The Prince in Question Is Not Stable-Chapter 43: Violet Hue

Cause and Effect.

That’s my terminology.

Every action has a meaning, a purpose, and follows a set of consequences.

But no amount of theories can justify the horror I witnessed.

What do you expect from me? I used to be a normal software engineer.

Death didn’t shake me.

But those bodies of children, and their blood being used as ink.

That-

That’s my fault. I’m guilty for the lives of innocents because I dragged a normal human into my plans.

"Why’re you using your powers?" I asked, sitting opposite Janus.

My voice was low, and it wasn’t intentional.

Selene and the officials were outside the carriage, following their usual protocol before continuing our journey towards Vahn County.

"I’ve been using my powers from the moment you stepped out of that house," Janus replied, with his notepad closed in his hands, and leg crossed over the other, staring at me, calmly.

I looked down at the ground. The officials couldn’t feel it, but it was a high-grade magic circle with exactly twelve circuit nodes.

And the magic circle was covering a mile in radius.

"What’s the purpose of this magic circle?" I asked.

"It falters the perception of anyone within a mile’s radius. They see what I want them to see," He replied.

"And why’re you using this?" I asked.

"You," He replied, and paused.

"Your disguise...it wore off," he added. "You’re not Marcus Rile, the man in front of me is Ymir Celestie."

"But I’m feeding my aura into the artefact," I said, looking at the black ring with a shape of a curled snake in my index finger.

"That’s the problem, you’re feeding it a lot of it. That artefact broke," Janus said, looking at the ring.

"Your eyes are back to red, and I don’t remember your iris being crescent moon-shaped," he continued. "And if I were not here to suppress your murderous intent, you could’ve made all of the officials pass out under pressure,"

"Guilt and anger are the shackles of the weak." His words were cauterised.

"I’m not weak..." I whispered.

As I said that, the world began to vibrate. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

It felt like a lost sense of control.

The interior of the carriage blurred.

Everything turned black and violet. The interior of the carriage, the polished wood, the sunlight filtering through the curtains.

I knew this feeling very well.

It’s the same sensation I feel every time I activate a blank canvas.

The only difference was...the whole canvas was black, and the drawings illustrating the reality were violet.

And then...

*Zzz-Sizzle*

Everything glitched back to reality.

"Ahh.. What the fuck is happening with me!" My groans were loud enough to send shivers across the carriage.

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes wide.

"I’m trying to understand that too... Your body has no aura core. Yet now, instead of one, you have two kinds of powers keeping you alive without clashing with each other, and the second one is definitely not under your complete control at the moment."

"This is my first time witnessing it- You didn’t have that power within you... No, you had it, but it was just dormant-"

Before he could continue, the world turned black again. The violet lines outlined the objects.

They weren’t still threads, but constantly vibrating.

I looked ahead at Janus, and he was a complex web of violet threads, constantly shivering and entangling each other, forming a silhouette that didn’t seem human.

*Zzz-Sizzle*

Just when I was about to move, the world glitched back to reality again.

"I must say, the one who has trained you has done an impressive job, and if he’s as good as I am assuming him to be. There’s no way he wouldn’t have noticed that second force...judging by your expressions, I say, even you don’t know of it, so it’s still growing, and the rate of growth had been tremendous the moment you stepped out of that house,"

"Yeah, he killed me over a thousand times just for a single lesson," I muttered, straightening my back.

This was weird. It was getting weird. But I wasn’t finding this feeling foreign.

This feels nostalgic. The same nostalgia I felt when Violet used her powers to heal me.

This is really weird.

*Click-Thud*

Selene entered the carriage and looked at both of us simultaneously.

She took a seat beside Janus, and without a word, the carriages started moving again.

There was silence for a while.

Then she opened her mouth and voiced out her thoughts. "We looked into it, Elowen has no relatives except the brother of his late wife, and he’s on his deathbed too...Elowen sends a fair share of his salary for his brother’s nursery care."

"We couldn’t find any trace left by the assassin, and the weapons used...were a part of their own house’s decorations and furniture,"

"What do you ... have in mind, Count?" She asked in a low tone.

"..." What do I have on mind? Do I have anything? A plan to fix it all?

This is irreversible. I can’t resurrect those children, and their blood will forever stay on my hands, no matter how or what I do.

*Zzz-Sizzle*

Reality glitched once again, and everything turned black and violet.

This time, there were changes. Instead of the carriage floor, beneath me was a deep, black water.

I was sitting on the carriage seat, and my feet rested on the surface of the water.

*Zzz-Sizzle*

"This is odd..." Janus spoke as he leaned in.

But Selene couldn’t hear him. It was just as he described; he could control what he wanted others to see and hear within a mile’s radius.

"If you really did die over a thousand times, then the deaths you must’ve experienced were inside the mind realm of your teacher," He murmured.

"Mind realm is a power that only people who’ve achieved clearance six and transcendence can tap into," he continued.

"But...No- this shouldn’t be," He squinted and stared into my eyes.

"I shouldn’t be sensing anything at all," he muttered. "Yet something keeps... getting past my senses,"

His fingers tightened around the notepad.

"You’re not doing this on purpose," he said finally. "It reacts to you."

"Reacts how?"

Janus didn’t answer immediately. He thought for a while.

"...I’m not sure- It’s like a scar or a seed tearing open when pressure is applied."

"I won’t speculate further," he said, leaning back. "Not without better data."

"But I’d suggest you take a better look into your soul, Ymir, because that power can be really lethal if left unchecked,"

"What’re you on about? Are there soul doctors or something?" I asked back.

’"..."

"I’m not being humorous," He said.

"Neither am I," I replied.

"Count?" Selene’s voice diverted my attention.

To her, it would’ve looked as if we both were staring at each other.

"You didn’t answer. What should we do about Elowen’s brother-in-law?" She asked.

"Just send one of your men to check up on his condition. I’ll handle the rest. We’ll move towards Vahn County. Right now." I replied, looking at her.

She nodded and stayed quiet for a while, but her eyes were still on me.

"You know..." She spoke. "For what it’s worth, you’re handling it better than most nobles."

’Better?’ A bitter laugh escaped me.

She noticed that, as her eyes shivered a little, but she still pushed on.

"They don’t even care about their subjects." She sighed.

"Officials get a significant amount of complaint letters, anonymous letters. All the counts, barons, dukes, and their families, they’re known for seeing normal people as disposable humans."

"If you’re worried about what happened to your Butler...there are people out there that have their wives, daughters raped, murdered, and thrown in a dumpster; and if they retaliate, death awaits them... because awakened nobles think of themselves as higher forms of beings- to them, the rest of the people are just flesh puppets,"

"..."

The weight in my chest just turned heavier. Every time I blinked, I could see the tiny throats of Elowen’s grandchildren slit.

"That’s a pretty speech," I said, and met her gaze.

"But that doesn’t change the fact that I was ignorant, does it. There are countless evil occurrences in existence. This world is a filthy pool of starvation, war crimes, brutality."

"Do I care if men are out there carved open while they beg? Do I care if women are split wide and left leaking in the dirt? No, I don’t. I don’t give a fuck about them."

"But I care if any of that occurs because of me, because that goes against my values,"

"I’m not a self-righteous Boy Scout out on a mission to fix the world"

"Neither am I a bleeding-heart crusader out to mend the fucking Kingdom,"

"I’m a man who cares about himself and the people around him. I’m a selfish bastard who guards his circle."

Her lips parted, but she couldn’t utter a single word. She just kept staring at me.

"So, if you intend to stop me from what I’m about to do to those who harmed my values, I would strongly suggest you don’t do that,"

"I have blood of children on my hands, and I don’t think the strings of your ’morality’ can make me change my mindset,"

"Every life lost in that process will just be collateral. It’s upto you, if you want to side with a count who’s just on a path of retribution, or want to stay as useless officials, because up until now, I didn’t find you worth my time."

The only sound that we heard for a while was the hum of the magic circuits and the carriage wheels rolling on the cobblestone roads.

"I see..." She said softly. "You’re not asking for permission, but informing us,"

Janus looked at her and leaned back, crossing his legs.

"Then, I’ll just do my duty," She said. "If consequences land where they’re meant to... I’ll make sure it’s just you that the blame is diverted to,"

"Oh," Janus murmured and looked at me.

"I like where this is going," He nodded and took out his notepad again, and started writing in it.