Chapter 29: The Past
Chapter 29: The Past
Her violet universe reflected me.
Her eyes were filled with the same positivity as back then. There was no trace of resentment—only the joy of reunion and the lingering remnants of an endless longing.
Even though my daughter was of a different species than I, her emotions were incredibly easy to read.
It was like looking into a violet mirror that reflected a set of emotions diametrically opposed to my own.
"Daddy!"
A little girl came running toward me with a bright smile.
It wasn't the kind of reaction one would expect toward a parent who had neglected her for years.
If that were the case, I had to show her a side of myself worthy of a parent. I opened my arms toward Linshua as she approached.
A soft sensation and warmth pressed against me.
"Hehe."
My daughter had grown taller than me before I knew it, yet she seemed to be at an age where she still wanted to be pampered.
In the past, I used to stroke her horns at times like this, but now they were just barely within reach, so I simply patted her head.
Did I even have the right to feel this warmth?
Everything was my fault.
Leaving my daughter all alone. Failing to throw everything away to follow her.
The fact that Linshua had ended up in this situation was the result of my inability to make a choice.
I couldn't remain a Hero, nor could I turn my back on being a Hero for my daughter's sake.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
Despite everything, Linshua just gave a silly grin, as if she were simply happy to see me again.
After our brief hug ended, she looked me over from head to toe before speaking.
"Where's Un-ho?"
"He didn't come with me today. I'll bring him next time."
"Okay!"
I gripped the gift for the beaming Linshua in my left hand.
"I brought something else instead of Un-ho."
"What's this?"
"A birthday present. Sorry I'm late."
The seed was transferred into my daughter's hand. A Black Crystal that stood out against her pale, white skin.
Upon receiving the crystal, Linshua raised her hand, holding the large crystal—which looked oversized in her small palm—between the light from the ceiling and her violet eyes.
It was an action whose meaning I couldn't fathom.
The light didn't pass through the seed to reach her pupils, nor did the color of the seed change.
"It's pretty!"
However, she must have been seeing something I couldn't.
"I'm glad you like it."
"Yeah! Daddy! I have something to show you too!"
Linshua shifted the seed to her left hand and grabbed my sleeve with her right, pulling me along.
It was a gesture I had seen many times whenever she had something to show me.
She was pulling my sleeve to show me her latest work.
Since she had grown larger, her movements weren't exactly the same as when she was a child, but I let myself be pulled along by her strength, pretending to give in.
And so, I came face-to-face with a black statue.
It was the clay statue she had been working on just moments ago.
It was something that looked exactly like me, from my height down to the smallest details.
If it hadn't been the color of earth, it was precise enough that I might have mistaken it for looking into a mirror.
"You said you needed it, so I worked really hard on it!"
My heart ached at those words.
And then, I vowed to turn Al’shel’s head into a squid.
So, he dumped the task of making a Mutant onto my daughter, did he?
That bastard Al’shel passed his own work off to the leader of his Society—and my daughter—Linshua.
He literally dumped his workload on his boss.
While I was contemplating how to sculpt that guy's head, Linshua swung her left hand toward the statue.
As her left hand touched the statue, the seed she was holding began to be slowly absorbed.
"Is it okay to use it like that? You could have made a new friend with that."
Whenever I talked to Linshua, my heart grew calm for some reason, and I spoke to her in a gentle, soothing voice.
"It's okay because it's a present I'm giving to Daddy! And this isn't a friend, it's a Mutant! The Mutant uncles told me to call them that."
"You've learned well."
I had intentionally avoided teaching her anything related to the Otherworld, but from the moment I left Linshua with The Society, it was inevitable that she would find out.
I had tried so hard to keep her away from the Otherworld, but there was no helping it.
This was the only way to keep her alive now that she could no longer live in the human world.
No. Even that was a lie. If I had truly cared for my daughter.
If I had been prepared to throw everything away.
Hiding my aching heart so it wouldn't show, I pointed at the statue.
"It's well-made, but can this thing transform into a different appearance?"
"Transform? Why would it need to do that?"
His work performance is a disaster. He didn't even pass on the information properly? Turning Al’shel’s head into a squid isn't enough.
I thought I should probably twist his head and turn it into a sea cucumber as I gripped my Pry Bar.
Whoosh.
My vision was dyed black by the Black Particles erupting from my body, and everything I was wearing turned dark.
After a brief transformation, I showed my daughter my new form, Black Particles fluttering around me.
"Because it needs to be able to transform like this."
"Daddy, you're amazing!"
Her eyes sparkled as she clung to my new form. Her face was filled with overwhelming curiosity and joy.
"Daddy's hair color is the same as mine now. It's the same black!"
"I suppose so."
Black hair. Linshua had once asked me why she didn't look like me.
"Then, is this form also possib—"
Thevioletuniversereachedmyeyes.
Thestarlightwhisperedtome.
WhatisthisSiamisithereexistingindiscourse
IsitnotofarankthatshouldnotbeThishasnever
CreatedsuchathingIsittheactofanotheraphantom
UpholdingtheultimateWhydoesthatobject
AnewweaponpreparedbythemExistence
CannotfeeltheproofortheenergyInfinitesimal
WhichworlddiditcomethroughForthesakeof
Evencombiningforcesitdoesnotaltertheself
KneelDoyouintendtodestroytherulesAndso
AdonahasthoughtsaswellSwallowtheworldSub
SistenceTheOtherworldisbeingreducedMuchlesssuch
IsitpossibletocreatesuchanessenceBornlikelogic
Askingthephantomwhowitnessedtheend
WhatisPerceivetheenergyofthelaw
ManifestyourselfTimemovesFinallight
Eeeeeeeing—
A sharp ringing echoed in my ears.
"Daddy?"
What was that just now?
Fragments of text had pierced my mind.
An incomprehensible string of characters.
Meaningless combinations of letters that had already vanished from my memory.
I looked into Linshua’s eyes again, but the same reaction didn't occur.
"...It's nothing. Can you make it so it can transform into this form too?"
"Yeah. It looks just like Daddy anyway. Only the clothes are a bit different, so it's easy!"
Saying so, Linshua resumed her work.
As if she were entering the finishing stages, her touch became increasingly delicate.
Her small fingertips moved over the clay, creating patterns on the clothes and carving out human expressions.
Linshua’s hands moved faster and faster. Her hands, which had been on the face, were suddenly creating folds in the clothes, and no sooner were the folds finished than new muscular movements were etched into the face.
She's gotten faster than before.
The final work to create a friend.
Linshua was immersed in her task as if she had to pour her entire being into it to create a new life.
Taking in the nostalgic sight, I tried to recall the meaningless jumble of characters that had been wedged into my head a moment ago.
Bizarre letters that didn't form proper sentences. Perhaps because of that, I couldn't recall them normally.
Based on the general vibe, it seemed like someone was surprised to see me or was evaluating me. Who saw me and judged me?
This had never happened while I lived with Linshua, so why today?
Was it because I had become a Mutant? Some special brainwashing effect that applies to Mutants?
Was it a process to ensure the creatures Linshua made couldn't rebel against their creator?
Since a newborn life would look into Linshua’s eyes, this hypothesis seemed logical.
Following that thought, I suspected potential mental manipulation and recalled the knowledge embedded in my mind.
Key Code 158426.
Your house is 158426, my house is 158426.
I am 158426, you are 158426.
The actions I take are 158426, the thoughts I have are 158426.
The current location is 158426, the current time is 158426.
No errors were found in the self-diagnostic check I had implanted to counter mental manipulation.
I ran the brain check several times with different sentences, but the results were the same.
These were Key Codes designed to pop up in tandem whenever I had thoughts that were statistically most vulnerable to mental attacks.
If my thoughts were being manipulated, the numbers in the corresponding codes would change slightly, allowing me to notice quickly. But in this case, the numbers were identical to The Key Codes.
So it wasn't mental manipulation. Then what on earth did that string of text mean?
There was one fragment left in my memory.
The very last words.
Something that at least functioned as a sentence.
『Time moves.』
Well, isn't that obvious?
There's no reason for time to be stopped.
I had simply reunited with my daughter, yet new questions had arisen.
Events were surging forth explosively, as if they had been waiting for me to move.
Had something begun to move in a place I didn't know?
My concentration was broken by a single word from my daughter.
"Daddy, you're in the way, so please move over there."
The first verbal abuse I'd ever heard from her. Was she hitting her rebellious phase?
Did she not like me standing blankly beside her?
"Why? Is it hard to concentrate?"
"I actually like it when Daddy watches. That's not it."
Instead of answering, she tugged on my black dress.
"It's because of these clothes. I can't make the seeds because of them. They're in the way."
Ever since she was little, there were times when I couldn't understand what she was saying.
Was it because her perceptions were different since she was fundamentally a different species?
This must be an extension of that.
"Are these clothes bothering you? Is the design bad?"
Perhaps because she inherited the blood of an artist, she instinctively took a great interest in such things.
Thanks to that, Un-ho had suffered a lot, but that was another story.
Linshua shook her head, expressing that wasn't what she meant.
"Those clothes are sucking up the Otherworldly Power I need to use, so it's hard to make things."
What did she just say?
I immediately grabbed Linshua’s shoulders and asked.
"Linshua. This is important, so tell me clearly. These clothes... do they absorb the surrounding Otherworldly Power? Even the power you use?"
Her power as a Mutant was to devour the surrounding Otherworldly Power to convert it into stable seeds, and to create Otherworldly entities from those seeds. Because of that, she was instinctively very sensitive to Otherworldly Power.
If someone like her felt something similar to her own power coming from my clothes...
"Yeah. Just like my power, it doesn't care what it is, it just sucks it all in."
A power of purification?
Something that devours the Otherworldly Power that humanity has yearned to get rid of?
"...What is the threshold before the clothes collapse?"
I had to find out all the information right now.
Since Linshua instinctively devoured Otherworldly Power, she would provide more certain information than most experts.
"What's a threshold?"
"When will this break and release the power back into the surroundings?"
"Uh... tomorrow?"
What kind of nonsense was that?
The clothes were going to burst and release power tomorrow?
Was I a walking bomb?
"Mmm... I don't really know. Why isn't it breaking? If those clothes were like a seed, they should have burst a long time ago."
She expressed her doubt while tugging on my black dress.
Don't say such ominous things.
No, come to think of it, there were hints from the beginning. The absorption of power that Un-ho had mentioned.
I thought it was only absorbing the Otherworldly Power I emitted, but...
My body itself had become something that devoured the surrounding Otherworldly Power.
I had too much to think about now.
Should I go public with this power? Even if it meant quitting my activities as the Black Marauder?
Is there a way to purify the world and uphold justice at the same time?
What is the limit of these clothes?
"Daddy?"
"Ah. Go back to your work."
I put away the Pry Bar and returned to my original form. Once the object interfering with her work was gone, Linshua began moving her hands busily again.
I'm glad I came today.
The reunion with Linshua was good, but the information I gained was of great value.
I decided to downgrade Al’shel’s head transformation from a sea cucumber to a squid as I enjoyed the current atmosphere.
It was a lingering reunion where I hadn't even been able to properly apologize to Linshua, but for now, this would suffice.