Ch 135
『Another Tale』
『This is another story.』
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“Felix…!”
“…”
“Felix!!!”
“Damn it, I can’t! I can’t do it!”
“Snap out of it! You know this isn’t something you want to do! It’s something you have to do!!! Felix! If you don’t, everyone here will die!!!”
The woman reprimanding Felix is named Tilla.
Tilla, a Wizard in Felix’s Hero Party, personally performed the Left Hand’s Ritual and was the first to be consumed by its power.
Despite her meticulous skincare and cleansing even after a grueling day’s camping, her skin was now speckled with dark spots.
“Listen! I’m already too late!”
“Tilla, there must be a way to save you━”
“No!!! I know my body better than anyone! Unless I immediately fulfill the Asking Left Hand’s demands, I’m a dead woman! Tell me, Felix! Is that possible for you!?”
“…”
“So, please…! Please!!! Do what you have to do!!!”
“Tilla…”
“Don’t look at me like that. Promise me. That you won’t feel guilty about your actions. That you won’t blame yourself for this…!”
“But-…! If only I hadn’t been interested in this Asking Left Hand…! If only I hadn’t insisted on exploring these Ancient Ruins!!!”
“Then! I wouldn’t have followed you. It was because you were the one who recklessly set foot in the Ancient Ruins, recklessly interested in its treasure━ because you, more than anyone, wanted to gain knowledge! I followed you! Hero of Insight Felix! I will never regret following you! Everything I experienced with you, because I was with you, was the greatest luck and blessing of my life!!!”
“…”
“Felix.”
Tilla.
She grasped Felix’s hand.
She strengthened his hand holding the Holy Sword.
“Are you sure?”
Tilla said, looking into Felix’s eyes.
It was a kind of ritual, typically performed before Felix led the party on reckless adventures.
“…”
Felix looked into Tilla’s eyes and drew his characteristic flippant smile.
As usual.
“Surely, I won’t die?”
“…”
Usually, Tilla would have answered with disgust.
-If such a situation arises, I’ll make sure you’re the only one who dies, so you know.
But Tilla was different now.
She looked at Felix and made a bright yet precarious smile.
“Right. Everything will work out.”
A moment later.
Felix killed Tilla.
To fulfill the Soiled Left Hand’s demands.
That’s right.
All of this was to fulfill that unjust and unreasonable demand.
An atrocity committed by someone.
It was to pay the price for the ruined city.
Felix looked at the fallen Tilla.
He looked at the Holy Sword stained with her blood.
“It’s done…”
Felix desperately convinced himself.
That’s when it happened.
Creak.
Creak.
A grotesque sound and movement, like dry branches breaking.
The Asking Left Hand began to move again.
…It began to make its next demand.
“…Ha!”
The Hero let out a chuckle.
Soon, that chuckle turned into a mad laugh.
Felix realized too late.
Their arrogance.
“To pay the price for the ruined city…”
Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands.
There was no way they could pay for those deaths.
The Asking Left Hand’s demands continued.
Even if everyone there met ruin-
Creak.
Creak.
It didn’t stop.
Because sufficient payment hadn’t been made yet.
▶Fate 85: The Left Hand That Grants Wishes
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Whoosh.
It was like the flight of birds forming a flock and covering the sky.
Countless sheets of paper fluttered on an intangible force.
The aura swirls around something.
Thus, a girl stood in the whirlpool of paper.
She was a girl with clear and deep eyes that seemed to be able to hold anything, and yet would never be full.
Her name is Pocena.
She was the Spirit of the Sword of Insight.
This place was Pocena’s Inner World, and the countless sheets of paper swirling around her were a manifestation of her power.
The Power of Insight.
The power to record everything the Holy Sword and its master have experienced.
Including the scent of the grass blades that briefly brushed past, and the sensation and texture of the ground beneath their feet.
And even the impressions and realizations felt by the Heroes.
A collection of special knowledge accumulated over countless years, passed down through the hands of many Heroes.
Its vastness and value are comparable not to individual books, but to a huge library or record facility.
The power that transformed an ordinary young man with only a strong curiosity and adventurous spirit into an outstanding adventurer was now demonstrating its worth in a different way.
“Bring before me a being who wields a sword in the morning, handles the mysteries of magic at noon, governs nature in the evening, and illuminates the surroundings with divine power at dawn.”
Pocena pondered the Asking Left Hand’s demand.
Then, the sheets of paper circling around her brushed past Pocena’s eyes.
Like fitting the pieces of a scattered puzzle together to find the answer.
Letters, words, and sentences are constantly combined and then broken down again, slowly creating a picture.
The information Pocena desires.
The answer to the Asking Left Hand’s demand.
“Ugh…!”
Pocena’s youthful face contorted.
Was it the price for the complete destruction of a city?
Accordingly, the Asking Left Hand’s demand was unreasonable.
A heavy burden was placed on the Power of Insight as it sought the answer to that demand.
Even within the vast knowledge possessed by the Power of Insight, finding that answer was not easy.
“So, it’s that… a being who simultaneously wields a sword, magic, a spirit, and divine power…”
Pocena shook her head with an expression as if she had heard a terrible joke.
Insight has been with special beings called Heroes for hundreds of years.
It was truly a lot of experience, and truly a lot of encounters.
Pocena encountered countless hermits or monsters that an ordinary person might only meet once in a lifetime.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing…”
Yet, she had never encountered a being like the one the Asking Left Hand described.
Not even a similar being.
It’s only natural.
Even in that group, someone who fits only two of those criteria is a rare hermit.
But four?
Normally, Pocena would have decisively concluded using her vast knowledge.
That such a thing could not exist in the world.
However-
Pocena understood the principles of the contract formed by magical power.
It is impossible to demand the impossible, and it is impossible to demand the impossible as payment.
In short.
The Asking Left Hand’s demand may seem almost impossible, but it is not actually impossible.
It seems impossible to drive a nation to ruin with the power of a curse, but it happened, as it were.
Surprisingly, the Asking Left Hand’s demand was reasonable and actually feasible.
“That’s reassuring…”
An impossible demand, and a near-impossible demand.
How different are the two?
For Pocena, who had to fulfill the demand, there was little difference.
Both are equally daunting.
But she cannot give up.
The Asking Left Hand.
The power contained within far exceeded their expectations.
If they fail to fulfill the Asking Left Hand’s demands, it will bring inescapable ruin to those who participated in the ritual.
“Ugh…!”
How long had the Power of Insight been at work?
“Got it…!”
Pocena cheered.
The Power of Insight had finally deduced the answer to that impossible demand.
Fragments of memories that different Heroes of Insight had encountered.
They intertwined to point to a figure from the past.
“Tarak of the Double Mask…”
He was a master of sorcery and blood magic, a Necromancer who imprisoned the souls of others within himself through wicked rituals and wielded their power as his own.
With that power, he wielded the souls of Swordsmen, Wizards, Spirit Masters, and Priests.
-Bring before me a being who wields a sword in the morning, handles the mysteries of magic at noon, governs nature in the evening, and illuminates the surroundings with divine power at dawn.
A being that perfectly matched the Asking Left Hand’s demand.
The problem was━ he was a being from the distant past.
Is there a way to bring him before the Asking Left Hand right now, transcending space and time?
Surprisingly, there was.
The source of information about Tarak.
Divided into countless fragments and scattered throughout the world, but woven together by the Power of Insight into a single book.
It was a record written by Tarak himself.
In that record, where all of Tarak’s evil deeds were written like great achievements, there was a message left by Tarak for those who read the record.
It was a provocation to the challenger and advice to the follower.
It was none other than the method of summoning Tarak’s soul.
There were as many as two-
No, three Heroes gathered in this place.
And their comrades.
If they combined their strength, they could perform the Necromancer’s summoning ritual.
But-
“Someone will get hurt…”
As many as three Holy Swords and their masters were gathered in one place.
No matter how powerful a Necromancer, their malicious aura would inevitably lose its power in the presence of the Heroes.
Subduing the summoned Necromancer was not a difficult task.
The problem lay in the summoning method.
To summon Tarak, they had to use someone’s body as a vessel.
To accept the existence of the powerful Necromancer.
Also, the Necromancer is subdued in that state.
Can they survive that process?
“…No. It’s not just about getting hurt. There’s a high probability that… they’ll lose themselves.”
With good luck, the result would be permanent disability, and without incident, it would lead to death.
Pocena agonized.
Is this right?
Is it right to sacrifice someone for the sake of the many?
Is it right for them to pay the price for the atrocities committed by someone else?
She didn’t know.
But what was certain was-
“That doesn’t mean we can give up without trying anything.”
Whoosh-
The sheets of paper circling Pocena stopped and disappeared without form.
The acceleration of thought maintained by the Power of Insight stops.
Pocena emerged from the Inner World and spoke to her master, Felix.
-Felix! I found it! A way to satisfy the Asking Left Hand’s demands!
“…It’s okay now.”
-Felix! Good heavens, okay now? What does that mean!? Are you planning to give up everything like this!? Without doing anything! No way! I couldn’t have been wrong about you! The Felix I know isn’t like that!
“No, it’s just that it’s all over.”
-No! It’s not over!
“No, what I mean is━ it’s all solved.”
-?
Pocena then checked the atmosphere of the place.
The atmosphere of the place, which had been racing towards ruin, had completely relaxed.
“Heave… heave…”
Tilla, who had been struggling under the influence of the Asking Left Hand’s power, had also regained her composure.
The dark spots that had been steadily covering her skin were fading.
As Felix had said, it was a sight that could only be seen after solving the Asking Left Hand’s demands.
-How…?
Pocena’s face was dazed inside the Inner World.
Felix and the others directed their gaze at Lisir in response to her question.
At that moment.
Lisir approached Tilla and directed his hand towards her body.
“…”
With everyone’s attention focused on him.
Lisir shook his head.
“Ah, it won’t work.”
“””…?”””
What won’t work?
That meaningful statement drove everyone in the place crazy.
-No, so how did you do it…?
Pocena pressed Felix for an answer, still not having received one.
“…I don’t know, Lisir raised his hand, and it just worked?”
-…?
What the hell are you talking about?
Instead of being resolved, her doubts intensified even further after hearing the answer.
Creak.
Creak.
“””…!!!”””
At that moment.
Everyone looked at the Asking Left Hand in horror.
It began to move again.
“Why!? Wasn’t it all over just now!?”
Jane’s cry.
Pocena answered him.
-No. There’s no way it would end just like that.
“What…?”
-It said. The price for the ruined city. Hundreds. Perhaps thousands. Perhaps tens of thousands. Perhaps…
Jane’s eyes widened.
The shock he felt slowly spread to those around him.
-Can we… can this group of less than ten people pay that price?
The atmosphere in the place became heavy.
No one dared to utter a hopeful word.
Perhaps.
Their own ruin was only a matter of time-…
-Bring forth a heavenly pillar that can connect heaven and earth.
Lisir, who heard the inner voice, hesitantly raised his hand.
-…Bring forth a legendary sword that has been honed by a thousand blood stains and a hundred battles, and its name engraved with ten glories.
Again hearing the inner voice, Lisir hesitantly raised his hand.
-……Bring forth a pouch that endlessly spews forth gold.
I don’t know about this one.
Still, Lisir raised his hand just in case.
-…………Bring forth a gigantic silk that would cover the world.
I really don’t know about this one?
But just in case?
-…………Bring forth a supreme being whom even the reigning ruler would kiss their feet and look up to.
Huh?
Flash.
-…………This is the last demand.
“””…”””
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