Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Ghosts of the Past (9)
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Butterfly effect.
A concept I'd only heard of in my past life.
Why did the Empress know about it?
The answer had already come through the Empress's own words.
I had explained it to her.
When?
The answer follows right after.
What was the beginning and what was the end no longer mattered.
That I had already 'failed once' and triggered the butterfly effect.
"...Stay still."
I still couldn't understand.
The Empress's emotions shining toward me and her incomprehensible words.
They were directed at some moment I didn't know.
A moment that only the Empress knew.
That divergence point, unknown whether it was the future or the past.
Finally, the thread of this world—which had seemed just within reach yet always slipping away—was in my grasp.
Why this world resembled the original story.
And at the same time, why it showed decisive differences from the original in certain specific parts.
But...
"That's not the essence. I couldn't care less about your pie-in-the-sky ramblings. Stay still? Did you really think I'd just sit tight if you told me to?"
Her black hair cascaded like silk.
A brilliant, iridescent glow distorted space and time chaotically.
In an instant, the distance between the Empress and me began to widen.
The growing gap between us two.
Standing at each other's extremes, the Empress continued.
"I'll say it once more. As the vessel, I will wipe every great beast and monster from this world. And yet, you still intend to stop me?"
The Empress lifted her gaze and shot back.
"Even if it means repeating this back-and-forth all over again?"
Once more, the Empress's words were aimed not at the present, but the past.
As if she already knew I would somehow face this situation again.
Like circling back to the starting point on a hamster wheel.
As if hinting that I was trapped in some kind of shackle.
And yet, my answer would not change.
This back-and-forth was happening for the first time—and it would be the last.
The moment I opened my mouth to speak—
Kwaaaaaang!!
From beyond the horizon, a viscous demonic energy erupted, turning the blue sky pitch black.
"...!!"
In that instant, day flipped to night.
The sunset sky slowly stained over, degenerating into utter blackness.
It was a phenomenon I'd never seen before, but I could easily discern its cause.
The plan the Empress had spoken of—using Luella as the vessel to seal away the great beasts—had begun.
I whipped my gaze around frantically, only to see the formerly expressionless Empress with the corner of her mouth curled up.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Butterfly Effect.] There was no time to utter a word.
The instant I registered it, another voice burrowed into my ear.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [I intend to trigger the butterfly effect.] A deep, masculine voice.
It carried power, but an undeniable weariness seeped through.
Another person's image seared itself into my mind.
A stabbing pain like a needle in my brain made me stagger back for a moment.
"The si, situation... changed...!!"
The Empress was clutching her head and stumbling as well.
Which meant this phenomenon was the backlash from the sealing process beginning.
"What in the world did you do to cause something like this――!!"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [What is it?] One-armed.
A massive scar slashing across his mouth and left eye.
Wrinkle after wrinkle etched like tree rings from countless losses.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [The possibility of changing the future from the past.] The man gripping his broken sword replied.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [My last hope.] ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ I hadn't agreed to that man's grandiose plan from the start.
"Killing all the gods to change the future... Are you out of your mind?"
"Who knows. At this point, I don't care if I'm sane or not."
He looked far too wretched to inspire belief.
His battered armor, his snapped sword, his severed left arm.
And that was hardly the end of it.
His uncut hair hung limp and sodden, like a drowned dog.
The bloodshot eyes peeking through his locks marked him unmistakably as a madman.
Every time that man flashed his gaze, his retainers recoiled in terror.
A national calamity had forced this unwilling alliance.
No lofty talk of grand causes or destiny suited such a shallow bond.
"You're a lunatic. The retainers are quaking in fear because of you."
I had treated him as a guest, but he soon shook his head and vanished.
All to pursue his plan of changing the future.
How had a warrior of his caliber fallen so low?
Why spout such nonsense about altering a future that hadn't even arrived?
I felt pity seeing the traces of his incalculable losses carved into his body, but it was fleeting.
I let him go.
Two years passed.
Our intense encounter still lingered fresh in my mind.
Word of him even reached me in the capital.
"...He's dead?"
"Yes. From what we've heard, it happened in the west..."
That man had slain a transcendent being in the west.
It was unprecedented.
Transcendent beings were, by nature, the gods exalted by humans—existences akin to the very laws of the world.
The idea of one of them dying at human hands was inconceivable.
It wasn't a matter of raw power.
There was an ontological gulf between them.
Just as news of an ant slaying a human would never be ordinary,
what that man had done was anything but ordinary.
Especially for a one-armed man.
For the first time, I took genuine interest in him,
but I had no intention of seeking him out myself.
That was the way of the world.
If it was fate, we'd meet; if not, we wouldn't.
I trusted in the former.
"We meet again."
And sure enough, not long after, that belief proved correct—I reunited with him.
He was still in a pitiable state.
"Still chasing that pipe dream?"
"Yeah. It's all I have left."
I grew curious about why he clung so fiercely to this singular goal.
"Why do you think that? And before that—why set such a mad objective to change a future that hasn't even come?"
"The world ended. Everyone turned into monsters and died. I'm trying to change that future."
The world had ended.
It was utterly absurd, but his expression as he said it was deadly serious.
"You're in earnest. It's like you actually came back from seeing that future..."
My interest soon blossomed into full-blown curiosity.
Even knowing our partnership was doomed, I set out with him.
We embarked on our journey and entered the east.
We exchanged with the ascetic monks there and studied the sorceries they practiced.
They drew their power from the transcendent beings they served.
"Divine power... So it was this close all along."
"Planning to kill them?"
"Yeah. That's been the plan from the start. A single flap of the wings won't cut it. To change the world itself... we'll need more than one or two moves."
The end of our alliance would be catastrophe.
I realized that once again.
Perhaps he knew it too.
But...
"Where to next?"
"South this time."
"Where all those furballs gather. Not a bad choice. We'll get to see the sea."
And yet, we pressed on with our travels.
We slew the transcendent being of the east, then headed south.
We slew the one in the south, then pushed north.
Along that long road, I learned about him.
In the past, he had killed his lover, his little sister, his comrades.
He had killed them all.
With his own hands.
What must the emotions of a man be like, having slain those he loved?
I could only guess that it tied into why he had become this way.
I witnessed the feelings born from his countless losses.
I pitied him, but the knot inside me refused to unravel into true empathy.
Soon enough, the end arrived.
"Aurea...! Why did you betray us! What for!!"
The northern transcendent being was dying.
Sticky darkness leaked from it like blood, slowly encroaching on the north's bitter winter.
Black snow fell from the sky.
The transcendent being's divinity was twisting with resentment and obsession, gradually mutating into something else.
"...I curse you. You damned traitors. Even in death, I'll return as a vengeful ghost and curse you all...!"
He severed the transcendent being's head without a moment's hesitation.
Only the two of us remained.
Before long, his sword turned toward me.
"Going to kill me?"
"Have to. That's what we agreed from the beginning."
We had walked the same path as comrades, but he showed no hesitation.
Nor did I cling to any lingering attachments.
So, at the last, I wanted to resolve one final curiosity.
"Answer me this one thing before the end. What exactly did you want to change? You say you're changing the future from the past, but that's not a real answer. Precisely what part of the future do you want to alter?"
He was silent for a long while.
His broken sword wriggled ceaselessly, sucking in blood.
"The future's tragedies, its dooms, its regrets—maybe all of it. And the cause behind it all. The genre."
Genre.
He wanted to change the world itself.
Something even the transcendent beings hadn't dared attempt.
No, they hadn't even thought to try...
An utterly absurd goal.
Understanding it, an involuntary laugh escaped my lips.
"What a peculiar human."
As I said it, I felt the word didn't quite fit.
The humans I knew didn't look like this.
After a moment's thought, I found a better one.
"What a peculiar person."
The wind blew.
Through his tousled hair, I saw his face.
A face covered in scars.
A face that would have been handsome without them.
At the very end, I called his name.
"Ian Baltazar."
He reacted.
"Do as you desire."