Chapter 70

Quilbion only stared at the coffee that had dried up and turned charred black.

He didn’t know how many days had passed.

Perhaps it had been months, even years.

No, that couldn’t be right, could it?

“Ah.”

The moment Quilbion stood up from his chair, Winte spoke.

“I fed it. There’s nothing wrong either, so no need to go check.”

He briefly thought about the baby hawk surrounded by down, Rapfa, then sat back down.

“It seems like you’ve sorted out your thoughts.”

“I sorted them out ages ago. If everything Lord Winte showed me is true, there’s actually nothing to sort out. It’s far too simple a fact.”

“That’s right. So simple you’d wonder if it’s correct. Peculiar ones occasionally pop up among you lot, but that child was beyond my categories. Truly interesting.”

He glared at Winte at the word ‘interesting.’

But the anger was brief—Quilbion looked down at the coffee cup again.

“Why did she save me?”

“You saw.”

“Even after seeing it, I don’t understand. I know what happened, but I can’t follow that emotion.”

He looked around. Twella’s mental entity was nowhere to be found.

“I saved her countless times, you say? That’s…… bluntly speaking, a fantasy. It’s something that hasn’t even happened yet. She saw it on her own and misunderstood on her own!”

“From our perspective, that’s right. But it wouldn’t have been that way for that child. She said she simply saw, but it was close to complete experience. That child experienced thousands of years of time. Yet she didn’t break. Fascinating, I tell you.”

“To be saying such things right now……”

Getting angry would only be a loss.

The other party wasn’t human. Expecting human morality, universal values—that would only be ridiculous.

“This is absurd. Even so!”

Was I such an emotional human? Quilbion looked at his clenched hands.

He’d thought it had all worn away and disappeared.

Joy, sorrow, anger.

The emotions that rose shallowly to the surface were merely habits—he’d thought there would never be anything that truly moved his heart.

Because he’d met too many people, experienced too many partings, witnessed too many deaths.

He’d experienced the futility of relationships to the point of exhaustion, until mentioning it itself felt tedious.

Quilbion thought of Twella.

He thought of the child left alone in a world of only gray, bursting into tears no one could hear.

A foolish, lacking child.

Why did she do such a pointless thing?

“What happened after that?”

Winte hadn’t shown the process between parting with Twella and ‘that woman’ descending to the ground.

“It would be convenient to show it as video, but unfortunately, I got hit by that thing back then and the information stored in my mental entity became unstable. I did try to reconstruct it appropriately though.”

Winte’s golden pupils turned dark.

The sky twisted.

Quilbion looked up at the sky with fear and awe.

‘That woman’ was descending.

“It’s only an image.”

“I know. Yet my body reacts on its own even knowing that.”

“Because she transcended existence. From your perspective, she’d be close to a god.”

People were gathered beneath that woman descending to the ground.

Quilbion watched the small Quilbion trembling in fear and Twella calmly confessing reality.

It was a sight remaining in his memory.

“What you call the sky-barrier was created by the first of them. That itself is massive sorcery, designed to scratch into your world and guide things to fall here.”

Splat!

People began to be crushed.

Each time Twella opened her mouth, a human turned to blood. That woman looked at the humans turned to blood as if bored, yet when she gazed at Twella, she seemed infinitely benevolent.

“Just as I showed interest in Twella, that thing also turned its eyes toward that child. No, it’s an emotion that could be expressed as love.”

“Monsters going absolutely crazy together.”

Eventually, all the people around ‘that woman’ became blood. Small mouths sprouted at the tips of that woman’s hair and began swallowing the blood.

It was a disgusting scene even seeing it again.

Quilbion knew better than anyone what would happen next.

“I will offer.”

Quilbion spoke while ruminating on that moment. Far away, the small Quilbion picked up a stone and struck that woman’s foot.

“My favorite scene.”

Winte said while giggling.

The small Quilbion began rolling around clutching his eyes.

Darkness must have descended. He must be tasting the dreadfulness of being isolated from the world.

Twella approached and gripped the suffering small Quilbion’s hand.

She raised it high toward the sky and moved her lips.

Then, Al Terua appeared behind that woman.

That woman looked at Al Terua pathetically, and Al Terua raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.

BOOM!

Light spread along with a roar.

Quilbion peered into the exploding light.

Twella was gripping the small Quilbion’s hand, kneeling as if offering prayer to a god.

And.

Everything disappeared with the light.

Twella, Al Terua, that woman.

All that remained was a shabby small boy crouched alone.

“Twella’s nark resonated with the power contained in my mental entity, and purification occurred. As a result, Twella was expelled from the structure the Designer designed and fell into some unfindable place, a crack. I witnessed it and couldn’t help but admire. A human found a flaw in the design through their own will. Or should I say they created it?”

Bravo!

Winte clapped while uttering a strange exclamation.

“So she gave up her life just to save one person—me.”

“That’s right.”

“I truly don’t understand. Really.”

Why did she go that far?

What were we to each other?

Once we’d whispered not to separate, to share life and death together, but looking back now, it was just children’s play.

Words were far too light.

Words could prove nothing.

Couldn’t you see it just from Drich?

Friendship, conviction, loyalty.

What the guy who constantly had trust on his lips chose was to throw his friend as bait and find his own way to survive.

That wasn’t wrong.

As long as people were animals, as long as survival instinct was imprinted within, anyone would have no choice.

That was normal.

So Twella…

“She’s definitely insane.”

An empty laugh came out.

It kept flowing. He couldn’t contain it, so he bent at the waist laughing, and eventually collapsed, squeezing out tears while laughing.

At some point, the laughter stopped abruptly.

Quilbion looked ahead with clouded eyes.

The small Quilbion who’d been lying there got up and began wandering. On the verge of death from hunger, a small hawk appeared from somewhere and dropped an apple.

With that, the illusion Winte had created disappeared.

“Tell me how I can get to the place where Twella is.”

“You know better than me about that field. You also know the answer. You can’t find it—that’s the answer.”

“Stop bullshitting and use that fine head of yours. She’s human. Just a human. Can’t you even interpret the miracle that small child created?”

Quilbion dragged over a chair and placed it directly in front of Winte. He sat down and looked into the dragon’s inscrutable eyes.

The golden pupils glinted as if mocking.

“Right, I can’t. Surprisingly, that child escaped logic. And you also escaped.”

Quilbion suppressed his surging emotions and spoke.

“If there’s no falsehood in what I just saw……”

“I must have said it countless times. I don’t feel the necessity to lie.”

“Yes, you did. Then why did you tell me all of this? You must have promised Twella. To keep your mouth shut.”

“I did. I was planning to keep the covenant too. But you.”

Winte extended his index finger. The finger approached and pressed firmly against Quilbion’s forehead.

“You saw that child. You met her. That child’s request not to let you know, that covenant—it was broken right there. Or did you want to live your whole life not knowing? Well, living without feeling indebted is more comfortable.”

“Lord Winte.”

Quilbion opened his mouth calmly.

“You and I have been stuck together far too long.”

“That’s true.”

“I don’t know everything about your mind. But I can at least notice when you’re pulling tricks.”

Winte’s eyes curved like crescents.

“Time always gives answers. Clearly, as you say, we’ve been watching each other for too long.”

“You don’t lie? No. As you literally said, you simply don’t feel the necessity, but if necessary, you would. Isn’t that right?”

“I can’t refute that.”

He wanted to plant his fist in that face.

Since it came to mind, he thrust out his arm.

With a bang, the fist that pierced through the air struck Winte’s face.

A tingling impact sensation was transmitted.

This was unexpected.

Winte, whose nose bridge had caved in, snorted and blew his nose. Blood sprayed on the floor.

“That hurt.”

“I did hit you because I wanted to punch you, but I didn’t expect you to actually take it. You always blocked before.”

“I did something deserving of a hit, so I had to take it.”

Winte raised his hand and gripped his nose. The crushed nose stood upright, and the torn skin quickly recovered too.

“I coveted Twella. I wanted to make her a cherished experimental subject. At the same time, I fell for her. For that child.”

“Fell for her?”

“Isn’t it surprising? That child made the most terrible choice. Because of you alone. Of course, there are many Human Tribe who give up their lives while maintaining their convictions. Countless numbers. But the reason they can give up is clear. It’s because of the unshakable proposition that death is the end.”

Quilbion swept his face with both hands.

The gray landscape spread before his eyes.

That place was where even death became gray sand and disappeared.

There was no flow of time.

There was nothing.

An existence left alone in a space where existence itself wasn’t permitted.

“Solitude is more frightening than death. Solitude is something even I find burdensome to endure. Even the Designer creates creations and enjoys watching them. Why? Because even the great Designer can’t endure solitude alone. Yet, yet!”

Winte’s voice rose even higher.

This was the first time he’d seen Winte this excited.

“That child chose knowing eternal solitude awaited her. Courage that maintained knowledge. Brilliant, beautiful. So I couldn’t help but fall for her. That’s why I wanted to help. But I’m not omnipotent, and that child knew it too.”

Winte’s voice calmed again.

“I respected that child’s will. But you found out. Once you discovered that she remained in that place, I had no choice but to change course.”

Winte’s mouth twitched.

“What will you do? Soon you’ll escape from this place. You can set down everything you’ve built up here and live ordinarily outside.”

“Probably.”

Quilbion spoke first the words Winte was about to add.

“Right, probably.”

“Do you think I’ll go to save that child, Lord Winte?”

“That’s unknowable. Fate has already begun to twist. Everything that will unfold depends on your hands, not the Designer’s hands.”

“I don’t know. I truly don’t know.”

He lay down on the rooftop and closed his eyes.

As always, sleep didn’t come.

Winte was silent. He occasionally left his spot, probably to go feed the baby hawk.

Time flowed indifferently.

Quilbion continued being pulled into cracks.

He built new relationships, parted, killed, was killed, loved, hated, and returned again.

About a year seemed to have passed.

Quilbion opened his eyes.

“I can’t sleep.”

“I know. I also forgot what sleep was ages ago. I can sleep if I sleep though.”

“I can’t sleep even if I want to. I’m jealous.”

Quilbion recalled the gray bench.

“She can’t sleep either, right?”

“I don’t know.”

“Thousands of years. She lived a longer time than me. While continuously seeing that sickening future.”

“She must have.”

“How much like a baby must I have seemed to her? There couldn’t be a more snotty-nosed brat than that. Yet she didn’t show it and spoke to me at eye level, she’s really kind.”

“She is kind.”

Quilbion sat up.

“……I should at least meet her and ask. Why she did such a thing. I think I finally know why I can’t sleep. It’s frustrating, frustrating.”

“I’ve been waiting for those words for a long time.”

Winte snapped his fingers once.

Then a bookshelf appeared before his eyes.

“Do you remember?”

Of course he remembered.

It was the sorcery book Al Terua had shown him.