Chapter 94

Chapter 94

Twisted Fate (2)

“Were you looking at the stars again?”

Through the open curtains, the moonlight streamed in.

Being away from the city, the stars in the sky were clearly visible.

It was the scene the girl had been gazing at before he entered the room.

“And again… You speak as if you know so well.”

No, even after he entered the room.

Her gaze remained fixed on the night sky.

“I know very well. Whenever you have some free time, you always look up at the sky… That hobby of yours hasn’t changed even after three years.”

Gray Anatomy spoke as casually as ever, hoping for a reaction, but the transcendent being only responded with the usual curt tone.

“Why have you come here? You should still be overseeing the camp and keeping the children in check…”

“Ah, well, the kids have all gone to bed. At this hour, most people are asleep. In this hotel, only you and I are awake, Boss.”

“…I see.”

The transcendent being replied quietly.

Her gaze still fixed outside the window, her voice carried a strange hint of bitterness.

As if she just realized she’d forgotten such a simple fact despite all the time that had passed.

“…Did he go?”

Gray Anatomy asked quietly, looking out the window.

The response came after a short pause.

“…Yes.”

“He went, that idiot.”

Even though the response was delayed, his reaction was almost reflexive.

An irritated tone one wouldn’t expect in front of his lord.

But the transcendent being did not reproach her retainer.

The anger wasn’t directed at her, and she vaguely understood why he reacted that way.

“You seem angry.”

“Ah, well. How could I not be? You know how much I hate doing pointless things, Boss.”

Indeed, he was an opportunist who acted only when he saw a chance.

With a keen eye for risks, his opinions were usually highly objective in most situations.

Believing his judgments were right, Gray Anatomy felt no guilt in his actions.

“Going there would just mean a pointless death. Even if that executive is fallen, he’s still an executive, and he’s surely got people to protect him.”

Though his actions were emotional and extreme, if he hadn’t done so, that guy would have forced his way to the traitor’s location.

Even if he didn’t like the guy, they served the same master, and he couldn’t just leave him to his whims.

“But to think Shadow would fall for him.”

Yes, a guy who had lived as evil, waiting quietly for someone to take him in.

Who would have thought he would seek out someone to hand over his leash?

“Ginger Bread must have impressed him that much. Enough for him to approach first.”

“…You don’t seem to mind. He’s practically switched loyalties from you to him.”

“I stepped down from the front lines after that war. I’ll return someday, but not now. It’s up to their judgment.”

She had no power to enforce them, nor did she have the will.

Having received a ‘promise’ from her partner, she couldn’t use her powers on her own accord.

“…Their judgment.”

Gray Anatomy sighed softly at her opinion.

Then, adjusting his glasses, he looked up at the moon she was gazing at.

The moon was indeed bright.

Bright enough to forget the miserable and desperate battles happening out of sight.

“Boss.”

Recalling such battles, Gray Anatomy felt it was time and brought up his reason for visiting.

“Isn’t his ability regeneration?”

In a serious tone.

About someone harboring a possibility even he, who tried to analyze everything objectively, couldn’t fathom.

“No, let me rephrase.”

Because that possibility might have been.

It might have been what drew out the feeling of ‘love’ from this transcendent being.

“Did you possibly share your power with him after that war?”

“…”

The transcendent being remained silent at his question.

Was it because he hit the mark, or was it because the answer required careful thought?

“…Why do you think so?”

The response was neither affirmation nor denial but a counter-question.

Gray Anatomy felt his suspicion turning into certainty as he replied with a cold smile.

“Because when he was pushed to his limit, I felt something similar to what I felt from you.”

The overwhelming presence that couldn’t be hidden even in a girl’s body.

Feeling that from a mere human… from a dying human.

‘But it wasn’t a mere illusion.’

The chill he felt when that dying body was forcibly restored by regenerative power still lingered in him.

The only time he felt such a thing was when experiencing the transcendent power she wielded.

But unlike her, the phenomenon back then was extremely unnatural.

While her power perfectly rewrote reality, erasing even memories of the affected individuals.

His power only seemed to negate the consequence of ‘death.’

‘The process is a mess, though.’

The black lines connected to his body back then seemed like a forceful attempt to alter the fate of a dying man.

If his ability, like the being before him, could interfere with fate.

“What would you do if it were true?”

“Kill him.”

Instantly responding to the follow-up question.

“If he really stole your power, I’ll kill him to return it to you.”

“…You’re serious.”

“Yes, I’m serious.”

The hatred he held for humanity was genuine, but so was his loyalty to her.

That wouldn’t change even if the organization collapsed. Even if the person receiving her love was someone he loathed, he would still suppress it for her.

But if that person was the cause of tarnishing his idol’s prestige, it was a different story.

It was a retainer’s duty to stop his lord’s wrong choices, even if it cost him his life.

“So be honest, Boss. Did you really pass your power to him?”

So even if his attitude displeased her, nothing would change.

“…Gray Anatomy.”

Tense, he waited for her reply, but her demeanor remained as calm as ever.

She just called his name, still looking out the window in silence.

“Do you believe in fate?”

Her next words were no clearer than a definite answer.

But it was also necessary to get the answer he sought. Gray Anatomy pondered briefly before responding.

“…The scholar Pierre-Simon Laplace said this: If someone knew the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe, they could predict the future and explain all past events.”

In essence, a statement supporting ‘determinism.’

Modern science deems it impossible due to observational limits, but that only applies because it remains in the ‘unknown realm’ for humanity.

Before Gray Anatomy stood someone who could alter past events leading to the present.

She was the closest thing to Laplace’s Demon, who could rewrite history with atomic precision.

“Yes, even the greatest scientist would have to believe in fate after meeting you. In the past, you could even read the future, couldn’t you?”

“Indeed, I could read what none of you could.”

Angol Moa. One who could foresee future events and twist the timeline to her will.

Every exercise of her power destroyed and rebuilt a world, earning her the title of ‘Goddess of Calamity.’

“And my death as well.”

Since she didn’t exclude herself from it.

“Still, with your power, you could avoid such a death…”

“No, originally, I intended to meet my end at Justice’s hands that day.”

Three years.

A confession made to a loyal retainer after so much time had passed.

His expression turned grim, but she smiled serenely.

“…Intended… to meet your end?”

“You all probably thought I could change the future decisively with my power, but by then, I had grown weary of such methods.”

No matter how she altered the present, a new fate would just arise in the altered world.

That fate would eventually bring danger, and evading it would only lead to another distant danger.

And bending fate consumed an immense amount of energy.

“Even if I had used my power to lead that war to victory… Ultimately, it would only make me weaker, waiting for another inevitable end.”

Destined to bring humanity’s doom, but it was a fate bound to fail under its weight.

Through countless twists of fate, she felt her limits and even began to doubt her existence.

Eventually wondering if exceeding one’s predetermined fate was meaningless.

That thought persisted, and offering her neck to the enemy leader was supposed to be the intended conclusion of that war.

“…Yes, the reason I’m still alive now is because of something unforeseen that happened then.”

But it happened.

Something even a fate-seeing transcendent could not predict.

“When he threw himself to protect you… are you talking about that?”

“Yes, and what you saw from Bread, I confirmed it too.”

The transcendent looked at her hand as if reminiscing that day.

Despite her small hand, she remembered the sensation of touching him back then.

“Gray Anatomy, fate is far more intricate than you think. If you don’t know how to handle it delicately, it’s like a tangled skein of thread, impossible to unravel… What I did for him then was merely using my power to untangle the skein that had knotted during the process of defying death.”

Energy containing vast amounts of information that human hands couldn’t touch, nor eyes interpret.

The moment she touched that record with her hand.

“And when I touched it, I realized.”

As she recalled the sensation, a color began to return to her hollow eyes.

“Among the countless gifted individuals in the universe, I, who arrived on this remote planet, met someone with power akin to mine.”

“!?”

Gray Anatomy finally realized everything and was about to speak but stopped, feeling choked by her gaze.

“Yes, at the brink of my death, I, who could see this world’s future, met the only being whose future I couldn’t see.”

What remained was not a transcendent or an authority.

The face bore an innocent girl’s smile.

Recalling that moment, a being who understood everything was reduced to someone ignorant and pure.

“Surely, people like you would call that a ‘miracle.’”

Even someone who transcended humanity had encountered a being she termed as ‘unknown.’

Wouldn’t such emotions be enough to ignite the ‘curiosity’ that kept a life she had no attachment to going?

End of Chapter