Chapter 195: Julian finally figures it out

A single bead of cold sweat rolled from his temple, tracing a slow, icy path down his jaw. He felt as though he had just had a massive, convoluted novel plot dumped into his lap, but the ink was still wet, and the protagonist was wearing his skin.

​He looked at Alaric with shaking eyes. The name—Kim Jowoon. It hung in the damp air between them like a ghost. He wasn’t from this world, and that secret, the one he had guarded like a dying ember, was being dragged into the light.

What was he going to do? Would he be exposed like this? The system... would the system be okay with this?

But as he searched his mind, he realized the System never exactly stated he could not disclose his own identity. It restricted the disclosure of the System’s existence, but not exactly his existence.

And besides, it was that other entity—the original Julian—who had initiated this exposure.

​His mind raced to the system’s warning at that moment. Be careful of my Creator.

What he had to be careful of, he did not know. And as for who this creator was...

If the original Julian was just a fragment sharing this vessel and was being sanctioned by the system as well, he couldn’t be the one who built this interface.

Then... who was? Who did he have to be careful of?

The creator wasn’t a god, but he wasn’t human either. Then... a demon?

​Julian shook his head violently, forcing those thoughts into a corner. He had to focus on the now and not the system know-how.

He was in danger of getting executed for treason; trying to assassinate the Emperor was the highest offense imaginable. And to think he was in possession of the stolen scepter as well.

His life was already at its end.

The system must’ve known. If not, it wouldn’t have asked him if he was sure he wanted to return to the chaos out here.

It all made sense now.

But even if he did know, he would still come out. How could he live in an illusion for the rest of his life?

​"It wasn’t me," Julian whispered, his voice thin and fragile. He had said it before, but as if he wanted to show clarity even after hearing the story, he said it again.

​Alaric nodded, his expression softening into something pained and protective.

"I know. But it can’t be dismissed so easily just because you say so, Julian. Aurelian must know as well that it wasn’t you. That is why he asked me to escort you. He did not issue an immediate execution as he did the princess."

​Julian lowered his head, his chin nearly touching his chest. Princess Seraphina. Why would she want the Empress dead?

And her relation with that other Julian... Had he been sneaking out to meet her using his body? Was that why her affection level was so impossibly high?

​The realization hit him with the force of a physical blow. The thief who had haunted the palace, the one who had taunted the knights and stolen from the treasury—it had all been done with his hands.

​Was it... when I was sleeping?

There was no other explanation as to how he did it if it was not in his sleep.

And then, ​the pieces began to click together like a magnet. The Waking Madness. The crushing weight on his chest every time he woke up, the gasping for air, the sheer exhaustion that no amount of rest could fix. Two souls coexisting in one vessel had to be a violation of the world’s laws. While Kim Jowoon slept, the original Julian had been awake, burning through their shared energy, leaving the body a hollowed-out wreck for Jowoon to inhabit at sunrise.

​That was why the System couldn’t stop it. It wasn’t a bug; it was a consequence of the soul fracture that the world did not allow.

Someone had to suffer. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Ah, and Kim Jowoon had to be the one to suffer since he was the one actively functioning in this body.

​"Julian," Alaric’s voice was closer now. He reached out, his calloused fingers hesitating before they finally brushed against Julian’s cheek. "I do not want to question you. You have been through a lot. If you know anything, you would say, right?"

Julian slowly nodded, ashamed that he had once again brought problems to the Duke.

"It is enough," he said. "Once the healers from the Sanctum finish the truth serum and put you on trial, they shall see you are innocent as well."

Julian was glad. His face twisted with a sense of relief, but that relief died out as soon as it came, as the word ’truth serum’ came back to him.

His breath hitched.

He knew he had nothing to do with this assassination, but there was just so much he had hidden. Secrets this world did not know of yet, and did not know how they would react if they did.

And then there was the system. Would they force his lips only for him to be punished by the system?

"Julian," Alaric called. "Is there... something you would like to tell me?"

Julian paused.

"The things the other Julian said... the name he called you... What did it mean?"

​Julian looked up, his breath hitching. He could see the Duke’s desperation—the man who had just found out his wife’s final words were stolen from him was now looking at Julian as if he were the only thing left in a crumbling world.

"I know I said I would not question you, but I at least need to know if you have anything to hide before you take the truth serum. If it will implicate you any further, I must know and tackle the issue before the time comes."

"You want to become an accomplice?" Julian asked, his face twisting quite sadly at the lengths Alaric would go for him.

"If I have to," The Duke stared plainly. "So tell me, what do you not want the world to know?"

"I am... Kim Jowoon,"