EP.155 Coincidence, Maybe Destiny (3)
A shabby store located in a narrow alley.
Normally, the only person guarding this store would have been an ancient elf casting a suspicious glance at me from the door.
But that wasn’t the case now.
It seems that during the five years I was on the battlefield, the store had gained some young customers… One of them was a student of mine, and the other was a girl who would soon become a student. I shifted my gaze towards the girl.
“Ugh…”
The girl was groaning with her head buried on the desk.
Her ears, peeking through her flowing white hair, were bright red. She seemed aware of her embarrassing situation. I stifled a laugh and tapped the table with my fingers.
Tap, tap.
The girl flinched, her shoulders trembling.
“Didn’t I ask for your name?”
I responded to the question she had posed to me.
“Rania van Trias. That’s my name.”
And by the way, my subject too.
“I’m in charge of Mana Trading Studies, Basic… and I’ll most likely be the one responsible for your education.”
At my words, Chloe slowly raised her head.
Her face was burning red like a tomato. Finally, she responded in a voice that seemed to crawl out from her.
“Y-yes, Professor Rania…”
While her voice seemed a bit weak, it was probably just my imagination. How could she sound disappointed when her admired professor was right in front of her?
‘Of course, definitely.’
I whispered to Chloe while holding back my laughter.
“I’m honored that you wanted to listen to my class that much.”
“Ugh…”
Chloe bowed her head deeply.
Seeing her unable to make eye contact stirred an inexplicable sense of sadism within me. You know, isn’t that what they call a satisfying feeling?
‘The taste of teasing… yes, it’s enjoyable.’
She was quite the entertaining girl.
As I teased Chloe, Belnoa, who had been standing dumbfounded at the store’s entrance, spoke up.
“Um, Professor.”
“What?”
“Is there something going on…?”
His tone seemed confused.
Belnoa blinked, looking back and forth between me and Chloe. No matter how quick-witted he was, it seemed he couldn’t grasp the situation.
“Nothing much.”
I kept my words vague.
It technically was something, but explaining it all to Belnoa in front of the main character would be too cruel, wouldn’t it? To be honest, I feared the girl’s face might burst from embarrassment.
‘How considerate I am.’
Well, not exactly elegant.
I interrupted the conversation and gave a glance to Cardi, who was standing behind Belnoa.
“Huff…”
Cardi, looking like an old man, shook his head and patted Belnoa’s shoulder.
“Didn’t you promise Chloe something? Hurry up and take her out. If you stay any longer, you’ll have to listen to her complaints all day.”
“What complaints? I’m not that late…”
“Not you, me. Get moving.”
Cardi practically pushed Belnoa and Chloe out the door. Even as he held Chloe’s hand and left, Belnoa still wore a puzzled expression.
Squeak.
The hinges creaked noisily, and the door opened again.
It was just before the two stepped out of the store.
“Chloe.”
I called out the girl’s name.
Chloe turned her head slightly to look at me. I met her gaze directly and smiled.
“I don’t really know how to make the class elegant, but…”
Chloe’s pupils widened. Looking at her blushing face, I smiled even more.
“I’ll do my best. See you next time.”
With a bright smile meant for the girl who would soon be my student, I gave her a genuinely warm grin. Yet, as always, sincerity hardly ever reaches others.
“Ugh, uuugh…”
Blushing fiercely, Chloe bowed her head and covered her face with both hands before quickly exiting the store. I waved goodbye to her with a smile.
‘What an amusing kid.’
I was greatly looking forward to our next encounter.
2.
After Belnoa and Chloe had left for quite some time, I sipped the tea brought by Cardi, who had returned to his original form. Despite the constant complaints about its taste, this thick green liquid hadn’t changed at all since the first time.
“Who said they liked this?”
“It was Gleria who liked that tea. She said it had a chewy texture, and she often skipped meals to drink it while on her travels.”
“The First Saint had extraordinary taste, huh?”
“Well, she said everything I served was delicious, so I can’t deny she was an elf-friendly human. Whether that’s extraordinary from an ordinary human’s perspective is another matter.”
I bitterly smiled at Cardi’s shrug. Seriously, he never misses a beat. After a moment of silence, Cardi opened his mouth.
“The First Saint.”
“…?”
“If you can connect that title to her… it seems you’ve seen everything I left behind.”
“That’s correct.”
Cardi set down his teacup.
With a slight bitter smile, Cardi asked me.
“How do you feel confronting the truth, Raniel?”
The truth, huh.
“Well…”
I rested my chin on my hand, staring at my teacup.
This thick green liquid barely goes down my throat. In fact, calling it liquid seemed inadequate as one had to chew it before swallowing.
Ironically.
The truth I faced was something similar. Something hard to accept and difficult to swallow; it was something to be chewed over repeatedly. What I saw at the peak of the Kurakt Mountain Range was that kind of thing.
“It was shocking.”
I leaned back in my chair.
“The Calamity of the Four. The ones responsible for altering human history time and time again. Just the territories that were trampled beneath their feet are countless… they are truly calamitous beings.”
Their origins or origins were unclear.
No one knew what sort of lives they had lived. At some point, they were just known as calamities born to ravage the world, created by the Demon Lord.
“Who would have imagined?”
I blurted out.
“Three of them are probably the First Heroes.”
The First Hero, Ganikalt van Galatrick.
The First Saint, Gleria Bel Armias.
The Dragon Sorcerer, Belial van Dragonik.
“And you are supposed to be one of them.”
The Grand Magus, Cardi van Armiel.
I looked at the elf in front of me and said.
“Isn’t that right? Armiel.”
“Don’t call me by my baptismal name. It has truly become a discarded name.”
Cardi fiddled with his teacup while speaking.
His gaze was on the teacup, but his eyes seemed to envision a much more distant past. It was likely he was reminded of someone who used to call him Armiel.
After a brief silence, Cardi spoke again.
“…Did you see the letter?”
“I did.”
“Then you must have obtained it as well.”
I nodded.
Cardi looked at me. His golden eyes glittered. It seemed he was searching for some trace of something within me, but that was a futile endeavor.
“I can’t accept starlight. You know that.”
“…Is it because you burned your lifespan?”
“That’s part of it. I’ve etched the power beyond the limit into my soul many times. What good would it do to pour starlight into a cracked vessel?”
“…So it’s too late for you.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“There’s no need to see it that way. If I hadn’t burned my lifespan… I wouldn’t have reached that point in the first place.”
Because I burned my lifespan.
Because I gave my all at every moment, I was able to reach that truth.
If I had just weighed my options and calculated, wouldn’t I have ended up as another rotting corpse on the ground?
‘I would have died the moment I faced the Demon Lord.’
Yes, the Demon Lord.
Remembering the mass of stagnant filth I faced, I took a deep breath. The reason why I had visited Cardi today was not merely to report.
I had something to confirm with this elf.
“Hey, Cardi.”
I opened my mouth.
Meeting Cardi’s yellow eyes, I continued.
“When I first visited you after retiring… do you remember what you said about the Demon Lord?”
“…I remember.”
When I sought out Cardi to find a countermeasure for the curse, he had questioned me with great suspicion.
“What do you intend to become?”
At that time, I faced the Demon Lord and explained that I was merely cursed… but even with my answer, Cardi didn’t lower his guard.
Instead, he had asked this.
“Are you saying you were not under a contract or transaction, but ‘tangled’?”
Cardi had spoken as if a contract or transaction could be made with the Demon Lord. I thought it was just the nonsensical ramblings of a crazy elf at the time, but now, realizing Cardi’s true identity, those words held a completely different meaning.
The very person who faced the Demon Lord.
One of the First Heroes who fought the Demon Lord day and night for ten days straight.
The magician known as the Grand Magus.
For such a figure to describe the Demon Lord as a communicable entity, it must indeed be true. However, the Demon Lord I faced was not that kind of existence.
“The Demon Lord I encountered was a mass of stagnant filth.”
“…?”
“Though people describe the four calamities as akin to natural disasters… at least for them, there is some consciousness. Be it instinct or subconsciousness, they move according to their own will. But the Demon Lord I faced was different.”
That was different.
The very nature of existence was different.
“The Demon Lord is the true natural disaster. The Demon Lord I witnessed was just that. It had no consciousness. Without its own will, it could not be conversed with.”
It merely exists.
Simply by existing, it taints the surroundings and spreads curses… yet there was no intention of the Demon Lord involved.
“That was just a phenomenon.”
A simple phenomenon.
That is why I have my doubts.
That mass of stagnant filth bore the name of the Demon Lord. I questioned that reality.
“How can it be deemed a king?”
It doesn’t govern. It doesn’t rule.
Normally, we wouldn’t use the word king to describe a phenomenon that simply exists in a place. Yet, it was called the Demon Lord. Since ancient times, up until now.
“That’s not the only strange thing.”
I raised my hand and pointed at Cardi.
“If the Demon Lord you encountered in the past was just a mass of stagnant filth like what I saw…”
I asserted.
“You wouldn’t have been unable to defeat it.”
Of course, the Demon Lord was an indescribably powerful being.
The moment we faced it, we’re overwhelmed with helplessness. Even at the moment I faced Death’s Blade, I felt my sanity fray. An instinctual fear washed over us.
However, it wasn’t a being that couldn’t be resisted.
That day, having burned half of my lifespan, I resisted against the Demon Lord. I successfully bound its feet and managed to escape. I could do that on my own.
‘But the First Heroes couldn’t do it?’
That doesn’t make sense.
Even Cardi from the past was a more perfect being than I am. There were four such beings. If they truly felt it was impossible… they would have run away from there. They would have sought new methods.
“Yet, you did not flee. You must have undergone something there… and chose the path that led to the next generation. Doesn’t that seem odd?”
“That’s because it was an existence that couldn’t be escaped from.”
“But it was something I could do.”
“…Do you think calling you special would make me believe you?”
I shook my head.
Even if I were to claim I was special, the First Heroes who faced the Demon Lord in the past were undoubtedly more capable… They were not inferior beings, not at all.
“…Thinking about it, it’s a bizarre occurrence.”
It is strange.
Because it is strange, I formed a hypothesis.
“Cardi.”
I spoke that hypothesis aloud.
A hypothesis that was infinitely close to the truth.
“Didn’t you already defeat the Demon Lord once?”
Didn’t you draw a being that was impossible to reach down to your level?
Didn’t you strip the title of king from the Demon Lord?
“…Ah ha.”
I posed that question.
“Indeed.”
Cardi replied with a bitter smile.
“For a brat, you have quite the keen insight.”
That was essentially a form of affirmation.
The author’s note (Author’s statement)
Thank you for your support as always 😀
