HDBMTD 38

Chapter 38

One of the companions pulled a safe out from a pile of rubble and placed it on the ground.

It was sturdy and looked like it might contain important information, but it was locked tightly.

“Your Highness, please step back for a moment…”

Willow moved me behind him and broke the safe with his bare hands.

As he used his strength, the muscles in his arms became noticeably hard. He was part of the physical enhancement type among the combat-class Eshafae, the most straightforward type of fighter.

When the safe broke, documents were revealed inside. They weren’t perfect, but they were in much better condition than the ones that had been left outside.

As I carefully looked through the papers, I found a familiar word. It was the name Padva used to call me.

“Vis.”

Startled by a voice nearby, I turned quickly.

Willow had noticed the same thing. He pointed at the document and said,

“We should take that.”

I nodded slowly and gathered the papers.

While searching for more useful items, I found an operating room and a morgue. The rats and bugs we had seen crawling through the ruins were clearly feeding here.

The morgue was almost destroyed. The bone fragments we had found earlier in the village must have come from here.

Suppressing my disgust, I shone my flashlight up at the ceiling. Willow came closer and asked,

“Is there something up there?”

I shook my head and moved the light elsewhere.

“It seems we’ve seen enough.”

After searching every destroyed room, Willow spoke again. When I nodded, he turned to his companions.

“You two, keep watch outside.”

When Willow’s companions left, only he and I remained in the operating room.

I set the flashlight so it pointed at the ceiling and took out two investigative artifacts.

I lit the candle-shaped artifact and held it over the paper marked Vis. As the soot faded, the text slowly became clear.

The first thing that appeared was a photo at the bottom—a thin woman with brown hair and glasses.

I feel like I’ve seen this face before…

The document would take time to fully restore.

I handed it to Willow and picked up the second artifact.

It was a glowing, triangular mirror-shaped artifact that could replay traces of time left in a place or object.

Usually, it could only bring back faint sounds or blurry images, but for mental-type Eshafae, it worked differently.

It could temporarily awaken empathic powers, as if the object itself had gained a soul.

Ariadna’s mother… no, my mother believed this was proof that souls existed. That even objects could hold souls.

I lit the artifact with a lighter I’d bought in the kingdom. My empathic sense slowly woke up, like rising from a deep sleep.

Staring into the flame, I let my mind sink into the memories this ruin carried.

Seven months ago—the moment when everything began.

It felt like falling through a whirlpool of light. When I opened my eyes again, the ruins had disappeared like a dream. A clean, intact laboratory appeared before me.

This was the lab before the fire destroyed everything—the day Ariadna’s cloning had taken place.

Creak.

The operating room door opened, and a heavy iron bed was slowly pushed inside. The face of the person lying on it was painfully familiar, like looking into a mirror.

Ariadna.

Ariadna’s body was horribly burned from the waist down. She had died in the fire, so it was expected.

I remembered that day. Back then, I had mistakenly believed she had miraculously survived, but the truth was Ariadna had forever closed her eyes on that battlefield. Even in death, she had blessed those she loved.

Suddenly, a sharp voice rang out.

“Padva, have you completely lost your mind?”

In the cold air of the lab stood a woman with bright blonde hair and green eyes, shining vividly.

It was the Empress. But unlike her usual dignified self, she looked only anxious and in pain.

“She is your sister!”

“I know,” Padva answered from across the room, arms crossed. He looked like his mother, but his green eyes burned with a stubborn obsession.

“So if I don’t experiment, what will you do with that corpse?”

“Is that even a question? Of course, I will—”

The Empress’s voice broke. Her trembling hands grabbed the bed frame where Ariadna’s body lay.

“We’ll return to the Empire and… give her a proper funeral…”

The word funeral felt strange and heavy on her tongue.

Looking down at her dead daughter, the Empress’s face twisted with grief.

Above her head, Padva’s cold voice fell.

“You mean showing her body in a coffin and burying it in front of everyone. That can be done even if it isn’t truly Ariadna.”

“What are you saying? Do you mean to hold Ari’s funeral with an empty coffin?”

“We can use a body of similar size,” Padva said calmly.

The Empress’s lips shook.

“This isn’t just a cloning experiment anymore! I already know the truth. That’s why you secretly brought the Cambiata prisoners, isn’t it?”

Her words confused me.

Why would Cambiata prisoners be needed to clone Ariadna?

“How could you humiliate a child who sacrificed everything for us like this?”

“She was noble, as you say. Even in death, she would consider it an honor to serve the Empire,” Padva replied coldly.

He nodded to the knights beside him, and they began to move Ariadna’s body.

“Stop!”

The Empress shouted. Everyone moving the body froze. Even Padva stumbled to his knees.

The Empress had used her mental powers.

But the guards behind Padva quickly caught him.

“Your Highness!”

Supported by the guards, Padva glared at the Empress.

“Now that Ariadna is dead, are you treating the Emperor’s successor like this over a corpse? That isn’t like you, Mother. You were the one who taught us our royal duty.”

“Padva, no… that’s not what I mean…”

“Father passed his authority to me. I am the next Emperor! How dare you defy me!”

Furious, Padva leaned close to the Empress. She stared at her son with shocked eyes.

“What have you become…?”

“Take the Empress away.”

“Wait, Padva!”

At his command, the knights moved quickly and seized the Empress. One knight pulled out a silver control ring and fastened it around her neck.

“Release me at once! This is blasphemy!”

The Empress struggled, reaching out for Ariadna’s body, but the knights held her tightly and dragged her away.

“No, Ari…!”

The Empress’s scream echoed through the corridor—a sharp cry like her ribs had been crushed. It was the deepest sorrow of a mother who lost her child and couldn’t even protect her body.

“Haa…”

“Your Highness, are you alright?”

Willow gently wiped the sweat from my face.

After reading all the memories, my body was soaked in cold sweat. The Empress’s scream, as she tried to protect her daughter’s body, still lingered in the air.

Padva… The kind, gentle figure from Ariadna’s memories was gone. Only a cold ruler remained, forcing his own mother away.

There was logic in Padva’s belief that the survival of S-rank Eshafae was tied to the Empire’s future.

But sometimes, understanding someone makes it even more painful.

Even though I wasn’t the real Ariadna, I could clearly imagine the sorrow she would have felt facing this truth. It hurt as if that pain belonged to me.

Willow softly patted my back.

“Please don’t blame yourself. This is not your fault, Your Highness.”

His comforting words barely reached me as my eyes shifted to the paper next to him. The soot had disappeared, and the original writing was now clear.

I picked up the document.

All previous attempts to clone Eshafae had ended in failure.

But the next page was something entirely new.

Under the title New Theoretical Approach, dense writing filled the page. My fingertips trembled as I read.

“To activate the core, an energy source beyond simple body cloning is required.”

“An artifact extracted from the core of the soul-eating beast ‘Hwan-gwi’ was used. Experiments involved injecting the soul of a living human into the cloned body. Cambiata prisoners sentenced to death were used as soul donors.”

A photo was attached below—a woman with brown hair and glasses. A face that didn’t feel unfamiliar.

Next to the photo, one name was scrawled in thick red ink:

“Vis.”

The letters filled my vision. My entire body felt frozen.

“Your Highness.”

Willow placed his hand on my shoulder. His voice sounded distant.

“It’s too much to handle alone, isn’t it? But it’s alright. I’ll stay by your side—no matter who you are or what choice you make.”

He spoke smoothly, as if waiting for this moment, and held me in his arms.

But I couldn’t react.

“I… I was Cambiata…”

At that moment, something crashed loudly outside the door.