Help! I am bound to Aizen!
Chapter 378

Chapter 378

2-in-1 chapter:  

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“Haschwalth.”

The man opened his eyes, slowly speaking the name of the figure kneeling beside him.

Haschwalth bowed deeply.

The man slowly sat up.

He raised his hand and placed it over his chest.

“My heartbeat... has fully returned.”

“My consciousness… is nearly fully awakened.”

“Soon, the days of being trapped in this world will come to an end.”

Haschwalth spoke:

“Your Majesty, the situation in Soul Society may be more dangerous than we expected.”

“Right now, our presence has already been exposed to them. Soul Society is surely preparing against us.”

“If not for the Final Sanctuary you left behind, the Empire might have already…”

Yhwach let out a low laugh.

“Haschwalth... there’s no need to worry.”

“Once I reclaim my power, nothing in this world will be able to stop me.”

“Not Yamamoto Shigekuni, nor that man who opened the Empire’s barrier.”

“Their fates are already sealed.”

“The day I reclaim my power will be the day the Quincy take everything back.”

“Leave me.”

“Yes!”

Though he still had many concerns, Haschwalth said nothing more.

He stood, bowed to Yhwach, and turned to leave.

Once Haschwalth vanished into the darkness, Yhwach slowly turned his head toward Kaelith’s direction.

“You unknown being lurking there—why not show yourself?”

If I could, I would have long since appeared.

Kaelith’s gaze was cold, as if staring at a corpse.

Yhwach fell silent for a few seconds, then said calmly:

“Unable to appear? Or… unwilling?”

“No matter. Either way, when I awaken, I will personally take everything from you.”

“When that time comes, all truths shall be revealed.”

Good. I’m looking forward to it.

Under Kaelith’s gaze, Yhwach lay back down and slowly closed his eyes.

Suddenly, the scene changed. In front of Kaelith was Aizen’s back as he sat before a screen, monitoring data.

Aizen seemed to sense something and turned his head.

He saw Kaelith’s face, twisted into a dark expression, as if he'd seen a hated enemy.

Reiryoku surged, killing intent rolled.

“Kaelith?”

He called out.

Kaelith seemed to snap back to himself, focus returning to his eyes.

His spiritual pressure and killing intent quickly faded.

Under Aizen’s gaze, he described everything he had just seen.

After hearing the full account, Aizen frowned slightly.

The first thing that came to his mind wasn’t the threat posed by Yhwach himself.

It was the timing of Kaelith’s vision— it was too precise.

Kaelith, who’d had no prior connection to Yhwach, suddenly saw his presence through the barrier of the Final Sanctuary right after acquiring Fullbringer powers.

To say that this was entirely unrelated—Aizen couldn’t believe it.

Right now, they lacked sufficient intel.

Relying on conjecture and speculation could yield possibilities, but no certainty.

If they could infiltrate the Soul King Palace and access the sealed archives, the situation would likely become much clearer.

Unfortunately… even though the Soul King Palace and the Gotei 13 were nominally on the same side, communication between them was extremely limited.

In the last hundred years, this was already the most active period of contact they have had.

Whenever Yūtendō released a new game console or some AAA game, they’d send it up through the Tenchūren.

Just thinking about this left Aizen feeling complicated.

The royal guards of the Soul King Palace—legendary figures in Soul Society’s history—actually showed interest in the lower world because of this?

If he didn’t understand Kaelith well enough, Aizen would have suspected this guy was executing some kind of master plan.

Aizen looked at Kaelith.

Right now, the best move would be to have him contact the Soul King Palace—ideally, to speak directly with “the monk who calls all true names.”

But just as Yamamoto had once warned, a being who had lived for over a million years was nearly impossible to read.

With such an overwhelming gap in information, trying to guess his true intentions was meaningless.

If someone could do that, they wouldn’t be a genius—they’d be a prophet.

And if the monk harbored ill intent, delivering sensitive intel proactively would be no different from walking into a death trap.

Because of that, Aizen dismissed the idea—reluctantly shelving the plan as too dangerous for now.

But just then, Kaelith suddenly clapped his hands.

“I’ve got it!”

“?”

“I’ll go talk to that fat monk and get some answers!”

Under Aizen’s Komamura-level glare, Kaelith crossed his arms and wore a smug grin:

“First of all, sensei is useless—if he knew what was going on, he’d have told me already. No way he’d wait for me to ask.”

“Since that’s the case, I might as well go straight to the source—to the one who’s lived the longest and knows the most!”

Aizen went silent.

He had just considered this idea himself—and discarded it because of the uncertainty.

But now that Kaelith had brought it up independently, perhaps it changed the equation.

This guy—who so often seemed like he’d given up on thinking—somehow always managed to land on the cleanest, most direct route to a solution.

Though he wanted to dissuade him, Aizen had to admit that this truly was the best option available for now.

The only remaining question was… would the Soul King Palace agree to meet him over something this minor?

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[Welcome, most welcome!]

[Tea and food have been prepared—we are eagerly awaiting young Kaelith’s arrival!]

“……”

Looking at the reply in his hands, Aizen narrowed his eyes.

This was... beyond ridiculous.

Back when he worked in the Central 46, he had seen some of the correspondence between the Soul King Palace and Seireitei.

Toward Seireitei, the palace had always shown a cold front.

Outside of responses to the Five Noble Houses, they only maintained surface politeness. For others, their replies could only be described as icy.

Yet now, to Kaelith—a mere squad captain—they showed such warmth?

A closer look revealed that the word “eagerly” had been struck through, as if they had originally written “awaiting your arrival.”

The leader of the Zero Division—Hyōsube Ichibē, a man who had lived a million years—was showing this kind of attitude toward Kaelith...

No matter how you looked at it, this was too suspicious.

Aizen now had reason to suspect Kaelith might be the Soul King's illegitimate child.

If that were the case, everything would make sense.

That bizarre binding power... that insane ability to inherit the strengths of all things... the capacity to freely wield shadows from beyond the world...

And the monk’s increasingly clear attitude—perhaps it was because he had finally confirmed Kaelith’s true identity through various clues.

For example, the idea that no one else could simultaneously master these powers—only Kaelith alone could do it… something like that.

Thinking of this, Sōsuke couldn’t help but shake his head with a slight smile.

He’d really been infected by Kaelith—coming up with such absurd speculations.

In any case, though he still had many doubts, he could only set them aside for now.

Upon learning that Kaelith had once again been summoned to the Soul King Palace, Yamamoto was somewhat surprised. His first reaction was to wonder whether this damn disciple had caused some major incident, prompting the Royal Guard to finally decide it was time to execute a fellow comrade for the greater good.

Though worried, it wasn’t Kaelith’s first trip to the upper realm.

With a thunderous blast from the Shiba family’s cannon, Kaelith ascended.

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Boom!!!

The Tenchūren landed steadily.

The hatch opened, and Kaelith took a small step for himself, a giant leap for Seireitei.

At this moment, he was not alone.

Shutara Senjumaru stood not far away, her skeletal prosthetic arms crossed in front of her chest, her face expressionless.

“Enough with the theatrics… I’ve been waiting here forever. Let’s go, Kirio’s already prepared a grand feast for you.”

Beside her, a man with a pompadour hairstyle spoke up:

“Seriously, what is that monk thinking? For someone like Kaelith, he actually made me come pick him up?”

“Hey, brat, what did you bribe him with?”

Seeing Kirinji Tenjirō, Kaelith was a little surprised.

Just as he was about to greet him, his eyes caught sight of the man beside them.

“Old King!”

Kaelith’s eyes lit up.

In a flash, he appeared in front of Ōetsu Nimaiya.

“Has my Phoenix Hall got any new technicians?”

“Your....?”

“Slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue… I meant, has our Phoenix Hall got any new beautiful Zanpakutō spirits?”

“?”

Seeing the man before him with eyes glowing like headlights, Nimaiya couldn’t help but feel like he’d just been emotionally mauled by an evil ghost.

He’d always thought himself one of the thickest-skinned in all of Soul Society.

But compared to this guy, he had to admit defeat.

He gave Kaelith a quick once-over.

Among the three present, he was the only one who could somewhat guess what the monk was thinking.

The thought that this guy had such qualifications left him feeling a little conflicted.

He reached out and patted Kaelith’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry—as long as you can make it up here, my Phoenix. Hall. will always be open to you!”

He emphasized each syllable of “Phoenix Hall.”

Kaelith was a little surprised.

Old King not rapping? Childhood over.

Led by Shutara Senjumaru, the four of them arrived at the Swine Hall.

Kirio Hikifune was already waiting there.

With her preparations, table after table of extravagant feasts had been laid out, dazzling enough to blind the eye.

“Master, I didn’t expect you to come back so soon—I’m really happy to see you!”

Seeing Kaelith, Kirio Hikifune smiled warmly.

When she had been promoted to the Royal Guard, she had mentally prepared for not seeing familiar faces for hundreds, even thousands of years.

Who’d have thought a certain familiar face would just drop by like it was nothing? Brilliant.

The five of them feasted heartily at the Swine Hall.

After food and wine, Ōetsu Nimaiya took Kaelith to the Phoenix Hall to enjoy some "VIP lounge" treatment.

Finally, Kirinji Tenjirō took him to soak in a hot spring and arranged a private room for him to rest.

Lying on the soft bedding, Kaelith comfortably closed his eyes.

This Soul King Palace hotel was really something—he should visit more often.

An hour later, he suddenly opened his eyes and sat up.

Damn. No.

He hadn’t come to the girls—cough—he hadn’t come to the Soul King Palace to enjoy himself.

Flipping out of bed, he stepped into the night and headed to Ichibē Hyōsube’s Shōjōden (Hall of Pages).

From afar, he saw a figure standing at the entrance.

Sensing Kaelith’s arrival, the figure turned and grinned at him.

“Well now… Kaelith, here so soon? Not even resting a bit?”

Kaelith narrowed his eyes.

“I feel like someone’s plotting behind my back, so no time for rest.”

“What?! Such a thing?! I shall not sit idly by!”

The great monk’s eyes widened, ready to throw hands.

Then he suddenly grinned:

“But let’s put that aside for now—come, Kaelith, I want to show you something!”

Bringing Kaelith inside, he opened a LSP4.

Rapid keystrokes followed, and he pulled up the achievements interface.

“Behold! My triumph!”

He jabbed a thick finger at a line on the screen.

“Oh… now that’s… actually impressive.”

Kaelith looked surprised.

“No-damage run against Rampaging Big Gourd.” Even he had never earned that.

When that gourd went wild, it moved like Brownian motion incarnate.

In reality, he could beat it easily.

But no matter how strong you are in real life, that doesn’t count—only the in-game version of you is the real deal.

Even controlling a muscular female avatar, Kaelith admitted he couldn’t get that trophy.

Seeing Kaelith’s reaction, the monk was visibly thrilled.

He’d grinded so hard for that trophy just to see other players react like this!

But then he clicked his tongue.

“I got this trophy pretty fast—but I still wasn’t the first.”

“Someone beat me to it… Kaelith, could someone be using cheats in this game of yours?”

Kaelith scoffed.

“With Urahara as my general, who’d dare run cheats?”

“Hmm…”

The monk looked annoyed.

No cheats? Then it meant he really wasn’t good enough.

To think such a powerful player existed in the Three Realms…

He really wanted to meet them.

As he mused, Kaelith looked over.

“Big Monk, I didn’t come to play games with you.”

“A few days ago, I saw Yhwach…”

Under the monk’s gaze, Kaelith explained in detail what he had seen.

“What’s going on? Why am I seeing this? And how strong is Yhwach really?”

Upon hearing this, the monk raised his hand and stroked his wild beard.

“You saw Yhwach… because, after obtaining new power, you resonated with him in a particular way.”

He spoke slowly, seemingly choosing his words carefully.

“Yhwach may be a Quincy—but he is not an ordinary one.”

“Among all existing beings, he may be the one who’s come closest to the essence of power… one of them, at least.”

“Apart from him, perhaps only you have drawn this near to the essence.”

“That’s likely why you suddenly saw him.”

“As for Yhwach’s true strength, even before his full awakening, I cannot say for certain.”

“However, I do have some guesses.”

Saying that, he looked at Kaelith and grinned.

“If you're worried, Kaelith my friend, how about we spar a little—see how much you've improved, and who stands higher in comparison to Yhwach?”

Note: Spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to cross out a word in Grammarly but can’t do it in this program. So use underline instead. Some may say that made it worse, as it is used for literally the opposite purpose.

And my response to that would be: plz stop bullying me ;(

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