Chapter 190
Chapter 190
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 190
Chapter Title: Revoking the Covenant
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“…….”
It was a child I’d never seen before.
Whether his memory had been erased by mental manipulation magic, all his facial features were blurry except for his eyes.
But I knew who he was.
There was no way I wouldn’t recognize the one speaking those words to Marco Schreiber.
‘Irani, that’s unexpected.’
Now it was my turn, not Marco’s. Even in this world of blinding light, I fixed my gaze on his eyes, the only thing shining brightly, and asked,
“What’s your name?”
“Abraham.”
[Blood?]
“Yes, Abraham. Nice to meet you.”
[If you just give blood….]
My throat felt parched, as if it were burning up. It was Marco’s sensation.
[You can make up for everything. How? Can you turn back time?]
Marco swallowed hard. His vision shook wildly in time with his quickening heartbeat.
[If I could go back five years and stop the Lottingen train….
No, I won’t even ask for that much.
If only the family I created with my magic would come back.
If only we could live together like before….]
When I closed my eyes and opened them again, the scene had changed.
A darkened ceiling came into view. Turning my head, I saw my right arm covered in blood. A child with blood smeared around his mouth rolled his yellow eyes as he looked at me.
I smiled and said,
“You’re inexperienced.”
“…….”
Sharing this body with two egos made it look utterly insane, but I had to say what needed saying. I had to scrape away what Marco knew about Abraham.
The child wiped the blood from his hands with a towel and replied,
“It’s because when you’re young, there are many things you can’t save.”
“Then why did you enter a child’s body? Well, I doubt you had much choice.”
The yellow eyes turned toward me.
He seemed not to know the answer.
If Marco didn’t know, there were limits to what could be gleaned from his imagination.
But he did know.
He just couldn’t recall it right away. The ten years spent with Abraham had to linger in his unconscious. Just like how the professors caught by the prosecutors had reacted to the warp coordinates.
When I asked no more questions, the child spoke.
“Only the final stage remains.”
“…….”
“Do you wish for your children to live and breathe in this world?”
Marco didn’t answer. He merely stared blankly into space.
At that moment, everything faded to black amid a faint chuckle.
“Touching.”
Those were the last words I heard.
That was the process of Abraham granting Marco his revelation.
Now I was in darkness.
There were times when my eyes would flicker open intermittently, but those were moments when, per Abraham’s will, I had to be injected with sedatives. During the day, he took the drugs and slept, surrendering his body to Abraham from evening until dawn.
He had no idea what Abraham was doing, and even after sacrificing the remaining fifty years of his life, he never met his reborn children.
If it were me, I would have tried to kill Abraham, but Marco was different.
[The traces of my children that the yellow-eyed child brought me. I was satisfied with that.
My children had returned to life in their early twenties from ten years ago, living well with others in the world of those who had revived like them, enjoying the utmost peace.
Knowing that was enough.]
It was an illness. To that degree.
Thinking that, I halted my steps in the darkness.
Kwaaang—!
I struck the ground with my mana-charged staff.
As expected, the space didn’t shatter. Of course it wouldn’t. Marco Schreiber hadn’t become a zombie because of Vitriol.
Instead of attacking further, I looked up at the sky and opened my mouth.
“Are you satisfied?”
[…….]
“Let’s talk.”
No answer came, but I continued on my own.
“The children must respect you greatly.”
[…….]
“A parent who gives up their own life for their child’s—what ordinary human could sacrifice fifty years of life and self to save another? At least I couldn’t. Nor would I want to.”
There was still no reaction in this space. It was time to keep talking.
“I’ve never had an experience like yours. I’m in no position to claim I understand you. I lack the ability to fully comprehend you. I can admire a love that transcends my limits, but I can’t know what it is.”
I had no intention of committing such arrogance.
My early assumption—that over time I’d empathize with Marco’s emotions and then properly understand his foreign-tongue ramblings—was wrong.
Once his children’s deaths became nearly certain and delusions set in, I couldn’t make out anything beyond the sound of a train departing played in reverse from the station.
He wished the Lottingen train carrying his children five years ago would return. I knew that much, but no further. The depth and intensity of that emotion exceeded my cognition.
“I’m just here to ask if this is truly what you wanted, Marco. Are you satisfied?”
The scene before me shifted.
It was a café terrace I’d never seen.
Turning my gaze from the lake beyond the terrace, I saw another Marco Schreiber sitting across the round table.
[The last place I came to with the children together. It’s just as it was. The scenery here is truly magnificent.]
Of course it was. It was just a memory.
[I’m satisfied. I couldn’t be more satisfied.]
“Any regrets?”
[None.]
The Marco before me looked truly at peace.
Abraham had chosen well. He was a perfect match for his purposes.
“Even if Abraham does unimaginable things with your body, no regrets?”
[That has nothing to do with me.]
As long as his children lived—that was it.
Yes. That fit the man from the memory.
“How are the children doing? Tell me some.”
[Ah, the children. They’re studying. Majoring in industrial magic at the empire’s top university.]
I was at a loss for words.
He… was living in a delusion.
Unable to distinguish what was present from what was past.
It wasn’t simply because this was the depths of his mind.
He’d been like this ever since Abraham took over.
“Imperial First Academy?”
[Yes, you know it well. You’re me, after all. The eldest is top of the entire undergrad program. Must take after me.]
“Probably. They were born from your mana, after all.”
[Hahaha! Right. Our second child still has no interest in studies and just goes through the motions at school, but get this? Doesn’t care about honors or money—just wants our family of three to live together forever. Hahaha!]
“…….”
[They’ve grown up well. That’s enough. As long as they grow up kind, I don’t care about their grades.]
Once he started talking, he went on boasting about his children without being asked.
[Actually, don’t wizards usually have just one child? Not like commoners—for us wizard nobles, more just brings trouble. But my children never gave me grief. They’re so considerate of each other, it makes me truly grateful….]
“To have a father like you, your children were lucky.”
[I was the lucky one. To have such angelic children.]
“…….”
I smiled faintly and rolled the empty teacup base around on the table.
“Good answer, but not the one I wanted. This is a story from when your children were in university, Marco. Just because their revived faces went back ten years doesn’t mean they’re attending university again.”
[Hm?]
“Right now, your children have been reborn in Pleroma, contributing to the church. Don’t you know how they’re doing?”
[…The children are in university. The eldest will become a politician like me after graduating. The second still lacks interest in studies, but….]
“No, Marco. That’s not the present.”
When I cut him off, the old man looked at me.
“You’ve been endlessly replaying past memories. Let me tell you the reality. Your children are not alive.”
His mouth fell open.
Then he shook his head.
[…No, I made a promise with Abraham. The children are alive.]
“Their bodies breathe, but they’re no longer the same people they were before rebirth. Know why?”
I clasped my hands and leaned forward.
“That’s Pleroma’s way. Pleroma fast-forwards a person’s life, erasing everything they’ve lived through. Then it overwrites it with a new life as a church lackey. They don’t hesitate to place hands on heads and inject their ideology.”
[…….]
“Your children have probably completely forgotten their feelings and memories of you. Otherwise, they’d seek their father instead of serving the church.”
The one sitting before me gazed at me with hollow eyes.
“That’s the price of revival. In exchange for coming back, they must offer everything to the church. Does that sound like a curse?”
Even as their faces flitted by unbidden, I took a breath and murmured,
“I’ve already seen such people. I’ll never forget them.”
[…My children….]
“If your children were alive, they wouldn’t stand by while some demonic thing possessed their father’s body.”
[…….]
“If they can’t even notice a demon impersonating their father in his own body, that’s proof those lovable children have become something else entirely.”
[…….]
“That’s why Abraham won’t show you the children himself. They’ve changed so much it’d be embarrassing to claim he ‘kept the promise.’ Can you accept them not remembering you? They’re no longer the beings you remember. They’re different people in the same flesh.”
Tears flowed from Marco’s eyes.
[It’s fine.]
An unexpected response.
I tried to suppress my emotions.
He spoke in a flat voice.
[It’s fine if they don’t remember me. As long as they’re breathing in this world.]
“Wasn’t your wish to rebuild a happy family? Abraham made a deal to turn a living person into a corpse for fifty years, promising to ‘make up for everything.’”
[…….]
“Your children will become murderers. That’s quite a distance from the ones you remember.”
[Will that make my children happy?]
“They might rack up achievements. No moral compass, but perhaps happiness from accomplishments. But that’s no longer an emotion felt by the person you knew.”
[That’s enough.]
“…….”
I shook my head.
“A parent’s heart is hard to understand. Swindled, yet instead of revenge, you just lower your standards.”
He still believed he hadn’t been deceived on the core issue of ‘survival,’ so it was possible.
But he was human, too.
Pasak—
Like fast-forwarding time, the garden’s colors died, and leaves fell from the trees. A bizarre wind began howling fiercely.
Mana trembled violently. Cracks formed in the space.
But I couldn’t stop here.
“Marco.”
[…….]
“Sorry, but you need to know this. Abraham won’t keep the contract. In ten years, your children will die again.”
Kwaaang—!
I raised my arm to block a flying wooden railing from behind. As if something had happened in the sky, the wind roared tremendously, shaking the building.
A whisper like a soul fleeing reached me.
[Die?]
“You’re not living in 1887, but 1898, on the cusp of the 20th century. After taking your body, Abraham went to Pleroma and revived your children. Revival isn’t his power—it’s Pleroma’s, so naturally. But don’t you know? Abraham now seeks to break from Pleroma and start a new religion.”
The wind grew fiercer. The teacup rolled off.
I raised my voice.
“In that situation, if you were Pleroma, could you leave the apostate’s children alive? Any reason not to reclaim the blessings given to an apostate’s kids?”
[…….]
Marco’s mouth slowly opened.
An intense void emanated from his features. His eyes lost their light.
[He definitely promised me a chance to make up for….]
“You already knew it all, didn’t you?”
Amid the mad wind, the sound of a departing train echoed from somewhere. Ignoring the delusion, I spoke.
“From the moment Abraham decided to become cult leader, your children became marked only for death.”
Kwaaaaang—!
Wind like it would burst eardrums.
Everything turned pitch black.
A roar dominated my brain entirely. The wind swept the world, aiming to hurl everything at me.
In the massive storm swallowing even my voice, I shouted,
“The contract is over! You agree to nothing with Abraham anymore. Must you show mercy to one who broke the deal you gave your life for?”
To kill the chairman, the revelation must be severed, and severing it requires conditions.
First, Marco’s mental strength must equal or surpass the chairman’s.
From -6 mental strength to at least +8.
A daunting number, but shifting from one extreme to another is easier than thought. Just consider why he was stuck at that extreme.
The shocking fact of his family’s death had bound his memories, life, and mind to that moment ten years ago.
Thus, there was possibility.
Just confronting the fact that ‘Abraham will kill the family again’ could push him to the limit.
And second.
Marco must withdraw his consent.
Kwaang—!
I stomped the ground hard with my foot. The wind now sounded like wailing sobs.
I promise. This resolve I’ve spoken today will not change until my last breath.
After murmuring quickly, I changed Marco’s wand to a staff and slammed it down.
—And I will give them a name, that they may find peace within me.
A blinding light spread from below.
This was why I came.
For the chairman’s funeral.
The chairman would never be chairman again. The life he’d built over ten years ended today, and the one robbed of ten years of his own life would return to his rightful place.
“I’ll help you stop Abraham with your own power. So….”
A sound of loud lamentation from Rama. Rachel weeping for her children. Since he had no child, he refused to be comforted.
They were, but are no more.
The wind intensified. I couldn’t even open my eyes, let alone stand straight. Gripping the staff with both hands, I straightened my body.
Staring into the darkness where sobbing echoed aloud, I said,
“Say you don’t agree, Marco.”
* * *
In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.
I opened my eyes in the silence.
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