[55] The Secret Truth

[55] The Secret Truth

Chapter 55: The Secret Truth

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The biggest fall of my morals started in my 8th life and only expanded in my 9th.

I don't want to go into detail about my 8th life, but in short, I was starting to go really insane after my 7th death. I lost everything.

Back then, the Mankind's Emperor was my longest life, I was the most attached to it. But then, all of a sudden, I reincarnated and I had nothing. Even though I finally had the chance to bring someone with me in my death, my Empress didn't accept the offer. So I felt most devastated when I woke up in my 8th life.

I pondered back then, couldn't I have tried a bit more? Why didn't I force her into it? What am I going to live for, now that I have nothing left?

My 8th life was the most suicidal point of my existence.

Finally, when I was reborn in my 9th life, I subconsciously knew I had to take a dive away from my Emperor side. The events in my 8th life influenced me towards a darker side than what I had ever dove into, too. A mixture of many things caused my mindset to change to that of a psychotic killer since my 9th childhood.

I was born as the son of a servant who worked for a renowned clan, the Tang Clan. It was a particularly hard start since I was not only poor but I couldn't use Magic until I was 18, and lastly, I was born as a cripple. Both spiritually and physically; I didn't have one of my arms, and I couldn't cultivate.

Let's not go into useless details, the point was that—I had enough reasons to become insane. Most of my victims didn't deserve what I did to them, but I didn't care. Later in that life, fate gave me countless chances to fish me out of the rabbit hole, but I didn't accept any. Fate, The Heaven, I was going against it all.

As a madman, a loner, I went along with my life for hundreds of years.

It was a Xinxia world, and there the idea of a "Heavenly Demon" didn't exist, it was a Murim term after all. But I brought it there, I became the first Heavenly Demon of that world; I who had poison for blood and death in my eyes. A long time before I became the Venerable One, I soared as the Heavenly Demon, a Demonic Human more devilish than the mere devils of this world could ever be.

I was the epitome of evil, a maniac of a man with only murder in my mind.

In that life, I was selfish and away from normal interactions. The first real-time I did something not for myself was when a rotten fool attacked my home clan. The one I had worked in as a butler and was shamed for years for being a useless cripple. Well, the clan didn't really exist anymore, I destroyed most of that Tang Clan with my own hands while my Icon sang me the [Many Men] song, but I did let a few live.

I wasn't a fool who didn't know that leftover enemies might bite me on the rear later, but I let them live anyway because they too were oppressed by the Tang Clan. Especially the eldest daughter of the clan, who had the same fate as me. She was born with a weak body, and couldn't cultivate, so she was shunned by everyone else. Nobody stood up for her since her parents, the previous patriarch and his wife, were dead. For some odd reason, the new patriarch and his people made me her direct servant, as if it was funny seeing a cripple serve another.

Still, more than me taking care of her, she took care of me. Not having an arm sucked, so she helped me with things as much as she could. It wouldn't be a lie to say that, back then, she was the only person I gave any shit about—not that her care stopped me from turning into a man-eating monster.

When I massacred the Tangs, I let her live. Along with some other servants whom I was close to. Then, I left them be for decades to come. They lived in an outskirt village in a backward kingdom, living their days in peace without any worry. That was until one day, an enemy of mine found their location and annihilated them. Just to get on my nerves, even though it's been decades since I met with those people.

When I found out about that...

I destroyed half of the planet, starting with the bastard who caused all that, I killed all of his women, children, his family, clan, sect, town, kingdom, and even the continent he lived on. Because of a foolish little man, half the world vanished overnight.

That's the day that the world truly realized who the Heavenly Demon was, and that he was not tolerant of provocations.

I had a reputation that made people tremble just from the mention of my title. I was the boogeyman that mothers used to put their kids to sleep with, the single-man army who had the power to make the world bow its head. In the next few years, I did just that, I took over that world, and for once in that life, I wasn't lonely. The eldest daughter of Tang Clan was with me; as my servant, my assistant, my woman. The story about how I managed to save her, and how she managed to lessen my edginess—is for later.

The moral of the story was—that this new world of mine, with Devils and Gods, didn't know who I was. I didn't have a real, proper identity here, and that allowed random fools to mess with me and my family. But making too much of a blood bath wouldn't be wise, it would be detrimental to the weak people around me.Yôur favorite stories at novelhall.com

So while I will make that Kokabiel bastard pay, I'll have to do some more to make sure the supernatural side of this world knows my name.

Otherwise.

This world won't survive for long.

* * *

Back to the present, I was inside the living room, sitting beside Ai while the three little girls sat on a couch opposite ours.

We were discussing everything from the start of this Freed situation, about how Ai met Asia. The little nun apologized quite a few times to both Ai and me for causing trouble for us.

Although I had glared at her before, now that I was composed, I knew she wasn't at fault. She's a lovely girl who even healed Ai in haste; Ai did a good job taking her in and thereby protecting her from those church bastards.

"You, listen," I pointed a finger at her and said. "You're not returning to the church. It's a dangerous place, as you saw. There are good people there too, but as you said, in the past even those 'good people' called you an evil witch because you saved a devil." I told her, referring to the backstory that she had just shared. "You'll live here, with us. Well, it's not really up to my choice, but I don't think the house owner will disagree."

The house owner, Ai hit my shoulder with hers, she naturally didn't have any reason to deny it. "I am not letting her go, of course. Nope, not to those creepy church people. She can stay here if she wants."

"Even if she doesn't want to, she's going to stay here," I insisted. "Where else can she go? She's an orphan, she has nobody, and she is too pure and naive for this world."

"True, true— Ah, I know," Ai snapped her fingers. "Let me adopt her as my daughter! Since she has blonde hair, she is already halfway there. Oooor~ she can be my daughter-in-law!"

"W-what?!" Asia flinched.

"Mhm." I sat straight on the couch again. She stayed silent and did the same, sitting beside me. "Sad, if only there was a can of alcohol in the fridge. But someone cleaned it."

"Ugh, why are you like this, Aqua?" Ai asked while I laughed. She grumbled at that. "This isn't healthy, Aqua. You shouldn't be trying such stuff with your own mother."

"Yeah," I sighed. I suppose she'll be hurt if I told her I don't see her as my 'own mother'.

Ai changed the subject. "Alright. Now tell me about this magical thing, and stay a few centimeters away from me." She moved her butt to the side to create a gap between us. I leaped at her, she flinched, but this I just rested my head on her lap. I smiled up while she frowned down at me. "Hey, I just told you to... hah, never mind."

Ai gave me another, gentler, slap on my head as she looked down at my eyes. Her hand hesitated before she ran her fingers through my hair and spoke. "Now, explain?"

"Hmm, where do I start?" I hummed for a bit before deciding on a believable story. It's a story made of half truths. "I and Ruby are blessed by the Shinto Gods. I know you are a believer already, but yes, the Shinto Gods are real. Though most of the other Gods we know are real too, oh and the Biblical God is dead."

Both of Ai's eyebrows rose. "What now?"

"Yeah, big revelations, I know." I said. "I and Ruby are blessed by Amaterasu, I think. I recently met Bishamon and Sakuya-hime, in Fuji, too, they confirmed. You can choose to not believe me but-"

"I believe you."

"Oh? Good girl," I reached out a hand and patted her head. She blinked before glaring at me intensely. She pushed my hand away. "So rude."

"Shut up, tell me more. Do you remember that day? When I was first attacked?"

"Yes."

"Why did you pretend to not know, then?"

"If you noticed, Ruby and I have been very intelligent from birth. You thought it's your genes, but in truth, the blessing made us like that," I lied. "Back then I realized it's better to play normal, for many reasons, and so I did exactly that. I'm sorry."

"I see," Ai wore a complicated expression now and sighed. "I understand. It makes sense if I think about it, people would have been weirded out, and maybe even me too. Maybe. Hah. I guess these magical powers come from the blessing?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Somewhat. Kind of."

She narrowed her eyes, "Kind of?"

"It's complicated," I smiled. "Is this all?"

"So is this related to why you'd sometimes disappear from home?"

"What a smart girl, good job."

"I'll slap you again, you brat." She glared at me while I laughed. "So annoying. You want a beating?"

"Only thing I want is you,"

"...You are in serious need of a girlfriend." She let out a sigh. "Do I rent a girlfriend for you, at this point? Do you want me to?"

"Nuh-uh, fuck that. I think you'll meet your daughter-in-law soon. There was quite a lot of development yesterday with the girls on the set." I paused. I sensed something and got up. "Fine, I'll stop being weird. Looks like we'll have guests, anyway."

"What? Who?" Ai stood up too; I replied by pointing my hand in front of me just as the room let out a luminous glow.

The beautiful visage of two women formed in the room, literal goddesses. One had pink hair letting out the smell of sakura, while the other lady's blonde hair was like sunshine.

I smiled while Ai froze. "Bishamonten and Sakuya-hime, morning. Mom, these are the goddesses I just told you about."

The Two Goddesses exchanged glances, they seemed to be done with their meeting with the Satans, and probably were here now to fill their end of the deal. Ai stared at them in awe, until she broke out of her daze when Sakuya-hime jumped into my arms.

"Aqua-kun!" She cheered, her breasts all over my face, which I wasn't complaining about, as I hugged her back.

I am glad I sent the three little girls away just earlier, otherwise it's have been more trouble than necessary in his room with three mature women and a single me.

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