Secret History (4)
This place was a black ocean strewn with the Milky Way.
Kenelm knelt on the sand and said something burdensome about me taking a seat upon a throne. Even at a glance, this was no ordinary matter.
"Uh… what throne?"
"I misspoke, O Great One. You are already seated upon the throne. You need only enact your will."
"What on earth are you talking about…?"
"If you act, it shall be so."
"Haaah—"
We were clearly speaking, and yet it felt as though we were not speaking at all. Our points and our wavelengths were completely missing each other.
For the moment I returned the Frost Seed I was holding to its original place. The sensation of pushing it through the rippling screen was oddly unsettling—like plunging a hand into cold jelly.
Plop.
Scuttle-scuttle-scuttle—
The moment I carefully set the Frost Seed down on the grass, fingernail-sized dwarves came swarming and threw their arms around it.
I watched the Frost Seed tremble as the dwarves crowded around it, then turned my gaze back to the still-kneeling Kenelm.
I needed a detailed explanation.
A very detailed, step-by-step, precise explanation.
"Kenelm? Could you stand up first and explain? What's this about a throne, where is this place… what exactly is going on?"
"…Ah. I let my emotions run ahead of me…"
Kenelm, who had been staring blankly, finally let out a small sound of realization and rose to her feet in a flustered rustle of fabric.
What a piece of work she was.
"O Great One, you are the sole god who will save—no, who is already saving—this chaotic world. You work miracles through that game of yours."
"…Excuse me?"
"You are the one who slays the demons that devour the world and defile this Sea of Souls, thereby saving creation. That is you—the Sixth God."
"Huh…?"
A story that soared far beyond any scale I had imagined. For a moment I experienced the sensation of my brain simply stopping. I forced my gaping mouth shut.
"W-wait, hold on… so you're saying I'm a god right now? That this game is connected to another world, and I have to kill demons to save it?"
"Yes. Precisely."
"What the hell is this…"
The sheer absurdity of it made my head throb. Suddenly I was a god? Me? Just because I played a game a little? And now I was supposed to save the world? Just like that, out of nowhere?
I had been about to argue with Kenelm, but the sight of her smiling so brightly made the urge drain away. A beautiful person smiling like that was practically cheating.
"O Great One, would you look at this for a moment?"
Kenelm gestured toward the screen that had been showing the mine. Following her hand, the view shifted rapidly until the Coliseum appeared—the place where Kenis and the other hero-class adventurers had undergone their trials.
White-haired old men in white robes were kneeling. One of them rose alone and was shouting something at the top of his lungs.
"This is…?"
"They are the priests of the Pantheon—that is, the clergy who serve the Six Gods. And right now, they are confessing their sins to you, O Great One."
"To me? Like a confessional or something?"
"Yes, something similar."
A shadow of unknown origin lingered at the corner of Kenelm's composed face. Whatever flickered in those golden eyes—was it pity, or sorrow?
Since she had said they were confessing to me, I focused on the words the old man on the screen was crying out.
"Whoa—this is actually insane…"
The content carried by the old man's hardened voice was quite the shock.
The human sacrifice that had taken place in Kenis's childhood, her mother's sacrifice, the ringleader's fall into corruption and the subsequent demonic assault, the countless civilian deaths that followed, and the Pantheon's cover-up of it all.
"Wait, wait. The Kenis he's talking about—is that the Kenis I know? This is something that happened when she was a kid?"
"…It is. The Pantheon harbored the arrogant, insolent ambition of creating a god, and the end of that path was catastrophic failure. Then they buried it."
"Wow. This is messed up."
I was still struggling to accept that I was a god, and the story this old man was telling was even more dizzying. They had just tried to hide something like that? And only now they were coming clean?
When I looked at Kenelm, her eyes were full of worry. Perhaps it was a kind of kinship—understanding them, yet grieving their wrong choice.
Whether it was my imagination or not, her complexion seemed a shade paler than before.
"So what am I supposed to do, exactly?"
"…Simply do as you will. The path you walk shall become the direction, and your will shall be the will of heaven."
Kenelm bowed her head deeply, showing her respect for my decision. Suddenly the words the shaman had spoken to me drifted through my mind.
'The path Sangje-nim walks is the Way of Heaven… she said.'
The Way of Heaven. The path of the sky. The principle of heaven and earth and nature.
Honestly, the idea that I was a god still didn't feel real, and none of this situation had any sense of reality either. Maybe it was all just too sudden.
Even so, if what I did had to follow the proper way, then I would simply do what ought to be done. Something anyone could do—something that was only natural.
"I should hear them out first."
A three-way confrontation.
With a story like this, it was important to hear every party involved.
Remembering the Frost Seed from earlier, I slowly reached toward the screen. That soft, jelly-like sensation wrapped around my arm as if I were pushing through it, and I stretched my hand toward the Coliseum. It felt like plucking a figurine out of a miniature Coliseum.
The difference was that these were real people.
I carefully moved my hand and lifted the old man and Kenis.
Then, just like that, I drew my hand out of the screen.
At the very front of the group, Antonio's expression was resolute. It carried the particular determination of a man who had made up his mind, and the tip of his tightly tensed brow trembled faintly.
Demonic let out a small sigh. Antonio and the figures in white cloth behind him were all familiar faces.
Those who knew the full truth of the Sacrifice Ritual.
People who knew the truth of that horrific incident—Ria's sacrifice and Rofinus's fall.
Without a single exception, they had followed Antonio and knelt toward the throne.
Unlike Demonic, who had grasped at least a little of what was unfolding, Kenis wore a look of pure blank confusion. The expressions of the others watching the high priests' sudden behavior were not much different from hers.
"Wh-what is this? Why are High Priest Antonio and the others…?"
"Kenis. The people over there… all of them know about your mother's death."
"What?"
At Demonic's words, Kenis quickly scanned the faces of those behind him. Indeed, just as Demonic had said, when she looked closely she found familiar faces.
They were the people who had been in the conference room with Antonio on the night Kenis awoke from her trial.
Some with expressions of hardened resolve, others with a touch of unease. They knelt in Antonio's wake.
Why on earth were they doing something like this?
The question in Kenis's face only deepened.
Antonio, who had been staring at the throne with a face full of tension, cried out in a voice that rang like a great bell.
"I confess before the almighty Six Gods and all those gathered here. We have turned our backs on our duty, our sins are heavy, and our conduct has been blasphemous."
Thump. Thump!
"Through my fault, through my fault, through our most grievous fault."
Following Antonio's words, those who knelt beat their chests and echoed the cry. Sensing that something extraordinary was unfolding, the spectators kept silent and watched.
"Therefore we earnestly beseech You—do not forgive our sins. Carry us away to Your most scorching hell."
Having finished the short prayer, Antonio carefully rose from his place and shouted toward the stands.
"You countless people gathered here, and the citizens of the Holy City! There is something I dare to confess. This is the original sin of the Pantheon—an ugliness like filth that can never be washed clean."
Huu—
After steadying his breath once, Antonio continued.
"More than a decade ago! You will remember when demons launched a massive assault upon the Holy City. Dozens of holy knights closed their eyes forever, and hundreds of common folk were sacrificed. A truly terrible, tragic… incident."
Emperor Caesar watched with interest. He was well aware that the Holy City had suffered great damage from a large-scale demonic attack.
The question was why they were deliberately bringing that incident up now.
'Meaning that affair was no simple incident?'
"Behind that assault… there was a demon. And there was a priest who was corrupted by that demon and became a demon-worshipper."
With a grave expression, yet without the slightest waver, Antonio laid bare the truth of that day. The truth that had long been buried in darkness gradually revealed its true form, as if old rust were being scraped away.
Through none other than the mouth of the Pantheon itself.
He calmly unraveled the ugly truth of that day—the madness of the Pantheon.
People's expressions changed from moment to moment.
Some felt betrayed by the Pantheon; others shuddered at Rofinus's vileness. There were those who felt pity for the mother who had sacrificed herself for her daughter, and those who condemned the Pantheon's foolish actions.
"Boooo—!!"
"How could you hide something like that?!"
"And you still call yourselves high priests?!"
The arena seethed.
Condemnation, curses, and rage.
Antonio and the high priests accepted it all with quiet composure.
Solemnly closing their eyes, they bowed their heads toward the throne. It was a confession far too late. Now everything would be judged by the god.
How long had they prayed?
When enough time had passed for the heat of the agitated crowd to cool just a little—
Kuuung—!
The sky split its own body in half, and heaven and earth were torn asunder.