Chapter 44 (volume 2)

In the living room at Ryusuke's house there were four people sitting on the sofas in the room.

On one sofa were Ryusuke and Yae Sakura and on the other sofa, Welt and Einstein.

"Welt-san, is the soda to your liking? Although I hoped you could find my location through hacking that I did I didn't expect you to arrive today, I thought you would only get here the day after tomorrow, so I have nothing but soda to serve them." Ryusuke spoke in a hospitable way. He had served two glasses of soda for Welt and Einstein.

When Ryusuke stole Serenity Gem he purposely left some small traces of his hacking for Welt's group, he did this to lure them here so that they could talk in person. He also allowed them to see what he did to corrupt politicians, he did it so that they had a good first impression of him.

Although he already expected them to come to the city he did not expect them to arrive so soon, he ended up underestimating the capabilities and stubbornness of Einstein and Tesla.

"Huh, yes, the soda looks great." Welt responded awkwardly, when she decided to come to this city he had already imagined several different scenarios about what could happen. He imagined himself fighting a possible Herrscher even in his weakened state, he imagined himself confronting the Schicksal forces that could reach this city, but he would never think he would be here at Ryusuke's house as a guest and having a normal conversation with him.

"Good... Ryusuke..."

Welt was unable to speak. He had a lot of questions but he didn't want to spoil the current mood or offend Ryusuke with those questions.

"Why did you steal Serenity Gem? What do you want with us by attracting us here? And finally ... are you a Herrscher?"

"Welt-san if you want to ask then you don't have to restrain yourself. I invited you here because I wanted to negotiate with you."

Ryusuke got to the point, although he also wanted to have a nice conversation with Welt he needed to be decisive here. He needed to make his intentions clear.

Welt was silent for a few seconds. Soon he broke that silence and he asked.

"Ryusuke are you a Herrscher?" Welt finally asked the question he wanted most but he was a little afraid to say. Although Welt was already sure that Ryusuke is a Herrscher for the compliment he gave earlier, he still wants to know the details about it.

"Hmm, it's a little tricky to explain but I'm not exactly a Herrscher. After all, I didn't cause any Honkai eruptions and I don't even have my own Herrscher core, I'm just a human boy who suddenly woke up on a normal morning and saw that there was the stigma of Herrscher of Binding in his left hand."

Ryusuke spoke calmly while he took the glove out of his left hand, thus revealing his stigma Herrscher.

The stigmata of Herrscher of Binding is shaped like a golden cross

( Author's note: personal, I searched the Internet a lot and didn’t find the Herrscher of Binding stigmata in Honkai history so I decided to take that image and make that image the stigmata of Herrscher of Binding, imagine this stigma with a golden color. )

Welt listened carefully to Ryusuke's words.

"Ryusuke, how long have you received this stigmata?"

Welt asked curious, he thought Ryusuke could have received the stigma recently, perhaps until a month ago. But Ryusuke's response shocked him.

"I have had this stigma for at least three years. And just so you know I could use the power of Binding from the first moment I received the stigmata of Binding." This short response shocked both Welt and Einstein. They did not expect that a 7-year-old child would receive such a burden.

'Fortunately he appears to be a prudent child who has a strong self-control over himself. Otherwise, it could have already caused a great uproar with the power of the Herrscher of Binding.' Welt thought with sympathy and relief when he heard Ryusuke's words. He himself felt how terrifying Binding's power is so he doesn't even want to imagine what would happen if that power were to be used on ordinary people.

And Welt also remembered some information they found in a ruin of the Previous Age. In this information it said that the Herrscher of Binding of the Previous Era chose to side with humanity in the war against Honkai. At that time he was very happy to hear this, as it showed that it was possible for the Herrschers to fight alongside humanity, but after the confrontation with the second Herrscher he was not very optimistic because there was a possibility that Honkai's will would corrupt the minds of people eligible to become Herrschers.

"Ryusuke do you happen to hear some strange voices inside your head?" Welt asked worried that Ryusuke might have already contacted Honkai's will.

If Ryusuke were a Herrscher on the Honkai side then Welt would have died easily earlier. If it were before the fight against the second Herrscher he would still have some chance to resist since Ryusuke has only the stigma of Herrscher of Binding, but in his current condition he is not able to do anything against Ryusuke, if Ryusuke decided to kill Welt and steal his Herrscher core he wouldn't have much trouble defeating Welt.

'But he didn't do that. At least he didn't hit any civilians when he used Binding's power on me. This is proof that he did not become a homicidal Herrscher who does not care about human life.' ( Welt )

'But if he didn't submit to Honkai then it means that he may be suffering from Honkai's whispers in his mind, torturing him incessantly.' ( Welt )

Although Welt did not let his guard down and relationship with Ryusuke he was also hopeful that Ryusuke was on the side of humanity and he was also concerned with mental well-being of the boy.

The original Herrscher of Reason of this era, was someone named Welt Joyce, during the Honkai eruption that destroyed Berlin and gave rise to the first Herrscher of that time but there was an unforeseen, the core Herrscher of Reason ended up absorbing the consciousness of the 300,000 people who died in that era. Today, due to the collective willpower of these consciousnesses, Welt Joyce was not swayed by the Will of Honkai. He was a newborn Herrscher who didn't remember who he was. He was captured by Schicksal's forces and modeled 3 years of experiments, he later met Einstein and Tesla, as well as the other founding members of Anti-Entropy, he taught the amnesiac Welt Joyce about the beauty of humanity.

Unfortunately Welt Joyce had to sacrifice himself to protect New York City from the nuclear missiles that Otto sent to destroy the city and erase the evidence for some of his unethical acts. Welt Joyce and the Valkyrie rank-S of that time, Reanna Brigantia, they managed to stop the missiles and protect New York City but unfortunately they had too many serious injuries to survive.

Young Welt Joyce was in his last breaths when he handed his Herrscher core to a boy named Joachim Nokianvirtanen, that boy accepted that he accepted Joyce's Herrscher core, from that day on that boy changed his name to Welt Yang and he decided to follow the same path as the hero he admired, he would follow the legacy of Welt Joyce.

After that incident, Schicksal's North American subsidiary separated from Schicksal and became the organization known as Anti-Entropy, an organization that is also fighting Honkai to protect humanity.

"Welt-san, could you be more specific about what you mean by strange voices?" Ryusuke asked Welt, he took a sip of his soda.

"Did you ever hear any whispers telling you to destroy or kill humanity?" ( Welt )

"If you are concerned that I have succumbed to Honkai's will then you need not worry, since that day when i received the stigma of Binding i haven't heard Honkai's voice. I am not currently listening to Honkai's voice, although I cannot prove my words now." Ryusuke spoke carelessly while he took the soda bottle and filled his glass.

Welt listened carefully to Ryusuke's words. Although it is as Ryusuke said, that he had not proved that he was not being controlled by Honkai, Welt still wanted to trust Ryusuke. If Tesla heard Welt's thoughts she would certainly call him a naive idiot.

"I think it's time for the question of the day, right, Welt-san?" Ryusuke spoke with a typical TV presenter smile.

"Ryusuke did you steal the Serenity Gem that was inside Schicksal headquarters?" Welt asked.

"Yes." Ryusuke answered with if that question was insignificant.

"But why would you do that? For what purpose?" Welt asked.

"It's because I, Aikawa Ryusuke, have a dream." Ryusuke responded with pure conviction.

"I just want to live a peaceful and normal life without any problems." Ryusuke said what his dream was.

'Is that it?' Welt thought surprised to hear Ryusuke's dream. Since Ryusuke is only 10 years old he thought Ryusuke would have a bigger dream. But Welt was also relieved to know that this was his dream was quite simple.

"Excuse me, Ryusuke. But if this is your dream then why did you do something as contradictory as stealing Serenity Gem which is extremely dangerous and can put your peaceful life at risk? Schicksal is desperately trying to find Serenity Gem and there is a possibility that they will be able to track Gem here. Wouldn't that put your peaceful life at risk?" Einstein who has remained silent until now spoke. She was a little skeptical about what Ryusuke said. She couldn't understand Ryusuke's motives for doing what he did.

Ryusuke remained calm, he was not surprised by her question.

"You are right, Einstein-san. My last actions were contradictory to my wishes, but I had to steal Serenity Gem to secure my second and my family's."

"If u hadn't stolen Serenity Gem I probably would never have been noticed by Anti-Entropy or Schicksal. I could continue to live my peaceful life as I have always lived without worrying about Honkai or humanity. But I know that everything that is good lasts a short time. In the future the third Herrscher will appear in this world, then it will be the fourth Herrscher, and then it will be the fifth Herrscher... The Herrschers will begin to appear in the future one by the future to destroy humanity. Eventually the time will come for the eleventh Herrscher will have to appear in this world..." ( Ryusuke )

"When that moment comes, there will probably be a Honkai eruption because of my presence and from then on my identity as a Herrscher will be exposed to the world. When that happens, anti-honkai organizations around the world will hunt me down and my human rights will be thrown away. This is a future that I imagine will happen to me if I remain hidden doing nothing." ( Ryusuke )

"That's why I decided to make some drastic moves. Whoever takes the initiative will have the advantage, I decided to act following that saying. First I decided to break into Schicksal's computers to understand the information they have about Honkai and the world, so that I can decide what my next steps will be. But honestly I was very disgusted by the experiments that Schicksal does under the cloths, there were times when I even thought that Honkai was not wrong to destroy humanity." Ryusuke spoke with a little disgust, disgust, and a little fear when he remembered the files he saw from Schicksal.

"Cough cough... back on topic, through the Schicksal files I learned about the existence of Anti-Entropy and its Sovereign, who also had an account about you and your predecessor, Welt-san. I was a little skeptical at first when I read about his actions in the Second Honkai War and about Anti-Entropy's ideologies, and because of that I also decided to secretly hack into the Anti-Entropy mainframe." (Ryusuke)

"I apologize in advance for that." Ryusuke apologized to them.

"After accessing the Anti-Entropy files I saw all the actions you have taken so far and thanks to that I was able to make sure that you are reliable. From then on I thought about what I should do to attract you here and then I had the idea to use the Serenity Gem theft so we can talk."

Ryusuke finished speaking, he looked at Welt, he wanted to know what his reactions would be. Ryusuke spoke the truth about several things, although Ryusuke already had a good impression of Welt from the story of the game he was relieved to know that there was no difference in his personality when he checked the Anti-Entropy, after all in this world, has many variables such as the Griseo presence and the actions of the Herrscher of Binding of the Previous Era.

"Welt-san, I will be honest with you. I don't want to get involved in the war between humanity and Honkai, I don't want to become a Herrscher who would simply destroy the world, I just want to enjoy my life as I have lived until now. And I'm not going to fight for the side of humanity either because I know what Schicksal did in the tower of Babylon and I also saw several bad things than the corrupt politicians that I destroyed over the years did. I want to declare myself neutral, that's all I want to make clear." Ryusuke spoke sincerely to Welt. His eyes really showed his desire to remain quiet in the world.

Welt did not doubt Ryusuke's eyes. He also managed to see the anxiety and worry that is inside Ryusuke.

"You don't have to worry, Ryusuke. Anti-Entropy will protect you and your family. You will be able to continue to live your life carelessly, even if I am in this weakened form I will not allow Schicksal or other organizations to harm you." Welt spoke with conviction, Sirin only became a vindictive Herrscher because of the inhuman experiments she suffered because of Schicksal, Welt will not allow the same thing to happen with Ryusuke.

"Thank you very much, Welt-san. I am relieved to know that. But you don't have to do it with your body injuries." Ryusuke spoke with a relieved smile, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"What do you mean by that Ryusuke?" Welt asked.

Ryusuke then raised his right hand and a small fog arose from his hand, that was the Steam of Serenity Gem.

Welt and Einstein opened their eyes with this scene.

"I said that earlier, right? That I wanted to negotiate with you. In exchange for Welt-san's internal injuries to be healed, I will receive protection from Anti-Entropy. It's a fair exchange, right?" Ryusuke spoke with a confident smile.