Disciple of Immortal

"The man who was honored with the Grand Merchant Duke title thought he could become the king of this kingdom… Thus he controlled the economy of this kingdom and developed magic tools. He was just an idiot who got conceited by his success… Or he might simply have lost his way since he was always aiming for better."

Greed continued his story in the parlor room.

"The special power gifted to the man was the development of homunculi used as magic weapons. However, the development met a stumbling block and always resulted in failure after failure."

"Failure after failure…"

Philia timidly repeated those words.

"Yes, the manufacture of homunculi takes a lot of money. There was a mountain of failures, yet we couldn't afford to let others know about this matter. The kingdom already had their suspicions about me, after all. All they did was crush the outer shell; all evidence of the black magic had already been disposed of… The core was reused. We repeated that process over and over again for a long time."

Greed revealed that horrifying story. However, from Philia's perspective, Greed seemed to be amused.

Though Philia had no idea of the meaning behind Greed's expression, it was as if he was regretting his past, but there seemed to be more than that.

"Is that also… under your order?"

"Human greed knows no limit. They might act like goody two shoes… But they're just pitiful creatures who have no idea how to fulfill their greed!"

"Philia doesn't think so…"

"Who is the right one, you or me? Everyone willingly degraded themselves into monsters who kick down others just by waving money in front of them! They are such a masterpiece!"

Greed's body shook as he laughed mockingly. Philia could only look sadly at Greed. Greed coughed lightly, then averted his gaze from Philia's eyes, seemingly feeling uncomfortable with her gaze.

"After spending a lot of money… countless failures and rebuilding. Two successful examples were finally created. Adam, who constantly evolved and was combat-oriented… and Eve, who specialized in stealth and intelligence gathering."

Greed resumed his story.

"Both Adam and Eve were kept in strict custody. Adam with his unlimited power and Eve with her ever-changing form and information disruption… Both are extremely powerful homunculi that could potentially destroy the world if they were released. Finally… Adam and Eve fell in love with each other."

"Love…?"

Philia blinked in shock, hearing the unexpected development.

"Yes, they did. That was a natural result due to their special circumstances and the fact that they could only trust each other. The man laughed at the fake humans falling in love with each other. But at the same time, he had his eyes on them. If one of them showed rebellious acts, the other one would be punished. In this way, the man managed to put the homunculi under his control."

Philia looked at Greed with disdain as he spoke happily about that story. Greed seemed to notice the look in Philia's eyes, but he ignored her and continued with his story.

"Then it finally happened. The combat-type homunculus… Adam tried to escape from his confinement. As if that wasn't enough, he tried to take Eve with him too! That idiot… was nothing more than a tragic hero. It was a reckless escapade. As a result, the fake love that served as a bind for the homunculi… ended up becoming the trigger for a rampage."

Greed shook his head lightly with a dumbfounded face.

"Philia doesn't think it's a foolish act."

"There were some deaths due to the rampage, but they ended up subdued pretty easily. Eve's ever-changing ability was troublesome, but she surrendered as soon as Adam was subdued… But due to fear of Adam's power, his body was badly damaged. Body aside, even his core was badly damaged. He obviously wouldn't last for too long."

"Does that mean Adam… has already died?"

Greed shook his head.

"No, Adam has the ability to keep evolving by consuming other lifeforms and objects. The man took advantage of this ability to feed Adam with materials that allowed him to repair himself. Even though the homunculi were trying to rebel, they were still important weapons, after all. Then the man threatened Adam that he would not allow them to reunite and would kill Eve if he tried to rebel again. But at the same time, he also promised Adam that if he didn't cause any problems for three years… he would allow them to reunite. Adam believed the man's words and decided to obey him."

"Then… what happened to them after that?"

"… But even after three years, then five years elapsed, the man didn't fulfill his promise. In those long years, Adam finally realized the fact that Eve had already died a long time ago."

Greed said as he looked at the picture behind him. It was a picture that Greed liked, a picture of a little girl sitting on a swing in a flower garden.

"Eve died so that her body parts could be used as materials to save Adam, who was on the verge of death back then. The materials to fix the successful example of homunculi were few in number, thus the only way to fix him was using the parts of the same successful example as him, namely Eve. This incident caused the man to rethink his plan since two homunculi had already caused such a riot. But it also served as a wake-up call for him… The man prioritized Adam, whose value was easy to understand. Thus he gave Adam a promise to allow the latter to meet Eve later… to give him a will to live."

Philia's gaze followed Greed, looking at the painting of the girl.

"Adam, who realized that he had taken in Eve, was enraged… and awakened Eve's ability. Adam's greatest forte has always been his ability to evolve using the information of those he absorbed. Thus he used Eve's ability to escape from his cage and planned his second rebellion."

"Then what happened… to his second rebellion plan?"

"Thanks to his already high combat abilities, Eve's ever-changing ability, and the fact that he was rampaging relentlessly… the battle dragged on for a long time despite only facing one opponent. And then, at the end of the battle…"

At that moment, there were loud footsteps heading toward the parlor room. Greed raised his face with a dubious look.

The door of the room opened up, and his man came into the room.

"Shouldn't you knock on the door first?"

"W-We have an emergency! T-The people who are far stronger than the kingdom knights are heading to this mansion! There are several S-rank adventurers amongst them! Greed-sama, please head to the underground shelter in the Dark Ward immediately!"

"… I guess this is the limit of this kind of war potential."

Greed lamented with a sour look on his face. The kingdom knights had also arrived faster than expected. Not to mention that Greed didn't take the Helmet of Command since he was occupied with Philia.

Properly speaking, he was supposed to escape to the Dark Ward as soon as the kingdom knights arrived. A golem with combat ability close to level 200 had already been prepared in the underground shelter.

"Don't be distracted by that kid!"

"… Can't be helped then. I guess we have to use our trump card… Adam."

Greed heaved a sigh and headed toward the door.

"Trump… card? Greed-sama, do you by chance still have an ace in the hole hidden in this mansion?"

"You have to accompany my guest. This is your first and last warning, don't you dare get out of this room unless you want to die."

Greed lifted his subordinate's chin and gave a stern warning.

"Y-YES…!"

The latter then sent a glance at Philia.

"I'll be back, Young Miss. Be a good child until then."

"U… Uhm."

Philia nodded timidly. That was an order to Philia rather than to Greed's subordinate. Greed had seen through Philia's extremely innocent nature.

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