Chapter 33
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: 8. The Understander
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Anxious eyes. Even right up until she spoke, she was agonizing over whether she should say it.
Ceres's gaze quickly scanned my hand and mask.
"...What's, what's your name?"
I casually named a suitable mask.
"Kyle. No particular family name."
Ceres's eyes shook unusually wide.
The voice, the wounds, the scars—they were all the same. But this was a different person.
Realizing that fact, Ceres blankly opened her mouth. It was a sigh close to a lament.
"...Then, may I ask why you're wearing a mask?"
"I got burned. The mansion collapsed, and I injured my hand a bit too."
I slightly lifted the mask to show her the contents.
The part I revealed was only the burn. Something like this wasn't proof that I was Walther.
'But it leaves suspicion.'
As evidence, life began to flicker in Ceres's eyes.
Maybe, just maybe. Such possibilities must have suddenly sprung to mind.
"Are we done here now? You don't want to talk more about the wounds."
As I said that and turned to leave.
"Ernst."
Ceres continued with a much calmer expression.
"Ernst Walther. Have you... ever heard that name...?"
"No, I don't recall it."
"...!!"
I pretended to ponder deeply, stroking my lips.
After a suitable pause, I shook my head.
"Yeah, it's a name I've never heard before. Can you tell me who that is?"
This time, Ceres's eyes scanned my legs.
She had just recalled that Ernst Walther had been crushed to death in the mansion ruins.
Ceres had confirmed Walther's gruesome death.
No matter how similar the voice or wounds, this was the decisive difference.
'As long as there's no proof that Walther survived, this will act as a barrier limiting the scope of suspicion.'
"I don't know who you mistook me for, but you're wrong."
"... ."
Logically speaking, this made sense.
I assumed the mindset of encountering a girl I'd never met who mistook me for someone else.
I assumed how a proper adult would act with that mindset.
"I don't know what you've been through, but I'm not the person you think I am."
"...Yeah, that makes sense. There's no way Uncle could come back... ."
I patted Ceres's shoulder.
It was a vague intuition that a proper adult would act like this.
Ceres burst into sudden sobs.
"B-but, b-but... you're so, so similar... why, why... ."
'Should I comfort her here?'
As I thought that and turned my head, Ella was staring daggers at me.
Forgetting even to blink, she unconsciously directed killing intent at me.
Without a voice, I mouthed words to Ella.
[Why. Feeling déjà vu?]
Kaduduk!!
I waved my empty hand at Ella, who looked ready to lunge at any moment.
It was a form of threat.
Ceres had her head down, so she couldn't see this scene.
I averted my gaze from Ella and spoke to Ceres.
"Looks like you lost someone precious. Someone who resembled me, at that."
No reply came. Ceres was quietly sobbing.
"Sorry. I must have brought up bad memories for you."
I patted her shoulder.
Ella looked at me with eyes full of contempt.
I had no idea what her problem was.
"Loss isn't the end—it's the beginning. You have to rise from loss to see what's truly there."
"... ."
"Seeing you like this, I just had to say it."
Ceres slightly lifted her head. For some reason, her eyes were wide.
Ignoring it, I gently pushed Ceres away from me.
"Ah... ."
"I hope you stand tall. Well then, I'm really off now."
Ceres didn't try to hold me back anymore.
I'd accomplished both of my goals.
'Meet Blue Moon, joyful reunion with Ceres. All done... now it's time to deal with the Saintess.'
The Saintess, Ersella.
Holder of precognition ability at the cost of lifespan.
By now, the precognition must have already reached Ersella.
'She knows I'm coming to kill her, so she's probably prepared thoroughly.'
Preparing for this reunion took a full month.
Since I gave the opponent time to prepare, I have to go in equally prepared.
This isn't like the situation with Leonidas.
'Back then, I prepared sloppily... but I can't do that now.'
Ersella had survived for hundreds of years even after ascending to hero status.
If I charged in with a half-baked body, I'd be the one who gets done in.
'First, I need to break the precognition.'
It has the drawback of needing interpretation, making it hard to use in combat, but...
A Saintess would have overcome such flaws long ago.
'Hunting someone who preempts the future isn't easy.'
The Saintess's precognition inevitably occurs unless special measures are taken.
For example, if she foresees me tripping.
Unless the Saintess takes some action, I will inevitably trip.
'Last time, I was caught off guard because of it... but now I've thought of a way.'
Suddenly, Ella posed a question.
"...You know Ceres?"
"Why do you think that?"
"That body. No matter how I look at it, it seems like you're using that situation."
Ella knew I had possession ability.
Unlike Ceres, she had the capacity left to reach the truth.
'But there's no reason for me to give her the answer.'
"Think whatever you want. Sorting truth from lies isn't my job, right? You find the answer yourself."
Ella fell silent, then spoke again.
"...You're the worst."
"What is?"
"How do you even have that kind of ability?"
Ella continued.
"As long as it's fun, you don't care, do you?"
"... ."
"Mocking the dead and deceiving the living—is that fun for you?"
I walked on without answering. The footsteps following me stopped.
Ella had halted, silently watching me.
"Why? What's the problem?"
She didn't seem inclined to follow until I answered.
I chose my words carefully for a moment.
"The worst, huh... ."
A laugh escaped me.
"What answer do you want?"
"...What?"
"That there's something wrong with me, so I do this stuff? That I've got some tragic backstory making me do these bad things?"
There are two kinds of Q&A.
One to obtain an answer.
The other to hear the desired answer.
Which was this?
Well, I generally think most Q&As fall into the latter category.
"Ella. I told you, humans and beasts are the same. Why do you think we shouldn't?"
Forming packs and societies doesn't make humans something beyond animals.
No different from lowly beasts.
This wasn't particular misanthropy. I didn't hate or despise humans.
'If anything, I like humans.'
"I know. Not everyone's purely bad, and not everyone's purely good."
I'd had people I respected and people I loathed.
But so what?
I just did it.
"Because I can. Because I want to. That's why I do it."
I knelt down, meeting Ella's eyes at her level.
"You asked if it's fun? Yeah. If I thought it wasn't, I wouldn't have started."
Selling a sob story was against my nature and tastes.
To begin with, I didn't even have such a backstory.
"...Fine."
Ella's trembling hand paused for a moment.
"If you do it just because you want to... then I'll do it just because I want to too."
Ella's sword stopped just before being drawn.
Because I'd grabbed her hand and stopped the blade.
Sring!
I slid Ella's sword back into its sheath.
"Do as you please."
A self-fulfilling prophecy.
The classic example is Oedipus Rex.
He acted to avoid the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother,
only to end up fulfilling it by killing his father and marrying his mother.
'The Saintess's precognition is similar.'
Even if you act to avoid the prophecy, the situation inevitably fulfills it.
The reason is simple.
'I don't know the prophesied content, and the Saintess won't try to change what's in the prophecy.'
She recognizes the prophecy as fixed future and fills in the unprophesied gaps as she wishes.
That was the Saintess's method.
'In a way, it's the most annoying approach.'
She knows the future but doesn't change it.
Thus, the paradox that she herself can preempt the fixed future.
'An absolute ambush only the Saintess herself knows.'
If the Saintess foresees, I have to go along without any countermeasures.
To break this, I need proper preparation too.
And the first step is this.
"So you're me."
A man who had perfectly inherited my memories and ego said.
"Indeed. You plan to use me as bait, it seems."