Now It Finally Makes Sense...
A chill silence filled the black expanse of space.
'Uh, uhh? D-did I say something wrong?'
For reasons he couldn't fathom, his father looked utterly stunned. His appearance was nothing more than that of an ordinary, adorable boy, yet the aura flowing off him again was anything but ordinary.
'Why, though? I didn't say anything that should have made Father angry...?'
That silence clawed at the troupe leader's chest and sank deep hooks of anxiety into him.
"...A rookie? Why does Father seem angry again...?"
"I-I'm sorry! Honestly, I don't know either..."
The troupe leader suppressed his dread and whispered the question to the troupe member, but the answer that came back was nothing more than a useless I don't know.
'Damn it. Fine. I'll have to steel myself and just ask him what's wrong...!!'
"Um, Father—"
"Just now, you said people, didn't you?"
The moment the troupe leader opened his mouth to ask his question, ready to endure whatever fury might follow, a voice brimming with expectation cut him off.
"You said you went to a place where people had gathered!?"
His father seized the troupe member's body—a white, blob-like mass—with both hands and hoisted it up.
"Ah, aaah, Father!? If you would first put the rookie down and hear his answer—!!"
Flustered by his father's voice, which sounded like an excited child's, the troupe leader tried to interject.
"Red hair—no, Nyarlathotep. If I go where she is, I can meet people, is that it!?"
But for him, whose head was now wholly ruled by excitement, there was no room left for the troupe leader's objections.
"This is no time for that! Hurry up and guide me to where Nyarlathotep is!!"
"F-Father!!"
He flung the troupe member he'd been holding over his shoulder and hurried off toward somewhere, urging the troupe leader onward.
"..! Rookie! Rookie! Are you all right!?"
Still dazed by the hurricane of a situation that had just swept past, he snapped back to his senses and worried over the member his father had tossed aside.
"T-Troupe leader..."
"Are you conscious!? Can you move your body?"
The troupe member rubbed at his eyes as though his mind were still swimming, and what came out of his mouth was this:
"Father lifted me up in his hands!! That means he's proud of me, right!?"
"..."
It was the kind of statement that reduced the leader's genuine concern to foolishness. The troupe leader looked at him with pure exasperation, then thought a slightly irreverent thought to himself.
"...I suppose this child takes after Father. Something's a bit off in his head."
And with that, he flew off after the father who had called for him.
"That... that being travels among the many civilizations, searching for creations with high power and potential."
With his father's silvery-saucepan eyes fixed on him, the troupe leader explained about Nyarlathotep, feeling the weight of the gaze pressing down on him.
"You said it was to make that so-called 'Plan' succeed?"
"Yes. I heard it from her directly, so there can be no mistake."
He asked while recalling the words he'd heard from the troupe leader earlier.
"Come to think of it, what exactly is this Plan? I don't think I ever heard the details."
"Well... you see..."
The troupe leader paused for a beat, then answered his father's question carefully.
"They only ever issue the order to carry the Plan out. As for its contents, we have never been told."
The three sisters had not kept it secret out of any ill intent. It was simply to protect their father's dignity and majesty. After all, they could hardly go around saying that the Plan's goal was to make their father a 'friend'.
"Hm. Fine, I don't particularly care. More importantly,"
He, having failed to notice his daughters' consideration, pressed the troupe leader with another question.
"So where is it that Nyarlathotep and the people are?"
The place where, just maybe, he could make a friend.
"Hmm... around this era, I would say..."
Nyarlathotep had been revisiting the same civilizations at fixed intervals. And the civilization she was due to inspect now—the name of that planet was:
"She should be on Earth, where the first civilization took root."
Earth. The first prototype planet born of the Plan.
"Earth... How do I get there?"
At the troupe leader's answer, he asked, utterly matter-of-fact, how one went about reaching Earth.
"...I'm sorry? You must be joking."
At that question, the troupe leader's ever-jiggly body went rigid with disbelief.
"Not joking. How would I possibly know how to get somewhere like that?"
'...Good grief. To think he doesn't even know something like this.'
His voice carried the serenity of a man long since past caring, as the troupe leader explained to his obtuse father.
"Whatever Father desires simply comes to pass. That is the kind of being you are."
It was neither flattery nor sarcasm nor anything of the sort—just the plain truth. However his conduct had appeared until now, the being standing before him was that Father. The Father of All, whose rank exceeded every existence in the universe combined. Only two of his wishes had ever been exceptions: the wish to make a friend, and the wish to die.
Merely moving himself through space was as easy as breathing.
'...She said something like that before, too, come to think of it.'
Recalling something from the past for a moment, he began to act, just as the troupe leader had said.
"Mm... I, want to go."
Carrying his wish, his hope, and all of his rank.
"To Earth."
And once again, the universe that cradled him began to carry out its creator's will.
-Shuuuuuuwoooook...
His father's form slowly began to vanish, starting from his feet.
"..Oh! I'm disappearing!! Am I on my way to Earth!?"
He cried out in a giddy voice, as though his own vanishing body were endlessly fascinating.
"I don't know your name, but thank you! Let's meet again sometime!!"
Since they had feared him, they couldn't exactly become friends—but still, it would be nice to see them again. He truly thought so. Before long, his form had vanished entirely, and the dust of the universe claimed the spot where his father had stood.
"...Good grief."
And then the troupe leader, staring at the place where he had disappeared,
"I finally understand why she calls him the Obvious Father."
left those words behind, along with a bitter expression.
And this—
"..!!!"
"I'm telling you, I know how to die?"
—was the very reason he would come to cross paths with Seo Harin.