Chapter 85 – There Is No Next Time (2)  

Like a curtain being pulled away, my vision cleared.

And before I knew it, someone was standing on the far side, gripping the sword.

A familiar back.

He clung to the sword with a stubborn expression.

But no matter how hard he pulled, it wouldn’t come loose.

Dozens of times, hundreds, it didn’t budge an inch.

Yet he never gave up.

He kept trying.

He faced it head-on.

…And at some point, 

The girl, who had been watching the scene with uneasy eyes, finally asked one day.

“Why are you so desperate to pull that sword out?”

Luines.

The girl with hair the color of the sky asked.

The young man, the man, glared at her sharply, as if he would kill her on the spot.

“Just because it won’t come out, does that mean I should give up?”

“…Is it more important than your life?”

“What, someone’s gonna die if I pull it? Me? Or you?”

“…You’ll die.”

“Aha. Now that’s interesting. Since you’ve given me that new bit of wisdom, how about telling me how I’ll die?”

The girl, Luines, muttered with a trembling gaze.

Like a sinner offering a confession.

“The one who draws that sword… will be killed.”

“Who kills who? You?”

“…I’m a watcher.”

“Then if I kill you?”

“……”

She fell silent.

“Whether I die or live, that’s my choice.”

He reached out to the sword again.

“Even if it’s just for a day, I’d rather die than live like a slave, trampled by lies!”

He strained with all his might, but the sword still wouldn’t move.

“…Then just die already. Don’t even breathe. Don’t even open your eyes.”

And then, releasing his grip on the sword, Venus, 

Turned and walked away.

Until he stood right before Luines.

“If you’re wearing that same repulsive look next time, I’ll rip the skin right off your face.”

“……”

“Acting like you’ve inherited all the sorrow in the world, what’s with the melodrama?”

“That’s not… true.”

“Then wipe that pathetic look off your face. Who are you pitying? Who are you feeling sorry for? Who gave you that right?”

“I…”

“If you have time to mope and give up, do your damn job. Whether it’s watching or throwing your life into the sewer!”

Stop meddling in things that aren’t your business.

As Venus turned his back and vanished, Luines watched with anxious eyes.

“…He’s right about everything.”

She agreed with every word of his venom.

Without a trace of resistance.

She accepted it all.

……

* * *

[Originally, I was meant to be wielded by that one. But that changed. So I refused to be wielded by him.]

“……”

The sword spoke with a will of its own.

Not that I found it surprising now.

[And refusing to be wielded by you, that is also my will.]

“Spare me. Just give me the reason.”

Even patience has its limits.

I was already seething.

[Because you are the successor of Grandeus.]

“What?”

What kind of insane, 

[In this era, no one else has inherited his progress the way you have.]

What kind of nonsense is this?

[Among those who sought to follow him, not one reached your level.]

“Progress? What progress?”

[You don’t know? You’ve already formed four stars.]

How the hell was I supposed to know that?

Did that damned Demon King hide it from me again?

Or was it just something she never said?

Or maybe, 

…Maybe she didn’t even know.

“You’re saying you can’t be wielded by me because I’m his successor?”

[Yes.]

“…That’s your reason?”

You want me to swallow that?

[You’ve already received everything.]

“…?”

[You have no reason to covet this body.]

This lunatic sword?

“Everything? Everything?! What the hell do you mean I received ‘everything’?!”

[You don’t seem to be aware.]

Now I’m supposed to be pitied by a sword?

“Swordsmanship? His mindset? What, chivalry or some crap like that?”

[Why does it trouble you so much?]

“……”

Troubling?

Me?

[I am not some answer meant to solve your problems. You know that, and I know that.]

“……”

What had I been so angry about? What had shaken me so much?

In hindsight, it was simple.

Which only made it more infuriating.

Empty. Infuriating.

It was pure confusion.

For just a moment, I’d lost myself.

Was it expectation?

Did I feel betrayed and disappointed because that expectation was shattered?

Had I thought, naturally, it was mine?

That it would become my strength?

…Had I accepted it that easily?

“Then what are you?”

[I am myself.]

A foolish question.

The answer was painfully simple.

Clear.

And yet, it was the most straightforward and wise response of all.

“…Then what do you exist for?”

[Justice.]

It answered without hesitation.

[To protect good. To destroy evil. To uphold balance.]

And thus, 

[As a holy sword, I exist to protect the just.]

“…?”

[If you wish to wield me, you must make a vow. To follow the good. To punish evil. Can you do that?]

“No.”

I answered just as clearly.

From the start, 

“…Ha.”

What I needed…

…Wasn’t this.

This wasn’t what I wanted.

[Indeed. You are unfit.]

And so, 

[We were never meant to be.]

* * *

Blood spat from Venus’s clenched teeth as he ground them together.

“That bastard…”

He really intends to take it?

He really wants to claim that sword?

He wants to steal it from me?!

He glared at that back like he would stab it on the spot, 

But still, he couldn’t approach carelessly.

Despite how fragile that figure looked, 

Not a single opening could be seen.

He couldn’t make sense of it.

The one standing there looked like a dried-up, lifeless husk, ready to wilt at any moment.

And yet, he didn’t feel like something that could be toppled.

His will screamed the opposite, that he had to bring him down right now, stab him, crush him, cut off his limbs, 

But a faint thread of reason held his feet in place.

If I go now, I’ll die.

That silent abyss before me, 

…Was more furious than it had ever been.

Suddenly, I realized it.

“……”

The boy standing straight didn’t draw the sword.

As if to show there wasn’t a shred of lingering desire, 

He firmly pulled his hand away.

Then, 

“Ha… haha.”

He suddenly began to laugh.

A deep, overwhelming laughter steeped in exhaustion and emptiness, the kind that made anyone who heard it sink along with it.

But that laugh soon swelled into rage.

“Hahahaha, ! What a joke! A goddamn farce! This is it?! This is all?!”

He shouted like a man possessed, then suddenly raised his right hand, 

As if gesturing toward the sky.

“You see this?! Come on! Say something!”

He began shouting one after another, jabbing his finger at the air.

“How could you do this to me?! You knew, didn’t you?!”

Who was he yelling at?

“To me! Of all people! You give me something like that?! That so-called holy sword?! Are you toying with me?! You, of all people, shouldn’t have done this!”

Holy sword?

But more importantly, what the hell is wrong with this bastard?

Venus couldn’t make sense of this sudden outburst.

Neither could anyone else watching.

Because everything about him, 

Was completely different from before he touched that sword of Grandeus.

“Weren’t you supposed to be the Demon King of Wisdom?! So you only know what you know, and everything else you’re clueless about?! Was that it?! You were mocking me all along?!”

Is he insane? Has he lost it?

And what was that?

The Demon King of Wisdom?

“I can’t ignore that, child of the hero. I was planning to observe until the conclusion, but you’ve said something far too interesting.”

A presence made itself known.

“?!”

Venus, 

And even Cariel, who had just noticed it.

Both felt it at the same time.

“You’re not drawing it?”

“……”

“Wasn’t today supposed to be the day of the prophecy? Or is it that, even though you can, you’ve chosen not to take it? Why?”

Like melting out of the darkness, it had been there all along, then revealed itself.

Its build wasn’t all that different from Cariel’s.

But its entire body was pale.

Like it had been coated in powdered marble, 

Or smeared with bone dust.

A deathly white.

Intricate markings etched into its skin, its upper torso clad only in sleek black armor.

Its entire body, from head to toe, wrapped in a deep navy cloak.

A thick, woolen-looking paenula, exaggeratedly long and flowing like a robe from its head to the ground.

Even in the pitch-dark background, its presence was especially striking.

A faint glow in its eyes, 

That pale white light seemed to glow even in the dark, fixed firmly on Cariel.

And at its needless interruption, Cariel snapped back.

“And who the hell are you supposed to be?”

The tone was biting.

But it wasn’t blind hostility.

There was wariness, maybe, 

But more than that, it was just the fallout from a storm of emotion.

The fragments, the remnants, leaking out like static and haze.

Still, 

Perhaps that wasn’t the reaction the pale man had hoped for.

Because he muttered with something close to regret.

“A shame. You don’t recognize me, do you?”

“…?”

“I’m the one who nearly killed you once.”

…What?

“I’ll grant you a reprieve, just this once. If you don’t pull that sword, your death won’t be guaranteed, at least not yet.”

Just this once.

“The World Tree is gone, many nations are powerless, and your escorts aren’t with you, are they? I heard your father is on his way here, but isn’t he too far to make it in time?”

“…He’s coming?”

A chill ran up Cariel’s spine.

And his mind snapped back into focus.

What had this guy just said?

You almost killed me?

You?

“Who the hell are you supposed to be?”

“You mad dog of the demon race, you’ve gone off the deep end!”

Suddenly, 

Venus charged in.

And not just that, he rushed forward and swung his sword straight at the pale man.

Not like a sword, but like a blunt weapon, his strike tore through the air, aiming for the man’s torso.

But the result, 

Was the opposite.

“Guh!”

“Those who follow Grandeus are not our enemies. You really need to break that habit of ignoring everything I say.”

“Y-You son of a…!”

Coughing up blood, Venus rolled across the ground.

“Th-That thing… that’s mine… Touch it… and you’d better… not expect… a peaceful, ”

“Overconfidence is a bad habit.”

At some point, he was already holding it.

A spear trailing black smoke.

Longer than a throwing spear, yet too short to be classified as a proper pike, technically a short spear.

But even so, the spear matched his height.

Clearly taller than either Cariel or Venus.

“I once spared Luelde’s life.”

He said.

“And because of that, I unintentionally offered a loss to the Supreme One. I blamed myself for that, and swore I’d never repeat such a failure again.”

And as an apology, 

“I meant to kill you.”

He had thought he succeeded.

So why, why had Cariel lived?

“I lamented. For a very long time. Your existence would one day lead to our extinction. If I am your enemy… then there’s nothing more to be said.”

So why?

Why has he done nothing?

Why has he taken no revenge?

Why does he remain a silent observer?

“The longer time passed, the more afraid I became. Because we know you. We thought we knew you. We believed all that time was just you gathering your forces and perfecting your plans.”

And yet, 

“You changed.”

So drastically.

“No one could’ve predicted you’d become this foolish. Have the heavens abandoned you? Has the god of the underworld cursed you?”

“…That all you wanted to say?”

Once, he was called a genius.

More than clever, he was born gifted. A true prodigy. The title of genius was meant for no one else.

Praised and revered by all around him.

…To me, it was nothing but an utterly incomprehensible overestimation.

My father. My mother.

Even His Majesty the Emperor.

And all the others as well.

They all carried excessive expectations of me.

…But that’s not me.

You’re not looking at me.

You were looking at my past, something even I don’t recognize.

No matter how many rumors you gather, no matter how many stories you piece together, 

I simply couldn’t accept that they were talking about me.

That’s not who I am.

No, 

Maybe, at one point, that really was me.

But not anymore.

Perhaps for all eternity, that will be someone unrelated to me.

Like some mythical hero, or demon.

“And yet just now, you spoke of the Demon King of Wisdom, from your own lips. Now I begin to understand.”

In the end, even in her final moments, 

“She protected us.”

She corrupted you, 

“Neutralized what you could become, and yet still, she loved us. She cherished us.”

“……”

There were few who referred to the Golden Beast, the Demon King of Wisdom, as her.

So the moment he said it, the identity and allegiance of the man before me became irrefutably clear.

The only question was, which one was he?

…But I could guess.

The clues were too distinct. Too unmistakable.

“The dull-witted Legion Commander.”

Barugo Adedima.

During the Demon King of Wisdom’s invasion, he hadn’t yet been a Legion Commander.

But after the Golden Beast’s death, with time, he gathered the remnants of the Demon King’s forces.

He became their de facto nucleus.

Now, perhaps, there are others who could take his place.

But even still, he remained the symbol of what was left.

Such a demon…

Cariel glanced toward the void.

“……”

Was this appearance a surprise even to her?

The Golden Maiden, half reclining in the air, let out a faint grumble.

– “I don’t care if he goes on about favoritism, but idolization is just… too much.”

And Cariel, 

– “You and that one are a bad match, so don’t even think about trying to beat him.”

Maybe someday.

But not now.

That’s what she was saying, indirectly.

“……”

But I wondered, just because I want that, does that mean the other side will play along?

That curiosity, it lingered.

If I were him, 

Shhk.

“……”

There’d be no reason to let this opportunity pass.

Silently, like seeping mist.

Like a breeze, his spear came for my face and throat.

I barely managed to deflect it.

Strands of hair scattered.

Some sliced cleanly by the spear’s edge, falling in clumps to the ground.

“And now, for some reason, you’re mastering the sword that brought your predecessor  to his death. Was that, too, guided by her hand?”

“……”

Those pale glowing eyes pierced me without emotion.

“Yes. And now she says you and I are a bad match, so don’t even think about trying to beat me?”

“Hmm?”

“She also said she doesn’t mind you ranting about favoritism, but to keep the idol worship in check. Any thoughts on that?”