My Life Across The Multiverse With Mangekyo Sharingan: 13

The journey took less time than I expected. By the time the capital came into view, the sun was already beginning its descent down on the imperial city.

'So .. Esdeath's coming back huh?' I thought, listening to the murmurs going around through the streets as I adjusted the weight resting across my forearms. Of course, I couldn't bring myself to care at the moment.

After all, the news I was listening to was much more important. From the looks of it, in the hours I had left, news had spread that the great general Esdeath was finally returning from the border with the army from battling the northern tribes. In addition, it was an overwhelming victory.

'So in at most a day or two, Esdeath will return to the capital.' I couldn't help but shake my head at the timing. Which honestly suited me just fine.

Besides curiosity, I had nothing to see about Esdeath and I certainly wasn't going to complain about learning in advance instead of sitting around while waiting for her parade to start. Nevertheless, as a clone, I couldn't really bring myself to care either.

Instead, I was focused on the unsatisfactory feeling currently stirring within my gut. 'What the hell is going on?'

My brows knitted together, pondering what was going on with me. 'Am I exhausted?' No, that wasn't it.

I'd spent months doing far more physically demanding things than this, and while I was a clone, running from the outskirts of the empire while carrying Kurome wasn't exactly going to break me.

It also wasn't disappointment.

That made no sense.

'Well ..'

I frowned. Come to think of it, this did feel like disappointment. But at the same time, It didn't quite feel the same either. 'What the hell?' That made even less sense.

It had started ever since I left the cave and began returning to the capital, growing stronger as time passed. Logically speaking, after succeeding, I should be on top of the moon at getting my custom superweapon.

So why did I feel...

"...Meh."

That was the only word that came to mind at the thought of my supposed success. I mean, compared to the thought I had, the end result just wasn't as exciting as I had expected.

'Maybe I expected more.'

Not from Kil. From the moment itself. I'd spent so much time imagining the process that I'd never really thought about what came afterward. And in the end, I was the only one who bore witness to my success.

There was no grand revelation nor was there a sudden feeling of fulfillment. It didn't even feel like I had reached some important milestone.

I'd simply finished what I'd set out to do. And now that it was done, there was nothing left to chase.

"...Is that it?" The words slipped out, and I immediately frowned at myself. That sounded ... Actually that sounded kinda right. For a thousand years, the Empire had possessed forty-eight Imperial Arms.

And now, I had just added a forty-ninth relic to that history. Except nobody knew it.

'.... So that's what it is.' I quickly put two and two together. 'Wow.' As for whether to call this disappointment or dissatisfaction at the reaction, or lack of one to the outcome, I could only say it was the latter.

Come to think of it, this was the first time I had embarked on such a project. In every other world I had been to, I was either taking things, or on my way to take things. All for the love of the game itself.

This was the first time I had gone out of my way to achieve something of my own making.

'So... I'm a reaction addict?' The thought crossed my mind, and honestly, I wasn't even surprised at the revelation. After all, I was a world traveler. A huge chunk of the fuel behind my drive to hop across different universes in the first place was the sheer satisfaction of derailing canonical plotlines, turning established lore on its head, and watching the dominoes fall.

There were forty-eight legendary weapons forged by the First Emperor, and I had just created the forty-ninth. Quite possibly the most powerful, adaptable one of them all—and nobody was around to gasp, panic, or lose their minds over it.

Thinking of this, I finally understood. In short, my lack of contentment was justified.

'Weird.' 

I turned, my thoughts trailing back to the sheer hassle resting in my arms.

Kurome was still completely out cold, her head resting limp against my shoulder. Then again, considering the amount of force I'd been throwing around during the fight, she was lucky she'd only been knocked unconscious.

Still...

As for why she was currently in my arms as I walked down the streets of the capital? It couldn't be helped. Leaving her behind in the forest to be chewed on by Danger Beasts hadn't really sat right with me.

After all, I wasn't ruthless enough to just dump an unconscious teenager in the dirt after sparing her life, even if this teenager was a bit of a psycho.

That would have been a rather shitty thing to do. That didn't change the fact however that I had other things to deal with then and there, and bringing her along was a headache in its own right.

'Sigh.'

I adjusted my grip, pondering my life choices. Kurome's situation was essentially a dead end. The Imperial Dark Squad she was a part of was entirely dead. Her Teigu, Yatsufusa, was now permanently locked away in my inventory scroll as a souvenir, and as far as the Empire was concerned, Kurome had lost both.

Regardless of whether they would suspect she had something to do with it or not, that meant her usefulness had dropped considerably. The Empire didn't exactly have a shortage of disposable assassins. Maybe very skilled ones but I doubted it would make a difference. If she returned to the capital empty-handed, there was a good chance she'd be executed.

At best, she'd be thrown into a dark cell for interrogation; And if they decided she was still worth something? Then she'd probably end up in a laboratory somewhere. at worst, passed along to the research division to be dissected for spare parts. Neither outcome was particularly appealing.

I had considered waking her up ahead of time, tossing her a bag of gold and a new sword to protect herself, only to realize that she couldn't just "start a new life" either.

Unlike the manga timeline where the empire was already collapsing in on itself and Wave’s stubborn, idiot-god sincerity eventually dragged her out of the Empire's grip, Kurome currently had no one. She had been raised as a state asset since childhood. Her entire identity was tied to being a tool for killing.

Worse still were the drugs. The Imperial secret branch had pumped her full of experimental stimulants to force her body past its natural limits. Without those specific snacks, extreme withdrawal would set within days, rotting her organs from the inside out and ending in an excruciating death.

'Damn. What a drag.' Numerous thoughts went through my mind. In most of them, I had considered fixing her myself.

Honestly, it wouldn't be that difficult. Her physical injuries were trivial compared to the things I'd dealt with in other worlds. After all, the only reason I was able to spam my Ms abilities throughout my travels and not run blind was because I had gathered enough healing pills, recovery potions, and more.

Compared to that, her dependency on the drugs could probably be handled with enough patience and the right combination of medicine.

Even her shortened lifespan wasn't necessarily permanent. I had enough bizarre materials in storage to restore vitality to a body.

If necessary, I could dismantle something with an absurd amount of life force and use it as a replacement source.

That method carried potential physiological changes and complications but it would probably work and take less than an afternoon.

But then what?

Kurome had spent most of her life as an assassin.

Like I said, she didn't know how to live normally, and without Wave entering the picture, I had no reason to believe she'd simply decide to abandon everything she'd ever known.

Even if I gave her enough money to disappear, there was a very real possibility she'd simply return. Which would bring her right back to the same problem.

The only way to solve that, was to take her with me, which was a grayed-out option to begin with. I wasn't her doctor, and I certainly wasn't looking to adopt an indoctrinated, drug-addicted assassin with severe sister issues.

For one, saving her wasn't really the issue. Even if I wanted to take her, just convincing her to leave her sister and everything she knew to follow an outsider who killed her friends sounded absurd. Unless I was missing something, there was zero chance she would come with me.

Furthermore, where would I take her and what would I do with her?

I had never taken a human companion from any world I had ever gone to before. Not only did I not like her as a potential friend, waifu (Underage) or companion character, she was objectively quite weak and would only serve as a burden to me. The concept itself sounded more like a responsibility than an entertaining idea, so how was any of this my responsibility?

It obviously wasn't.

So not only was I not interested in taking here, I was not even the slightest bit interested in considering the possibility of taking her. Of course, if she was replaced with Akame, Sheele, Leone, or Esdeath, that would be a different story.

That left the fourth and only option available. 'Sigh ... So much trouble.'

To go through all this just for someone I didn't know ... I was a true saint. No one could convince me otherwise.

Eventually, I stopped in front of a familiar storefront.

A modest bookstore.

The sign above the entrance, GRIMOIRE & THE QUILL, hadn't changed much since the last time I'd been here.

'Yep.'

This was the place. Thankfully, it was still open. Now some may ask why I was in front of a bookstore while holding an imperial assassin? Well, long story short. I was familiar with this place and had been coming here occasionally ever since. Partly because I genuinely liked the story books

More importantly, I was familiar with the idiot who ran it.