Chapter 174 – The Meaning of the Warning
While El and Ran continued their verbal battle, Ratel and Lia stood before the ashen fog.
The black fog into which Ran had crumbled and merged merely remained pooled at the center without any significant movement.
But change always came without warning. The black fog suddenly began converging in one place.
Startled by the unexpected movement, Lia approached the fog.
The black particles were gathering into a single mass again. They had said an orc would be born from that place.
If a new orc was born from the thing that had devoured both Jing and Ran, wouldn’t that mean the two of them had been used as its materials?
Then had Ran failed?
Ominous possibilities devastated Lia’s mind.
It was agonizing for Lia to be able to do nothing but think while the curse remained right before her eyes.
It was especially painful when she could not come up with any meaningful solution.
She envied Ran’s ability to find a breakthrough so quickly in urgent situations.
How had Ran thought of using the holy relic so immediately?
Wait—the holy relic?
Once her thoughts reached that point, Lia realized she had momentarily forgotten about its existence.
The holy relic. Where was it?
Ran had temporarily stopped the curse with his blood.
Orc blood had not worked, but perhaps human blood would.
Just as the sword had devoured Jing.
She had no idea what was happening, but trying it seemed better than standing by and doing nothing.
Then where had the holy relic gone?
Looking around, Lia found it without much difficulty.
The problem was that its sharp blade was moments away from cutting Ratel’s hand.
Wiping away the tears obstructing her vision, Lia sprang to her feet.
Even at a second glance, it was obvious that Ratel intended to repeat Ran’s actions.
“Ratel!!”
Lia screamed his name and lunged at him.
Ratel pulled his hand back slightly to keep Lia from throwing herself at the sword.
Lia briefly felt relieved that some shred of reason remained within him. Then she saw the cold look in his eyes and realized that he had no intention of changing his mind.
Only then did Lia understand the meaning of Ran’s final words before he disappeared.
What she had to endure was not grief, anguish, or even the curse’s unexpected progression.
It was Ratel, who refused to listen to a single word anyone else said.
* * *
It probably wasn’t mere paranoia that made his excited voice sound ominous.
I knew that after living for a thousand years and losing half his mind, the bastard’s priorities were equally deranged.
His happiness depended entirely on whether Ratel could properly fulfill his role.
And I did not think Ratel being capable of fulfilling that role could be considered “good news”.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said the moon has risen outside.”
When I showed no reaction, the frustrated squirrel beat his chest and urged me to respond.
So what if the moon had risen?
When I glared at him questioningly, he looked back as though he found it pathetic that I did not understand.
“Surely you haven’t forgotten what the moon signifies in this world.”
What did the moon signify?
The first thing that came to mind was this world’s mythology.
The story of Sierra Abiran and the monsters—the origin of this entire disaster.
By now, it was nothing more than a patchwork rag stitched together from boastful tales whose truths and lies could no longer be distinguished.
Yet simply because that bastard’s blood flowed through my veins, I had been made to suffer numerous times.
“Why should I care about some story left behind by a deranged religious fanatic?”
El’s eyes widened at my remark before he burst out laughing.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! A religious fanatic! That is the first time I’ve heard anyone call her that!”
I did not have time to wait for his laughter to subside.
“Kweek, I’ll let you hear it often from now on, so stop laughing and answer me. Kweek, are you saying I can use the fact that the great First Emperor imprisoned the monsters on the moon?”
El nodded, traces of amusement still remaining on his face.
“Yes. You can obtain three things through it. In exchange, however, you will have to surrender one thing. Are you prepared to do that?”
“Kweek, anyone listening to you would think I had a choice.”
“Deciding that you have no choice is itself a choice.”
Either he had oiled his tongue or someone had secretly glued my mouth shut, because I could not come up with a proper retort to anything he said today.
Apparently, my silence was answer enough. El climbed onto my body without hesitation.
“Don’t worry too much. When have I ever done anything that was bad for you?”
Far too many times to count.
When I stared at him as though hoping he would find the conscience he had misplaced, El cleared his throat several times and quietly looked away.
“Well, I’m merely telling you not to be nervous. We should deal with the matter before us first. What do you think is the difference between humans and monsters?”
His attempt to change the subject was painfully obvious. Still, now that I had decided to follow his instructions, I needed to think carefully.
The difference between humans and monsters.
When there were too many possible answers, choosing one became more difficult. I could not even decide which possibility to consider first.
Perhaps the most immediate difference was emotion.
When I first began traveling with the leader and the dimwit, I sensed a difference between their emotions and mine.
I assumed it was because they had lived completely different lives from the moment of their creation, possessing intelligence and perspectives unlike those of humans.
But as our journey approached its end—just before I left Ratel and Lia behind—I had been forced to admit that my assumption was wrong.
I knew those two were unusual cases, but even so, I could not completely separate them from myself.
If I had been incapable of seeing humanity in those two creatures, I would never have hesitated to kill the orcs.
If they felt no emotions and were merely creatures unable to restrain their urge to slaughter, unlike humans, then I would have had no reason to feel guilty.
Despite supposedly being creatures born from concentrated evil, the dimwit and the leader shared many emotions with humans.
Then what separated them from humans?
I wasn’t sure.
“Kweek, intelligence?”
Apparently amused by my simplistic answer, El openly mocked me.
“There are plenty of monster species as intelligent as humans—no, even more intelligent.”
Because I rarely asked him questions, his desire to savor this moment was painfully obvious.
“Kweek, Jing disappearing from the world won’t benefit you either. Kweek, stop spouting nonsense and give me a proper answer.”
Perhaps he was concerned about how Ratel would react if Jing died, because he quickly answered.
“The difference between humans and monsters is death.”
“Kweek, what are you talking about? Nothing treats every living being more equally than death.”
El nodded as though he understood my objection.
“It is true that neither can return after dying. What differs is what happens to them afterward. You know the legend of Abiran, don’t you?”
It would probably be difficult to find anyone in the Abiran Empire who did not.
“Kweek, you mean the story that humans go to the heavenly realm ruled by Sierra Abiran? Kweek, while the wicked who disobey the imperial family are sent to Hodie, where they mingle with monsters and filth?”
Mockery unconsciously entered my voice.
There could hardly be a religion more conveniently designed to suit the imperial family’s desires.
“You clearly don’t believe it at all.”
“Kweek, if those bastards are truly gods, then the world deserves to end.”
Come to think of it, it was already ending.
“Disbelieving that the imperial family are gods is different from disbelieving in a world after death. You must remember that this place is different from the world in which you once lived.”
El corrected me.
“Kweek, whether such a place exists or not, it isn’t something humans living their own lives need to concern themselves with.”
My response must have sounded exceptionally firm because El’s expression changed strangely.
Now that I thought about it, he seemed to take pride in belonging to a divine race.
Still, I had no desire to withdraw my words merely to protect his pride, so I continued.
“Kweek, what are you trying to say? Are you saying humans and monsters go to different places after they die?”
El accepted the change in subject without asking further questions and answered.
“Yes. If you are human, you cannot go to the same place as the monsters.”
The unspoken rule between us—that neither of us would probe too deeply—remained intact. However, his answer was so absurd that I had no time to appreciate that fact.
“Kweek, so you’re saying I have to die once to regain my original form?”
It sounded as though the one thing I had to surrender was my life.
* * *
Lia felt as though she were dying.
She had barely managed to restrain Ratel as he swung the holy relic as though he intended to cut his own body, but she knew he was not using his full strength.
She also knew that this was probably the greatest mercy he was capable of showing her.
“Let go of me. Waiting any longer is a waste of time.”
“Just wait, Ratel. Ran explicitly told us to wait.”
She had intended to persuade him to give Ran a little more time, but her words only aggravated Ratel’s anxiety.
“Damn it! Do you still not understand that bastard? He deceived us and left again.”
“You don’t even know whether doing this will solve anything!”
When the flustered Lia protested, Ratel pointed the tip of the sword toward the dimwit.
“We can’t keep waiting forever based on the words of a bastard who seems desperate to die.”
He intended to repeat exactly what that damned bastard had done.
If there was even a chance of stopping the accursed curse, he was willing to try anything.
Lia briefly sensed something strange in his behavior, but she quickly pulled herself together and blocked him again.
“You could make the situation worse! I understand that you want to try something, but if something happens to you as well, there’ll be no one left who can save either of them!”
Ratel looked down at Lia, who was clinging to his arm, with gloomy eyes.
“That bastard went in there prepared to sacrifice his life from the beginning. Do you still not understand? If we simply stand here and wait, all we’ll receive in the end is that madman’s corpse.”
While startled by Ratel’s fierce reaction, Lia began to feel a question emerging in the back of her mind.
Prepared to sacrifice his life?
What had Ratel been talking about all this time?
As far as Lia knew, Ran possessed a remarkably strong attachment to life.
Admittedly, his desire seemed less about deciding how to live and more about surviving by any means necessary.
But still, he had never seemed like someone who would choose death so easily.
If anything, he appeared almost obsessive about staying alive.
Yet the Ran whom Ratel had been describing sounded like someone desperate to die.
Ratel continued speaking while Lia traced his strangely inconsistent words back to their source.
“I should never have trusted that bastard. He deceived us once, and yet I let him deceive us again.”
Ratel’s gaze turned toward the black fog.
Seeing it writhe and gradually assume a definite shape, he acted as though there was no longer any reason to wait and approached the leader and the dimwit.
Horrified, Lia grabbed Ratel’s arm again, but it was like a cat trying to drag a buffalo.
“Let’s wait just a little longer. If it’s Ran, I’m sure.......”
“If it’s him, then what? Why should I listen to a bastard who went off to die merely to ease his own mind?”
At that moment, Lia, who had been helplessly dragged along by Ratel, finally understood the source of her unease.
“Ratel, are we actually talking about the same person?”
Lia had not intended it, but her question stopped Ratel more effectively than clinging to his clothes ever could.
Startled when Ratel abruptly froze, Lia raised her head and looked at him.
The moment she saw his wavering golden eyes, Lia realized that she had touched upon something he did not want to reveal, though she did not know what it was.
The time Lia spent pondering it—and the time she bought by stopping Ratel—was far more valuable than she realized.
It gave the black fog Ratel had intended to stop enough time to regain its movement.
As Lia stared blankly at Ratel, she noticed that the black mass had fully assumed a human shape and was slowly emerging from the center.
She screamed.
“Ratel! Look over there!”
Even before Lia spoke, Ratel regained his composure and noticed it. Gritting his teeth, he tightened his grip on the sword.
If it posed a threat, he would cut it down. If it did not, he would return it to its original place.
As though it possessed eyes, the black figure slowly approached the group.
At last, it stopped before Ratel and Lia.
Lia had been certain that nothing could surprise her anymore.
That certainty was mercilessly shattered when the figure shed the black fog like a discarded skin.
The person who emerged from within, terrifying everyone, was also far beyond anything she had anticipated.
“I never realized it before, but the human body really is as fragile as tofu.”
Ratel’s eyes widened at the voice of the person calmly opening and closing his hand while surveying the surroundings.
It was Ran.
Not an orc, but the black-haired Seventh Prince.
No comments yet. Be the first to leave a review!