EP.156 Coincidence, Perhaps Fate (4)
tap tap tap tap.
The sound of high heels echoed loudly in the alley. It was as if someone was escaping from something, yet there was no sense of urgency in the footsteps. The owner of those footsteps, a silver-haired girl, glanced back over her shoulder.
“······.”
The distance from the shop had grown considerable.
Chloe slowly bent her knees and squatted in the corner of the alley. She wrapped her palms around her face and silently screamed.
‘What the heck, am I crazy…!’
Her face was flushed with embarrassment.
It felt so hot that steam could practically rise from it. The whispering voice of Rania lingered in Chloe’s ears.
「I’m honored you wanted to attend my class.」
It felt like her face might explode. Really.
“···!”
Chloe silently screamed and shook her head repeatedly. She had been excitedly talking about herself right in front of her. The elegant class, and all those embarrassing things she had spilled.
「I’m going to attend this person’s class. Not one as rough as the professor’s!」
The words she had said echoed in her ears.
How ridiculous did she appear in that professor’s eyes? Chloe wiped her face and looked up at the sky. The sky was blissfully blue.
“Ha ha.”
Chloe let out an empty laugh.
‘Goodbye, ideal school life.’
It started off on the wrong foot.
She had left a different kind of strong impression on the professor she wanted to impress. Well, it seemed that professor was a bit different from the rumors anyway…
“What am I to do….”
Regardless, it was clear that her academy life was going to be complicated.
Chloe mumbled with her head buried in her knees. Someone answered her muttering.
“What do you mean, what to do?”
Chloe lifted her head.
Belnoa was leaning against the alley wall, looking down at her. Chloe glared at him for no reason.
“···Why were you late?”
His voice was quite cold.
Belnoa flinched, shivering his shoulders. This was not the gentle tone of Chloe she usually used.
“You’re an hour late.”
“I… I’m sorry.”
He had been delayed because he was caught up with an old man on his way to the shop, running errands, and couldn’t help it… There were plenty of excuses, but Belnoa remained silent. He knew Chloe didn’t want to hear those kinds of things.
“I’ll be on time next time.”
He replied like that while observing Chloe’s mood. She didn’t look happy at all. She appeared somewhat sulky.
‘Something must have happened…’
With no context of the incident, Belnoa could only make such assumptions. He sighed inwardly, looking back on the path he had taken.
‘What on earth happened at the shop?’
The narrow alley stretched on.
If you didn’t follow the right order, you could easily get lost in this maze-like place. The shop of the old man Cardi, where Belnoa spent his childhood, was located at the end of such an alley.
‘But why is the professor in such a secluded place?’
As he gazed through the alley, that thought suddenly crossed his mind.
Belnoa furrowed his brow. It seemed a bit strange upon reflection. This wasn’t Rania’s first visit to this place.
‘She visited last time too, claiming to know the person.’
Initially dismissed as mere gossip.
However, the second time was different.
As he began to understand the identity of that professor he had only thought of as eccentric, Belnoa felt a sense of discomfort.
‘The Ashen Mage.’
Raniel van Trias.
That legendary mage had claimed to be an acquaintance of Cardi. Moreover, she had said it was a very old acquaintance. Belnoa muttered to himself, still furrowing his brow.
“···What on earth is that old man up to?”
The old man remained an enigma.
“Just as you said, Raniel.”
The worn-out shop.
“We killed the Demon Lord that day.”
The chair creaked with the slightest movement. Dust-covered shelves. Potion bottles scattered everywhere. You couldn’t even say the shop was clean lightly.
“There, we severed the shadow’s flesh.”
In that shabby shop, the most glorious history was being recited. By the Grand Magus, who had lived through that era and remembered everything.
“We succeeded up to that point, but…”
I listened intently to his words.
“Ultimately, we failed. Because we couldn’t kill him.”
“···You say you couldn’t kill him?”
“We were lacking. In many ways.”
Cardi closed his eyes.
As if recalling a distant past, he fell silent for a moment. When he opened his eyes again, his golden irises were slightly more subdued than usual.
“···I must have mentioned the concept of shadow to you before. Do you remember?”
“I do. The madman observed the concept opposite of the star, and that became the shadow.”
“You probably know that it was related to the Demon Lord?”
I nodded my head.
‘The curse of the Demon Lord and Ganikalt’s blade.’
Could not be dealt with normal spells, a sewage that swallowed starlight. And the Demon Lord I had seen was that sewage itself.
“The Demon Lord is that very shadow.”
Cardi asserted that firmly.
Since I had somewhat expected it, I wasn’t particularly surprised. It seemed that Cardi had also anticipated my reaction, calmly continuing to speak.
“Thus, we were mistaken.”
“Mistaken?”
“Yes, mistaken. The shadow is a creation born of foolish humans’ hands. A concept forged by human hands. An outlier that interrupted the doctrine sustained through the eons. We thought of it that way.”
Cardi looked at the teacup. As he gazed at the thick liquid in the cup, he continued to speak.
“···But that was not all.”
It seemed I heard a sound of grinding teeth, grit.
“That day.”
Cardi looked at me.
“What we faced there was not an incomplete concept. It was not something that should not exist, born out of observation.”
Reflected in the yellow-gold gaze was regret.
Though it happened centuries ago, Cardi spoke to me as if it were last night.
“It was not an incomplete being.”
One.
“It was not a mortal being like us.”
One.
“Nor, nor could all we had built connect to that existence.”
As if correcting a past mistake, Cardi spoke further. With a hollow laugh, he asked me.
“Raniel, do you know what we call a perfect being?”
“···A star?”
Cardi nodded his head.
“In other terms, borrowing Gleria’s words, it’s a god. Something that isn’t bound by the doctrine. Something that transcends existence and becomes a law.”
The king of demons.
“What we had to confront was such a being.”
Something the original heroes faced.
Even as I listened to Cardi, I couldn’t dare to visualize its form.
“We fought for ten days and nights.”
That was something I could only picture.
“Everyone put everything on the line.”
Only those who had faced it could know.
Cardi spoke as if to vomit it out.
“We used everything we could. Belial abandoned his flesh. He rampaged as a dragon. Ganikalt cast aside his pride. He wielded a blade not to cut, but to tear apart. Gleria used sacred laws meant to save someone to kill someone. I used every trick in the book. Even breaking taboos.”
That was the kind of battle it was.
Cardi, murmuring like that, looked at me.
“Despite going that far, there was no chance of victory.”
“···And yet.”
“And yet we had to resist.”
Why did we have to resist.
“Because we were the only ones who could. It couldn’t be anyone else. It was a matter of duty and responsibility… and the obligation of these heroes bearing the name.”
Clink.
Cardi set down the teacup he had been holding and shaking.
“On the tenth night, the resolution came.”
He raised his hand.
“It was a being born from humanity’s ugly origin, and thus could not completely escape from humanity. We targeted the gap.”
Cardi tapped the teacup with his fingertips.
Tick, tiddick. The teacup cracked.
“In the end, we severed the king’s flesh.”
Crunch, the teacup shattered.
Thick liquid spilled across the table.
Flowing and flowing, the liquid reached me.
“I cannot share the details. You have yet to reach the second contract. However, to explain briefly…”
Cardi pointed at the liquid.
“It overflowed.”
“······.”
“It is impossible to stop an overflowing wave with mere human hands. That’s why we failed.”
A bitter smile hung on his lips.
The price of reaching for something out of reach.
The price of thrusting a blade at God.
That price was something I was well aware of.
“Next, it aligns with the history you know.”
Heroes fell from grace, and they became disasters.
The disasters burned countless nations. When they ventured into quests, they had to break the vow they had made with their own hands.
“···So that’s how it became a disaster?”
“That’s the gist of it.”
“Even now’s the Demon Lord you once killed, but… it’s like a byproduct you couldn’t eliminate?”
“Byproduct isn’t quite right. However, it has indeed weakened. That was the purpose of the contract.”
The contract. That damn contract.
I sighed and said.
“···It feels like a lot has been omitted.”
“It’s something I can’t disclose just yet. Even if I force myself to elaborate, it wouldn’t register in your ears.”
As Cardi wiped off the spilled green tea, he spoke.
“You only knew one of the contracts shared among the three, and you have much more to discover.”
I narrowed my eyes.
Cardi’s attitude toward me had shifted slightly from before. I pointed that out.
“···You’re not trying to hide anything now?”
“Because you have become capable of hearing much more. Even if I can’t share the details… I can at least give you orientations.”
“Previously, you wouldn’t even do that.”
“I wished for you not to reach the truth.”
Cardi slowly lifted his head.
I frowned and asked him back.
“···You wished for that?”
“Yes.”
“Why? You wanted someone to acknowledge you…”
“I wanted someone to acknowledge me, but I hoped it wouldn’t be you.”
As I was about to ask what that meant, I momentarily closed my mouth. Cardi’s words had softened a bit. He looked at me with a different gaze than usual.
“···The you I know.”
Cardi spoke.
“If you hear stories like this, and you reach the contract that no one ever could… if you learn the truth, you will undoubtedly try to take responsibility.”
“···Responsibility?”
“You would try to dig deeper. To learn every other truth, and venture back to the battlefield.”
I fell silent.
In that silence, Cardi continued to speak.
“You have already retired. You’ve achieved so much and dedicated your life for humanity. My words cannot be wrong.”
“···That’s.”
“Don’t deny it. No one will deny that you sacrificed for humanity.”
Cardi reached out his hand.
He pointed at my heart. It felt as if he were referring to the curse gnawing at my body, or perhaps… my already worn-out soul.
“Your body has deteriorated. Your soul has worn away.”
Therefore, Cardi said.
“You decided to spend your remaining years in rest.”
“······.”
“You have the right to rest. So, I was thinking it wouldn’t necessarily have to be you. You’ve done enough. What’s next…”
“Hey.”
“Even if it’s not you…”
“Hey, Cardi.”
I interrupted Cardi’s words.
Looking at him, I smiled wryly. It seemed I was firmly misunderstanding something.
“Who says that?”
“···What are you saying?”
“Who decided to spend their remaining years in rest?”
I laughed.
“I have no intention of doing that.”
3.
Cardi looked at me silently.
His eyes seemed to question what I meant, so I willingly decided to answer.
“To begin with.”
I said, resting my chin on my hand.
“How could I spend the time I still have left, just resting? It would be so boring I couldn’t stand it.”
The elf who had lived over a thousand years.
From Cardi’s perspective, my life must seem like a mere blink of an eye. That would certainly be the case. A decade or so would pass in the blink of an eye for someone as ancient as him.
But it was not like that for me.
I was human, and ten years was not a short time for me. It was, in fact, a very long time – plenty of time to achieve many things. I had proven that over the past five years.
“I killed two disasters during those five years.”
“···Two?”
“Since Skebal is practically dead anyway. Anyway, in less than five years, I killed two. And I have a rough plan to kill the remaining two.”
I had an idea.
I saw a possibility.
