Chapter 536: An Idle Body Breeds an Active Mind
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 536: An Idle Body Breeds an Active Mind
Returning to the mansion, I walked past the napping San'gun and went inside. Through the crack in the door I’d left slightly ajar, I could hear labored breathing. When I opened the door and stepped in, I found Azzy nursing the Regressor.
She seemed to be using her power, as a faint holy light glowed above her head. It wasn't much help for internal injuries, but it was a healing power nonetheless.
No matter how I think about it, that isn't a power a beast should possess.
Fortunately, there was someone here who might know the answer to that question, or at least a clue. I sat down beside the Regressor and spoke.
“You heard everything we said, right? What do you think? Anything seem strange?”
“...No. Nothing.”
The Regressor answered dutifully, despite groaning in pain.
“I’m glad he came because of the wolf. For a moment, I thought he was here to avenge the tigers.”
“Avenge the tigers? What for?”
“You can’t build mountain roads if there are tigers, so pest control usually involves hunting them... Many tigers have died because of that, so I thought he was here for revenge.”
“The things I killed are coming back to get revenge on me? That’s a very human perspective. By that logic, what about the tigers? I’ve never heard of them facing revenge for all the boars and deer they eat.”
“...I know. I was just saying.”
‘San'gun came because he was influenced by the wolf. He has no reason to attack humans indiscriminately. Just knowing that is enough. As long as we stop the Wolf King, San'gun won’t become a disaster for humanity.’
The Regressor seems careless, but she gives away less than you'd think. Acting like she knows the future is unavoidable, but she keeps the fact that she's a Regressor tightly under wraps.
That's why people suspect she's a saintess.
“It’s a relief. Now that we’ve dealt with the Wolf King here, I can finally breathe easier.”
“Hmm. You may be breathing easier, Shei-ssi, but I still have my worries.”
“...What is it?”
“Azzy. Look above her head.”
“Woof?”
At my words, the Regressor looked above Azzy’s head. It was faint now, but a radiant ring of light still hovered there.
The Regressor’s eyes widened.
“What is that...?”
“You’re the one who should know, Shei-ssi.”
“Don’t assume I know everything... There’s a lot I don’t know, too.”
“So you know there’s a lot you don’t know. That’s a relief.”
Sensing our gazes, Azzy rolled her eyes upward. Then, startled by what she saw, she leaped into the air.
“Woof?! Unidentified flying object!”
“You didn’t even know what was floating over your head until now?”
“It’s darkest under the lamp! Woof woof!”
Azzy reached for the halo with her front paws, but the halo, being made of pure light, was intangible. She jumped up and down, trying to bite it, but trying to snap at a ring above her own head only made her do somersaults.
Leaving Azzy to tumble like she was in a hamster wheel, I asked the Regressor, “You said you came here to stop the King of Sins, right, Shei-ssi?”
“Yes.”
“Just as dogs symbolize gentleness and wolves represent savagery, even if a concept is emphasized, it’s still bound to be influenced by its original nature. And no matter how I think about it, the King of Sins has to be human-based. No one but humans would be interested in something like sin.”
This much was a fact both the Regressor and I were well aware of. But there was something only she knew, and I didn't.
Today, I was determined to dig that information out of her, even if I had to provoke her.
“And I know the Beast Kings well. At his strongest, the King of Humans is only about as powerful as San'gun. Not enough to destroy the world. To be honest, I think you’re making a fuss over nothing, Shei-ssi. Like a doomsayer.”
At the mention of a doomsayer, the Regressor’s face visibly crumpled. In peaceful times, doomsayers are just lunatics running around justifying their crazy actions, and she must have been treated as such many times. For someone who had actually seen the end of the world and returned, it must be infuriating.
“...You’re wrong. The King of Sins is that powerful.”
“How can he be? The King of Humans himself is telling you he’s not.”
“He’s different from you. The King of Sins is truly a different being from the King of Humans.”
Ah, right. The Regressor had insisted time and again that the King of Sins was different from the King of Humans. She never thought about the specific reasons, though, so I couldn't read them from her mind.
“What idle beast other than a human would bother with sin? Do you think an animal is going to start a revolution in the name of freedom?”
“I’m not saying he’s another kind of Beast King... He’s a being created when the King of Humans drinks up the sins of all other humans.”
“Is sin some kind of elixir? Something you can just drink? And where can I find an elixir that lets you burn down the world after just a few sips? If it exists, I’d love to chug a bowl of it.”
“It’s a metaphor! The concept was separated!”
The concept was separated? From the Beast King?
Having finally dug up a clue, I held my breath and waited quietly.
“A Beast King is a conceptual being. And if you remove the ‘beast’ part, only the ‘concept’ remains. A King of Concepts, left with only its concept, becomes far more powerful than when it had a physical form.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know the details. But a being that becomes a King of Concepts without a physical form becomes an entity that burns everything just to spread its concept. It forgoes eating and sleeping to act as the concept itself. The King of Sins disregards life and the future, seeking only to spread sin... He is the end of humanity.”
Beasts expend a great deal of effort just to survive. They move to find food, hunt, and all the while, they must flee from being eaten or fight with other competitors. They rest, mate, give birth, and raise their young. Life is everything, and they spend everything they have just to live.
The Beast Kings are no different. The reason Azzy, Nabi, and San'gun seem so simple and foolish is because they are, at their core, beasts.
But what if a Beast King were to burn its very soul to achieve something? What if, like a human who has reached the level of the Divine, it sought to engrave its concept upon the world?
“The Wolf King was the same. If we hadn’t fought and won alongside Azzy, he would have become the King of Savagery itself—a far more powerful and terrible disaster.”
‘Like the disaster that once swept across the Enger Plains, leading all sorts of beasts and even beastkin.’
The Regressor had said we needed to help Azzy defeat the Wolf King, claiming it wouldn't be very difficult.
In truth, if defeating the Wolf King were that easy, there would be no need to team up with Azzy. A single army corps could come and wipe it out. Why call it a disaster? It would just be a nuisance.
So in other timelines, the Wolf King must have become something more than just a simple Wolf King.
It was an unbelievable story, but I couldn't ignore it. Not when there was a real-life example right in front of me.
“In other words, they become like Azzy?”
“Azzy...?”
Azzy, whose body had become translucent, who wore a halo instead of a crown, and who could now use some unknown healing art. Anyone could see she was no ordinary Beast King. Though her attempts to bite the ring above her head just made her look like an idiot.
Watching Azzy do somersaults, the Regressor sank into deep, pained thought.
‘You’re right. Azzy’s current state is definitely strange. I never knew exactly what happened to a conceptual being. Does it happen by handing over or taking a crown? Did Azzy become the King of Gentleness by giving up her crown?’
A Beast King turned into a King of Concepts. Hmm. It’s interesting, but it still doesn’t feel like it has anything to do with me. Is it because I have no crown and no power? I wish she would at least think of a clue about how the King of Sins appears.
‘Then what about Hughes? Like the dog and the wolf, will Hughes have to fight that thing growing at the top of the Tree of Corruption? No, Hughes doesn’t have a crown, and I never saw him in previous timelines. Has the separation of concepts already happened?’
“Shei-ssi.”
“Huh? Yes! Yes.”
The Regressor answered with a start, then winced in pain. I felt a little guilty for pressing someone in pain, but people tend to think more when their bodies are indisposed. I couldn't miss this opportunity, which was probably the most the Regressor had thought about anything since she was born.
“Putting it all together, I think I have a rough idea of what’s going on. I can guess what this ‘separation of concepts’ is and what happened. But there’s something more important, isn’t there?”
“...What?”
“Who did it, and with what intention.”
I was certain. No, it was impossible for her not to know. Because I was the one involved.
A long time ago, in a past I can't even remember. The King of Humans wasn't me back then, but the promise made at that time still remains, binding me.
But what about the Regressor? Having accumulated the power and knowledge of the future through repeated regressions, she had to know. If she didn't know, or if she had it wrong, there could only be one reason.
The Sanctum. Those bastards must have deceived you.
Let's hear her reason.
The Regressor opened her mouth, as if she had made up her mind.
“...Alright. This... ugh. I think I have to tell you. I’m not certain, but the one responsible for the separation of concepts is...”
“The one responsible is?”
She's finally talking. I've waited a long time for this. I waited for her words and thoughts without showing any sign of my anticipation. It didn't matter if it was a lie or the truth. The moment she spoke, I would use my mind-reading ability to see the memories associated with her words.
‘It should be okay to tell him. The possibility of Hughes being the King of Sins has diminished. He proved himself by helping Azzy, and telling him the truth won’t make things any more dangerous than they already are.’
From the moment she made her decision, nothing could stop her. She spoke as she thought.
“Nevida.”
Right. Nevida. Nevida, huh...
What? Nevida?
The name was so unexpected that I tilted my head.
“What? The Great Druid?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?”
“You might not believe it, but there’s no other explanation.”
Why isn't it the Sanctum?
Can't she see that ring above Azzy's head? It's the kind of halo given to saints and saintesses. I'd have to confirm if Azzy was truly a holy dog chosen by a saintess, but doesn't she suspect the Sanctum even a little?
“What’s your proof for thinking that?”
“Because that thing is growing at the top of the Tree of Corruption.”
The Tree of Corruption is Nevida’s Divine, the Tree of Genesis.
The World Tree that once stood in the jungles of old Manguo burned and fell, and from its remains grew the Tree of Corruption, which bears all sorts of fruit. Potatoes, corn, carrots, watermelons, lotus roots, and more. The World Tree, originally a ginkgo, now grows the fruits of all kinds of plants instead of ginkgo nuts.
And if you climb higher and higher up the Tree of Corruption... you will see a beast, the likes of which you've never seen before, pulsating within a red pulp.
The Regressor recalled the large flower she had seen from a distance. A flower too sinister and beautiful to be at the top of a tree. The forbidden fruit of good and evil, growing at the very apex of the Tree of Corruption, absorbing all its essence.
“A King of Humans, made from the Tree of Genesis.”