From the End to the Beginning
by Afuhfuihgs
The Church attacking the Order was par for the course in the novel’s plot. Originally, in the latter half of the novel, the Church and the Order were major headaches for Roel. The Church, which preferred to divide everything into black and white and eliminate whatever opposed it, and the Order, which mixed black and white to create a muddy gray, were drastically different, yet they clearly had similarities.
That they thought little of human life.
That was why Roel, who became a hero for the sake of everyone, chose neither the Church nor the Order. Whether it was the Church, which killed all living beings in a city to find holy relics, or the Order, which sacrificed an entire city as a ritual for summoning demons… in Roel’s eyes, they were all enemies to be eliminated.
“…The war can’t be stopped, huh.”
I, who could read the flow through the author’s essence, realized that this war was unstoppable. Raellan-nim was bringing it up to explain that to us.
“Yeah. This is an issue that can’t be stopped, and doesn’t need to be. Either way, as time passed, the Pontiff would naturally gain causality and his movements would no longer be restricted. The war is closer to a butterfly effect brought about by Nelson’s death.”
Raellan-nim paused for a moment, giving us time to think. Unlike me, who understood and accepted that it was a massive trend, Ellie seemed quite concerned about the countless people who would die. Raellan-nim completely ignored Ellie and turned to me.
“I think now is a good time to explain what I’ve figured out to you. Hearing the explanation even a little bit beforehand will be less shocking than facing it without any preparation.”
I gave him a puzzled look at his out-of-context words, and Raellan-nim snapped his fingers in front of Ellie’s face to draw her attention. Ellie made a slightly annoyed expression at that action, but Raellan-nim succeeded in drawing her attention as he wanted.
“From the memories I received from Ross, I obtained a crucial clue from what Cassis said. That was, Ross has the destiny of an Apostle.”
“Do I really have the destiny of an Apostle?”
At my question, Raellan-nim shrugged, indicating he didn’t know.
“How would I know that? What’s important is that the Pontiff prophesied you as an Apostle. Don’t you feel any sense of incongruity?”
At Raellan-nim’s question, I pondered for a moment before glancing at Ellie.
“Ellie, do you get it?”
“…A sense of incongruity, huh.”
Ellie frowned for a moment, deep in thought, before widening her eyes.
“I got it! I think there’s a sense of incongruity about the timing when Ross was first prophesied as an Apostle.”
“…Timing?”
I clearly first heard the word Apostle when Estelle approached me secretly while the duel was in progress. Ellie, seeing me tilting my head in confusion, spoke with a frustrated expression.
“You idiot, you remember what Estelle said to you back then, right? She sent information about Roel to the Order, along with information about you, her younger brother, and suddenly the Pontiff prophesied you as an Apostle and sent Estelle a mask with an acorn drawn on it for confirmation.”
“…I know that too. But what’s incongruous about that?”
It wasn’t Ellie who answered my question, but Raellan-nim.
“At the time, Estelle was unaware that you could use space magic. In the first place, there were only a handful of people who knew that Ross could use space magic at the time. But the Pontiff specifically pointed you out and prophesied you as an Apostle.”
…Now that I hear it, something does seem strange. How could the Pontiff know something that even Estelle didn’t know? Could it really be that I have the destiny of an Apostle, and he prophesied it?
“That’s not all. The Pontiff said he sent a mask with an acorn drawn on it for confirmation, but you, who directly experienced that trap, know better than anyone that the content of that trap wasn’t for confirming that you were an Apostle.”
Right, what I saw was a scene from a moment when Roel was endlessly continuing his dreams. It was a very cunning trap that made me subconsciously think that Roel had a secret, not a trap to confirm that I was an Apostle.
“Being an Apostle is just a name the Pontiff arbitrarily attached. The Pontiff knew from the beginning that you were a ‘character’ with an important role in this world. From the Pontiff’s perspective, that was just ‘Apostle.’ That’s why he laid a cunning trap, looking several moves ahead, to drive a wedge between you and Roel.”
“…What does that mean.”
Raellan-nim gave me a bitter smile at my bewildered expression.
“The Pontiff knew. No, he had no choice but to know. He’s the ‘one who became the first from the end.’ This world is full of variables that even the Saintess can’t predict. But how did the Pontiff know that you would exploit Cassis’s weakness?”
“…”
“Reading the twisted flow of great probability is a unique ability possessed only by the author, ‘Jin Sian.’ You’re the only person in the world who can do that. But the Pontiff could do it too. How is that possible?”
He clearly asked as if questioning, but Raellan-nim didn’t wait for an answer.
“The answer is simple. The Pontiff is a monster close to immortal in the settings, and his ambiguous existence is itself a setting. Just as the God of Chaos intervened because of probability, the Pontiff can do that too. Because his existence itself is ambiguous, not clearly defined as anything.”
Ellie grabbed my hand. I looked at Ellie with a bewildered expression, as if she was preparing for the coming shock. Ellie stared at me for a moment before sighing and saying.
“Ross, actually, we had a conversation without you. Estelle said she had something to say only to us.”
“…Without me?”
“Yeah. It was some time after Estelle killed the Immortal with you. Estelle, who was hiding because of the restrictions, said she clearly heard the last words the Immortal left to you.”
At that time, didn’t the Immortal mumble something incomprehensible? It wasn’t something important, so I didn’t remember it.
“…You, you don’t remember that moment, do you?”
For some reason, Ellie was sure that I didn’t remember it. Raellan-nim, who was watching me from the side, was the same.
“It’s not particularly important, is it?”
Ellie shook her head at my words.
“It’s important. Because Estelle said that the you she saw at that time wasn’t wearing the Lily Mask, but a completely different mask.”
“…What the hell are you talking about?”
It wasn’t a different mask. I clearly materialized my soul on the Lily Mask and wore it. Ellie hesitated to answer, biting her lip, before sighing and saying.
“The mask that Estelle described to us and the Pontiff’s mask that we saw when we fell into the Order’s trap… were the same.”
“What?”
“So, before he died, the Immortal was mistaking you for the Pontiff.”
I was silent. It seems like I’m being misunderstood in some strange way. I felt unnecessarily complicated. Could it be that they suspect I’m the same person as the Pontiff? As if reading my thoughts, Raellan-nim let out a hollow laugh.
“Don’t worry unnecessarily. We know you’re not the Pontiff.”
“Then… why did you bring up the mask story?”
“To explain why the Pontiff and you came to wear the same mask.”
“…”
“From the moment I first received memories from you, I had strong doubts about the Pontiff’s identity. Even with the setting that there’s no way to summon the God of Chaos without Bella and the Saintess’s body, the Pontiff in the first world somehow summoned the God of Chaos. I thought there must be some secret hidden that we don’t know.”
Raellan-nim said with a cunning smile.
“The meaning of ambiguous is quite useful. Because you can’t accurately describe what kind of existence it is, but you can’t ‘deny’ that it exists. That’s why the Pontiff has no body and only a mask exists, and why his movements necessarily require the causality of a great trend.”
A flash of lightning struck my mind at Raellan-nim’s words emphasizing denial.
“The denial of the world… Could it be that the Pontiff can avoid the denial of the world?”
Raellan-nim gave a snake-like smile.
“Clearly.”
“But the denial of the world is….”
“A phenomenon that occurs when something from another world that shouldn’t exist in this world exists.”
Raellan-nim continued, bursting into mad laughter.
“Still don’t get it? You dull master! Cassis told you. The Pontiff calls himself ‘the one who became the first from the end.’ That was the crucial clue to knowing the Pontiff’s identity!”
“…You figured out the Pontiff’s identity?”
“Yeah, it had no choice but to be that way from the start. Cassis’s words only turned my suspicion into certainty.”
Raellan-nim, who was chuckling, said in a low voice.
“There are countless different Rosses in countless worlds. Someone became the Ross of Aspiration, who grew stronger by devouring Roel’s heroines, Sword Master, Master of Spear Arts, Magician… there are really all sorts of different Rosses in countless worlds. And among them, at least one…”
Raellan-nim’s eyes, filled with madness, looked into me.
“Like the first Ross who succumbed to the devil’s temptation, succumbing to the God of Chaos… returning to the beginning from the end, there could be a Ross who became the Pontiff.”
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