Chapter 179: Might It Be Helpful? (4)
Since there are those who spring from the earth and fall from the sky, they can live off hunting. In addition, they are cultivating various edible crops in caves.
By the way, I’m worried. Since the number of monsters has significantly decreased, I wonder if there will be a food shortage? They said they would manage on their own, and they have the ability to do so, but they are nominally residents of my territory, so I’m worried.
It’s been almost a year since I last saw Kun, who was summoned by Summeor. Because of that, he couldn’t participate in the Narvilt conquest. Anyway, he’s a valiant warrior of the Guard, so he’ll come back healthy, right?
Speaking of which, the habit of eating monsters…… People on the mainland would never imagine such a thing. Hmm.
“Sir Lucy still hasn’t contacted me. Hehe. As expected, is he busy studying magic?”
“That’s probably the case. They say a magic that can be considered the posthumous work of Ol Keres Pendens has been discovered. It seems like magic related to parallel dimensions. Do you have any guesses by any chance?”
“Does she see me as some invincible superhuman? I only learned magic moderately as a hobby when I was learning superpowers. Thanks to this body’s versatility, I was able to learn two types of power together. But my major isn’t magic.”
“Ah, yes. I understand. Why don’t you come down now? You’re going to break your back.”
“Oh my, sorry. I almost sinned against unni.”
Aila quickly came down, saying things that made me want to get angry, but I couldn’t. At this point, Levidian would naturally appear.
“Good thinking. Don’t you dare break mine.”
“Unni, are you already acting like the mistress of the house?”
“What does it matter? Risel, would you like to practice crossing swords?”
“Sure.”
It’s quite sad to give up thinking about my ownership and readily accept her offer. Sob, sob.
Aila, who was wearing a cat-like smile, picked up my sword that was lying next to her and said,
“Then good luck. It’s time for me to go and receive the report from the Imperial Capital. I’ll let you know if there’s anything surprising.”
“Okay. Good luck to you too.”
She energetically picked up a dumbbell and walked away while doing arm exercises. No matter how much I think about it, I can’t read her behavior patterns. Is it because she’s from another world? Huh.
I drew my sword and stood five paces away from Levidian. Then, we crossed swords and started practicing, applying force to various parts of the sword to prevent each other from being pushed back even a single step.
It’s not something that’s used much in actual combat, but it’s a helpful practice. It helps to improve concentration and understand the subtle movements of force.
The advantage of this training is that we can also have a conversation.
“Strangely, it seems like all I have to do is go out and fight. I’m also the leader of an assassination group, but I’m leaving all the information to Aila, so focus.”
“Hmm. Don’t think about it too seriously. Aila has been learning since she was a child, hasn’t she?”
“Which childhood are you referring to?”
“I guess it would be her childhood that started after she came here? But listening to her, it seems like she was doing similar things in the place she lived before. My work hasn’t changed much, though. Oops.”
The force that was concentrated on the lower part was released at once and simultaneously approached the upper part. I quickly moved my sword slightly to match the center of gravity with the direction of the force.
Levidian smiled slightly and moved her sword subtly. I felt a variety of changes in the center of gravity in my grip.
Seeing her lightly use such advanced techniques, she’s truly amazing. It’s hard to even respond.
“Risel, how does it feel to live your second life?”
“Uh, how should I put it…… It feels like I’ve become more objective.”
“Objective?”
“Yes. If my previous life was looking at the world from a rather subjective point of view, this time I’ve become able to step back and see it from a broader perspective. Knowing the events that will happen in the future, why they happen, and what kind of ending they will meet, it feels like my vision has broadened. Other than that feeling…… It’s hard to explain.”
“Are you saying that you wouldn’t know unless you experienced it?”
“You could say that. No, that’s right.”
The reason why Aila and I connect is because we have common ground.
Of course, Aila has the talent to get along with anyone, but the friendship she has built with me is quite special compared to others. It’s because I have common ground with Lime-hyung and Duke Ecoshian.
Levidian looked at me and sighed softly. Her face, seen over the crossed swords, was partially obscured and hard to see.
“It’s a shame. Because I won’t be able to understand the biggest part of you.”
“It’s a personal opinion, but it’s better that you don’t understand.”
“What? Why is that?”
“There’s a bit of a sense of futility to it.”
She tilted her head, and I shifted the center of gravity of my sword, pointing the tip towards her. She quickly applied force to counter it, and we engaged in a back-and-forth struggle for a while.
Actually, the second life has a bit of a sense of futility.
If there’s a second, then there might be a third, and if you think about it that way, the things I’m doing now might be meaningless.
Also, the small successes I achieved before become nothing. The things I made, the things I accomplished, disappear.
If those who are living today vigorously, even with regrets, suddenly experience a reset, they would probably feel more devastated than happy.
Because the life and time they’ve built somehow would become meaningless.
Of course, even if they can create a better time afterward, the value is different. It can’t help but be different.
Levidian gripped her sword firmly and pushed, saying,
“I think so too. If I were to experience a reset one day, I would be more dismayed than happy. Because I would have to start anew my relationship with you, my relationships with many people. If I think about remembering all the good memories I had with those people alone…… It would be very lonely.”
“In my case, I couldn’t help but be happy because my last one was the worst, but I think other people would feel that way. However, if you think that this happened because of Artshever’s conspiracy…… I can’t be happy either.”
“We just have to defeat him. It will be easily resolved.”
“That’s not an easy task either.”
We’ve had many discussions so far. To be honest, it’s nothing more than armchair theorizing, but we’ve been able to come up with several hypotheses.
The biggest topic is this.
‘How to kill Artshever.’
According to Aila, he has already gone through about 1,600 resets.
Honestly, it’s hard to believe that all of them were natural deaths.
Even if you investigate the deaths of 1,600 randomly selected kingdom citizens, you’ll find quite a few accidental deaths or murders.
In the end, Artshever would have been reset even if he was murdered by someone, reset even if he died in an accident, reset whether he died from illness, old age, or suicide.
I’m guessing, but he probably has experience with suicide as well. Even from my perspective, living only my second life, there’s a sense of futility, so he must have felt suicidal urges after going through hundreds of resets.
Assuming he lived 40 years in one parallel dimension, it’s well over 6,500 years.
It means he lived a time that is unimaginable even in centuries.
At this point, it’s like facing a demigod.
Even if you were to end the life of such an opponent, he would probably continue to be reset to other parallel dimensions.
This leads to the conclusion that he cannot be killed by ordinary means. Then how can we bring him to ‘complete’ death?
“Haven’t you found the cause of the resets yet?”
“It seems Namia is praying diligently, but there doesn’t seem to be any effect yet.”
Aila said she would nullify the cause of what happened in her original parallel dimension by completely killing Artshever.
Since the time relationship in that parallel dimension is distorted, the cause can become the effect and the effect can become the cause, and there can be effects without a cause or causes without an effect.
The important thing here is nullifying the cause.
We figure out the principle behind Artshever’s resets. If we eliminate or block that cause or factor and then kill Artshever, he will be able to reach complete death.
It’s a bit awkward to hurt him since his body is Aila’s real father, but Aila said it’s okay to turn him into dust, so there’s no need to worry. However, the problem arises because we don’t know the method before that.
Why, why are the resets happening?
“Would a god be able to answer that?”
“I don’t believe so either. Because all gods always serve as a guide to life, not a dictator of life. And oracles aren’t something that comes down very often.”
“Would Aila know?”
“I have a feeling that she might have a guess…… but it wouldn’t be certain.”
Aila gave a vague answer to the question of whether she knew the principle. If she knew and didn’t tell me, I would have been angry, but her face was quite serious at that time.
It was as if she was asking for time to think.
I think she knows, but she doesn’t want to make it a fact by saying it out loud. Anyway, since she meant she would tell me when she came to some kind of conclusion, I decided to trust her and wait. Also, I’m trying to figure out the principle of the resets by racking my brains.
“However, it’s difficult to think beyond that, now that I’ve barely understood the concept of parallel dimensions, right?”
“It’s difficult. Even though I’m the one involved, all I remember is that after I died, I opened my eyes and saw myself from 10 years ago.”
“I’ve always been curious about that. A parallel dimension that’s not different at all from the time you lived in, is that possible?”
“They say there are infinite parallel dimensions, don’t they? The possibility of a parallel dimension that has progressed through the same time as the original flow is the same as the possibility of a parallel dimension where completely different things unfold. Anything is possible, isn’t it?”
Levidian pouted her lips slightly and made a dissatisfied expression. She’s quite amusing because she shows a somewhat weak side in this aspect.
“I didn’t want to know what I couldn’t understand…… How did I end up like this…… It’s all because of Risel.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take responsibility.”
I’m good at this kind of conversation now. She widened her eyes and then smiled brightly. Then she moved the center of gravity of her sword again, and we focused on our training.
It was when we were pushing and pulling like that for a while.
“Excuse me, Your Grace. You have a visitor.”
“A visitor?”
“Yes. A person named Kun has arrived.”
Oh, he finally came.
“Kun, it’s been a while.”
“Risel, I’m glad to see you’re healthy.”
“Did you finish all your work and come back? Is Summeor healthy as well?”
“Yes. Summeor sends her regards. Fortunately, I was able to finish all my work.”
The warrior of the Guard, whom I met after a long time, spoke with his usual polite attitude.
“It’s been a while, Kun.”
“It’s good to see you again, Levidian.”
He was especially respectful to Levidian. Not because she’s my lover, but because she’s strong, he naturally treats her with respect. It might be a characteristic of the Guard.
“So, how did you end up coming so late? Grenoian is vast, but I thought you would be able to return before that.”
“Yes. Something came up. It’s not a bad thing. There were circumstances, so it couldn’t be helped.”
“Circumstances? Well, I can hear about it slowly. First, tell me everything you have to say. It’ll go down in history that you haven’t visited your territory once since becoming a Duke.”
I haven’t officially visited Grenoian yet. Moreover, last year I was busy fighting a war on the opposite side. At this point, people might not even know if I was the Duke of that land.
“Then I’ll talk about Grenoian first.”
Kun smiled, making his handsome face even more prominent, and began to speak.
The Grener, the monsters of Grenoian and the gray monsters, were only about 20% left as they expected.
Because of that, there was a disruption in the food supply, but since the Grener have the characteristic of multiplying or occurring quickly if left alone for a while, they only suffered a brief hardship and are now stable, he said.
Thanks to the significant decrease in the number of monsters, the Guard is somewhat bored, he said.
For those who have made it a habit to start their day by hunting monsters and fall asleep looking at their hunting trophies before going to bed, the monotonous days must have continued.
Some even envy those who are outside on my orders, so they must be really bored.
“Hmm, I think it’s time to start the development plan. Continue.”
“Yes, Risel.”
There was no one who doubted Hajifsia anymore. Even the stubborn ones who seemed like they would doubt until the end of the world have now accepted the dragon’s prophecy.
I was a bit embarrassed, but I just accepted it. Brandiego didn’t seem to want to clear up that misunderstanding either.
They weren’t the only ones who were bored because the number of monsters had decreased. Because of that, patrols from the Barrier frequently come quite deep inside, which is currently a concern, he said.
It’s not time to reveal ourselves yet, and since most of the Guard can’t communicate with outsiders, there seems to be no solution. It seems like it’s time to pull back the troops from the Barrier.
Kun said he went around the bored members of his tribe and talked about me, whom he had seen right next to him.
At his words that most of his time in Grenoian was spent on that, I had to seriously think about what to answer.
You’re a valiant warrior, but I guess you need to keep your mouth shut, Kun.
“However, before returning, there was a call from the dragon.”
“Huh? Brandiego?”
“Yes. He said he had something to tell you through me. I was a bit late because I went to Mirgaram.”
“Hmm, I’ll hear about that later. What about the Leotasia Mountain Range?”
Kun nodded and talked about the Guard warriors who are blocking the Southern Army’s advance.
As I expected, it was easy for the Guard warriors, who have been dealing with monsters and roaming all kinds of natural terrain, to block humans who are not as sensitive as monsters.
They set traps everywhere in the mountains, wherever people could barely walk, and placed monsters where there were no traps.
Even though thousands of people lived in that vast mountain range, they were scattered everywhere, so no one was detected. Their stealth skills using nature are no less than the Black New Moon.
In the end, the Southern Army couldn’t advance a single step north of the line that divides the Leotasia Mountain Range north and south. It’s partly thanks to Duke Ecoshian’s hesitation, but it’s also because the Guard warriors were that active.
Kun concluded by saying that he led a group of warriors there and then came straight to Baekslan.
It was a smooth progress report.
“It seems like things are going well. So, what did Brandiego say to tell me?”
“Yes. The dragon said the time is ripe. He said that since Risel has made up his mind, he will fulfill his role. He also said that the one who defeats him in the end is the true victor.”
“The one who defeats him in the end is the true victor?”
I frowned.
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