Chapter 413: Proof of Existence (1)
Chapter 413: Proof of Existence (1)
Dreams come without warning.
After floating through the unconscious with my eyes closed, I suddenly came to my senses like a fish darting through water.
It was a dark field.
The world, where the sun never rose, presented a gloomy spectacle, its brightness stolen away. In this place where all life had vanished, even the slightest movement was hard to find.
Leaving the absolute silence behind, I took a step forward.
Corpses and weapons intertwined to form a forest of shadows. A world where even the crows did not cry was this lonely.
The man stood there alone.
Until I reached his side, he did not utter a single word. Not even the sound of his breathing could be heard, making me doubt if he was even alive.
Then, a sound was born.
"Everyone is dead."
The tone the man spoke in was blunt.
A dry voice, perfectly suited for this monochromatic world.
Only then did I part my lips.
Warmth was finally returning to my mouth.
"Why did you come here today?"
At those words, the man’s gaze flickered toward me.
His golden pupils had long since settled into a cold stillness.
Nevertheless, I thought those eyes were like flames.
In this line drawing made of black and white, they were the only glowing hue.
"Consciousness is not a fixed space. It is wider and more peculiar than you can imagine."
"In the past, I felt like I was always called to the same kind of place."
The scenery that flashed through my mind as I countered was a space covered in endless darkness and a fractured void.
It was only natural, as that was the place where I had met the man until now.
But today, I had suddenly reunited with him on this plain.
I couldn't help but feel suspicious.
Of course, the man didn't seem particularly interested in that fact. His gaze, which had been fixed on me, shifted back to the corpses.
"Because I was maintaining it that way."
The man's speech was always simple and clear.
It was a way of speaking that left no room for rebuttal.
Though that didn't mean he explained everything.
In the end, I had to frown and ask another question.
"…But not anymore?"
"Delphirem is coming."
It wasn't the answer I wanted, but it was a testimony laden with heavy emotion.
Fatigue and hatred, regret and despair, and a seething murderous intent.
He spoke with a face that looked terribly exhausted.
"I thought I had more time to prepare. I thought that if I prepared step by step, even you would be able to stop Delphirem somehow. But you turned the clock too fast… I can feel that monster’s presence growing stronger."
The words pouring out calmly pointed in one direction, like a compass needle.
At the very least, it wasn't toward a way out.
I listened to the man's warning, momentarily lost for words.
"She must be anxious after losing two subordinates in a row. She might have thought it was a coincidence until now, but her eyes will be on you soon."
"Are you telling me to be careful?"
"No, there’s no need to be careful."
The man finally turned around to face me head-on.
And then came an assertion without a single shred of doubt.
"Because being careful won't change anything… Can you cover the sun with your hand or hide from the moonlight?"
Isn't that a bit too pessimistic?
I was about to say that, but I had to keep my mouth shut.
The look in the man's eyes as he watched me was infinitely serious.
In the past, I might not have known.
But I knew now. Just how much the man had to struggle.
And yet, he had to lose so much.
Even though I said I would take a different path, it wasn't a path so pathetic that I could laugh at it.
That was the kind of road the man had walked.
Instead, I asked the question I had been harboring all along.
"Is this a battlefield?"
"Perhaps."
It was an ambiguous answer, unlike him.
I looked around at the corpses scattered everywhere. From unidentified monsters to demonic beasts and humans, a wide variety of life forms had met their end here.
In fact, what I truly wanted to ask was related to this.
There was too much variety.
Usually, when people clashed on a battlefield, it was rare for the corpses of so many different species to pile up like this.
It was because it was difficult for them to harmonize with each other due to the limitations of their species in the first place.
What would happen if infighting broke out among allies, or if a certain species ignored the strategy and acted impulsively?
That was why this sight of various species' corpses mixed together was bound to feel strange.
Even if you could somehow unite different races, they wouldn't be mixed together haphazardly like this.
It didn't take long for my question to be resolved.
Because the man answered my curiosity.
"I killed them."
It was a confession without any inflection.
It felt like a scene where an emotionless murderer was confessing his crimes.
The man's confession was that sudden.
I looked at the man with slightly surprised eyes.
"All of them… are the sins I’ve piled up. It seems all the enemies remaining in my memory are here."
"This many?"
As I asked back, my eyes reflexively turned toward some of the corpses scattered around.
There were many monsters and demonic beasts, but half of the corpses on this field were human.
There had to be hundreds, if not thousands.
As if realizing what my gaze implied, the man replied in a blunt voice.
"Yes, this many…. There were many reasons to kill. Though I’ve forgotten them at some point."
That calm statement added weight and pressed down on my chest.
My vision began to tremble slightly.
Did he really have to take this many lives?
For that grand slogan of saving the world.
The man watched me in silence.
Every time my trembling eyes skipped between the corpses, he murmured stoically.
"That man held hands with the Dark Cult and sold off orphans. He denied it until the end, but the evidence was too clear. His family believed he was innocent until the very end. They cursed me as a murderer… and that girl was an experimental subject of the Cult."
One by one.
The man's voice, reciting the reasons why someone had to die, was flat. It was as if a priest performing an autopsy was reciting the cause of death.
It was bizarre.
But it was rational.
Every single person he had to kill had a proper reason.
As the man's explanation grew longer, I became more tight-lipped.
It was around then that my eyes, which had been wandering around in dismay, stopped.
I suddenly felt my gaze being driven into a certain corpse.
As if the corpse itself had a gravitational pull, I reflexively took a step forward.
It was a corpse lying face down.
It wasn't severely damaged, so I could roughly deduce its physique just by looking at its back.
It’s familiar.
The moment that thought flashed through my mind, I stumbled and collapsed on the spot.
Crack. A sharp, breaking sound echoed in my head.
It felt like shards of broken glass were traveling through the blood vessels in my brain. I grit my teeth at the intense pain, the likes of which I had never felt before.
"Th-that corpse… Gaaah!"
I couldn't even scream; only fragmented questions swirled in my mouth.
That corpse.
Just what is the identity of that corpse?
The man cast an indifferent gaze, and my vision began to be stained blood-red.
Blood was flowing from my eyes.
As if I had seen something I shouldn't have.
Only then did the man show a meaningful reaction, letting out a soft "Ah."
"That corpse is…."
My vision shook, and my body collapsed onto the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
No, would "collapsed" be the right expression?
I didn't even feel myself hitting anything. I was simply floating again.
My senses faded as if I were dreaming.
It was a sensation as if all the contents contained in the vessel called the body were evaporating.
Only a voice heard from far away remained in my memory.
"The person you must kill from now on."
*
And then, I woke up gasping for air.
It was my room in the familiar dormitory.
Feeling the lingering pain like an afterimage, I grabbed my canteen. I used to keep a canteen full of cold water on the table at my bedside.
That way, it was easier the day after drinking.
As the cold water gulped down my esophagus, a familiar change caught my eye in the corner of my vision.
A letter that had arrived at some point.
I sighed and checked the calendar.
More than a week had been deleted in the meantime. It meant the future personality had been active for a longer time than before.
Is he finally recovering from the aftereffects of the last call?
When I was at the Percus estate, I had forcibly summoned the future personality. As a result, he hadn't been able to act for a while, but it seemed he had regained enough strength to use another week of time.
It wasn't a bad thing.
One way or another, it was true that his assistance was helpful.
It was just as I was about to tear open the envelope with that thought.
Knock, knock. Someone knocked on my door.
I tilted my head and looked out the window.
It was a time when the dawn mist hadn't even fully cleared yet. There were few people who would visit me at such an early hour.
I was curious about the contents of the letter right away, but I couldn't just leave a guest standing there.
I yawned and stood up. It took only a few seconds for me to trudge over and open the door.
Standing beyond the door was the Saintess.
With a very exhausted look in her eyes.
In her hand, she held a document envelope.
When I made a dumbfounded expression, the Saintess crumpled her face in annoyance.
"What are you doing right now? First, take this document, and if you don't clearly explain your intentions, I won't let you… Good heavens, Ian?"
The Saintess, who had been speaking while grinding her teeth, soon widened her eyes in shock.
It was right after she made eye contact with me.
I had a face that said I truly knew nothing. As soon as she saw this, the Saintess seemed to have an intuition.
The fact that my original personality had returned.
As soon as she realized that, the Saintess broke down, on the verge of tears.
"Oh, Lord… thank you. For making that scoundrel, who wouldn't be enough even if I chewed him to death, leave…."
"No, he hasn't exactly left yet… More importantly, what's going on?"
Even as I helped the Saintess up while she was making the sign of the cross, I couldn't overcome my anxiety and asked back.
By this point, I had no choice but to realize.
He did something again.
While I was unconscious, the 'Ian Percus' from the future.
Only then did the Saintess regain her composure and enter the room.
As if to share a secret story, she carefully closed the door and silently held out the document envelope.
Her attitude suggested that all the answers were contained therein.
Even though I only had to reach out, I couldn't move easily due to a sense of unease.
Instead, I laid out a few hypotheses.
"Did he happen to hit someone?"
She shook her head.
Seeing the Saintess shake her head, I asked with an even more trembling voice.
"D-did he… then, did he kill someone? It must have been someone who deserved to die, right?"
"I said no! Can't you just take this document already?!"
The Saintess's patience wasn't very deep today.
I immediately lost my spirit at the woman's loud voice. If I pressed the Saintess any further, I would only get scolded.
In the end, my hand cautiously took the document envelope.
The sender was the Holy Kingdom's Papacy.
Is that why the Saintess brought it?
The document that revealed itself before my eyes after I tore the seal of the envelope had a format I had never seen before.
My eyes immediately scanned its contents.
A few seconds later, my impression was as follows.
"……What is this?"
"It's a document notifying you that you've been referred to a Religious Inquisition."
I kept my mouth shut.
A Religious Inquisition?
So you're saying I've been summoned as a defendant?
A surge of emotion immediately hit my throat.
"No, does this make sense?! On what charges, exactly…!"
The Saintess did not answer my question.
She merely pointed to the document with her eyes.
I grit my teeth for now and read through the text with bloodshot eyes.
The part that would resolve my question was revealed not long after.
'Charge: Blasphemy (Sexual Harassment)'
And then, silence.
How much time had passed without either I or the Saintess opening our mouths?
Grit. The sound of teeth grinding echoed.
"That crazy bastard, seriously…."
I could only mutter that as I trembled, clutching the document.
The future personality is helpful?
I take it back.
He was nothing more than a son of a bitch who just wanted to torment me.