◈ Episode 414. Roses Are Not Enough (2)
The system does not lie. ‘Of course, I know that very well.’ Even so, given the situation, I had tried manifesting a portal leading to the Arcana Continent, just in case. But all I got in return was a blinking message. [Last Adventurer: You do not die on the Arcana Continent. Upon death, you immediately return to reality and cannot access the Arcana Continent for a set period of time.
- Cooldown: 24 hours]
Because of that, I was helplessly forced to spend a full day.
Four days in Arcana time.
Leaving the Arcana Continent in the hands of the Holy War Alliance.
In truth, I wasn’t all that worried.
The Ice Dragon, Proznax.
Outwardly, he might look like a pathetic little hatchling, but now that Proznax, who possessed strength on an entirely different dimension, had joined the Holy War Alliance. No matter how much it was the Primordial Evil, I didn’t think it would be able to trample the newly sprouted World Tree sapling.
However, the news Hiel brought was a variable.
“Antonium has been covered in roses and thorny vines.”
With that level of impact, as expected. ‘Pride, that bastard, finally did it.’ [The War Emperor’s Library]
must have collapsed.
Of course, I was worried about the Emperor’s safety as well.
But the situation itself was nothing short of grave.
“There is no response at all.”
The survivors of Dredsen Village.
Hiel had accompanied them aboard the Iron Castle and formed a bond with the survivors, including Ransha. Thanks to that close relationship, it seemed Hiel had been able to detect the anomaly in Antonium even while far away aboard the Iron Castle.
How did I honestly feel when I heard that news?
Someone, you see.
Was so frustrated he could die……!
“My flower garden is filled with flowers that could never be exchanged for mere roses.”
I resented this mouth of mine for calmly going on about flower gardens. As I said, because of the [Last Adventurer] effect, I couldn’t enter the Arcana Continent right away.
Of course, Proznax was near Antonium, but.
He would be busy enough.
Protecting the newly sprouted World Tree from the Primordial Evil. ‘The Holy War Alliance has Matisse, Bellier, and Bensh, but…….’ The seniors of the Magic Tower were not in a position to notice the collapse of [The War Emperor’s Library].
It wouldn’t be strange even if they didn’t know of [The War Emperor’s Library] itself.
After all, even a close aide like Nash hadn’t known the truth of the library. ‘First, I’ll confirm it with my own eyes.’ For now, I rummaged through my inventory. [Telescope of the Demon Eye]
I surveyed the whole of Antonium through the trophy of the Demon King.
No, but……
Who in the world is that……?
That blazing thing.
Is that really the Bensh William I know?!
That wasn’t all.
The status abnormality Hiel had mentioned.
The people of Antonium who had been enveloped in rose petals were waking up.
At first, I wondered if reinforcements I didn’t know about had arrived. ‘No, there shouldn’t be anyone nearby, though?’ As the commander-in-chief of the Holy War Alliance.
Since I knew the Alliance’s forces inside and out.
I could tell without even shifting the Demon Eye’s point of view.
The Holy War Alliance did not have enough leeway to support Antonium.
If so……. ‘Did they all overcome the status abnormality on their own?’ Soon, color returned to Hiel’s face.
“My lord, the breath of the Dredsen survivors……!!”
Yes, Hiel.
I don’t know what happened, but……!
For me, this situation was nothing but a relief.
I wanted to let out a sigh of relief.
But I might as well hope for a cat to simply pass by a fish shop.
“Do you know, Hiel?”
My loose tongue prattled.
“Flowers bloom all the more brilliantly amid trials and storms.” [Pentagram of Pure Knowledge].
Through its effect, I had mastered knowledge of every mineral and plant that existed on the Arcana Continent. Naturally, I would be well-versed in knowledge about flowers as well.
However.
No matter how you look at it, isn’t this just forcing it to fit?
Unfazed by my objection, my mouth twitched.
“The trials and storms they have endured are by no means light.”
……
Well, I admit that much.
I can’t admit any of the other nonsense.
But that much, I have no choice but to acknowledge.
How could ordinary Arcanians overcome a status abnormality like that?
If someone were to ask.
I would return the question to them.
In your eyes.
Do they look like ordinary people?
The surviving people of Antonium?
They were the ones who had vividly watched the Empire fall to demons. And that wasn’t all. Taking advantage of the chaos, they had fought a fierce bloody battle against the rebels who rose in revolt.
To put it in Granfell’s way of speaking……
They were no different from flowers blooming in the desert.
I continued speaking.
“That is why I said they could not be exchanged for mere roses.”
Soon, my gaze went beyond the Telescope of the Demon Eye.
Toward the root of the incident.
The man wearing a crown of thorns.
As for what his identity was.
I would not know unless I faced him.
But I believed.
Twelve hours in real time.
Two days in Arcana Continent time. ‘Even if I can’t trust it, I have no choice but to believe.’ Until the penalty of [Last Adventurer]
disappeared.
Until I could reenter the Arcana Continent.
The Holy War Alliance.
And the people of Antonium would not submit to him.
That was what I meant by believing.
I continued in a solemn voice.
“So do not underestimate them.”
……
At any rate, I sure am good with words.
“My flowers do not break easily.”*
Clank─!
The tightly shut gate opened.
There was no need to worry about the thorny vines flooding in.
Antonium’s soldiers shouted from here and there.
“Captain, the thorny vines are drying up!”
Crack.
Now, the thorns crumbled at the slightest touch. The thorny vines, which had not budged even when a sturdy adult man exerted his strength and had not yielded to sword strikes, were rapidly shrinking in power.
“……!”
The first to notice that change were none other than the players. Hisagi’s eyes gleamed as he prepared to manifest the Demonic Spear Art toward Sericrose. [Lord of the Eternal Rose, Sericrose: ???]
From question marks. [Lord of the Eternal Rose, Sericrose: Lv. 1,800]
A level appeared.
What that meant was simple.
Hisagi muttered.
“……
His level dropped?”
A level of a staggering eighteen hundred.
It was a number that was hard to believe had dropped at all.
However, Hisagi had been a ranker since the days when Arcana was nothing more than a game.
Wasn’t he someone who understood Arcana’s system inside and out?
There was only one case in which a monster’s level appeared as question marks. When the level gap between the player and the monster was extreme. It was limited to cases where they were, quite literally, on different dimensions.
If Hisagi knew that information, then Nam Taemin knew it too.
“He’s weakening, Senior Bensh!!”
To think they immediately noticed that he had weakened.
Is this why Chief Lee opened the Magic Tower?
Bensh nodded.
“The more diverse the perspectives, the more one can see.”
Bensh’s flames stretched toward Sericrose.
“Indeed, qi is profound, Chief Lee.”
Whoosh.
Sericrose looked at his own body burning.
What he had feared had become reality.
The War Emperor’s Library.
As one of the seven roses was broken, his vitality had begun to plummet.
Sssss.
Soon, his body began turning to ash and scattering in the wind.
However.
What mattered to Sericrose was not something as trivial as the flesh. ‘I am a being capable of providing an answer to every question…….’ More than his weakened body.
Sericrose was feeling doubt.
Toward his own existence itself. ‘Why am I unable to understand this situation?’ In the end, Sericrose opened his mouth once more.
“Why do you struggle?”
Had he not said it?
Only an omen had appeared.
And yet already, there was nothing intact on the Arcana Continent.
In the battle for the Demon King’s throne over the Ten Thrones, the Empire.
The Arcana Continent would be nothing more than a shrimp crushed in a battle between whales.
“Just why.”
Sericrose shook his head once.
Fwoosh.
Then Bensh’s hellfire scattered, and the thorny vines covering Antonium began to move all at once. As a lord, he had withdrawn the carrot of eternal happiness and raised the harsh whip.
Sericrose recited in a low voice.
“I do not harm my people.”
The War Emperor’s Library.
The reason for my existence.
The reason the Emperors had offered their lives.
Everything was for the Empire and the people of the Empire.
Srrrk.
Even so, Sericrose decided to wield the whip. If he could not persuade them with the carrot, then even if he had to use the rod, he had to stop them. That was the weight of the position called lord.
However.
“I-It’s moving!!”
“Stop it even if you have to cling to it!”
“We can never give up Antonium again!”
The sight of the people not yielding even to the whip.
Plunged Sericrose into a question without a period.
It was making him doubt his own wisdom.
Tsrk.
It was the moment Sericrose’s whip, the thorny vines, hesitated.
A man’s voice was heard.
A voice as if he found this situation amusing.
“What are you doubting, Sericrose?”
It was Pride.
Sericrose did not approve of Pride. He disliked the fact that a demon had set foot in Antonium, the capital of the Empire. However, Pride was far too cunning.
“Don’t tell me you’re doubting yourself, thinking that you were wrong?”
To think he had detected anguish from a moment’s hesitation.
As expected, he was truly a demon who violated the heart.
However, Sericrose was not swayed by Pride’s words.
“Shut your mouth. Demon.”
Everything was for the Empire and its people.
No matter how much a demon whispered, Sericrose had no intention of falling.
Nor did he have any intention of offering his people as sacrifices.
But Pride shrugged.
“Doubt nothing, War Emperor’s Library. You are not wrong in the slightest. In the past, the present, and the future, the judgments you have made are more accurate than anything. So why not tell them the cruel truth you know? Tell your people every last bit of it, Sericrose.”
Pride knew what they trusted.
That was why he found it enjoyable.
After all, the greatest despair came when one was betrayed by the being they trusted more than anyone.
The corners of Pride’s mouth twitched.
“You know a future more terrible than the battle for the Demon King’s throne over the Ten Thrones, more terrible than the Warring States era in which new lords rise everywhere, do you not?”
In the end, he burst into wild laughter.
“Yes, the destruction brought by an infinitely deep darkness!!”
In other words.
Granfell Claudi Arpheus Romeo.
The wretched future my damn blood relative would bring.
“Hurry and proclaim that cruel truth to Antonium!”
Pride waited for Sericrose to open his mouth.
But why was it?
Sericrose’s gaze instead began turning toward him.
Soon, unexpected words followed.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I remembered.”
“Don’t tell me you had forgotten? Fine, whatever. Hurry and……”
“It had changed.”
“……
Changed?”
When the Lord of the Eternal Rose awakened, he had swallowed all the revelations left in the War Emperor’s Library. It was to reclaim the wisdom he had lent to the Emperors.
“Yes, the final revelation I had given.”
That was why he had forgotten the final revelation that the last Emperor had burned to hide from Pride. However, thanks to Pride mentioning the “infinitely deep darkness,” he had realized it.
Sericrose’s gaze turned toward the people.
“My people, you are wiser than my narrow self.”
Then, toward the Demon Eye floating above Antonium.
More precisely, toward the brilliant silver light pouring from the Demon Eye.
Toward a single ray of light.
“You already knew of that single ray of light.”
With this, Sericrose came to realize.
That it was I who had underestimated my people more than anyone.
On the other hand, Pride had no way of knowing.
“What nonsense are you suddenly spouting, Sericrose? The revelation changed? What kind of absurd bullshit is that……. Don’t tell me, that brat changed the revelation……!!”
By the time he noticed, it was already too late.
“As expected, they were people far too great for me to hold.”
To keep them trapped within roses.
Under a single ray of light.
Were they not already shining like brilliant flowers?
Soon, the thorny vines completely stopped moving.
Sericrose took in the sight of Antonium one last time.
“Empire.”
My people.
Please forgive this foolish Emperor.
I was an inadequate lord.
But there was not a single speck of falsehood in my love for you.
He spoke to Bensh.
“Flame Emperor, will you deliver a message?”
“To whom, and what message?”
“To the single ray of light.”
Then he gently closed his eyes.
“Tell him, please take pity on my Empire.”...
I doubted my own eyes.
It was a truly formulaic expression.
But literally doubting them was the best I could do. [The Emperor of the Empire, ‘Sericrose,’ has died.] [According to the achievements accumulated, a qualification befitting you will be granted.] [Your current rank in the imperial succession: 1st]