Chapter 85. The Reader's Heart (1)
Chapter 85. The Reader's Heart (1)
1
I held my master for a long time.
Even when breath ceases, a person's body remains.
That was why death was so cruel and merciless.
"Sir."
After a long while, I heard a voice calling me. Martial artists in black uniforms, the elite of the Demonic Cult, had gathered and surrounded me.
Even while I silently held my master, the Orthodox-Demonic War continued. In the end, the Demonic Cult had won the battle.
"We had no leisure to attend to you during the fighting, but many cult members overheard the Cult Leader call you [disciple]."
The martial artist asked with a tense face.
"Might you, sir, have inherited the orthodox lineage from the Heavenly Demon?"
"......"
I looked around.
All the cult members who had survived the great battle were looking at me. Even the demon lords whom my master had called the Four Demon Lords (四魔君). Some of them had burst nosebleeds, split lips, one had lost an arm. All were drenched in blood, and all held their breath as they waited for my words.
"...I don't know whether I've inherited the orthodox lineage."
"Did the Cult Leader not take you as a disciple?"
"That is true."
I pulled my master's cooling body a little closer.
"I am my master's disciple."
"......"
The martial artist's face hardened further.
"If it is certain that the Cult Leader took a direct disciple, then she must have taught you the Demonic Heavenly God Art. I beg your pardon for the rudeness. Sir, please demonstrate a fragment of the Demonic Heavenly God Art before us."
His tone was polite, but it was the same as saying [I find it hard to believe you are truly the Heavenly Demon's disciple, so show us proof].
'Merely being Master's disciple gets me treated as her successor.'
I understood. Why Master had hesitated so much to take me as a disciple. Becoming the Heavenly Demon's direct disciple meant inheriting the orthodox lineage of the Demonic Cult.
Now that Master had withdrawn her final warmth from this world. The Demonic Cult's succession lay with me.
"...Very well. Will demonstrating the Sword of Starvation suffice?"
"Yes. The Cult Leader often said, [If even a single hair is lacking, I will not acknowledge them as my successor]. We are but nameless swordsmen, yet we possess the skill to witness and judge your single sword strike."
Other cult members murmured around us.
"Hey, what's that Blood Demon bastard blathering about?"
"Can't you understand even that? He's saying that if we see the first form of the Demonic Heavenly God Art, we'll know whether or not he's the Heavenly Demon's disciple."
"Really? Then why is that bastard stepping up as our representative?"
"Because he's the only one among us who knows how to be polite. He's from the Moyong family. A bastard child, though."
"What? That little shit was a Moyong brat?"
"No, why are you surprised as if you've never heard this? This story has been told dozens of times since long ago... never mind. A river is a river, a mountain is a mountain, and no matter what you teach a rock-head, a rock remains a rock."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means your very existence is a tumor comparable to the poison arts of the Sichuan Tang Clan, Sword Demon. As proof, I am currently, in the present progressive tense, developing cancer. Considering that I've mastered Thousand Poisons Immunity, you truly are an astonishing existence."
"Oh? Is that a compliment?"
"Fucking rock-head bastard."
"Ahem."
The martial artist cleared his throat. Then he glared at the cult members murmuring behind him. A gaze brimming with dignity. It seemed like silent pressure to quietly shut up.
But Sword Demon and Ghost-Soul Flame Demon tilted their heads.
"What're you staring at? Wanna fight?"
"How unpleasant. Look somewhere else. You're making me nauseous."
"......"
The martial artist turned his head back and looked at me. His gaze was, how should I put it, as if insisting [nothing happened just now].
"Ah-ha."
A small laugh escaped me.
'Right, this place was always like this.'
The Demonic Cult was originally a place where uneducated people sought refuge. My master alone had been refined; it was only natural that most cult members were illiterate in matters of etiquette.
"Starvation is, in essence......"
I did not draw my sword. I did not want to swing a blade while holding Master's body. I simply gathered aura into my left hand and gestured.
A single strike carved into the snowfield.
"...children waiting for sunlight."
They flinched.
The martial artist who had stepped forward as the cult members' representative, and the murmuring cult members too, all fell silent. In the snowfield where my sword strike had swept through, a deep valley had been gouged like someone's wound.
I did not stop at demonstrating the first form. The second form. The third form. The fourth form. I unfolded with my fingertips every form I had mastered up to the pinnacle.
The surroundings grew quiet.
Was it thanks to having glimpsed the bloody battle between Master and the guardian spirit? At some point, the power of each strike had become sharper than before. This too had been Master’s arrangement.
"I haven't yet gained great enlightenment in the remaining forms. It's embarrassing to show them."
"......"
"Will this be enough?"
Rustle!
The martial artist knelt upon the snow.
"We greet the orthodox lineage of Demonic Dominion. O new Heavenly Demon."
Following him, Ghost-Soul Flame Demon, Moonshadow Demon Lord, and Sword Demon prostrated themselves in turn. Rustle, crunch. The snowfield crumpled beneath their knees. Soon all the cult members who had survived the Orthodox-Demonic War lay prostrate upon the snowfield.
"We greet the orthodox lineage of Demonic Dominion! Our Cult Leader!"
"......"
I slowly began to speak.
"The title of Heavenly Demon is too much. I already have the epithet Death King (死王), and I wish for my master's title to remain forever solely as my master's name."
"Then......"
"The title of Cult Leader is also too heavy for me."
I turned my head. Across from me, the guardian spirit stood with his arms crossed and his eyes silently closed. He was probably replaying his spar with Master in his head. I studied the guardian spirit’s face, then spoke to the cult members.
"I am still greatly lacking. I have nothing to teach any of you, so how could I call myself Cult Leader? It would be a name for a name's sake alone."
The martial artist wore a troubled expression.
"...In life, the Heavenly Demon was never wrong in choosing people. Since she took a direct disciple, sir, you are surely worthy of the position of Cult Leader."
"Thank you. But I, who am supposedly worthy of the position of Cult Leader, judge that I am still insufficient to inherit the Demonic Cult's succession."
The cult members stirred.
"Th-then we are at a loss as to how to address you, sir! We cannot simply keep calling you sir......"
"Young Cult Leader."
Someone spoke abruptly.
"Would it not be fine to call him Young Cult Leader?"
It was Ghost-Soul Flame Demon. The cult member who had bullshitted about yielding three moves to a Shaolin monk. His broken nose hadn't fully healed, so dried traces of blood remained on his philtrum.
"In the jianghu, terms like Young Master or Young Clan Head are common. He said it’s burdensome to ascend to Cult Leader yet, and as long as he isn’t refusing the position entirely, it would be acceptable to honor him with the title Young Cult Leader."
"Hm."
I nodded. That much I could accept.
"Yes, let's do that."
The cult members sighed in relief. They looked at me with noticeably more comfortable expressions.
"Young Cult Leader, we offer our formal gratitude. We have no way of knowing what mysterious arts you employed, but we all remember being bitten by the jiangshi. Had it not been for you, Young Cult Leader, neither concluding the Orthodox-Demonic War nor offering our loyalty to the Heavenly Demon would have been possible!"
The martial artist clasped his fists in salute.
"One of the Four Demon Lords of the Demonic Cult. Blood Demon. All members under my command, the Blood Ghost Unit. We pledge our loyalty to the Young Cult Leader."
Following him, over a dozen cult members clasped their fists.
"One of the Four Demon Lords of the Demonic Cult. Ghost-Soul Flame Demon, at your service. All members under my command, the Spirit-Consoling Unit (慰靈隊). We pledge our loyalty to the Young Cult Leader."
"One of the Four Demon Lords. Moonshadow Demon Lord. All members under my command, the Corpse Shadow Unit, shall be loyal to the Young Cult Leader."
"Sword Demon! Along with my command, the Assassination Unit, I vow loyalty."
Again, dozens more.
"......"
I slowly laid Master down.
Master, like a flower that had bloomed upon the snowfield, suited the white snowfield well.
Leaving behind a single peony petal, I clasped my fists in salute to the cult members.
"I pray that, so long as my life does not end, the doctrine of the shadow shall be immortal."
That was the moment.
[Stage clear.]
[You have cleared the quest, 'Remake the World Volume 1'!]
How long had it been since I'd heard that voice?
[Today, the 22nd floor stage has been cleared.]
[Announcing to everyone once more.]
[Today, the 22nd floor stage has been cleared.]
It truly felt like I was hearing it for the first time in a long while.
[Measuring clear participants.]
[Measurement complete.]
Without releasing my salute, I spoke.
"I'll entrust Master's funeral to all of you."
[Announcing the 4 clearers.]
The snow mountain split in two by Master's gesture.
Characters were engraved in the sky above the peak.
+
[Clear Contribution Rankings]
1st. Death King (死王)
2nd. Pharmacist (藥劑師)
3rd. Viper (毒蛇)
4th. Medicine King (藥王)
+
"Don't hold a lavish funeral. Master wouldn't wish for it. Just having all of you stay until the very end of the funeral would make Master happy. Please......"
Please. The words that should have followed, I did not speak aloud.
There was no need to speak them, and I could not speak them.
When I blinked, my body was already gone from the snowfield.
"Welcome, Death King."
The Great Library of All Thoughts.
"I have been waiting anxiously, as if a single day were three autumns!"
The Constellation Librarian gave me a smiling look.
2
"Congratulations!"
The Librarian was floating in the air.
Her five-meter-long sleeves swayed like goldfish fins.
"Hm. The final word of the [Chronicles of the Heavenly Demon] has ended up being ‘please.’ Hm. The word ‘please’ signifies a wish for someone. A wish, a prayer. In the Demonic Cult, they recite it as ‘Baraya.’ ‘Please’ and ‘Baraya’ can be seen as the same word. In that sense, it is a truly fitting closing phrase......"
"Hold on."
I cut off the Librarian's lengthy speech mid-sentence.
I felt a [sense of incongruity].
This was my second time coming to the Great Library. I had also spent several sleepless nights reading here. I had become quite familiar with this place.
But the differences from last time were far too clearly visible to my eyes.
"...Why are all the other hunters unconscious?"
The hunters who had participated in clearing the Apocalypse.
All 250 hunters with epithets were collapsed on the floor.
"Hmm."
The Librarian raised the corners of his lips.
"Don't worry. I merely put them to sleep for a moment."
"Put them to sleep......?"
"Yes. I burned an incense harmless to the human body."
The Librarian extended his hand. Dozens of books floated around the Constellation. Among them was one book titled [Tale of the Incense City].
"There are many worlds that communicate through words like yours, but there are also worlds that communicate through song, and worlds that communicate through scent. In this Apocalypse, people converse with the incense of anger, the incense of sorrow, the incense of joy."
"......"
"Of course, there is also a sleeping incense."
I tensed and stayed on guard.
"Ah, please don’t look at me like that. This Librarian merely quieted the surroundings for a moment because I wanted to talk with you, Death King."
Talk.
"You knocked out my comrades to talk about what?"
"Ahh, [comrades], you say. As expected of Death King! You could consider them annoying and useless burdens, yet you naturally think of them as comrades. This Librarian cannot help but shed tears once more at your admirable heart."
"......"
"From here, I could see every single move of your party, Death King. Like a movie. It was a crucible of emotion, truly. The people here must have welcomed you fervently."
The Librarian giggled.
"But if I left things as they were, wouldn't this Librarian only be able to converse with you, Death King, after a long while? My turn would be pushed far back."
The Librarian shrugged.
"To arrange a place for conversation, I had no choice but to calm people down for a moment. Please don't worry. For all appearances, I used the gentlest means available to put them to sleep."
It was hard to believe rashly.
I quickly looked around. I spotted the Witch. She was leaning against a bookshelf, her long hair hanging down. I approached the Witch and lightly checked her pulse.
Thump.
Thump.
'Thank goodness.'
Her complexion was peaceful and her breathing was returning to normal.
After confirming my comrade was safe, I looked up at the Librarian.
"...If you have something to say, finish it quickly and wake the people up."
"Aren't you rushing too much? This Librarian wants to chat more leisurely, just the two of us. I deliberately excluded the other clearers and summoned only you, Death King."
"I still have unfinished business on the 22nd floor. There's a sword I need to find......"
"Later."
The Librarian's smiling eyes were like an inverted crescent moon.
"It's something you can search for later."
"......"
Tension hung in the air.
The Librarian only looked ridiculous because of his small stature. He could freely summon bizarre monsters from other worlds. Hadn’t he swallowed as many as 50 hunters in an instant last time?
'No matter how much I've mastered the Demonic Heavenly God Art, if I fight her now, defeat is certain.'
I swallowed dryly.
"...What do you want to talk about?"
The Librarian's smile deepened.
"A very intimate matter."
Flutter.
The Librarian fluttered his sleeves and landed on the floor. Approaching me, he took something out from inside his sleeve.
"Hm."
It was scissors.
"Why scissors all of a sudden......?"
"Your hair has grown quite long. Death King, I'll trim it for you."
The Librarian stood on tiptoe and snipped away at my hair. He didn’t cut much. About half a hand-span from the back? The Librarian placed the cut hair into a red silk pouch.
"......"
"Your nails are long too. For someone who calls themselves a martial artist, not managing your nails would be a serious problem. I'll cut them for you."
The Librarian took another object out from inside his sleeve.
It was a nail clipper.
The Librarian took my right hand and clipped my nails, snip snip. From the pinky nail to the thumbnail, all of them. Then he placed each nail into a different silk pouch.
Hm.
"Um, Librarian?"
"Yes."
"What exactly are you doing right now?"
"Death King."
The Librarian bent at the waist. He knelt on the floor. Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he removed the shoes I was wearing.
"Suppose a person liked someone so, so, so much. Too much."
"...I'll suppose it. Why?"
"There is not a single part of that person, from the tips of their toes to the ends of their hair, that they don't like. It's love. Truly pure and noble love. The problem is that this person does not exist in reality, but only within the pages. Only within a novel."
The Librarian removed my socks.
"But then, ta-da! What sort of miracle is this? The novel character who is my ideal type has appeared before my eyes."
"Uh......"
"Now, at this moment, how would you feel, Death King?"
The Librarian said seriously.
While holding a toenail clipper.
"Yes, it's something like that."
"......"
"It's like that."
What's "like that"?
"Ah, ack! Don't move! What are you doing! If you move, my toenail clipper might leave an ugly wound on your marble-like toes, Death King! That would be terrible!"
"Why are you getting angry at me?! Get away right now!"
"Wait! Just wait! I'll only clip one pinky toenail and be done! Just one toenail! I've conceded this much, haven't I!"
"Why is this lunatic doing this to me?!"
"Ah! Ah! If toenails are not acceptable, I'm willing to negotiate for three strands of eyebrow hair!"
Only then did I realize the true nature of the [sense of incongruity].
"You weren't originally someone who used polite speech!"
That was it.
The Constellation Librarian did not use polite speech. He insisted on an old-fashioned formal register. At least, he always had before, yet now for some reason he was using polite speech with me. That was the source of the incongruity.
"Use your usual hao-che style!"
The Librarian's lips trembled violently.
"That's absurd! How could a lowly, insignificant creature like myself dare use hao-che with the esteemed Light Gong-ja!"
Insane.
[Shut-In Librarian desires your pinky toenail.]
That kind of insane.
'Character window!'
While I struggled desperately to not surrender my toenail to the Librarian, letters appeared before my eyes.
+
Name: Shut-In Librarian
Favorability: 95
Preferred genres: [Fusion], [Romance], [Mystery], [Adventure], [Horror], [History], [War], [Sports], [SF], [Mythology], [Fairy Tale].......
Disliked genres: None
Preferred characters: [Character], [Constellation Killer]
Disliked characters: None
Preferred plots: [Story]
Disliked plots: [Serialization Cancellation]
Mental state: 'A toenail! If possible, I must also score some eyebrow hair! Ah, I would like to ask him to grow a beard and then pluck some of that too, but even I can see that won't work. Ahh, Light Gong-ja. Light, light, light! O radiant protagonist! I wish to make you into a bookmark and keep you forever!'
+
This kind of insane.