V1 Epilogue

Chapter 140

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People like to believe that history, by its nature, flows onward like a great river, vast and unceasing, or surges like a raging torrent toward a single, predetermined sea.

Those who cling to fate are the worst of them, proclaiming that everything follows a divine script and soaking in a cheap sense of reassurance. In truth, however, something called history is far sloppier, more haphazard, and unreliable, like the staggering steps of a drunk who can barely walk straight.

Words like a simple misbuttoning do not begin to cover it. A tiny whim, a slight attachment, or a small but obsessive love, such as an abnormal fixation on one’s mother, can shatter the very foundation of the world and twist it into something entirely different and grotesque.

Now then, here there are two histories.

One is the history that should have been. A tale painted in tragedy and despair, and precisely because of that, one in which the brilliance of heroes shines all the brighter. A classic, orthodox epic.

The other is the history now in progress. A farce of a history in which, due to the rampage of a single mama’s boy, tragedy fell into comedy and seriousness degenerated into nonsense.

First, we must speak of Hein Sera Aster as he existed in the original history.

He was a vessel for the Demon King.

This is no metaphor. A structural flaw in his soul, or perhaps an excessive capacity for magic power, and above all, a bottomless emptiness born from never having known love. All of these conditions aligned, making him a once-in-a-generation container.

He knew no love, was isolated from those around him, drowned in his own power, and then fell into despair. Into that abyss of despair, the will of the Demon King slipped in. At this point in the original history, Hein was already in a state of partial awakening. On the surface, he acted as an arrogant noble heir, but within, the Demon King’s will gnawed away at his ego, steadily preparing for resurrection.

But look at reality now.

Look at the current Hein.

Rather than becoming a vessel for the Demon King, he reduced the Demon King himself to ashes.

The reason was absurdly simple. 「Because he would get in Mother’s way」. That alone.

His soul is not empty. On the contrary, it is filled with searing magma in the form of love for his mother. There is not even a millimeter of space for something like a Demon King to slip into.

Demon King Belzay, the great calamity that schemed to revive after countless ages, was crushed like an insect before Hein, an abnormal motherlover beyond all standards. The final boss who should have plunged the world into the depths of terror exited the stage before the story even reached its midpoint, and without anyone ever noticing.

However, the disappearance of a single Demon King does not mean that all the gears of the world return to normal. The Demon King may be the core of the system, but those who served as his limbs, and the many forms of malice that began to stir in response to his revival, still clung to the world.

No, perhaps it is more accurate to say they clung to it.

Let us look to the west.

The Principality of Yggdra. A beautiful land of forests and lakes.

In the original history, this country became hell.

The revival of the Undead King Fabian.

Fabian was the ruler of death. His revival required an enormous quantity of death. In the original history, four Towers of Corpses built within the forests of Yggdra were completed. Thousands upon thousands of adventurers, soldiers, and innocent civilians were offered as sacrifices, their blood and flesh forming the foundation of the towers.

When the towers were completed, the Undead King descended upon the world in his perfect form.

His power was overwhelming.

Miasma of death covered the entire country. All living things perished one after another, only to rise again at once as undead. Parents devoured their children. Friends killed friends. Loved ones, turned into rotting flesh, came clawing back. Amid screams and chaos, the Principality of Yggdra was transformed overnight into a land of the dead. Its beautiful forests sank into a sea of decay, and its pure lakes became pools of blood. From there, an army of the dead would have poured into neighboring nations, bringing an unprecedented calamity to the western continent.

But what of reality?

The Towers of Corpses were destroyed one after another while still under construction.

By whom? By Hein Sera Aster, and by a single madwoman acting under his orders. To Hein, those towers were nothing more than vulgar and filthy things, trash unworthy of his mother’s world. So he cleaned them up.

That was all there was to it.

At the final tower, the Undead King Fabian forced his revival in an incomplete state, but his power was not even one tenth of its peak. And unbelievably, he was destroyed by the hand of Eira, a descendant of the Saintess.

Eira. She too was a woman who, in the original history, was meant to become a tragic heroine.

Her companions were killed, she herself was captured, and she was fated to meet a gruesome end as the Undead King’s plaything, or as a breeding vessel to give birth to new monsters.

But then she met Hein, and she went mad.

Losing her sanity, and instead gaining blind fanaticism toward Hein as a new core to support her, she burned that madness as her sole fuel and struck down the Undead King.

The Principality of Yggdra was saved. Yet in exchange, Eira, who should have been a hero, lost her sanity and was reduced to a madwoman wandering the forest naked.

Should this be called salvation, or another form of hell? Opinions would surely differ. Still, at the very least, in that the vast majority of the people survived to see another day, it may be called the better ending.

Now let us look north.

The Kingdom of Norn. A land of extreme cold.

In the original history, this country’s king, Grunveld, fell to evil.

By nature, he was a brave yet narrow minded man, strong in suspicion. Into the cracks of his heart crept the whispers of the Demon King.

He used his half-sister, the court mage Aviana, as a dumping ground for his twisted desires. But that alone did not satisfy him. He coveted the spirit blood that flowed within Aviana, and the power itself.

In the original history, Grunveld killed Aviana and devoured her. Literally, he committed cannibalism. Through that taboo ritual, Grunveld transformed into something no longer human, the Demon Wolf. A beast that had completely lost reason and humanity, seeking only power and destruction.

He ravaged his own country and people without discrimination. The white snowfields of Norn were dyed red with the blood of its citizens. There was no one who could stop him. Aviana, the greatest mage, was already inside his stomach, and the elite Dragon Knight Order was slaughtered without resistance before the overwhelming power of the Demon Wolf.

The Kingdom of Norn became a hunting ground for a mad king.

But what of reality?

Grunveld died.

Who killed him? None other than Aviana herself.

Aviana, who should have been nothing more than a victim and prey, drove a spear of ice into the king’s throat.

What changed her?

It was the utterly unreasonable power shown by Hein Sera Aster.

She realized that the king’s violence she had feared was nothing more than child’s play before ‘that light’.

The moment she understood that the man she had believed to be an absolute strongman was in truth nothing but a trembling little coward, the chains of slavery were shattered.

She killed the king, destroyed her own eyes, and vanished into the snowfields.

The Kingdom of Norn lost its king and fell into utter chaos. Yet the worst possible scenario, the massacre by the Demon Wolf, was avoided.

Was Aviana saved? No. She, too, merely became a pitiful believer whose soul was ensnared by a new absolute being named Hein. Still, one might say it was a better life than being eaten and turned into excrement.

And then, the center: the Guynes Empire.

In the “original history”, the empire was destined to rot away from within.

The root cause was Chancellor Zigitaris.

She was capable, but utterly ruthless at heart. Flying the banner of human supremacy, she relentlessly advanced policies of oppression against demi-humans. In the original history, her tyranny escalated even further. She confiscated property from demi-humans, expelled them to slums, or forced them into hard labor. Those who resisted were executed without mercy.

Gallows lined the imperial plazas day after day, and the corpses of demi-humans were put on display.

That reign of terror eventually turned toward humans as well. Nobles who opposed her were purged, Emperor Valfreed was reduced to a complete puppet, and the empire became Zigitaris’s personal possession.

With national strength exhausted and popular support lost, that weakness was exploited by the remnants of the former Demon King’s army invading from the east. Led by Igdra, a great host of dragons assaulted the imperial capital, and crushed between civil strife and foreign invasion, the empire was to be driven to the brink of destruction,

…or so it should have been.

But what of reality?

Zigitaris is quiet.

No, rather than quiet, it would be more accurate to say she has been utterly emasculated.

She was captivated by the power of Hein Sera Aster. The grand magic he displayed in his staff duel with Eugen, that overwhelming spell like the manifestation of a sun itself, possessing crushing heat and mass. To her, who believed that power is justice and strength is truth, Hein’s might was the very embodiment of her ideals.

Her sadistic desire to conquer inverted into a masochistic worship: a yearning to be subdued by an even greater existence.

Ah, and what about Igdra*, who was supposed to lead the invasion?

TN: Since I changed Yugudora to Yggrda, I changed Ygdra to Igdra too to avoid confusion.

He was erased by Azel.

Far earlier, and far more easily than in the original history. Even in the original history, Igdra was killed by Azel, but the process was far more complicated. At that time, Azel’s power as a Hero was still immature, and he was forced into a hard-fought battle. But “the current Azel” has no need for awakening or any such nonsense. He was awakened from the very beginning, and even with his power halved by some unclear restriction, he casually blew Igdra away. Because he understands how to use his power, he can force results even when not at full strength.

Well, as his body matures, he will likely draw closer to the strength he once possessed. The power of the “original Azel”, who fully awakened through a sense of duty to save the world and through abundant love, was nothing like that.

In any case, the empire’s crisis has passed. At the very least, its imminent destruction was avoided.

Looking at it this way, one can see just how greatly the singularity known as Hein Sera Aster has twisted the fate of the world.

He has no intention of saving the world.

He has no sense of justice, and no sense of duty.

All he possesses is blind love for his mother, and an arrogance that looks down on everyone but himself.

Yet that warped motivation has, as a result, saved the world.

Then is the current history better than the “original history”?

It is difficult to affirm that without reservation. Certainly, many lives were saved. Nations did not fall. But what was born as the price for that is by no means small.

Above all else, there is the fact that an uncontrollable monster named Hein continues to grow in power. With the easily understood evil known as the Demon King gone, is something far more chaotic and far more twisted now attempting to envelop this world?

The “world for Mother” that Hein seeks.

It may be a peaceful world. But it may also be a world where every human except Hein and Helga is managed as their beloved pet, or as livestock.

The stripping away of free will. The loss of dignity. Peace inside a beautifully arranged, enormous birdcage. Whether that can be called happiness depends on one’s values.

There is only one thing that can be said for certain. This chain of distortions has not yet ended.

Hein, Helga, and all those around them are still falling, heading somewhere unknown.

Drawn by the gravity called love.

Whether what lies at the end of that fall is the depths of hell’s cauldron, or a paradise no one has ever seen, no one can yet know.

-0-

AN:

【The Villain Son is a Motherlover】

Volume One: I Love Mama

End.

Volume Two will be written soon. The title of Volume Two is I Love Mama Very Much.