Translator: Alpha0210
Agolet's proposal ended there, for now.
He didn't think he'd said anything outrageous. But whether Residue would accept it meekly was another matter entirely. After all, the man before him was the most unpredictable person Agolet had laid eyes on in all his life.
That element put a pleasant tension in Agolet's muscles. He watched Residue, holding on to that enjoyable tension.
So he could be ready for the unexpected at any moment.
"......"
But a long silence followed. It didn't seem like Residue would speak anytime soon.
Watching him quietly, Agolet saw no particular sign of anger. Did Residue think the proposal was a lie? Or had his thoughts on Lukas Trowman shifted in the meantime?
Either way, this too counted as unexpected.
Since Residue didn't seem inclined to speak first, Agolet once again broke the silence himself.
"If you accept, I will tell you how to communicate with the Unified World."
That drew a reply.
"Sounds like if I don't accept, I get nothing at all?"
"I'm no philanthropist."
"That's true enough. But, Agolet. I can see you're hiding a few things."
Agolet burst out laughing.
"That's why I told you from the very start, didn't I? That I would lie."
"Don't muddy the point. Lying and hiding are entirely different things."
"How so?"
"The latter is rather more insidious."
"Hm."
Agolet let his smile fade a little as he spoke.
"Then would you care to tell me? What it is I'm hiding."
"Shall I? First things first. You cannot kill Lukas Trowman."
Agolet closed his mouth.
Of course, only his mouth had closed; his face remained as blank as ever, so it was hard to tell whether he was flustered or simply at a loss for words.
"Your basis being that I do not act personally. Is that all, perhaps?"
If so, I'd be disappointed. The swallowed words were all but audible.
Even as he listened to Agolet's calm voice, Residue slid into a sly smile.
"Of course that's not all. Shall I be more precise? You said you fell here a very long time ago. Even I can't pin down exactly when, but decades. Perhaps centuries. At the absolute minimum, years. Honestly, the length itself hardly matters. The point is, during all that time, neither I nor Pale existed in this world."
"......"
"In all that time, nothing stood between you and Lukas... for you, every single moment was one long string of chances to kill him."
Lukas's companions? His master? Or some third party even Residue didn't know about?
Regrettably, they were nothing but roadside weeds, incapable of delaying the White Knight Agolet's stride for even an instant. Even if they staked their lives and hurled themselves at him like moths into a flame, they couldn't buy so much as a moment.
"And yet Lukas Trowman is alive. Judging by our little chat, he's not exactly in fine shape, but his thread of life is intact. So I did a bit of speculating of my own......"
Residue turned his gaze back to Agolet, his smile now filled with something sharp.
"You cannot kill Lukas. 'Cannot kill him directly'? Well. That doesn't seem quite right either. You said it yourself just now, that seizing control of a few factions would be nothing at all...... And I know that was neither arrogance nor bluster. It wouldn't surprise me if you'd taken an empire, a great religion, or even the Demigods themselves into your hands."
And with them as his hands and feet, killing Lukas before he grew strong would hardly be difficult. Even at this stage Lukas was no easy mark, but he was not yet complete enough to match wits with Agolet.
"So the most natural conclusion is......"
Residue deliberately let his words trail off at that point. In that moment, Agolet's gaze was nailed to Residue's eyes.
With the two of them staring straight into each other, Residue instead wiped away his smile and said,
"...Until a certain moment arrives, you cannot kill Lukas. No. Would it be more natural to say you must not kill him? And judging from everything you've prattled on about, 'that day' would be the very day he falls into the Bottomless Pit."
"......"
Residue held Agolet's gaze in that state a moment longer, then snorted a laugh. And like a man who'd just performed a clumsy trick, he clenched and unclenched his hands, grinning.
"Well? Agolet. You're the very man who destroyed a Greater Universe with nothing but his wits, so I admit it's a bit embarrassing, feeling like I'm teaching a fish to swim."
"...Hmm."
Agolet let out a breath.
And slowly, his head nodded.
"Precisely, Your Majesty. That is the reason I have been unable to kill Lukas Trowman all this time. As you said, unless I kill Lukas on that day, it means nothing at all. To put it the other way... until then, I must in fact keep Lukas alive."
Only then did Residue withdraw his gaze and look out the window.
Darkness had settled over everything now. Still, perhaps because this was a temple, torches burned here and there, so it didn't feel especially black.
Was the slight chill that had crept into the room simply because the temperature had dropped?
"I'm thirsty."
"I will prepare something to drink."
Absurdly, in that moment Agolet slipped right back into the posture of a vassal.
When Residue only stared blankly at him, Agolet spoke again.
"Cold or hot, which would you prefer?"
"Hot."
Agolet rose from his seat. He went through a door adjoining the room. He hadn't closed it, so his back remained in view. Clink, clatter, the sound of a teacup and spoon being handled, most likely. Was he making it himself?
A short while later, Agolet returned with a steaming cup in his hand. He held it out to Residue with courteous care.
"Please, drink."
Residue raised the cup to his lips without a word of debate.
Then he said to Agolet, who seemed to be waiting for a verdict,
"A little gamy."
"The first sip is like that. Once you grow accustomed to it, you will taste the smoothness."
"What is this?"
"Goat's milk. Warmed with sugar and cinnamon."
Residue took a few more sips, but the taste didn't particularly improve. Still, since it had been offered, he drank it down to the last drop.
"Whew......"
Residue exhaled a warm breath.
Come to think of it, wasn't warm milk supposed to be good for insomnia? He felt oddly languid. He let his head droop slightly. All that showed was the floor of the room, but his gaze reached further down. To the deep layers of the city that ordinary people could neither see nor know.
"You said this place was called Sarman?"
"That is correct."
"It's a dull city. Well, I suppose any city would seem dull to someone like you or me."
To Residue, this city had nothing memorable enough to leave an impression. The same surely went for Agolet. Given their far-from-ordinary births and lives, unless a city had truly exceptional character, it stood no chance whatsoever of claiming a corner of their memory.
"But that only holds for beings on our level, yours and mine."
"......"
"As you know, I once lived as a parasite in Lukas's mind. Different personalities coexisting in a single body isn't so rare, really. I saw the world through his eyes, and I was moved by what he felt."
Agolet understood the true meaning behind Residue's words.
It hadn't been mere sharing of a body. In those moments, Residue had been attuned to Lukas Trowman... and thus the dregs of the one who had once been the Lightning God became Residue.
"As his influence grew thicker, it became possible to glimpse his memories as well. I couldn't see everything, of course, but the memories he couldn't forget, the moments that were special to him, the scenes seared into his mind, those I could grasp well enough. And so I came to understand, if only in fragments, why Lukas became the being he is."
"Forgive me, but I fail to see what you are getting at."
"Right now, underground, Lukas is fighting with his life on the line."
Agolet nodded.
"That is correct, Your Majesty. Surely you do not intend to question me over that. I believe I have already given you a sufficient explanation─."
"A fight for one's life can never be forgotten."
"......"
"That's how the skull is built. No matter how many times a man goes through it, it gets carved deep into the brain, without fail. A man who's nearly died a hundred times remembers every one of those hundred with perfect clarity...... And on top of that, from a mere human's perspective, this city is a reasonably distinctive place. Having gone below, Lukas now knows this city was built atop sand-buried structures, which would make it more memorable still. So why is it, Agolet."
Residue set down his cup.
"Why this city is nowhere in Lukas's memory."
"......"
"I rummaged through the archive of his memories for quite some time, and it wasn't there. I thought he might have forgotten it, but no, not that either. Then why? Simple. Lukas was never supposed to come here in the first place. Am I right?"
Residue smiled again.
"The past has already been changed. And in this world, only five can bring about change, you and I among them. First off, it isn't me, and it isn't Pale. And the Lightning God isn't the type for this kind of tiresome scheming. That leaves only you and the Black Thorn Demon King, and frankly, when it comes to being devious, the two of you are second to none, so I couldn't quite be sure. But......"
"......"
"Now, with your face right here in front of me, I get the feeling I beat those fifty-fifty odds and landed on the right answer."
What kind of expression would Agolet make when cornered?
Partly to settle that question as well, Residue continued without taking his eyes off the man's face.
"Even I can't know what Lukas's state of mind was 4,000 years ago. But I spoke with him last night, and emotionally, he seemed badly shaken. Of course, at this stage he's still growing in all sorts of ways. It's only natural that he's rough around the edges. But is it just my delusion to think your breath is mixed somewhere into the reasons he ended up that way?"
"......"
At that moment, a small commotion rose outside. Hurried footsteps sounded in succession, along with what seemed to be someone issuing orders.
Residue had no interest whatsoever in the commotion, but he stopped looking at Agolet and turned to the window instead. The thought had come to him suddenly, but observing Agolet's expression now seemed pointless.
In truth, only one thing needed to be settled now.
Whether to count the White Knight as an enemy, or as an ally.
Perhaps every conversation Residue had held here since meeting Agolet had been nothing but the process of finding that answer.
Of course, even at this point, no clear answer had emerged.
Just then, a low laugh reached his ears. A laugh that sounded like insidiousness and spite pressed down tight, and it was coming, naturally, from the man before him.
Agolet laughed under his breath, then spoke.
"As expected of Your Majesty."
"......"
"Ah. My apologies. No one has ever seen through my intentions so precisely before...... It feels more pleasant than I would have thought. Is it because my opponent is you, Your Majesty?"
Whatever the reason, Agolet spoke with a face wreathed in smiles.
"You have it all right, Your Majesty. At present, I am devoting myself to setting the board. And so far, everything is proceeding according to plan. Lukas Trowman coming to this city, the instability of his mind, all of it is my doing."
"What are you playing at? There's far too much that's unnecessary in what you're doing. I don't see the point of seizing control of a religion like this. Or of driving Lukas's mind to the brink. If your goal is to kill Lukas, isn't the work far simpler than that?"
"...After I fell here, after I realized I had to kill Lukas... I devoted myself to studying the methods of his killing. By now they number in the hundreds. You asked why I have been shaking Lukas's state of mind? Because it is directly tied to his killing. No. Strictly speaking, it would not be a killing."
Residue thought he knew the death Agolet meant.
"Suicide."
"Drive a mind to its very limit, and it may well make that kind of extreme choice."
The image of that idiot, wandering somewhere in this temple, taking his own life flashed through Residue's head.
His head felt strangely feverish, so he pressed his thumb hard against his forehead. Maybe he shouldn't have asked for something hot. He should have drunk something cold. Better yet, crunching straight through a mouthful of ice would have done nicely.
To purge the heat, Residue settled for exhaling at least one deep sigh.
Seeing this, Agolet asked,
"Why the sudden sigh?"
"Because otherwise I think I'd crack your skull open. Try thinking before you run your mouth. Learning my boiling point can't possibly be worth more than your life, can it?"
"That is for me to decide. Kindly refrain from such pronouncements."
"......"
"And with that, my humble little plan has been laid bare in full. Now do as you will, Your Majesty. Of course, let me first say that whatever you decide, my mind will not change."
He said it evenly, but on this matter Agolet would never compromise. Right now, this man stood ready to fight anyone who opposed his will, even if that someone was Residue.
If so, then perhaps it was this side whose resolve had been the half-formed one.
Residue gave a wry laugh and slowly opened his mouth.
"Listen well, Agolet. I......"
*
After leaving the room, he looked up at the sky for a moment. It was a day of unusually heavy cloud, and the moonlight was hard to make out. Residue idly watched the clouds drift for a while, then began wandering the temple for no particular reason.
Inside the temple, Residue's attire drew attention in more ways than one. The faithful mostly wore bright clothing, and the warriors were, to an outsider's eye, practically naked. Amid them, Residue alone wore a dark, gloomy robe, and he drew plenty of prickly stares for it.
"Who might you be?"
A few approached, suspicion in their eyes, to ask as much.
Residue answered without so much as a glance their way.
"A guest."
"A guest......? At this hour?"
"Ah. He must be one of the Grand Sorcerer's party. I heard one of them had a private audience with the Terusan, and afterward met with the Oesst as well."
"Ah... is that so."
At the words of a man who appeared to be a superior, the warrior stepped back, abashed.
"And what did the Oesst say?"
"Didn't hear anything in particular."
"Hm. I see."
Despite Residue's less-than-earnest attitude, the man nodded as though something had been settled, then said in a slightly raised voice,
"He is a guest received by Oesst Jore. It is not our place to interfere."
At that, the warriors around them withdrew, seemingly satisfied.
The superior looked at Residue one last time and said,
"You may stay until midnight."
Then he left, though Residue hadn't even bothered to answer. Even so, whether it was surveillance or simple wariness, the number of eyes trained on him hardly decreased. If anything, only the open pointedness of the stares eased somewhat.
Residue could see plainly what expressions the people glaring at him wore, where they watched from, what thoughts they harbored, but he spoke to none of them.
He simply wandered the temple. He passed the gallery inside the building and stood before the obelisk, gazing up at it for a while.
That day, drawing near.
The ending would be decided in the moment Lukas and the Lord met.
A little over half a year. That moment would come crashing down in the blink of an eye.
What Residue had to do to prepare for it was becoming clear, and yet, strangely, he felt no better than he had right after falling into this place.
Residue sat himself down carelessly nearby.
He could see the faithful hurrying this way and that, torches in hand. The wavering light stretched their shadows long, until they reached all the way to Residue's feet.
Sitting still like that, his impression of the day he'd just lived through flowed out on its own.
"...Not bad."
A sky with its moonlight veiled, flickering firelight, footsteps, commotion, someone's gaze, a life-and-death struggle underground. What was happening down there, and how it would change Lukas... feeling all of it, Residue, too, had come to a conclusion of sorts.
"Not bad at all."
*****
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