EP.284 Blessed Nation, Cursed Humans - 7
Even when we approached right in front of her, Yuel was still clasping her hands in prayer. With the corpse resting on her lap, her devoutly praying figure looked exactly like a stone sculpture.
It seemed as if nothing in the world could break her concentration, but it appears there is no such thing as an absolute in this world. The moment Captain Abby mentioned the corpse, she regained her emotions and returned to being human.
"It's our first time meeting in person. Nice to meet you, Abby. I really, really wanted to see you at least once."
Yuel, who had cheerfully offered her greeting, soon completely changed her expression and looked up at Abby.
"And I curse you."
Saying that with a smiling face is truly terrifying. Captain Abby seemed to receive it calmly, but Yuel's eyes were still cold.
"Of all people, for the signalman most like me to betray the Military Nation... This is the worst-case scenario I had anticipated. To think you'd bring the most dangerous person right in front of me. I took every precaution to keep your identity hidden, but it's finally revealed, and you betray the Military Nation?"
"Denial. I have not betrayed the Military Nation."
"You're trying to cover the sky with your palm, Abby? You, who guided the Military Nation's enemy all the way here. What shame do you have to say you haven't betrayed the Military Nation?"
"That is the point. I do not understand why the Command Headquarters calls them enemies and acts hostile toward them, even at the cost of severe losses. It is not rational."
In reality, Captain Abby has no record of attacking the Military Nation. At most, she raised objections and persuaded other signalmen. In other words, Captain Abby's claim is a fact without a single lie, and it is her sincere belief.
Yuel's head twisted oddly.
"...You don't know? Really?"
"Affirmative. Setting aside my personal feelings, I still judge that to be rational. Unconditionally engaging in hostilities against him and his group is not only meaningless but also does not promise a better outcome."
"Him?"
Captain Abby couldn't answer for a moment and faltered. Seeing the Captain's reaction, Saint Yuel scoffed.
"Ha, that's right! Him! Kyahahaha!"
Yuel's scoff gradually turned into a neurotic laugh, and after crossing a certain point, it sounded like she was sobbing. Once she stopped making sounds, Yuel calmed her heaving chest and muttered.
"...I take it back. You really are like me, Abby! Of all things, to be bewitched by a frivolous man!"
I thought she would deny it, but Captain Abby said nothing. Yuel blurred her expression even more faintly and stroked the face of the corpse.
"There was no need to resemble me even in that regard."
Everything was a question to Captain Abby. The temple beneath the Command Headquarters. The signalman Yuel sitting in the middle of it, embracing a corpse. Moreover, that she was the true identity of Eimeder—the secret revealed in the gap of information confused Abby.
Even so, Captain Abby was worthy of a signalman handling information. Even amidst the confusion, Captain Abby calmly organized the information and handled the most urgent matter.
"Yuel. I cannot clearly understand your intentions. However, if you are a signalman and the Yukjangseong Eimeder, I request that you comply with my demands at present."
"Demands? What kind?"
"To cease meaningless hostile actions and make a rational judgment."
"Hah!"
Yuel clicked her tongue as if it were absurd.
"Abby. You watched Tantalus yet didn't realize? That's unexpected. Did I overestimate you?"
"This is a conversational style lacking an object. I request clearer communication."
"About the Mystery. I left you there so you could see the Mystery with your own two eyes, but it seems you felt nothing."
"Counter-question. What did you expect me to feel?"
"From beneath the Abyss, from the precipice where even I cannot peer inside unless looking down from directly above. Are you saying you didn't feel the fear of the Mystery?"
Captain Abby tilted her head. In her memory, Tirna Azi, or the regressor, was powerful but did not display an attitude that would warrant fear.
"Partial affirmation. Certainly, their power is terrifyingly strong. However, I believe there is room for the Military Nation to negotiate with them."
Yuel twisted her words sarcastically.
"Don't you think that's the problem? Why should a nation have a serious 'negotiation' against merely a few seditious individuals?"
"That is because they possess such capability."
"The capability to destroy a nation on a whim? What a magnificent power. Isn't that right? For a mere escapee. They took a leisurely tour around the Military Nation and then stormed the Command Headquarters, yet we couldn't stop them!"
Captain Abby flinched and stopped. Yuel let out a short "Heh" and muttered in self-mockery. Her fingertips touched the corpse's cheek again.
"This is the fruit that he and I created. A nation built by trusting, relying on, striving, and communicating with each other. Where a hundred million live, and billions more will be born and die in the future. A haven made from his corpse. So that precious dream... won't be shattered by someone's whim. I must protect this nation from the Mystery."
"...I understand your intentions."
"No, you haven't understood at all. The Mystery does not simply mean the strong."
Yuel explained.
"Patraxion, he is powerful, but he is an individual. The harm he can inflict upon the world has a limit. They extol him as having single-handedly brought down the Kingdom, but... if that man hadn't stepped in at the right time, Patraxion would have eventually worn down and faded like countless others. On the other hand, what about the Progenitor? She created the vampire race in this world, commands a legion alone, and is even the Queen of the Fog Principality. She changes the world on a whim."
They don't seem to know it well, but the regressor is a hero who holds the fate of the world in their hands, let alone the rest.
Although I am casually conversing with them, the truth is that they are the ones who twist the fate of the world as they please. The world turns upside down with their actions.
Even though they are merely individuals.
"I understand, Yuel. Are you saying that even if we approach individuals with the grand perspective of a nation and rational judgment, we are ultimately powerless before their whims? No matter how strong they are."
Surprisingly, Captain Abby hit the core point at once. Yuel looked surprised for a moment, then smiled weakly and clouded her expression.
"...You were outstanding, Abby. If it weren't for the mental contamination, you would have surely become the center of the signalmen. If so, this country he built would have continued even without me. But now, neither of us is here."
It was a tone as if both Captain Abby and Yuel were already dead here. I read a dangerous sign from her thoughts, but it wasn't the right time for me to step in.
"Question. Since a while ago, you have been repeatedly using the third-person pronoun 'he'. Just who is this 'he' you are mentioning?"
The corpse was mentioned once again. Yuel's hand, which had been trying hard to change the subject, stopped abruptly. As if Captain Abby's interest was extremely uncomfortable for her.
Embracing the corpse in her arms, stroking its face at every opportunity, yet demanding that no one pay attention—such a request was too absurd. But humans are highly contradictory creatures. While desperately turning away to forget shameful memories, once they actually forget, they often lament that emptiness.
Yuel muttered, invoking painful memories.
"You can't even remember anymore. Even though he is the parent of the Military Nation, you know nothing."
"Rebuttal. The Military Nation is not an organism, therefore there is no being who can be called a parent in the Military Nation."
"It's a metaphorical meaning."
"However, a being who could even be called a parent in a metaphorical sense in the Military Nation..."
Captain Abby stopped mid-sentence and examined the corpse again.
The warlord who laid the foundation of this country was a face that even signalmen had encountered through photos or portraits. It was the same for Captain Abby. As a signalman who accessed all kinds of information, she had also seen the warlord's appearance and attire.
However, since the Military Nation was a country with no interest in idolization, and didn't show excessive respect or mourning toward the dead, it was quickly forgotten.
Yuel's words brought out Captain Abby's old memories.
"...Warlord, Valiorant? However, he was killed in a remnant faction's attack three years after the founding of the Military Nation. So why is he here?"
"Ha! Remnant faction! A remnant faction! Ha, haha! Heu, heuuu..."
Yuel stopped speaking and laughed darkly. It seemed she suffered from bipolar disorder. Well, if one spent nearly 20 years alone in this dark and dreary underground with a corpse by her side, that would happen.
Yuel muttered like a crazy person.
"If it was a remnant faction, I'd rather it be a remnant faction! I 'saw' it! But, it wasn't a remnant faction. How could I see that! Me, who is supposed to be sacred and elegant!"
Beyond this, it was no longer a conversation. It was merely Yuel's solitary lament. With my mind-reading, I roughly understood, but Captain Abby didn't understand at all and tilted her head.
"Yuel?"
"It's the place to be by his side. I want it so badly I can't stand it. While I felt jealousy piercing my heart, on the other hand, I was immersed in a sense of superiority. She could never replace me. But, I am more than capable of replacing her. And so."
There was quite a bit of interesting content in Yuel's thoughts.
The warlord, Valiorant, had a family. During the Kingdom era, it was a young lady of a noble house matched by the royal family.
Of course, they wouldn't give the daughter of a powerful family to a mere commoner; it was a declining house with only a reputable name left. With a feeling of wearing an old hat, the warlord was granted a wife.
However, the warlord was also a faithful husband to his family. He took care of his wife with utmost devotion, and as he was originally an outstanding figure, his wife gradually came to love him. The two were famous in the country for their harmonious marriage.
Naturally, even after overturning the country, the warlord carefully arranged things so that no harm would come to her family.
But still, it was a knightly noble family. Knightly nobles were all connected through sticky relationships, and most of her relatives died during the rebellion. No matter how much she loved her husband, she couldn't help but feel anxious.
Furthermore, if he, who had gone to the Holy See, returned with a woman with a mystical aura riding behind him on a horse... If the Saint showed a strange fondness for him. Perhaps, it would be enough to drive someone to commit a crazy act.
Hmm. I couldn't read her thoughts directly, so I can't be certain, but it's a highly plausible deduction.
"I should have watched. Even if it was vulgar and lowly, I should have watched her. Throwing away my petty pride and setting aside my superiority complex. I should have meticulously monitored her private life one by one! If I had, he would..."
"Yuel. I cannot understand your words. Did the warlord not die from a remnant faction's attack?"
"It was a remnant faction's attack! Then, should I say he died in a sordid crime of passion!"
Yuel tightly wrapped her arms around Valiorant, as if trying to hide him from our gaze. Dirty hair covered his pale face. The appearance of a man who ended his life by drinking poisoned alcohol looked exactly as if he were asleep.
"That woman took him from me... but unfortunately, I won. That woman couldn't have his child, but I bore fruit with him. This blessed nation. Because I gave birth to this nation, which will birth and raise hundreds of millions more in the future."
"Yuel..."
"And this nation. The Military Nation, the fruit I painfully gave birth to. Will continue even if I die."
Yuel clenched her gaunt hand tightly.
At that moment, a strange event occurred. The underground temple shook violently. Broken flagstones crashed down.
This place was tens of meters underground, holding the Military Nation's most fatal secret. To bury a secret, the simplest method would be best.
"Oh my, this isn't good. No matter how I look at it, it seems like it's going to collapse soon. Is this a cliché trap?"
"...No!"
'This is bad! While conversing, I ended up giving her the room to act! Subduing her first should have been the priority!'
Captain Abby, pale with terror, approached Yuel and grabbed her shoulder. However, Yuel didn't budge.
It wasn't that she resisted with strength, but rather she was physically stationary. It was a kind of divine power protecting herself.
"Stop this, Yuel!"
"You resemble me, but... there is one big difference."
Naturally, Yuel wasn't going to stop. From the beginning, it couldn't be stopped.
The Clairvoyance is merely a power to 'observe', but a high-ranking cleric like a Saintess can invoke divine power. Just as she had summoned the angel Eimeder.
The pillars supporting this room 30 meters underground began to gradually lose their bearing due to some power. It was clear that this entire ground would collapse before long.
No matter how much divine power she had, if she was buried, she would die too. Yet, Yuel didn't seem to harbor any regrets.
"My taste in men is far superior. Goodbye, Abby. It was a short meeting, but I enjoyed it. Let's meet again in heaven."
Hey, why is she suddenly coming at me? What did I do.
Just as I was about to protest, Captain Abby deployed her unique magic circle and shouted.
"Denial! I cannot accept this!"