Chapter 28: Revealing the truth

Unlike when Nader had read Yue and Shizuku's minds in a considerate way so as not to pry into their secrets, he had not even worried about what secrets the Apostle girl might be keeping, so he could easily visualize everything inside her mind.

From there, he had learned that she was manipulating from the darkness the Kingdom, or more specifically, the head of the Kingdom, which in this case, was the King of Heiligh.

After all, it was much better and would take much less time to control the ruler of a Kingdom than to try to control the mind of each of its inhabitants; and the result would be the same.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the action proposed by the Pope with the help of the Noint was successfully carried out.

Brainwashing is something that can only be accomplished by someone who possesses a mental strength superior to the mental defense of the target, so Noint was able to brainwash the King into having blind and absolute faith in her master, Ehit.

And as expected, the odds of brainwashing grew exponentially towards the easy side because the King had already been a devout follower of Ehit, so his brain didn't have many obstacles when it came to Noint messing with his mind to turn him into another one of the many pawns on her master's game board.

This resulted in a much more religious and devoted King to Ehit, this is to the point of having threatened his own daughter to declare her a heretic in front of the public.

The reason behind this was simple; the princess, or in this case, Liliana had spoken out in favor of Nader since, from her point of view, it was somewhat impossible for Nader to commit such degrading actions that had fallen on his shoulders because of the Pope's words. Not to mention that she had found many holes in the Pope's accusations.

Therefore, the King had taken his daughter's words as possible heresy towards his God, leading him to take the measure of locking Liliana in her room for a whole month.

"Yue, can you neutralize your aura? It's pretty boring if they stand upright like rats that can't move." Nader asked Yue while stroking her small cheek with his finger.

"Mmm~" Yue purred happily.

The instant Yue's aura retracted, some retreated while others fell to the ground, however, some stayed in their places, after all, there was no point in escaping due to this room being surrounded by a barrier that couldn't be broken with their strength.

One girl looked at Nader with her strangely calm eyes before averting her gaze and running towards Shizuku, who was near him hugging and cuddling bunny Yuki.

On the other side, a girl named Eri Nakamura along with a muscular man quickly approached Hero Kouki who was still lying on the ground, unconscious.

"ShizuShizu!". Suzu shouted as she jumped up with her arms outstretched as if to embrace Shizuku.

However, Shizuku looked at her smiling friend and moved out of the way to dodge her, causing Suzu to stumble and stagger before she could balance herself.

"Sniff~... ShizuShizu, now that you've found a man, don't you love me anymore?". She sobbed as she looked at Shizuku with teary eyes. Her feigned tears threatened to drip from her eyes.

"What do you say, Suzu? I'm holding this bunny in my arms." Shizuku rolled her eyes at her friend's joke.

"Oh," Suzu let out a small sound at the sight of the bunny. Her eyes twinkled like stars in the dark sky as a beautiful smile broke out on her face.

"ShizuShizu, could you give her to me to hug? She's such a cute creature!".

Yue looked at the two girls with narrowed eyes as she walked over and stretched her arms towards Shizuku.

"Shizuku, give her to me... she's mine."

Nader smiled at the girls' exchange as he approached where the King stood. The heroes made their way over as they murmured to each other. Which showed that they were no longer as fearful in Nader's presence as before.

This was because they realized that if Nader had wanted to do something to them, with the terrifying strength he had shown, they would have disappeared from this world by now.

On the other hand, the only one more fearful was, without a doubt, the King, who was trembling in his place. He could neither believe nor accept that Noint had died at the hands of a mere mortal!

"G-Gahard-".

Even before the King could finish his words, Gahard interrupted him as he looked at him quizzically.

"Oi, you're kidding, right? How the fuck do you want me to defeat him if even that strange girl couldn't stop him? Right now, that silver head should already be rolling magnificently on the ground."

Even if he wanted to fight, right now, no one had their weapons on them as they had left it to the guards outside.

The King turned his face only to see Nader a few feet away from him, he couldn't help but take a few steps back when he saw that cold look on his face.

"You know, old man. You're lucky you ran into someone with a good heart like me. If it was someone with a short rope, you would have become minced meat inside a pool of blood by now." When he finished speaking, Nader spat on the ground near the King's foot.

As for the King himself, he looked at Nader with piercing eyes as if he had brutally defiled his daughter in front of his eyes.

"Hey, what's with that look? Heh, though I'd like to witness that same expression on the old Emperor's face again" Nader scoffed aloud.

Although Nader was talking about the Emperor he had known in his old world, Emperor Gahard thought he was referring to him, so he was about to complain, however, he swallowed his words and decided to remain a mere spectator.

Nader stepped closer to the King, who consequently took another step back. Nader smiled and locked him inside his aura, keeping him where he was.

The King's gaze revealed fear and hatred. However, Nader didn't care and began to speak.

"You should be thankful that you are under a brainwashing spell, that is the only reason your life is still intact. However, that will change if you don't change your perspective when I show you the truth. It will be up to you whether the thin thread that holds your life together is intact or severed."

Those present looked at him strangely, not making sense of what he had said, except for some like Shizuku.

She instantly knew what had happened, and found it much easier to tie up ends.

Beings normally trust and believe with all their being in the words spoken by the people who govern them, this is even more true in this world, where the King and the Pope of the Holy Church dictate everything.

Of course, even if they wanted to object to the words, they could not do so because they are mere citizens who cannot live without their heads.

On the other hand, for someone like Shizuku, who had a broad view and saw beyond a point to conclude, she had never believed either the King or the Pope.

Of course, she, like everyone else, had witnessed with her own eyes the girls who had supposedly been rap*d on top of the stage, but apart from sobs and a few words that would make one feel sorry for them, no other legitimate evidence of what had happened had been provided.

Besides, the King was very affectionate with his family when they had come into this world, so it was extremely strange to him that Liliana, who could be considered her friend, had been locked in her room by her own father. And the answer to all this was possibly the brainwashing that Nader had spoken of.

As for Yue, even if Nader had turned the King into mush, she wouldn't mind in the least, since from her point of view, that was the least the King deserved for messing with her beloved.

She stopped thinking about unimportant things and stole the little white bunny from Shizuku's arms, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Oblivious to the thoughts of the two girls, Nader took the King's head in the palm of his hand as he began to execute his [Memory Stealing] technique to overwrite the parts of the memory that had been erased by Noint.

In fact, the brainwashing that has been done to a being can be countered and neutralized when a being stronger than the one who has brainwashed the victim gets involved and decides to overwrite it, and Nader was the only one who had all this at his disposal.

Not even a minute passed when Nader released the King's head, who fell unconscious to the ground after receiving many memories he had previously erased.

"Done" Nader nodded with satisfaction.

Actually, Nader didn't care if the King lived or died, even after knowing that he was under the consequence of brainwashing.

However, he wanted to do the same thing Ehit had done in the age of the gods. The only difference was that now he would turn his former followers against him before Nader ended his life.

He wanted to see with his own eyes when Ehit would witness the destruction of what he had built in the past. It would undoubtedly be disastrous for Ehit, and he would boil with rage and hatred.

"Ughh...".

"Oh? That was faster than I initially thought." Nader muttered as he saw the King's eyes widen with a grunt of pain.

The King sat down on the floor and began to look around the room with confusion written all over his face.

"Well, what do you think of what you've seen?".

The cold voice caught the King's attention, and his gaze fell on the unfamiliar but familiar face of Nader.

The king looked at him with a twinge of guilt and, at the same time, gratitude, gratitude for letting him live.

Besides, he had never thought that the God he had worshiped would turn out to be that kind of being. For him, it was a great Shock, and even now, his feelings were stirred.

"~Sigh, First of all, can you give me a little time to organize my thoughts?".

Nader shrugged and without a word, disappeared from his place causing the others to look for him, only to see him standing next to the beautiful golden girl.