Chapter 607: A Wildfire Starts From a Tiny Spark - 5
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 607: A Wildfire Starts From a Tiny Spark - 5
Even in my Spiritual World, my sister was every bit the Beast King. She had nothing better to do, yet she bustled around me, chattering like she was singing a song. Aside from her intelligence and her occasional habit of talking to herself, she was the very picture of a curious animal.
Perhaps that was the true essence of being human.
“I’m special,” my sister said.
I replied, “Are you bragging?”
“No! I’m stating a fact!”
“Sounds even more like bragging.”
“But it’s still true. I am a king. The Beast King, who represents all humans. Like the Dog King, the Wolf King, the Cat King, the King of Sheep, the King of Tigers. I must encompass and represent all beasts.”
The Beast King is a conceptual being, living as the embodiment of the trite symbol associated with that ‘beast.’
Azzy, despite being the Dog King, lives with humans instead of leading a pack of dogs. Because that is the nature of a dog. San'gun settles on a single mountain, claims it as his territory, and drives out all other tigers. Because that is the nature of a tiger.
Being the Beast King doesn’t necessarily mean being generous to other beasts. It is because they are nothing more than a symbol. Unless they are a social animal, they are not always kind to their own kind.
But humans have transcended being simple social animals.
“However, ordinary humans see me as special. All of them.”
“That’s because humans know far too much for their own good. And you, Sister, you’ve been to all sorts of places you normally wouldn’t go. Snowy mountains, jungles, deserts, places like that.”
“Yes. Thanks to that, everyone knows me. And they all want something from me. As if that has become the fundamental nature of humans.”
When the majority of humans began to believe in and follow their king, the king who was meant to be a symbol had turned into a ruler.
“That’s why I need an ordinary standard. A standard that is weak, soft, and easily bent and stretched.”
“Not strong and sturdy?”
“Humans are weak and soft. When the harsh world glares at them, they must quickly change their expression and bow their heads. That’s what it means to be human. Other animals also adapt to nature, but few change as quickly as humans do.”
After speaking as if singing, my sister looked at me and said, “That’s you. The ordinary me—you.”
“So this is all your fault.”
“It’s not my fault! It was as inevitable as the sun setting and the moon rising. I became unable to represent humanity! No, a king with power is inevitably bound to deviate from being the King of Humans!”
My sister, jumping up and down, looked genuinely aggrieved. I tried to summarize what she had told me as simply as possible.
“So, some ‘Council of Beast Kings’ somewhere decided that even though you’re the King of Humans, you can no longer represent them. So, they decided to leave you as you are and create a new King of Humans as a symbol? Hmm, no, that would make two Kings of Humans… In short, they decided to make a crown for the King of Humans to wear?”
“The Crown of the King of Humans! That’s a good metaphor. One king, one crown!”
“Not a good metaphor for me. A king is a person, but a crown is a tool. Could you spare a thought for my position, suddenly being destined to be placed on someone’s head?”
“You won’t be placed on my head! I mean, not unless you feel like it!”
“That sounds like I can if I want to.”
“It would be awkward for both of us if you did, so I’d rather you stood near my shoulder! It’s better for whispering in my ear if you’re close to my head!”
“What do you need to whisper?”
My sister smiled brightly and stared into my eyes. Her gray irises, a mixture of black and white, read the memories that had passed through me. From all those countless adventures and incidents, she posed the same questions I had once faced.
“Is it right to imprison, watch over, and oppress everyone? If you place them in rigid, perfectly square boxes and stack them high to build a magnificent golden pyramid, can you still praise that pyramid’s grandeur and intricacy?”
Starting with the story of the Military State.
“What of a world where one person creates all things? A land where that which is not so created is abandoned or cast aside? If you have no choice but to accept and consume those creations, even while resenting them?”
Moving through the Fallen Dominion.
“What of a world where blood binds all, and no one can rebel? A kingdom frozen as hard as a corpse?”
After passing the Duchy.
“Is it okay to eat the meat fruit? Is it okay for people to be born from it? If not, how far can you go to stop it?”
Finally, we arrived here. A place where all sorts of questions and choices intersected endlessly.
My sister placed her hands on my shoulders, peered deeper, and drew out my true feelings.
“You’ve already reached your conclusion. You’ve decided what you like and dislike. And so, you lent your strength to the side you were rooting for.”
“But I supported everyone’s desires.”
“The very act of doing so means you were already granting someone’s desire.”
…Right. It would be a lie to say my heart hadn’t leaned to one side. Though I may have given everyone a chance, the side I stood on was clear.
Though I respected everyone’s desires, there was a desire I was more drawn to. A desire more honest and primal, one that used order purely as a tool. Rather than a desire to reinforce an order that would one day crumble, I preferred the desire that, while flickering like a candle, still lit the way for someone.
But my sister possessed no such sense of good or bad. She had become the image of the king that people wished for.
“But you no longer need to be moved by the winds of desire. Because I will grant your desire.”
My sister extended her hand to me with a trustworthy smile.
*
A chick enters the world by breaking its shell. For every living thing, there is such a sad, nostalgic sacrifice. In the sacred moment an individual begins to write its history, there is a shell that blesses its birth through its own destruction.
The same was true for the Tree of Genesis, a Divine. The divine tree that blossomed from the remnants of the blessed Maidenhair Tree had grown from a single, giant seed.
The seed chamber. The most secret and fundamental domain, its existence unknown to all but Nevida.
“Hah… hah… I managed to get Chun-aeng back, somehow.”
Holding Chun-aeng, Shei looked toward the center of the seed chamber with a troubled expression. There, one of her two weapons, Jizan, was embedded.
Jizan, the sword of no recoil, could only be wielded by a chosen few. Even if its opponent was the Divine Nevida, she could not grasp and swing it unless Jizan permitted it. For Jizan was a Divine that contained the understanding of this earth.
But what if the one holding it wasn’t a person? What if it was a Divine that contained the principles of the world?
And what if that Divine’s nature was also to grasp the earth?
“To think she’d bind Chun-aeng and Jizan with the Little World Tree.”
Jizan was entwined in the roots of a small sapling. The Little World Tree, a sapling and a weapon that Nevida had crafted from the remains of the World Tree.
A tree grips the earth with its roots and communicates with the sky through its leaves. Fittingly, the Little World Tree had ensnared Jizan with its roots and held Chun-aeng with its leaves. Of course, since the sky itself could not be captured, Shei had been able to break Chun-aeng into tiny pieces to retrieve it. But Jizan, a relic of the Divine, was not so easy.
“I, who only borrow Jizan's power rather than wielding its true essence, find it difficult to break this restraint… I have no choice.”
The moment she used her power, Nevida would detect her, but she had come prepared for that. Shei gripped Chun-aeng and drew up her Qi. The air that had been captured by the tree found its master and flowed into Chun-aeng. A great, silent inhalation filled both Shei and the blade.
“Skyblade Art…”
Wind sheathed Chun-aeng, forming a massive blade. Shei unleashed a destructive blow toward the Little World Tree that bound Jizan.
“…Dragon Slayer!”
Fwoosh. The sword made of wind made no sound, for it had gathered even the air that would carry it. The silent slash stirred a tempest, sweeping over the Little World Tree.
Breaking branches and scattering leaves swirled about. Retrieving Chun-aeng, Shei let out a deep breath and approached the spot where the vortex was subsiding.
Just then, her Heavenly Counter Domain reacted. Without a moment’s hesitation, Shei threw her head back and leaped away. Something violently snatched the space she had just vacated. It was a force that could crush solid rock.
“Your reactions are faster than a cat’s.”
A voice tinged with disappointment flowed from the branch that had grasped at the empty air. Then, the branch twisted and warped until it resembled a human hand. The human arm, folding its fingers from thumb to pinky, pulled its body out from within the tree.
“Ugh! Nevida…!”
Nevida looked as if she had blossomed from the Little World Tree itself. Emerging from the wood, Nevida regarded Shei with the same impassive eyes. Her gaze held not surprise or bewilderment, but a hint of weariness.
“That is a life preserved by the King. Why do you not cherish it, and instead return to this place?”
“Hmph. You already know, so why bother asking?”
“You wouldn’t mind sacrificing your life to uphold the great cause the Sky God cries for, I’m sure. But do you not mind wasting the heart of the King, who wished only for you to live?”
Nevida was scolding her, as if she truly did not want to kill Shei.
“To kill you would be to go against the King's will. And since that King is one to whom I also owe my loyalty, I have tried to avoid that choice as much as possible. Yet, you insist on forsaking even the King's mercy.”
Perhaps this very moment was the last chance Nevida was offering. If she gave up her resistance and fled now, she might be able to leave with Chun-aeng intact. Nevida would not bother to pursue her.
Shei realized this instinctively. But instead of turning her back, she took a step forward and lifted her head.
“I’m not forsaking it. But that’s all the more reason I had to come.”
“All the more reason?”
“You’re going to harm Hughes!”
A gust of wind stirred in the seed chamber, rustling Nevida’s hair. It was impossible for wind to enter this confined space, yet Shei, gripping Chun-aeng, was summoning a breeze within the chamber.
“Do you think I’m an idiot? Hughes is the King of Humans. The one you want to resurrect is also the King of Humans. For one to be made whole, the other must disappear. And you will definitely choose to sacrifice Hughes.”
If she had to choose one of the two, Nevida would choose the other king, not Hughes. That was the wish Nevida had held for two thousand years.
“If that’s what you’re going to do, then I have to be there, too. Because I’m the opposite of you.”
“The opposite, you say.”
Shei spoke to Nevida with clear intent.
“If there has to be a King of Humans, I’d rather it be Hughes.”
“…You’d rather.”
“Yes. The king who was with me now is better than some king from the distant past who might have died at any time. He may lie, deceive, and hide things, but Hughes acted himself. He may have thrown situations into chaos, but he always found the best way out of them.”
The King of Humans becomes the King of Sins. But that wasn’t Hughes. And from what she had seen of him so far, Hughes was far from being the King of Sins.
If so, couldn’t Hughes avoid turning into the King of Sins?
There was no proof. It was utterly irresponsible. Perhaps the cowardly ability of regression had robbed her of the fear of failure.
But that was what Shei believed.
“I’m just like you. If the ritual to resurrect the King of Humans is underway, I don’t know how it will end, but I will take Hughes’s side. I will make Hughes my king!”
“…”
“So. What’s it going to be, Nevida? I am solely on Hughes’s side! Does that make you my ally, or my enemy?”
No answer was needed. Nevida’s king had always been one and the same.
The small child she had found in the forest. The innocent, adorable girl who had swaggered up, offered a hand, and followed her home. Nevida's friend, her student, her teacher, and her king.
If the two could not exist together, if she absolutely had to choose one… she would choose her without hesitation.
And for that reason, she could not let Shei interfere.
Nevida silently raised her hand and brought it down with grim finality.
A thicket of branches descended upon Shei's head like a flyswatter.