Chapter 68 You Lighted Up My World

No normal person could ever truly be devoid of emotion.

At least, to the heartless puppet, the assassin Thousand Faces appeared to be a normal person.

Ruthless and cold-blooded in their kills, strict and exacting in their guidance, yet at home, they would often drown themselves in alcohol.

They would erupt in uncontrolled fits of temper, weep hysterically, and utter words steeped in profound regret for past choices.

“Number Seven, you must not disappoint me.”

“Number Seven, well done.”

“Number Seven, is there anything you desire?”

Yet, to the emotionless puppet, the most bewildering aspect was that despite ordering him to remain utterly devoid of emotion, Thousand Faces consistently spoke to him as if he were an ordinary child.

And then there were moments—

“Number Seven, do you wish to be a normal child?”

“Is that an order?”

“No.”

“…”

“Number Seven, what if we left the organization?”

“Is that the Leader’s command?”

“No.”

“Thousand Faces, betraying the organization is a grave offense.”

“I was merely testing you.”

“…”

He knew, with absolute certainty, that this was no jest.

During his drunken stupors, Thousand Faces had often railed against the organization and its Leader.

He accused them of deceit, of orchestrating the death of his beloved, and then forcing him to serve their agenda.

His own selection by Thousand Faces, it turned out, was due to his possessing an identical supernatural ability to Thousand Faces’ woman: temperature manipulation.

“Number Seven, do you not wish to become an ordinary person?”

“Is that an order?”

“The order is that you must answer this question.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Humans who allow their emotions to guide them are utterly foolish.”

“Yet, I’ve observed you playing the part quite convincingly…”

“Because I factor in all the foolish actions humans are prone to take.”

“Then, if I were in danger, would you come to my rescue?”

“Yes, that is an order from the Leader.”

“I see. What if there were no such order? I command you to answer that.”

“Given that you are my superior, I would undertake rescue actions within reasonable parameters.”

“Reasonable… If only everything in this world unfolded reasonably, she would never have perished.”

“The Leader once gave an order: you may issue me any command you wish, so long as it does not involve betraying the organization.”

“We’ll see when the time comes.”

And then, that day truly arrived.

The organization was utterly uprooted, and Thousand Faces, having cunningly outmaneuvered the fleeing Leader, successfully exacted his bloody vengeance.

“What, do you intend to avenge the Leader?”

“The Leader issued no such command.”

Thousand Faces couldn’t help but burst into hearty laughter.

Yet, extreme joy often begets sorrow.

As a notorious cadre of the organization, Thousand Faces knew that even after his betrayal and personal slaying of the culprit, absolution was an impossibility.

Nor did Thousand Faces harbor any such expectation.

“I am about to issue a command.”

“Speak.”

He prepared himself to cover Thousand Faces’ retreat, intending to buy him precious time.

Then he collapsed.

A tranquilizer dart, launched by Thousand Faces, had pierced him.

Thousand Faces began to savagely beat him, his face contorted into a fearsome, malevolent mask.

“This is my final command—”

Suddenly, Thousand Faces fell.

He crumpled before Xie Shenhong.

From his chest, deep crimson blood bloomed like a grotesque flower.

His gentle gaze slowly unfocused, growing distant.

Yet, with his final reserves of strength, Thousand Faces managed to utter his last words:

“Live…”

****

“So what of it?”

Having answered Lyte’s query, Xie Shenhong offered a self-deprecating smile.

“Ultimately, I still defied my master’s final command.”

“Do not dissect interconnected events,” Lyte gently admonished. “You did, in fact, fulfill that command admirably at first, did you not?”

“I found myself unable to assimilate into the world of ordinary people. To survive, I was forced to curry favor with them, ensuring I had three meals a day…”

“Despite your unusual demeanor, your adoptive mother still extended a helping hand, did she not?” Lyte disregarded Xie Shenhong’s self-deprecating perspective.

“Indeed.”

“For a considerable period, you followed your adoptive mother’s instructions, driven by the imperative to survive. But before long, you realized she was much like your master, both wishing for you to lead an ordinary life, wasn’t that the case?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Out of gratitude, out of affection, you meticulously adhered to your master’s seemingly unreasonable command. Yet, it was precisely for these reasons that you ultimately chose to defy it… to protect your adoptive mother, was it not?”

“Yes… but what does it matter!” Xie Shenhong finally burst out, unable to contain himself. “I know you’re attempting to console and praise me, yet all I did was something utterly foolish. My sacrifice didn’t even guarantee the complete annihilation of the demons, do you understand that!”

Xie Shenhong had always harbored a profound fear.

He dreaded the possibility that he hadn’t transmigrated to a different world at all, but rather into the future, or perhaps his soul had merely slumbered for countless years after a plane crash, only to awaken recently.

And the demons destined to wipe out humanity three years hence were precisely the undead creatures he had failed to eradicate entirely in the past.

Indeed, he was terrified that all of this was his own fault.

Regrettably, due to the constraints of his reincarnation, merely uttering the word ‘demons’ to Lyte had already pushed him to his absolute limit.

“Shenhong, you are deeply dissatisfied with yourself, aren’t you?”

‘Isn’t that obvious?’

Xie Shenhong roared inwardly.

How many mistakes had he made, how many problems had he caused, all due to his blunders…

“Shenhong, you know… I am, in fact, Reinhardt, the Imperial Prince.”

“Huh?”

Xie Shenhong froze, utterly bewildered by Lyte’s sudden shift in conversation.

“I arrived at the Huangfu household five years ago. Before that, no one in the family had ever heard of a person like me.”

“…”

“But I’ve grown fond of this nation; it’s so unlike the Empire, brimming with vibrant life… I yearn to earn my family’s acceptance as quickly as possible.”

“…”

“Yet, some things, the more one rushes, the more one cares, the more poorly they turn out… For at least the first six months, I botched one task after another, earning the gossip of servants, the disdain of the butler… I was even disliked by Little Jing, who declared I wasn’t truly her brother.”

“…”

“At that age, I was, after all, merely a child. I became withdrawn, wanting to abandon everything, even to destroy it all… But just as I stood on the precipice of straying, my father spirited me away from the royal capital and brought me to this place.”

“We are different, though…” Xie Shenhong now grasped why Lyte could empathize so deeply with his feelings. Lyte’s predicament stemmed from an unexpected addition to his family, whereas Xie Shenhong had entirely supplanted the original individual.

“Naturally. Every person is unique, but the underlying principles often align.”

“Align? In what way? I’m nothing more than an impostor!”

“Indeed, Shenhong, you are not the Crimson Hawk they envisioned… To be frank, before you confessed everything, I hadn’t fully conceived how to guide you. However, having just listened to your past, I now understand: you, yourself, have long possessed the answer.”

“What are you talking about?”

Xie Shenhong found himself unsure whether to display confusion or some other emotion entirely.

Yet Lyte, just as before, maintained an unwavering gaze.

No, more accurately, his eyes conveyed an absolute conviction in the person standing before him—

“Shenhong, in your past, as an emotionless puppet, what transformed you into the person you are today? Or, to put it another way, why did you choose to heed your adoptive mother’s words?”

“Didn’t I already say? I wanted to survive…”

“Considering the skills you acquired from your master, surely there were multiple avenues for survival. Why, then, did you specifically choose this path?”

“That’s because…”

Xie Shenhong began to speak, but halfway through his sentence, his voice trailed off.

Indeed, there were myriad ways to survive. Even if no one had claimed him, the higher-ups had promised to send him to a boarding school, ensuring his independence until he could live autonomously… So why had he insisted on following that particular woman?

“This is a classic case of being too close to see clearly… Shenhong, the reason is remarkably simple: because you liked her.”

“I liked her?” Xie Shenhong’s eyes widened in astonishment.

Lyte nodded.

“You chose her because you admired your adoptive mother’s thoughtful, meticulous way of living, and how genuinely she cared for you.”

“This… I don’t deny that I liked my adoptive mother, but what significance does that hold?”

“It holds profound significance, of course! It’s because of that liking that you wished to act as you did… I told you previously on the Lihuo vessel that I couldn’t choose my birth, nor my inherent talents. The only thing I *could* choose was what I desired to do… and the same holds true for you.”

Lyte gazed intently at Xie Shenhong, his eyes unwavering.

“Forget about being an impostor, a failure, a puppet… None of that matters, and it has nothing to do with anyone else, Shenhong, tell me—”

“What is it that you truly wish to do?”

“What kind of person do you aspire to become?”

“Do you… still wish to continue?”