〈6. Proof of Existence (43)〉
“……That’s why this fake is special.”
I ended up closing my mouth at the girl’s lengthy story.
It was hard to even meet her eyes. Because I never even imagined that the affection I poured into my younger sister would plant a twisted affection in the girl.
This was the same for Ria.
Although the girl’s foot was kicking Ria lightly, Ria chose silence instead of complaint. Only faint groans and flowing cold sweat represented her complex feelings.
Of course, the girl didn’t care at all about our reactions.
As if such a past was nothing at all, the golden eyes were burning fiercely with scholarly zeal.
“She’s a special specimen that can share senses with me. But whatever Mitram did, from some time ago, this fake started using part of my power… The sense sharing being cut off is a bonus.”
Listening to the girl’s words, a scene came to mind.
Recently, the strength and agility that Ria showed unconsciously seemed to be power borrowed from the girl.
The girl seemed particularly bothered by that point.
“I want to ask Mitram, but he’s already been dead for a long time… Well, can’t be helped? I have no choice but to research it myself.”
That was the last interest the girl showed in Ria.
Soon, the girl’s bright smile turned toward me.
“More than that, isn’t it funny? This setup, I mean… It’s similar to the old me?”
“What do you mean?”
I couldn’t just ignore the question from the abandoned younger sister, so I asked back like that.
The girl still had a brightly smiling face.
“I was restrained like that too. Praying to the heavens, searching for parents… But no salvation came. In fact, salvation isn’t something achieved by others’ hands.”
Lightly, lightly.
With each step she took, the arc at the corners of the girl’s mouth deepened. A cold flame rose in those golden eyes.
It was truly love and hate.
The emotions the girl held toward me could only be defined that way.
She hates and resents. But on the other hand, she can’t shake off the desire for me.
Because I was the only puzzle piece to complete her lost life.
Isn’t it a funny situation.
“The only one who can save oneself is oneself alone… There is no such thing as God. Despair, wail… Now accept the truth, Oppa.”
“……Yuren.”
It was another question I barely squeezed out.
I couldn’t think of any words to refute the girl’s statement. It might have been different in the past.
As long as you don’t give up somehow.
Without abandoning anything, just betraying myself and advancing is enough.
It was an achievement made by overlapping strokes of luck. But I only thought that luck would continue forever.
Without even knowing how many orphans’ blood that miracle cost as a price.
So this counter-question was nothing more than a desperate struggle.
“Where did Yuren go?”
“He went to find the Saintess.”
A short and plain answer, it was enough to make my vision bleak.
“She’s dangerous, you know. If she finds out that Oppa has disappeared, she’ll immediately use any means to find you. If the identity of the Blood Crystal gets revealed in the process, the Saintess will be in danger too, right? So Mr. Partner went as her escort knight.”
“What are you trying to do…….”
“Lock her up, of course?”
Giggle giggle, the girl burst into laughter as if asking what an obvious question.
“Who would suspect the escort knight? While she’s off guard like that, the partner will immediately vanish. And if chaos erupts in the holy nation, ta-da!”
The girl’s two arms rose high as she cheered.
“The plans we’ve prepared will start one by one! Isn’t it cool, won’t it be fun? Just how many hypocrites will wail……!”
I ended up closing my eyes tightly.
It’s wrong. I should have listened to the Saintess earlier.
My eyes were blinded by the thought that Ria had been kidnapped. If I had approached more cautiously, and at least known that Yuren was the betrayer, I wouldn’t have been driven to this cliff’s edge.
I felt sorry for the Saintess.
And I doubted the existence of God.
Is it really the end now? Is there no such thing as salvation?
The girl took steps with a face full of ecstasy.
One step, two steps. Just before approaching me like that.
Buzz buzz, something in my bosom began to let out cries.
The girl’s brows narrowed slightly.
“……What is this sound?”
I was equally startled. My eyes immediately turned to my chest.
There, an orb was emitting vibrations.
The moment my mind went blank, as I tried to trace the origin of that orb.
Bang, an explosion sounded from somewhere.
It was a small sound, but this vibration ringing in my eardrums was real. The gazes of everyone present, including me, turned toward the source.
It’s coming from far away. Something.
Bang, bang, bang!
The explosions are getting closer and closer. The speed was beyond imagination, so the girl had to blankly chant without even turning her head.
“An intruder? But, how……? It’s too fast. If a group came in, there’s no way I wouldn’t notice?”
Buzz buzz.
The orb was emitting increasingly intense cries. Along with the explosions, the chamber began to shake as if an earthquake had occurred.
Stone powder rained down from the ceiling, and when the girl, unable to endure, sharply turned her gaze.
Crackle, dim electricity flickered beyond the thick iron door.
Before the girl who saw this could react.
Kwaang!
An incomparably massive roar struck the air. Clothes and hair fluttered from the shockwave, and soon a acrid burning smell arose from beyond the roughly flung open iron gate.
Kieeeek!
Kreuk!
The faceless monsters turned into charcoal wriggled and convulsed.
It was the final struggle just before death.
The monsters whose entire blood vessels and nerves were completely burned soon stopped breathing.
Even until then, the girl stood rigidly without reacting. Merely frowning in disbelief, staring straight ahead.
There stood a tall man.
Whoosh, tap.
A pitch-black rod swam through the air and fell.
Beyond the thick fog, blue eyes burned like will-o’-the-wisps.
“I came looking because there was no contact…….”
An emotion-worn voice flowed out like a sigh.
The middle-aged man’s blue eyes began to alternate looking around the room. Starting from me, to the girl and Ria, and then to Senior Elsie.
With emotionless eyes, the man asked.
“Nephew-in-law. Let me ask just one thing… Is this perhaps part of the peculiar fetish you have?”
It was such an absurd question that I couldn’t even process proper thought.
My answer was exceedingly plain.
“Are you insane?”
“Yes, I see…….”
Whoosh, tap.
Once again, the pitch-black rod that flew through the air reached the man’s hand again. The middle-aged man’s aura, with his eyes quietly closed, was merely as calm as the sea before a typhoon.
It was then that veins bulged on the neck of the girl who had been silent until now.
“Who the hell are you……!”
“In my mercenary days, I was also called the ‘Thunder God of the Battlefield.’”
At the unexpectedly calm tone, the girl’s body flinched.
The man’s eyelids were slowly opening. The intense gaze leaking from within meant one thing.
One who has seen the end of truth.
True powerhouses who can single-handedly reverse the war situation and dominate the terrain.
“After returning to the family and joining the organization, I lived suppressing my temper for a while… Then one day, some little kid lit a fire in the lamp I thought I had lost in my heart.”
The Great Mage took a step forward.
The air was shimmering like heat haze. It was an abnormal phenomenon that could only be seen with high-density mana.
Glance, the blue eyes signaled me.
“He’s my nephew-in-law.”
It was a declaration made in a voice without even highs or lows. At that out-of-the-blue statement, the girl who had been dazed soon burst into laughter.
“Pu, pfft… Ahahahahaha! What is this withered old man saying! Do you perhaps think that because you’re a Great Mage, you can face me alone? Delusions have limits……!”
“Why should I face you alone?”
Just before the blood-red sun appeared in the air, it was Reynolds’ counter-question.
The girl’s body, unable to guess the intent, trembled.
And at that moment, the whip of lightning tore the world in half.
The crackling sound made it feel like my ears would go deaf. The majesty of the whip that dyed the vision white and bisected the ground from the sky was even terrifying.
Of course, that didn’t apply to the girl.
Clang, the blood-red whip wrapped around the girl’s arm struck away the lightning whip. The whip, unable to withstand the force, bounced up into the sky and soon broke into pieces and scattered.
The girl burst into a mocking laugh.
“Ha! With just this kind of magic……!”
But that leisure didn’t last long.
Because familiar blades were visible between the fragments of the shattered lightning.
The armaments falling toward me were all too familiar to me.
Sword and hand axe.
I released at once the aura I had been secretly accumulating all this time.
Clang!
The steel restraints shattered pitifully and scattered. Just before the girl could react, the sword and hand axe successively settled in my two hands.
And crossing the sword and hand axe in front to take a defensive stance with 結 (結？).
It was the perfect setup for a pincer attack.
At the situation that reversed in an instant, the girl ended up completely stunned.
Only then did the Great Mage burst into a dry laugh.
“A pincer attack is also one of the tactics. Especially when fighting mercenaries. Anyway…….”
But since no emotion was mixed in that dry laughter.
The girl gritted her teeth with a grit and hurriedly floated the blood-red sun. Perhaps because the interruption came right before achieving her goal, frustration was evident in her eyes.
An eerie tremor was gradually devouring the space. Buzz buzz, the already trembling sword and hand axe seemed to hint at the coming storm of lightning.
“Shall we slowly collect the price for taking my nephew?”
“Don’t make me laugh, you old geezer……!”
Right after the voices of the two powerhouses crossed like that.
The world was dyed pure white.
One Response
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