The First Saintess wanted to create a framework for a world where humans could live in peace. She dreamed of ending an era where barbarism and taboos swelled like a flood, and bringing forth an era where people lived by norms under order.
"But I too am merely human. I suppose I couldn't fix the framework from within the framework."
"Don't be discouraged. Realizing one's limits is something everyone goes through. The more talented you are, the later it comes."
"Even if I faced my limits and turned back in countless futures, I ultimately couldn't cross that massive wall. The one who can truly establish this order is only..."
She looked at both me and 'older sister' simultaneously with desperate eyes, as if clinging to us.
"Only Im."
If she, who had obtained near-omniscient power through the mighty authority of prophecy, didn't need to involve herself so deeply with the King of Humans. She could have slain the three monsters as she wished and built a great force.
However, the First Saintess also became a King's Warrior and moved the world.
"The King of Humans is perfect. Beautiful, wise, strong, and compassionate. But that alone is not the qualification. The King of Humans possesses the true qualification."
She had been aiming for the King of Humans from the beginning. Because it was necessary.
"Being the King of Humans. That itself."
"Special. Unique. And... always existing without worry of being lost."
The King of Humans is a conceptual existence. It strongly manifests the characteristics of the human species. And if one speaks of human characteristics, they are superior intelligence, dexterous hands, strong shoulder power, and the learning ability to acquire knowledge through observation. The King of Humans was promised as a superhuman.
Moreover, when dying, they are reborn somewhere in the world, making them a flawless superhuman without even the worry of disappearing or being lost.
Therefore, the First Saintess served the King of Humans.
Not stopping at acquiring all manner of knowledge, she taught the King of Humans.
Instead of dealing with the three monsters of taboo directly, she had the King of Humans execute them.
And in the end, she even knelt and begged.
To become the guardian of order and eradicate evil.
But from what I saw, it failed spectacularly.
"'Older sister' would have refused that in all futures. Since this was the best future you chose."
"This is, a once-in-a-lifetime gamble risking everything I have. If we're going to reach an end anyway, a ray of hope placed on an unknown possibility."
"What?"
"Rather than the best future, it's an ending chosen in pursuit of a possible chance."
The First Saintess who muttered this looked precisely at me. Piercing through time, space, and even my heart, she asked.
"What do you think, Im."
"What?"
"If you are Im, who has lost all power and stepped down from being king, remaining as but a single ordinary human. If you are one who has learned the fear of death and pain. If you are one who knows what fears an ordinary human harbors when falling asleep each day."
I had one promise. It wasn't mine, but that of 'older sister' who was stabbed to death here. A promise made not with me or older sister, but with the concept of the King of Humans.
Some powerful existence tore apart the power held by the King of Humans and forcibly made a promise.
"If you are one who knows those who cannot believe that today, like yesterday, will arrive as an unchanging tomorrow."
"Are you trying to leave this to me?"
"At the end of the future I saw, there you are. It means that the five qualified ones I selected also ultimately perished without being able to represent humanity. An era where order is reduced to mockery and humans are swayed by power. Now the King of Humans will soon regain full power."
The target was the King of Humans from the beginning.
Whether 'older sister', or me. Or both.
"Would you not become the true king and establish the world's order?"
The First Saintess made such a request to me. Just as she did to older sister, solely to protect humanity.
But the answer was already determined.
"I'm sorry."
My position remains unchanged.
The focus of the First Saintess's gazing eyes shifts slightly. Is the future prophecy gradually coming to an end? Moving my body to the distance where the focus aligns, I spoke.
"I cannot allow order to stand above humans. So I will refuse the request to protect order. To me, order is a tool, and if necessary, I will fix or change it."
This must be a scene the First Saintess didn't wish for. The prophecy is going awry. At the same time, her eyes waver slightly.
"The order I desire is not so rough and strict."
"I know. But frameworks break eventually. A Demon God could appear and twist the rules, or the world could change unexpectedly. Haehyung could suddenly leap in and sink a corner of the continent."
"But even in such moments, there are unchanging values."
"Such values must prove their worth. It's not you or I who determine value, but the people who need that tool."
It is not only humans who are challenged. Values and order must always be challenged as well.
If humans are not perfect, then the values and order humans create are also not perfect. If one considers them perfect and lives to conform to them, eventually they will fall out of alignment.
"Even if you set rules, they will eventually clash. Even if you establish order, it will crumble at some point. There are no unchanging values. Because the world changes."
Now the First Saintess had faded to the point of being comparable to Busulbi. Is this past I'm seeing itself being affected? Or is the past changing?
The First Saintess muttered bitterly.
"...Then, the order I would establish even by committing rebellion, will ultimately end in failure."
"What? Why is that a failure?"
Everyone really does see me as a complete barbarian.
When did I ever say order was useless? I said it's merely a tool. And I like tools. I carry various ones around.
In any city I went to, I never broke or destroyed order from the start. I merely watched for gaps and exploited them. I utilized it a bit more skillfully than others, even if the result led to the collapse of order. I acknowledged and followed order.
"They say living a hundred years is a long life. Normally, if one lives about a hundred years, they would have bestowed many favors and incurred quite a bit of resentment. But if you're going to die soon, what does it matter. Embracing all those favors and grudges, leaving one's descendants in the world, and then being embraced by the Earth Mother."
If humans are mortal, then order is also mortal. Isn't it strange to expect something grand from a mortal existence?
"If an order has been maintained for over a thousand years, and though there may have been some complaints during that time, it has relatively good public support. It could creak a bit from old age, be abolished, and disappear into the back alleys of history. Perhaps that order might become the foundation for a better and superior order."
You just replace it as needed. There's no need to assign it too grand a meaning.
"Ultimately, whether oppressing someone or saving them. It's humans who used it as a tool."
Just because a blacksmith makes a sword, they don't take responsibility for all the deaths that sword will cause.
It's the same. Just because you create order, are you going to bear all the harm that order will sow? Nonsense.
That belongs to the human who grasped and wielded the tool. It cannot be the responsibility of order.
"In that sense, I also support your wish. Though a tool that is eternally beautiful and beneficial to humans, as you dream of, may not exist. It will be durable enough and useful enough to achieve whatever future you desire."
Seonghwangcheong is created? An order that will one day collapse is established?
So what. Establish it. Create it. Build a sandcastle that will soon collapse. Assemble a framework that will eventually become ruins.
You can do anything. Because you have such power. Because you harbored such a wish.
Whether to use what you leave behind or not, the remaining people will decide.
"Even if it's a goal that can only be achieved by killing the innocent, noble, beautiful, and pure King of Humans. If that's what it takes to turn the world upside down."
This might be sorry words to 'older sister'. It might be unfair to the victim of the tragedy.
A world where rebellion can be committed is better than a world where no one can commit rebellion.
"Not to me. Ask yourself. Achieve your wish. Just as older sister let the other monsters go, just as you simply watched until right before committing rebellion."
It might be a future she doesn't want, but I still supported her. Though I had no intention of following it, I had the intention of letting her follow her own heart.
I placed my hand on the First Saintess's shoulder. My hand passed through her shoulder, but I patted her appropriately and supported her with all my heart.
"Ah. Personally. I don't really dislike the order you created that much. Why, you didn't make it with bad intentions, right? It's also useful. Though the order you created seems to dislike me."
I suddenly became curious.
Did the First Saintess prophesy these words I spoke in the mental image? Or is this a conversation we're having before she even prophesies?
Will this conversation even be transmitted to the past? Or, is the result already determined, and while exchanging koans, will this scene itself remain as one of the passing prophecies for the First Saintess.
The First Saintess spoke as if it were an unexpected remark, but already in resignation.
"...You're telling me to create an order that you, Im, will not accept."
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"I told you, didn't I? Order is merely a tool. The order called the King of Humans is the same."
Even such a conceptual existence can become a tool to someone. The same goes for Demon Gods.
How to use something that already exists is up to the person involved. Freedom and responsibility both belong to them.
"It's the king's command. Since I permit it, try it if you want to."
A halo of light flickers. The vision of 'older sister' wrapped in light gradually grew distant.
'Older sister's' memory is gradually coming to an end. The prophecy reaches its conclusion here. Me, seeing the past, and the First Saintess, seeing the future. The conversation that transcended the time between us ultimately brought about no change.
"...However. I still believe that there are immutable values in this world that must be believed and followed."
But we both left significant results.
The First Saintess no longer hesitated.
She couldn't cling to me or 'older sister' either. Because we refused.
But she couldn't give up either. Because we didn't say she was wrong.
"Even if what I thought was the proper duty to uphold was truly nothing more than barbarism forced by my power."
It's the age of barbarism. Knowledge does not spread easily, and human viciousness bares its teeth everywhere in the world. Viciousness is contagious. Methods of killing others will be learned and developed even faster and spread even further.
That is why the First Saintess tried to establish a grand rule with 'older sister's' corpse.
"For the sake of all the humans in the futures I have seen. I shall simply proceed with faith."
No matter how this sin, woven with good intentions, will grow later, for now, to save the humans of 'the nation' and the frontier from conflict.
The First Saintess clasped both hands tightly and prayed. Putting her strength into it as if clinging with her whole body.
"Oh, Im. If this prayer reaches you, please."
Keep at least her wish.
The last voice was buried and vanished in the pouring halo of light.
***
El, having finished her long prayer, opened her eyes. A faint light of Yulrim seeped in through her stiff eye corners. Too dim to be called hopeful, but too full to be called despair.
For this dim light is El's essence. Somehow, she felt like tears might come. Amidst sorrow, El moved her stiff body.
"...She moved!"
It was a voice thoroughly exhausted from a long wait. Only then did El discover the King's Warriors surrounding the altar. The King's Warriors were filled with anger, yet enveloped in a strange fear.
"For half a month, without eating or sleeping..."
"W-what... a bizarre occurrence..."
It was the scene of rebellion.
El's five warriors ambushed the King of Humans. Taking advantage of a moment of complete carelessness, they blinded the eyes with light, trapped the King in an illusion, and attacked while unleashing peak qi techniques.
It was a fatal wound. However, 'older sister' also counterattacked the moment she was attacked. The weapons and flesh wrapped in qi were snapped and broken in an instant.
If not for the revelation El had sent, some of them might have died. But prophecy was too powerful an authority. Having avoided the future of death through revelation, they were able to survive with major wounds.
They had to flee. They pulled out the weapons that had pierced the king and fled while fighting the warriors.
While the five warriors fled as planned in advance, El knelt beside 'older sister' and quietly offered a prayer. When she clasped her hands and closed her eyes, a faint halo enveloped the two.
"Jeonseungjigi!! You wench!"
The warriors, enraged by Im's death, approached. To interrogate about Im's death, they grabbed and dragged El somewhat—no, very roughly.
But El remained in place.
Whether pulled with force, kicked with feet, or struck with swords. Not a single scratch. As if promised to be there at that time, in that space. As if existing as an immutable truth like the past.
No matter how much the King's Warriors vented their emotions, cursed, and attacked, El quietly offered her prayers.
Without eating or drinking for half a month, until the watching warriors grew exhausted and fell.
A miracle.
Something that logic could never dare to measure, truly a miraculous authority.
The miracles she performed would be recorded in detail and remain as proof that gods exist in the world. None other than her enemies would write it.
"...From now on, I too must endure the countless sufferings I have foreseen."
The moment she chose this path, El became a rebel against the king, and those who followed her would be persecuted. El's teachings would not be written on silk-wrapped scrolls but would be sporadically passed down inscribed on half-baked bricks. El would have both eyes gouged out and be dragged around nailed to a cross.
But El's teachings spread to all people. While the King's Warriors who have tasted power fight among themselves and afflict the common people, the teachings will flow along those wounds and carve justice and morality. When that reaches its limit, the five warriors who pierced the King of Humans will return having inherited a portion of the authority. At that time, the heavenly order El created will stand firm.
Until then, what El must do is just one thing.
She must fill that empty sky full of Demon Gods.
Nebida suddenly came into El's view as she turned her head toward the sky. Even though half a month had passed since the king died, she was still displaying deep sorrow and burning rage. Looking at Nebida, who had become an incarnation of wrath, El muttered bitterly.
"It will be... worth it."