Path of the Extra

Azriel’s question was filled with neither sarcasm nor mockery. It was not even laced with anger or sadness. Jasmine could tell he was asking genuinely. He truly wanted to know whether it was possible, even while a big part of him could not believe it could be true.

“Yes.”

Jasmine’s answer remained the same. It always would.

“Yes, I do.”

There was not a single trace of hesitation or deceit in her eyes.

“I see…”

Azriel let out a breath and looked away from her.

The other three were taking much longer to come back than Jasmine had expected. Undoubtedly, they had gotten distracted by the festival again. As long as the kid was safe with them, Jasmine was fine with it. She had more pressing matters to deal with right now—matters involving her little brother.

As she looked at Azriel’s side profile, Jasmine could not help but feel amazed, horrified, saddened, shocked, and doubtful all at once.

If what Azriel had said was true, then ever since Leo’s family died, instead of facing reality head-on, he had manipulated his own mind. He had created new memories and lied to himself, all to look away from the truth as a coping mechanism. It sounded utterly ridiculous, and yet Jasmine could not stop herself from believing it.

It was all deeply confusing. Jasmine could neither understand it nor properly explain it, but she knew one thing for certain: the person standing before her was her little brother in both body and soul. And yet Azriel seemed to believe that he was Leo Karumi, someone who had possessed the body of Azriel Crimson.

Perhaps, if his logic had truly been correct, and Leo Karumi had never possessed the body of Azriel Crimson, then that lie might have held for much longer.

But either way, the moment Azriel Crimson remembered his life as Leo Karumi—or the moment Leo Karumi took over the body of Azriel Crimson—they became one person. One person carrying both sets of memories.

And that was what had begun to crack the lie in his mind.

Little by little.

Day by day.

With every joy and every moment of suffering, the lie was chipped away.

Now Azriel no longer even understood his own identity clearly.

’It’s like two different people are tearing at his mind in opposite directions.’

It had to be painful.

No… it was not just two.

Subject 666 was there too. He could be counted as one person. Leo Karumi before becoming Azriel Crimson could be counted as another. Azriel Crimson before inheriting Leo Karumi’s memories could be counted as another. And the Azriel Crimson standing before Jasmine now, carrying all of those memories at once, could be counted as yet another.

At the very least, Jasmine felt as though four different people were tearing at his mind.

And the strange part was that both Leo Karumi and Azriel Crimson, in their early childhoods, had struggled with basic human logic and emotion. Both of them had seemed slightly stunted compared to other children.

Collecting herself, Jasmine forced a smile, though it was hidden behind her mask. She tried to sound as cheerful as possible, hoping to lift Azriel’s obviously worsening mood after he had told her so many dark things about his past.

“This is admittedly a lot… but it is also a good thing, right?”

Azriel looked at her in utter disbelief, as though he thought he had misheard her.

Had Jasmine lost her mind?

What exactly was good about anything he had just said?

As if reading his thoughts, her smile widened slightly.

“Now that we know the issues, we can finally start fixing them.”

“You mean fixing me?” Azriel shot back, his tone sharp as he narrowed his eyes at Jasmine. Her hidden smile stiffened.

“N-no… I… I mean, yes, but—”

“There is no fixing anything,” Azriel cut her off coldly.

Suddenly, Azriel clicked his tongue, clearly irritated. He looked away from her before speaking again, his voice turning venomous.

“I have killed innocents. I have let innocents die. I have threatened to kill many more. I conspired with the worst of the worst. I might as well already be called a villain. It is stupid to think otherwise. I possess knowledge that could make our world either better or worse, yet I chose to do neither. And if any of my actions have had an impact, then it has only been for the worse. What have I really done besides chase my own selfish gains? From the moment I returned from Europe until now, have I cultivated my mana core like any of you? Have I bothered to train and refine my swordsmanship? Improved my affinities by learning new spells? Expanded my knowledge? Acquired more soul armor and soul weapons? I have had plenty of opportunities to become stronger, yet I chose not to. Like some undisciplined piece of shit.”

“That…”

Jasmine closed her eyes and said nothing, afraid that if she spoke, tears would spill or her voice would crack.

She wanted to deny his words, but the amount of hatred buried inside them made one thing obvious: no matter what she said, it would not reach him today.

“I have all this talent, and still I have done nothing,” Azriel said tiredly.

That single fact made Jasmine feel both proud and terrified.

Proud, because it meant what she had believed all this time was finally true. All those bastards who had called him worthless, a stain on the great clans, and utterly useless had been wrong.

Terribly wrong.

Jasmine had a very good memory, so she remembered the day their talents were assessed with perfect clarity.

That was the day the orb had shone so brightly for her that they called her the brightest star of the Crimson Clan. Her talent had been described as nearly immeasurable.

And yet, when it came to Azriel, the worst thing imaginable had happened.

When it was Azriel’s turn, the mana orb did not glow dimly.

It did not glow at all.

Instead, it exploded the moment he poured his mana into it, shattering into fragments that scattered everywhere. A priceless artifact—one that even a master would struggle to destroy—had been obliterated instantly.

At first, they thought perhaps the orb had been faulty. Though nearly impossible, maybe it had happened because Jasmine’s mana had somehow destabilized it earlier. So they brought out a new one, fresh and unused.

That one was destroyed too.

It never got the chance to emit even the faintest light. It remained in darkness until the moment it was reduced to pieces.

Just like the next one.

And the one after that.

Only later did the confusion begin to clear, or at least they tried to explain it by giving it a name. It seemed Azriel had an extremely rare condition—the first known human case—in which his mana destroyed whatever it was poured into if too much of it entered. Normally, human mana should have been compatible with such things.

Mana stones, mana artifacts, even mana weapons.

That was the entire reason Azriel carried no mana weapons or mana armor, despite the fact that nearly everyone else did.

Even Jasmine.

Azriel simply could not use them.

But that still did not tell them much about his talent.

It was only later, when the Crimson Clan continued investigating, that they noticed something alarming. When Void Creatures were compared to humans of the same mana core level, there was a strange similarity. If a Void Creature was forced to pour its mana into an object, it would explode just as it did with Azriel. The same would not happen with a normal human.

The worst part of that discovery was what followed.

Even when a human and a Void Creature possessed the same mana core level, every known record—and every reasonable hypothesis—suggested that a Void Creature’s potential for growth was vastly inferior to that of a human.

…In short, the conclusion they reached was a cruel one.

Azriel, the prince of the Crimson Clan, very likely had no talent at all.

He might not even be able to use his mana properly for anything.

And something like that—a child who could not even use his own mana, branded as talentless—was perhaps the worst fate possible for someone born into one of the Four Great Clans.

Thus began the rumors of the unworthy prince, a stain on the great Crimson Clan. The greatest stain among all royals and nobles in their world.