Chapter 14 "The Tale Reaches Schvir's Silence"
──Empire Tactical Research Institute.
The recorded footage had stopped.
After the tale's fire stopped the soldier's sword and touched the people's memories‚
Schvir Kaines was staring at the light of his terminal.
His fingers were moving‚ but his thoughts were elsewhere.
The tale had deviated from the structure.
The spirit field's reaction had exceeded the design's predictions.
The numbers fluctuated‚ and the command system fell silent.
Even so‚ the tale had reached them.
──Why does it reach?
Why does something outside the structure touch the spirit field?
A tale is not a command.
A tale touches memories.
That cannot be designed.
──Whose memory was that?
Before I entered the Empire.
I was in the city's research institute to study structures.
My father was an engineer.
My mother was a quiet person.
She often read poetry by the window.
"Words carry things that have no form."
She would say that as she turned the pages.
I didn't understand what it meant.
Things without form are not included in the structure.
So I ignored it.
──Was Mother telling a tale?
Was that a tale?
I fled into the structure.
I rejected ambiguous things like tales.
But now‚ the tale is reaching me.
From outside the structure‚ into the spirit field.
──A tale touches memories.
It cannot be expressed in equations.
Pain.
Loss.
Silence.
Those cannot be processed by the structure.
I believed in the structure.
The structure does not waver.
The structure obeys commands.
But a tale shakes the structure.
It stopped the soldier's sword.
It awakened the people's memories.
──I had rejected tales.
Because they resembled my mother's voice.
Because they were what I had left behind.
A tale rides the wind.
No one knows who it will reach.
But it did reach.
My silence.
──May I speak?
May I acknowledge what lies outside the structure?
May I remember my mother's words once more?
"Words carry things that have no form."
I feel like I understand the meaning a little now.
A tale carries things that have no form.
That is memory.
That is pain.
That is the fire deep within silence.
──I have designed structures.
But a tale cannot be designed.
A tale is a fluctuation.
A tale is a choice.
A tale is a fire lit within silence.
I closed the terminal.
My hand was trembling slightly.
The tale had reached my silence.
So I think.
Should I speak?
Should I remain silent?
That cannot be decided by the structure.
──Crimson Kingdom‚ Seat of Tales.
Yug Sarion was gazing into the distance.
The wind blew‚ and the lux on his shoulder swayed.
He sensed that the tale's fire had reached someone's silence.
(The tale has reached.
Not the structure‚ but memory.
Someone's silence.)
| The tale reaches Schvir's silence.
| The fire dwells in memory and transcends design.
| The spirits leave the equations and light up in the heart.
| Still‚ no one knows.
| That the day will come when this fire changes the world.
Chapter 15 "The Tale Reaches Leonis's Silence"
──Empire Tactical Research Institute.
The recorded footage had stopped.
After the tale's fire stopped the soldier's sword‚ touched the people's memories‚ and shook the structure designer's silence‚
Leonis Valgray was simply standing quietly.
With his arms crossed‚ staring at the afterglow of the footage‚ he remained silent.
The tale was like the wind.
It slipped through the steel structure‚ entered the gaps in commands‚ and touched the depths of memory.
It had reached his silence as well.
──Whose memory was that?
Before I entered the Empire.
Before I was called a "hero."
I was holding a sword.
To protect.
Someone.
Something.
──That "someone" is no longer here.
I lost them on the battlefield.
I couldn't protect them.
So I fell silent.
Words are more fragile than swords.
If I speak‚ I will crumble.
So I did not speak.
──A tale stops swords.
It reaches deeper than commands.
It touches memories.
It touches what I had sealed away.
Yug Sarion's tale exists outside the structure.
It is a fire that gazes at pain.
It is something spoken not for others‚ but for oneself.
──May I speak?
May I break my silence?
May I look once more at the memory of the one I couldn't protect?
That night‚ I was holding a sword.
The command had reached me.
The structure was operating.
But I couldn't move.
Right before my eyes‚ she fell.
I could not speak.
──If I speak‚ I will crumble.
That was my belief.
Silence was strength.
Speaking was weakness.
But Yug's tale was different.
It was something that shared pain.
It was a hope that it might reach someone.
──I want to try speaking.
Even though the words aren't formed yet.
Even though I'm still trembling.
Even so‚ I want to try speaking.
I want to send the fire deep within my silence riding on the wind.
A tale is not a command.
A tale is not a prayer.
A tale is the fire deep within silence.
──I am not a hero.
I am one who has kept silence.
But a tale shakes silence.
A tale touches memories.
A tale shakes my sword.
I closed my eyes.
Deep within them‚ memories from my childhood stirred.
The reason I held a sword.
The things I wanted to protect.
The tale had touched them.
──Crimson Kingdom‚ Seat of Tales.
Yug Sarion was gazing into the distance.
The wind blew‚ and the lux on his shoulder swayed.
He sensed that the tale's fire had reached someone's silence.
(The tale has reached.
Not the structure‚ but memory.
Someone's silence.)
| The tale reaches Leonis's silence.
| The fire dwells in memory and touches what could not be protected.
| The spirits do not choose the sword‚ but light up in the heart.
| Still‚ no one knows.
| That the day will come when this fire changes the world.
Chapter 16 "The Imitated Fire"
──Empire‚ Seventh Management District.
Karon Veis was the man who had been captivated by Yug's tale faster than anyone else.
He replayed the footage repeatedly‚ analyzing everything from the intonation of the words‚ the pauses in silence‚ to the swaying of the spirits.
And he became convinced.
"Speaking is a technique. It can be reproduced. For the Empire‚ for order."
He traced Yug's words with his own voice.
He traced the contours of pain‚ copied the shape of memories‚ and created a "form" of the tale.
It was words like fire.
But they held no heat.
"Suffering can be shared.
That is why we speak.
For the future of the Empire.
This voice is a light that protects order."
──Its resonance was hollow.
The spirits did not respond‚ the soldiers were bewildered‚ and the people did not listen.
The spirit field in the Seventh Management District showed an unnatural silence.
Commands did not pass‚ and the particles of light refused to sway.
Karon panicked.
"Why? The words were accurate.
The composition‚ the pauses‚ everything was calculated.
So why doesn't it reach?"
He shouted.
It was not anger‚ but impatience.
There was no memory within him that he needed to speak of.
There were no words that had passed through pain.
There was only imitation.
──Empire Tactical Research Institute.
Yug Sarion was quietly watching the recorded footage.
His tale had been imitated by someone.
But that voice did not ride the wind.
The spirits had seen through the core of the fire.
"Words only waver when they first touch someone's wound.
Mere resonance does not reach.
If the speaker does not pass through their own silence‚ the fire will not light."
Yug's voice was quiet.
But that quietness illuminated the emptiness of the imitation.
Milfi Elna closed her eyes while looking at the recording paper.
She knew.
To speak is to expose pain.
It is not something that can be composed.
It is a bare voice meant to touch someone's heart.
Schvir Kaines was staring at the numbers on his terminal.
The spirit field's rejection was a reaction outside the design.
For the first time‚ he acknowledged the fluctuation outside the equations.
"A copied voice cannot become a command.
Spirits respond to memories.
That is a domain that cannot be designed."
──Empire‚ Seventh Management District.
Karon Veis stood frozen in the silence.
His voice did not reach anyone.
His tale did not touch anyone's memory.
"I wanted to speak.
Like Yug.
To ride the wind and reach someone's heart.
But I had no reason to speak.
I had no pain to speak of."
──Crimson Kingdom‚ Seat of Tales.
Yug was gazing into the distance.
The lux on his shoulder swayed quietly.
He opened a poetry collection and chose his words.
"To speak is not for someone else.
It is an act to touch one's own silence.
Through pain‚ the fire is lit.
Whether that fire rides the wind is something the speaker cannot know.
But we must speak.
That is the essence of a tale."
──Empire Tactical Research Institute.
Three shadows were watching the tale's fire.
The imitated voice did not ride the wind.
But Yug's tale was reaching someone's silence.
| Chapter 16 "The Imitated Fire"
| The traced words were rejected by the spirits.
| A voice that has not passed through pain does not ride the wind.
| Fire is something that lights deep within memory.
| When it touches someone's silence‚ it wavers for the first time.
| Still‚ no one knows.
| That the day will come when this fire changes the world.
Chapter 17 "The Fire Touches the Shaking Field"
──Empire Tactical Research Institute.
Milfi Elna was looking at the spirit field reaction logs in the hushed recording room.
The numbers were in disarray‚ command transmission was delayed‚ and the structure's network was beginning to fray.
It was an unpredictable tremor.
But she understood.
Its epicenter was Yug Sarion's tale.
His voice had reached them on the wind.
It was not a command.
It was not an instruction.
It was a question that sympathized with someone's pain.
"To protect is not a command.
It is to take on someone's pain.
May I speak of that pain?"
──The spirit field responded.
Particles of light deviated from the command's trajectory and clung to the resonance of the tale.
The soldier's sword stopped‚ and the flow of tactics stalled.
It was not the collapse of the structure.
It was a fire that had touched the depths of order.
Milfi looked away from the recording paper and quietly exhaled.
The tale had reached the spirits.
It was a voice that shared pain.
It was not a command‚ but a call to memory.
(The spirits are responding.
To Yug's tale.
It cannot be explained by structure.
It is resonance.
It is an emotional tremor.)
She remembered the night she had once touched a tale.
The night she held her young brother and heard someone's voice in the wind.
That voice spoke of someone's pain.
It was like a prayer‚ like a song‚ and also like a mere soliloquy.
"When pain reaches someone‚ it becomes a little lighter.
So it's okay to speak.
Even if no one is listening‚ it's okay to speak."
──Those words were stirring now.
The spirits are responding to the tale.
The structure is shaking.
It might be a crisis.
But it might also be a necessary fluctuation.
Milfi recalled Yug's tale.
His voice was not for someone else‚ but to touch his own silence.
It was a fire lit through pain.
It was a fire that rode the wind and reached someone's heart.
(To speak is a responsibility.
It shakes the field.
It breaks the structure.
But if it reaches‚ then we must speak.)
She quietly murmured while watching the swaying of the spirit field.
"A tale touches someone's silence.
It reaches the spirits as well.
It exists outside the structure.
But if it is necessary‚ I will protect the tale."
──Crimson Kingdom‚ Seat of Tales.
Yug Sarion was standing in the wind.
The lux on his shoulder swayed quietly.
He felt the weight of speaking.
The tale had shaken the spirit field.
It was a power that destabilized the structure.
It was a fire that reached beyond commands.
"To speak is a choice.
It is to touch someone's memory.
It is to shake the field.
Even so‚ we must speak.
To reach the depths of silence."
──Empire‚ Sixth Tactical District.
The spirits had forgotten the commands.
They were listening to the tale.
It was not the collapse of the structure.
It was the beginning of redefinition.
Milfi closed the recording paper.
Her hand was trembling slightly.
The tale had reached the spirits.
The tale had shaken the field.
The tale was about to change the world.
| Chapter 17 "The Fire Touches the Shaking Field"
| The net of commands unraveled at the resonance of the tale.
| The spirits left the equations and responded to the voice.
| The fire touched the depths of the field and created fluctuation.
| When someone's silence rides the wind‚
| The world begins to change‚ just a little.
|