I Became a White-Haired Loli v2c77

Chapter 77: Eve of the Imperial Festival

Late night.

The North Empire’s Imperial Palace.

The North Empire employed a round-table council system. Major decisions were made by a council of the nine Legendary Knights and the Emperor, while other matters were handled by various ministers.

The current Emperor, Ares VI, a former knight himself, possessed a military-like pragmatism.

He had little desire for power and hadn’t remarried after his empress’s death. While not a brilliant ruler, he wasn’t a foolish one either.

It was past midnight, the eve of the Imperial Festival, yet Ares was still in his study.

Just then, the door opened.

He looked up to see a strange figure entering, silent and unannounced.

“Who’s there?”

Ares reached for the scepter beside him, a powerful artifact that could channel all nine of the Empire’s Authorities, though his own mastery of it was… limited.

Still, it was enough to handle most threats.

But a visitor at this hour, entering so stealthily, was unlikely to be friendly.

The figure didn’t speak, simply walking towards him, her face gradually revealed in the candlelight.

Ares gasped, his eyes widening in recognition. “You… you’re…”

The woman before him was pretty, but not stunning, with a comfortable, easy grace.

If Bai had been here, she would have recognized her.

“You’re Neily? No, Neily is dead… you must be Nisha?” Ares took a deep breath. “I thought you were a historical figure. It’s been centuries. How are you still alive…?”

The woman had the same face as the Neily in Bai’s memories.

But she wasn’t Neily. She was Nisha—Neily’s twin sister, Sasha.

The Sasha Bai had known had been a disguise. This was her true form.

The ancient empire’s technology was far superior to the North Empire’s; preserving images wasn’t difficult. And with Nisha’s prominent role in history, Ares recognized her instantly.

As Emperor, he knew many secrets of the ancient empire, including the partial truth of its downfall.

And the sisters, Neily and Nisha, had played a crucial role.

“I’ve come to atone for my mistakes,” Sasha said, her voice flat. “Vikarn must be sealed. You’ve abused its power for too long…”

The Imperial Festival’s “miracle,” the capital’s massive detector… they were all powered by Vikarn.

The festival was a ritual to connect with Vikarn, to use its devices and replenish their energy.

Looking at Nisha, a figure he had only seen in historical records, Ares composed himself. “Miss Nisha… if I may call you that. You should know that the one who abused its power most was you, or rather, your sister…”

“Your ‘Project Zero’ didn’t bring salvation to humanity; it accelerated the ancient empire’s demise.”

“We, their descendants, are simply using what’s left to survive.”

After Ares finished, Sasha spoke. “That is the mistake I speak of.”

Her expression grew distant, her mind replaying a recurring nightmare, a nightmare featuring a cute, yet terrifying, purple-haired little girl.

“My sister was wrong, and so was I. The Weapon of Vikarn is uncontrollable. She should have remained sealed in the depths of Vikarn, or better yet, never have been created.”

“Project Zero” was the ancient empire’s plan to create a weapon to fight the Abyssal Lord.

The details of the project were known only to Neily, who had proposed it.

The project had been a success, yet its consequences could only be described as a failure.

Sasha had witnessed the “Weapon” taking shape in her sister’s lab, a purple-haired little girl in a transparent container.

A monster disguised as an adorable child.

“If I hadn’t been so stubborn… if I had trusted my sister, perhaps things would have been different…”

The ancient empire had been on the verge of collapse, pushed back by the Abyssal Demon Realm’s relentless assault. Their only hope was the Weapon of Vikarn.

But Neily, the Weapon’s sole controller, had hesitated.

Nisha hadn’t understood her sister’s indecisiveness. They had a powerful weapon; why not use it to save the Empire?

So, she, with her identical face, had secretly taken the Weapon from Vikarn and brought it to the battlefield.

The effect was immediate.

The powerful Weapon turned the tide of the war, the ancient empire’s knights pushing back the demons, reclaiming lost territory.

But the Weapon was incomplete, uncontrollable. It lacked a “human” personality, no loyalty to humanity.

It wasn’t a “weapon,” but a “machine” of slaughter.

And the Abyssal Demon Realm, through their cunning, had managed to turn it against the ancient empire.

“Zero” was ultimately named “Pandora,” the source of all calamities.

After a devastating war, the Weapon was finally resealed in the depths of Vikarn, but the ancient empire, weakened and broken, was quickly conquered by the Abyss.

During the empire’s fall, Neily had refused to flee with Nisha. She had stood at the entrance to Vikarn, the abandoned building complex in what would become Vikarn Port, and, with a small pulse pistol, had taken her own life.

And Nisha, after all that, had discovered her sister’s final gift: a perfect demonification, granting her an unnaturally long life.

But…

“Perhaps it wasn’t a gift,” Sasha realized, years later. “It was a curse, sister…”

“To live forever, haunted by the pain of an unforgivable mistake… a gentle, yet cruel, curse…”

Interlude: Zero, Neily, Withering

Dusk.

A woman in a white lab coat stood before the “Gate” of Vikarn, her expression detached as she watched the setting sun.

—Vikarn had been evacuated, all research personnel gone, except for Neily, their leader.

She remained behind, alone.

No, not alone.

In a simple, horizontal device beside her, lay a silver-haired girl.

Her eyes were closed, as if in a deep sleep, her beauty otherworldly.

“Besides me, no one remembers you anymore, Bai,” Neily said, looking down at the girl, a faint, sad smile on her face. “Or rather, ‘Zero.'”

“Project Zero” was Neily’s creation, an attempt to save the ancient empire from certain doom.

And Bai was Zero.

Neily remembered seeing Zero for the first time.

She had emerged from her transparent container, her long, silver hair flowing around her, her beauty breathtaking, her naked body a perfect work of art.

Zero’s creation was beyond human comprehension.

Neily had only received a “half-finished” product from a terrifying entity and had cultivated it using an optimized embryonic experiment.

She wasn’t Zero’s creator, nor her mother.

She was more like… a midwife.

So, before seeing Zero, Neily had imagined a monstrous, terrifying being.

She hadn’t expected a cute, almost clumsy, little girl.

“…What’s your name?”

“My name is Neily.”

“And what’s my name?”

“You’re Zero.”

“I don’t like it. I want to be called Neily too.”

“Neily is my name. Everyone has a different name… usually. Sometimes, there are exceptions.”

“But I don’t want to be called Zero.”

Her expression was serious, stubborn.

A strange little girl, but given her origins, her strangeness was understandable.

Neily thought for a moment. “Your hair is white, your skin is white. How about… Bai?”

“Bai… that sounds nice. I’ll be Bai then.”

And so, Zero became Bai.

The more time Neily spent with Bai, the more she saw her as an ordinary little girl, curious about everything, yet well-behaved and serious when needed.

But she wasn’t an ordinary little girl. She was “Zero,” a weapon of slaughter.

What if… she wasn’t Zero anymore?

Neily decided, selfishly, that she wouldn’t let this innocent little girl suffer such a cruel fate.

Bai deserved to be happy, to be free from war and slaughter.

So, “Project Zero” received a new Zero. Bai was no longer Zero.

And when the new “Zero,” later known as “Pandora,” a purple-haired little girl nicknamed “Ara” by Bai, appeared, Bai finally had a friend, the two of them inseparable.

But Neily, having been burned by her own sentimentality, refused to get attached to the new Zero. Her only goal was to protect Bai.

But when the Empire faced its darkest hour, Neily hesitated.

Her resolve wavered, and she couldn’t bring herself to make the difficult decision.

Ara, who was with Bai, was just as cute, even more timid. Who could send such a child to the horrors of war?

So, Neily had hesitated.

And then, tragedy struck. Ara, in her innocence, had been tricked by Nisha, disguised as Neily, and brought to the battlefield.

The brutality of war had twisted Ara’s developing mind, and the separation from Bai had shattered her fragile psyche.

At that time, Ara had been far more powerful than the version that had appeared in the capital, possessing forty-nine of the ancient empire’s Authorities, her power amplified by Vikarn’s energy supply.

The Empire’s weakened legions had been no match for the crazed Ara.

But then, Bai had appeared.

Even the powerful Ara was no match for Bai. She had been defeated, and then embraced, her sanity restored.

It was then that Neily had realized. A weapon was a weapon. Ara, and Bai.

They possessed unimaginable power, capable of destroying everything.

And she had created them, her hands stained with blood.

When the Abyssal Demon Realm found her, Neily had finally learned the truth about Bai.

But she hadn’t revealed everything, only promising to help them seal the Abyssal Lord.

And in exchange, she had received the power of perfect demonification, which she had given to her sister, Nisha.

Finally, she had sealed Ara in the depths of Vikarn and brought Bai to the “Gate” outside, intending to seal her away with a device of her own creation.

A device with other functions.

She activated the device, and a flash of light enveloped the sleeping Bai. Her striking features softened, her silver hair shortening, turning a common black.

Bai became Xu Bai, and upon waking, she would have no memory of her past.

The device also created a realistic dream world, where Xu Bai lived happily with his sister, Neily.

At the same time, the Abyssal Demon Realm had erased all memories of the Abyssal Lord, and Ara and Bai vanished from everyone’s minds, except for Neily, and her sister, Nisha.

“Bai, forgive me. This is all my fault,” Neily said, looking at Xu Bai in the device. “Now, it’s time for me to atone for my sins.”

She stood up, sealing the device containing Xu Bai in a hidden corner of the complex.

Then, she walked to the entrance, her back to the “Gate,” and pulled out a small pulse pistol, a standard issue for researchers, pressing it to her temple.

“Farewell.”

A single shot echoed.