Chapter 54: A Lifelong Shadow

Chapter 54: A Lifelong Shadow

Although Tachibana’s tone was rather calm, her smug little expression and the unmistakable air of humblebragging in her words left Cromwell speechless.

He really shouldn’t have asked that question.

But it wasn’t just him who was at a loss for words, the viewers on Crustyroll in the real world were too.

“Lass, please, can we not be this high-profile? Chill out a bit. Maybe try lowering the corners of your mouth—your pride’s showing.”

“Tachibana: It’s been a whole three minutes since I last mentioned how I picked up Tendou off the street.”

“‘About That Time I Found the Pinnacle of the World on the Road’”

Aside from strongly protesting Tachibana’s humblebragging, the dimensional audience now felt genuine sympathy for Yong Amsan and Claude, the two rookie villains making their first appearance.

Because honestly—the more arrogant Yong Amsan acted at the start, the more ridiculous and clownish he looked by the end, fleeing in utter disgrace.

First it was, “Don’t bother sending anyone else. Something this fun? There’s no way I’m letting anyone else take it from me.” Then, “Watching self-proclaimed geniuses break—seeing them crawl before me, begging for mercy with that sweet look of despair.”

To be fair, before his real strength was revealed, the audience almost believed this guy was so strong that even Tendou, the Peak, supposedly had to go serious when facing him.

Everyone was genuinely worried for the main cast for a second.

But once Tendou actually fought the two of them, the audience instantly realized their worries were for nothing.

Bro, seriously? You are just all talk?

Bragging nonstop about how powerful and mighty you are, yet when it came down to a real fight, good lord—you couldn’t even beat Chen Kong, who’s basically bottom-tier in the anime lineup.

Then, in desperation, you tried to go 2-on-1.

But the moment Tendou showed up—bam, one kicked to death, the other scared off in an instant.

If Tachibana hadn’t intervened at the end, Tendou would’ve wiped both of them off the map on the spot, and it wouldn’t have even been close.

With power levels like that, you dared to say that you alone are enough to face the cast?

Please. What a joke.

The two of you are absolutely the top contenders for the “Best Clown Award” of Stellaris Season 1, with a monumental lead over everyone else!

Thanks to Yong Amsan and Claude’s legendary clown performance, and Tendou’s display of overwhelming dominance, Crustyroll’s audience was suddenly filled with the urge to debate.

“Yong Amsan: Bro, seriously—between the two of us, who’s the actual villain here? Why do you seem more like the bad guy than I do?”

“Tendou: Before I appeared, you were arrogant. After I appeared, you were on the verge of death.”

“The King of the Stars is beyond dispute, but the title of King of Clown remains a mystery—because we’ve got not one, but two strong candidates!”

“Claude: Damn it, weren’t you the one who said I just had to chill and get a free win? How did I end up hard-carrying alone?!”

Just as the live chat was relentlessly roasting Yong Amsan and Claude—the “Clown Duo”—the man himself, who had barely escaped Tendou with his life, had already returned to the president’s office of Rohn Technology Co., Ltd, the same place where he’d first appeared.

Sitting on the couch, Yong Amsan looked utterly broken—blank eyes, trembling body, and a haunted expression of disbelief.

Everyone else in the office exchanged uneasy glances. From the looks on each other’s faces, they could all tell that there has been some mishap.

After a brief silence, Burdean, the man who had originally gathered Yong Amsan and the others together, spoke first.

“Yong Amsan, what happened? Why did only you come back? Where’s Claude?”

But Yong Amsan gave no response.

He just sat there clutching his head, hunched over, his entire body shaking uncontrollably.

It was obvious that he still hadn’t recovered from the terror of facing Tendou.

Seeing this, Burdean, Lina, and Visel traded confused looks.

Then Lina, who was the closest, hesitated for a moment before stepping forward. She gently placed her hand on Yong Amsan’s shoulder.

“What’s wrong, Yong Amsan?”

She thought that little touch might help calm him down.

But the moment her hand brushed his shoulder—Yong Amsan snapped.

His body jolted violently. Then, in an instant, he leapt off the couch, scrambled into a corner, and curled up like a terrified animal.

His eyes went wide with horror as he raised his trembling hands, pleading,

“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me, please! I’m begging you—don’t kill me!”

“……”

Lina froze, staring at him in disbelief.

She simply couldn’t reconcile the image before her—the man who once strutted around arrogantly, radiating hostility toward everyone, nose perpetually pointed at the sky—with this pitiful, broken creature trembling like a frightened child.

Just what kind of despair… what kind of unimaginable fear… could reduce someone so proud and self-assured to this?

A weak, rasping voice broke the silence.

“Ahem—why don’t I explain what happened for you?”

Lina turned toward the sound.

A frail figure was being wheeled into the office by a mechanical attendant.

The man’s body was withered, sustained only by a web of intravenous tubes and medical machinery keeping him barely functional.

After a moment of stunned silence, Lina murmured uncertainly,

“Claude?”

The man in the wheelchair gave a small nod—yes, he was Claude Jernkuplen, the Iron Coffin.

The one who had appeared with Yong Amsan earlier had merely been a mechanical proxy—an artificial body he had specially crafted.

The person before them now was the true Claude.

With the help of the service robot, Claude was slowly pushed to the center of the office.

He first glanced at Yong Amsan, who was still trembling in the corner, completely trapped in his own fear.

Then he looked toward Burdean and the others… and began to recount everything that had happened earlier in that supermarket.

By the time he finished speaking, every face in the room was frozen in shock.

Even Visel—normally a neurotic man who cared about nothing outside of “medicine”—couldn’t hold back his shock this time.

“You mean to tell us,” he said, voice trembling slightly, “that this Masamune child, even though he’s only a first-order Starbearer, single-handedly crushed both you and Yong Amsan so thoroughly that you nearly died?”

“Cough… cough… yes,” Claude rasped, his voice weak but clear. “I could feel it. That boy had already located my real body. After killing Yong Amsan, he absolutely had the power to find me and finish me off as well. But for some reason… he didn’t. He chose not to.”

Visel and Lina both frowned deeply, clearly unable to understand why that Masamune kid had spared them at the end.

Only Burdean, sitting quietly in the far corner of the room, wore a thoughtful look.

After a moment, he slowly raised his head, his expression heavy and serious.

“If what you’ve said is true, Claude… then I think I know why he let you live.”

“Oh?” Claude turned to him, his frail, skeletal face filled with curiosity.

The same curiosity flickered in the eyes of Visel and Lina.

Burdean glanced around at their questioning stares, took a long breath, and finally decided to tell them the truth.

He knew that if he didn’t reveal it now, these self-serving Dark Starbearers would never risk their lives to stand by him—especially now, with Yong Amsan already broken by fear.

So Burdean drew in another deep breath and spoke, revealing a secret none of them had ever known before.

It was about the under-the-table deal he had made with certain members of the Starbearer Association in Deep Blue Metropolis.

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