Prejudice
Prejudice
[ Ggrk...!! ]
Ben Stiller convulsed, coughing up dark red blood.
Then his head dropped like a marionette with its strings cut.
【Mm!! Looks like we have a winner!!】
At the childlike voice, so clear it felt as if someone was speaking right beside her, Eleanor rubbed her forearms, now covered in goosebumps.
[ ...Ben Stiller has lost consciousness. Victory goes to Baek Woo-jin. ]
The feed was being shared through the God's Gaze.
A winner had been declared, yet not a single spectator cheered. They couldn't.
Slightly less than half of the professors had lost consciousness when Ben Stiller first unleashed that shout, so thick with killing intent. The other half couldn't process what had happened or how to even interpret the scene before their eyes—their brains simply couldn't keep up.
【Heheh!! Anyone who covets my daughter gets crushed like this from now on!! So everyone better behave!!】
【Alright then~! That's all for the broadcast!! Everyone enjoy the rest of your time~】
The moment those words were spoken, her smartphone screen went dark of its own accord.
Eleanor slid the phone between her breasts without a second thought and rose from the sofa. She walked to the glass wall and looked down at the stage.
Her servant, carrying Ben Stiller on his back—she hadn't even seen him step onto the arena floor—was descending from the stage.
A priest stood right before her, but the priest's body was currently inhabited by a god. She didn't dare ask for healing.
"Shame. It would've been better if he'd died."
Then she wouldn't have to pay the remaining balance, and the secret...
"No. That's already blown, isn't it."
Eleanor had seen it clearly.
-Do not speak the name Claire Vin Asen carelessly.
-If you violate this...
It had seemed as though he was addressing the audience at large, but he had been looking directly up at her private room.
'I only meant to get a sense of how remarkable he really was.'
She had clearly struck a nerve.
"At least he seems willing to let it go this once... Still, staying low is the safer play."
She'd tested the waters clumsily and provoked him. The only chance to salvage the relationship, she figured, was to keep her head down, approach with humility, and lay everything out honestly.
Hmm-hmm~
The serious-faced woman gazing down at the stage suddenly hummed a tune and turned around.
"By now, the U.S. must be in absolute chaos~"
With every country scheming year-round to retain even one exceptional Awakened, how could there not be pandemonium over the sudden loss of Ha-na, a national-power-class Awakened?
Eleanor left the room with light steps.
**
"Vuar."
【Heehee, what is it?】
The creature had migrated to my smartphone at some point and was squirming with an innocent, childlike grin.
"Something I can accept had better come out of that mouth of yours."
When we meddle in each other's affairs, permission is always sought first. At bare minimum, a warning.
That is the absolute rule sustaining our relationship. And today, he broke it.
【Hmph!! I think you're misunderstanding something. Claire is my daughter, you know? It's only natural for a parent to take an interest in their kid's life!!】
"......"
The word bullshit rose to the back of my throat, but I swallowed it back down.
Seeing him make excuses, I knew pressing further wouldn't yield a straight answer.
"Pull a stunt like this again and I'll smash every last divine statue of yours."
【Claire won't stand by and let that happen!!】
"Ha."
It was so absurd I let out a breath without meaning to.
Who exactly would she side with?
【Urk, couldn't we just call it even if I share two of Claire's secrets...?】
He must have realized the answer himself, because now he was trying to buy me off with something else.
"I'll think about it after I see the goods."
【BlackBlack... You're like a god-skinning scoundrel...】
While the creature was putting on a half-hearted crying act, the other god who had descended to the arena floor approached.
"You completely destroyed his magic circuits."
He was talking about the man Eddie Holt had carried out moments earlier.
"Not only will treatment be difficult, but even if he recovers, he will never reclaim his former stature. I've taken a loss, you see. I personally came here on the condition that he would fulfill my request free of charge, and now my counterpart has been rendered incapable of ever recovering."
"Get to the point."
Verotha, possessing the priestess's body, slowly blinked her gold-irised eyes.
"My daughters may not match Vuar's child, but there is one among them who is quite decent."
【Wha—?! Verotha! What kind of cheap trick is this?!】
"Your word choice is vulgar. And it is not a trick."
Verotha looked up at me and continued.
"If fate brings you together, I hope you will look upon her without prejudice."
The possessed priestess's head inclined slightly.
Any other human would have been horrified by the sight.
"As long as she doesn't cross the line."
"The line. I see."
The moment Verotha lifted her head.
【W-Wind, that's a foul blow!! I'm not accepting this!! This means war—】
Crunch!!
I crushed the smartphone in my palm.
In that same instant, Vuar, who had been projecting through it, vanished as well.
"I'll ask first: one."
"If I answer, will you grant me a question in return?"
After a brief pause, I nodded and spoke.
"Do you remember me?"
"Remember..."
Those golden eyes, soft holy power seeping from them, studied my existence carefully.
"Have we met before? I can't tell. I'm uncertain whether answering 'I don't remember' is even correct, because everything I am insists that I met you for the first time today. Was that answer adequate?"
Adequate enough.
So I nodded.
"Then it's my turn."
Verotha stepped back from me and asked,
"Is that killing intent you directed at me related to the part I do not remember?"
"No."
"That is a relief."
The priest's eyelids began to slowly lower.
"I am certain I met you for the first time today. But your question has allowed me to deduce a few things."
Her eyelids were now halfway closed.
"That you know me. And that your reason for that killing intent does not lie with who I am now."
Softly.
With those final words, the priest's eyelids shut, and she collapsed gently to the floor as though falling into sleep.
-That your reason for that killing intent does not lie with who I am now.
'Killing intent.'
From the moment Verotha descended into the priestess's body, I'd had to suppress the fury boiling inside me with everything I had.
Verotha was involved in nearly every death Baek Ha-na ever suffered.
Vermin who, under the pretext of holy knighthood, took custody of Baek Ha-na's rights from some unknown guild and raised her like livestock for god-slaying.
The Goddess of Benevolence and her followers merit no better appraisal than that.
But this feeling—this was an emotion born of events that hadn't happened yet.
-If fate brings you together, I hope you will look upon her without prejudice.
I turned Verotha's words over in my mind, then turned away.
As I'd first answered: if they kept to their side of the line, I would keep to mine.
My enmity was toward the gods, not the humans who follow them.
If they got in my way, I'd deal with them. That's all it ever was.
"Fuu."
I released the barrier I'd set up around us.
"Jaden."
I called the boy who had shot to his feet in the spectator stands.
Luckily, he was among the few who'd kept their wits. He vaulted down quickly and ran over.
"Yes, Professor."
"Lend me your phone."
"Ah, about that..."
He scratched his head and pulled out his smartphone.
The dark screen flickered on with a loading message.
-Ding!!
-Ding!!
-Ding!!
Vrrrrrrr──!!
At the same time, dozens of emails poured in and calls started coming from unregistered numbers.
"What is this."
"Well... it seems Lord Vuar broadcast your match against Ben Stiller worldwide. The Korean government saw it, and that's why they're now burning up the lines, trying to get information on you, as you can see."
"Ha."
The image of Vuar squirming earlier flashed into my mind. I nearly crushed Jaden's phone on the spot.
That goddamn pest.
"I contacted Professor Kang Han-na before the broadcast ended, but the students and the remaining faculty over there have no idea what happened."
"Haa..."
The fact that Baek Ha-na had been excluded from the audience cooled half my anger at the bastard.
As much as possible, I didn't want Baek Ha-na to see me fighting—or even clashing with anyone. There was nothing good in her remembering things like that.
Vrrrrrrr──!!
"It's noisy."
"Ah, yes sir."
Jaden hurriedly powered the phone off.
Quiet returned.
I thought for a moment.
Return to the hotel, or head back to the party.
The deliberation didn't last long.
"We're going back to the party."