Translator: Alpha0210
Of course, to Residue, all of this was merely part of a plan. Though the insolent attitude of the fellow who called himself a subordinate had stung his pride a little, he bore no deep resentment over it. Truly.
And yet, the reason he’d acted so childishly was layered with ulterior motives: to get even a glimpse into Agolet’s inner workings; the thought that watching a fight between the Half King and Agolet might yield something useful; and the calculation that it would be nice to let his battered body recover just a bit more.
As he sat perched on a building to spectate, it belatedly occurred to him that it would be nice to have something to eat. Something to drink too, while he was at it. You know, like booze with some snacks on the side. Wouldn’t that be nice? Part of it was that his mouth was bored, but he also held some hope that absorbing nutrients from food might improve the efficiency of his body’s regeneration.
There had been a few retainers who enjoyed their drink. Retip was one of them… and there were some among the Thirteen Thunderclouds too, he thought. Would the day ever come to share a drink with them? Ah. Most of them were dead, weren’t they.
…Questions that didn’t matter one way or the other were soon cut short as if by a single stroke of a blade. At the same time, Residue’s modest plans went up in smoke.
Agolet had started sprinting toward him. He stared blankly at the sight for a moment before snapping to his senses. Over Agolet’s shoulder, he could see the Half King in pursuit, tearing down the street as if she meant to demolish it.
That bastard, don’t tell me…?
Residue shot to his feet and shouted.
“Get the hell away from me, you lunatic!”
Agolet offered no reply, only flashed a faint smile and picked up even more speed. Only then did Residue fully understand what that scheming bastard was thinking.
‘He’s trying to drag me into this. Damn him. Simple, but devastatingly effective.’
‘Did I push him too far?’ Along with that belated regret, Residue tried to bolt immediately, but the wounds he’d sustained from the Exile throbbed painfully, and whether it was his imagination or not, his insides didn’t feel right either. ‘Come to think of it, I did feel like I took down those two Void Lords a bit too easily.’ Was the backlash from that only hitting him now?
In any case, in this state he couldn’t shake off the Half King, let alone Agolet, so he had no choice but to draw the Piercing Thunder.
Right about then, Agolet blew past Residue, and hot on his heels, the Half King’s assault came crashing down.
CLANG!
He barely managed to block the Half King’s kick.
‘Was that really bare skin I just made contact with? What the hell kind of sound was that?’ Before he could even follow the thought, a barrage of follow-up attacks poured in. Fist, fist, headbutt, kick, fist again… Dammit. The Half King’s onslaught was beyond what the naked eye could track, and he took several hits. His bleeding had only just stopped, and now his body was drenched in blood all over again.
The Half King extended her hand toward an opening in Residue’s guard, her face expressionless, but before her fingers could make contact, something intercepted the gap between them.
It was Agolet.
More precisely, the shield he carried.
CRASH-BOOM!
A tremendous explosion of sound accompanied Agolet’s body as it was shoved far back. He must not have fully deflected the impact, because Residue could see him coughing up a fistful of blood.
And yet, remarkably, even in the midst of all that, Agolet stole a glance behind him and let a mocking smirk cross his face before suddenly switching expressions as if swapping out a mask entirely.
With a look of utter surprise, Agolet spoke.
“Why, Your Majesty? Despite what you said, were you worried about this humble Agolet after all?”
“……”
“To join us like this, heedless of your own wounds… Your Majesty’s boundless generosity, a heart vaster than the greatest mountain, this servant is truly and deeply moved.”
Running toward Residue had been a risky move for Agolet as well. Turning your back on a monster and fleeing was obviously dangerous.
As the price for that recklessness, the armor on his shoulder had been completely torn away, leaving flesh hanging in ragged strips, yet not a shred of regret could be found on the bastard’s face.
Disregarding his own losses and pain, all for the sake of getting one over on his opponent?
Residue looked at Agolet anew. No. It would be more accurate to say he was only now seeing him properly.
“…However, for one who rules as a sovereign, it is not a good look to take back words once spoken. Most of those who live commit the sin of inconsistency between word and deed as a matter of habit, but Your Majesty, who stands above others, ought to speak with greater care.”
“Ha ha ha.”
Well, well. A lecture on top of everything.
Residue laughed in short, choppy bursts and spoke with a couldn’t-care-less attitude, thinking that when conversing with Agolet, the right answer might just be to say whatever came to mind without thinking.
“Even so, I can’t very well let my only vassal die on me. Even if that vassal is a scheming, impossible-to-read, conversation-makes-my-blood-boil son of a bitch.”
“Could it be that you had other vassals besides me?”
“Plenty. But I was talking about you just now.”
“Tha…”
Agolet’s voice cut off abruptly. Residue’s face twisted in bewilderment. His conversation partner, Agolet, had suddenly vanished. Of course, this wasn’t because the man had caught on to Residue’s jab early and fled.
The cause lay with the Half King. Struck by one of the Half King’s brutally swung fists, Agolet had been sent flying far away, at least beyond what the naked eye could confirm. Residue thought he might have seen fragments of armor scattering in every direction.
‘Son of a… What the hell just happened? This can’t be part of the White Knight’s plan, can it? Did she blast Agolet away, shield and all, with sheer physical force?’
Residue stared at the Half King with stunned eyes.
“I have something to ask.”
The Half King ground the words out in a rough voice as she clenched her fist.
‘Don’t tell me what she showed against Agolet wasn’t even her full strength?’
‘And for some reason, it looks like she’s about to pour that hidden strength onto me.’
He instinctively felt that this was one of those moments where his answer mattered.
“…Go ahead.”
“Did you kill them all?”
At that question, Residue blinked both eyes, then furrowed his brow.
“What?”
“I asked if you killed all of my vassals.”
“…I understood the words. What I was questioning was why you’d suddenly bring up a question like that.”
The Half King remained expressionless, but Residue felt irritation steadily creeping up as he spoke.
“What’s the intent behind your question? Whether I killed them or not, does it matter in this situation?”
“How dare you call me in that speech. You, of all people, must have realized what I’m thinking.”
Her tone had shifted slightly.
Residue couldn’t tell whether the Half King had intended this change, or whether it was surfacing because she was losing her composure.
“…So you must also know how I regarded the Void Lords.”
“Are you saying you’ll accept my words now?”
“I’ll accept them. I regarded them all as parents.”
Residue couldn’t help but click his tongue. Given the atmosphere, he had a premonition that he’d have to do something ill-suited to him again. He could only hope it would stay as just a premonition.
“I killed them all.”
That was what Residue said first.
Futurix was technically still alive, but she hadn’t been fully cleared as a suspect either. It meant there was still a possibility she was a Hide, and in other words, Futurix’s death was merely deferred at the present stage.
“They were all Hides, as it turned out. That alone was more than enough reason for me to kill them. Whether you’d call this an excuse or a justification, I don’t know. But that’s the entirety of my claim. Ah. One more thing. There’s no way to prove they were Hides.”
“……”
“So. What will you do now? Kill me for the sake of an uncertain revenge? If that’s what you want, unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop you. The fights with them were no walk in the park. And the vassal who could’ve fought beside me, you sent him flying.”
Even without that, it wasn’t as if Agolet would have willingly helped, but anyway.
When Residue finished speaking, the Half King’s lips trembled faintly. No voice came easily from those parched lips.
She lowered her gaze, eyes swirling with sorrow, anger, and something more tangled, and spoke as if reciting her own charges.
“I was impulsive.”
“About what?”
“Attacking the White Knight.”
Residue let out a deflated sound, but the Half King continued in a somber voice.
“…I don’t know why I acted so impulsively. I’m a being who shouldn’t have. No matter that they were the ones who made me, who gave me life. Even if they died, or were hurt, or on the brink of death begged me for revenge… Even if they were reduced to the most wretched state imaginable, rendered to scraps of meat worse than rags and scattered before me. I shouldn’t have been shaken by that. That is how I was made. That is what the Half King is. And yet…”
Was this a soliloquy? Or reminiscence? It could have passed for a confession.
From that youthful face, Residue sensed all at once the weariness of an old soul weathered by life’s storms, regret, and a resigned indifference.
“…If they truly are dead, then I failed them right up to the very end.”
“How would you know whether you failed them or not? It’s not as though you can peer into their true feelings.”
“Sincerity can sometimes be read from expression and eyes alone. Just as you were able to guess my inner thoughts from looking at my face.”
Residue fell silent, not having expected her to parry like that.
“Even now, two desires are churning inside me. The thought that I should kill you and the White Knight to avenge them, and the thought that I shouldn’t waste my strength on something like that and should instead focus on the battle against Destruction, as they would have wished in the end. I can’t tell what’s right or wrong, and I’m only confused. Because I…”
The Half King let out a sigh-laden breath.
“…have never once made a choice for myself.”
“You’ve been a slave since birth? And you’re saying freedom feels foreign?”
“I don’t know if the word ‘slave’ suits me, but freedom certainly is foreign.”
Residue sighed in turn.
He’d been running into a lot of people lately who were lost and desperately searching for answers. Not long ago, he might have dismissed this as some kind of curse from Lukas. His thinking had changed somewhat since then.
The world had always been like this.
Everyone was struggling with their own worries, searching for their own answers. Residue had come to realize that belatedly. And that, in turn, meant he’d become able to take in more of his surroundings than before.
Then what was Residue’s role?
Should he become a guide for them? Recite their flaws and areas for improvement, offer up bland advice?
That was not Residue’s role.
“It isn’t because you’re lacking something, or because you’re defective. You’re simply not ready yet.”
“I’m not ready?”
“Is there anyone who wouldn’t hesitate at the first crossroads they’ve ever faced?”
“Rulers. Those born as innate Absolutes wouldn’t hesitate, even at a crossroads.”
‘Or others beyond them, transcendent beings I know nothing of.’ The Half King added quietly.
But Residue shook his head.
“I wonder about that. From the perspective of someone who was once a Ruler, that’s also the wrong answer. Because those beings have never once stood at a crossroads to begin with. To them, life was nothing more than a well-paved, straight road, and that means they never knew what conflict was. Everything they believed to be their own choices was, in truth, nothing of the sort.”
“What do you mean?”
“A crossroads can only be called one when doubt takes root. If ninety-nine out of a hundred paths offer nothing of value, would any conflict arise? No. It means that despite the appearance of countless options, there was only ever one real choice. Conversely, even if there are only two paths, if doubt arises between them, that is a crossroads.”
And so, unlike in the days of the Lightning God,
ever since becoming Residue, every moment had been a crossroads.
“When you stand at your first crossroads, anyone will hesitate. You think about the gains and the losses, weigh all sorts of factors, and even after all that deliberation, you finally make a choice. Then does the doubt disappear once you’ve set off down the path? Not a chance. If anything, that’s when it gets worse.”
Anxiety, unease, self-doubt, and still you have no choice but to keep walking.
Because you can’t know until the road breaks off, or until you encounter something along the way.
“That’s all there is to it. Nothing special. The one advantage of making your own choices is that there’s no one to blame. Whether things go well or not, it was your own decision, so what’s there to resent? If something goes badly wrong, you turn back. If it’s ambiguous, you keep going. And sometimes, stumbling around like a fool, you come across scenery you’d never have seen otherwise.”
“Then what’s the disadvantage?”
“It gets a bit lonely.”
“What?”
It probably wasn’t a story the Half King could easily grasp from her perspective, so Residue rambled on at length again.
“I only realized it recently myself. A long journey needs companions. A woman who glares and snaps at you every time you open your mouth, a kid hauling a backpack as big as himself, a subordinate who rolls with whatever nonsense you spout, a knight who seems to have swallowed dozens of foxes whole… With people like that by your side, you could walk through nothing but wasteland for a month and never be bored.”
“…I don’t know you well, but that doesn’t sound like something that would come out of your mouth.”
Residue couldn’t help but snicker. He agreed completely.
The Half King shook her head and spoke again.
“Then what should I do? For me, this situation isn’t encountering a crossroads. It feels like the road I was walking has vanished entirely. I don’t know where I am, and I have even less idea where I should go. I…”
The moment her gaze turned toward Residue, something dangerous flickered within her eyes.
“…Or would you handle me?”
“What?”
“You saved me. So you have the right to control me. You must be well aware of my power. If it’s you, you could wield me better than even I can.”
“……”
“I will carry out any order. Without asking whether it is right or wrong. What say you, Beginning Wizard?”
Residue gazed at the Half King in silence. After realizing she was serious, the first thing he did was check the state of his body. Still the worst. Then again, it wasn’t as if he’d been running his mouth for hours; expecting a full recovery would’ve been unreasonable.
He snuck a glance behind him. Agolet, where the hell was that bastard loafing around now? Even if he’d been blown clear out of the city, it was about time he made his way back. …Forget it. If that man intervened, things that might go well could just as easily go sideways.
Residue set aside all expectations and spoke with a half-resigned state of mind.
“Your Majesty, the Half King.”
“Speak.”
“I’m afraid that won’t do. Let me just hit you once.”
“……”
The Half King blinked both eyes, then asked a beat too late.
“What?”
Whether this was the right call,
whether it was even possible to land a hit on the Half King’s head,
whether his own hand bones would shatter in the process.
…Residue ignored every thought surging through him, shifted into a full attack stance, and charged straight at the Half King.
*****
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