Chapter 19
Translator: True Detective
### Chapter 19: Hypocrisy
*'Phew....... Let's do this.'*
If this world is also a huge aggregate of information anyway.
From the perspective of quantum mechanics, all phenomena are merely a superposition of probabilities.
In other words, as long as the probability of success is not 0%.
It means the worldline where I win definitely exists somewhere.
Just one out of eons of cases.
I just need to pull that slim worldline into reality.
I engraved the sensations of Eleanor borrowing my body one by one.
"......."
My heart beats like crazy.
If I stop now, it's the end.
*'Let's remember, the sensation remaining at my fingertips.'*
I reached out my hand towards the scattering halo of light.
Using my life force as fuel, I wove a single True Word.
"......Perpetuate."
Soon, pain as if my brain was burning sweeps through my whole body.
The price for forcibly containing the authority that twists the origin of the world with merely a 1st Hierarchy physical body is harsh.
"Urp....... Bleugh—."
Fishy fresh blood filled my mouth.
Drip, drip—.
The blood clots I couldn't hold back wet the floor.
Perhaps the corners of my eyes burst, my vision was dyed entirely red.
Blood piercing through my eardrums flowed down my chin.
*'Dog shit....... It really hurts so fucking much.'*
My consciousness fades distantly.
But.
Eclipsing my pain, there is no reaction.
Selene's form, which was scattering into the air, did not stop.
The light particles carelessly slip through my fingers and disappear into the empty air.
I can't catch them.
Maybe I was wrong.
Futility rushes in.
"......."
But I cannot let go.
It is a gamble with even my soul held as collateral.
If there is a god of probability, isn't it about time they took my side?
Isn't it too cold-hearted to end it like this.
Unfairness and irritation surge up.
*'Please. Just work, fuck!'*
That moment when extinction accelerated and she was about to completely fade away.
"......!"
I heard the sound of Eleanor inhaling next to me.
Right after that, the scattering light particles resonated as if screaming.
And began to condense frighteningly into one point.
Clink―.
It became a transparent bead the size of a fingernail and dropped to the floor with a thud.
"Haa, haa......."
My body feels like a ton of bricks.
I don't even have the strength to move a single finger, let alone take a step.
Blood is pouring out from every single hole.
Not a joke, I feel like I'm really going to die.
As I was kneeling covered in cold sweat and blood, Eleanor approached.
She carefully picked up the bead that fell on the floor and placed it on my palm.
The bead is emitting lukewarm warmth.
[......It is a rebellion that even I could not imagine.]
Eleanor's doll raised her head and looked up at me.
[Rihan, this is not a gift given by fate.]
"......."
[It is a connection you won by grasping it directly with those hands.]
Indescribable complex emotions linger in her voice.
I barely moved my trembling lips.
"......Did I, succeed?"
[You succeeded splendidly for all to see. You forcibly stopped my disciple from returning to eternal nothingness.]
The moment I heard those words, the tightly pulled tension snapped loose.
I flopped down on the floor just like that.
Even with my mouth smeared with blood, laughter finally burst out.
****
I blankly stared at the blood pooling on the floor, fiddled with the lukewarm bead on my palm, and opened my mouth.
"Senior. There's one thing I want to check."
[Speak. Rihan.]
"You know what Senior Selene said to Duke Cassian earlier? That foresight saying the Estal family won't collapse and will live laughing together."
I spat out blood-mixed saliva.
"That, is it really the future Senior Selene saw? Or did she just make it up?"
At my question, Eleanor's movement stopped.
[Don't you already know the answer too.]
"......."
[Selene's future foresight has never been wrong even once. And if there was happiness in the future she saw, you wouldn't have had to twist causality while whittling your soul like just now either.]
Eleanor's voice rings in the basement.
[That child abandoned her duty as the Founder at the last moment.]
I swallowed a hollow laugh.
So it was like that.
In the end, even after seeing a future of only pitch-black darkness, Selene talked about a warm garden that doesn't even exist to her descendant.
"She is a liar. Senior Selene."
[A merciful hypocrisy deceives even gods. Thanks to that, didn't that pitiful descendant get to live embracing that fake hope for the rest of his life.]
***
I finished a short rest.
I got over the big hurdle for now, but the problem is, as expected, mountains beyond mountains.
Naturally, because Duke Cassian is sprawled at my feet.
"......What should I do with this."
Should I just leave him here and go out?
No, that's a suicidal act.
An outsider leisurely walking out alone after abandoning the head of the Estal family like luggage in a corner of the treasure vault.
That is beyond attempted murder, at the level of insulting the family.
If caught, there's no room for excuses.
"Senior. To what extent are you capable right now?"
[I can do nothing. Right now, it would be right to think of me as just a talking doll.......]
Strength gradually drained from Eleanor's voice.
I can feel the end of her dignified speech blurring vaguely.
[Rihan. I am sorry. It seems I overdid it greatly too. I will keep my eyes closed for a moment.]
Ending with those words, the connection snapped off as if the power went out.
In the end, it means I'm the only one who can settle this situation.......
If Cassian doesn't wake up and explain the situation, I'll face summary execution as soon as I open the treasure vault door.
Even so, I can't just wait here indefinitely.
Because I already started feeling presence outside.
*'What can I do. I have to go out first and see.'*
I straightened my throbbing waist, grabbed the Duke's arm, and hoisted him on my back.
Trying to shoulder a sturdy adult male with a body that didn't just squeeze out mana but scraped even its soul.
My knees scream.
"Really...... this is a fucking lot of exercise."
During my graduate school days.
It's harder than when I did all-nighters doing manual labor in the lab for three days and nights.
At least then I cared about the professor's eyes.
Because right now I'm bound to care about the Grim Reaper's eyes.
"Like a beggar. Really."
Every time I take a step, my legs tremble.
Why does this antique and huge hallway feel so long.
I moved my steps towards the entrance as if my life depended on it.
***
"Haa...... Hah, Sir Delmar, it's so good."
Near the treasure vault, in a secret forest where the damp smell of earth vibrated.
The moans of the female mage I had painstakingly seduced tickled my ears.
I roughly grabbed and twisted her hair, excreting greedy pleasure.
This moment where rough breathing and vulgar screams mix.
I finally painfully realize the fact that I am an elite 4th Hierarchy mage of the Empire.
"Shh, don't bark. I'll clean it all up for you so stay still."
As expected, bitches quickly spread their legs if you just give off the smell of power.
No matter how much they pretend to be noble or innocent, in the end, they are nothing but a bitch in front of a strong man.
This thrilling sense of domination, this is the taste for which I accumulated mana and raised my hierarchy.
A grand blueprint is already drawn in my head.
The family's Princess, that arrogant beyond measure Yveline.
The picture of breaking that bitch's lofty nose, crushing her beneath me, and taking over the master bedroom of the Duke family.
If only that happens, Estal, the strongest magic family in the Empire, falls into my grasp.
*'Princess or whatever, in the end, she will cry and cling beneath me.'*
Because the bigger the dream, the sweeter the reward.
It was then.
Kugugugu―!
".........!"
A mana wave shaking the crust stormed from the direction of the treasure vault.
An overwhelming weight that choked the breath of even a 4th Hierarchy like me.
The female mage who was acting coquettish under me until just now was shoved to the floor, terrified and trembling without even being able to scream.
*'Wh-What? Did the family head go in? While I was messing around?'*
Goosebumps like ice water flowing down my spine arose.
If by any chance a mishap occurred inside, my life, which should have been standing guard, is as good as gone.
As expected.
Knights and mages from the surroundings.
Even Yveline could be seen running from afar.
The mana wave was that huge.
*'Fuck, I can't let it go like this. I have to discover it first and align our stories.'*
I roughly pulled up my clothes and ran into the basement entrance like crazy.
****
A familiar figure could be seen at the end of the dark passage.
"......No way."
I narrowed my eyes and examined.
It was that lowly researcher bastard who gave me an unforgettable humiliation, Rihan.
On that guy's back, Duke Cassian was drooping like a corpse, being carried.
*'......It's an opportunity.'*
My head spun fast.
The corners of my mouth distort like a spasm and a fishy smile spreads.
Whether it's true or not?
Such a thing doesn't matter.
I just need to fabricate the situation well.
The mere fact that that lowly guy contacted the family head in such a state is enough to frame him for high treason.
I will painfully repay the price for humiliating me completely right here.
"Stop right there, you bug-like bastard!"
I raised my voice and blocked his front as if I had become an apostle of justice.
I put strength in my voice and shouted so the surroundings could hear.
Because I might need witnesses later.
"The crime of kidnapping and harming His Grace, I will execute summary punishment right here!"
I adjusted my grip on the staff and exploded my magic power.
The 4th Hierarchy flame magic wavers hideously at the tip of the staff.
*'I'll kill him. I'll turn that cheeky bastard into ashes here, and I'll become the hero of the family who saved the family head.'*
After that, Yveline will also be intoxicated by my heroic tale and cry and cling at my feet.
Just imagining it is enough to make my lower half stiff again.
But.
That bastard, his reaction is strange.
For a normal human, it's the timing to be terrified and beg in front of the flames of a 4th Hierarchy mage.
He doesn't blink an eye.
Drip, drip―.
What is falling to the floor is Rihan's blood.
He is a guy whose whole body is battered and torn.
"......."
Why am I getting goosebumps as if my own neck is being cut off?
Don't tell me, am I getting scared by a rag-like guy like that?
*'Fuck, that can't be! How dare a genius mage like me at such a lowly!'*
Just as I was about to swing my staff to activate magic.
The guy's lips moved very slowly.
"Kneel."
An absolute, irresistible voice hitting straight into my head.
Crunch!
"Kk, uck?!"
Not even a full scream came out.
Overwhelming pressure as if a huge invisible iron mace was smashing my head down.
Crunch, cr-crunch—!
With the shock of the bones in my whole body crushing at once, my body bends bizarrely.
White foam and saliva mixed and flowed down between my lips.
My head was forcibly bent and shoved down as if to lick the floor.
It is not magic.
It is not a realm humans can understand.
"Uh...... Heok...... Save me, please......."
Fear crushed my reason.
At that time, I felt a warm, uncomfortable liquid flowing out from between my crotch.
I wet myself. Very miserably at that.
The best prospect of the Empire.
I, who took pride in being an elegant 4th Hierarchy mage.
Am trembling like a beast while peeing my pants at just one word from that bastard.
Rihan looked down at me coldly as if stepping over me, and leisurely walked out into the darkness carrying the fainted Duke on his back.
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