Chapter 122: Four Idiots (3)

[122] 19. Four Idiots (3)

Nicolai year 52, May 23rd

This world is a world abandoned by God.

This is not a metaphor.

Originally, a god and their world are like twins, sharing the same beginning and end.

When a new world blooms,

A god is also born.

And when a world meets its end,

The god, too, shares that fate.

That’s why most gods consider protecting their world their sacred duty. They cherish and care for their world with love.

But there are always exceptions.

Because a god and their world are so strongly connected,

Gods are omnipotent within their own world,

But at the same time, they can never leave their world.

Essentially, they are bound to their own world.

And some gods found this displeasing. They considered such a lack of freedom unjust.

They yearned for freedom, and that long yearning eventually led to a solution.

The consumption of their world.

Figuratively speaking, it was like a bird trapped in a cage, devouring the cage itself.

The moment the world is swallowed, the boundary between inside and outside, the very thing that restricted their freedom, crumbles. Having swallowed the very walls they had to break through, there are no longer any obstacles in their path.

Many gods found freedom this way. They soared out of their worlds.

But the price of freedom was never small.

Could life exist in a world swallowed whole? The consumption of a world invariably meant its end.

And the culmination of that end is always loneliness.

They forgot the joy of being worshiped, the pleasure of watching diverse life flourish. All that remained in their hearts was emptiness.

And so, to soothe their loneliness, they travel between worlds. They reach out to the creations of other worlds, trying to swallow their loneliness.

Free gods,

Traitors who abandoned their primordial sacred duty,

Wanderers drifting between worlds, punished by loneliness.

Outer Gods.

Yes, the very beings who lend their power to ‘cultists’. Powerhouses whose reason has been eroded by eternal loneliness.

But it seems that even they could become objects of admiration for someone.

Our Goddess foolishly longed for the Outer Gods.

She preferred lonely freedom to blissful confinement.

200 years ago, it wasn’t the Demon King who tried to destroy the world. It was the Goddess of this world, Clarice.

She had tried to devour this world and find freedom.

But seven stood against her.

The Hero, Alain von Titanisch.

The Sage, Jasmine.

The Saint, Sinclair.

The Barbarian, Bali Danderlion.

The Fairy Knight, Sharik de Sipadefa

The Advisor, Genius.

And the Witch, Skuld.

The seven heroes centered around Alain.

They defeated her.

To ensure such a thing would never happen again, they dismembered the Goddess’s body and trapped her soul in a sword.

Her fragmented body was sealed in subspace,

and the sword containing her soul was cursed, so that whoever dared to wield it would be burned to death.

And for the sake of future generations, they each took on a sacred role.

The ruthless Alain founded the Empire, unifying the entire continent.

The wise Jasmine built the Magic Tower, gathering talented mages.

The noble Sinclair charge of the sword where the Goddess’s soul was sealed. And to protect it, he founded the ‘Church’ and designed the ‘Heavenly God’.

The thoughtful Bali cared for the land that had been ravaged by the battle against the Goddess. That very place which was now called the ‘Great Divide.’

The cold-hearted Shareek became a judge. Immortal, he still roams the world, searching for the Goddess’s followers or signs of her resurrection.

The patient Genius took on the most difficult role. To conceal information about the Goddess, he accepted the stigma of being the ‘Demon King’. And he became the gatekeeper of the subspace where the Goddess’s body was sealed.

And finally, the Witch, Skuld.

She took on the most special role among the seven.

She read this world’s fate from the Goddess’s corpse. And she transcribed it into a book, leaving it for her daughter.

Firstly, to foresee and warn of the Goddess’s return, should she ever come back.

Secondly, to prevent another apocalypse, should another danger arise.

Her daughter readily accepted the duty and the name. And when the time came, she passed it on to her own daughter.

And her daughter, in turn, passed it on to her own daughter.

From grandmother to mother,

From mother to daughter.

The sacred name and duty were passed down from generation to generation, reaching the present day.

The all-knowing witch, Skuld.

The world’s coordinator, who intervenes at the branching points of fate to prevent destruction. A true prophet in the truest sense.

Tomorrow, I will inherit that sacred duty from my mother.

…Frankly, I don’t know if I can do it well.

I’ve trained for this my entire life, but… well.

Why do I have such a strong feeling that I’ll ruin everything?

…

But didn’t Mother say so herself?

That we are the only ones who can do this.

That only we can protect this world.

So, I guess I just have to do it.

…Actually, I kind of want to run away a little.

—

Nicolai year 52, May 25th.

Finally, I inherited the book of fate from Mother.

The very book where this world’s fate is written.

Of course, it’s a book where only the next 30 years are written.

It was titled [The Porter’s Tale], but even Mother didn’t know its meaning. She simply said that only the first Skuld would know.

Anyway, as soon as I received the book, I started reading it carefully. And not long after, I found something strange.

Starting from the middle of the book, there were traces of words having been erased and rewritten. Those traces continued all the way to the final chapter.

When I asked Mother about it, she answered with a troubled look.

It was because a ‘variable’ had interfered, causing the book to be revised.

Originally, a single world is a completely closed space. Because a huge curtain surrounds the world.

But with the appearance of Outer Gods, parts of the veil have crumbled. Small gaps had formed.

Because of this, very rarely, beings from other worlds sometimes slip through. And when this happens, that being invariably twists fate in some way.

We call them ‘variables’.

The only factor, besides our intervention, that can change the content of the book.

Sure enough, when I looked through the book again after hearing her explanation, I immediately realized who those beings were.

‘Rem’ and ‘Irene Ailleyde’.

Mother expressed her concern when she saw those names.

That such beings, half-free from fate, are unpredictable in their actions. They might even interfere with our work.

…It seems I’ll need to pay extra attention to these two.

—

Nicolai year 59, June 21st.

Irene, that girl is crossing the line!

She’s twisted all the fates written in the book!!

The Ailleyde family should have fallen at least two years ago!!

And now she’s turned them into the wealthiest noble family in the west!!

Is she not afraid of fate’s retribution?

Does she not know what kind of disaster her ignorance will bring about?

This won’t do.

Though I know it goes against our principles,

I must meet her directly.

At the very least, I should tell her how dangerous her actions are.

—

Nicolai year 59, June 22nd.

That impertinent wench!

That whore-like…! Motherfucking…

(Scribbled messily and illegible.)

…It was a warning for her!

A warning for her own good!

But that bitch sneered at me!

She even had her people chase me away!

How dare she, to me, the all-knowing witch!

I will never forget this humiliation.

One day, I will definitely, that pretty hair of hers…

(Hastily scribbled and illegible.)

—

Nicolai year 59, December 2nd.

House Ailleyde has fallen.

According to rumors, most of its members met gruesome deaths. And those who remain are barely clinging to life because of a plague.

Of course, it wasn’t my doing.

If anything, it would be Irene, that woman’s doing.

Irene, that foolish woman, directly defied fate.

A world’s fate isn’t just simple information. It’s a massive current, a flow with a force of its own.

And there’s always a price to pay for going against it.

There’s a reason why we, until now, haven’t directly interfered and simply pruned the buds of destruction.

Because if we were to forcefully remove the causes of destruction, an even greater disaster might occur as fate’s retribution.

Such things must be done subtly, within the framework set by fate.

Even if, as a result, it meant fostering massacres.

—

Nicolai year 59, December 3rd.

Irene, that woman came to visit.

She was holding her rotting younger sibling in her arms.

She said it was one of the two remaining siblings she had left.

She begged me to save the child, saying she’d do anything.

She said she’d do whatever I asked, just to cure this child.

Even though she herself was rotting away, she kept banging her head on the floor while begging…

Right, let’s just admit it. She was pitiful enough to make me forget the past humiliation.

…Since I myself had buried my mother two months ago, I could understand how she felt.

In the end, I told her the method.

Of course, it wasn’t a certain method.

Her sibling was dying as retribution for her defying fate.

But if she were to correct the twisted fate. If she were to destroy everything she had built with her own hands.

Maybe fate would take back its retribution.

When I told her this, Irene, she thanked me repeatedly while crying. Said she would surely repay this favor.

The tears flowing from her festering eyes had a faint yellow tint.

Such…

***

“She was a pitiful woman.”

I closed the diary after reading the last sentence. I rubbed my temples and looked at the three listeners.

“…What exactly did I just hear?”

Clevens wore an expression of genuine shock, which was rare.

It wasn’t exactly a surprising reaction.

Even though he had quit, Clevens was once a priest. Maintaining his composure after hearing the truth about his religion…

“There wasn’t a single useful thing in there!”

…What did I expect from a beast wearing a human skin?

“Fate this, retribution that, Outer Gods this, so what! Vice-Captain, wasn’t there anything more useful in there?”

“…What I just read was the diary’s last entry.”

I said while shaking the book, Clevens clicked his tongue and scratched his head.

“Damn it, that was the only thing we found in that house, and even *that* is useless.”

“Don’t be so upset, Mr. Clevens. It’s not like we found absolutely nothing, right?”

Marianne handed Clevens a bottle of alcohol. Then, narrowing her eyes at me.

“Let’s try to organize the story.”

Marianne raised her thumb.

“Fact one, the ‘Demon King’, according to the diary, the Advisor Genius, was a good person.”

Next, she raised her index finger.

“Fact two, there exists something called fate in this world, and if you don’t follow it, you pay the price for defying it.”

Then, she raised her middle finger.

“Fact three, Irene was actually a pitiful girl, but she can go eat shit.”

Marianne flipped her middle finger to the sky, then looked at me.

“Now, let’s try to guess Irene’s motive, keeping these three facts in mind.”

“Wouldn’t it be revenge?”

Shafiq said while putting his legs on the desk with a thud.

“I’ve seen it in novels. She might have gone crazy after losing her entire family and wants revenge on the world.”

“Are you saying Irene’s motive is the destruction of the world?”

“You just said that the ‘Demon King’ was a good guy, didn’t you? Like… he was the gatekeeper protecting the world from destruction or something. I don’t think anyone would kill such a person with good intentions.”

“No, I don’t think that’s it.”

I shook my head. Recalling Irene’s words, I continued.

[I had to stop that. Oppa, do you understand what I mean? I had to stop this world from being destroyed.]

“I’m not sure about the details, but it seemed like Irene was trying to protect this world.”

“Protect this world? A woman who colluded with cultists, killed people, and even destroyed another world?”

Marianne shook her head as if it made no sense.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense that she just lost her siblings and went crazy?”

“I agree with the mage.”

“No, I don’t think that’s it. Irene seemed to have a more concrete goal…”

“Hey kids.”

All eyes turned to Clevens.

Clevens took a swig straight from the bottle and wiped his mouth.

“Has it occurred to you that Irene might not have known about any of this information?”

Clevens’s words struck right at the mark.

“And what proof is there that everything in this diary is true? Couldn’t there be parts missing from this diary?”

“What are you trying to say, Baldy?”

“That we need more information.”

Clevens tapped his fingers on the desk.

“I told you, there’s not a single piece of useful information. We can’t reach a proper conclusion with just this, a proper conclusion.”

Clevens was sometimes infuriatingly correct.

I realized we had been hasty and erased all the speculations that had been rising.

It was right then that Clevens’ mumbling pricked my ears.

“Still, I’m glad we figured out where to go next…”

“… What do you mean, where to go next?”

When I asked, Clevens looked at me as if I were pathetic.

“There’s one place name that keeps coming up repeatedly in this diary.”

“…Ah!”

The realization struck like lightning.

In this world, only nobles have surnames. And they usually used the name of their territory as their surname.

A surname that felt strangely familiar from the first time I heard it.

“The Ailleyde territory. If we go there, something will turn up.”