Chapter 105: ????

What if.

What if, that is.

Separate from the expectations of someone who had already seen such a future.

What if things turned out in the worst possible way?

And.

Considering all those factors.

Suppose there was someone who believed he would absolutely not die.

Or believed that his life would never come to such a hollow end.

If that belief were betrayed.

What kind of expression would they wear?

What would they think, and with what heart would they witness such an event?

The blooming bubbles seemed to illuminate the past, yet at the same time, they seemed to illuminate an entirely different world.

A boy who had become a Hero by grasping the Holy Sword anew.

And a girl entwined in the Cause and Effect of having to kill the Hero.

But separate from that.

Yet, the very person who, in a sense, had entwined the two.

The Saint.

If he, with eyes closed as if asleep, had become a body that would never wake again.

No, if he had.

Would someone simply watch it happen?

Would they merely stand by?

…….

………….

The black-haired boy, lying on the frost-covered ground as if asleep.

It seemed he was now in a position where it would be difficult for those bright yet gloomy eyes—eyes that resembled gold—to ever bloom again.

His breath had long since ceased, his heart had stopped long ago, and even his warmth was scattering.

And.

That sight.

The Golden Girl watched it as if gazing at a distant world.

The fierce battle between the Hero and the Demon King had, in truth, given her no emotional stir.

It was outside her interest.

However.

The reality that the child captured in her eyes would never open them again.

Surprisingly.

Surprisingly, it seemed to have dealt a profound blow even to her.

-I do not peek into the future.

Long ago, the Great Demon King had once asked his followers, disciples, limbs, and subordinates.

Whether it would be good or bad to be able to glimpse the future.

At that time, most expressed that it would be beneficial to know the future, and that they wished to do so.

…Except for her alone.

The future is already decided before I even attempt something?

Then what fun is there in living?

With what motivation would I live?

Such a future arrives even if I do not wish for it?

Am I not bound by it because I know it?

Because I know, there are things I can fix and change.

However.

What is lost would be far greater.

Whether for oneself or for another, as always.

Depending on the purpose, there would be pros and cons.

But in that, my sense of reward and passion, my happiness and joy, would become extremely thin.

For some reason, Grandeus became able to glimpse it.

Because of that, he lived every moment in despair.

Even so, he could not have let go.

I do not know what he saw.

But.

In the end, he threw himself into that future.

He may have passed the Arcane Secret to his comrade, but it was in an extremely ambiguous form.

For an ordinary human, there is a limit even if they polish their skills.

The limit of time.

The limit of Innate Talent and persistence.

The limit of personality and character.

And.

The limit of desperation and will would have been the greatest problem.

Even if given enough time, their level of mastery is at the bottom.

Because their effort was lacking.

That effort meant enduring pain as if burning oneself, and beyond that, splitting, tearing, crushing, and breaking the very soul.

Enduring extreme boredom.

Enduring the absurdity that wears down one’s humanity, sensibility, and even reason… he had to bear it all.

Even so, conviction and justice must not crumble.

It is fine if justice is somewhat skewed.

However, it must not lean toward evil in the end.

In short, it is a swordsmanship that cannot be learned through conventional means.

Looking only at the posture and movement itself, it is a failure.

However, through the harmony of the Heart Formula, specialties, and characteristics, it is sublimated into an unparalleled Arcane Secret.

The reason she made Kariel commit suicide in his dreams, and killed him in various ways under the guise of countless trials.

When you think about it, she was merely guiding him via a shortcut.

All she desired was trust.

Faith.

And Kariel, whether because of the contract or because it was the only thing he had.

Showed his faith based on desperation.

Will? Thought? Vows made with words?

Such things were completely unnecessary.

The only thing that needed to be shown was action.

And Kariel answered with his actions.

Therefore, the fact that he grew like that… was only natural.

The Demon King thought.

-Did you leave before ripening?

Is this not a lamentable life?

Nevertheless, our contract shall be carried out.

Even in death, you shall find no salvation.

And most of those connected to you shall now be entwined in Cause and Effect, experiencing extreme misfortune and despair.

You resisted so fiercely because you disliked that.

In the end, you failed to complete the journey.

Where did it go wrong?

Failing to obtain Elbat?

Surely Grandeus had his own strategic placement for that.

Did you fail to reach that point?

No matter how she thought about it, one step.

She thought he had been short by just one step.

-…….

Is it inevitable?

Leaning her face close to his coldly cooling face.

As if looking at her own reflection on the surface of the water, she gazed and gazed at Kariel.

-I shall grant you just one thing.

Since you are not here now, you cannot see it.

-Consider the act of passing this fact onto the one left behind as my own kind of congratulatory address.

Reaching out to caress his cheek.

She seemed to melt into Kariel’s body.

And shortly after.

“…….”

The boy who pushed himself up began to be dyed in gold across his entire body for some reason.

No, that was not all.

“Eh?”

Luirin was the first to feel the strangeness.

Because the ground had begun to be dyed in gold for some reason.

Furthermore, that color spread from his feet to his entire body as if it were contagious.

In just a few seconds, Luirin’s entire body began to emit a golden radiance.

He wasn’t the only one.

The entire surrounding area began to turn gold, like spreading paint.

“W-what is this?”

While Luciri was flustered.

Leo could not hide his bewilderment for some reason.

At the same time.

The battle was forcibly brought to an end.

Their bodies would not move.

And that.

“Why…?!”

Even Mines, who had inherited the Legacy of the Great Demon King, was no exception.

Before they knew it.

Golden stone pillars began to fill the surroundings.

It felt as if the world was being dyed in gold.

The sky had been stained white by the Frost Storm created by Mines.

But eventually, even that began to turn a bright gold.

Then.

The gold-dyed boy, Kariel, spoke.

“Sing a requiem.”

Screams are fine.

Wails would be better.

Howling would also be quite acceptable.

You may be glad, or you may be joyful.

“Experience how useless the anguish and agony of a lifetime truly are.”

To those who had not yet lived a single lifetime.

The Demon King of Wisdom.

The Golden Demon King.

Simultaneous with eternal sleep, he granted them a pseudo-lifetime equivalent to tens, hundreds, thousands, and millions of years.

“What is reality? If a dream is felt as real, is it reality or a lie? Which ‘I’ is the true ‘I’? If you can answer that, you shall be liberated.”

Who was I when I was an ant?

Who was I when I was a butterfly?

When I was a wolf.

When I was a fox.

A snake, a toad, a fish, a bird, an insect….

“…….”

Before long, the ground rose and a golden throne was established.

Sitting there familiarly with his chin resting on his hand, the golden boy waited for a full day without closing his eyes once.

The sun rose and set.

And just as it was about to rise again.

He finally arrived.

“…….”

Perhaps intending to hide his identity, his attire was a monochrome coat of grey.

It was a truly arrogant outfit for an audience with a king.

But she did not scold him.

She merely offered words of reunion.

“My dear. I nearly fell asleep waiting. You are so late; your sin is grave.”

“…….”

White hair and golden eyes.

When first seen, he had looked so naive.

But now, he had simply become mature.

It seemed impossible to even compare him to before.

Truly.

It was a perfect appearance, to the point where one would wonder if the heavens had showcased aesthetic elements with goodwill.

Kariel’s handsome appearance was only possible because it had been influenced by this.

In a way, this was the perfect human.

“Are you the person I know?”

“If any guess you have assumes the worst. Then yes, it is.”

I am here.

“And you have arrived before me once again.”

The gold inhabiting Kariel’s body looked somewhat bored.

And Lueld, facing him, and Patina, who had followed him.

They looked extremely confused, not knowing how to process this situation.

Of course, Lueld’s mind and body had immediately hardened the moment he accepted that he was the Golden Beast.

The more perfect a Hero is, the further they become from being human.

Furthermore.

An old Demon King occupying his son’s body.

There could be no nightmare worse than this.

“Did you make my son like this? Did you lead that child with sinister words, using him to induce this? And then you even took over Kariel’s body?”

“First, let me clarify one thing. I have no motivation. To begin with, I do not prefer tasteless acts like resurrecting or seizing others’ bodies. Therefore, all of this was not my intention.”

“…Do you call that talking? Someone of your standing?”

He felt like drawing his sword and doing something to that thing right now.

Nevertheless, that body was a child who was like a clone of himself and Ermina.

It was that child’s body.

And with that child’s body.

With that mouth.

It spoke.

“I am here to tell you why this fellow ended up in this state. Nothing more. Do you want to kill me? Then try it. Then you will hear nothing. And even if you do something to your son’s neck or heart, it will have no effect on me.”

Do you not know?

“I am already dead. What is there for me to regret?”

“…Do you think I will be swayed by your sinister words?”

“I will speak only the truth. If you wish, we may even make a contract.”

She smirked.

However, to Lueld and Patina, it must have looked like a smile Kariel would make.

How it felt so chilling.

Above all, the gold-dyed earth and sky evoked an unprecedented fear in the two of them.

“What did you do to the people here?”

“Since this child died, a price must be paid. If there is a sin, then perhaps that much?”

…It wasn’t that there was a specific cause of death or such a reason.

If so, she should have crushed that incompetent Legion Commander.

That gloomy and dull, truly dull fellow.

If Bargo hadn’t readily left this place.

The moment she took over Kariel’s body, he too would have enjoyed a hell that was not a hell, without exception.

The domain had already spread to the entire village.

Thus, as if they had become golden statues.

The entire village had transformed.

What was more horrific.

Was that all of this was genuine gold.

Is this mercy, or a blessing?

Or is it an absolute curse?

“Now, let us begin the story.”

It’s nothing much.

“A story about a great regret that you must bury in your hearts for the rest of your lives.”

Previously, Kariel had briefly confided why he could not commit suicide, why he could not make such an attempt in front of his parents.

Because Ermina’s ability was overwhelming, any mediocre fatal wound was useless.

And if he were to quietly end his life in a place where she could not reach.

He would not have been able to see them regret or despair.

…But what if.

Though it was unlikely.

What if they showed disappointment and contempt toward him for making such an attempt?

That, in itself, would have been terrible.

It was an impudent and impure ‘what if’ story that could only be known through imagination.

‘Well, do not worry.’

Fortunately, my time is rotting away.

So, I shall be a bystander for a short while.

After hearing this story, how that Hero will accept it and how he will respond.

It was obvious he would bury the story from his wife.

Nevertheless, someday, it will reach Ermina’s ears.

Even if Lueld keeps his mouth shut.

The woman beside him, unlike Lueld, does not have an unwavering nature.

You may be invincible.

But that is a story limited to you, Lueld.

“Yes. First… it would be best to tell the reason why I came to meet Kariel.”

Therefore.

“Your country’s ancestors, those sinful ones who remained only as spirits, pitied that child’s situation and guided him to me.”

In other words.

“At that time, there was no one else around who could save him besides me. They must have reached that decision after their own careful consideration. After all, the methods to help Kariel were extremely limited for them, as they were close to Earth-Bound Spirits.”

Why did Kariel accept the Golden Beast, who was his father’s arch-enemy and the public enemy of the continent?

And why….

“Why he had no choice but to resent you so much. Why he ran away from home, and why that child sought to uphold Grandeus’s will. The reason he had no choice… is nothing special.”

The gold then.

Revealed the true feelings that Kariel could never have disclosed even if he woke from the dead.

As if acting.

“Why didn’t you love me? Why didn’t you give me any attention? I… didn’t ask for much.”

Just.

I wanted to be recognized by you.

I didn’t want to be scolded.

I wanted to be praised.

Like any other children, like a normal parent-child relationship.

Loving and being loved.

…I just wanted to live like that.

“When I was truly struggling, you scolded me. Even though I begged you to believe me. In the end, you didn’t believe me. How do you think I felt then?”

I was abandoned by the world.

The world collapsed.

Even the parents who gave birth to me denied my life.

Even they didn’t believe me.

…What do I have left?

“I told myself to hold on until my mother gave birth to my sibling. If my mother were to be shocked because of something I did, even though she is a strong person, you never know, right? So I held on. It was truly hard, painful, and agonizing… but I really worked hard to hold on.”

By then.

Just breathing and facing people was hard, painful, and exhausting.

No matter what anyone said, it felt suspicious, ominous, and anxious.

Everything was just like that.

Then, it suddenly occurred to me.

It was because I was a broken vessel.

Because I was broken into pieces, and some of those pieces were even crushed into powder.

I realized that I had become a being who could no longer hold water, nor hold anything else.

…It was sorrowful and hard.

Even thinking about such things was overwhelming.

Truly, I didn’t want to recall anything.

I didn’t even want to think.

All I wanted was.

…To breathe a little more comfortably.

“When will I finally become a son you aren’t ashamed of? In the end, to be recognized by you, to prove that this life is not futile and meaningless. Now, there is really no answer other than defeating you, is there?”

Not just you.

I wanted to tell the entire world that had criticized me while looking at you.

That I was not wrong.

It was nothing much, I truly just wanted to snap that one sentence clearly.

Why do you try to judge me as you please?

I am me.

Are you trying to take that away too? Did you only feel satisfied after taking and depriving me of even that?

What on earth am I?

Being expected to be something while being incompetent and lethargic because of a past I can’t even remember.

And then being betrayed as you pleased.

I really.

Was nothing.

I’m telling you I can’t handle Mana.

My body isn’t healthy.

Whenever I have a chance, I get chills and become lethargic, what should I do?

I trained until I coughed up blood, and I studied through many sleepless nights, I really, really worked hard.

And yet it didn’t work.

Effort alone wasn’t enough.

So I asked for a solution.

You just asked why it didn’t work, and told me it would work if I kept at it.

…Even that was something I asked after agonizing for days and nights.

Was even that just a spoiled whim to you?

That our relationship had been broken long ago, to the point where I had to agonize and agonize over asking such a thing.

…Perhaps only you all were unaware.

“I might have been the embodiment of your regrets.”

I am sorry for having been born.

And now.

“……As you can see, this child is dead.”

Kariel, whose tone had shifted before anyone noticed, spoke again as the Golden Beast, his manner alluring yet overbearing.

“I shall give you a choice. If you wish to hear the rest, strike my neck now. Then I, too, shall cease this without any lingering attachment.”

“……Do you still have more to say?”

“Of course.”

The gold laughed.

“This was merely my inner thoughts before leaving the capital. You do not yet know what happened after that, do you?”

“…….”

What he had heard so far was already enough to make his mind reel.

And yet, he was curious; at the same time, he did not want to hear it.

No, while he desperately wanted to know, he was simultaneously terrified.

Though there had never been anything in the world that he found truly frightening before.

At this moment, even that golden being felt like nothing.

Only.

Kariel’s inner thoughts and feelings.

And the circumstances and situations that child must have endured.

The fear of uncovering that truth.

For Lueld, that was the only thing he truly dreaded.

“…….”

Though he seemed to be watching Lueld, the gold gazed elsewhere.

The girl named Patina had already half-collapsed mentally.

It likely meant that she, in her own way, had truly cherished Kariel.

However, it was wrong, twisted, and skewed.

‘Is that truly only their fault?’

A sense of dissonance washed over him again.

Was there something that made it inevitable?

Or did something incite it with intent?

“…….”

Well, it doesn’t matter now.

I am not an avenger.

Nor am I an Uninvited Guest who takes on someone’s will, conviction, or grudge.

Besides, for me, who is already dead, to take something on? That’s absurd.

Therefore, even this current act is an overstep.

Is it because I’ve been infected by Kariel? Normally, I shouldn’t even be doing this.

Is it because I have no physical body? I’m being swayed miserably.

“Very well. I shall take that as a sign that you wish to hear more. Then now… yes. Let us talk about the time after that child left the capital… and went to that place, Karielain, was it?”

About inheriting the will of Saint Kariel.

And how he met certain people there, and how he eventually parted from them.

“That story shall be quite intriguing as well.”

The Demon King once again took on the role of the storyteller.

For a time that felt both short and long.

The story continued.

A truly absurd play where the speaker laughed while the listeners only grew in frustration and despair.

Within that, the Demon King whispered a requiem internally.

You will not be able to rest in peace.

For we have made such a contract.

Nevertheless, I hope you are slightly less exhausted.

The most miserable thing in the world is exhaustion.

In a state of exhaustion, even pain becomes twice as burdensome, and suffering increases.

Until eventually, one loses even oneself.

Leaving only pain, regret, resentment, and despair.

Later, even resignation will be burnt away, leaving only frantic struggles.

Even so.

…Those who punish us will continue to torment us without a shred of mercy.

Telling us to atone.

Claiming this is judgment.

Claiming it is punishment.

Because you did wrong.

Therefore, you must suffer like this.

There is no mercy in this world.

Only the cold, only the adherence to principles.

Where only despair and cowardice coexist.

If it truly felt unfair.

…Resent only that which is not ■.

For that alone.

Is the Original Sin.

That you were forced to bear unilaterally.