The King's Mandate: Anomalous System

Chapter 361: Fake Admiration

"It's about the new policies implemented on the Royals by the government" 

"We haven't heard about this", said mother.

"It was supposed to be announced in the meeting but," he glanced around the room and shrugged his shoulders, saying, "No meeting"

Mother sighed and said, "What are the new policies?"

"It's not much different from your time. The only thing that is changed is, 'The King has to be available whenever the government asks him to'. So--"

"Do you think my son would be always free for them?"

"I believe not, but this is the new policy. And the King would be informed at least one week before his summon. So there shouldn't be any issue"

"..."

"Right?"

"Don't ask me. Ask Das, he has to come, not me"

Tingen gazed at me and said, "You heard me"

"I don't care anything about the policies, nor do I give a fuck about them"

"But it's the rule"

"The King is bound to no rules"

"That is true, but you shouldn't forget the rules of this city, this country"

"I don't need them. Even if they stop their assistance to us Royals, nothing would change"

"I don't believe that's true. It was because of the government security that you are alive right now"

"You want to know what I think about the government?"

"What?"

I took a deep breath and said, "Useless piece of shits"

"Did you just insult the government in front of the government officer?"

"I certainly did. And I can do it again, and again"

"I don't understand why you would hate the government who is protecting you?"

"Protecting my shit! They have never protected us"

"You don't know anything"

"You seem like you know everything"

"My family has been serving Edens for years. I know about them more than you do"

"Tell me one time they protected us"

"The attack two nights ago. Do you know how many guards died?"

"You can't say they were actually trying to protect anyone. Maybe they were trying to protect themselves?"

"Something is wrong with your way of thinking. You just want to trash the government, don't you?"

"Why not? I can say whatever I want", I scoffed and said, "Now don't tell me you there are some other policies which say, 'Royals can't speak against the government'."

"There is no such policy. Not on the paper, at least"

"Yeah, things never go as they were written on the paper"

"Can't do anything about it"

I took a deep breath and said, "Since we are discussing government, let's talk about the things they have done to my ancestors"

"...."

"What's wrong? You said your family has been serving my family for years, so you must know about the betrayal of the government to my ancestors, right?"

"That was necessary and the most obvious thing to do. You have no idea how your ancestors were"

"I don't want to know how they were. I am just talking about what your so-called government did to us Edens; Whom they swear to protect"

He looked at me, dumbfounded. And then moved his gaze to mother.

"What?", I asked.

"He doesn't know?", questioned Tingen.

Mother shook her head and said, "Papa was supposed to tell him"

"What are you talking about?", I asked.

She gave a big sigh and said, "Listen, Das, this is about--"

"Let me tell him", Tingen interrupted mother and said, "I know it will be hard for you, so let me tell him"

"What are you guys talking about?"

"My King, please listen carefully. This is the true history of the Edens"

"Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean by 'true history', are the history in the autobiographies and the anthology false?"

"There is no confirmation"

"Are you saying are you saying all those bloody stories I grew up listening to are fake?"

"No one knows about that. But you shouldn't believe in them. There are various histories, and none of them matches with each other Even in the same timeline, or the different"

Augustus said the same thing. He said everything is a sham, and they are just written so that the future generations can read them and see how great the Edens were.

To be honest, I don't care anything about my ancestors, nor do I think anything about them. But but I grew up admiring some of them. Whenever I listened to their stories, I always wanted to be like them. And if all of them are fake then my admiration was fake.

How am I supposed to feel about that?

The only living person I admired was Grandpa, and now, he is dead too.

"Alright,", I took a deep breath and said, "Tell me that 'true history' of yours"

"It's about something that has been happening since a long time ago, but stopped twenty-eight years ago"

"Twenty-eight years ago," I looked up at the ceiling and said, "Is it about the world's first VR game? Which was just an excuse to ban the religions?"

"At least you know about that. And yes, it is something related to the religion ban"

"..."

"It's about the true reason why religions were banned"

"Oh?"

"I know what I am going to say next will be unbelievable, or you might think I am lying. So you can confirm everything I say with my Queen"

"Get to the point already"

"The Edens. What do you think Edens is?"

"It's my surname?"

"Not that"

"It's a Royal family name?"

"Not that either"

"It's just a name"

"Edens was a religion"

"Hah?!"

"I expected that reaction. I had the same reaction"

"What are you talking about?! Edens was a religion?! Edens was Royals from millions of years"

"That is true, but they were nothing more than the heads of the religion"

"I don't believe you"

"You can confirm it with my Queen"

"Mother," I grabbed her hand and said, "Is that true?"

She nodded and said, "I didn't know it either. But papa himself told me about it"

"What the hell? If if Edens was a religion, then what are we?"

"You are Edens, just Edens. Nothing else", replied Tingen.

[Calm down, Das. Your vitals are increasing]

I am trying to calm down. What the hell do you expect me to do after hearing that!

Sigh!

I sighed and said, "Tell me more"

"Ever since a long time ago as you said, 'Millions of years', actually it's a lot more than that", he cleared his throat and said, "Ever since then Edens were worshiped"

"..."

"It was said that Edens was blessed by God, and they can give their blessing to others"

"..."

"I don't know how much of that is true, since there are not much true believer of Edens anymore"

"True believer?"

"Yes, until twenty years ago, you Edens were being worshiped as a catalyst to reach God"

"..."

"Though there were very few of them, their devotion was harder than the Prik wall"

That wall again. Whenever I hear that name, I remember how I broke it.

"It's hard to understand. If if Edens was a religion, then what happened twenty years ago was"

"Yes, that was to stop those believers"

"What did they do? Those believers"

"They thinks Edens was the greatest religion. They killed in the names of Edens, they did unspeakable crimes. They were crazy. They wanted to rule the world"

"And what did Grandpa do?"

"Oh! You seem to misunderstand something"

"Huh?"

"The" he glanced at the maid and said, "Put the jug filled with water on the table and leave the room"

The maids glanced at mother.

Mother nodded and said, "Close the door after you"

The maids bowed down and left the room, closing the door behind them.

Tingen glanced at Daisy who was standing behind me and said, "You have to leave too"

Daisy started walking to the door.

I stood up and grabbed her hand, pulling her close.

Mother's gaze immediately fell on our intertwined hands.

I grabbed the empty chair and said, "She is not going anywhere"

Tingen sighed and said, "Well, it doesn't matter"

Then why did you ask her to leave?!

Daisy sat on the chair beside me.

"Ahem", Tingen cleared her throat and said, "So I was saying, you are misunderstanding something"

"Yeah, you said that. Tell me what I am misunderstanding"

"They worshiped Edens, by that I meant they worshiped Edens as a religion"

"Yeah and?"

"Ah!", he rolled his eyes and said, "They worshiped Edens, not the Edens...Argh! How do I explain this"

"They worshiped Edens which was religion, not us Edens", said mother.

"You mean, they I think I got it"

It's hard to put it into words.

They worshiped Edens as a religion, not the Edens.

"And wanted to spread the Edens religion all over the world", stated Tingen.

"But you said there were only a few of them"

"Yes, there were only a few. But they were scattered all over the world"

"How can some crazy worshipers can spread a religion in the entire world"

"By terror"

"Huh?"

"Are you aware of the VR tragedy from thirty years ago?"

I glanced at mother and said, "I am"

"The main culprit behind that tragedy, the main mastermind behind that bloody tragedy was one of the Edens worshipers"

"..."

Zero said the main culprit was his own father. And he was executed.

"During the interrogation, when he was asked why he did that, he said: 'Hail Edens. The true religion that will bring chaos and once again, the world will be how it was supposed to be'. He was a true psychopath"

"..."

Now all the things are coming together.

Why the religion ban was done to stop everything. And why it was related to the VR tragedy.

"Not only that, but the sources say that there are still many cults formed for worshiping Edens"

"...!"

Wait, don't tell me

He smiled and said, "It seems you have realized it"

"You are kidding, right?"

"This is just a possibility, but the attack on the palace might be done by them"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

THE NAME OF THIS NOVEL WILL CHANGE WITHIN 10 DAYS to, "The King's Mandate: Anomalous System". 

Please don't forget it.

Thanks for reading~!