Chapter #30

The Silverlight infection is slower compared to it's brethren, it is designed this way to make sure the infected won't mutate into monsters.

Unlike Silverlight, Goldlight does not have such a problem due to being directly connected to Zeno, there's no risk of unwanted mutation or risk of death.

Zeno couldn't be bothered by an outbreak years before the actual one, coupled with Yuriko being pregnant made things harder for him.

'Man, I wish I had tried this on the house servants first.' Zeno thought as he silently eliminated another minor mutation in Souichirou's body.

{Hey, are you really going to enslave them?} Ouryuu suddenly asked.

He never felt comfortable with his reincarnation doing all these things but he didn't have the right to judge since his time had already passed.

Still, he couldn't bear to watch getting someone enslaved. Watching Zeno kill thousands of innocents would be preferable.

'Who do you think I am? Naturally I won't take their free will. They just won't have any better options other than listening to me. I like my moral high ground.' Zeno replied.

{That somehow sounds worse but I will make do with what I got.} Ouryuu sighed.

Soon Saya was born, it was around that time that Zeno finally infected both Souichirou and Yuriko. It appears being mentally exhausted helped the virus.

[So, how are we doing this? Just age yourself up in front of them then deal with whatever comes next.] System asked.

'I was going to catch Souichirou alone before we had a talk. Yuriko is totally submissive towards his decisions, since I am not taking their free will away, it should work out.' Zeno murmured.

{You're going to use their newfound emotions as a parent against them aren't you?} Ouryuu sighed once more.

'What is the point of knowing about an apocalypse if you're not going to use it as blackmail?' Zeno said.

Ouryuu was speechless.

_______

Souichirou Takagi was a happily married man, and a successful politician. His cute daughter was just born and he was over the moon.

So he decided to share his happiness with his adopted son, little Zeno might be a bit grumpy when teased but he was a well behaved child.

'It is kind of weird that he is always silent... Wait, why do I have my sword with me?' Souichirou stopped right after entering Zeno's room.

He had realized he was holding on to his sword, his grip was so hard that his knuckles turned white.

Souichirou suddenly felt like he was facing a great enemy but his logic told him there was no danger, only Zeno...

"Hoo, I guess not even wiping your memories got rid of your vigilance." Souichirou heard the voice of a teenager.

Turning around he saw the owner of the voice, a teenager laying on the couch while juggling balls.

Souichirou drew his sword, just to ease up his growing terror.

He noticed how this teenager looked similar to Zeno but before he could make any assumptions the teenager spoke.

"We had this conversation twelve times now, but I will once again start by introducing myself." Zeno stopped juggling and got up.

He gave a curtsey that looked more like a mocking than respect before he introduced himself.

"My name is Zeno, I am an over two thousand years old reincarnated individual who came to this world to save it. Also I am a dragon." Zeno finished his short introduction while showing some scales.

He had been over this twelve times, he kind of knew what to say to progress through the dialogues.

"You said you wiped my memories!? Twelve times at that!" Souichirou was shocked.

He looked at Zeno's yellow shining scales, it reminded him of the depiction of dragons at Master Busijima's Dojo.

"Well, one cannot really wipe them out, considering you came here armed to the teeth. Also, you never let me finish speaking before stabbing me with your sword." Zeno explained, his voice sounded really tired.

Tired enough that Souichirou held his hand. "What happened to my son?" Souichirou asked.

"Well, here I am. I just didn't have the energy to have this conversation at the beginning. You must have thought there was something weird with me right?" Zeno persuaded.

Souichirou nodded involuntarily. The feeling of weirdness only grew after Saya's birth. Saya cried all the time, they couldn't tell what she wanted, it was stressful to look after her.

Zeno stared at Souichirou, this was the point where he got stuck in the last twelve tries. Souichirou's mentality was hard for him to figure out, mostly because he didn't care in the last ten times.

He never got to explain the world ending apocalypse happening in sixteen years.

"Your mother's death... Do you have any involvement in it?" Souichirou asked after thinking a little.

He figured that he needed to win some time by asking some questions while he tried to make sense of things.

"Well, my mother was never supposed to get pregnant. Well, she was destined to die in that car crash, just my existence changed the reason not the cause." Zeno replied seriously.

His parents were a touchy subject, it was for that reason he didn't want new one's, for now at least.

'Who knows what I might do in the future.' He thought to himself.

Souichirou was dumbfounded, he wasn't expecting such a clear cut answer with such seriousness.

"Then why are you here?" He asked.

"Random, still I know there will be an apocalyptic event happening in sixteen years. I want to help and save people." Zeno smiled, he even let Ouryuu handle the smile to look more gentle.

"Why?" Souichirou was a politician, he wouldn't just take such an answer.

"I am a virtuous dragon, I can get stronger by helping people. So I am doing all of this for myself." Zeno replied.

{Virtuous dragon.... ~Pfttt!} Ouryuu couldn't handle it.

[Hahahaha!]

'...' Zeno decided to handle his multiple personality disorder at the shortest notice.

Being self deprecating is one thing but being laughed at by yourself is a new low, even for him.

Seeing Souichirou was still waiting for an explanation, Zeno started to explain what he knew about the outbreak, his plans of containing it and handling it.

"You want to unify the world afterwards?" Souichirou was curious.

From what he understood, Zeno wasn't staying here for the rest of his life. Just stopping the zombies should be enough for him, then why bother with the rest.

"Well, I am kind of building my harem, I need a safe world for them and their families." Zeno explained, stunning Souichirou in the process.

"Alright, what do you need?" Souichirou decided to take the dragon's word.

Especially after he proved his supernatural origins, it's not like he can kill Zeno considering how they were having this conversation for the twelfth time.

Yes, Zeno restored his memories after he agreed, earning him more respect and fear.

"Well, I naturally need to take over Japan, because fuck corrupt politicians and their useless agendas. Then I will build a company for the funds I will need..." Zeno explained.

"Wait. Wait. Wait! What do you mean you're going to take over Japan?!" Souichirou quickly cut him off.

"I need to be able to change the law accordingly. I will have to enslave some people but that's not important." Zeno clarified.

"You can enslave people?!" Souichirou started to doubt everything, at least until Zeno talked.

"Yeah, but the process leaves them as mindless puppets that cannot think for themselves." Zeno explained.

Naturally it was a lie, Zeno figured it would be better to build defenses around people with his lies.

It was to put people at ease, it was a flimsy reasoning but people would hold on to it rather than accept the terrifying possibility.

{Yep, this is much worse than slavery.} Ouryuu was feeling bad for the man.

[Yeah, it's the new trend nowadays. It's slavery with extra steps, everyone does it.]

"You don't have to enslave anyone, I will become the prime minister once you need it." Souichirou decided.

His patriotism didn't allow him to see the government being enslaved by a dragon. He'd rather be the government and make sure everything is okay.

"You said it, don't regret it later. Also how are we going to explain all of this to Yuriko?" Zeno shrugged.

"I will talk to her, she'll listen to me. Also please don't groom my daughter or anything." Souichirou said he had just thought about the legends about Dragons and was suddenly worried about his newborn daughter.

"What do you mean, I hate children." Zeno exclaimed. He definitely didn't want to go through what he went through with Dana again.