EP.111 Beast, King of Beasts, Human - Conclusion
The Immortal Rash did not care much even if someone damaged his body. It was the same even when he was weakened in the Abyss.
Because of that, Immortal Rash did not care much about what state Evan was in either. The fact that he was half-dead was not a consideration for the Immortal. Nor was the fact that three punches would be fatal to him.
It might seem fair or unfair depending on how one looked at it, but whether a situation with different premises was fair or not was none of the Immortal's business either.
He simply, seriously, gravely, and with all his heart, punched him three times with all his might.
As a result, Evan's face became a complete mess.
With one blow, the protective qi he had gathered blew away, and with two blows, his consciousness flew away. With three blows, even the last remaining life he had completely disappeared.
His nose was broken and his teeth flew out. Blood streamed from the holes in his face. When his claws, unable to withstand the Immortal's strength, broke, Evan staggered and collapsed onto the ground just like that.
Wow, and he's going to hit like that. He told me to take just one hit because he used his right arm a bit last time?
He's a real lunatic. If I had been hit, I would have died instantly.
While I was clicking my tongue, the Immortal, who had beaten a person to the brink of death, spoke as if it was a shame.
Towards me.
"Teacher, I am sorry. He has become unable to answer any further."
Look at him apologizing to me in the midst of all this. Since he hit him three times, he means Evan's condition is none of his business now.
"Ah, it's fine. I'm not doing this expecting an answer."
I can just ask his thoughts, after all.
As I approached Evan, the Immortal asked.
"Do you need any help?"
"I'm really sorry, but could you cover your ears? I'm going to talk about sensitive personal matters regarding Major General Evan."
"Your ears? Understood!"
Even at the unexpected request, the Immortal immediately agreed. He plugged his earholes tightly with his fingers and shouted.
"I've blocked them! Converse to your heart's content! However, just in case, I will keep watch!"
"Wow, he actually did it."
"What? I can't hear you!"
I gave him a thumbs up and approached Evan.
Sensing his end, Evan vainly gripped his trembling hands. His fingers scraped the ground, but he couldn't even properly grip the concrete floor.
Only a bit of the scraped concrete crumbled into powder and fell off from his sharp fingernails, which seemed to symbolize his origins.
Evan vomited blood and repeated.
'It was a chance to achieve... humanity's great aspiration. I had to... find Him. By finding...'
"You wanted to be acknowledged, right? Not as a cat beastkin, but as a human."
Cat beastkin, Evan Crimsonwild.
During the Kingdom era when beastkin hatred was rampant, fallen into self-hatred, he cut off his own ears and tail and threw himself into the military. Except for a very few people, no one noticed the fact that he was a cat beastkin.
Was it misfortune, or fortune? 'Someone' noticed Evan's true identity and highly evaluated his resolve. Under 'someone's' support, Evan advanced quite triumphantly.
Triumph did not mean a silk road. Evan's life was a series of hardships. During the Kingdom era, the military was a doormat for the knight order, in a position similar to weapons taken from an arsenal. Some knights even recognized that Evan was a beastkin and threatened him. Stripped of his money and meritorious deeds, Evan lived like their slave.
As his hatred for the Kingdom grew day by day, he took the lead in the coup, and using the cat beastkin's keen senses, he contributed to wiping out the remnants. The knight who had threatened Evan paid off that debt with his life.
Like that, Evan became a general of the Military Nation after enduring hardships.
Of course, it wasn't just time and experience that raised him to the rank of general. Endless effort and contemplation, vomiting-blood training, and operations planned by racking his brains. All of that accumulated and accumulated, leading him to become a general.
When Evan, who had gained such qualifications, faced the true nature of the Lord of All Creation.
When he realized the true purpose hidden within, not the childish outward purpose of gathering the beast kings and weaponizing them.
Evan decided to see it through to the end.
The cat beastkin Evan became an executive of the extreme human supremacist organization, the 'Lord of All Creation'.
The true purpose that fascinated him was...
'Him... In the end, I couldn't find...'
"Why are you trying to find Him? Because you think only He could uniquely acknowledge and understand you?"
Evan's faint gaze turned towards me. Even as his focus blurred, a question arose in his eyes.
'...What is it? About us... what do you know...'
"Mr. Evan. Why is such a grand existence necessary to define your essence?"
'Even while not knowing... who I'm looking for...'
Are you planning to keep your mouth shut until the moment you die?
It can't be helped. To see a little deeper into his true feelings, I have no choice but to tell him.
"A being that disappeared from history after humans came to dominate the earth in name and reality. A being that signaled the beginning and end of Year One. A king in the true sense, different from the fake kings, with both the ability and the qualifications to rule humans."
After humans, among the many beasts walking the earth, came to dominate the earth in name and reality, the King of Beasts took on a human body.
However.
A fact that people sometimes forget.
Is that humans, too, are merely one of the beasts.
"-Was the King of Humans truly necessary for you?"
Some humans might firmly deny it.
Some humans might feel displeased as if their shameful parts were exposed.
Humans were beasts, are beasts, and will be beasts.
Therefore, a King of Beasts also existed for humans.
Not a fake king with pathetic power, followed by merely tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or tens of millions of people.
Evan was looking for a king in the true sense, representing all humans.
"Actually, the King of Humans has not appeared even once since Year One began."
Humans will serve their own kings themselves.
Therefore, the King of Humans is unnecessary.
After that declaration, the King of Humans vanished.
After Year One, the era of kings. Humans developed by serving their own kings even without the King of Humans.
Humans were superior, strong, and special. Elephants could not advance further than the jungle and the wilderness, and the Mountain Lord merely became the master of the mountain, unable to drive out humans.
Humans were the dominant species of the earth in name and reality.
Therefore, no one questioned the King of Beasts taking on a human form, nor did they care that the King of Humans did not exist. To miss the lost king, they had too many kings.
But.
Some people in the Kingdom, sick of all the kings existing on earth, sought to find a true king who could embrace everyone.
The reason for seeking the true king would vary for each person. However, there was only one reason Evan sought the King of Humans.
"I am not the one you are expecting."
He wanted to be assured that he was human.
That you are not a cat beastkin, but a true human. That you are my kin.
He wanted to hear it directly from the King of Humans, who had the qualifications and ability to do so.
"I will affirm you."
'How dare you...! A mere laborer like you!'
Towards him, who was glaring at me with the last of his strength as his life was fading.
I calmly declared for him.
"Evan Crimsonwild. You are human. I guarantee it."
'What does someone like you... know...!'
"Whether it be goodwill or malice, that intellect which meticulously plans from the very bottom, acts, aims for the next even in failure, and uses everything accumulated to achieve a goal. That will which even throws away one's own life for a higher purpose is only possible and functional as a human."
I am just an ordinary person who can only read minds.
"What I have seen is only a fraction of it, but that alone is enough. You are, truly and undeniably, human."
Therefore, I speak on behalf of him. Major General Evan is human.
"Even if you are a beastkin, you are a human who has merely inherited a part of a beast's characteristics. It's just that your distant ancestor committed a terrible sin... Well, calling it a sin is a bit much, it's no different from being caught in an embarrassing scene that's hard to boast about to others. Such characteristics are merely incidental. Your ears and tail do not define you."
Having read him, I calmly comforted Evan.
"The resolve to achieve your goal even if it means cutting off your ears and tail paradoxically demonstrates your humanity. Good work, Human Evan."
'...Surely not.'
I merely spat it out without any qualification, but even with just these words, Evan was satisfied. Because the words he needed in his final moment had arrived.
Born as a beastkin and growing up suffering all kinds of persecution, he contributed to the downfall of the Kingdom, the very hotbed of it, and had struggled his whole life against something no one would acknowledge.
The beastkin hatred that didn't change much even after overthrowing the Kingdom, the Resistance who were the remnants of the hateful Kingdom, the hard-to-deal-with capricious King of Beasts, and his own slow progress compared to his efforts.
His hardships, his sincerity, his efforts. No one recognized them. Until he met me today.
At the moment of death, having found a small consolation from me, he was about to close his eyes in relief.
Where do you think you're going.
I can't let you go yet.
"In the first place, something like a cat is a trivial creature too much of a waste to even graft onto a human. You didn't think that suited you, did you?"
With a single word of mine, the plating peels off his gold-plated humanity.
"Does the great reason of humanity disappear just because you have a few ears and a tail? No, those ears and tail are but dim moonlight hidden by the sun's rays, no, starlight that doesn't even leave a trace. You had ears and a tail, but still, with brilliant reason, endless patience, effort, and learning, you became a major general."
Affirming humans, denying beasts. Beyond that, insulting beasts.
But, is this really what he wanted?
"Think about cats. Despite chasing sewer rats, they act clean and noble. A worthless beast that can't survive unless it's cute doesn't know its place and only has a nasty personality. Needlessly tenacious for its life. Even if thrown outside, it desperately clings to life, surviving by wandering the back alleys. Do you have even a speck of similarity with such a dirty furball?"
No. Naturally, even as a beastkin, his way of life was human. Because he was eons apart from a real cat. Even if Major General Evan was a cat beastkin, he couldn't empathize with it.
And yet.
He cannot be happy.
"How timely. Listen."
I raised a finger to my lips, then closed my hand and mimicked putting it to my ear.
And from down below, a beast's roar was heard.
'The King... of Dogs.'
Aji's roar. Immediately after, the sound of kicking off the ground and leaping. Following that, Nabi's scream.
Crack, the sound of something breaking reached even here. Bang, bang, a couple of times on the ground, something was slammed down heavily. An intense force that even transmitted vibrations to the rooftop shook the Abyss.
'...The King of Cats is inferior in strength compared to the King of Dogs... If they fight without a human intervening, it's a certain defeat.'
Just as Evan predicted, not long after.
Nyaaahaaak....
A groan fading away as the life ebbed out was heard.
Aji, having shaken off his chains, was executing Nabi, who had been tormenting him.
By the ruthless law applicable between beasts.
"Wait! Aji! Stop! If you shake him like that, he'll die...!"
Huh. It seems some interference has come in. It looks like the King of Cats won't die just yet.
Well, it doesn't matter.
Because Evan's gaze was already trembling enough.
"Look. He barely keeps his life only when a human shows mercy, right? Even if the King of Cats throws a tantrum, he's no match for the dog. Both as a beast and as a king. He falls far short in class. That's why you tried to secure Aji, and why you always tried to keep a person attached when leaving Aji and Nabi alone."
For a very brief moment, Evan was enraged. After that, he couldn't find the reason why he was angry.
He was a cat beastkin but refused to become a beast, discarded his habits, and cut off his ears and tail. Not satisfied with just that, he even joined an organization called the Lord of All Creation to be fully acknowledged as a human.
Evan wanted someone to affirm that he was a human.
However.
The truth is.
"Despite being the King of Cats, he got soaked in drugs and went crazy. My goodness, where else is a beast among the Kings of Beasts that has become so pathetic and miserable. Isn't it really surprising? He should have just died. It's a wonder cat beastkin even exist, you know?"
"Stop... it!"
Even while dying, Evan shouted, burning his life away. Any more words would only shorten his lifeline, yet he violently rebelled while vomiting blood.
"...Do not, insult me! Rather...!"
"I was insulting cats, though?"
"Damn... you! That's a lie...!"
"Haha. You're finally being honest."
Why is he angry? The reason is simple.
"You didn't want to become a human."
He couldn't completely separate the cat inside him.
"You just wanted to be acknowledged as a cat beastkin itself."
Not anyone else, but himself.
"That's why you couldn't give up your claws, and your combat style strangely resembled a cat. Even while despising the King of Cats, you sympathized with him, so you at least kept him by your side to watch over him."
Despite being unable to give up the cat part that had been with him his whole life, despite wanting to be acknowledged for exactly that.
Along with the persecution beastkin received, the inferiority of beasts he realized while belonging to the Lord of All Creation. Unable to endure that, he sought to be acknowledged as a pure human.
"Liar. Even though you never wanted to be a pure human."
At the very end of the end, Evan's eyes widened as his true desire was pointed out.
"Goodbye, Evan Crimsonwild. You half-hearted human who cut off your ears and tail but couldn't give up your claws. You avenger who hated cats, but hated the Kingdom that made you hate cats even more. You pitiful retainer who despised the king but couldn't completely abandon him until the end."
'So that's... how it was. I...'
"You tried to cut off a part of yourself and became a monster. Because you were already human just as you were."
'...I guess I didn't hate myself that much.'
A faint smile lingered at the edges. And.
With a soft drop. Evan closed his eyes.
It was a turbulent life, and he was fierce until the end. He didn't come down out of despair, nor did he fall blinded by ambition. From beginning to end, he sprinted toward his goal.
Even though he twisted greatly in the middle.
Still, it's a relief that he found his direction at the very end.
I quietly felt the lingering emotion, then stood up and shouted.
"Mr. Rash! It's over! Let's go down now!"
There was no answer. The Immortal, whose body was made of a mud-like material, had blocked most sounds by covering his ears. Even when I read his mind with telepathy, he wasn't even registering my voice.
I made my mouth shapes very large towards him, who was staring blankly, and spoke.
"Mr. Rash! It's over!"
"What? I can't hear you!"
It seems he can't hear a thing.
Wait, then.
"Hey, you dim-witted Immortal bastard! Were you telling me to take one hit when you were going to punch like that? Just because you don't die, you think others won't either? You're a thug with no conscience! Stop plugging your earholes and let's go down...!"
Around the time I was saying that, the Immortal was already pulling his fingers halfway out.
His eyes met mine. I said awkwardly.
"You said you were going to keep your ears blocked."
"It felt like it was over from the atmosphere!"
"...You didn't hear me, right?"
"I didn't hear all of it."
Ahaha.
An awkward smile continued as we faced each other. After laughing for a while, I scratched my head and said.
"Oops, I talked for so long that the 'door' closed. Still, I found a clue about the escape, so let's go down."
"Good. But."
The Immortal raised his fist and said.
"Can I just hit you once? I'll hit you softly, really."
"No. I'll die. Really."