Chapter 99 - Episode Another. A Kind of Fall (1)
Chapter 99: Episode Another. A Kind of Fall (1)
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「I still remember him.」
Yurhen Chiver, Chief Internal Administrator of Fortress 「Carpe Diem」.
* * *
Mino was dreaming.
Kwoooooar!
Monsters surged in from afar like a tidal wave, while humans fought against them.
Above them, the Tower rose endlessly into the sky.
That damned Tower of Nightmares.
It was a dream from when she had still been a 「Product」.
The sounds of people dying. The sounds of them begging to be saved.
Screams and wails. And the looks they left behind.
“You unlucky bitch! The whole team was wiped out because of you.”
“Ptooey! Are you out of your mind, luring monsters over here?”
Contempt and blame had shaped her.
Why? Why?
The questions meant nothing.
Why do I have to hear things like that?
I didn't do anything.
I didn't deliberately bring the monsters here.
The hidden skill 「Lure」.
Her cursed Passive skill put everyone around her in danger.
It was not as if she had wanted this skill, either.
Even after clearing the Tower of Nightmares and reaching the Great Realm, the contemptuous stares never stopped.
She had resolved to die more than once.
She had actually died, too. But Mino had not known that life could continue even after death.
...
What kind of world is this?
What sin did I commit to be cast into a place like this?
“It is no different from being born. We were thrown here regardless of our own choices.”
The one who saved her was the master of one of the Ten Halls of Chaos.
A man known to the world as the Black Forest Hall Master.
“I am the Black Forest Hall Master. Will you come with me?”
That was when she was reborn.
She learned skills to kill others and cultivated strength to protect herself. Mino thought that if she mastered skills and grew stronger, she would someday be able to live like a person.
She was wrong.
Only after more than ten years of training, when she had barely become a Third Adapter, did she learn the truth.
“Even so, we are the dead.”
The moment she heard those words, she understood what she had lived for and what she had lost.
Just when she thought she had finally regained her life, it had already slipped from her grasp.
* * *
Mino opened her eyes at midday.
Languid sunlight streamed through the hospital window and brushed her pale cheek. When she tried to lift her stiff body, every part of her ached from head to toe.
Perhaps this was how a factory shaper or grinder felt when it was switched on for a test after sitting idle for ten years. Every nerve cluster and joint in her body ached as if they had been pulled apart piece by piece.
I have to get up.
Even so, she forced her body into motion. If she did not rise now, she knew she might never rise again.
Creak.
A scream echoed from somewhere within her body. Mino gritted her teeth and endured the pain.
Her right hand was the first to regain sensation. Like a newborn experiencing touch for the first time, she was overwhelmed by the feeling. Tears streamed down her face as she felt every joint in her fingers move.
Yes. This was the feeling.
The feeling she had waited for so desperately...
Mino tried to move her hand a little more. Then she realized something strange.
Something was clenched in her right hand.
A hard, cold solid.
A stone?
A sensation, somehow familiar yet unfamiliar, and desperately missed, flashed through her mind. But she still could not tell exactly what it was.
The next moment, the hospital room door burst open, followed by urgent voices.
“Medical team! Medical team!”
Voices buzzed around her.
“The patient is awake!”
Along with the nurse’s delighted cry, a signal sounded from the machine beside Mino’s bed.
[Treatment has been completed.]
[Soul contamination has fallen below 1%.]
[Congratulations on your complete recovery.]
Memories came rushing back. Her heart began to pound.
By the time the waiting medical team rushed in, the hospital windows were wide open. The wind and sunlight pouring through them made the staff raise their hands to shield their eyes.
“Are you conscious?”
The patient was already sitting up.
“...Mino?”
Her hair, longer after her sleep, fluttered behind her back. Her eyes sparkled like starlight. Her face was too clear and beautiful for a woman once called the Witch of Massacre.
“Where am I?”
Three months after Jaehwan left 《Chaos》, the first person he had met there finally woke up.
* * *
After completing the discharge procedures, Mino stepped outside. The first person to greet her in the Fortress was Claire, who had been designated as her primary guardian.
“...Auntie, you're joking, right?”
“It's true.”
“You really became the Finance Horn Lord? You're not kidding?”
“I said it's true.”
Claire, the Finance Horn Lord, sighed as she looked at Mino, who had been asleep for nearly half a year.
Mino had slept for far too long. Strictly speaking, the fact that she had survived at all was a miracle. Her soul had been on the brink of Mutation, yet she had recovered so completely.
“What happened while I was asleep?”
“It’s a long story.”
Claire considered it. How could she possibly explain everything that had happened? Was it even possible to explain?
So Claire decided to start with the most important news.
“What do you mean, a king was born in Chaos?”
“Yes.”
“Who is it?”
A moment later, Mino stared blankly at Claire before bursting into laughter.
“You're teasing me, right? That person became king?”
“More precisely, he was king. Past tense.”
“Ahahaha! Why not say horned beasts and Deadmans became humanity’s friends while you're at it?”
Mino laughed as though she had heard an incredible joke. Claire let out a deep sigh as she watched her.
Right. Mino was the type who only came to her senses after seeing it for herself.
Then Mino’s bright laughter abruptly stopped.
“C-Claire? W-why is that thing here?”
Mino trembled from head to toe as she stood with Claire supporting her. Claire looked in the direction Mino was pointing.
A strange creature was casually walking through the middle of the city.
A horned beast. One with seven horns, at that.
Mino looked ready to faint as the Seven-Horned Beast growled at her. It was midday, and they were inside the Fortress. Why was a horned beast wandering through the city in broad daylight?
“Easy. Calm down.”
The one-armed man leading the Seven-Horned Beast spoke in a familiar tone. He patted its belly a few times, and it let out a pleased cry.
Grrrrr.
The Seven-Horned Beast rubbed its head against the man’s hand like a pet.
Mino thought there had to be something wrong with her eyes.
“...Am I still not awake?”
But that was only the beginning. After a line of horned beasts passed by, Mino was just starting to relax when she spotted black tentacled monsters following some distance behind them.
The moment she saw one open its black mouth wide at her, her mind went blank.
“F-F-Deadmans...?”
A Deadman stepped close, and its tentacle gently stroked one side of her cheek.
Less than an hour after waking up, Mino fainted again.
* * *
Two hours later, Mino sat at an outdoor stall, looking exhausted as she spoke to Claire.
“Claire, let me see if I understand.”
Claire nodded.
“Three months ago, one man brought down the 《Palace of Rebirth》.”
Claire nodded.
“Then the four great Fortresses of 《Chaos》 were united.”
Claire nodded twice.
“...The united 《Chaos》 built a new Fortress on the site where the Strange Factory used to be.”
Mino looked around with fresh eyes as she continued.
“The Fortress is called 《Carpe Diem》. I am inside it right now. And inside this Fortress...”
Deadmans, horned beasts, and humans walked through the city without interfering with one another. Occasionally, several excited Deadmans even gave humans high fives.
Mino barely managed to continue.
“Inside this Fortress... horned beasts, Deadmans, and humans are living together. As if they are close friends.”
“That is right. You understood it well.”
Claire clapped in satisfaction, while Mino trembled.
After shaking for some time, Mino sprang to her feet and shouted.
“How does any of that make sense?”
Mino only accepted that it did make sense after staying awake all night.
《Chaos》 had become an entirely different place while she slept.
Horned beasts, Deadmans, and humans, who had once been hostile to one another, had put the past behind them and reached a new turning point for the future around the Fortress of 《Carpe Diem》.
It was because of an agreement between the King of Humans, the Factory Master of the Strange Factory, and Catastrophe, the Sole King.
“Until the war against the Lords is over, the three races will enter a provisional alliance.”
A Grand Alliance built around a single Fortress.
The great unification that had been considered absolutely impossible for thousands of years had come to pass.
And at the center of all those miracles stood one man.
“...What did you even do before you left?”
Mino muttered as she looked at Jaehwan’s hero statue standing in the center of the Fortress.
Three months ago, he had arrived in 《Chaos》 with a bewildered look on his face.
Now, she was told that man had become the King of 《Chaos》.
He had made the terrifying Ten Hall Masters and the four great Fortress Lords kneel.
He had even slaughtered the dreadful Lords of the 《Great Realm》.
Mino gave a bitter smile as she looked at Jaehwan’s hero statue, its sword raised toward the sky.
...Now you are stabbing the sky.
The hero statue had been made by the Deputy Workshop Master of Twilight Dusk.
A short inscription was carved beneath it.
“The Last King of Chaos.”
Footnotes:
Chapter discussion