If Jacob hadn’t known Hektor so well, he would have suspected some foul play already. But although the Vermillion Tyrant was many things, sly wasn’t one of those, nor manipulative. He was so straightforward he had driven humanity into the ground while fully believing he was doing the right thing.

“I swear to God, Hektor!” Jacob’s head was exploding.

“I’m so sorry, Jacob, I didn’t want to get you embarrassed in front of Helena!” the other man said with genuine worry on his face.

I want to punch his pretty face so fucking bad.

“Listen,” Jacob exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself, “I think we should sit down and discuss.”

Hektor nodded in agreement.

“So, what are your intentions, how strong is the mass of people that you brought with you and so on—”

They were walking on the main street in St. Peter and they were passing by the statue that Jacob had erected to Frederick.

“OH MY GOD!” the Vermillion Tyrant immediately ran up to the statue and checked it out. “You already fought Charybdes?! Unbelievable! And this looks like a Mantis realm one! Man, when was this?”

“One week after the apocalypse,” Jacob pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. He was so brewing himself a calming tonic after.

“OH MY GOD! Your friend died a hero and you made a statue for him?! Jacob, if my resolution to fight alongside you ever risked wavering, now it’s solidified in pure solid steel!”

I might smoke that calming tonic if we continue like this, I swear.

“Listen, Hektor, I’ll give you the full tour and more, but not now. Please, come. I have set up a place to practice Alchemy and I have many interesting things I will tell you only if you shut up for a few seconds and come.”

Hektor brushed off the swearing and Jacob being impatient as a quirk of the shrunk hero. He patted his shoulder, gestured to zip his own lips and followed suit.

“You know, I always dreamt of something like this,” the shutting up lasted about twenty seconds, “me and you, against the world!”

“Hektor, I’m not exterminating all the other races,” Jacob said with solemnity.

“Oh, Jacob, don’t worry; I’m a changed man. I don’t plan on that. I’ll follow your orders, wherever they may carry us, whatever heroic adventure you are planning!”

Jacob gave him a suspicious look.

“Oh! If you took my despise for Epagogia as hate for the Devils, don’t worry. I just despise her. She’s deceptive, untruthful, manipulative and…”

“Yeah, yeah, a lovely woman,” Jacob laughed to himself.

There was no lie in what the Vermillion Tyrant had just said, but one had to put those things into the right context. Otherwise, if one thought in a straight line as Hektor did, the risks of messing up became very high.

As soon as they arrived at Jacob’s stolen villa, Hektor started rummaging through his Alchemical supplies.

“Hektor, I swear I will throw acid on you if you don’t stop!” Jacob said, snatching away a batch of Alchemic Tagliatelle.

“Oh my God! Are those Italian Tagliatelle?! And why do I sense all this spiritual energy from them… Did you make them into a new medium to replace Pills?!”

As much as Jacob hated the man, the Vermillion Tyrant was an extremely bright and perceptive person. Even if he acted like an idiot.

“You answer my questions and I’ll answer yours,” Jacob sat at the table, already drained.

At this point, he didn’t really care if he got skewered on a pike or if the Vermillion Tyrant wanted to burn him to a crisp. He just wished the other man would stop talking so much.

“Sure, my liege!” the Vermillion Tyrant chirped.

“What are your intentions, Hektor? I want a complete answer, the unabridged version.”

“Well, Jacob, I messed up in my past life, didn’t I? The war became impossible to win, humanity almost ended because of me, every other race started loathing us to the core. I killed humans because I thought they didn’t have the same guts I did to go after the Demonic Beasts and the other monsters.”

The Vermillion Tyrant showed an emotion that Jacob had never before seen on his face.

Shame.

“I killed, and killed, and killed. At the end, I was so deep into the mud, I couldn’t really stop, could I? All my bets were on the war, on the extermination. I couldn’t just stop and say ‘well, I did fuck up, big time, lads, we should stop and act like nothing happened’, right?”

“So, you kept on waging a war that brought us on two different sides and almost killed me,” Jacob said, “before I became more powerful than you and, in the end, I could kill you and your crew of madmen.”

“It’s never easy, is it?” the Vermillion Tyrant grimaced. “I did not regret a thing until the very end, the moment I died. There, looking at your beautiful face, I realized I made a mistake. There, in front of me, a true hero of humanity stood, ready to defend everyone at whatever the cost. You looked battered, tired and dirty, but you were ready to do anything to save more human lives. How could I not admire that? And how could I have been that blind?”

“You tell me,” Jacob kept an icy expression.

“I know, I did some terrible things and people followed me right into the ravine. They all jumped from the same cliff I ran toward, not questioning their motives enough. And by the end, we fought the worst war possible. Then, I realized that I was not a good leader, that I never would be. I am good at what I do, but I need someone who can think in a clearer way.”

“And that someone would be?” Jacob cringed in advance, before the response.

“You, Jacob. That would be you.”