106. Impure Love
106. Impure Love
All the training they had done up to now had been for this single moment.
Emphasizing that point, Airi placed him and the spear alone at the center of the dragon vein, withdrew from the area, and sealed the entrance with a boulder.
Because the grave task of reliving the past required complete isolation from any outside interference.
-Oooom.
After that, Airi stood before the now-sealed cave and began attempting to synchronize her power to see the past with the dragon vein itself.
Normally, it was a power limited to assessing another's circumstances.
But this time, merely reviewing memories would not be enough.
What he needed to pursue was the power and ability befitting a Hero, and the surest way to attain that was to walk the journey of Tachia Piloi, a Hero who had actually existed.
'Cramming someone else's experiences into your own head... If things go wrong, it could wipe out your very personality.'
And on top of that, there was no guarantee this ritual would even work.
The memories they were now trying to confirm belonged to a Hero whose strength had once rivaled a dragon's, and the one who had processed that Hero's soul into a weapon was none other than a being who had reached the pinnacle of this world.
Since that entity was clearly defined as a 'Transcendent,' enduring those memories with a human mind was never going to be easy.
'There's no guarantee the future will pan out.'
Even so, they had to go through with it.
If they stopped here, all the effort so far, and the sacrifices of those who had helped him, would be for nothing.
"...Is it done?"
Marilyn, who had been watching the process from the side, approached Airi once she saw the barrier had been formed.
"Yes, now all we have to do is wait..."
And then, Kwam. A fist flew before the answer was even finished.
Excitement she herself could not contain had slammed into the surface of the boulder sealing the barrier.
"...Please don't break it. If interference comes from outside, the ritual will be severed."
It was only to be expected.
No matter how much of an incarnation of madness she was, whose very actions defied prediction, there was one thing — the one thing involving her love for him — that was easy to foresee.
"Since Hyosung has already agreed, you wouldn't want to do anything to trouble him now, would you?"
"You're awfully cold, nothing like your usual self. And this is with Hyosung possibly about to die."
Crrrick. Grinding her teeth, Marilyn reached out.
Soon she grabbed Airi by the collar and, from a hair's breadth away, began glaring at her with fierce eyes.
"Tell me. What kind of future did you see afterward that changed you this much?"
"...And what will you do if I don't tell you?"
"I'll rip your heart out while you're still breathing and take Hyosung away with me."
The pretense meant to hide her true nature had long since been discarded.
Her sharpened voice no longer carried any trace of her usual affectation, but Airi only calmly returned a prepared answer.
"And then Tasian would hunt you down and kill both you and Hyosung."
Flinch. Marilyn trembled and glared at Airi.
The reason her anger subsided in that moment was because, from their very first encounter, she had felt the difference in the weight of their presence.
"...Why is that monster coming into this?"
Monster.
Even the second-in-command of the Demon Lord Army could only describe her opponent that way.
Because even in her diminished state, Tasian could easily overwhelm her, and could, at least once, display power equal to her former lord.
"Because if Hyosung doesn't awaken as a Hero here, every last one of us will end up dead by her hand."
"What are you suddenly talking about? You told me yourself that woman has no reason to unleash her power as long as Hyosung is alive."
"Despite that contract, a situation will soon arise where Tasian has no choice but to rampage. You've guessed it too, haven't you? What's about to happen on this land."
The excavation site where the dragon bones were buried.
She had already guessed what was about to happen here during the month they had spent in this place.
She had simply kept her distance, thinking it had nothing to do with her, and figured that if such signs actually materialized, it would be enough to take him and leave this place behind.
But if the calamity that would soon befall this place was what would provoke that monster...
"...Damn it."
In the end, Marilyn released Airi's collar, unable to bring herself to throw a punch, and could only grind her teeth.
She wanted to tear the woman in front of her apart right then and there, but she also knew that Airi had done this only because she had no other choice.
"Why..."
But even if her mind understood, her heart did not.
The bitter resentment she felt about this situation would not subside so easily.
"Why, of all people, did it have to be Hyosung?"
If she herself had been the first to form a bond with him.
Perhaps he would not have been burdened with the duty of personally stopping the desperate future about to crash down upon this land.
"...It's something Hyosung agreed to as well."
"You don't want to do this either. Even looking right over there, you've got humans who'd dance to your tune swarming in like packs of dogs — so just pick one of them and have them carry out that precious mission of yours!"
Love and mission. She had chosen a path to let them coexist, yet it might lead to the ruin of both.
Why was the woman before her trying to drive the man she had given her heart to into a deathtrap?
"...No. The only one I can assist is the person I have chosen as my partner."
"What..."
"Marilyn. Knowing the future is a truly formidable power. At least when it concerns matters within the scope of prophecy, a person who knows the future can seek the optimal path to protect their own safety and achieve what they desire."
Here, Airi intended to explain the inescapable reason.
Just how powerful her imperfect power was, and why the target upon which she must pour that power had to be limited to a single 'individual.'
"But if the beneficiaries of such a mighty power become two or more, then prophecy itself becomes meaningless."
"...Meaningless?"
"Barring the whims of a Transcendent, the only factor that can influence a set destiny is 'a person who knows the future.' In other words, the more people who know the future, the greater the risk of adversely affecting the future someone is trying to change."
The most crucial thing in advancing toward the correct future was minimizing the variables.
Naturally, the more people who received the benefit of prophecy, the more errors would creep into the prophecy itself. Thus, the journey of salvation she had undertaken chose the path of minimizing those who knew the future.
No matter how much power was granted by a great being, the one handling that power was ultimately only human.
In order to properly use the power of prophecy held by such an imperfect being, she had to select one person to serve for her entire life and devote herself to them until the very end.
"And yet, in such a situation, you say I should prioritize my mission and restrain myself from foreseeing his future... Do you really think that's possible?"
Yes, as a prophet, the one she had to focus on assisting was only the single person designated as the savior.
Him becoming her partner was the natural course of events.
"...Even if Hyosung doesn't wish for that?"
Even if it meant using her partner and causing him pain.
"Hyosung has already agreed."
"Even if that decision risks driving your love to his death?"
Even if it led down a path toward an unforeseeable future.
"......If I don't, then everything ends."
She had already chosen him.
And she was always trying to find the optimal path for him to follow.
"...Hmph."
Hearing that firm resolve, Marilyn let out a scoff and glared at her rival.
"Selling out the present for a future you don't even know will come... So your love was that worthless after all."
No, this woman was not her rival.
Was it even worth considering someone who used even love as a 'tool' for her mission as a rival?
"The truth is, anyone would have been fine as long as they met the conditions. Because anyone was fine, you thought you just had to grab hold of one person and help them, and when that person turned out to be Hyosung, it led to this."
It was simply bad luck.
It was only because of the single fact that she herself had not been first that things had turned out this way.
"...Why did you choose that man? Unlike me, you wouldn't have cared who it was — as long as it wasn't him."
The one for whom anyone would have sufficed for the sake of that mission had, of all people, chosen the one who was everything to her.
Damn it all. The man who had freed her from that damned mission was now, of all things, being toyed with by the very woman who was forcing a damned destiny upon him.
"...It's not that anyone would have been fine."
Amidst that sorrow steeped in resentment, a sob began to escape from the lips of the woman who had become the target of her hatred.
As if to show that the composure she had maintained all along was slowly crumbling under this moment's anguish.
"What, are you going to say something else now...?"
"As you said, before I met him, I thought anyone would have been fine. I thought it wouldn't matter who it was, as long as they were someone suited to the mission."
The mission of the Haven clan was to find a savior who would prevent destruction, become their partner, and assist them for life.
She had thought her own will didn't matter for that mission.
She thought she just had to find the most likely candidate and devote everything to them.
"But after I ended up forming a bond with him, I came to realize why I was fated to form that bond in the future."
In the midst of constantly reminding herself to kill her own heart, she came to recognize his existence deeply for the first time.
Seeing his past made her understand what kind of person he was.
Further, seeing fragments of futures where he fit in, imagining futures where she fit together with him, her baffled heart gradually began to take shape.
"I could have changed the fact that I would form a bond with him... but when the time came, choosing to be with him was none other than my own will."
The mission might have been fine with anyone, but love was not.
That first night when she chose to be with him was undeniably a result that involved her own will as well.
"So why... must I be forced to do this?"
She felt grateful to him for forcing himself to be with someone like her, and felt an even greater guilt.
The clearer that feeling became, the more she came to regard her innate destiny as a curse.
As that realization diverged from her past self, soon a smile even began to form on her lips.
"I love him just like you do, so why......."
"Why can't I love him purely, like you do?"
She realized it just by facing her.
Unlike herself, who had seriously considered throwing everything away just to be with him, this woman harbored a fierce determination, still wrapped up in her mission, wanting to achieve it all.
Just how immense was that resolve to hold both mission and love in hand.
And just how much agony accompanied the act of killing her own heart because she could not let go of either.
-Plop.
It was not something she could fail to understand.
Had she herself not endured wandering alone for eons for the sake of a single person, unable to abandon her own mission?
-Tiriring, Ting~♬
As though faithful to that realization, Marilyn sat down on the spot, took out an instrument, and began to play.
At the strange power infused in it, Airi began to feel her own spirit gradually lifting.
"...Marilyn."
"At least this much."
Yes, the past was past and couldn't be helped.
Even so, if she still loved him...
And furthermore, if he was going to share this destiny with this damnable woman, then she herself also needed to be with them.
"At least this much is allowed, right?"
She didn't know how much her power could reach him, since he was in a state within the barrier, being swept away by waves of memories. But still, this was all she could do.
Watching her continue to play silently with those feelings, Airi wiped the moisture from her eyes and bowed her head before her.
To offer the bare minimum of gratitude to the woman who had gone along with her unreasonable demand.
"...Please take care of Hyosung."
The reason she couldn't linger longer was that she too had something she needed to do outside this place.
Calamity would soon crash down upon this place, and she needed someone to guard it until that time came.
'It'll be soon now.'
What finally met Airi's eyes as she emerged from the cave was a sky choked with dark clouds.
'Soon now, Tasian will begin to rampage.'
It was the exact same sky she had seen in her prophecy that day.
******
-Swaaaaah.
Beneath a sky thick with dark clouds.
Above a battlefield where cold rain fell, I swung the sword in my hand, erasing those before me one by one.
But no matter how many I erased, they kept coming. Even if I cut down dozens, hundreds...
-Crunch, Craaack!
Yes, because these were those kinds of times.
An era where humans killing humans was taken for granted. The reason I had drifted into such a place was to survive.
Because in a world where death was rampant no matter where you went, the surest way to protect myself was to cultivate power and kill everyone who stood before me.
"Why, in the world..."
But it hadn't been like this from the beginning.
Before... No, certainly, not long ago, something like happiness had existed in my life too.
"Why am I doing this..."
The more I recalled that past steeped in happiness, the more agonizing this present moment became.
My mother.
The mother who had raised me after I was swept down the river — one day she vanished silently before my eyes.
"Ah, Aah... Mom, Mooom... Where are you, Mom!!"
Would it have been less painful if I had never known such happiness?
If I had never met her, and had known from the start that the world was this cruel and disgusting...
Then this body might not have been defiled so deeply that even this driving rain couldn't wash it clean.
"If you knew it'd end up like this, you shouldn't have picked me up. You shouldn't have taught me something like love."
Tasian. I despise you.
I resent you, for staying lodged in my heart even after you left my side.
You who gave me my name...
I want to make you, the one who gave me the name 'Tachia Piloi,' just like the countless corpses behind me.
-Tiriring, Ting~♬
Just as my mind was being consumed by such hatred, a faint strain of music reached me before I knew it.
Lending my ear to that sound, I drove my sword into the pile of corpses before me and let out a deep breath.
"......No. I'm not."
The chill seeping deep into my lungs gradually brought back a cold composure.
Even so, I could feel hatred welling up uncontrollably from within, but I gritted my teeth and pushed that emotion away.
"I'm not Tachia Piloi."
Yes, this is nothing more than someone else's memories.
It's merely that I'm feeling myself being buried by past events as I experience those memories.
"I am Woo Hyosung."
The force of it was so overwhelming that I felt like I might lose myself, but even so, I desperately held on and prepared to push forward through these horrific memories.
Drawing a little bit of strength from the faintly heard music.
"Not Tachia Piloi, but Woo Hyosung... That's my name..."
A name I could never forget, even in this vicious nightmare.
Endlessly reminding myself of only my own existence.