Chapter 213 - The Devil In My Father (2/2)
”Sure, but are you sure that the Emperor felt that way about your mother? That he only thought of her as a close friend and never had any romantic feelings about her? I personally find that difficult to believe...” said Reed with a skeptical expression.
Lu'um frowned and said, ”That... I admittedly do not know. What I do know is that the Empress and the Emperor did not elope alone. They required a lot of help to escape Mu — Uncle Bernard and my mother helped them escape undetected. They also left Mu along with them, too, from what I remember.”
”It was a long journey that took a couple thousand years as the future Emperor and Empress traveled across the universe gathering allies to support their relationship and eventually, their claim to the throne. Their story is a legend in and of itself, for they managed to make the Mulian Empire bend to their will, an impossible feat never heard of in recorded history.”
”That's quite a bit of time for them all to be together, no?” said Reed.
”Yes, that is true, I suppose...” said Lu'um.
”And for a perilous journey like that, there must have been plenty of tribulations. I have no doubt you understand how danger can quickly bring people together and deepen bonds. Therefore, we can at least infer that a possibility exists that there was something between them. And if that were the case, they should have just admitted it.”
Lu'um observed Reed's face as if looking for a sign and said, ”...Are you looking for my confirmation? I'm getting the feeling that all of this talk is a pretext for something you really want to discuss, so just spit what you really want to say already. You're making me feel nervous with all of your verbal prancing. It's disturbing.”
Reed awkwardly chuckled and said, ”All I wanted to get across was that I sympathize with the poor guy's troubles. Love can be such a pain in the a.s.s. Look at what happened to us, for example — say the wrong thing or get the context all messed up, and everything will end up going to shit...”
”Are you seeing someone, Ka'an? Because if that's what you're trying to tell me, I don't care. Listen, I'm almost 5,100 years old. I've been alive for a long time. The Ancient Mulians don't measure our lifespans with individual years or even decades — we use centuries as our smallest milestone. You'll still get called a brat by most people if you haven't even lived a millennium, for reference.”
Lu'um massaged the temples of her head and said, ”My people... don't really get 'married,' the way you understand it. At least not with terms that humans and other mortals use. You know, like the 'until the day you die' bit. My people can theoretically live forever. And forever is an unimaginably long amount of time. Some might even say an impossible amount of time.”
When the Ancient Mulians conquered death, they had unintentionally changed several parts of their own culture.
In a world where people did not age or die, the social dynamics of their society changed irreversibly. Eternal youth meant that it was difficult to distinguish who was older than who, and a deathless race created the issue of eternal and exponential expansion.
Had the Ancient Mulians not prohibited themselves from having children at will, they would have stripped their home galaxy clean of resources within ten thousand years, give or take. In a hundred thousand years, their entire local galactic filament. In a million and a half years, their entire universe.
They would have turned themselves into a universal tumor and, eventually, a life-ending multiversal cancer. With their superior technology and numbers, no one would have been able to stop them...
Having a child — one with immortal genes — became a right one had to earn.
One could give birth to mortal children, but not a single parent wished to see their children, grandchildren, and descendants grow old and die like mayflies in the span of a couple of short centuries. That was too cruel a fate to endure.
Their deathlessness also degraded, devalued the concept of love in a way.
Humans and other mortal races loved each other dearly because they knew that their time was limited. Therefore, it was important to seek sustainable life-long relationsh.i.p.s, be they romantic or platonic. Every friend mattered and loving someone was precious because life was short.
It had to count and mean something, or else it was a waste of precious time.
A centuries-old relationship was nothing more than a fling to them. Even ending thousand-year relationsh.i.p.s, though painful, was not that severe a loss.
Most Ancient Mulians did eventually settle down on a 'permanent partner' of sorts once they got old enough, though. It was usually an old flame they were with during their youthful days, who wanted the same thing — a stable, permanent relationship with a m.a.t.u.r.e individual.
”This older, permanent relationship is called a Dyad, and it's the closest thing we have to marriage as you know it. It's a thing that older people do when they're tired of floating around, to put it bluntly. When you get old enough, you've seen and experienced it all, I suppose you start wanting a slow, stable life...” said Lu'um.
Reed's eyes popped the longer he heard Lu'um describe how the Ancient Mulians dealt with love.
It was alien to the extreme, but then again, the Ancient Mulians were literal aliens, thought Reed. He still regarded himself a mortal at heart, too, so the mindset of this immortal race was naturally difficult to understand. They operated on much freer, looser valuer than he was accustomed to.
It all sounds so... distant at its core, but the more I think about it, the more it sounds rational. When you can live forever, it becomes harder and harder to find new stimuli and experience new things over thousands of years.
As sad as it sounds, boredom was probably the biggest threat to the Ancient Mulians. It makes sense that they turned into total hedonists; the poor bastards had no other way to stave off the eternal boredom of living forever... and even that didn't work for too long. T
That's some sad shit. I guess living forever does have its own shortcomings, huh...
When Lu'um saw Reed's sympathetic face full of pity, she scowled said, ”Stop looking at me like that, you bastard. And for your information, I didn't partake in that sort of pitiful lifestyle. I had a reputation to uphold as a royal family member, and I wasn't so weak-willed that I needed to fool around with idiots to let off steam. I spent all my time honing my skills and studying to surpass my mother and older sisters...”
Reed hugged Lu'um out pity and said, ”You poor girl...” He'd always thought that he had the bleakest life between the two of them, but now his mind had begun to change with all he had learned.
Lu'um punched Reed in the gut and said, ”In any case, what I'm trying to tell you is that I don't care if you've had a fling with some mortal girl while I've been gone. There's no point in being jealous of a fly fated to die in the blink of an eye. All I ask is that you do not lie or try to hide it from me. No more secrets, just as we agreed.”
”U-Ugh, as if I'd... fool around like that!” said Reed as he clutched his stomach. ”I just wanted to clear the air on that topic. I haven't seen anyone since we parted ways. That's all I wanted to say.”
”Neither have I, of course,” replied Lu'um sternly, as if it was a natural matter-of-fact.
”Okay.”
”Alright.”
Ah, f.u.c.k... I shit the bed this time. Goddamnit. This is why I despise talking about delicate topics when I don't have an escape route prepared. It doesn't help that it still feels super f.u.c.k.i.n.g weird being around her, let alone talking to her after all this time.
God, I hope we arrive soon... The silence is killing me. At this point, I'd rather jump out of the ship and walk to Talfano City myself...
Unfortunately for Reed, it'd be another couple of rough hours before they'd arrive at Talfano City, their current destination. What Reed and Lu'um were seeking was the hidden inheritance that the former Emperor had left for Reed, but in reality, that was nothing more than a secondary objective for them.
What Reed and Lu'um wanted from Talfano City was something else. Something far more precious and heretical than anyone could have ever imagined.
For the coming war, they'd need the very best generals and strategists possible if they were to stand a chance of winning. And with the circ.u.mstances as they were, they couldn't afford to be picky.
Thankfully, Talfano City held the key to one such individual who possessed an unprecedented level of strategic value.
A man who had, during his prime, had successfully defeated the Ancient Mulian Empire. An impossible feat only reproduced one other time in recorded history by the Infestation.
If they were to fight against Devils, they'd need a proper Devil on their own side.
What they were really looking for was the 17th Emperor of the Mulian Empire, who was also known as...
The Great Traitor.