorry to yourself." 

"..."

"Whether you decide to forgive yourself or not is none of my business and I have no interest in knowing it either," Hecathe spoke honestly, "But it's a good thing that you've come to realize what an idiot you have been." 

Hecathe's lips curled up in a small smile that was hardly even visible. 

Hecathe had not been wrong in thinking that Marvin was the hero of this world, but at the same time, he had been somehow wrong in thinking that it was inevitable to change their ill fate. 

Marvin was still on the stage where he had only recently realized how stupid he had been till now. These emotions that he was currently feeling were going to be a major plot changer. 

They would unite and become the source of him unlocking the greater power inside him. 

However, this was also the stage where he was going to be realizing who his true enemy was. 

Hecathe had originally tried to avoid the boy completely because he thought that was the only way to avoid their ill fate as the villain and hero of the story, however, now that Hecathe heard Marvin's long self-loathing and guilty narration, he felt as if he had been wrong to think that he could simply escape everything by avoiding this boy. 

Marvin was supposed to be the hero and Alphius was supposed to be the villain. There was nothing wrong with establishing this as an existing fact, however, this was not something that was set in stone. 

Since Alphius hadn't actually killed the great Orgon, he had a chance to save his name...! 

The hero was only now realizing who his enemy was and what Hecathe needed to do now was to make sure that they both had the same enemy in mind. 

Hecathe had initially thought of a method to safely escape by avoiding this boy and he didn't realize that such an option had never existed from the first place itself. 

What he should do now and what he should've done since the beginning itself was to try and get Marvin to trust him completely. 

He needed to be on the same side as the hero and the best way to make that happen was by making the hero switch sides. 

Hecathe patted the boy's shoulder as he spoke, "Let's go and get some rest. We'll talk more about all this tomorrow when you're not so drunk." 

Marvin gulped as he heard this and asked a single question, "Do you forgive me...? For shooting and punching you?"