[Serajin’s Fallen Priest]
[Freshness - Worst]
“Grrk.......”
It was clearly dying.
Watching it, I thought,
'I did think sothing was off.'
What I’d felt when I talked with it was this:
It was more normal than I’d expected.
Despite that vicious-looking exterior, there were actually more tis when I found myself feeling a strange kind of goodwill toward it.
But even so.
It had one odd part—just one place where it was warped.
At first I wondered if it was just a difference in species, but......
“No. That wasn’t it.”
To begin with.
I’d already thought it was weird that sothing that rational would have only one part of itself warped “because of species.”
If the reason for that distortion was sothing acquired.
If it was sothing done with intent, then I could understand.
'So it [evolved] so it wouldn’t suffer because of soone else’s suffering.......'
Right before it died, crushed under guilt toward itself.
Desperate to avoid that death no matter what, it made that choice.
And.
Evolution wasn’t an injury, and it wasn’t a disease.
No matter how exceptional a healer it was, after it escaped death that way, it wouldn’t have been able to make that evolution “not happen” again.
A priest who, to save its own kind, clung obsessively to an evolution for survival.
And the result of that priest losing only its empathy for others—
was the doctor standing here now.
Its empathy for others gone.
Only rage left toward the one who betrayed it.
A monster born that now clung obsessively to research that had even lost its purpose.
'Hmm.'
If that was the case.
Staring at its body as it crumbled, I muttered,
“Then...... it’s not like there’s no way.”
***
When I reached my hand out—
SWOOSH!
My hand pierced through the shadow on the ground.
The [Shadow Veil] had briefly closed because of Ariella’s injuries, but.
With her injuries recovered, it was released again.
I pulled out the various tools and ingredients I’d stored inside.
'The vibrations I was feeling from above...... they’re gone.'
Up there, Ariella and the unit mbers would’ve been holding that monster back, but.
Its master—the one in front of —was gasping, a step away from death.
It probably didn’t have the room to control its true body because of the pain I’d inflicted.
aning.
“All right. Let’s begin.”
I had enough room—
to cook.
FWIP!
Countless kitchen knives and cooking tools like frying pans flew into the air.
[Assistant Chef]
As my level went up, the effect of my skill, [Assistant Chef], had gotten stronger too.
SHHKSHHKSHHK!
Slice, slice.
SCREEEE...... BEEP!
If before, the limit was moving a kitchen knife or a ladle around, now even things like an oven found their own places.
And a gas burner went and brought a gas canister on its own, slotted it into itself, and lit.
And then.
As I also went into cooking with a kitchen knife in hand—
{What...... are you doing?}
The dying thing stared at with dim eyes and spoke.
“What does it look like? Cooking.”
{.......}
When I answered lightly with a shrug, it seed to think for a mont, then opened its mouth.
{You said sothing like that earlier, too.}
“Hm?”
{So the Legion Commander...... was a cook.}
At that.
My hands, in the middle of cooking, twitched and stopped.
It was only after hearing that that I realized.
“Did I...... not tell you?”
It answered honestly, but.
, on the other hand.
I hadn’t even told it that I was a cook.
Even while feeling that sense of kinship, I’d still hidden even the most basic thing about myself.
Being a cook was both my secret and my most essential weapon.
And in this damned world, it’s better to hide one or two of your most important weapons.
So even I, adapted to a world like this, had been hiding information about myself from it without even realizing it.
“My bad.”
{My bad...... huh.}
Then, with its dying body, it forced the aning over to with difficulty.
{I can’t understand why the Legion Commander suddenly started cooking. Maybe my brain function has declined, that’s why....... But if I’m going to die like this anyway, there’s one thing I want to ask.}
“Well. It’s probably not only because of that...... you’ve got a question?”
{Before the fight broke out...... why did you say that to ?}
After the alliance with it fell apart, and I was trying to leave Gangnam and return, I could’ve left this land as-is, pulled the Legion’s forces back together, and returned.
{If that was truly your plan, you didn’t need to tell . You could’ve just returned to the Legion, brought the troops, and that would’ve been that. But why.......}
In that ti it would’ve grown stronger too, sure.
But at the very least, it wouldn’t have prepared defenses with my betrayal in mind.
That might’ve been the better direction for putting it down.
{Why did you reveal that to ?}
But.
I openly told it that I was going to go back and bring troops.
Honestly, it was stupid.
Because of that, I almost lost valuable fighting strength—enough to make you think, What kind of idiot does that?
“Mm. How do I put it.”
Even so, the reason I said it was simple.
“Because you seed like you hated lies.”
If it had been honest with , hiding nothing, then I, too, felt like I had to be honest with it.
“Even for sothing as simple as a goodbye, I didn’t want to lie.”
{.......}
That was the conviction I had.
***
{So that’s how it is.}
At my words,
{The Legion Commander...... didn’t lie to .}
As if it had realized sothing, it began to mutter in a small voice.
{It wasn’t that you’d been lying from the start with the intention of killing ...... you really did just change your mind partway through.}
“Well, for now.”
I could’ve clarified right after that—that I hadn’t lied.
But even if I did, the result wouldn’t have changed.
'Both it and I were in the sa position—thrashing around because we were afraid of death.'
I had to kill it.
And for it to live, it had to kill .
If that situation wasn’t going to change, I didn’t think there was any need to pile up excuses.
{So I’d been under a ridiculous misunderstanding.......}
...By the way.
A ridiculous misunderstanding, huh.
“About that misunderstanding—you weren’t the only one doing it.”
{......?}
“Sorry. I ended up seeing it by accident.”
I tasted the broth I’d poured into a small bowl as I spoke.
“Even that so-called father you served didn’t lie, either.”
{......What?}
At the words I tossed out lightly, a fierce presence burst out of its dying body.
{Soone who doesn’t even know...... saying that kind of thing......!}
It had only had its empathy for others removed.
Its emotions hadn’t been removed.
It shouted in rage at my words.
{He deceived !}
For sothing dying, it seed to still have room in its mana.
That voice was so intense it made my head ring and buzz.
Thinking inwardly, With that, it doesn’t look like it’ll die right away, I also thought:
'In its mories...... I saw the appearance of that god a few tis.'
And.
'Those few tis were different.'
The first ti I saw it, my “eyes” succeeded in identifying it.
[Lord of Healing and Recovery]
[Serajin]
But.
The second ti was a little different.
[A god whose na was stolen]
That divine na and that na itself were gone.
'There’s sothing I learned not long ago.'
A divine na is practically the sa thing as that being’s identity itself.
The examples Mirinae showed of what happens when external existences co to rule this world—
the reason those examples were so excessively extre was because, to begin with, they were beings that leaned to extres in accordance with that divine na.
And.
“That thing had lost its divine na.”
If a divine na is that being’s identity itself, then a god that has lost its divine na is—
“At that point...... it wasn’t the god you all knew anymore.”
Not the sa existence as the original.
Sothing entirely different...... an existence where only the shell of the body remained.
Just like Mountain, my retainer, is no longer the sa existence it used to be.
“That lump of flesh was nothing more than a corpse. The being you worshiped...... was already gone.”
Even Morjan, who I’d seen not long ago, had lost many things, but its na and identity still remained.
But Serajin had lost both its na and its divine na.
“The one that lied later wasn’t the one you called your father.”
The one that lied later was an existence completely different from the being that had been called their father.
It would be right to see it as a completely different life-form—sothing that simply arose naturally from the remaining body.
{So he didn’t...... lie.......}
And.
That truth seed to hit it pretty hard.
{H-haha...... I see. Right. If that’s really what happened...... a lot of questions get answered.}
“.......”
{Sure. Of course. If he was truly already dead...... then what that shell said was no different from rigor mortis....... Putting aning in it would be sothing only a fool would do.......}
It muttered to itself blankly, and then, after a mont,
{Then what...... was I supposed to do?}
It spoke in a voice that sounded slightly choked.
{Back then, was I supposed to figure out sohow that it was only a shell...... that our father was already dead?}
“.......”
{After proving it was a shell, persuading my brothers, and sohow leading everyone in the direction of achieving evolution...... are you saying the outco could’ve been different?}
Even though it had already lost its empathy for others, that old obsession it once had—saving its own kind—
seed to still remain in it.
{Right. If I’d done it like this back then...... things could’ve been different......!}
It was.
Recalling its past.
Experiencing enormous regret.
And.
Even while I kept cooking, I looked down at my chest.
[Divine power resonates with intense feelings of regret!]
From inside my chest, a red light glittered, as if responding to its regret.
'The power [Matron] left behind.......'
The one drop of red tear she left behind.
For so reason, this power kept forcing
to look into its past.
To look into its regret.
'Matron’s will left this universe a long ti ago.'
This wasn’t sothing done by her will.
It was the power she left behind—
this tear itself—acting on its own.
And.
Only now did I think I understood why.
'Regret is a force that clings to the past.'
And the emotion inside regret is......
'It shouldn’t have been that way.'
The feeling that it shouldn’t have happened.
In other words—
“It was trying to tell .”
That it shouldn’t have been that way.
That I shouldn’t have to go ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) through regret like that.
By showing that regret, so I wouldn’t end up walking that path, it was trying to tell .
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
{......What?}
And......
“You did your best. In that mont, you did the best you could—the very best. It was just a situation too severe to stop, even then.”
{What are you saying.......}
The cautionary example I needed to see and learn from wasn’t it.
{Then who are you saying was wrong!}
“Hm?”
{If I did nothing wrong, then whose fault was it? My brothers who tried to stop ? All my own kind who never doubted our father to the end? Who, exactly!}
“That would be...... your father.”
At its words, I tipped my chin slightly upward as I answered.
{......What?}
“And.”
Holding the finished dish out in front of it as it stood there flustered, I said,
“I’ll be a little different from your father.”
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