Home/The Seven-Year-Old Village Chief of Exile/ch 78

Chapter 78

"As I mentioned before?"

Possessors are summarily executed upon discovery.

Verity spread what he'd found on the table.

[Experiments on removing residual souls from corpses using void stones.]

[When the balance of power between angels and demons is disrupted,]

"Because their very existence shakes the foundations of dimensions. Possessors destroy causality and gain boundless abilities with minimal effort..."

"Causing countless damages, right?"

Hebenia also placed what she'd found on the table.

[In the case of corpses treated with special drugs, the efficacy of void stones increases...]

[Producing undead from failed test subjects]

[Confirmed that specific commands can be implanted in undead. However, the range of commands is limited to actions the subject frequently repeated in life...]

[Experiment to implant the soul of a field mouse into a human body: Failed]

Every single one was a vile and horrifying content.

These inhuman experiments, which defied common sense, further confirmed the possibility Hebenia had stumbled upon.

So she didn't even want to say it out loud.

As a fellow human, it was disgusting.

And as a human, it made her feel ashamed.

But now she had to say it.

Hebenia suppressed her revulsion and spoke the final conclusion.

"The Emperor's ultimate goal is to create a possessor."

Verity finally squeezed his eyes shut.

"Now the things that didn't add up finally make sense."

The void stones mined by prisoners.

The herbs whose supply was disrupted by the Emperor's hoarding.

The demons and angels who began breaking the rules.

'And the destroyed Clavis.'

The Emperor's obsession with capturing Hebenia.

All of it was the foundation for creating a possessor.

"Verity."

Hebenia asked in a trembling voice.

"Is this, even possible?"

"I have never heard of it, nor have I ever imagined it."

Even for the General demon who had lived for eons, the idea of creating a possessor was a shockingly foreign concept.

The demon Verity felt fear and disgust for the first time in a long while.

"The prerequisite for a possessor is acquiring a host body and seizing control."

"That means..."

"The original spirit of the body must die."

"......"

This unethical act is absolutely unacceptable in the demon world, and even more so in the Interdimensional Alliance.

That's why possessors are summarily executed upon discovery.

Otherwise, the causality and probability of the dimension they inhabit would be destroyed, ushering in an age of chaos.

So the idea of creating a possessor was tantamount to collapsing the universe.

"What do you think of possessors, my Lady?"

"Hmm, to be honest..."

Hebenia briefly recalled her days in exile, when she'd mistaken herself for a possessor.

"...I thought of it as a second chance."

She'd only wanted to live out her life in the exile camp, which was far more comfortable and happy than her previous life.

"I planned to be buried here. My past life was hard."

"So you had no intention of doing anything as a possessor?"

"Not at all. Because I had no way out of the primeval forest..."

"Then what if you could leave the forest?"

"......"

"Could you honestly say you'd have done nothing then?"

"......"

Verity's worn golden eyes stared straight at Hebenia.

To the demon who wanted an honest answer, Hebenia couldn't bring herself to say yes.

Verity gave a light nod, as if to say "see?"

"Suddenly receiving a lot of love, or gaining immense wealth with minimal effort."

"......"

"Or gaining mysterious powers, or becoming a hero who saves the world as a savior that wasn't in your fate."

Possessors don't inherit good fortune.

"They steal it."

"......"

"How cold the world is."

A charmed life where everyone loves you, and you achieve thousands of times more success with just a little effort?

Verity scoffed.

"There's no such thing."

Except in special cases.

"Those possessors are parasites that destroy the world's rules."

"......"

Hebenia was now listening in a composed posture.

'Was she badly burned by a possessor?'

Listening intently to Verity's explanation, she naturally clasped her hands together in front of her stomach.

Her hands, intertwined as if in prayer, were filled with tension.

"Then..."

Hebenia asked in a calmer tone than before.

"Who could have told him?"

It wasn't a question seeking an answer.

The young village chief already knew the answer.

"Even you, a powerful demon, didn't know this information—how did the Emperor find out?"

"......"

"I can think of two suspects."

One.

"The Interdimensional Alliance."

"......"

"I don't know what kind of place it is, but since they execute possessors on sight, they must know a lot about them."

"Th-that's true, yes..."

Verity answered with a face that looked like he desperately wanted to deny reality.

'Please, I really don't want to get on the Interdimensional Alliance's bad side!'

An organization that manages countless dimensions, wielding enough power to control the universe.

With 'God' currently absent, the Interdimensional Alliance's authority is immense.

'I'm not even sure if all the demons and angels combined could win...'

His brow furrowed at the headache-inducing situation.

"...And the second suspect?"

"The Clavis."

"Oh, come on."

Verity couldn't help but curse under his breath.

'That's even worse than the Interdimensional Alliance!'

Hebenia said.

"Opening and closing spaces—doesn't that mean, if I wanted to, I could also interfere with dimensions?"

This clever and plump little village chief had been harboring one suspicion all along.

If 'Hebenia Clavis' was her real life, then what exactly was 'Chae Habin,' the life she'd lived in Korea?

The answer is one.

'Chae Habin is a possessor created by the Clavis.'

The Clavis had the ability to evade the Interdimensional Alliance's watch and interfere all the way to the distant world of Earth to create a possessor.

So even if they were her blood, Hebenia didn't entirely rule out the Clavis as suspects.

"But the Clavis probably aren't the ones."

Yet in the end, she concluded that they were innocent.

"Because they were destroyed."

"Ah."

A hint of color finally returned to Verity's pale face, which had been buried in his hands.

"That's right! They pretended to lose to the Emperor and escaped!"

"Don't put it that way."

A strategic retreat.

Hebenia corrected him.

"The Clavis must have faced a situation where they couldn't confront the Emperor."

"Which was the creation of possessors?"

"The Clavis went into hiding to stop that."

"Then why was my Lady left behind..."

"Instead, they sent me to another world. As a possessor named Chae Habin!"

"......!"

Finally, the pieces began to fall into place.

"The adults told me I didn't react to anything—like a doll—until the day I arrived at the exile camp."

And the very next day, I returned to my original body.

"Besides, I only awakened my ability after coming to the exile camp."

"......"

"The only remaining Clavis hadn't awakened her ability, so the Emperor let his guard down and sent me to exile. Planning to secretly retrieve me later and use me as he pleased!"

The implication charge against Hebenia was a ploy for this.

Therefore.

"The only real suspect left."

The Interdimensional Alliance.

---

Verity and I had finally reached the answer.

'The Clavis's eccentricities finally make sense, and I've learned that I wasn't abandoned but actually protected, but...'

I couldn't be happy.

"Oh, God..."

Seeing the demon kneeling on the floor, calling out to God, made me realize just how serious this situation was.

'What now...'

I could even laugh about a revolution.

'But the Interdimensional Alliance? I still don't even understand it.'

I have to oppose something I don't even understand?

'Damn it, Clavis!'

You should have taken me with you when you ran!

'If I'd known the situation, I would have gladly accepted execution!'

The vanished Clavis are probably busy trying to stop the Interdimensional Alliance or whatever it is.

In such a grave matter, it would have been difficult to keep a child safe and take them along. I fully understand.

'The fact that I never suspected I was a possessor while living as Chae Habin...'

That was a precaution to avoid detection by the Interdimensional Alliance.

Because of that, I had a slightly difficult childhood, unlike other possessors, but in hindsight, it wasn't a bad life.

Thanks to that, after returning to my original body, those experiences were a great help.

'Good thing I studied hard.'

The adults were right—studying hard leads to a good life.

"My Lady."

Verity, finally composing himself, approached. His face was just like mine when I, as Chae Habin, had been scheduled for a month of consecutive overtime.

"This, well, for now..."

"Let's pretend we don't know."

"Sigh, thank you for understanding."

Verity bowed his head sincerely.

"If the Interdimensional Alliance has truly joined hands with a human, this is beyond what we can handle on our own."

"You'll tell the long-haired Lord, right?"

"First, I'll contact Bleached Demon. But he'll probably tell me to contact the Lord too."

A smart subordinate's way of handling things.

'When faced with a problem you can't solve, you report it to your superior immediately.'

I also needed time to clear my head.

"You know what?"

I lifted one corner of my mouth.

"On the day the guards tried to kill us, the final shipment of void stones never made it out of the primeval forest."

Unintentionally, we had already dealt a major blow to the Emperor's possessor creation plan.

"Anyway, our village's goal is to live in comfort."

Just achieving this would be a blow to the Emperor.

"Just like we've been doing, we just need to keep living the way we are."

I was confident that our success would surely thwart the Emperor and the Interdimensional Alliance.

---

As promised, Verity and I decided to keep the Emperor's goal and the existence of the Interdimensional Alliance a secret from the village.

Verity immediately contacted Bleached Demon.

"Wow, he replied right away."

"What did he say?"

"He said he'll contact the long-haired Lord right away. He also told me to write a report and submit it separately, attaching copies of our materials."

Just hearing that made me feel tired.

"What should I tell Ian oppa and Libby unnie..."

Both of them had helped as if it were their own problem.

Verity said to me, who was troubled.

"You can tell them that a serious matter was discovered during the investigation, and that the demons will be handling it directly from now on."

"Then are we completely hands-off too?"

"We'll keep looking."

But we shouldn't accept any more help from Ian and Libby.

"Sometimes, not knowing is the best medicine."

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