I'm being Mistaken for The Mastermind

Chapter 26

[......Huh?]

Nothing happened.

To the point where everyone found it strange.

Blake shouted again.

[Super! Kill them all!]

Still, nothing happened.

[W-What the hell?]

The blood dripping from the heart had no eyes.

Nevertheless, it was clear that there was a sense of bewilderment.

[Super!]

Bishop Blake shouted as if denying reality.

[Hurry, hurry and kill them all!]

"......."

He gave an order to Super.

A shackle placed upon him since birth.

He utilized fate.

A shackle that could never be escaped as long as one did not deviate from fate.

A vessel capable of divine intervention, desired directly by God.

However, Super showed no movement at all.

As if he had escaped from fate.

[W-What is this.......]

Something was wrong.

Bishop Blake sensed it.

'It was supposed to be perfect!'

It was a successful creation built upon countless failures, corpses, and sacrifices.

Such a result could never be recreated.

Flaws?

There were some.

There was a restriction that one could not remember her without qualification.

But this was trivial.

As long as Super existed, the heretics' god could be turned back into the god of light.

Yet that opportunity had vanished in vain.

Even the integrity completed through control was lost with it!

[How dare...... How dare......!! What have you done!!!]

Bishop Blake roared in fury.

The object of his anger was a boy with black hair and golden eyes.

Despite the circumstances of this place, he maintained a composure that defied his young age.

No, could it even be called composure?

Coldness.

Yes. That was the correct expression.

A gaze devoid of any emotion, as if everything was worthless.

This further fueled the anger.

[A mere unbeliever dares to destroy our perfection?!]

"I don't understand what you're talking about."

[It doesn't matter if you feign ignorance, for God has already recognized your sin!]

If everything was ruined, he would kill everyone here!

The last desperate struggle of Bishop Blake, who was left with only his heart.

At the moment he tried to exert his power.

"How foolish."

Arthur's voice came from the side.

"Have you forgotten who summoned me?"

[......!]

"You are nothing more than a toy in the hands of the young master."

Srrrrr!

A silver aura began to burn the red blood surrounding the heart.

A unique attribute possessed only by Arthur, burning divine power.

The most excruciating pain a human could feel, scorching agony.

[Aaaaaah!]

Bishop Blake's scream filled the hollow space.

It didn't end with Arthur alone.

"That's right."

A white-haired girl, chewing on a carrot she had somehow pulled out, with a crunch!

Lapis emitted threads as her red eyes glowed.

Wrath.

'Could it be, this child also possesses the fate of sins......!'

How could there be two who bore the sins!

"Stop insulting my savior and just die."

"Quietly follow your fate."

The Knight of the Full Moon and the Sin of Wrath.

Not only did they not match, but they were supposed to oppose each other.

For the first time, the two joined forces.

For one person alone.

For Evan.

"......."

Super looked down at his own hands.

The command had clearly been given.

However, his body showed no movement.

As if it was no longer a command.

How was this possible?

Super knew he was not ordinary.

A synthetic being, modified from the fetal stage to be stronger than an ordinary human.

The heretics' biological weapon and a vessel to contain God.

He realized this was his nature from birth and sensed another fate.

A fate to either destroy this world or manipulate it at will.

Super was the latter.

One of the Five Great Sins, Arrogance.

A fate to dominate the world.

Even if he didn't want it, he couldn't refuse.

Acceptance was the only answer.

Resistance would only result in being shaken by the leash.

Even if Bishop Blake was the only one left who knew about Super.

As long as he remained.

This nightmare would never end.

It was better to accept his fate and enjoy it, even a little.

A change occurred in Super's life.

It began with Arthur's attack.

-Run away! Protect this child at all costs...... Gah!

Bishop Blake fell into a critical condition.

Hiding his form, Super followed the bishop's child and left the place.

There was no reason.

Actually, he could have just died.

It was a chance to escape this tiresome life.

However, Super left the place to survive.

Because his instincts whispered to him to do so.

After that, he was captured by Drake, who misunderstood him as a sacrifice, and then saved.

Surprisingly, by the same Sin.

At first, he was happy, then bewildered.

It was undoubtedly the same Sin.

Even though it was 'Wrath,' which could burn the entire continent, Lapis was not angry at all.

'......Yes. It all started back then.'

Evan Alcart.

From the moment he met him, everything changed.

The endless whispers that echoed in his head.

The oppressive feeling of fate that weighed on him every time he fell asleep.

All of it disappeared, and everything started to flow naturally, like water.

Even up to the moment he reached here.

Everything seemed like a coincidence, but he realized it only after arriving.

That it was all a process achieved under thorough calculation.

'He knew everything, planned everything for this very moment.'

Just as all these events began with Arthur's attack.

It was all to arrive at this place.

A grand scheme that even Super, the Sin of Arrogance, couldn't have imagined.

Perhaps, they could really change fate.

'But.......'

Even so, doubt arose.

Arrogance was an excessive confidence, but it also stemmed from a lack of self-esteem.

Endless self-doubt and suspicion, the act of belittling others to resolve it.

That was what bound Super.

'Can I really trust this?'

His eyes trembled slightly.

For now, it was fine because he was with Evan.

But what if he were to be separated from Evan?

Or, what if he were to be abandoned?

'For the rest of my life, I must live as Super, as Arrogance.'

For the rest of his life in this hell.

[Super!!!]

Bishop Blake, instinctively realizing that Super was wavering, shouted desperately.

[Don't defy fate! Obey fate! Aaaahhhhh!]

"Super."

It was then.

A dry voice. A tone devoid of any emotion.

Yet a voice that gave a sense of stability.

"Are you okay?"

Evan approached Super and asked.

Super covered his face with his hand, unable to discern his expression.

"I...... That is......."

His voice broke off unsteadily.

Though it could have been irritating or puzzling.

Evan, as if he understood everything, opened his mouth with emotionless eyes.

"Come to think of it, do you have anything you want?"

"Something I want......?"

"You said you wanted something here, but you didn't actually get anything. Are you satisfied with just retrieving all the brothers?"

Something he wanted.

It had never changed.

Freedom.

Freedom from these shackles and the proof of it.

That he could be fine even without Evan.

But what would he ask for?

He couldn't ask for a part of Evan's body.

"Lapis wanted a name. She said she didn't like her original name."

......A name.

Yes.

'That's it.'

It struck his mind.

If it was that, maybe it could also give Super freedom.

Super nodded.

"A name. Give me a name."

"......A name."

Evan, after briefly contemplating, looked at Super's blue hair and uttered a single word.

"Frey."

A name from a myth on the Earth Evan lived on.

It also resembled the sound of 'Pride,' another name symbolizing Arrogance.

Not bad.

"From now on, your name is Frey."

A new name.

The moment he shed the name Super.

Frey felt his mind clearing.

-Evan. He is my savior. And also our savior.

The voice Lapis whispered every night as if brainwashing him.

He finally understood what it meant.

He truly was-

'The Savior.'

Salvation.

The one who brought salvation in the name of freedom to those who had to live bound by fate for their entire lives.

"......."

Meanwhile, Evan thought with his expressionless face.

'Phew. I was startled, thinking he'd go berserk.'

Super, no, now Frey, seemed to have calmed down, which reassured him.

'This works. I tried it because it worked on Lapis.'

Stopping the rampage of a Sin just by changing their name?

That's a man for you.

Evan felt satisfied inside.

***

Things were heading toward their conclusion.

For Evan, this week had been extremely exhausting.

Attending the ballroom and getting entangled with heretics, visiting the Ancient Dungeon and having a heart leap out.

Even one of these would have been nerve-wracking enough, but at the end, he was tense about Super being betrayed.

Still, it was almost over.

The cause of all this.

That heart, Bishop Blake.

If I just take care of that guy, it's over.

'Killing someone makes me hesitate a little.......'

Arthur and Lapis might handle the killing themselves?

However, what worries me is.

'Killing him here would make it too different from the original.'

Honestly, I had already accepted that the original would change.

If I was worried about that, I shouldn't have even met the collaborators.

There's no guarantee that things would flow as in the original game from the moment I transmigrated.

If that's the case, I might as well take an active role.

'I just need to grab all the rewards.'

The reward Arthur gets is the healing of his wounds.

That's already resolved.

What's next?

'It was the Saintess of the Sun, right?'

The Saintess also gained some benefits through the heretics.

I don't remember exactly what it was, but if I throw it to her, she'll take it herself.

After all, she hasn't been sending letters recently.

'Sounds good.'

As expected, I'm amazing.

Evan praised himself.

"Ahem, ahem."

Let's calm them down first.

Evan cleared his throat.

Then, as if sensing it, Lapis and Arthur turned their heads sharply.

"Is something wrong?"

"Is there something wrong?"

'Oh, damn!'

Was it blood splattered from Bishop Blake?

Both of their faces were covered in blood.

A scene straight out of a horror movie.

Evan stepped back slightly.

He asked in the driest voice possible.

"Are you going to kill the bishop?"

"......He touched Evan. Keeping him alive is dangerous."

"As you wish. However, I do not recommend keeping him alive. He is dangerous."

"I don't particularly want to keep him alive either. However, I want to give him to someone who has a personal grudge against him."

"......."

Lapis thought for a moment, then quickly approached Evan and held his hand.

"......If Evan likes it, I like it too."

"I will follow the young master's will as well."

"Super. What about you?"

Evan asked Super.

Super flinched, his shoulders trembling slightly, and then he raised his head.

After thinking for a moment, he nodded.

"......I'll follow your will too, Evan."

"Lapis. Please bind him."

"Okay!"

"I can do it."

Super went to a secluded corner of the room and brought back some iron chains.

"What's that?"

"Materials for making a life vessel. When it touches the skin, it slowly drains life away."

[H-how dare you use the sacred materials of the order......!]

"Search the underground. There should be useful materials there."

"Are they all related to human experimentation?"

"......Yes. Probably."

"Then I don't need them."

Evan coolly gave up.

Arthur was momentarily confused.

Wasn't the purpose of coming here to obtain research materials?

'Ah, could it be that he plans to use that heart as a research specimen?'

If that's the case, it makes sense.

Where else could one find materials like that heart?

Clink, clink.

[......I don't understand.]

The chains wrapped around the body.

Bishop Blake shivered from the cold that seeped into his very soul.

An instinctive discomfort.

It wasn't just the sensation from the chains.

[How could a human plan so meticulously.......]

This is too precise to be a coincidence; it must be a plan.

Evan Alcart.

[Are you...... capable of understanding this?]

A voice trembling with fear.

Bishop Blake was the only person among the heretics who knew about Super.

He knew what kind of fate he was born with, what kind of monster he was.

He also knew how much of a monster Super could become if left unchecked.

He had obtained it.

He couldn't even begin to predict what kind of picture Evan was drawing.

"No."

Frey shook his head.

"When humans face the unknown, they choose one of two things: endless fear......."

Or.

Frey smiled faintly.

"Reverence."

[......You.......]

"Now I think I know what I need to do."

He wanted to keep watching.

To see how far Evan's plan would unfold.

And he wanted to follow it.

He wanted to believe in and follow Evan, who had given him freedom, for the rest of his life.

[Are you saying you will revere humans?]

"Yes."

Frey smiled faintly and gripped the heart tightly with his hand.

"Faith is the only thing I've learned, right?"

[You.......]

It wasn't the heretics.

It was right in front of him.

Being born in real-time.

"All of this,"

Frey whispered softly to the heart.

"For Evan."

Sins, born to bring about the destruction of humanity.

It was the moment when it became the second believer who worshiped a single human.