Chapter 176: Those Who Noticed (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 176: Those Who Noticed (2)
The Apostle of Greed looked at the man with an inscrutable gaze.
With the blue moon at his back and a genial smile on his face, he stared intently at Emil with eyes as bright and blue as the moon itself.
Gush!
Blood erupted from Emil’s mouth, trickling down her throat and pooling on the blade that had pierced through her body.
Soon, the crimson lifeblood began to drip—drip, drip—onto the ground.
“Who… are you?”
Sensing her impending death, Emil asked.
Her face had turned pale, and her smile had long since vanished.
Yet, in stark contrast to Emil’s grim expression, the man’s smile remained incredibly refreshing.
“Is that really important right now?”
“Isn’t it… obvious?”
Emil’s voice remained composed, as if she didn't want to let on that she had lost her cool, despite her frozen features.
The man spoke nonchalantly.
“Why?”
“I should at least know the name of the person who killed me, shouldn’t I?”
“Killed you? No way—”
“Then, are you going to let me live at this point?”
“No, there’s no real need for that, is there? Since—”
Squelch!
“You’ll just come back to life anyway.”
At those words, Emil’s expression hardened even further.
She had suspected as much from the moment the man appeared and drove a sword into her back, but his words confirmed it.
He knew about her Reincarnation Magic—a secret known only to the Apostles.
Emil’s mind began to race furiously.
She wondered which of the Apostles had leaked the secret of Reincarnation Magic.
She wondered exactly how much this man knew about the process, and in what detail.
However, her thoughts did not last long.
“Ugh—gaah!”
As if punishing her silence, the man’s blade dug even deeper.
Once again, she coughed up a thick glob of blood.
Splatter!
Red blood sprayed onto the man’s trousers like erratic raindrops.
Yet, the man’s face remained serene.
“You don’t have to worry too much.”
“……”
“I don’t actually know the location of your next reincarnation.”
Emil grit her teeth.
She didn’t believe him.
If the man truly didn't know the location, he wouldn't be foolish enough to kindly inform her of that fact.
Emil’s face was now stained with anxiety and agitation.
She looked up at him with great effort.
The man was still smiling.
Even in a situation drenched in blood, he maintained that genial smile, standing with the blue moon at his back.
Then, he reached out his hand, as if offering salvation to a suffering soul—
“I came here to give you a warning.”
“……A warning?”
He gently caressed her cheek.
“That’s right.”
“About… what?”
For a fleeting moment, a chilling glint flashed in his eyes.
“Don’t touch Marquis Palatio.”
“……What?”
“I told you.”
Thrust!
“Blegh!”
“Don’t touch Marquis Palatio. Of course, I know he’s not the type of person who would fall easily just because you lot mess with him. But you know how people are?”
Twist!
“I can’t help but worry.”
“Ahaha, am I being too meddlesome?” Elivan scratched his head, letting out an awkward laugh that was entirely out of place for the situation.
Emil, who was slowly approaching the threshold of death, felt a bizarre sense of dissonance.
It was as if she had seen this man somewhere before.
A deeply uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.
“Anyway, that’s why I went out of my way to come talk to you. To be honest—this might sound a bit cold, but I don’t care what you guys do. Do this, do that, do whatever you want.”
Emil constantly retraced her memories, trying to figure out where this dissonance was coming from.
Over and over.
As if consumed by the thought.
“However, Marquis Palatio is off-limits. He is someone who absolutely must not fall right now.”
Even with death looming before her.
She did not stop questioning the doubt echoing in her mind.
“Ah.”
“Well then, keep my words in mind. Apostle of Greed—no, Emil.”
She realized.
The true nature of this inexplicable déjà vu.
“If you don’t want to end your greed and enter eternal rest, you’d better remember what I said.”
She remembered where she had seen the eyes of this man who held her weaknesses and shames in his hands.
“Never touch him.”
Those were surely the eyes she had seen beneath the Roots.
Something that existed in a place even deeper than they did—
The Nebula.
Crack, snap!!
Emil’s thoughts could go no further.
The world went black.
The moment she realized the source of the dissonance, her head had already been twisted twice, her neck snapped, and her life extinguished.
And Elivan.
As if he had never been smiling at all, he wiped the expression from his face like a lie.
Without a word, he turned and walked away.
* * *
A few days after leaving Lartania.
[Hmph, I am exhausted.]
“Why? Is being pathetically cute that tiring?”
[Human, if you say one more word, I might actually slaughter you.]
“And how are you going to do that?”
[Grrrrr—! If only I could use Manifestation, someone like you would—!]
“But you can’t. Since you can’t, what are you going to do?”
[Kuaaaaah!]
Evan was busy teasing Basiliora, having done so for several days now as if he’d found the perfect prey.
The impact of Deus’s comment about him being “pathetically cute” had been immense.
Watching the two bicker, Alon let out a silent sigh.
Back in Lartania, things had happened in such quick succession that he hadn't been able to think properly, but now that he had some free time, there were too many things to consider.
Among them, the first thing that came to mind was the Mental World he had seen when he met Kailas.
A ruined world where everything had been destroyed and nothing remained.
[What nonsense are you spouting, brat? This Mental World is yours.]
Recalling Kailas’s statement, Alon tilted his head in confusion.
From what he knew and from what Kailas had said, a Mental World basically reflects one’s inner world.
According to Kailas’s explanation, a Mental World was ultimately one of two things.
Either the inner world was firmly established through the reception of Heart Images and formulas, like a Magus.
Or, for those who weren't like that, an incredibly intense memory was expressed as the inner world.
……Naturally, while Alon could use the Sentence, he had not received a Heart Image, nor did he possess a formula.
That left only one conclusion.
‘……An intense memory, huh.’
That ruined world originated from Alon’s intense memory.
And this was the point Alon couldn't understand.
It had already been over ten years since he started living here.
He had essentially become a person of this world, but strictly speaking, Alon was a being from another world.
There was no way he could have an intense memory of seeing a ruined world.
Then, was this memory originally the memory of the real Alon Telia?
If so, that was also nearly impossible.
To begin with, when he became Alon, the original Alon hadn't even reached adulthood.
And that ruined landscape wasn't something a young man, especially a nobleman, would have seen.
In other words, the memory of that ruined world didn't belong to the ‘real Alon’ either.
‘Then the only thing left is… that I simply don’t remember it.’
A forgotten memory.
Thinking that far, Alon unconsciously stroked his chin.
If he had been somewhere where he could see such a landscape, it would be one thing, but no matter how much he thought about it, there was nowhere.
If he had to pick a similar place, perhaps the North?
But it wasn't the North either.
A land where life couldn't survive and a land where life had been annihilated were fundamentally different in feel.
After pondering for a while, he silently fiddled with the ‘Feet Running Through the Past’ in his pocket.
‘I should be able to enter it again by the time we leisurely arrive at the Colony, so I’ll have to ask any further questions then.’
Having organized his thoughts, Alon stroked Blackie, who had crawled out from his chest and was now purring and rubbing its cheek against his hand.
……It was midsummer.
* * *
About a month later.
Teira, who had entered the royal castle by the order of Karmakeses III, soon heard the name of the person suspected to be a Living God from the King.
“Marquis Palatio, you say?”
“Yes. You just need to verify it when he arrives.”
“I understand.”
He answered as such, but his mind was filled with doubt.
To be honest, he couldn't even begin to grasp why Karmakeses III suspected Marquis Palatio of being a Living God.
‘……Well, his achievements are certainly impressive.’
Of course, even as an archaeologist, Teira was not ignorant of the stories surrounding Marquis Palatio.
He had dealt with Outer Gods and monsters, accumulating a series of great achievements that were truly remarkable for a nobleman.
Because of that, his fame resonated throughout the entire continent.
But even taking all that into account, Teira thought Karmakeses III’s suspicion was off the mark.
Of course, Karmakeses III likely had reasons that he didn't know about.
Nevertheless, he was certain.
Had he not already seen a Living God before?
In the first place, a Living God couldn't help but stand out.
Furthermore, if Marquis Palatio really was a Living God, there was no reason for him to hide his identity.
‘No, I suppose he could hide his identity for some reason, but—’
There was absolutely no reason to go through the trouble of hiding his identity as a nobleman.
……Honestly, no matter the reason, he couldn't understand why a Living God would wear a disguise.
Just then.
The doors to the audience chamber opened, and a man walked in.
A man wearing an ink-black coat, whose expression didn't change in the slightest even before the King.
‘So that’s Marquis Palatio.’
Teira marveled in spite of himself.
He had seen him once from a distance, but facing him up close, a very peculiar aura emanated from the Marquis.
An incredibly strange energy that was hard to describe.
He stared at him blankly for a moment.
“Have you been well—Marquis Palatio?”
“Yes.”
Teira snapped out of it at the sound of Karmakeses III’s voice, who hurriedly cleared his throat and asked after the Marquis’s well-being.
He had to seize the opportunity and secretly carry out the order.
While the two were exchanging pleasantries, Teira carefully began to draw up his mana and channel it into the artifact hidden in his robes.
It was an artifact with a blue sphere pattern that he had obtained ten years ago from one of the jungle ruins.
The effect of this item was simple.
It manifested the power possessed by the target before one’s eyes.
In the past, he had used this artifact on the Living God in the land of the Lizardmen to find out what a god’s power looked like.
‘If Marquis Palatio is truly a god, a sphere bound in chains will appear. If not, it will just be a simple round sphere.’
He didn't know why it manifested in such a shape.
However, the power of a Living God was definitely expressed as a chained sphere.
Recalling that memory, Teira felt the artifact activate.
Soon, his eyes, which had been looking at the Marquis without much expectation, began to widen.
The reason was simple.
‘This is… impossible….’
Just like when he had seen the Living God in the past.
A sphere had appeared in front of the Marquis’s chest.
A sphere tightly wrapped in chains.
Teira’s reaction didn't stop at his eyes widening.
Even though Karmakeses III had instructed him to handle the matter quietly, his jaw dropped open.
And for good reason.
In front of Marquis Palatio—
‘There are… four of them?’
The spheres, of which even a Living God only had one, numbered no fewer than four.