Part one hundred sixty two — A New King

　Ivy delivered the full account to Kai, who listened with an expression caught somewhere between exasperation and resignation.

　"And now every other kingdom's going to think I did this personally," he said. "When it was actually two people who don't know how to hold a proper conversation."

　The following day, Ivy traveled to Teorema to deliver formal notice of what had happened — only to find no evidence that a war had ever been planned at all.

　A new ruler already sat upon the throne.

　She visited him directly and found Jiro seated where the old king once had, calm and entirely at ease, already claiming the crown as his own.

　From what she observed, the people genuinely seemed to prefer him already.

　Ivy said nothing further.

　She simply returned home and reported everything plainly.

　"A new king," Kai said, unbothered. "Named Jiro. Well — not like I care, so long as this one's smart enough not to repeat his predecessor's mistake."

　What Kai didn't know — what nobody in Horizoncrest yet understood — was that Jiro had already claimed everything his father once carried.

　Every skill.

　Every Ultimate Technique.

　Every ability that had once made Valt Horax a genuine threat.

　The moment his father died, Domination had absorbed them all.

　And his own hunger, fed by Greed, only deepened with every new power added to it.

　Stranger still, and considerably more unsettling once Kai actually noticed it, no word of the former king's death — or the Hero's — ever properly reached the wider world.

　No formal announcement.

　No funeral rites mentioned in any of the reports quietly filtering back through Horizoncrest's information networks.

That's... actually strange.

Somebody's controlling the narrative that carefully, that thoroughly, and I don't like not knowing who.

　Something about the silence surrounding it settled uneasily in his chest, a quiet discomfort he couldn't quite name yet.

　Still, he filed it away carefully, the same way he'd learned to file away every small wrongness that, given enough time, tended to matter considerably more than it first appeared to.

　Over a month had passed since Teorema's failed war.

　During that time, Jiro had recovered every last fragment of his old memory — Kenji, in full, restored to him the same way absorbed abilities always seemed to settle eventually.

　He spent the intervening weeks reading, researching, and working through forbidden texts most kingdoms had long since buried.

　Everything he could find on the actual requirements for obtaining a Demon Lord Evolution Seed.

Kai's seat.

That's what I actually want now.

Not just power in general — his specific seat, his specific title, everything that's apparently his by right of being the newest arrival among them.

　His plan settled into something patient, considerably more careful than his father's arrogant, direct assault had been.

I don't need to face him myself.

Not yet.

Let others do the dying for me, same as always.

　Back at Horizoncrest, a quiet staffing shift had already been arranged.

　Yuki was sent to replace Himari's role at the trade counter, while Himari herself was redirected to assist Kai directly in the underground facility.

　Kai, meanwhile, remained utterly consumed by his work, the Genesis Core production failing repeatedly despite months of careful iteration.

　"If you remove your mother's core from yourself," Nero pointed out, watching another attempt collapse, "your Null mana will lose containment entirely."

　"I know," Kai said, unbothered. "I've got a plan. I'm going to link my own Null mana directly to her core and fuse it properly before removal. That way, even once the core's gone, my own mana stays stable on its own."

　Himari arrived at the facility that same afternoon, greeted first by Chloe.

　"Is there something you need?" Chloe asked.

　"I was sent by Ivy," Himari said. "To assist Lord Kai."

　Chloe directed her toward the production room, and Himari stepped through the doorway into a chamber alive with floating spellwork.

　Dozens of complex formations hung suspended in mid-air, none of it making the slightest sense to someone with no magical training at all.

How am I even supposed to help with any of this?

　Kai, absorbed in rearranging a particularly delicate spell cluster, spoke without turning.

　"Oh — you're here."

　"How can I be of assistance, Lord Kai?" Himari asked.

　He paused.

　"Huh. Why does that voice sound familiar?"

　"Maybe I'm just hearing things," he muttered, still not turning. "Could you help me with — let's see. I need some mana crystals here, and here."

　"How many do you need?" Himari asked.

　Kai went very still.

　"Wait. Why do I feel like I know that voice from—"

　He turned.

　He froze entirely.

　For several seconds, he couldn't speak.

　He simply stared at her as though the world itself had shifted underneath him.

　"Is something wrong, Lord Kai?" Himari asked, genuinely confused.

　Kai descended from where he'd been working and slowly walked toward her, disbelief written across every line of his expression.

　"Am I dreaming? Hold on — have I finally lost it? Am I seeing things?"

　He turned briefly toward empty air.

　"Hey — who's playing tricks on me right now?"

"No illusion magic detected," Null-Subconsciousness said. "The figure in front of you is genuinely, physically present."

　Kai closed the remaining distance instantly.

　There was no gap between them anymore.

　"Is something wrong?" Himari asked again, her confusion deepening.

　Kai reached out and touched her face, testing whether she was real.

　Then her hand.

　Then, without properly thinking it through, her chest.

　"Yep," he said. "It's definitely her."

　Himari's hand shot upward.

　"You pervert! What do you think you're doing?"

　Kai simply dodged, floating a foot off the ground to avoid the second attempt.

　"Hey — don't dodge—"

　"Big sis?"

　His voice cracked.

　Something inside him broke open entirely.

　"You haven't changed at all."

　Himari froze mid-swing.

Big sis.

　She looked at him properly then.

　Not just the strange, floating figure standing in front of her, but him.

　Something beneath the unfamiliar face felt impossibly, unmistakably like the soul of the brother she'd buried.

　"That's not right," she whispered. "Haruto's dead."

　"Yeah," Kai said quietly, settling back onto the ground. "I did die that night. Kenji killed me. I got reincarnated into this world."

　He smiled faintly.

　"I'm honestly still working out how you ended up here too."

　Himari broke entirely.

　Tears spilled down her face before she could stop them.

　"Haruto — is that really you?"

　"Yeah," he said, smiling, small and genuine. "It's me."

　"This isn't real," she said, her voice cracking. "I'm hallucinating. This is a hallucination."

　"You're not," Kai said gently.

　He hesitated.

　"I'm sorry," he added quietly. "For never answering that text. The one where you said you wanted to come visit."

　She closed the last few feet between them and hugged him tightly.

　Tears soaked into his shoulder as everything she'd carried since that sidewalk finally, properly broke free.

　Chloe wandered into the scene moments later, taking in the sight with open confusion.

　"Uh... what's happening?"

　"No idea," Ace said, equally baffled.

　It took the better part of an hour for the full story to properly unfold.

　Himari explained Kenji's death, her own hand in it, and Yuki's presence beside her the entire way through.

　"I thought cops weren't supposed to kill innocent people," Kai said carefully, though there was no judgment in his voice.

　"He wasn't innocent," Himari said flatly, completely certain. "There was no way in hell I was letting him walk away after what he did."

　Kai told his own story in turn.

　The mountain.

　Doran and Fenrik.

　The war with Ashford.

　Everything since that first terrifying morning as an infant who couldn't even speak properly.

　Himari listened to all of it, absorbing years of a life she'd never known he'd lived.

　Grief and pride tangled together with every new revelation.

　Shortly afterward, he had Chloe bring Yuki in.

　Once she'd been given the same full account, both sisters were properly introduced to the entire household.

　"No wonder I felt her presence in you," Nero said thoughtfully once the introductions concluded.

　Himari and Yuki settled into Horizoncrest properly after that.

　Yuki was assigned to establish and manage the new trade branch in Tearmoon, with Ace accompanying her alongside eight of Horizoncrest's own elite soldiers for protection.

　Himari, for her part, found herself reluctant to leave her brother's side at all.

　A closeness that Chloe, understandably, didn't take particularly well.

　Whenever Chloe decided to drink Kai's blood, Himari became a little uncomfortable with it.

　"She only bites me," Kai explained more than once, trying to smooth the tension. "It's not — it's not like that."

　The explanation didn't fully settle Chloe's obvious discomfort.

　She said nothing further about it, choosing instead to simply watch carefully, observing the way Himari continued to linger near him.