Chapter 280: The Scarecrow's Dream and The Owl
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 280: The Scarecrow's Dream and The Owl
Once upon a time, long, long ago.
A story of a certain battle from a distant age.
On a vast, enormous plain.
Two armies faced each other.
To the east were the forces of the underground.
A host of vampires with sharp fangs and pale skin, dressed in stylish ceremonial robes despite being on a battlefield.
Leading them, the proudest of all the underground races, was a woman seated in a palanquin with an open roof.
Her eyes, which appeared pink or red depending on the angle, and the alluring aura emanating from her voluptuous body were utterly captivating. At the same time, however, her face held a look of profound lethargy and boredom.
To the west were the forces of the heavens.
A host armed with emerald armor and swords, their faces hidden completely by helmets as if to say individual characteristics were of no importance.
Leading them, the ones with the faintest sense of self among the heavenly disciples, who considered the chain of command an absolute value, was a woman with a gentle smile.
The woman’s face was serene, yet simultaneously cold. Her ice-like eyes betrayed no emotion, only the mechanical glint of a machine executing a predetermined objective.
Without a clear first move from either side, the two armies clashed.
But their battle was exceedingly bizarre.
When the heavenly army rained arrows upon an empty space, a swarm of vampires, who happened to be transforming into bats and moving to that very spot, were struck and fell from the sky.
When the underground army lay in wait at a designated point, the defenseless flanks of charging cavalrymen were exposed right before them, only to be crushed.
The two women were not watching the present battlefield.
They prepared for the opponent's next move, countered that move, countered the counter, and then countered the counter to that counter.
It was a dilemma born from two beings who could both see the future.
Even if one tried to make the ‘best move’ through their prophetic ability, it was rendered useless if the opponent also read it and responded in kind.
What followed was a battle of command.
Creating multiple variables at once to make it difficult for the opponent to respond, reading the variables created by the opponent to react in time, and whittling down the enemy’s forces to reduce the cards they could play.
After clashing, and clashing, and clashing again.
They rose from their seats and rushed at each other.
Sharp claws tore through wings, a piercing flute’s shriek burst eardrums, a spear of blood pierced through organs, and an emerald sword separated torso from legs.
It was a ferocious battle, yet the faces of the two prophets engaged in it showed no emotion.
As if this, too, was just one of the endings they had already foreseen.
And so, they annihilated each other.
It was a form of compromise.
And at the same time, a form of agreement.
The ideal was for one to survive and kill the other.
But their skills were equal, and choosing a one-sided ‘best outcome’ was impossible.
Therefore, both chose the ‘second-best option’: to eliminate the opponent, even at the cost of their own life.
The underground lamented the death of their general, and the heavens expressed regret at losing a useful piece.
And that was the end of it.
The war was not yet over.
There was too much to be done, and they could not cling to the dead forever.
Thus, the two prophets vanished.
—Really?
*
You frowned in front of the monitor.
It was because of a stifling feeling in your chest.
It wasn't a problem with your body outside the monitor.
The you on this side was a being that felt neither fatigue nor hunger.
The source of the constriction was the ‘Tin Knight’.
His hands and feet wouldn't budge, and sensing his surroundings wasn't working as intended.
It was similar to a severe case of sleep paralysis.
With one of your two bodies in such a state, it felt as if the unpleasant sensation was carrying over to this body, which should have been perfectly fine.
It was like when you play a rhythm game and your thoughts seem to half-stop as you become completely absorbed.
The feeling was all the more vivid because you had recently been focusing most of your consciousness on the ‘other side’.
After shaking off the awkward sensation with a light stretch, you looked at the monitor again.
The monitor was filled with what looked like a blood-red mist.
It was a rather ghastly sight, but you weren't particularly frightened.
No matter how much the red mist swirled, it had no effect on the system window, and the screen hadn't turned off completely.
The connection between you and the Tin Knight was secure.
This dreadfully silent and lonely room was properly connected to the world where your comrades were.
Knowing that, this situation was not a source of fear for you.
The only problem was how to resolve it.
As you fiddled with the mouse and keyboard, wondering if there was anything you could do, the red mist thinned slightly, and the scenery beyond began to appear.
It was a war.
On a vast, enormous plain, two different groups were fighting a bloody battle to the death.
One side, emitting black and red mana, transforming into bats or wolves, manipulating blood, and flaunting their regenerative abilities, was clearly of the vampire-like variety.
The other side, though with slight variations depending on the type of soldier, was fundamentally clad in armor and emitted an emerald light from their bodies, clearly of the holy knight variety.
The faces of the two commanders were blurred by the thick mist, but it wasn't difficult to get a general sense of them from their silhouettes alone.
Based on visuals, one side seemed evil and the other holy, but you didn't particularly trust either.
People who used pretty and sacred visuals to do rotten things were a dime a dozen.
The battle ended in a draw, and the remnants fled, barely escaping with their lives.
And at the place where the two corpses had fallen, figures clad in white priestly robes descended.
They spoke amongst themselves with solemn expressions, but the red mist interfered not only with sight but also with sound, making it difficult to hear the full conversation.
「A stra■nge affair. ■■ is sorely lacking.」
「It was a fie■rce battle. Wasn't the da■mage to the so■ul itself also seve■re?」
「Hmm. Can't be he■lped. Let's just ta■ke what's left.」
「Do we not need to recov■er Lady ■■'s remains?」
「She is a wi■ng that failed to fulfi■ll her role. Is there really a ne■ed to ■■? If the angel who ■■■ victory had survi■ved, we would have to recov■er her, but...」
「Under■stood.」
They collected the soil from where the commanders had fallen and something like a lump of dark red power, then returned to the sky.
The next to arrive was a lone traveler.
The traveler gazed at the traces of the old battlefield with admiration, then began to rummage around here and there.
He seemed to be searching for anything useful.
After a while, the traveler bent down as if he had found something.
What he picked up was a strange object, about the length and thickness of a human forearm.
Its luster, a mix of teal and red, was reminiscent of a gemstone, but it seemed far too light to be a stone, so much so that the traveler could lightly toss it up and down in one hand.
The traveler, seeming to believe the unknown substance was quite valuable, gripped it with a satisfied expression and departed for another place.
And so, only the plains remained.
Again, a long time passed.
The scars of the fierce battle faded with the flow of time, and other people came to that place.
Dressed in what looked like high-quality clothes, they carefully surveyed the plains and their surroundings for several days and nights, then, with satisfied expressions, began to build a base there.
What started as a small settlement with just a few houses grew into a village where dozens of households lived together, and then into a massive city.
The city was quite an extraordinary place.
By extraordinary, I don't mean that some powerful, blustering human of unknown royal or noble lineage started acting as ruler, only to have his head chopped off by another blustering human less than five years later.
It was extraordinary because the one who chopped off his head was then cut down from behind by another human, who was then stabbed in the neck with a dagger while sleeping, and the one who stabbed him died vomiting blood after drinking wine, and the new ruler who rose to power was killed while bathing by a piece of cheese (hard) that flew through a shattered window—and this sort of thing repeated dozens of times.
It was such a spectacular mess that even you, who had experienced all sorts of chaos as the Tin Knight, couldn't help but applaud. You also made a mental note to try throwing cheese later.
After a period of chaos that was difficult to fully comprehend through the vision still obscured by the faint red mist, the city's political system had changed into something resembling a democracy.
Of course, it wasn't a system where all citizens had the right to vote; it was a structure where suffrage was granted only to a select few, such as wealthy adult men and mana users. Still, it was quite different from the monarchies you had seen so far.
Day in and day out, they would gather in the square and debate all sorts of topics, and they seemed to have a particularly strong desire for and obsession with scholarship.
A promising scholar, even if they had no personal wealth, were not a man, or couldn't use special powers like mana or holy power, could still be treated with a certain degree of respect.
Then again, the very act of accumulating knowledge was difficult without a certain level of financial stability, so it was nearly impossible for someone to rise to a high position with knowledge alone.
Whether it was due to their political system or just a stroke of good luck, the city prospered rapidly.
Occasionally, other nations (about the size of a city) would come to conquer this ‘rootless’ city, but each time, the city emerged victorious.
Witnessing their success, immigrants who could no longer endure the tyranny of kings and nobles flocked to this city, or they too rose up against their kings and nobles and reformed their own nations.
Their greatest fortune was the fact that the powerful kingdom that would have viewed them as the biggest thorn in its side had collapsed for some unknown reason.
You listened closely to the conversations of the city's residents.
Perhaps because the mist had thinned considerably, you could hear their dialogue more clearly than before.
"I heard a terrible disaster struck the capital of the Ionian Kingdom. The rivers turned to blood, maggots swarmed everywhere, plagues spread, a dark energy covered the sky and hid the sun, and an army of corpses laid waste to the royal palace."
"What in the world happened for such a catastrophe to occur? Did the kingdom attempt some suspicious magic and fail?"
"They say it was the work of a single witch."
"Does that make any sense? A single witch wiped out the strongest nation of this era?"
"What can I say, that's the story being told."
"So, is the kingdom completely finished then?"
"Who knows. It seems the people from the kingdom who advanced to the central continent are each going their own way. Some are trying to return to the kingdom, while others are just settling down to create new nations. Perhaps among them, some will emerge to carry on the name of the Ionian Kingdom. Then again, even if it is reborn, it's doubtful it would be the same country as before."
"In any case, it's a fortunate turn of events for us."
"Yes, they'll be busy with their own domestic affairs, so they'll probably go easy on harassing us for a while."
The powerful kingdom fractured into several new nations, and in the cracks, the cities that did not serve a king gathered together to form a new nation of their own.
The City-State Alliance. Doria.
That was the name of the country that had sprung up on the ground where the bodies of two mythical beings lay.
It was also, you recalled, Sophia's hometown.
You realized that you were no longer watching from beyond the monitor, but were standing in the city center in the Tin Knight's body.
However, it wasn't perfect.
Like a ghost, no one perceived you, and you were unable to touch or interfere with anything.
Your senses were still blurry and constricted.
But with assistance from outside the monitor, you weren't completely immobile.
You decided to continue your exploration.