Chapter 60

Chapter 60 : The Edge of Truth (2)

Murel, who had been pointlessly hanging around the window and keeping watch despite there being nothing much to see, could no longer hold back and shook his shoulders.

“Partner? Do you know that creature?”

The Sovereign I had seen in the phantasm created by Woldeer’s thought was, as expected, Sek.

If they had been together since before the first meeting in the Black Forest, then it was not strange for Murel to know him.

“Is that not Lord Iwon’s partner? The appearance he showed for a moment earlier looked exactly like that.”

“As you know, I lost my memories.”

“He was talked about quite a lot because he monopolized Lord Iwon and did not allow anyone else near you. When he was in his smaller form, his energy was too faint, so I do not think I recognized him.”

Murel added, “It does not look much better even now,” and I looked at the creature again.

Did the true form matter?

Then would calling him Fluffnix blur his original form?

“People would probably think of that appearance from earlier first if they thought of Lord Iwon’s partner. But even though I am one of the few who knows his various forms, I failed to recognize him. I will reflect on it.”

At this point, I checked the Skill description again.

It said it transformed objects and living beings imbued with the Power of Phantasm within the Phantasm Domain.

Though I could not maintain Woldeer’s true form now because of my grade, later, I might even be able to reach the stage where I could draw forms from the fragments of Phantasmal Species he had devoured.

If so, naming him every time his form changed might be a little too much.

“What was your original name?”

I asked the creature his true name in place of voicing my worries.

But the creature tilted his head, then busied himself preening his wing feathers with his beak, feigning ignorance.

Murel, unable to hold back again, let out a pfft of laughter beside me and even turned his head away.

“……That is not the attitude of someone reflecting.”

“Kkh. No, it is not that. His previous name was even more difficult, so I recommend calling him whatever is comfortable.”

Difficult? It seemed Sek’s naming sense had been even worse.

I sank deep into the sofa, stretched myself out, and called the Fluffnix who had once been Woldeer.

Perhaps the creature liked his newly gained wings, because he had been pecking at his feathers nonstop. At my call, he flapped his wings properly.

The creature floated up lightly, landed on my stomach as I reclined at an angle, and tilted his head to one side.

“May I recommend one?”

Murel, who had barely finished controlling his laughter, asked with an affectedly serious expression.

There was no reason not to hear the recommendation and discard it if I disliked it, so I nodded without hesitation.

“How about Coffer? It is a name focused entirely on his storage ability, but there is nothing more intuitive.”

I could tell that Murel’s naming sense was awful too.

“What does he mean?”

I asked the creature pressing his claws firmly into my stomach, rather than asking Murel.

[“He means the things I have swallowed. I can also spit them back out.”]

The Fluffnix’s beak opened wide, and several remains of the Blue Flower popped out from inside.

Petals fluttered down one by one.

“……?”

[“Ahem. I have not finished digesting the flame. Once digestion is complete, I can spit out ordinary flowers that have lost their power.”]

“You vomit up what you ate again.”

[“Correct. Things that do not require digestion can be spat out in their intact form, which is why that man said something strange.”]

It is not strange, though?

Is this not an inventory?

And an inventory with its own will, one that can freely change form at that.

“Tory is not bad, is it?”

“Kkh. Does Lord Iwon still end up going down the same path even after losing your memories?”

Suddenly, I felt offended. The fact that Sek and I had thought the same way.

I decided to call him whatever I felt like whenever he took a form.

What did it matter what I called him? What mattered was that the creature was my partner.

At that moment, the creature, having quietly finished preening his feathers, poked my chest with his beak.

[“Master, there are still two production methods left. I must eat those too.”]

“……What are you talking about?”

[“They are Relics left by the Sovereign. There are three in total. The new lord is searching for them.”]

The Sovereign he spoke of seemed to refer not to Sek, but to an Ancient Being. To begin with, the blue flame had also been called a Relic they left behind.

“Karon is after those? Why?”

[“I do not know. Master merely told me so.”]

I frowned.

The information Sek had left behind was limited.

That was not only true this time. The same went for the Travel Log and the hints he had left in each domain.

It was a plan by Sek that clearly intended for me to roll around personally and find things out.

And ironically, Sek’s plan also aligned with the system’s intent.

I glanced at the only remaining ending quest, then pulled up the corner of my mouth.

System, what are you?

---

Ding!

[Loading designated scene from 〈Your Regret After Killing Me〉.]

[20 points deducted.]

「(Excerpt omitted)……A little effort and a little consideration were enough to set foot in the former Sky’s Domain. Karon pushed through the blizzard obscuring his view and seized the traitor who had opened the door by the collar.

“You are not thinking of simply returning, are you?”

“My cooperation only extends to opening the door.”

“How noble. Do not be ridiculous. Lead the way.”

“Why should I……!”

“It was decided the moment you took my hand. You say you will let go now…… what should we do? Your hands are already dirty.”

At Karon’s cold words, the traitor swallowed his breath and led the way. The day he could turn back had already gone and left him.

……(Middle omitted)……

The monster, its outer hide wrapped in large scales, was tough and tenacious.

When he severed its final breath, Karon withdrew his long sword and had to catch his breath.

An existence that even his Frame, which held all power over life and death, could not handle. The monsters the former lord had cherished were cursed things that did not die even when killed.

Karon shook the blue blood clinging to his sword onto the snowfield and swept back his hair.

A cold wind blew once, sweeping away the smell of blood in the area before vanishing.

“Is this all?”

“According to the investigation, there are three, but it seems someone killed the others first.”

“And you do not know who?”

“……There is someone I suspect.”

“You know nothing.”

Karon curled up the corner of his mouth and blamed the traitor’s stupidity. Laughable. If the traitor had known how to use his head in the first place, he would never have done something like this.

At that moment, the energy in the area settled even more heavily.

The surrounding air took on a sharpened chill and slashed at the collapsing sky. That cold wave dug all the way into Karon’s heart as though trying to steal the moment of death from him.

It was the Sovereign’s Curse, scattered across the former Sky’s Domain.

That meant someone had already taken the object he was after, and who it was was so obvious that a hollow laugh came first.

“Am I already too late?”

Karon’s Red Eyes rippled violently. The hand gripping his sword turned white, and the tendons stood out in his clenched jaw.

But only for a moment.

He lightly sheathed his sword and swept back his bangs, which had been disheveled by the fierce battle, then twisted up the corner of his mouth.

“Ahaha, it is Lord Sek after all.”

Karon’s gaze touched the sprawled corpse of the Phantasmal Species.

A wandering ghost unable to die. A lowly thing no different from those things.

Karon thought of the person who had brazenly acted as though the Frame of the sky belonged to him, spreading vivid Red Wings that did not suit him at all.

“How amusing.”

The first Relic he had meant to obtain here was abandon……(Excerpt omitted)」

My heart pounded.

The person who had visited the former Sky’s Domain really had been Karon.

It had been worth the 20 points.

I had not thought Karon would fall for the crude wings Etel and I had arranged, but I had thought they might confuse him quite a bit.

To think he had already seen through it. And he had even pinpointed me as Sek.

As expected, even if my hair had been changed to blue, someone with a Golden Eye and, upon closer inspection, a Red Eye coexisting was probably rare. Especially if those traits matched Sek’s, as confirmed through Woldeer’s phantasm and Murel’s words.

Even if I insisted otherwise, it was enough to be brushed off as a joke.

I tapped the armrest of the rocking chair with my fingers and chewed over this situation.

Since Woldeer had told me that Karon was after the remaining production methods too, it was easy to conclude why Karon had visited that place.

To find the Relics Sek had scattered, most likely.

「Sek, the previous Underworld Lord, had to be found no matter what.

If his survival could not be guaranteed, then even his corpse had to be recovered and possessed.

The objects he possessed, and above all, his Frame, absolutely had to be.」

Karon craved everything belonging to Sek with gritted teeth.

It did not seem to be blind greed; there seemed to be a reason.

An item of persuasion needed to sit fully on the lord’s seat…… maybe?

“Ahahaha, the new Underfolk mister is strange!”

“That does not make sense! You are lying, right?”

“Tell us another story!”

Sitting leisurely on the office terrace, I took a deep breath at the voices of the quartet coming from inside.

The moment the four saw Murel’s bright red hair, they could not hide their curiosity and began pestering him.

I almost felt proud of how much I had improved their perception of the Underfolk, carving away at myself in the process.

‘Children, that flaming-haired man is even the Director of “Ruka,” the secret agency directly under the Underworld First Command.’

―was not something I intended to explain.

When I glanced inside, I saw the children marveling at the changed appearance of the crow-tit while their eyes sparkled at Murel’s wildly exaggerated heroic tales, mixed with all sorts of lies.

Meanwhile, Murel, being a Creator, had even created temporary little shapes to captivate the children.

“As long as he does not show them anything strange, it should be fine.”

Without worrying about it, I closed my eyes and let my body rest in the moderate sunlight.

The problem was what came next.

Since Ariti would be beside Karon for now, getting entangled in various incidents, the odds of him tracking me directly were low.

Given Karon’s personality as I had understood it while viewing the Original Work, he would probably think it enough to prepare by using the traitor to figure me out.

In that case, his spies would approach first, and the traitor he had planted in the forest, the one I missed last time, would move against me.

Thrilling enough to make the back of my neck prickle, was it not?

Finding the tension not bad at all, I tugged up the corner of my mouth and lifted an arm to cover my eyes.

Getting entangled with Karon right now would be as unnecessary as raising a death flag.

“Let us go step by step.”

I had to hold back for now, when I could not handle the protagonist buff.

“Where are you going step by step?”

Murel, who had escaped the quartet, suddenly stuck his head out.

Without removing the arm that cast a suitable shade over my face, I answered.

“To eat.”

“Ah. I am already hungry. Why are we going step by step?”

“Do you remember that it has not even been two hours since you ate?”

“I do not.”

At that firm lie, laughter leaked out.

“Ah, Lord Iwon. There is one thing I am curious about. Why do you have this notebook?”

Only then did I remove my arm and confirm that he had come out holding the Travel Log.

“I was surprised when I saw this, and I thought perhaps this was why you stayed in the forest.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean the ‘child’ written on the first page. This is that bastard Pan, is it not?”

It was a part I had roughly guessed. So what? When I looked at him in question, Murel raised one eyebrow and shook the Travel Log.

“Is this not the notebook that was handed over to that bastard Pan more than two hundred years ago? As a gift packed full of the Power of Phantasm.”

Why did he give it to him and then take it away? Murel added. As I listened quietly, a hollow laugh escaped me.

Why this had been there, how Pan had recognized it, and why Sek had commented that it was proof of lingering spite.

Now I understood.

When Sek wrote this Travel Log, he had intended from the start for it to pass through Pan and return to me.

『I wrote this book in the hope that it might help that child who once comforted me.

┖ It was probably warmth he needed, not comfort.』

The “child” in that part held a double meaning: Sek referring to Pan, and Pan referring to “me,” who would find it later.