[You believe? What about him do you believe? He doesn't try to take responsibility for anything.]
"I know Hughes. Because I've watched him for such a long time. Because I've been through countless situations."
She, smiling as if just watching the King of Humans made her happy, looked more like a girl in love than a saint.
"He isn't gentle. He isn't cruel either. He's just ordinary. Cowardly, honest, compassionate, and heartless. Just as he always says, he's an ordinary King of Humans."
[Even if ordinary, he is still the King of Humans. He became the agent of barbarism and challenged the order of all nations. Whether military nations, allied nations, or principalities. He attacked the flawed order of the empire's outer frontiers. Let's say that could be understandable. The problem is what comes after.]
There was a prophecy.
A prophecy made by the First Saint who blessed everyone. An beautiful and dignified order exists, where today like yesterday comes again tomorrow, allowing humanity to exist eternally immortal.
It has no name. Because no one has discovered it yet. Even the First Saint only saw the possibility, not knowing how it works or why it's possible.
But it certainly exists.
A sacred order where everyone is happy, no inequality exists, and the sounds of laughter and song echo endlessly.
It will appear together with the King of Humans... Such was the prophecy.
[He could have become the leader of the Military Nation. He could have become the Golden Mirror of the Allied Nations. He had the qualifications to ascend as the Archduke of the Principality. Or perhaps simply become the King of Humans, uniting the humans living in the land of barbarism and establishing order. We waited for that too.]
It wasn't just Nevida who waited for the King of Humans. The saints also waited for the King of Humans. Because Nevida kept the King of Humans who died during the Age of Barbarism, they foresaw the King of Civilization who would be born after.
He is a king born in a world where humans and civilization are one. Unlike other beast kings who are not bound by nation or society, he was born within civilization. Just as fish swim in water and birds fly cleaving through the wind, he too would breathe within civilization.
[However, he established no order.]
But great expectations returned as even greater disappointment.
[He just left Evie of the Signal Corps behind. The Lord of the Verdant Society. Leaving Tircan Jaka the Ancestor behind, he simply departed. He broke fences, raised banners, and gathered people, but he never took responsibility.]
The King of Humans does not establish order.
The Military Nation could achieve an unprecedentedly stable regime change. No one knew the true nature of the command headquarters or grasped the Signal Corps system. In the meantime, the King of Humans who alone contacted the Signal Corps system and Yuel could have become the king of the Military Nation if he set his mind to it. He could have absorbed and developed the system prepared by his predecessor to perfectly lead the nation called the Military Nation.
But he didn't. He just left Evie of the Signal Corps alone in that dark underground and slipped away.
The Allied Nations were the same. An empty land, but a cursed land bound by the giant shadow of the Golden Mirror. Having obtained the Demon God of the Golden Mirror, he was both the king and god of the Allied Nations. On that blank land devoid of order or civilization, he could have drawn anything.
But he didn't. Instead, he attacked the cloud village Claudia, took out the Demon God he had hidden there, and scattered it. Then he slipped away to the Principality.
In the Principality, he didn't even need responsibility. Receiving the favor of Tircan Jaka the Ancestor, he could have become the consort of the Ancestor and ruled the Principality. Receiving the devoted favor and full support of an absolute ruler no different from a god, he could have developed the stagnant Principality. Perhaps Tircan Jaka the Ancestor would have listened to everything he said. Except for one thing—the request to leave her side.
He made that single request.
It was irrational. Even if not for lust for power, if one has desires, it's better to be the one giving orders. The authority to control a nation, the power of the Demon God to recreate all things, or the favor of a beautiful ruler. He refused what anyone would desire and left.
As if rather being on guard,
[If he had ascended to that position and established order...!]
Following the prophecy, an order that no one has yet seen would have appeared in the world. When Luel was condemning the King of Humans.
"That's right. If Hughes sets his mind to it and establishes order, it becomes paradise."
Shei smiled faintly, recalling happy memories.
"It was paradise. No one was unhappy, no one committed sins, those who worked were rewarded, and after endlessly exploring possibilities, everyone enjoyed happiness. It was humanity's last renaissance before the end. Hughes worked hard, but since he usually slacked off so much, he deserved it."
[Did you see that future?]
"Yeah. Truly... it was joyful. Happy, beautiful. Fantastic. I always wished for death, but only in that place did I want to live for a thousand, ten thousand years."
The King of Humans reads minds.
Shei knew that without any basis, without any trigger. Simply by intuition.
And she also realized how the 'perfect order' is achieved.
Reading minds means distinguishing between good will and ill will. Something order can never do. That is why the King of Humans created perfect order.
There was a merchant. He falsified the origin of his goods and made a lot of money, but was soon caught. Before the King of Humans, he pleaded his innocence. Saying he didn't know, saying he was deceived too. Saying there was no money left.
Revealing the truth is too arduous. Tracking down the traders he met, hearing testimony, cross-examining, interrogating, finding evidence, recovering the remaining money. The amount of labor required to not create a single innocent victim is too great.
But the King of Humans knows the answer.
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He recovers all unfair gains and distributes them to those who were deceived. That's all. There's no need to make an example with harsh punishment. The merchant who lost credibility is condemned and suffers great losses. He vows never to do it again. Everyone wants to judge the merchant, but the King of Humans doesn't bother dirtying his hands.
Because you can't deceive the King of Humans anyway.
If you know the answer, you can find it. Ill will is judged, and good will is considered. The loopholes of law completely disappear. Cutting ties, shifting blame, remaining silent, cover-ups... No method works. Because 'intention' itself is judged and tried.
Filling all the loopholes of order, the King of Humans guarantees 'good will.' 'Ill will' disappears on its own. Because the gains from deceiving, defrauding, and harming others drop below zero into negative numbers, no human needs to choose 'ill will' as a survival strategy. Good will remains as the rational and utilitarian choice.
Naturally, only 'good will' remains in the world. Humans now trust each other. Being wary of 'ill will' itself is a loss. In a world without wariness, people share embrace.
"Order exists by not trusting humans. But Hughes trusts humans. The last piece missing from order. Trust. Hughes's order has that."
The order of trust that the King of Humans leads.
That is the miracle achieved because the King of Humans reads human minds.
[Having seen that, why...?]
When Luel asked, a hint of sadness tinged Shei's face, which had been smiling happily.
"But... if he truly trusts humans, Hughes must not become order."
[What do you mean?]
"If you trust humans, you must leave them behind. The reason Hughes left people behind is because he trusts them. He trusted the will of those with good will and entrusted it to them. Being unable to entrust means being unable to trust their will. That dissonance will eventually kill Hughes. It will make humans abandon Hughes."
The world still could not accept a king who reads minds. They cannot bear having the ugliness in their hearts read by someone. The wicked fear it, and the good are ashamed. The comfort that it's okay because no one knows no longer works.
Because the King of Humans reads minds.
Whether good or wicked doesn't matter. Humanity ultimately rejects the King of Humans, and the King of Humans accepts that rejection.
It was the same even if repeated dozens or hundreds of times. Unless the species called humanity itself changes, even if Hughes leads order, it ends in ruin.
"We can't entrust it to Hughes without trusting humans. Because Hughes is the King of Humans."
So Shei hid her memories. Going further was meaningless.
Even if Shei and Hughes attained liberation and became superhumans, as long as humans remained the same, and as long as Hughes was the King of Humans, the ending would not come.
"Trust Hughes. As much as Hughes trusts humans."
[Trust... you say.]
Where else is there a word as irresponsible as trust? Telling someone who sees the future to have trust is like telling them to just watch a child heading toward the water's edge. Let alone when it's words from a saint who has seen the future of extinction.
[Arrogance ends the moment it falls. Humans have no chance. The moment that Demon God is revealed to the world, 'she' too will perceive and handle the arrogance!]
"No. There is a chance. As long as I exist. As long as I... am with Hughes."
The regressor, Shei, returns when the world ends. When humans bring about their own destruction, when the King of Sins annihilates humans, or when Hughes meets death. Shei uses her own death as a trigger to return.
How many times? Dozens? Hundreds? She doesn't even remember. She can't count. Thousands of tragedies tore Shei's heart to shreds, leaving nothing behind.
"I am the Saint of Opportunity. As long as I watch over 'opportunity,' humanity will not end."
But a torn heart is always stitched back together. Death is not the end. A familiar yet new encounter is waiting. Whenever she goes to the Abyss, as she pauses to choose her words for what to say. Like a gift, he falls from the sky.
Hughes reads Shei's heart and discerns the past. Shei receives his comfort and begins this round. That's why Shei didn't break. Even if she fails, she can still be with him.
"As long as Hughes is here, I will continue to be opportunity."
...Probably, the fact that she's been deceiving him until now will soon be discovered though.