A long silence carried on after my words. It was a silence that seemed to drag on for a long time as the girls processed everything that I had revealed to them.

I let them be.

There were a lot of things that I needed to process myself. At the same time, I also needed some time to properly recover from everything that had happened.

I was mentally exhausted.

'I'm still struggling to come to terms with the fact that I'm in the future…'

Looking at the girls and Leon, they really had changed quite a bit since the last time that I had seen them. The difference wasn't huge, but there was an air of maturity in them that felt weird.

It was almost as if…

They had all grown up without me. In some way, I almost felt left behind, but at the same time, I also understood that I was originally older than they.

Haa.

I sighed, closing my eyes.

What sort of weird thoughts was I even having? While it was true that they had changed compared to how I knew them, they were still the same.

I was probably being overly dramatic.

'Yeah, that's probably the case.'

Feeling that I had rested enough, I raised my head to look at everyone again. My expression turned serious as I looked at everyone.

"Has everyone had a chance to take in what I've said...? I... imagine some of you have questions, maybe even want proof of what I've shared, but I'd prefer to hold off on questions for now. There are a few things I'd like to ask you first."

From the start, there was something that I had been dying to know.

What in the world happened while I was gone?

What was the current state of the world?

Judging from their attire and the few words that they had spoken, it wasn't very great.

My heart sank at the thought.

If Sithrus…

"It's bad, but not as bad as you're thinking," Leon said suddenly, as if he'd just read my mind.

No, he had probably read it.

That fucker…

He was particularly good at doing things like that. It was both helpful and annoying.

Leon continued.

"Unknown forces began to show up one after another after you were gone. Several large Households fell as a result, including…" Leon paused, and while he didn't say anything, I could tell what he was trying to say.

"You… ehm, Julien was the one who took care of that Household. The entire main estate has burned down, and while Linus was able to mitigate a lot of the damage the household sustained, you still lost quite a few territories. It'll be difficult to gain them back."

I nearly felt like throwing up.

All my money…!!!!

I had invested so much money and time in my estate. Especially Valemont, where I had set up a portal.

'That's right, the portal!!'

"That's destroyed."

"….!"

I brought my hand to my mouth, feeling the urge to vomit blood.

Suddenly, all of the pity that I had once felt for Julien was gone.

Instead, I felt an unbelievable amount of hatred.

That fucker…

'I should've made sure he suffered in his last moments!'

"Aside from that, several large Households fell. Even one Duchy."

"Huh…?"

I pulled my attention towards Leon.

"Even one Duchy? Which Duchy…?"

Leon suddenly turned quiet, and I felt a sudden premonition.

No, don't tell me…

"The Rosemburg Duchy."

"What…"

I was so stunned that I didn't even have time to process it properly. I could only stare at Leon with a dumbfounded expression. At the same time, a creeping sense of worry began to settle in.

"Wait, if the Rosenberg Duchy fell then—"

"It fell because the Chancellor wasn't present." Leon cut me off before I could continue, his tone lowering. "She disappeared shortly after you disappeared, and nobody has heard from her since. If she had been present, I doubt the household would've fallen."

"…Oh."

I felt relief upon hearing that Delilah hadn't been present during the downfall of her household, but at the same time, I grew even more worried.

Where in the world was she? Did something happen while she was trying to reach the Zenith?

"What about the father-in-law? Is he…?"

"He's fine. He was taking care of matters with Central while this happened. That's also the reason why they were able to do so much damage. With the absence of both powerhouses, alongside the power of the people they were dealing with, their downfall was almost inevitable."

"Hiss…"

I drew a cold breath upon hearing the full story. I could only imagine the tragedy that must've happened that day.

I felt sick just thinking about it, but as if that wasn't enough, Leon continued.

"That's just the start."

Although he said the situation wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be, to me, it was far worse than I had expected.

The Megrail family was the next one to be affected, with several members defecting into the Inverted Sky. Thankfully, and almost strangely, John, Aoife's brother, didn't defect and started to fight with the newly emerged force.

This resulted in a serious war between the members.

That's when something became clear to me: 'Besides the Inverted Sky, there's another force at play.'

I felt a headache while thinking about everything that had occurred. It was one bad news after another.

The Nurs Ancifa Empire wasn't the only affected Empire. All other Empires, including the Kasha, had been affected by the external forces showing up from the dark.

The situation was serious all around.

But if that wasn't bad enough…

"The cracks have started to destabilise. The number of monsters coming out of each gate is increasing. That's taking a lot of the manpower."

The more I listened, the grimmer the situation became in my eyes.

These guys…

My ass, it isn't too bad. This was beyond horrible. The fact that they were even talking to me was a crime.

They should've all been at the Empire, helping.

"Ugh."

I couldn't help but rub the top of my forehead, trying to calm my rising headache. Practically the entire world had changed, and not in a good way.

'I'm not sure what Sithrus is thinking by doing this, but I believe he's doing it to raise his faith.'

The greater faith one had, the greater their power with the Source.

I knew that I needed to think more about that, but given my current reputation, I was the last person who would be able to do that.

'Thankfully, nobody knows I'm Oracleus besides the people in this room and Delilah.'

"Ehm…"

A voice suddenly brought me out of my thoughts as I raised my head to look up. Everyone's attention was fixed on me as I had lost myself in my own thoughts.

"Right, I was just trying to process the situation. There's a lot that happened while I was gone."

"Tell me about it," Kiera smirked while looking at Leon. "He's also suffered quite a bit. The situation is quite messed up in the other Empires, too. You can say that it's worse than ours."

"Really…?"

I turned to look at Leon, who grimly nodded his head.

"There have been multiple factions rising up. Amell is trying his best to fight for the throne, but the competition is tough. The situation is calm for now, but it's not great. The only Empire that is doing moderately well is the Aetheria Empire."

"Aetheria? That's Caius's Empire…?"

Leon's face suddenly turned strange the moment I mentioned Caius. And just as I frowned, wondering why he reacted like that, Leon spoke, "He's the current Emperor."

"….?!"

I nearly spat out from the shock as I looked at Leon. What did he just say?

I didn't hear wrong, did—

"I've tried contacting him, but he's unreachable. I don't exactly know how it happened, but he killed the previous Emperor and took over. The situation over there is calm, but I have a feeling there's something deep there. I've been trying to investigate, but there were too many things that I had to take care of." Leon gave me a meaningful look, and I smiled bitterly.

Right…

Despite trying my best to remain calm, I was still struggling to comprehend the information. Caius the Emperor….?

I found that hard to believe, especially when thinking about his situation just not too long ago.

'Did he somehow succeed in whatever he was investigating? Hmm, but I'm not sure. If he did, he would've contacted Leon and the others.'

The situation felt strange for certain. I couldn't deny the possibility that the current 'Caius' wasn't exactly the same one that I knew and could've possibly been controlled by someone else.

I hoped that wasn't the case, but I didn't have many hopes.

'It gets more and more annoying the more I think about it.'

"What are you going to do from this point forward? Are you going to look for Caius and see what he's up to? That would be quite helpful."

At Aoife's sudden question, I paused for a moment while staring at her.

'Right, that's a good idea.'

The situation was clearly out of control, and it wouldn't hurt to check.

But—

"No."

I shook my head, prompting Leon and the others to look at me in surprise.

"Then what are—"

"I think I'll stay here in the Mirror Dimension."

I was currently a wanted fugitive in the outside world, and not only that, but there was also a chance that Atlas or someone else had figured out that I wasn't the 'real' Julien.

"There are a few things that I need to take care of. I also believe that Delilah is somewhere here. If I can bring her back, I'm sure I can turn the situation around."

I had a strong feeling that Delilah was in the Mirror Dimension. She was most likely looking for the other gods.

The more I thought about it, the heavier my heart became, but I knew that I had to find her.

Her strength was invaluable for the current stability of the outer world.

But not only that…

'Noel.'

I wanted to figure out where Noel was.

How was he doing…?

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