Chapter 601: A Tale of the Past. The Old Testament - Finale
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 601: A Tale of the Past. The Old Testament - Finale
The Saintess of Origin wanted to create a framework for a world where humans could live in peace. She dreamed of an era where people lived by norms under a system of order, ending the age where barbarism and Anathema flooded the world like a deluge.
“But I, too, am only human. I suppose I could not fix the frame from within it.”
“Don’t be discouraged. Everyone comes to realize their limits. The more talented you are, the later it comes.”
“Even if I faced my limits and turned back in countless futures, I ultimately could not overcome that great wall. The only one who can truly establish this order is…”
She looked directly at both me and ‘Noona’ at the same time, her eyes pleading as if she were clinging to us.
“Only the King.”
With the powerful ability of foresight that granted her near-omniscience, she didn’t need to involve herself so deeply with the King of Humans. She could have defeated the three monsters herself and built a great power of her own.
And yet, the Saintess of Origin also became the King’s warrior and moved the world.
“The King of Humans is perfect. Beautiful, brilliant, strong, and merciful. But those are not his only qualifications. The King of Humans possesses the true qualification.”
She had been aiming for the King of Humans from the very beginning. Because he was necessary.
“Being the King of Humans. That itself is the qualification.”
“To be special. To be unique. And… to always exist, without any fear of being lost.”
The King of Humans is a conceptual being. He strongly manifests the characteristics of the human species. And the characteristics of humans are their outstanding intelligence, delicate dexterity, strong shoulders, and the ability to learn from knowledge. The King of Humans was promised to be a superman.
Moreover, if he dies, he is reborn somewhere else in the world, making him a flawless superman free from the worry of disappearing or being lost.
That was why the Saintess of Origin served the King of Humans.
She did not stop at mastering all sorts of knowledge; she taught the King of Humans.
Instead of dealing with the three monsters of Anathema herself, she had the King of Humans eliminate them.
And in the end, she even knelt and pleaded.
For him to become the guardian of order and annihilate evil.
But from what I saw, she failed spectacularly.
“‘Noona’ must have refused in every future. Since this was the best future you chose.”
“This was the gamble of a lifetime, with everything I had on the line. If we were to reach the end anyway, this was a single thread of hope I bet on an unknown possibility.”
“What?”
“It’s an ending I chose not because it was the best future, but because I was aiming for a chance, however slim.”
The murmuring Saintess of Origin looked directly at me. She pierced through time, space, and even my own heart, and asked.
“What say you, O King?”
“Me?”
“You, who have lost all your power and stepped down from being King. You, who are now just one ordinary human. You, who have come to understand the fear of death and pain. You, who know what fears ordinary humans carry to bed each night.”
I had a promise. It wasn't mine, but that of ‘Noona’, who was stabbed to death here. A promise made not with me or Noona, but with the concept of the King of Humans.
Some powerful being had torn through the power of the King of Humans and forced a promise upon him.
“You, who know of those who cannot believe that today will be like yesterday, or that tomorrow will arrive unchanged.”
“Are you trying to leave this to me?”
“You are at the end of the future I saw. This means that the five qualified individuals I chose ultimately perished without being able to represent humanity. An age where order has become a laughingstock, and humans are swayed by power. The King of Humans will soon regain his full strength.”
From the very beginning, her target was the King of Humans.
Either ‘Noona’, or me. Or perhaps both of us.
“Will you not become the true King and establish order in the world?”
The Saintess of Origin made this request of me. Just as she had with Noona, solely for the sake of protecting humanity.
But the answer was already decided.
“I’m sorry.”
My position remained unchanged.
The focus in the Saintess of Origin’s eyes shifted slightly. Was her foresight about to end? I moved my body into the range of her focus and spoke.
“I cannot allow order to stand above humanity. So I will refuse your request to protect order. To me, order is a tool, and if need be, I will fix it or switch it out.”
This must be a scene the Saintess of Origin did not wish for. Her foresight was being distorted. At the same time, her eyes trembled slightly.
“The order I desire is not so coarse and strict.”
“I know that too. But a framework will one day break. A Divine might appear and twist the rules, or the world might suddenly change. A Leviathan could suddenly leap out and sink a corner of the continent.”
“But even in such moments, there are values that do not change.”
“Such values must prove their own usefulness. The one who decides a value is not you or me, but the people who need that tool.”
It’s not just humans who are challenged. Values and order must always be challenged as well.
If humans are not perfect, then the values and order created by humans are not perfect either. If you consider them perfect and live by them, you will eventually find yourself at odds with them.
“Even if you set rules, they will one day clash. Even if you establish order, it will one day collapse. There are no unchanging values. Because the world changes.”
By now, the Saintess of Origin had faded to the point she was like a light drizzle. Was this past I was witnessing being affected? Or was the past itself changing?
The Saintess of Origin murmured bitterly.
“…Then, the order I sought to build, even by committing treason, will end in failure.”
“What? Why is that a failure?”
Everyone sees me as a barbarian and thinks I’m a complete savage.
When did I ever say order was useless? I said it was merely a tool. And I like tools. I carry a variety of them.
I have never gone to any city and immediately broken or destroyed its order. I merely aimed for and exploited its loopholes. I used it a little more skillfully than others, and even if the result led to the collapse of that order, I still acknowledged and followed it.
“They say it’s a good death if a person lives for a hundred years. A person who lives for about a hundred years has likely bestowed many blessings and earned a fair amount of resentment. But what does it matter if they’re about to die? They embrace all those favors and grudges, leave their descendants in the world, and are embraced by Mother Earth.”
If humans are mortal, then order is mortal too. Isn’t it strange to expect something grand from a mortal existence?
“If it’s an order that has been maintained for over a thousand years, and while there may have been some complaints, it has a decent reputation. It can creak a bit from old age, be abolished, and disappear into the annals of history. Perhaps that order might even become the cornerstone of a better, more superior order.”
You just have to replace it as needed. There’s no need to assign it too much meaning.
“In the end, whether it oppresses someone or saves someone, it’s the human who used it as a tool.”
Just because a craftsman forges a sword, he doesn’t bear the responsibility for all the deaths that sword will cause.
It’s the same. Just because you create an order, you’re going to shoulder all the harm that order will spread? That’s absurd.
That belongs to the human who held and wielded the tool. It cannot be the responsibility of the order.
“In that sense, I also support your wish. The tool you dream of, eternally beautiful and beneficial to humanity, may not exist. But it will be durable and useful enough to achieve some future you desire.”
The Sanctum will be created? An order destined to collapse one day will be established?
So what? Build it. Create it. Build a sandcastle that will soon crumble. Weave a frame that will one day become a ruin.
You can do anything. Because you have that power. Because you harbor that wish.
Whether to use what you leave behind or not, that will be decided by the people who remain.
“Even if it’s a goal that can only be achieved by killing the innocent, sublime, beautiful, and pure King of Humans. If that’s the only way to change the world.”
It might be a sorry thing to say to ‘Noona’. It might be unfair to the victim of the tragedy.
But a world where treason can be committed is better than a world where no one can commit treason.
“Don’t ask me. Ask yourself. Fulfill your wish. Just as Noona simply let the other monsters be, just as she simply watched you right up until the moment you committed treason.”
It might be a future she didn’t want, but I still cheered her on. I had no intention of following it myself, but I did intend to make her follow her own heart.
I placed a hand on the Saintess of Origin’s shoulder. My hand passed through her shoulder, but I patted her appropriately, cheering her on with all my heart.
“Ah. Personally. I don’t dislike the order you created that much. I mean, it wasn’t made with ill intent, right? It’s useful, too. Though the order you created seems to dislike me.”
I suddenly became curious.
Were these words I spoke in my Spiritual World something the Saintess of Origin had foreseen? Or was this a conversation we were having before she had foreseen it?
Would this conversation even be transmitted to the past? Or was the result already decided, and we were just exchanging philosophical questions, with this scene itself remaining as just one of the many visions that flashed through the Saintess of Origin’s mind?
The Saintess of Origin spoke as if my words were unexpected, yet with a sense of resignation.
“…You ask me to create an order that you, O King, will not accept.”
“Didn’t I tell you? Order is just a tool. The order that is the King of Humans is the same.”
Even such a conceptual being can be a tool to someone. The same goes for a Divine.
How to use what already exists is up to the individual. Both the freedom and the responsibility are theirs.
“It is the King’s command. I give you my permission, so do it if you wish.”
A halo of light shimmered. The vision of ‘Noona’, enveloped in light, gradually receded.
‘Noona’s’ memory was coming to an end. The prophecy concludes here. The conversation that transcended time between me, who sees the past, and the Saintess of Origin, who sees the future, ultimately failed to bring about any change.
“…However. I still. I believe that there are immutable values in the world that must be believed in and followed.”
But we both achieved something significant.
The Saintess of Origin no longer hesitated.
She could no longer cling to me or ‘Noona’. Because we had refused.
But she could not give up either. Because we had not said she was wrong.
“Even if what I thought was my duty to uphold was truly nothing more than barbarism forced by my power.”
It is an age of barbarism. Knowledge does not spread easily, and the depravity of humanity reveals its fangs all over the world. Depravity is contagious. The methods of killing others will be learned and developed even faster, and will spread even further.
That is why the Saintess of Origin intended to establish a great rule with ‘Noona’s’ corpse.
“For the sake of all the humans I have seen in all futures. I shall simply move forward with faith.”
No matter how this sin, paved with good intentions, might grow later, for now, to save the ‘nation’ and the people of the frontiers from conflict.
The Saintess of Origin clasped her hands tightly and prayed, putting her whole body into it as if she were clinging to something.
“O King. If this prayer reaches you, I beg of you.”
Please, at least cherish my wish.
Her final voice was buried and disappeared in the pouring halo of light.
*
Finishing her long prayer, El opened her eyes. The faint light of Yullim seeped into her stiff eyes. It was too dim to be called hopeful, yet it spread with a fullness that kept it from being despairing.
This dim light was likely El’s essence. For some reason, she felt like tears would fall. In her sorrow, El moved her stiff body.
“…She moved!”
It was a voice weary from a long wait. Only then did El notice the King’s warriors surrounding the altar. The King’s warriors were filled with rage, yet also enveloped in a strange fear.
“For fifteen days, without eating or sleeping…”
“What… what is this strange occurrence…”
It was the scene of treason.
El’s five warriors had ambushed the King of Humans. Taking advantage of a moment of complete vulnerability, they blinded her with light, trapped her in an illusion, and attacked her with the pinnacle of their Qi Arts.
It was a fatal wound. But ‘Noona’ had counterattacked the moment she was struck. The weapons and bodies clad in Qi were instantly bent and broken.
If not for the revelation El had sent, some of them might have died. But foresight was an incredibly powerful ability. Having evaded the future of death through her revelation, they were able to survive with grave injuries.
They had to flee. They pulled out the weapons that had stabbed the King and fought against the other warriors as they escaped.
While the five warriors fled as planned, El knelt by ‘Noona’s’ side and offered a quiet prayer. As she clasped her hands and closed her eyes, a faint halo of light enveloped them both.
“Lorekeeper!! You bitch!”
The warriors, enraged by the King’s death, approached. They grabbed El, somewhat—no, very—roughly, to question her about the King’s death.
But El remained as she was.
Even when they pulled with all their might, kicked her, or struck her with a sword, she remained without a single scratch. As if she were promised to be there, at that time, in that space. As if she existed like an immutable truth, like the past.
No matter how much the King’s warriors vented their emotions, cursed, and attacked, El prayed silently.
For fifteen days, without eating or drinking, until the warriors watching her collapsed from exhaustion.
A miracle.
A power that could not be fathomed by reason, truly a miracle-like ability.
The marvel she displayed would be recorded in detail and remain as proof of God’s existence in the world. And it would be none other than her enemies who would write it.
“…From now on, I, too, must endure the many sufferings I have foreseen.”
The moment she chose this path, El became the King’s traitor, and those who followed her would be persecuted. El’s teachings would not be passed down on silk-covered scrolls, but on half-baked bricks, transmitted only sporadically. El would have her eyes gouged out and be dragged around, nailed to a cross.
But El’s teachings would spread to all. While the King’s warriors, having tasted power, fought amongst themselves and tormented the populace, her teachings would flow along those wounds, engraving justice and morality. By the time that reached its limit, the five warriors who stabbed the King of Humans would return, having inherited a part of her power. At that time, the heavenly order El created would be established.
Until then, there was only one thing El had to do.
She had to fill that empty sky with Divines.
As El turned her head to the sky, Nevida suddenly came into view. Even though fifteen days had passed since the King’s death, she still showed deep sorrow and burning rage. El looked at Nevida, who had become an incarnation of fury, and murmured bitterly.
“It will be… worth it.”