Chapter 08: "Elise the Guardian of Reason (Kotowari)"
A heavy bell resonance‚ as if gripping and shaking the internal organs directly‚ spread toward the depths of the chilled corridor.
Abandoning the library tower that had been a sanctuary‚ I stepped into the darkness ahead. My destination was the abyss of the temple‚ the heart of the kingdom. The afterglow of twilight that had been burning my retinas had long since vanished‚ and my field of vision had converged into complete monochrome. The curse of the 'Fourth Tier' that Sera had spoken of now stole unnecessary light from the world as naturally as breathing. With every step‚ the cold air transmitted from the stone floor pierced through the soles of my shoes‚ mercilessly suppressing the heat smoldering deep in my brain.
The clean scent of sandalwood unique to the temple stung my nasal cavity‚ but the stench of burnt ink rising from my fingertips crudely overwrote that inorganic peaceful aroma. The weight of the 'Blueprint of Rebellion' hidden in my bosom and the distorted medicine shell I received from Mina. Those were the only anchors keeping the cowardly observer who once called himself "background" tied to the bottom of this darkness.
Mina's faint footsteps should be following from behind‚ but to me now‚ even that was nothing more than distant noise.
(……Don’t make me laugh. My debut as an invader is walking through this lonely gray labyrinth. I was hoping for something flashier‚ like loud explosions with a red carpet laid out.)
While making a self-deprecating retort in my mind‚ I did not stop walking. My right hand‚ stained with ink‚ unconsciously fiddled with the blueprint in my bosom.
On both sides of the gray corridor‚ cruel ritual tools and bizarre divine statues meant to strip away humanity were probably lined up. However‚ my broken brain now rejected processing that scene as an error. The cold stone pillars were forcibly rewritten into old bookshelves—and in the gaps of that bug-filled scenery‚ an out-of-place color swayed.
——A blue ribbon.
It was Elina on that day‚ smiling by the window of the library tower with the spring sunlight filtering through. Even at this very moment‚ the real her was being ground down in the depths of the temple. Though I felt the illusion that her creaking was directly scraping my brain‚ my bugged vision could only selfishly continue projecting the phantom before my eyes.
Even though I knew it was a phantom‚ I suppressed the impulse to reach out toward that blue with a tightly clenched fist.
The poison I swore in the mud that night was now pulsing darkly at my fingertips. The old me who lived merely as a recorder had already been left behind in that tower. What existed here was only the madness that sought to smear the very reason of the world with mud‚ just to protect one girl's scream.
Passing through the heavy stone gate‚ I advanced through the corridor leading to the deepest part of the temple—the prayer altar. The act of "resisting‚" which I could only depict in delusions before‚ now filled my lungs with a skin-tearing sense of reality with every step I took.
At the end of the gray labyrinth awaited the merciless justice that sought to process Elina's heart into currency in order to maintain the kingdom's stagnant peace.
「……Just wait‚ 'correct answer' of the world.」
As if chasing the deep ink stains carved into the stone wall‚ I threw myself into the depths of the darkness.
At the farthest end of the cold corridor‚ that 'barrier' stood as if blocking the only path leading to the altar.
In the black-and-white silence‚ only her existence maintained an alien density. A woman with swaying silver hair wearing a deep navy robe—the Guardian who presided over the kingdom's reason‚ Elise.
The her reflected in my eyes was no longer a living human. Countless geometric magic formulas intricately intertwined‚ forming a collection of ruthlessly optimized law arrays. Just by her standing there‚ it created the illusion that the world's consistency was maintained while simultaneously shaving away the heart of the individual named Elina.
(……Good grief. For a final boss entrance‚ it's a performance sorely lacking in emotion. If only they played some flashy fanfare‚ my meager courage might have been a little more roused.)
Swallowing the sarcasm in my mind‚ I took a step on the heavy stone pavement. The clean sandalwood scent piercing my nose and the stench of burnt ink dripping from my own fingertips. The two opposing smells violently scattered sparks on an invisible boundary line.
「……Turn back‚ Louie. Your spiritual veins have already collapsed. You are not permitted to touch the established scripture of the canon with those ink-stained hands.」
Elise's voice rejected the intruder with a businesslike tone that completely eliminated any emotional inflection. An icy silence that felt like an ice blade pressed directly against the brain dominated the corridor.
「Sacred official history‚ huh. Don't make me laugh.」
I reached into my bosom and gripped the medicine shell tightly over my clothes. The distorted hardness transmitted to my fingertips was the only clue that dragged my gray perception back to the pain called reality.
「I know full well that while you all act merciful‚ in reality you are grinding down her heart. That refined medicine is not mercy to erase fear. It's just a hideous preservative that seals the scream of 'I want to live' with false euphoria and turns her into a convenient part.」
At the edge of my vision‚ the blue-ribboned Elina projected from the depths of memory swayed violently with intense noise. But I no longer had any leeway left to feel sentiment toward that sorrowful phantom.
Even when the blade of condemnation was thrust at her‚ Elise did not move a single eyebrow. The oppressive pressure of "reason" emanating from her entire body did not waver in the slightest.
「Individual emotions are nothing more than fatal noise that hinders stable prayer. By refining her single life into a perfect offering‚ the tomorrow of tens of thousands of citizens is promised. ……Do you intend to sink this entire country into a sea of blood just to save one girl's scream?」
「……っ」
「To liberate the shrine maiden from the fear of death and have her fulfill her role in absolute peace. That is the only justice that protects this country from a thousand years of stagnation—and it is 'mercy'.」
Elise's cold declaration was absorbed and disappeared into the heavy stone walls. All that remained was a silence so intense it hurt the ears.
Between the two facing each other. The ice-cold pure white holy energy flowing from the altar and the muddy black passion crawling from Louie's feet clashed violently‚ and the stone floor on the boundary line began to creak with screams.
At the edge of my vision‚ the geometric patterns of the law array symbolizing the kingdom's peace flickered violently as they detected an unpleasant anomaly.
The boy standing before me. His spiritual veins had already been torn to shreds‚ and muddy ink-like magical power overflowed from his vessel; he was in a state where it would be no exaggeration to call him a corpse. Only the deadly poison called obsession barely kept that body connected to this world.
「……Foolish. Just what are you seeing with those broken retinas?」
What is reflected in my eyes is only a gruesome and all too ridiculous reality. The stench of burnt ink polluting the clean temple air. And behind the boy—his black‚ stained fingertips stretched out with maddening affection toward an empty void where no one stood.
He could see it. The nonexistent phantom of that girl to whom we had given 'mercy' and who was right now having her human contours shaved away in the depths of the altar.
Precisely because I know that gruesome pain‚ I cannot deny this prescription called refined medicine.
For the shrine maiden ascending the altar‚ even the fear of death‚ attachments‚ and lingering regrets are nothing but deadly poisons that burn away the soul.
Yet the foolish tamperer before my eyes was trying to violate that cold reason with his own jet-black passion.
「……Those who move by emotion will always regret it.」
Behind the coldly spoken words‚ the echo of a frozen-soil-like memory I had sunk deep within myself resurfaced for just a moment. Back then‚ everyone had said the same thing. Without knowing what would come of prioritizing the heart and bending reason. The uncertain element called emotion was the most detestable distortion for maintaining this stagnant peace.
「The ego you write with those mud-stained hands is merely spilling ink onto the kingdom's official history and painting over a thousand years of peace. She is no longer an individual girl. She is a noble sacrifice to hold this country together.」
At the boy's feet‚ jet-black magical power swirled and eroded the sacred stone floor‚ visible to my retinas.
The iron logic I had constructed. I could no longer overlook this fatal distortion trying to trample it with muddy boots. Pure white formulas unfolded layer upon layer from the tip of the slender staff I raised‚ and the cold law array to crush individual screams completely enveloped the feet of the cornered invader.
Along with the unpleasant metallic sound of the gears of reason meshing together to lay down total silence—the absolute pure white that would completely evaporate the boy's ink caused the entire corridor to white out.
Pure white execution light like the gears of reason meshing rose from my feet. While taking that cold killing intent head-on‚ a dry laugh spilled from the depths of my throat.
「……Salvation‚ you say?」
Behind me‚ the blue-ribboned Elina projected in my brain swayed anxiously. Carrying that phantom on my back‚ I fully opened my analysis eyes and glared directly at the 'incarnation of reason' standing before me.
「Erasing fear and shaving away lingering regrets. If that's the mercy you speak of‚ to me it only looks like a 'polite murder' to shape the soul. ……Despair‚ terror‚ even that ugly scream crying out that she doesn't want to die—everything is her heart.
The pure light left after shaving all that away is nothing more than inorganic junk.」
「Impurity is a deadly poison that disrupts stable reason. Do you intend to drag that girl into the mud along with that poison and make her suffer again?」
For the first time‚ a faint hue of confusion mixed into Elise's eyes.
「Yeah‚ that's right. Poison is fine. ……Just watch. The truth that we background dwellers have clung to exists precisely in that mud you call 'noise to be eliminated'.」
I closed the distance by one step. The pure white law array burned my skin‚ but I stepped forward regardless. The sacred sandalwood scent filling the corridor mixed with the stench of burnt ink overflowing from my fingertips‚ stagnating in the inescapable heat.
Suddenly‚ my eyes were fixed on Elise's nape. The perfect guardian who presided over reason. A single bead of sweat slowly traced her white-porcelain-like slender throat and was sucked into the gap of her heavy navy robe. While she spoke inorganic‚ emotionless words‚ beneath that skin‚ an undeniable living pulse throbbed irregularly.
「……You're the same‚ aren't you.
Despite pretending to be such perfect reason‚ your throat is desperately struggling to breathe after being exposed to my poison.」
「……My bodily reactions mean nothing. Individual heat is unnecessary for the stability of causality.」
「No‚ it's very meaningful. That sweat of yours and your disturbed heartbeat look like lovable impurities to me. ……When Elina is being forcibly made to smile by the refined medicine‚ what she truly wanted wasn't such a beautiful miracle. ……It was something bitter‚ painful‚ yet still holding her to reality—a dirty 'poison' like me.」
Deep in my chest‚ muddy emotions like jealousy‚ obsession‚ and inferiority complex boiled as they assimilated with magical power. Saving the saint wasn't with righteous light like Kyle's. The one who could gather every last scrap of 'heart's residue' that light had discarded as unnecessary shadows‚ embrace it while covered in mud‚ was only me—this lump of impurity itself.
「……Not knowing how inorganic and cold she is right now‚ yet being feverish over a phantom's heat. With our definitions of salvation differing this much‚ you truly are the most dangerous 'distortion' for this world.」
Elise's words pierced my eardrums‚ carrying the cruelty of an invisible truth. The last remnants of humanity in her eyes dispersed‚ and once again the light of a cold law array resided within them.
「……Yeah‚ I'll become the highest-grade distortion. To paint over that official history you all so beautifully bound with my obsession.」
Silence fell heavily and sharply between the two of us. In a monochrome world that had lost all color‚ only the gleam of the sweat on her nape burned into my retinas as vivid proof of life.
Immediately after—.
GOOOOOOONG.
From the depths of the chilled corridor‚ the second heavy bell rang out‚ signaling the start of the real ritual. At that hideous resonance‚ Elise's expression—which had not broken her perfect reason—twisted faintly for the first time.
Chapter 08: "Elise‚ the Guardian of Reason (Kotowari)" Completed
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