"Return it! I said return it!"
The woman's cry was a meaningless lamentation. What has happened cannot be undone, no matter how much she screams and wails.
However.
A memory flashed through Demo's mind like a passing horse lantern.
‘Try to return it with the gold you spent.’
The second trial of the Golden Mirror. The ordeal that created alchemy.
Returning something to its original state is harder than creating something. The words of the king he yearned for were etched deep in his heart. A final vitality took root in his dying body. Within his fading consciousness, Demo repeated what he had to do.
...Let's return it. The Gold Country. For our king.
It won't be difficult. He has done it once before.
Because alchemy was created in the first place to return things.
But can he really undo it? Can he return this hell back to the beautiful and wealthy Gold Country? Can he return it to the country of craftsmen and technology where everyone moved with one heart under the great king?
Right now, he is bound like this, suffering to the brink of death.
The time allowed for Demo is short. He is dying right now. Even if he uses all his remaining time, even if he squeezes out his dying strength, the most he can create is one.
If so. If he can only make one. Then wouldn't it be fine to alchemize ‘something’ that will return this country to its original state?
Demo stopped walking and closed his eyes. With death imminent, the remaining time was pressing. Kneeling, Demo visualized a mental image.
All things are made of small blocks. Whether it's gold, steel, or a grain of sand. The type of block is all the same. It only differs depending on how they are stacked.
As a result of stacking them differently, stacking, and stacking. The world is filled with various things. Not a single one looks the same, but if you look closely, they all start the same.
That house, the land, the lone standing tree, the stream flowing beneath it. Even the wild beasts drinking from it.
Let alone humans.
Demo didn't know what form it would take. But it would roam the Gold Country forever, returning this cursed land to its original state. It would create a beautiful country again and present it to his king.
As the Golden Mirror, the servant of the king.
The mental image swelled like a monster. The power to change all things now extended its authority toward its master. To grant the last wish of its dying master.
Inherent Sorcery. Elixir.
When he came to his senses, he was in a small workshop.
Once, the king of the Gold Country, Elic, took on many disciples. She kept a space within the palace to care for her disciples. In a room with a small workshop attached, the disciples honed their abilities.
It is a room full of memories for the Golden Mirror in many ways. Above all, this is the room that was filled with a single sheet of gold.
In the middle of it, a young man sat in front of a golden bell.
It is the Golden Mirror, looking slightly older than when seen from the outside. He wears a sword at his neck and shackles on his feet, exactly as he did when he died. Considering this is a space within a mental image, it seems even in death... he considers himself a sinner.
"...Who are you."
The Golden Mirror spoke slowly without even raising his head. I shrugged and sat down in front of him.
"Just an ordinary thief. I came to steal your belongings. Well, are there any trials or tests here?"
"...There are none. Because I have no lingering attachments."
Even while speaking, the Golden Mirror was still staring intently at the golden bell. A steel bell turned into gold as it was. An object symbolizing his most brilliant memory.
The first offering that connected the pure him and her.
Dripping with lingering attachments and claiming he has none. Really, there should be a limit to lying.
"If you truly had none, there wouldn't be any lingering thoughts left. How about pouring your heart out?"
"I misspoke. My lingering attachment is something no one can resolve. Even if you bring a fake resembling His Majesty, it's the same. Because the real His Majesty cannot return."
He says that, but he's pouring it out quite well. Well, lingering thoughts exist to be understood by someone, so of course he'd speak.
It just takes time; if I've reached this point, I'll end up reading everything anyway. I calmly chewed on the mental image and continued speaking.
"Knowing that she cannot return, why are you guarding this palace? Is there a reason to guard a masterless palace?"
"Because I must right all my sins."
"Sins?"
"That's right. Sins. The sin of leading a brilliant country into war, creating the poverty of gold, and making everyone suffer."
The Golden Mirror spoke as if in repentance.
"The Gold Country was a paradise. Under the reign of the great King Elic, a country of steel where outstanding craftsmen thrived throughout the land. The one who dragged that vibrant and bright country into an abyss was me. If it weren't for me, that wouldn't have happened."
"By printing out gold?"
"...That's right. Gold is valuable simply because it is rare. But I didn't even know that simple truth and created gold. Continuously, continuously. Not satisfied with my own hands, I even raised other alchemists."
If there had been only one Golden Mirror, the situation might not have escalated like this. However, the Golden Mirror truly believed that gold would make the country wealthy. So he shared that precious knowledge without holding back.
That too was probably him imitating Elic, but unlike the king's authority which was limited to individuals, alchemy is a Demon God. Gold spread uncontrollably.
With a haggard face, the Golden Mirror stared at the golden bell and spoke.
"I am a great sinner who led the country to ruin. Even if it's just to pay for my sins, I must remember the Gold Country. I must create it. I must return it. Even if it is nothing more than a mere record."
So the Golden Mirror created the Gold Country within his reach. He reproduced the Gold Country of the moment he considered the most brilliant.
A majestic castle. A thriving city. Even fertile fields. Even if the Gold Country disappeared into the back alleys of history, there was always a Gold Country inside the Golden Palace. Even if it was a country made by a single person, filled with all sorts of flaws.
So that's how it was. Golden Mirror. Your wish was to remake the Gold Country. That's fine, that's all good, but....
Hmm. Is that all? Is this your best?
Before bringing up the main point, I offered a perfunctory comfort to smooth the conversation.
"It's not your fault. No one knew that having more gold would actually lead to poverty."
"Spare me your insincere comfort. Not knowing is not a sin. I deserve to be resented."
Insincere comfort? What nonsense. I might bluff, but I don't say things I don't mean. Especially to a guy who's honest with himself.
"Does it sound like I'm spouting nonsense? No. Not at all. I don't resent you. Rather, I'm grateful."
I mean it. This side is much better. The Golden Mirror is hundreds, no, thousands of times better than the Grand Master of the Bottomless Pit who needlessly agonized and had his life meaninglessly taken.
Because he did it. Because he's different from that Demon God who hesitated, had his options taken away, and was left only with regrets. Because he ultimately achieved it through human endeavor!
"Because thanks to you printing out gold, there's one more thing humans can do!"
Was my statement that unexpected? The Golden Mirror took his eyes off the bell and slowly looked up at me.
The Demon God who created alchemy. The great giant who turned the world upside down. He is a Demon God who irreversibly changed humans and this world.
But even if he reached the level of a Demon God, no matter how great an achievement he left behind.
A human is still a human. Even if he is the Golden Mirror.
The childhood face I saw from the outside. If you pour over twenty years of time over it and inflict terrible suffering both physically and mentally, wouldn't this face appear? The face of the exhausted and tormented young man was too ordinary to be called a Demon God.
That is probably because he, too, is human.
"No one knew. Until you pulled off that crazy stunt, no one in the world knew how useless gold could be! Let alone what happens to a country and its economy when more gold than ever existed is produced in just one year! Even the prophets of the Seonghwangcheong who see the future! They only knew how to 'see', they didn't 'know'!"
Even prophecy requires cognition. If you see but do not understand, if you cannot interpret what the sight means, there is no way to know. Because the saintess is also human.
That is why even the saintess of the Seonghwangcheong could not see through the Demon God who hadn't existed until now. At best, they could only take follow-up measures.
If even the Seonghwangcheong, which takes away the sins of all people, is like that, what about others?
"Ignorance is not a sin."
The Golden Mirror didn't properly understand the meaning of my words. Taking my words as comfort, he shook his head as if declining. He must think I'm that kind.
"Are you saying it's not a sin? No, it's different! For that act to be known as a sin, it must first exist! You discovered an act that could be a sin! Before doing something, you don't even know if it exists. To know, you must first find it. You must draw back the veil of ignorance and find it first. Just like primitive humans in the distant past, to know what gold is, you must first mine it!"
"Even if the result is countless humans dying, terrible tragedies occurring, and the country falling into despair?"
"Pfft! The country fell because you discovered alchemy?"
Even as a Demon God, he can't help being arrogant. Or rather, is he that arrogant because he's a Demon God?
If he were real, I wouldn't even say anything. I held my belly and laughed.
"You're truly arrogant! Even the king of humans isn't as arrogant as you! Is it because you're a Demon God? Are you going to drink all the sins that occurred in the Gold Country and become the King of Sins? No. You already tried to, didn't you? That's why you wander the world bearing the name Golden Mirror!"
Everything is his responsibility? Is he going to run for King of Humanity? He's right that he made the gold, but taking responsibility for all the sins committed in the Gold Country? Leaving aside whether it's right or wrong, is it even possible?
Laughing out loud for a while, I desperately stifled my sound. Not out of consideration for the Golden Mirror, but to continue speaking.
"What sin? Did you plow the fields under to build a gold workshop? Did you murder your colleague who suggested making a gold workshop when food ran out? Did you eat your own flesh and blood because you couldn't endure the starvation? When the curse of gold became known, did you hoard the physical gold and hide it tightly to maximize your own profit instead of telling everyone? Did you forge weapons out of iron to seize power in the chaos and launch a coup? Did you incite the maddened citizens to kill the alchemists, depriving them of any chance to reverse it?"
Just reading what's in his mental image is like this, so even more terrible things must have happened in the actual Gold Country. A true hell on earth must have been born.
Who could have imagined? Not from another country's invasion, nor from a terrible disaster befalling them. That the country would decline to the brink of ruin due to the curse of gold.
But.
"All of that is your fault? Just because I praise you as a Demon God or whatever, do you think you've become an omnipotent god? Do you think you've become an absolute being who orchestrates life and death, and even manipulates humans at will?"
Not all the sins that appeared can be the Golden Mirror's sins.
"Speaking as the King of Humans, let me tell you. You are unnecessary. Just a human, at that."
No matter who the opponent is, to me they are just the same human whose thoughts I can read, and so I am ordinary.
No, anyone... is ordinary to me.
"Of all things, the Gold Country was a nation full of merchants, sharp with numbers and quick-witted. It was the result of each of them doing their best for their own gain at every moment. When the blessing of gold came, they rode it for all it was worth, and the moment it turned into a curse, they all abandoned it. That too was the decision of the entire Gold Country. If there is a sin of ignorance, they equally share it."
Ah, fearing a misunderstanding, I quickly added a word.
"Of course, I don't really like the concept of sin created by the Seonghwangcheong! Isn't sin too much of a luxury for beasts?"
Humans are beasts and I am their king. Therefore, no matter who, no matter what they do, I affirm it all. No matter how the wind blows.
Perhaps he finally understood 'me' a little, the Golden Mirror reacted slowly to my words.
"...That."
"Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying this to comfort you. It's for the tens of thousands of humans you ignored. You saw the people of the Gold Country as puppets without even their own will. As people who would die unable to resist the great flow, whether you call it fate or whatever. Heh. That's why the world you created is in this state."
I chuckled and spread my arms. Even though it can't be seen because this is a mental image space, outside of here is surely the Golden Palace. The appearance of the ideal Gold Country he imagines.
The fields are full of ripened grain, and the majestic city embraces both beauty and practicality. The walls built to ward off enemies seem as if they would cut off the world.
However.
Inside it, there are no people.
It shows from there.
"It's obvious. The Gold Country you made. There are only homunculi. Even then, only the homunculi of the Cult Masters who can communicate with you and share a similar mental image have a shred of rationality, and the rest are puppets that can only follow given orders. That's why it's rather funny. While viewing all the citizens of the Gold Country as puppets without their own will! What's so precious about the Gold Country, or whatever!"
"...No!"
"Prove it!"
When I yelled, the Golden Mirror looked up at me as if slightly cowed. However, perhaps some pride remained, as he reached out and created something.
The figure was... Elic's. It was the Elic in his imagination, especially depicted delicately, with her figure and facial beauty emphasized.
I scoffed.
"Do you have a conscience? How does that look like a person? That's just the pillow you hug when you sleep."
"I, I never did that!"