EP.141 A Perfect? Calculation?
Shea, Tirkanjaka, Calis, and the Undying, who had been wandering the wasteland, set up camp not far from the Abyss.
Unlike escaped prisoners who had just broken out, the camp had a bright red fire blazing as if advertising their presence. It seemed to beg for someone to come find them.
They sat around the campfire, illuminating the surroundings.
Now, they were immersed in deep sorrow.
Tirkanjaka stared at the endlessly burning campfire. Every time a choking sound came from her, Shea would glance at her while pretending to tend the fire. Each time she thrust the poker into the campfire, the flames roared up.
Calis and the Undying kept their distance today of all days. The two didn't even meet each other's eyes, as if they were meeting for the first time.
To this considerateness that wasn't quite consideration, Tirkanjaka waved her hand and replied.
"...I'm fine."
Saying that, the words that followed made everyone's heart even heavier.
"I must have been a burden. I am the Progenitor Tirkanjaka. The progenitor of all vampires, a monster craving blood.... One such as I could never be accepted by anyone."
As she spoke, Tirkanjaka suddenly grimaced and placed her hand on her chest. As if there was a bug eating away at her heart, and she wanted to pull it out.
But the source of the pain could never be grasped.
The vampire whose every blood obeyed her own will struggled against a metaphysical pain she was experiencing for the first time.
Tirkanjaka with her grimaced face, and the members rolling their eyes as they looked at her.
Tirkanjaka let out a damp breath and spoke to Shea.
"More than that, tell me about the other matter. Is that truly real?"
"Uh, huh?"
Shea, suddenly called out, grew frightened.
She would rather fight if they were enemies, but such problems that couldn't be solved with force were too harsh for Shea. As Shea gulped and struggled to choose an answer—
Fortunately, Tirkanjaka's topic was something else.
"...That the one called the King of Sin will truly destroy the world."
"Ah, yeah! Right. I, that..."
Shea, about to say "regresses," stopped speaking for a moment.
Those who were satisfied with the present would become anxious the moment they heard the word regression. Fearful that their happiness might not exist in the next cycle Shea envisions.
At that moment, Shea would have taken their happiness hostage. They would cling to Shea. Begging her to choose them in the future too. To grant them the same happiness.
This was too burdensome for Shea, who had to prevent the apocalypse.
This was why Shea didn't carelessly reveal the fact of regression.
Even when revealed, there were many times it was dismissed as having experienced Seonghwangcheong's prophecy.
'If I reveal the fact of regression now... they would probably believe me, but...'
Shea carefully observed Tirkanjaka.
Right now, Tirkanjaka was suffering from the emotions she had regained, but she didn't seem to want regression. If she knew that these emotions she felt now, this heartbeat, could all disappear....
Shea, about to speak, gulped and changed the subject.
"...Yeah. I saw it through prophecy."
"You said it yourself? You, a man?"
"Ah, no! There's a prophet I know! They can't see broadly but they know the details well! They're not from Seonghwangcheong! They're a trustworthy person!"
Shea hastily changed her words. Tirkanjaka looked at Shea slightly suspiciously, then nodded.
"Is that so."
Whether the doubt had ceased, or there was no room for doubt. Tir, who had been endlessly staring into the distance, suddenly spoke up.
"I will help you."
"...Huh? Really?"
"That doesn't mean I fully trust that prophecy. Seonghwangcheong has always led prophecies to their own advantage. However, if this world could perish, I don't want to just stand by and watch."
"Umm, I'm thankful but. Are you sure it's okay?"
Shea brought it up very carefully. She didn't need to ask what was okay. The subject was dissolved in this atmosphere.
Tirkanjaka calmly nodded.
"Hugh asked if I could protect him even if the world perishes. I answered that I would."
"That guy said that too? When?"
"Before leaving the Abyss. If that prophecy you know is true, even to keep that word, I must help you. In truth, even if that weren't the case. I must see with my own eyes what happens, must I not?"
Tirkanjaka's words were welcome, but Shea frowned at his shadow melted into the background of those words.
How could there be such a suspicious person. World destruction? Did that mean he knew the fact that the world would perish?
"What's that guy's identity? Is he from Seonghwangcheong? Ugh, suspicious. I need to grab him and ask him properly someday..."
To Shea's muttering ears came Tirkanjaka's sigh.
"Haa."
The Queen of Shadows' sigh made the campfire shake ominously. Tirkanjaka flipped her sparkling silver hair over her shoulder and scolded Shea.
"You are truly selfish."
"Huh?"
"How much help have you received from Hugh. And yet you still say he's suspicious, that you need to dig into him. Is this what you're doing?"
"...Huh?"
Tirkanjaka was angry.
It wasn't hostility toward an enemy, or contempt sent to a pathetic person. If anything, it was similar to the cold gaze sent to a thoughtless child.
"When you first stepped into my dwelling. After that, when you learned Blood Manipulation Art from me. Later, when he taught us under the guise of education. You were the one who received Hugh's consideration."
"Uh..."
Is this just infatuation?
Shea almost blurted out, but barely held back, and instead kept her mouth shut and listened to Tirkanjaka's words.
'Why am I getting scolded?'
Harboring a question in her mind.
Meanwhile, Tirkanjaka poured out all her accumulated words.
"He provoked me at the right moments, kept the conversation going without interruption, acted recklessly, and stimulated us, but. In result, it benefited you. Eased your precarious tension, gave vitality to this Abyss, and stirred all of us inside and out. Hugh's efforts were not insignificant, so why do you only say he's suspicious?"
However, sometimes, when viewed from an outsider's perspective, different things can be seen.
Having gone through 13 regressions and already in the 14th. For Shea, who was busy observing the world that changed little by little, the request to see the world through others' eyes even in this midst was overwhelming.
But from Tirkanjaka's sermon, Shea briefly recalled a different perspective.
"He helped me?"
"He still does. If Hugh truly knew about the King of Sin and made me make such a promise. Would that not also be something he did for you?"
"Is that... so?"
Putting on a filter and going back to the past. Shea retraced every action he had done.
As a result, Zizan came into Shea's hands. Thanks to him throwing it while stalling for time against Jiseon.
At the last moment, Zizan twisted its trajectory as if choosing this side. But wouldn't that also be his work.
Before that, when Colonel Ebon invaded. He attacked the commander and lent his strength to this side. Later, while treating Calis, she heard that he had stopped the colonel from making Aji run rampant.
Since he had been so kind to Aji, she didn't pay much attention... but that was also help.
And at Finlay. He took the lead in recapturing Tirkanjaka and revived the Progenitor's heart. Thanks to that, the Progenitor showed a more human side than ever. It became the reason for Tirkanjaka's obsession with him, but....
Isn't this rather better. Than marching while scattering blood.
"Huh?"
Shea muttered blankly. Tirkanjaka scoffed.
"I'm dumbfounded. After receiving that much help, you say no one helped you? Soaked in careful consideration, yet thirsting for help the most, and doubting him. Must you truly do so? Can't you just accept Hugh who helped you?"
All the actions he had done, little by little, gained meaning.
Is it true? Making her flare up at trivial provocations. Dragging her who was training to attend lessons. Every time playfully leading the atmosphere by pushing and pulling between Shea and Tirkanjaka?
"...Help?"
"If it weren't for Hugh, would you be having a conversation with me like this? Or would you be sitting peacefully with them? What about the Taoist of the Wisdom God Cult? What would have happened?"
What if he hadn't been there? In the Abyss, how would Shea have lived?
Actually, living itself wouldn't be a problem. Solitude was familiar to Shea. She had done closed-door training several times, so she would probably have lived without any issues.
However, like now, there would have been no gathering to sit around this campfire. They wouldn't have been reading each other's moods either.
After finishing the work, she would have left right away. Since there was no lingering attachment.
"Is that... so? He helped... me? Why?"
"It must be his nature. The King of Dogs, me, and you too. Wouldn't everyone help those who don't have clear malice?"
"Uh..."
No matter how many suspicious parts she recalled, looking back at the results, it had only been helpful to Shea. If she stripped away only the foam of doubt, what was inside was only sweet fruit.
'He did... help. Indeed.'
Shea admitted honestly, and at the same time was a little happy.
Something lightly touched her heart.
Like touching one strand of a complexly tangled spider web and feeling the vibration transmitted from the other side, the relief that I am still connected, that we are holding onto each other.
She had met many good people. Received quite a bit of help. Even if they fought, there were many who cooperated with a common goal before them.
Those she could call friends disappeared through repeated regressions, but there were many comrades, so Shea could keep moving forward. In fact, it was sense of duty and debt that together became the driving force leading her.
But, this that doesn't reveal itself.
Not something pushed forward, not a favor that pulls tightly.
Like releasing completely... comfort.
"S-so, that's how it is."
Shea, who trailed off for a moment, regained composure through the Cheonbangyeong.
As Shea averted her gaze as if feeling awkward, Tirkanjaka scoffed and turned her head. For a while, only the crackling sound of the campfire filled the camp.
At the end of the silence, Shea opened her mouth.
"Tirkanjaka. I'm sorry, but. When the heart was revived."
"...Again."
"No, no! I'm not doubting! I just want to hear what happened!"
Shea waved her hands toward Tirkanjaka whose brow was narrowing and continued.
"His ability, I think I might understand just a little bit."
"What is it?"
"Relics."
Shea picked up Zizan that had been carefully laid beside her. A long and blunt club with no decorations, no handle, no patterns.
"Relics of such powerful beings must have trials. Depending on how the trial is overcome, the power that is released differs."
And Shea placed Zizan on the ground, then flicked it up using her wrist. Then something amazing happened.
The ground that Zizan had touched. It shot up like a fast-growing bamboo shoot.
"But the relic he handed over had no trial. At the same time, all the power was released. Originally, only the power as a 'club' was released... but now, though faint, I can also use earth techniques through this sword as a medium."
"Interesting... but what does that have to do with my heart?"
"The Homunculus Dilemma. There is only one way to bypass it. The one who changes must be oneself."
There's no guarantee that one wouldn't break oneself, but it is at least natural.
Unlike the case of falling into the Homunculus Dilemma, in that it didn't require separate adjustment, Tirkanjaka's heart was in a very stable state.
"He seems to have made a relic out of your memories from when you were alive. Using the fact that you were already dead."
Shea sharply reasoned.
"He probably has the ability to draw out the power of relics. This Zizan too. And your heart too. Otherwise it can't be explained."
"A relic..."
Tirkanjaka placed her hand on her chest and felt her heartbeat.
The single card he had driven into her heart. Was that a relic forged from her memories from when she was still alive?
"That makes sense. After that, Hugh lost himself..."
Tirkanjaka muttered quietly with her hands gathered on her chest. Shea also fiddled with Zizan and responded.
"...Certainly, if we had that guy's power, it seems like things would be a bit easier."
But the world is wide. How would they find someone who had slipped away.
Shea muttered.
"I don't know where that guy came from, or where he intends to go. Come to think of it, I really knew nothing..."
"...Hugh didn't reveal it, so how could you know. No one would know."
"Huh? The teacher said he was returning to where he originally came from!"
Crackle crackle. Only the sound of the campfire burning was loud. Rash's bombshell declaration seemed to have inversely taken away all noise.
Shea and Tirkanjaka asked back half a beat late.
"What?"
"...What did you say?"
Rash answered calmly.
"We shared drinks and had a sincere conversation, but I don't know if that's true, or if even that was a lie! Anyway, he did say it!"
"No, that's aside. What did he say?"
"He said he was already a criminal, so there was no reason not to go back!"
Shea tilted her head.
"...The place he was originally? Where is that?"
The person to give that answer was also present. Calis, who coughed loudly, reported clearly.
"He was arrested in Amitengrad District 13-3 on charges of fraud and gambling. Since he was arrested on-site and detained without being able to take anything, if he has hidden assets, there is a possibility he went to recover them."
"Fraud and gambling? Is it really true he was brought in for fraud and gambling?"
"If there are no falsehoods in the related documents I saw, yes. I also came with inspector qualifications, so I couldn't see documents with higher security levels, but..."
In other words, there could be other information in higher security documents.
That was quite a sweet temptation for Shea.
They knew his whereabouts, and his destination was also revealed.
There was only one remaining problem.
Whether it was okay to enter the middle of the military nation to find someone who had left them saying he didn't want to.
"Awooooo."
It was then. Aji, who had been blankly staring at the sky, howled small and long. When the beast king who hadn't spoken opened his mouth, everyone stopped talking and looked at Aji.
Aji spoke while still looking up at the sky.
"I, must go."
"Where?"
"Human country. The country that made a promise with me."
Aji looked up at the sky. Starlight shone in the large eyes full of goodwill. That appearance seemed like someone alone looking at the night sky stars and falling into sentiment.
'How can they treat him like a dog when he's like this.'
While Shea grumbled inwardly, Aji opened his mouth.
"I kept the promise. Now, it's their turn to keep the promise."
"Who are they?"
"Country of humans. One with many humans. I, must go there."
"Where is there?"
Asking, Shea realized 'oops.' Would Aji know the name of a city humans arbitrarily attached? Shea worried about how to interpret Aji's vague and roundabout, 'dog-like' expressions.
"Amitengrad."
Fortunately, that worry was groundless. Aji contained clearer will than ever, and looked at the flowing stars.
"It's the most important city in the country. I, will find the promise there."
Tirkanjaka and Shea looked at each other.
They know where he's heading.
They also know how much he's needed.
Conveniently, a reason to go has also appeared.
"I will not chase after someone who left me behind disgracefully. However, if our path happens to be the same, that can't be helped."
Tirkanjaka nodded with the blazing campfire in her eyes.
"Alright. This time I need to turn the military nation upside down. If I find out the secret about that guy in the meantime, well, that would be good."
Shea also answered while spinning her arms around.
Like that, the gazes of the two women connected across the campfire.