Chapter 375: American Dream (3)
Chapter 375: American Dream (3)
Bright light streams in through the transparent glass window. It isn't natural light, like sunshine.
It is the artificial glow that illuminates the city, shining even upon the buildings owned by The Society.
The fires of the American night, a sleepless city flourishing across eras.
Despite it being the break of dawn, people still roam the streets.
I know this isn't necessarily a good thing.
Given that The Society owns buildings here, this area is an industrial-commercial complex. It’s closer to an office town than a commercial district.
The fact that people are moving about in such a place means employees are likely being exploited quite thoroughly.
…Hmm. Or maybe not? Since this is America, perhaps they’re running around trying to earn performance bonuses.
Or perhaps, with technology advancing by the day, they are grinding people down just to keep up.
Well, having never lived a corporate life myself, how would I know the right answer?
Of course, I’ve lived as an office worker in another world, but that fellow lived such a gray existence that he clocked out the moment the bell rang.
Regardless, a small comfort for me is the assumption that The Society’s companies likely fall under the category of "white companies"—ethical employers.
I am currently in a spacious third-floor lounge.
From the moment I met Enclu until I came down here, I didn't see crowds of people working overtime.
The lights in the building are off except for a few areas, and while the night lights are on in this lounge, the cafeteria and convenience store—presumably for employees—are closed.
Though, occasionally, a security guard or a "living corpse" with disheveled hair, clutching canned coffee from a vending machine in both hands and muttering to themselves, wanders in and out of the lounge.
In a world where humans exploit humans, a secret society aiming for world conquest is an ethical employer?
There’s no joke quite like it.
Well, whether it’s black, white, or gray, whatever the company’s circumstances may be.
I sat in the lounge, staring blankly at the night view.
I poured the bland, tasteless canned coffee into my mouth.
“…Whew.”
I simply let out a sigh.
There is nothing more I can do about The Society.
I have come to realize that with absolute clarity.
Certainly, I was the one who provided significant help during The Society’s initial founding.
However, The Society has now grown far beyond my control.
Like cancer in a terminal patient, The Society has become an entity inseparable from human society.
To the point where cutting out the diseased part would require being prepared for the patient’s death.
If there is one saving grace, it’s that The Society is different from cancer.
Their goal is their own survival.
They are a gathering of those who know that, to achieve that, they must move forward alongside humanity.
Even if they might transplant the cancer to replace the body, they will not let the body die.
Yes. I certainly cannot control them.
Just as the Management Bureau left the hands of us, the original founders, I should consider The Society to have left my hands as well.
And, whether it be The Society or the Management Bureau, I should simply watch from afar, hoping they maintain their original intentions.
Yes. If they had truly left my hands completely, I might have done just that.
But the reality was otherwise.
I stared blankly at the table.
An object sat there, shimmering under the lounge’s night lights.
“….”
The object Enclu had handed to me as I left the meeting room without a word.
I picked it up vacantly and slowly held it up to the light.
A Hex Nut Ring.
This is the symbol of The Society.
An object made by grinding a common hex nut and engraving the Latin phrase ‘Homo sum’ onto it.
The least valuable of items, created by those who abandoned their homelands to settle in a new world, as a way to prove their existence anew.
However, the Hex Nut Ring in my hand bore no such inscription.
The hex nut had been worn down over a long time, becoming almost circular.
Even the place where the sentence was originally written had been eroded, leaving the Nut Ring covered not in letters, but in countless scratches.
And on the surface of that ring, instead of a Latin phrase, blue characters I did not recognize were embedded.
A sentence engraved by carving into the surface and filling it with a blue substance.
While every other part was scratched and uneven, the blue letters were unnervingly clean.
It implied that the blue text had been engraved later.
They had cherished an object even its original owner had cast aside, and returned it, imbued with their new sentiments.
Containing the sentence:
‘To the First, for the Last.’
Enclu said this as he handed it over:
If they ever strayed from the path.
Please use this.
Because Al’shel and a few others opposed it, it wasn't something everyone agreed upon.
But he claimed that as long as I held this ring, the majority of The Society would obey.
He said it wasn't an object utilizing any special Otherworldly Technology.
It wasn't a tool for forced mental manipulation, nor was it magically enchanted.
It was just a single ring.
A ring upon which they had pledged to obey every word of their own volition the moment its true owner used it.
They had placed such a thing in my hands.
“….”
They are endlessly foolish.
There’s a limit to being idealistic.
Those who escaped my hands and began living their own lives in a new world… because they couldn't trust themselves, they gave their safety switch to someone else.
It was only natural that some, including Al’shel, opposed it.
If they were in their right minds, they shouldn't give something like this to an outsider.
Just as there is a possibility of The Society losing its way, there is also a possibility of me losing mine.
Just how much trust are they placing in me?
Even I feel precarious.
Thinking so, I looked again at the ring, which reflected light irregularly off its uneven surface.
A piece of junk that belonged in a scrap heap.
And yet, this was an object that, half-jokingly, could rule the world.
With this, I could put the brakes on The Society’s actions.
And my logic tells me that is the right thing to do.
It couldn't be helped that they grew this large.
So, don't grow any further; aim for the status quo.
I could go up to the meeting room right now, put on the ring, and tell Enclu exactly that.
I now possessed the power to do so.
Yes. That is what I should do.
Humans must move forward by human strength.
The Society may be good, but they are outsiders to The End.
If The Society and humanity slowly blended over a long period, it might be different, but in this current state, humanity will become significantly dependent on The Society’s technology.
Accepting technology that outsiders practically gave away for free, rather than technology built up by humans observing the Otherworld.
The Society claimed their technology was safe, but the problem isn't the technology.
It’s the problem of the members of The Society themselves.
A problem that arises because the very existence of The Society is rooted in Otherworldly Power.
Didn't even Quilp almost get controlled by the Otherworld during the Nanjido incident?
When everything twists, can anyone guarantee that The Society’s technology, which has encroached upon humanity, won't pose a danger to the world?
Therefore, I must apply the brakes.
I won't do anything extreme like exterminating The Society just in case.
But I must ensure The Society doesn't race ahead, but walks alongside us.
With that thought, I stood up from my chair.
I would return to the meeting room.
With this, I would stop The Society’s growth.
Just as I thought that and was about to slip the ring onto my finger.
The moment the coldness of the ring, chilled by the night air, touched my skin.
The reflected light of the ring, which had been flashing irregularly, crossed my eyes.
The chill of the cold and the sparkle of the light.
It made me recall a single sentence I heard today.
‘…So that Lady Linshua may walk under the sunlight again.’
Enclu’s words, which had silenced me.
They flashed through my mind.
Linshua, who walks in the cold of the night.
A future where she smiles under the light.
Something I could never give her with my own power.
Something I failed to do.
A future that perhaps The Society might be able to show.
Within me, numerous values collide.
As a Hero, as a father.
As a person of the past, as the Black Marauder, as one who bears burdens, as one who has fought through.
Something that constitutes me says I must stop The Society’s actions.
Something that constitutes me says The Society’s actions are right.
In that struggle, countless words surface.
Han A-bin’s words come to mind.
‘…To save more people….’
Within me, a myriad of thoughts clash.
The things I do, the things The Society does.
Otherworldly beings, weak humanity.
The vision of ruin shown by the Yellow King, and me, who has lost my way.
Weakness is, in itself, a sin.
A single strong individual is weak as a collective.
Magic and martial arts are ultimately Otherworldly technologies.
How is that any different from what The Society is doing?
Will I obstruct the future of humanity becoming stronger out of an obsession with the past?
A human is only a human if they act like one.
What even is a "human" in the first place?
The people living in the world right now.
No, that’s not it. What I hold onto is something from further in the past.
The beings from before that day happened.
Humans haven't changed between then and now.
Then even if the colors of the Otherworld are mixed in, a human is still a human.
But there’s a limit to that. The criteria for being human are more….
~~…Then in the first place, can I even call us, after the incident thirty years ago, the "humans" I once knew?~~
Something black encroaches upon my mind.
…This isn't right.
I shook my head vigorously.
I cast the thoughts aside.
I looked up blankly, lost in thought for a moment.
Then I removed the ring that had been touching my finger.
This is an object far too undeserved for me.
Thinking so, I tossed the ring into my palm and clenched my fist.
Intending to destroy it.
But why?
Even though it was my own hand, I couldn't properly channel my strength.
The ring, lying in the center of my slowly opening hand, was only slightly dented.
Its form remained entirely intact.
And so, I blankly tucked it into my bosom.
Clink.
The metal rod and the Nut Ring brushed against each other, echoing a metallic sound.
No, it couldn't have actually echoed.
It was a mere hallucination.
"Into my bosom" is just a figure of speech; the pockets of a Magical Girl outfit aren't real pockets.
A small space, like a pocket, where desired items appear when I rummage through my clothes in my Magical Girl form.
A tiny pouch that ensures cell phones or miscellaneous items aren't damaged even during combat.
There’s no way two objects would clink together just because I put a ring in there.
Yes, that was it.
And so, I slowly moved my feet.
To return to where my disciples were.
I would simply leave The Society be.
As I always have.
I will do what I can do.
As a human, I will train humans.
With that thought, I left the building.
I immediately felt a Hero in tights streaking across the night sky.
Probably going to catch a robber or something.
Not even a vigilante.
And so weak.
You have to be strong to protect anything, don't you?
Didn't your S-Rank over in America say as much?
…I felt as if Black Particles were flitting before my eyes.
But it was merely the exhaust fumes produced by cars.
I walked toward my lodging, cutting through a night where nothing had changed.