687. The Solemn Thorns of Red Roses
The Allegory of the Cave was a thought experint that explored perception and reality. The taphor likened one to being trapped in a cave, who could only perceive the shadows as reality.
These shadows ca from an object and a light they could not see. Any object that cast a shadow constituted their perceived reality. Those who were stuck in the cave could not know of the reality beyond it. So were chained, others feared the light of the fla for their eyes would sting with the blinding truth.
There was more to the archaic taphor of the Allegory of the Cave. Raoul had learned it at so point in his life, as Deiman likely did as well. The issue was that the knowledge itself did not exist outside of specific circles or schools of thought.
But there was clearly more to this as Raoul took the young man by the collar and dragged his feet behind another monolith.
“I’ve never heard of a Deiman.” Raoul spat. A thumb pressed against his throat, drawing a small droplet of blood. “Nor do I recognize that color of hair. What magical principles do you follow?”
“… I don’t know…”
“Then how did you solve the monolith?”
“I can see lights… Can you see them too? Bright rings. Blue, red and yellow.”
“Show .” Raoul twisted him and pressed him against the monolith.
If Deiman was any weaker, then his ribs would have cracked. It made no sense as to why Raoul was violent all of a sudden. Deiman simply accepted this. He didn’t call for help or struggle. He only did what he was told, and pointed at various parts of the text where yellow lights were.
“Blue lights… are from a different kind of teaching. Red lights are red herrings… Like the shadows.” Deiman confidently said, showing Raoul exactly where these were after the yellow rings. “The yellow ones are the truths.”
His interactions caused the light around the room to move again. The shadows of the monoliths crept over one another all except for theirs. It was like they were basking in the spotlight.
“The light is sothing that should be faced head on. To depart from darkness. Blue light… is a different approach. It’s of the moon. I can’t see that one fully like you.” Deiman said. “How co?”
“The Blue Dahlia inscribed those ones. They’re also a red herring.” Raoul imdiately answered.
Deiman wanted to ask why he was so fixated on them then if they were red herrings. But before he could ask, Raoul elaborated.
“Dahlias co in every color aside from blue. The only instance that they can beco blue is when they glow under the moonlight. Rather, the many dots I see along these monoliths are like the countless forget nots. The reds you see are isolated roses. The yellow of sothing else.”
Raoul placed his palm flat against Deiman’s back.
“Yellow confirms that you are part of the Golden Dawn. Stand still. I’ll make your death painless.”
Deiman didn’t try to fight back. He allowed Raoul to continue feeling the tatooes that were permanently etched into his back like an engraving. They were deep enough for a fingernail to slip through. If anything, they were closer to external Mana Channels that the Demons possessed which streamlined magic for them.
Raoul paused abruptly.
“… I was wondering how you were able to see multiple lights. You… You were not just with the Golden Dawn.”
Deiman was a Demi-Human fox man, but he had experintal traits of a Demon.
“A Demi-Human that already takes on the basic form of a human. Then you have Demon characteristics…”
Raoul was wary all of a sudden, as if he stumbled on sothing he should not have touched. However, the symbol of the Golden Dawn caused him to believe otherwise.
“You were an experint? A lost thorn? No… you were likely sothing more than that. But you’ve found another place to call your own. The Golden Dawn.”
“I don’t know what you an.” Deiman wanted so clarity on his past. He slipped through Raoul’s hand and turned to face him.
Raoul’s hand latched onto his throat, but before he could squeeze to threaten the young man…
… He noticed Deiman’s empty eyes.
“Can you tell more about them? About myself? I want to rember too. If you hate because of sothing I did, then can you at least tell before you kill ?”
Raoul grit his teeth. He couldn’t look into those eyes any further. Not when they looked just like the ones the twins carried. His sincere ignorance caused a wave of guilt to strike Raoul, causing him to release Deiman.
“You’re a Shell too. And you don’t rember a thing of what turned you that way?”
“I do not. I just know that I want to live. But I also know that I can’t stop you from killing .”
Raoul refused to look in Deiman’s direction again. The mories of the twins haunted him, and Deiman’s complicated existence caused Raoul’s shadow to flicker like an unsteady fla.
Eventually, as the other three conversed without a care in the world, and after hearing Ara’s laughter, Raoul tapped on where the yellow lights were as Deiman pointed out earlier. After a sequence of clicks, and as the ball of light spun around, he asked Deiman to follow him to the next monolith.
“The Golden Dawn has roots with a group that called themselves the Red Rose on the surface. Used to though. They don’t exist anymore, but fragnts of them still do. It didn’t occur to that your yellow eyes ant that you were probably a slave at so point. But now it makes sense. You were probably found by the Golden Dawn. But before that, you were certainly a part of ‘that’ group.”
“What does that make ?”
“A traitor.” Raoul bluntly said.
He didn’t explain or elaborate further.
The monoliths went down with ease at first. But after the tenth they beca far more difficult. The yellow light Deiman saw eventually beca one of the illusions of the cave. It was but a fla that cast the shadow at that were represented by the red and blue light.
“A dead end?” Ara called out to them. “Surely you’re strong enough to break through!”
“That is another way…”
“Ignore her. We will not be able to preserve this place.” Raoul was determined to solve the puzzle than to use brute force.
“Why don’t you say that out loud to her?” Deiman asked.
“Because it will stop her from smiling. Ara… takes back to old tis. Her music’s able to touch on good mories.”
“To what kind of ti?”
“Listen, brat. Any more lip and it’s off with your head. Those kinds of days are long dead.” Raoul growled. “Now help with the interpretation of this one. We only have five left to go.”
Deiman didn’t know what else he could do. He fell into deep thought and tried to tap into his mories. But those shelves were empty. His library of mories was as silent as his own thoughts.
Suddenly, he felt a warm ray of light coming from the orb. Its light was far too intense to stare at directly. Even Raoul had trouble with this. But Deiman, who had nothing to lose, stared deeply into the light before suddenly…
… the cave walls turned white.
“Anything?”
“… The shadows are still here despite everything being so bright. Are the shadows just as real to us as the outside?” Deiman asked himself, speaking in a trance-like manner as he touched the now pale monoliths. “… It will be to people. I think…”
Deiman saw a new ring. It was white; a pure, untouched light that led him to solve all but one last monolith. By now the others had packed up and prepared to leave, seeing that the doors would soon open.
He pressed his hand against it, and the monolith turned dark all of a sudden. The text beca blue, uttering the teachings of whoever designed this puzzle.
“Gibberish. It’s like whoever wrote this must have forgotten how to write…” Deiman said.
“It does appear that way.” Raoul solemnly whispered and touched the etches. A faint, blue lens-like object was held in that sa hand that longingly brushed against its rugged surface.
The doors were swallowed into the walls, revealing the blinding rays of the sun. Raoul called Ara to his side. She bid farewell to the others, knowing that Raoul did not want to travel with them.
Besides, they had their own separate goals.
Deiman stared at Raoul’s back. Despite the intensity of the light from both the cave and the world outside, his shadow did not disappear. It was perpetual, and it stalked him even in the brightest of truths.
“Deiman. Be careful.” Raoul offered his parting words only to the young man. “I wouldn’t stay in the Bellum Empire for more than four days at most. White Midnight has presence there. If they knew you were from the Golden Dawn, then don’t expect them to be as rciful as I.”
“Are they the Red Rose…?”
“They’re only a small, insignificant thorn. But that thorn is still one of the 13 major Syndicates. There are many thorns like them waiting for people like you, and Autumn to appear. Red eyes and golden hair. With enough thorns you can construct a rose, however imperfect that may be.”
Raoul turned to Ara.
His crimson eyes shimred in the light.
“Let us never et again.”
With that, Raoul disappeared into the light.
“What he ans is – let’s et again! But in a better place than Grandis!” Ara exclaid, waving at them before she followed him into the light.
The path into the Bellum Empire was now opened.
Raoul’s words of warning mirrored Mae’s own.
And just as she was about to tell them, “I told you so!” –
“At least we’ll find Frost earlier~”
“Mhm. This is good for us.”
“W-Wait! WAIT! You two can’t possibly –!”
They disappeared before Mae could get them to reconsider.
“LISTEN TO DAMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT! JUST WHEN I WAS STARTING TO WARM UP TO YOU TWOOOOOOOOO!”
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