Chapter 309: Observation (1)
Chancellor Sullivan was quite upset.
There were several reasons for it.
The Magic Tower was a completely unfamiliar environment to her. She was summoned here as the representative of the empire, but she spent most of her time doing nothing.
It was the first time that she, as the chancellor of the empire, had been treated like an ‘outsider’ like this, so she couldn’t help but feel upset over that.
However, the biggest reason why she felt that way, was none other than...
...Why hasn’t that man asked for my help?!
With her cheeks all puffed up, Chancellor Sullivan tapped her folded arms with a displeased expression.
As expected from someone who always brought trouble around wherever he went, she could tell that all sorts of troubles were about to happen again around him.
But, the difference this time was the fact that she was completely outside of the course of those events.
...I don’t even know where that man went to and what he’s doing right now.
Lady Tristan, who was supposed to accompany her in this boredom, was called by Professor Astrid and hadn’t been coming out of her place for a few days.
Which left her all alone in their accommodation without anything to do but sulk for days.
“Chancellor!”
But that was the end of it.
Just right before she was about to drown in her depression again, Dowd had burst the door open and entered her room.
As her eyes widened, Dowd strode towards her and held her shoulders tightly.
“...Eh?”
Sullivan let out that voice, stunned.
She noticed the burning spirit in his eyes—the same look he often had whenever he was dead set on going through with one of his plans.
“Let’s become one!”
“...”
However, she couldn’t understand what the fuck he meant by those words.
She blinked her eyes, her face looked as if she was losing half her mind.
“...P-Pardon mee—?!”
And after she managed to realize the meaning behind his words, her face flushed in an instant.
Such words usually had an explicit meaning. Specifically, it meant sexual intercourse between a man and a woman—
...No, pull yourself together, Sullivan!
She barely managed to suppress her imagination that was about to go wild in her head before she closed her eyes and pressed her temples.
It’s him that we’re talking about. There’s no way he’d make such a request to a woman first no matter what...
“What do you mean by that—”
“I mean literally what I said. I want to become one with you!”
“...”
Sullivan took a deep breath.
Thanks to the data she had accumulated for years, she could throw him her next question that was filled with distrust.
“Can you please explain in detail?””
“...Have I not explained enough?”
“...”
What am I supposed to think of it if you think that’s all there is to it to your explanation?!
As she thought so, Dowd made a ‘Hm’ sound and continued in an annoyed manner.
As if he wondered if he had to even explain this.
“Uh, Chancellor, you regressed from the future, no?”
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“...”
Of course...
Though he brought such a topic up with such an attitude...
A topic that was like a landmine, that would require a deep understanding between the two of them, she wasn’t feeling upset at all.
“...”
Instead, she just stared at him with widened eyes.
Fortunately, this man was aware that bringing that topic out of the blue without any context or explanation wasn’t okay at all.
“You knew roughly where and how I’d be in danger of dying, and most of all...”
He continued before he embraced her tightly with no change in his expression.
“...!”
It happened so quickly, she hadn’t even recognized what was happening. She had no time to even show a sentimental reaction like blushing or being shy.
Actually, even if she had the time to, it would’ve been hard to feel something romantic from this.
Because she could feel ‘something’ that was sleeping inside her body reacted to the Seal on Dowd’s chest.
“...You feel that, don’t you?”
While embracing her tightly, Dowd continued with a bitter smile.
“It’s still there, although it has become very weak.”
She felt the ‘Devil’s Fragment’, that had lost its power forever as the price for going back in time, pulsating.
The ‘Yellow’ Devil.
The Devil whose presence wasn’t supposed to be able to be observed.
The Devil who had disappeared forever from the future after a certain ‘incident’.
“-Dowd.”
Sullivan called out, her voice trembled greatly.
The back of her head felt numb.
Of course, she wasn’t so conceited that she’d think he wouldn’t know anything about her ‘identity’.
“Chancellor.”
However...
She wondered, what it would feel like if, in this way...
“...In the ‘future’ you came from, what kind of relationship did we have, Chancellor?”
“...”
“Was it a relationship where we promised to see the end of each other together?”
In such a casual manner...
To touch the essence of the feelings she had for him.
“...”
Sullivan stayed silent for a while before pushing Dowd away from her as if shoving him away.
“...How—”
Before Sullivan could finish her words, she bit her own lip to stop herself.
Her mind had turned into a mess because all kinds of memories had resurfaced.
“Do you know something about Parallel Universe Theory?”
Sullivan continued, her head was hanging down.
“Countless universes might exist depending on the decisions we made from time to time. I’m not sure how it goes, but I remember that theory exists.”
She mentioned that theory, bringing up the possibility that someone from a different parallel universe came over to this one. An unthinkable possibility to many, even though all kinds of miracles and wonders prevailed in this world.
But, the thing here was...
There were beings powerful enough that could make such a thing possible.
The most powerful beings, deviated from the timelines and world lines.
Namely, the Devils.
“...I believe that we were in a special relationship in the ‘future’ where you came from, Chancellor.”
“-Just, how could you know such—”
Sullivan struggled to reply, but Dowd just let out an awkward smile before answering her.
“If you’re asking how I know these things... I just realized after ‘I became one’.”
Dowd felt that...
Ever since he could handle the Black Demonic Aura, he had come to understand the characteristics of the Aura quite well, even though he hadn’t yet reached the same status as the Devils.
This implied that he was close to the ‘truth’.
The identity of the ‘essence’ of the Devils, and its relation with the Vessels.
And this also meant...
“I can make a rough guess about what kind of sacrifices you made to come back from the future, Chancellor.”
Interfering with someone with a ‘determined future’ across timelines was something quite terrifying to do even for a Devil.
Which meant she would’ve made a huge sacrifice as a cost to use that ‘Authority’.
“...”
Sullivan stayed silent for a while before she managed to open her mouth again.
“-I don’t think this is a topic that we could finish talking about in a short conversation like this.”
“If you want it, I can talk with you about it for days. Too bad we don’t have enough time.”
Hearing that, Sullivan’s eyes widened a bit.
“...Is there anything urgent going on?”
“I mean, I barged in and asked you to become one with me without warning... So, yeah, there is.”
“...”
Right...
I haven’t heard the most important explanation yet!
What did he mean by becoming one with him in the first place?
“To explain that, I’ll have to ask you another dangerous question.”
“Pardon me?”
“Chancellor, can you tell me where your erogenous zone is?”
“...”
In any case...
Dowd really had the talent to twist someone around his finger.
●
“How many days has it been, Professor?”
“Three days.”
“...So she hasn’t been eating nor sleeping for three days in that state.”
Hearing what Alpha said, the steel giant, Astrid, sighed while folding her arms.
Before their eyes were Eleanor, who was sitting quietly in the middle of the room.
The room was filled with strange devices that one wouldn’t be able to tell what they were for just by seeing their appearance. Although, it was easy to tell that each of them were high-tech.
Her eyes were closed, seemingly concentrating on something.
“...Does it really work?”
“Hopefully.”
A few days ago, they had requested Eleanor to do something.
To observe ‘something’ they couldn’t see.
This whole room was a device that Astrid—a member of the Magic Tower, a place where only the greatest scholars of the world could enter—had made with all her might.
To put it simply, it was an ‘observation’ device.
As for what it was that one could observe with the device, it was the result of the ‘unselected’ possibilities that they could never observe normally.
“Do you know about the Parallel Universe Theory, Alpha?”
“You’ve talked about it countless times. It’s the theory that the world is divided into many unselected possibilities.”
“Yeah. I originally made this device to prove that theory...”
But now, said device had been remodeled here and there.
Into something that was similar to a conceptual machine that would allow one to not only observe something across the parallel universe, but also gain any ‘information’ related to that thing.
Astrid silently stared at Eleanor, who was quietly sitting upright.
This woman was the only person who had also noticed the strange thing about him, the strange fact Astrid herself had observed through this device.
“About my son... There’s something a little weird about him...”
Of course, even as his, Dowd Campbell’s parent, she also thought that he had been a little weird originally. But what Astrid was trying to imply was a bit more serious problem than that.
The ‘strange thing’ about him that she had found while looking into countless possibilities wasn’t something as simple as that.
“...He’s hiding something. It’s as if he used to be ‘someone else’ before he was born as my son.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No, he’s still my son even if he was born that way. Whatever happens, that fact won’t change.”
Astrid answered Alpha in a straight tone.
“...But my heart aches. As a parent, I can’t even help him since he’s hiding everything to himself without telling me anything.”
She let out a bitter smile before continuing.
“...Although, I wasn’t around him for a long time in the first place. We aren’t that close emotionally.”
That was the reason she requested Eleanor to ‘observe’ such things.
Because the closer someone was to the target, the easier it would be for them to observe the target’s ‘essence’.
Which meant that this woman was closer to Dowd than her, his own biological mother. A sad fact that Astrid couldn’t even bring herself to deny.
Hence why...
“She might be able to see it.”
Currently, Eleanor was wandering around inside a certain someone’s ‘memories’ through the device.
The memories of the man called Dowd Campbell, who were loved by all the Devils. All of the experiences he, the son of Armin Campbell and her, had.
...That’s not all...
Maybe, right now...
She was walking...
Through the past that he didn’t want to tell anyone about.
His past life before he became Dowd Campell, when he was still walking in another world.