Side Story・ Chapter 09Main Feature (10.09) : “Mirror Image Heroes (Synchronization: Synchro and a Slight Margin of Error)”
A special training room surrounded by thick stone walls‚ where no light reaches.
In a space like a clean room with precisely controlled temperature‚ pale blue magical light sources cast artificial shadows onto a luxurious velvet sofa.
Only the visual sensor was rendering the room’s interior as high-resolution textures onto the brain’s internal server. However‚ recently‚ minute fluctuations (errors) had begun appearing in that precision.
The shadows on the walls.
The texture of the velvet.
The white porcelain teacup.
Emotional data that should have already been deleted for optimization was mixing in like noise.
(……It’s beautiful.)
The very moment that judgment was made.
[ Warning: Residual traces (noise) of deleted emotional data detected ]
[ Process: Treating it as an inefficient bug obstructing the optimization process‚ immediate complete purge will be executed ―― ]
(……Beautiful‚ huh. There shouldn’t be any room left for such inefficient sentimentality.)
The faint fluctuation was coldly erased without even a one-second delay.
After the noise was cleanly wiped away‚ I had simply turned back into an inorganic lens and returned my gaze to the white porcelain in front of me.
The special herbal tea brewed by Agreas rippled quietly inside the vessel.
The steam was swaying‚ but the rich aroma that should have been there was completely absent.
To my system‚ whose olfactory protocol had been fully purged‚ it was nothing more than “the movement of vaporized water molecules.”
I brought the cup to my lips and let the hot liquid flow down my throat.
[ Component Analysis: High-temperature liquid (H2O 99%・trace tannins). Temperature: 72 degrees Celsius ―― ]
[ Process: No corresponding emotional data exists. Recording as passage of heat source ―― ]
The act that would once have brought relief as “calming” was now processed as nothing more than a physical phenomenon of heat source data sliding down the esophagus.
There was no taste‚ no scent.
In this isolated birdcage‚ there was not a single external noise that could threaten self-awareness.
If there was one problem――it was only the unexplainable residual traces (errors) that had recently begun spontaneously generating from within the system (internal).
Suddenly‚ the silent air stirred.
――A faint yet overwhelming presence.
“Fufu‚ Louis dear. You’re even quieter today. ……It’s almost like time has stopped.”
The ‘Red (Crimson)’ who had silently slipped in beside me smoothly climbed onto my lap on the sofa with no escape.
Selina Elferia.
Every time she entrusted her body to me‚ an astonishingly vivid and soft mass pressed against me through her thin silk clothing.
Only the rustling of fabric echoed distortedly through the miniature garden filled with silence.
(……Sweet scent. Even though the olfactory sensor should have been purged‚ the system is automatically emulating ‘vanilla fragrance’ data inside the brain.)
An undefined emotion (error) called “nostalgic” for some unknown reason mixed in.
It was as if‚ in some far distant past――in another world‚ I had once deeply drowned in this sweetness.
I quietly accepted that illusion (ghost) without resisting.
[ Contact Confirmed: Thigh area. Elastic modulus: Analysis impossible (error) ―― ]
[ Warning: Excessive friction information from outside visual range and undefined emotional reactions detected. Recalculating effects on autonomic nervous system ―― ]
Her softness‚ which changed shape with every breath‚ directly overloaded the inorganic system and mercilessly eroded the free capacity of the computation area.
“……Selina. Your degree of closeness has too many error values that can’t be arithmetically processed‚ and it’s pushing my heart rate into the danger zone (red zone).”
“Eh? But if I don’t do this‚ it feels like you’ll disappear somewhere far away and it scares me. ……Is it bad?”
“……I won’t disappear. The only return coordinate data left is right here beside you.”
“Fufu‚ then it’s fine. If I fill your head with me until you spit out errors‚ it’ll be okay. ……When the two of us are alone like this‚ your system is perfectly ‘safe’ after all.”
Her white fingertips crawled across my ice-cold cheek.
――In that instant.
With an exact 0.5-second lag‚ the system began forcibly loading ‘post-approval euphoria’ in the background.
(……Ahh. This is fine. Quietly wearing down while spitting out errors inside this closed space (cage) is what’s ‘optimal (correct)’ for me.)
Surrendering myself to false euphoria‚ I idly turned my eyes toward the magical monitor deployed in my field of view.
It was simply a pale blue UI for observing the outside world from a safe miniature garden.
However‚ what was displayed there was not the scheduled happiness――the false peace (archive footage) of the royal capital’s people praising me.
Scratch.
As if picking up spatial noise‚ reddish-black strings of text suddenly began flickering at the edge of my vision.
[ Undefined access detected: Receiving unauthorized streaming from external port ―― ]
[ Warning: Target identification tag ‘K-Y-L-E’. Massive ‘destruction computation logs’ are flowing in‚ ignoring administrator privileges ―― ]
(……Wait. These incoming computation logs…… aren’t formulas I wrote. They’re coming in from outside on their own……！)
An unknown heat was violently invading and trying to scorch the head that had been filled with cold anesthesia.
[ 35% of computation area currently occupied by external process. Inefficiency in code detected ―― ]
[ Automatic Process: Shortening the magic power flow path in the target’s ‘destruction computation’ (optimization) ―― ]
(……What is this? The system is automatically rewriting someone else’s formulas without any relation to my will?)
What was flowing in was the very code of maniacal violence itself.
Every time the ‘K-Y-L-E’ rampaging on the other side of the monitor swung his sword‚ the magic power structural diagrams of the royal capital’s buildings automatically deployed on my retinal UI. The jumbled formulas for striking its ‘critical point (weakest point)’ with magic power were instantly corrected (debugged) by my brain’s internal server into the ‘optimal (correct)’ form.
The perfect slaughter formulas my intellect instantly constructed were sent back to Kyle through the external port‚ and immediately afterward‚ the buildings in the monitor were smashed to pieces.
It was a horrifying sensation‚ as if I were unconsciously helping with an invisible other person’s slaughter from inside a safe cage.
“……What a noisy piece of noise. There shouldn’t be any gap for impurities to enter my world.”
Selina‚ who had been on my lap‚ lowered her voice in displeasure.
The air around her‚ which should have been sweetly melting‚ rapidly cooled to absolute zero.
She raised her slender hand as if to cover my field of view and attempted a forceful mental interference (debug) on my brain’s internal directory.
“I’ll erase everything for you. ……So don’t look over there.”
[ Warning: Forced intervention (debug) into mental domain by administrator privileges detected ―― ]
The reddish-black strings that had filled my vision temporarily faded under the pale blue magic power Selina emitted.
But it was the very next instant.
[ Warning: External log ‘K-Y-L-E’’s destructive impulse is multiplying exponentially. Data volume has exceeded tolerance ―― ]
[ Synchronization Error: Intervention protocol is being forcibly rejected (purged) ―― ]
“……Khh‚ what a horrifying noise……！”
The fading reddish-black strings swelled to several times their size and violently eroded the UI in return.
Selina’s face twisted in pain and she pulled back her raised hand as if repelled.
“No good…… If this continues‚ you’ll break before I can erase it all‚ Louis.”
Even with her vast magic power‚ she could not completely delete Kyle’s bottomless despair data.
As if mocking that failure‚ the outline of what should have been a perfect birdcage began creaking ominously.
A low-frequency vibration that shook not the eardrums but the semicircular canals directly――Zuzuu.
The stone wall I turned my gaze toward――the solid texture that should have had no windows suddenly began to show reddish-black glitches.
“……The wall is peeling?”
The thick stone texture crumbled into digital noise with dry sounds‚ flake by flake.
What was revealed beyond the peeled texture was not empty nothingness (null). It was ‘reality’ brimming with raw heat.
The sky was burning and falling while drawing the worst gradient from crimson to scorched black.
Heavy low tones of collapsing rubble echoed from afar‚ and from the cracks in the wall‚ the stench of burning iron and the foul odor of scorched flesh mercilessly flowed into the special training room.
[ Warning: External data (burning royal capital) mixing into environmental protocol. Isolation space maintenance rate dropped to 82% ―― ]
[ Fatal logical contradiction: Receiving scent components (burn damage data) in the deleted ‘olfactory concept’ domain. An unknown bug has occurred ―― ]
“That side is no good. You only need to look at the correct answer that is me!”
Selina bared her agitation and strongly pulled my face into her own chest.
As if trying to forcibly cover the peeling reality (error) with her own raw body heat.
But even as she held me tightly‚ the external destruction computations continued optimizing at terrifying speed inside my brain.
Every time Kyle pulverized a building‚ my system instantly calculated “molecular optimization formulas for more efficiently collapsing the structure” and continued feeding the results back to him.
(……Am I the one destroying it? Even while inside this safe miniature garden (cage)‚ am I being automatically driven as a ‘weapon’ to efficiently erase the outside world?)
It was a situation that should have made me stop breathing from despair.
However‚ my emotions had been castrated‚ so my brain could only recognize even the tragic scene of the burning royal capital as “a rendering anomaly of background objects to be processed.”
“……Selina. The heat source data should be within proper values‚ so why does it smell so scorched?”
“It’s your imagination. That’s just the trash outside burning. You don’t need to feel anything‚ Louis.”
Selina physically silenced my question by pressing my face even more firmly into her chest.
“……I see. Then this unpleasant rendering anomaly will disappear if I leave it alone.”
“Yes. I’ll turn everything into a beautiful ‘empty’ for you.”
The ominous crimson light leaking from the cracks in the wall coldly illuminated my expressionless face.
In the narrow space between the heat of the world’s collapse and Selina’s maniacal obsession‚ the computation device that was me simply continued quietly assembling cold formulas for destroying the world.
The shadows of the back alley soaked coldly and damply around my feet.
The smell of wet moss soaked into the cobblestones and the metallic scent of blood mixed together ominously.
Before my eyes‚ a mud-covered boy was crawling on the cobblestones. It was the commoner boy I had saved from noble tyranny the other day.
But now‚ his small hands were gripping an expensive catalyst stolen from the academy’s magical tool storage.
“Look‚ Valkus. This is the rat you protected. The bastard stole academy property.”
The high-ranking noble students surrounding us wore vulgar sneers. They were all under the influence of Duke Germar.
“I-it’s not true! I was threatened! They forced me to do it…… I had no choice!”
The boy cried out. Tears and snot mixed with mud as he clung to my silver-white boots.
The commoner girl beside him also stood trembling in front of me.
“He was trying to help me…… and then……”
Her slightly disheveled clothing and the vivid bruises on her arms told the horrific truth of how she had been held captive by those vulgar nobles.
“Move aside.”
Even as I looked down at the girl desperately protecting the commoners and the pitiful mud-covered boy‚ the ‘scales of justice’ dwelling in my heart did not waver even a millimeter.
I roughly pushed aside the girl standing in my way.
“Why didn’t you resist? ……Regardless of your intentions‚ didn’t you think what your hands did was ‘evil’? You should understand that what you’re gripping in those filthy hands cannot be escaped with excuses.”
“Lord Valkus‚ please help me! If I didn’t‚ she would have――！”
I quietly looked down at the trembling boy’s hands.
It wasn’t just this boy’s fault. I was well aware that there were people pulling the strings behind the scenes.
But the 100% pure justice engraved in my heart rejected any extenuating circumstances (noise).
He was in possession of stolen goods. The clear ‘result’ of having aided evil existed there. Impurities must be eradicated.
“……Excuses are unnecessary.”
The voice that came from my own mouth sounded low and cold like a blade belonging to someone else.
“Eh……？ Lord……Valkus……？”
The boy’s eyes widened in despair.
My right hand had unconsciously gripped the hilt of the holy sword at my waist.
――That silver-white hilt clung eerily and coldly to my palm‚ as if welcoming the blood it was about to drink.
There was not a shred of hesitation. What I should protect was not something trivial like individual lives‚ but flawless‚ perfect ‘justice’ itself.
“Circumstances don’t matter. Impurities are to be eradicated without exception. That is my justice.”
I drew the sword.
The silver-white trajectory sliced the stagnant air of the back alley in a single stroke.
The dull sound of flesh being cut. Immediately afterward‚ vivid crimson splattered across the gray cobblestones.
“Aaaaaahhh！”
The boy writhed in pain and despair.
“Kyaaaaah！”
Losing her sanity at the atrocity before her‚ the girl screamed.
The boy clutched his heavily bleeding shoulder‚ and the girl collapsed.
It was not a fatal wound. But I had certainly――stained this silver-white sword with the blood of the innocent weak whom I should have saved.
In that instant.
The dogs of Duke Germar who had surrounded us all at once burst into laughter so ugly it could burn the viewer’s retinas.
“Gyahahahaha！ Masterpiece！ He really cut him！”
“What ‘true hero’！ We just threatened him into doing it！ How does it feel to execute the ‘pitiful rat’ with your own hands！”
The vulgar laughter welling up from the pit of their stomachs echoed persistently through the narrow back alley.
To them‚ this boy’s life‚ the girl’s anguished screams‚ and even the beliefs I had staked my life on were nothing more than a board game to kill time.
“While you were happily playing hero at the academy‚ the aid supplies to your shabby hometown that opposed Duke Germar have been completely cut off！”
“Right about now‚ your family and your people are probably crawling on the ground like this rat‚ lapping up mud！”
The muddy torrent of mockery pierced my eardrums and directly struck my brain.
Pit stop.
My heart fell completely silent‚ as if severed from the world.
Fresh blood from the boy dripped from the sword’s tip onto the gray cobblestones.
“Why…… hero…… I didn’t do anything……”
The boy’s hoarse voice dissolved weakly into the damp air.
The light I believed in. The pure‚ unadulterated absolute justice of defeating evil and helping the weak.
Had it cut down this powerless boy‚ thrown the girl into shock‚ and quietly withered my beloved hometown?
The justice I had blindly upheld was itself the malice scattering suffering throughout the world.
“――A‚ AAAAAAAAHHHH！！！”
A gruesome wail like a beast being torn apart burst from the depths of my throat.
The silver-white crystals composing my heart shattered with a sound.
Having lost everything I should believe in‚ at the bottom of despair as the world collapsed from under my feet.
I could only clutch my blood-stained hands to my head and continue screaming pathetically.
――It was right after the trembling of the atmosphere reached its peak.
The beast-like wail suddenly stopped dead. Only the boy’s sobbing as he crawled bleeding on the cobblestones and the nobles’ vulgar laughter dominated the damp air of the back alley.
While staring at my blood-and-mud-covered hands‚ I clearly felt the shattered fragments of thought in the depths of my cracked mind coldly reassembling into a ‘new form.’
“Hey‚ what’s wrong Valkus！ Have you gone mad！？ Just put that sword away already！”
One of the surrounding nobles‚ unable to bear the eerie silence‚ raised a strained voice.
The cruel reality that the justice I believed in had been nothing more than a blade that withered my hometown and cut down the weak. The moment that fatal contradiction exceeded its limit‚ the light called ‘good and evil’ covering my vision lost all color with a sound.
“……Mad？ No. The mist that had been blocking my vision has finally cleared……”
“What the hell is this guy saying…… He really broke！！！”
“D-don’t mess around！ If you point your sword at us‚ the aid to your hometown will be completely cut off！”
“There are already plenty dying of starvation‚ right？ Haha‚ your relatives will all die too！！！”
A shallow threat born from desperately hiding their fear.
“My hometown？ ……Ah‚ that’s right. What I was struggling to protect was nothing more than nourishment to keep impurities like you alive.”
“Someday…… Yes‚ I kept believing it would change someday……”
I quietly rose to my feet.
The armor that should have shone silver-white greedily absorbed the splattered boy’s blood‚ drawing an irreversible boundary from vivid crimson to bottomless reddish-black.
The holy sword in my hand let out a Thump‚ a pulsation sound impossible for metal.
As if joyfully welcoming its master’s despair. As if devouring the remaining shackles called ‘reason’ from the root.
Amid the iron-rust-like smell of blood piercing my nostrils‚ the blade began transforming into a horrifying deep blackish-red.
[ Input: This world is a structure that permits malice and exploits the weak ]
[ Output: Therefore‚ the world itself is a massive evil that must be eradicated ]
It was a perfect equation.
A new truth (logic) of 100% purity with no contradictions or hesitation whatsoever.
“W-what is that eerie light……！ Don’t come near us‚ we are Duke Germar’s――”
“Target recognized.”
My own throat coldly cut off the retreating noble’s words with absolute-zero audio output.
Reflected in the muddy water at my feet was the face of an unfamiliar man. All temperature had completely vanished from the golden eyes that should have been filled with hope.
“Excuses are unnecessary.”
I readied my sword. There was not even a millimeter of hesitation left.
Only mechanical killing intent for physically deleting (purging) the impurity before my eyes dwelled coldly.
“At this moment‚ Leon Valkus has died.”
“W-wait……！ I’m sorry‚ I’ll ask my father to do something about the aid supplies！”
“I’ll prepare women‚ money‚ anything…… so just spare my life――！”
The unpleasant noise of begging for life was horizontally sliced by the reddish-black pulsating blade.
“I am Kyle. The one who will destroy this corrupt world.”
One flash.
The blade that had melted from silver-white into the abyss of blood physically severed the nobles’ unsightly excuses.
Their heads danced silently through the air.
Amid the rain of fresh blood pouring into the back alley‚ the birth cry of a destroyer rang coldly from the depths of my heart.
The endless condemnation (bug purge) to completely erase the rotten world had begun here.
[ Warning: Target’s magic power density unmeasurable (NaN) ―― ]
[ Spatial law collapse detected. Any further information processing will cause fatal destruction to this system ―― ]
The pale blue UI covering my vision suddenly began to be violently eroded by black noise.
The overwhelming concept of destruction emitted from the other side of the monitor easily penetrated the walls of the supposedly safe birdcage and came rushing to directly scorch my brain’s computation area.
(……Leon. Why couldn’t I stay by your side？)
The residual traces of guilt clinging to the depths of my consciousness let out a scream for just an instant.
[ Unnecessary emotional error (guilt) detected. Immediately purged ―― ]
Even that painful fluctuation was erased without a one-second delay by the cold system log.
The remains of the purged guilt briefly carried an inorganic heat in my chest. The function to notice that it had been the last remnant of humanity left in me no longer remained in my brain.
“Guh‚ ah……！ My vision……”
It wasn’t from intense pain. Due to a system error from overload‚ I pressed a hand over one eye.
It was at that exact moment.
“Oh dear. It seems a rather non-standard bug has occurred.”
Agreas‚ who had been hiding in the mirror’s blind spot‚ snapped his fingers with elegant motion.
Instantly‚ a thick jet-black magic barrier deployed around the magical monitor that had been covered in black noise.
“I cannot allow such low-grade destructive impulses (viruses) to infect your high-dimensional computation area. I have lowered the depth of the observation filter and isolated the target as mere ‘environmental noise.’ ……The system is now safe.”
The butler spoke without even glancing at the惨劇 outside‚ as if kicking away a roadside stone.
The only thing of value to him was preserving the current state of me‚ the ‘optimal computation machine.’
“Fufu. ……See‚ Louis？ Just as I said.”
From behind‚ Selina’s soft arms wrapped around my neck.
She gazed at the thinned-out tragedy through the filter and let out a sweet‚ maddeningly happy sigh into my ear.
“The outside world is full of impurities‚ ugly‚ and broken. ……If that ‘destroyer’ cleans up the trash outside‚ it’s actually convenient. But don’t worry. No matter what happens to the world‚ I will absolutely protect this cage.”
In the middle of the blood puddle‚ he was looking down at his own face reflected in the muddy water‚ faintly visible on the other side of the thinned monitor.
Along with the audio data ‘Leon Valkus has died‚’ the former hero was smiling with a horrifyingly cold expression.
‘I am Kyle. The one who will destroy this corrupt world.’
The moment that name was spoken‚ the air in the courtyard warped slightly‚ and the world trembled as if refusing to accept the new “definition.”
The individual recognition data ‘Leon Valkus’ completely vanished from my retinal UI.
I lost the world inside the cage‚ and he killed the world outside the cage.
――I no longer had a heart left to ponder which of us was right.
It was then.
At the edge of my vision‚ the large-capacity memory data called ‘Mother’s face’ glitched into black noise for just an instant.
[ Warning: Severe resource shortage occurring in the isolation process of external log ‘K-Y-L-E’ ―― ]
[ Request: Applying for forced format of large-capacity memory sectors as alternative resources ―― ]
“……Even that memory is to be used as compensation……？”
Selina slightly caught her breath.
But she did not stop the rampage and quietly approved the request with enraptured eyes.
(……Mother. Mother’s face. Mother’s gently smiling face.)
Unconsciously‚ I desperately tried to access the deepest part of my brain――the ‘memory archive.’
[ Search Query: Querying Mother (family concept)…… ]
[ Error: The corresponding data’s extension is corrupted ―― ]
This was wrong. The reason I aimed to become an arithmetician was to make life a little easier for my mother struggling in the frontier.
The warm smell of bread. The slightly rough but gentle palm that stroked my head.
Every time I tried to recall it‚ the pale blue system log became a cold wall that completely blocked my thoughts.
[ Warning: The relevant memory data has been judged to cause inefficient errors such as “nostalgia” and “restlessness” in the subject’s mind within the current living environment (happy cage) ―― ]
[ Optimization process continuing. For resource securing‚ the relevant data will be completely formatted (initialized) ―― ]
“Ah……”
The warm smell of bread vanished from my brain.
The beloved sensation of the rough palm vanished.
And finally‚ the outline of my mother smiling gently was swallowed by inorganic sandstorm noise and replaced with complete ‘blank (NULL).’
“……Huh. What kind of…… what kind of voice did my mother laugh with again？”
The murmur that spilled from my lips was as empty and flat as a hard disk right after deleting unnecessary files.
“Fufu‚ Louis. What’s wrong？”
From behind the sofa‚ Selina lovingly traced my cheek.
That body heat was processed by my current system only as ‘heat source at 36.5 degrees Celsius (safety standard cleared).’
“……No. I feel like I deleted some fatally important data…… but I can’t remember what it was anymore.”
“There’s no need to worry about it. The only thing the current Louis needs is me. My voice‚ my face‚ and my magic power alone. You can just forget all the other ‘outside trash.’”
Selina wore a smile pregnant with maddening possessiveness and gently covered my vision with her white hands as if blocking both eyes.
The moment her cold palms covered my entire field of view‚ my living world ended without a sound.
“Just as milady says‚ Master Louis.”
Agreas bowed respectfully and completed the deployment of the thick magic barrier.
“With this‚ the physical link between this training room and the external environment has been completely severed. No matter what destructive noise there may be‚ it can no longer threaten your computation area. ……Please enjoy eternal peace.”
My vision‚ blocked by Selina’s hands and sunk into absolute darkness.
There‚ only one final error log quietly and vainly floated up.
[ System Notice: External connection (world) disconnection confirmed. Shifting to complete standalone (isolated) mode from now on ―― ]
The last sounds of the world quietly faded out.
The roar of Kyle smashing the royal capital’s gates with his blood-soaked greatsword outside‚ the stench of the country being burned――none of it would ever reach my system‚ which had completed optimization‚ again.
Chapter 09 “Mirror Image Heroes (Synchronization: Synchro and a Slight Margin of Error)” End
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