[Bishop Rene was a great scholar. I, too, received great help from her coordinate geometry. Without her help and research, my achievements would have been delayed by over 10 years. The other mages of the Babel Society were good catalysts too, but she and Academia were special. They were the only two beings that amazed me.]
Principia spoke as if making a slight excuse and turning away.
[She was one of the few people I acknowledged, and she requested it... What she said wasn't exactly wrong, either. Striking the mainland would result in many innocent casualties, and the families of the Babel Society's mages might get swept up. Just as she said, couldn't someone in the later generations organize the principle of relativity more neatly? That possibility cannot be denied either.]
"Did you love her?"
[It's different from such a simple and primal emotion. I respected her and acknowledged her insight. That's all.]
Saint Rene didn't even know that. If she had the ability to read memories, would she have been embarrassed?
[When you meet too many foolish people, sometimes I doubt my own common sense. Even though I am clearly superior and my judgment is right, I feel like I get swept up in their foolishness and madness. At times like that, I need someone else like her or Academia. Someone to have an equal conversation with from the same field of view.]
"Your opinions and Saint Rene's must have been different, though."
[It can't be helped. Bishop Rene is a faithful nun. She can't offer any choice other than a peaceful and moral one. It's frustrating and old-fashioned, but shouldn't there be at least one such person in the world? That too is a new perspective. From Bishop Rene's perspective, that was the right thing.]
Perspective, huh. It's just like the principle of relativity I heard explained a little while ago. Is it because humans are also a part of the world?
"And yet you ended up being killed by Marquis Geum."
[...Huu. Marquis Geum.]
And a faint, lingering anger was felt. It seems Principia had emotions too.
[If only he had been a little less foolish. If only he had half as much intelligence as his greed. Despite my advice, he chose the Wigeum Currency, and with his provocative words, he made the Marquisate Marigold a public enemy. And in the end, he... her and me...]
"Killed you. Saying he would drop the meteor just like that. Because of your last resistance, the meteor hasn't crashed yet."
Though it is falling now.
[Yes. That was my last resistance, following such an idiot and adding power to his foolish judgment. Watching the foolish and stupid surface is agonizing. It's better to hold up the star here.]
"Hmm. I understand that the world is foolish. Sometimes I have that thought. The thought that I am smart, special, and all other humans are imbecilic fools."
Nodding, I pointed at him and spoke.
"But to me, you are the same."
Principia, who had probably never heard anyone call him foolish anywhere. Even the founders of the Mado Federation yielded a step to him.
But to me, it was the same.
[Me?]
"You were also a part of the world. You were one of the members who created that era. Though a brilliant scholar, you were used this way and that, and even after realizing he was too stupid for his greed, you followed him. Why? Weren't you also swept up in the era's foolishness in the end?"
[Then. Does that mean I should have rebelled against him?]
"Yes!"
If I am right and the other is wrong, I must push my will through. I must stand my ground. At that time, he just quietly accepted it, created the blueprints for the Wigeum Currency, and in the end, cooperated with him. He was also a contributor to the Wigeum War.
In that era, Principia also contributed. No, originally, all humans create the era. Putting the blame for the era's chaos and sins on just a few? That's an even more nonsensical act.
"You didn't know Marquis Geum would be such a lacking person. That can happen. But if you knew, you should have chased him out when he came to the Mado Federation. Or killed him or sold him out when the time was right. Instead, you let him in, let him seize power, and ended up having him stab Saint Rene in the back at the very last moment. What's the point of lamenting now that everyone else was foolish?"
[It's unrealistic. He was one of the Seven Marquises, a leading power on the continent, and he brought a knight order. How could I go against him?]
"Aren't you more outstanding? A person who says the world is foolish, you faithfully follow the rules created by those commoners?"
Society, laws, and norms are created by the era and humans. They are all incomplete, stubborn, and old-fashioned, often blocking my path.
Still, it's fine. Following them is unavoidable.
But if you're going to complain, you should at least resist.
"The world is wrong. You are right. If so, you can do it. You became a Demonic God without being confined by common sense, yet you suffer a tragedy because you're confined by human common sense? Good grief. In my eyes, it looks equally foolish. If you had such conviction, shouldn't you have just smashed the world, smashed common sense?"
[Easier said than done. There were quite a few revolutionaries who spoke like that, but they all ended in delusions. Can you do that?]
"Yes! That's why I'm smashing everything I don't like! It's quite doable, you know? Even an ordinary person like me can do it!"
It's true. My track record is good, too. It's going well even now.
"You know, I call people who don't even know their own hearts foolish. In that sense, you aren't that foolish, but you were a person who made the people around you foolish. You only understood others' perspectives. Because you didn't seek to have your perspective understood."
[Are you saying I should have persuaded them? Explaining to fools is exhausting.]
"Maybe. But what meaning is there in calling them foolish without teaching them, and ignoring them without changing anything?"
It's just mocking them as foolish. Such a person, even if smarter, is more useless than one who acts.
"Saint Rene misunderstood you her whole life. She felt guilty for not being able to stop or save you. Marquis Geum misunderstood you as he pleased and ended up committing useless slaughter. Well, this is actually more of his problem, though."
The meteor is closer to summoning magic. Because it's pulling down what was originally there down to the ground. Even a Demonic God cannot create a meteor out of thin air.
Then where did Principia bring the meteor from?
"A meteor that was going to fall anyway, you were blocking it. You were already saving the world."
The meteor was already getting closer. It would crash soon, or get close enough to do so. Principia and the Demon King observed the celestial bodies and discovered the meteor swarm heading this way.
So Principia temporarily 'stopped' the meteor. The method was similar to keeping the Floating Castle afloat. He trapped the meteor within the trajectory of a thousand autumns, where it falls forever but never touches.
"If Saint Rene had known that fact, wouldn't she have evaluated you a little differently? She wouldn't have thought of you as a being who would summon a nonexistent meteor to ruin the world if push came to shove."
[If she did, it would have only increased her useless worries. The meteor that has already boarded the trajectory of a thousand autumns will continue to orbit. There is no reason to pay it any attention.]
"Ah. Was it consideration?"
That was 'Arrogance'.
The arrogant and merciful consideration bestowed upon humanity by the Demonic God who saved the world.
"I have one question, though. Why did you stop the meteor instead of throwing it far away? To use it as a weapon someday?"
[No way. Unique Demonic Arts are not omnipotent. Even for a Demonic God, bending the direction of a meteor too much is impossible.]
Even a Demonic God has limits. They are not as omnipotent or powerful as one might think. Well, that's why he got beheaded by the Master.
[If the distance is far, a greater gravity anomaly is required, and if I abused such a gravity anomaly, the moon might fall or the continent could be lost. Locking it in orbit was the best option.]
...Or not. Was it rather a problem because he was too powerful?
[It's the same for this meteor. Marquis Geum, his judgment wasn't completely wrong. However, I was a Demonic God. The decision I made right before I died was agreeing with Bishop Rene's judgment.]
Thus, the Unique Demonic Art engraved in the world followed the Demonic God's will. Without dropping the moon or losing the continent, it solely held up this meteor.
If he had killed you later, or taken Saint Rene hostage, he might have actually succeeded. But he wasn't that caliber of a person.
"So that's what happened. But if you had explained the circumstances, I think Saint Rene would have understood."
[She probably would have. But because she was smart, she had many worries. Especially her, who feared my research would be abused by villains. It would have held her back for her entire life.]
"I understand your feelings. It would be nice if she knew these feelings too."
[Since we're both dead, that will absolutely never happen now.]
Especially, unlike the Demonic God engraved in the world, Saint Rene exists merely as a relic. A relic cannot change and gradually wears away and disappears. Therefore, these voices cannot reach each other.
"But there is no absolute in the world."
However, space distorts and something appears.
Unique Demonic Arts are unique. But Demonic Gods are not unique.
The Lodge Masters of the various nations, after mastering alchemy, learned Unique Demonic Arts that intervene in the properties of matter. They have an audience with the Golden Mirror and are bestowed with unique mounts. This is possible because the source of the imagery the Lodge Masters possess lies in the Demonic God.
It's the same for the Saint of Light, Luel. Her Unique Demonic Art is the materialization of light, but she can wield the power of blessing received from the first saint. Both of them were proficient in alchemy and simultaneously possessed Unique Demonic Arts closely tied to that alchemy.
Their Unique Demonic Arts were obtained after learning and studying the Demonic God, and their imagery reaches the Demonic God.
And Saint Rene's Unique Demonic Art was also like that.
[Bishop Rene?]
Saint Rene's Unique Demonic Art, Sky in the Pocket.
A Unique Demonic Art that creates virtual coordinates that do not exist in reality.
Her Unique Demonic Art started from the Celestial God, but grew by Principia. Space, motion, force, curves. To draw out the principles that only existed in Principia's head, to understand a human far superior to herself, and to let everyone know of that greatness. Saint Rene desperately pushed forward.
As a result, to express the genius's language, Saint Rene awakened her Unique Demonic Art.
"She didn't fail to understand. She reached out to understand. And she came this close."
A relic is a relic. It is meant to lend power to a qualified human, not a means to converse with the dead.
But I am different. I can converse even with relics. If human consciousness is there, I can read it.
So I allowed Saint Rene's relic to reach here.
Because conversations don't necessarily have to be exchanged only through words.
"You've never seen her Unique Demonic Art, right? Feel it now. What that Unique Demonic Art was made for."
Principia paused for a moment. He was one who understood, and though he was never understood his entire life, he could know how hard a nun struggled to understand him.
I turned my back and walked slowly.
'Arrogance' is falling to the ground. Without the Demonic God's power, it cannot be overcome.
But the Demonic God has no reason to destroy the world, and a reason to protect it has just appeared.