“What should I decide on?”
Everyone was looking at me as if my decision would decide the fate of the world… Yep, that was indeed the truth. The decision I was currently facing would indeed decide the fate of all of Eich.
Apart from math test problems, it was rare that the world had absolutely correct answers. While every answer had its benefits, there would also be losses.
I had to make a choice…
At such a time when all eyes were upon me, being ambiguous would be impossible. I then made my choice.
Karwenz excitedly looked at me, as if he could already anticipate my answer.
“This is Hell, so let’s act according to Hell’s rules. Both Goddesses have obviously committed severe crimes, but there’s still differences…”
I did my best to come up with an answer that wouldn’t sound too biased.
“Back in my original world, intentionally murdering another would obviously lead to the death penalty, while accidental manslaughter would only result in being locked up for maybe seven or eight years. While both crimes obviously cause the same consequences, the core element that the law looks at is whether or not malice was involved in causing the other party’s death. Cynthia will almost certainly deserve a death sentence, but as for Astrya, let’s just lock her up for life. I shall take charge of locking her away until the end of the world.”
Karwenz didn’t even try to hide his disappointment. This wasn’t the answer he was hoping to hear at all.
“You trust her so much?”
“Yeah, I trust her… more than I trust you.”
While the judgement of the law was one element, that was merely a reference. This decision was really made with my own subjective opinion.
I trusted Astrya, which was why I hoped that she would be able to survive. As for whether this would cause trouble in the future? Back when I went down the wrong path, Adam and Margaret locked me up for over a hundred years. Now, in order to prevent Astrya from doing anything that would make us displeased, I could just lock her away.
“Since the Tower of Death for souls can be used to separate the soul from a physical body, of course it can also solidify and strengthen a soul. I can swear on my very soul that Astrya shall never receive her freedom from Hell.”
As for the Holy War possibly going out of control after Cynthia’s death? Even if she was alive, the Holy War would still go out of control. In order to finally end this Holy War and completely destroy the fated Armageddon that would decimate the world when the two Goddesses revived and clashed against each other, one of the two Creator Goddesses of Order and Chaos would absolutely have to die. And since I had decided to let Astrya survive, that naturally meant Cynthia would have to die.
While our Hell Faction would be neutral, we would still be slightly biased towards Order. This was the strategy that Ayer and I previously agreed upon.
As for our so-called Mother Cynthia? I acted as if I didn’t hear anything at all. My parents from my first life were still on Earth, and my parents in my life on Eich had died more than three centuries ago. If you really wanted to be technical, every single life in Eich stemmed from the Creator Goddesses, so weren’t all lives their children? It didn’t seem like the Goddesses had much motherly love at all.
They simply personally created us, yet gave us an endless amount of tragic fate. And once I thought of how my birth parents and the Mist Kingdom was destroyed because of Cynthia’s schemes, I didn’t feel even the slightest bit of pity for her.
Yet, Karwenz had a highly displeased expression and didn’t hide his dissatisfaction at all. He definitely didn’t want to hear this.
“Astrya is worthy of your trust? Did you forget what happened to the God of Holy Light? From a certain standpoint, Karolan even counts as our older brother, yet he was scammed by Astrya into becoming nothing more than a tool that abandoned his sense of self. Do you want to meet the same end as him?”
I chuckled upon hearing this. I was completely different from Karwenz at least in certain aspects.
“You think things will be easier for you if you push your own regrets and crimes onto others? I don’t have such a habit at all. Perhaps Astrya indeed tried to subconsciously influence me with her recommendations. However, the way I am and what I’ve done are all because of my own choices. Perhaps I’m still in pain and regret past disasters, but I’m not foolish enough to deny my own past. Nor am I weak enough to push responsibility onto others.”
I paused for a moment as past memories came to mind. Although most of my memories were painful, there wasn’t much to regret. Even if I did everything over again, I would probably do things the same way.
“My life was chosen for me by myself. I have eyes, hands, feet, and a brain. I know how to think and see things for myself. Even if others gave guidance and recommendations in my life, I still made the decision for myself based on my own heart. I don’t know what went on with Karolan back in his generation, nor do I want to know. At the very least, I believe that Astrya is trustworthy. She didn’t try to harm me. That’s enough for me.”
Well, I could come up with a million excuses here. The main reason was simply because I trusted her.
Astrya (my System) had accompanied me for more than three hundred years. She had always acted as a guide to assist me. When I started out as a Holy Knight, she acted as my Holy Knight System. When I fell into darkness, she gave me Evil Points. When I tried to distort Fate itself, she started giving me Fate Points. She wasn’t trying to control my fate at all. I was the one who was changing her.
I could even guess that perhaps she intentionally pretended to be my game System with no sense of self because she didn’t want to overly influence my own judgement. And, the only time she truly guided me was whenever I sought to become stronger. Not only that, Hell would have never been possible to complete without her assistance.
I could mostly guess at what must have happened in the past. From a certain standpoint, I had to thank Karwenz for existing. The Abyss Bloodline would naturally be attracted to the Chaos Abyss, with the Chaos Abyss constantly whispering into one’s ears. As Karolan was the child of the Abyss, he probably had to listen to several hours of demons’ mutterings every day and night. In the end, he probably couldn’t take it anymore and made such a decision to ascend to Godhood with no sense of self. It wasn’t strange at all. After all, countless others such as Elisa and Karwenz had also fallen into the Chaos Abyss due to their Abyss Bloodlines.
Yet I never heard the whispers of the Chaos Abyss—most likely because of Karwenz’s existence. He took the great majority of the Abyss Bloodline with him, along with attracting Cynthia’s attention. If my “System” had simply let Cynthia act as she pleased, then this random splitting of the soul into two halves wouldn’t have happened, and I would have likely been the same Roland from the so-called “game’s history”.
[…Thank you.]
After a long silence, Astrya finally thanked me. I knew that she wasn’t thanking me for not killing her, but rather for trusting in her.
“No need for thanks. Verbally expressed gratitude is completely useless and insincere, so remember to pay me with your body. Right, since that’s how things were, what was with those Daily Quests? I can understand that Myth-ranked Quests are like powerful karmic choices that can greatly influence fate, but those Daily Quests were so annoying and mundane. What would you gain from such Daily Quests?”
[Your very existence is capable of shattering Fate itself, and that power will only increase as time passes. As for those Daily Quests, didn’t you feel that they were really interesting and creative, excellent for passing time?]
I was immediately enraged and wanted to take back my trust in her which wasn’t much to begin with. She had actually made me suffer for several hundred years just for fun?
[It wasn’t just to make you suffer, although it was indeed quite amusing to watch… Cough, I’ll tell you something a little more reasonable. If I told you that you could constantly gain points without needing to do anything at all, wouldn’t you become as lazy as a pig? Wouldn’t you simply become a hermit that would never go outside? If you’re a hikikomori for too long, your mentality will become quite dark, really dark. Just look at your younger brother who’s before you. Isn’t he a great example?]
“I…”
Seeing how Karwenz was becoming more and more anxious, and also recalling the liches that had gone insane from being a hermit for too long, I suddenly felt like Astrya’s words really did sound reasonable. I was completely unable to counter this. Could it really be that Karwenz had been a hermit for far too long, having too little contact with others, becoming more and more isolated, and that this was the foundational reason for his strangeness?
“Shut up!”
Quite obviously, Karwenz’s anger was directed at the existence within himself. He kept pacing around while squeezing his own head. It was obvious that something was wrong with his condition. But since we had already brought everything to light and made it obvious that we intended to kill Cynthia here, there was probably a ruckus going on inside his head—although my head was rather quiet.
Karwenz clutched his right eye while lowering his head and panting loudly. Obviously, his condition was rather poor. I could see through his fingers that his right eye was filled with blood, and that the pupil had become vertical and filled with rage and killing intent. Karwenz also seemed to be suppressing a roar within his throat.
“Ha… Trust Astrya? You’ll regret this!”
“Heh, I won’t regret this at all. Have you ever seen me regret anything? If someone truly scams me, I’ll just admit that I was foolish and greedy, and then think of some method to take revenge. Regret won’t change anything at all. Regret can only bring pain upon oneself.”
I didn’t care at all despite how much killing intent Karwenz seemed to have. I shrugged, feeling that this was actually quite relaxing.
I wasn’t pretending to be calm at all. I was feeling even more relaxed inside than what I showed on the surface, as Karwenz’s most foundational desire in our negotiations was quite obvious—to kill off Cynthia so that the Chaos Abyss could be freed.
And since I had already agreed to this condition of his, we had already reached an accord. As for everything else such as Astrya’s death, it wouldn’t even be important to discuss these with him. I could just treat it as a chance to improve our brotherly relationship… and perhaps this would be our final chance to directly interact with each other.
“…My head is about to explode; this biatch 1 is insane! When are you going to start! Kill her already so that I can finally have a good night’s sleep!”
I shrugged helplessly as I wanted to do things quickly as well, but…
“Didn’t you want the Tower of Death to strip her soul from your body? This is a bit too difficult for me. Let’s wait for Ayer to wake up.”
The Four Pillars each had their own Concepts. They could automatically take care of normal affairs within their Concept, but something like stripping off the Goddess of Chaos’s soul wasn’t something that could be done through automation.
And if Ayer didn’t wake up? Then we would have to continue waiting. But I felt that with Ayer’s foundational strength, he was by far the likeliest to be the earliest Pillar God to wake up.
“…Actually, you can go out for some exercise, such as going to kill off that Sophocles the Deceiver. I think he’s really annoying. Won’t you also have one less competitor once the Chaos Abyss receives true freedom?”
Ha, I was delighted to have the opportunity to have such a powerful fighter working for me for free.
I fully thought that Karwenz would agree to this request of mine, since he was the impatient type and obviously needed an opponent to vent on right now. Nor would he simply sit by and watch another Chaos Main God come to save Cynthia right now. With his personality, he should have gone out there by himself. But instead, he actually calmed down after hearing my words.
Unexpectedly, Karwenz no longer seemed impatient at all. He actually walked over slowly to the side, suddenly waved his hand, and… that pot of fish soup suddenly appeared again.
He then took out a table and chair from somewhere and stood on the chair while stirring the fish soup with a large stirrer.
“I’m in no rush at all. Let’s just wait. This soup is almost ready, so how about some fresh fish soup? We probably won’t have any more opportunities to sit down and eat together after today. How about trying this fish tail and some juicy and tender fish meat? It’s just your type, and almost as large as you are.”