"No way?!"
Realizing what he was about to do, the Frying Pan shrieked in horror.
"Agent! Wait a second. You aren't actually thinking of grabbing that with your bare hands, are you?"
"Yeah."
"It's dangerous! If that Sword is anything like me..."
The Frying Pan tried to stop him.
Until recently, the Frying Pan had been able to exert faint control over Minjun's mind. A Sword with superior single-target brainwashing capabilities would undoubtedly be even more dangerous.
"What if it brainwashes you?! Just like how you kept forgetting about me!"
But Minjun could feel a certain concept taking shape in his mind. Something shifted quietly, yet heavily, deep within him. It was neither a conviction nor a premonition.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
If this truly was a fragment of Asiph-1.
He had to submit it.
He had to submit it to the Committee. Useless actions were forbidden. Suppress all impulsive behavior. Submit it. Report. Report it. To the Committee...
Grind!
He spat the words through clenched teeth in a low growl.
"...Shut up!"
The binding command that shackled his limbs, the voice that threatened to burst every blood vessel in his body, began to fade.
Flash!
A brilliant light erupted from him. It was a brief, blinding flash. The police officers saw it too; already frozen like statues, they now struggled just to draw a breath.
In that state, Minjun grasped the hilt of the Sword.
Thrum! Thruuum!
'This is my chance!'
The Sword thrilled with excitement.
'Got him!'
The instant they made physical contact.
Blade desperately attempted to brainwash Minjun.
It intended to bring the man's mind under its control, slaughter the twenty-nine targeted assemblymen, and escape.
According to the precognitive esper, those politicians were the seeds that would one day brutally trample the lives of more than half of humanity in this country, driving them into abject poverty and leading them to vain deaths. They would also serve as the dark backers funding future criminals who would commit severe acts of terrorism against non-human races.
It didn't matter whether the pride held in their hearts was good or evil. The consequences of their actions were what mattered. They would bring misery to countless people. Therefore, they had to die.
However.
'There's no response?!'
The agent's body did not budge. The brainwashing wasn't working.
While Blade panicked in confusion.
Minjun's lips parted, and a voice flowed out.
"...I see."
Hearing it, the Frying Pan felt a simultaneous sense of awkwardness and familiarity. It was a sensation that brushed against both the surface of its mind and something much deeper.
His tone made him sound like a completely different person from the Minjun it had known. Yet, paradoxically, the Frying Pan felt as if it had known this stranger since the ancient past.
And Blade...
"Who... are you?"
The Ego Sword felt the mind of the man grasping its hilt.
A massive, magnificent mind.
And it was immediately enveloped in the same inexplicable sense of kinship that the Frying Pan was experiencing.
'Wait, kinship?'
It wasn't exactly the same. But it was somehow similar.
"...!"
Meanwhile, Minjun focused on the sensation swelling up from within.
A weighty current filled the empty spaces inside him, erupting in a profound resonance. It connected his fragmented memories like buds sprouting on a withered branch. The dust-covered sedimentary layers of miracles writhed and twisted, mixing the old with the new.
Unable to endure the impatience, Blade asked.
"Why does it not work? On you?"
And then.
"And why do I feel such a familiar emotion toward you?"
Minjun looked down at the two fragments in his hands.
Until today, he had held a vague assumption: that if the pieces met, they would naturally recognize each other and feel a sense of kinship. He expected this might trigger an unpredictable anomaly, which would in turn confirm the fragments' true identities.
That was why he had carried the candidate, the Frying Pan, around while searching for other suspected fragments.
Ultimately, his assumption was wrong, but his actions turned out to be correct.
The key was not the two fragments meeting each other. It was a matter of who collected them and whose hands they ended up in.
He recalled an old, lingering question.
Why did the Committee place such massive bounties on the fragments of Asiph-1?
How many of those fragments had been scattered across the dimensional planes?
Would the Committee pay the same bounty to the prisoners no matter how many fragments they brought back?
'They were all useless questions.'
Because he was never going to return these to anyone.
Flash!
Once again, a beautiful light scattered outward. The Sword and the Frying Pan, which hadn't affected each other when merely brought close together, were now resonating.
The medium connecting them was Minjun.
The moment they were linked through Minjun's body, the fragments recognized each other.
He spoke to the Frying Pan.
"Once, you left a footprint in my mind. That's all been filled in now, but leaving a mark, even for a moment, was a mistake. Originally, you fragments... couldn't do that to me. You were born completely incapable of it. The only reason you could do it, even briefly and limitedly, was because even I had forgotten that fact."
Looking at them, he continued.
"It was a mistake. So, from now on, neither of you can leave fingerprints on my mind."
Minjun explained the reason.
"Because I..."
Stiff with tension, the two fragments waited for his next words with quiet anticipation.
*
Gadwick waited for his superior's next words in a state of tense, dizzying anxiety.
"...Understood, Gadwick. I grant you permission."
"Thank you, High Commissioner."
Gadwick had come to report the agenda and request approval from the High Commissioner, a fellow Kavite. Fortunately, his proposal was accepted.
Having received permission, he spoke as if to confirm.
"I will immediately begin preparing an intensive tax investigation targeting Asif-666."
This decision would be specifically coordinated at the Committee Headquarters before being forwarded to the Tax Collection Command.
Instead of replying, the High Commissioner simply rustled the brown fur covering his body.
'Phew, that went well.'
Only then did Gadwick feel his tension ease slightly. Standing before a High Commissioner was always a nerve-wracking experience.
Especially when the individual in question was classified as one of Those Who Have Awakened Again.
Those who had endured a deep, protracted slumber initiated by the collective resolve of their entire race in the distant ancient past. Living witnesses of history who had opened their eyes once more after crossing an immense span of time.
They were historical figures who, upon returning to the modern era, had become the roots of the Committee and established the mining methods for Talents. Gadwick was currently facing one of them.
"By the way."
Gadwick, who had been about to bow and take his leave, suddenly asked.
It was a question he had been curious about for a very long time.
"What about the other agenda I submitted..."
The High Commissioner clearly expressed his intent with a gesture.
It was a rejection, carrying the unspoken command never to bring up the matter again.
"The proposal to summon Asif-666 to the central dimension? There are still High Commissioners who vehemently oppose it."
He was referring to Endelion.
"And as you know, a tax audit is one thing... but matters related to relocation require a resolution from the High Commissioners."
The Kavite carefully voiced what had been on his mind.
"To be honest, there is a part I don't quite understand. May I ask you about it?"
"I allow it."
"Asif-666's severance pay is over five million Talents."
"To be exact, it is 5,124,990 Talents."
Gadwick was surprised that the other party had memorized a prisoner's severance pay down to the exact digit.
His suspicions deepened because of it.
"Considering the massive sum, he must have committed a dangerous crime, right?"
The High Commissioner urged him to continue with silence.
"Even though it only happened 800 years ago, all related records have been deleted, so I cannot even guess what his crime was... but wouldn't it be dangerous to leave such an individual wandering the frontier forever? Even his labor reform period is excessively long."
Until now, no one had ever continued penal labor for over 800 years under the same prisoner number.
Aside from Asif-666, it was unprecedented, regardless of whether their original race was short-lived or long-lived.
"..."
The High Commissioner, who had been intently observing the questioning middle manager, finally spoke.
"I understand what you are worried about. It seems your concern has only grown because you do not know the nature of Asif-666's crime."
The middle manager agreed.
As with many prisoners, much of the information regarding Asif-666 was shrouded in mystery. In his case, however, the level of secrecy was extreme.
The High Commissioner asked.
"Who is the most vicious criminal you know? Regardless of whether they are dead or alive."
It was a question anyone could answer.
"Wouldn't it be Asiph-1?"
"Correct. And what were his crimes?"
"Terrorism."
The worst terrorist the Committee had ever encountered in its history.
The mastermind who had scarred the minds of everyone who remembered him with tremendous shock and terror.
The very first prisoner.
"Then, what was the target of the terrorism Asiph-1 attempted to commit?"
"The Committee."
"That is not a wrong answer, but it is not a complete one either."
"...?!"
The High Commissioner corrected the misconception held by many.
"The target he aimed for was 'everyone'."
In the Committee's common language, the word for 'everyone' could be interpreted in many ways. The scope it referred to was, quite literally... far too broad.
The Kavite asked in return.
"By everyone, do you mean all the Ancient Races?"
An unmistakable tremble lingered in his words.
If this guess was true, Asiph-1 had harbored an utterly absurd delusion.
No matter how incredible or powerful a terrorist might be, possessing such an ability was impossible. Unless one was literally an entity approaching omnipotence...
However, the High Commissioner's next words were enough to make him faint from shock.
"No. I mean literally, 'everyone'."
"...?!"
"Asiph-1 tried to return all of us to nothingness."
"High Commissioner, are you referring to... all living beings across the dimensional planes?"
"Do not limit your imagination to merely living beings."
Gadwick felt the very air he was breathing turn ice-cold.
"Such an act of terrorism is impossible!"
"I will withhold judgment on your sentiments, your conclusions, and the limits of your imagination. Regardless, the target Asiph-1 sought to commit terrorism against was, quite literally, everything that exists in reality."
The High Commissioner swallowed his next words.
Strictly speaking, everything that Asiph-1 had deemed false was the target of the terrorism, but from the Kavite's perspective, substituting that with all entities across the dimensional planes wouldn't make much of a difference anyway.
"Even for a criminal who plotted and attempted to carry out such a heinous crime, his charges are at least partially available to the public. However, Asif-666's crimes are completely concealed. What do you think is the reason for that?"
After agonizing over it, the middle manager replied.
"Could it be... because he committed a crime even more atrocious than Asiph-1?"
"'More atrocious'... The phrasing is overly ambiguous. Determining the degree of malice is an important factor in calculating severance pay, but it does not have a decisive impact on whether a crime is made public or kept hidden."
The High Commissioner gave his subordinate another chance.
"Now, think about it once more. Why wouldn't we disclose it? Try to focus on the essence of the question."
Gadwick soon arrived at the answer.
"Is it because the moment his crime becomes known to others, it could invite a new kind of danger?"
"Exactly."
The High Commissioner pondered for a moment before speaking.
"People often misunderstand. It's because prisoner numbers are assigned in the order of their arrest. So when comparing Asiph-1 and Asif-666, it is easy to mistakenly assume that the former is an older entity. But that is not the case. Cause and effect cannot be linked backward."
"Cause and effect...?"
"Since you will soon be promoted to the Evanjul level anyway, I shall reveal his secret to you now."
Gadwick felt his ears perk up.
The High Commissioner had just declared it openly: he would soon be promoted to the next tier.
Since a being of such high standing had made the promise, it was impossible for it to be taken back. The Kavite felt his heart swell with overwhelming emotion.
Toward him, his great kin who had existed since the dimmest reaches of the past spoke.
"Asif-666's crime..."
He confessed the secret in a calm, flat tone.
"Is that he created the worst criminal in history."
*
Minjun spoke to the two fragments in his hands.
His voice carried a resonance that seemed to fill a distant gap.
"Because I... created you all. I created 'you'."
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