Atlas, my quarters.
Once they heard the operation situation, the people here also moved to head for Taevan.
Ludovic went in the lead, since he already knew the location.
Of course, with Pielot slung on his back, sound asleep.
Vasileo asked,
"......Will this guy wake up before we arrive?"
"We’ll have to hope so."
Ludovic answered, but he didn’t look all that worried.
If anything, Ludovic was more worried about the ones following behind.
"Vasileo, are you really okay? What if your mana’s all gone by the time we get there?"
Right now Vasileo was following Ludovic by Flight magic.
That part wasn’t a big problem, but behind him, Aias and Glaukos were also flying through the sky.
Those two originally didn’t know Flight magic at all. Vasileo had done multiple casting.
"It’s fine. I reserved it ahead of time, so I already filled up the mana for activation just before. I can’t help the mana I’m using while we’re actually flying, though."
"Reserved it? Huh."
Ludovic looked at Vasileo in admiration.
In Palind, where high-speed chanting was popular, reservations were actually rarer. Anyone could raise their chanting speed to a certain degree with enough effort, but reservation depended entirely on talent. Reservation couldn’t be trained in an institution that taught large numbers of students. It was the same for Atlas and Constel.
Of course, to do high-speed chanting on Elodie’s level you obviously needed talent too.
Aias, coming from behind, asked,
"So then the ones left behind right now are Mister Gregory and Mister Arald? I get why Mister Gregory stayed, but why is Mister Arald staying?"
Aias and Glaukos still didn’t know much about the people in my group. They hadn’t had the time.
But judging from the situation, Gregory’s role was obvious. The only means of communication with that faraway continent. The only reason they could head for Taevan like this was thanks to Gregory.
But it was unclear what Arald’s role was.
"Isn’t that person maybe not a combatant?"
Glaukos asked, and
"......They looked really strong, though."
Aias muttered, tilting their head.
Vasileo answered them.
"I don’t really know either, but they said they had to calculate something."
"Calculate?"
"Calculate what?"
"I told you, I don’t really know. Frondier-sunbae asked them to stay behind. That’s all I heard."
"Hmm......."
Aias wore a pensive expression, but didn’t ask any further. It really did seem like Vasileo didn’t know more than that.
"But you know."
This time Ludovic opened his mouth.
"Is that kid okay?"
"Who?"
"You know. That, what’s-the-name. The little brat Frondier’s keeping with him."
"Ah, Mei."
Vasileo nodded like he understood.
"Mei is watching the house."
"Who’s Mei?"
Aias asked.
"There’s one young girl. She’s at Elodie-sunbae’s house right now. Frondier-sunbae and Elodie-sunbae take turns looking after her."
"Whoa, is she Teacher Frondier’s daughter?"
"Well. It’s something like that."
Vasileo answered with only the rough meaning. In truth, he’d only heard about it too, so he didn’t really know.
"Is it really okay for that kid to just be watching the house? You two might not know, but in the last war, that kid, uh, played quite an amazing part."
Ludovic knew Mei’s true identity. He was also one of the Zodiacs who had witnessed the demons pouring out of the imperial palace back in the past.
Of course, he hadn’t known that the main culprit of that incident, “Metamorph’s Calamity,” was in Frondier’s hands.
At least, not until right before the Manggot war.
When he reviewed the situation after the war ended, he’d figured it out quickly. At the time, all he’d thought was that Frondier was doing something incredibly dangerous.
......No, maybe that hasn’t changed much even now.
Metamorph’s Calamity, Mei was capable of high-speed learning. Truly beyond the scope of a human.
If Mei were to take in the entirety of this war with those eyes and learn it, what Mei would become as a result was something no one could know.
"Sunbae said this. If Mei herself doesn’t try to do anything, just leave her alone."
"Frondier again, huh."
Ludovic let out a hollow breath. Frondier really was sticking his nose in everywhere.
But knowing that, strangely enough, made his unease disappear.
Mei still didn’t have a clear sense of good and evil. Strictly speaking, Mei wasn’t human, so in the end no one knew if she would end up on humanity’s side. Rather than leaning on that kind of uncertainty, it was probably a judgment that it was better to leave her be.
Ludovic asked,
"Then why is Frondier keeping Mei with him? He understands better than anyone how dangerous she is."
***
Frondier’s eyes flinched and trembled.
"If you’d confirmed that curse worked on Elodie, what were you planning to do?"
"Wh-what do you mean, what was I going to do. Nothing in particular."
"You bastard, you weren’t planning to use it on Angfer too, were you......!"
"N-no!!"
Frondier shouted as he stepped back.
"What kind of bullshit are you spouting! He’s my father! I didn’t have even the slightest thought of......!"
"Frondier."
That was when Atjie spoke.
"When I fought Thanatos, that bastard said this. The souls that end up going to Tartarus are selected in advance. Because of a being called the Moirai. The goddesses who can observe the future already know what sins souls will commit. So they knew your sin from the very beginning too."
At Atjie’s words, Frondier’s face went pale.
"S-so you already know. You already know what sin I committed."
"Yeah, I know."
Then Atjie fixed a cold gaze on Frondier.
"I just wanted to see how you would talk about it."
"A-ah......!"
Thud.
Frondier collapsed where he was.
I asked him,
"So you really were going to do it to Angfer?"
"......Ha."
Frondier let out a hollow laugh with his head bowed.
"That bastard Angfer."
A clearly changed voice.
Soon he lifted his head and turned eyes full of rage on me.
"You’re really naive. To think it was just Angfer!"
"......It wasn’t just Angfer."
"I was ready to curse every single person around me! Anyone with power! Whether it was Angfer or Atjie or whoever, it was all the same! I’d finished getting ready to turn it on the people in Constel too!"
Frondier’s voice was crazed.
My eyes cooled.
As expected, this bastard was exactly what I’d judged him to be at the start.
Frondier de Roach was nothing more than a villain.
"What exactly does that curse do?"
"You can tell from Elodie."
Frondier said,
"That magic stimulates a person’s weak points. The gaps in their heart, their guilt, the past mistakes and wrongs they want to avert their eyes from but have no choice but to face, the inherent evil they haven’t been forgiven for and can’t forgive in themselves. It drags all of that, which they’d stuffed away in a corner of their heart, right back in front of their eyes."
"Is that all?"
"That’s plenty. After that, they go on and inflate the evil in front of their eyes on their own. That becomes their trauma. Humans can punish other people’s evil, but they can’t do that to themselves. Because that evil is also part of themselves. A person’s true nature is hard to divide into good and evil in the first place. But people always believe their own evil deeds are because their true nature is evil."
Whether it was Elodie, or Angfer.
Their natures weren’t evil. From what I’d seen, it was actually extremely hard to find any such side to them.
But no one could be perfect. So they regret things. When things don’t turn out well, when they make mistakes. Things that, depending on the viewpoint, could be called evil deeds.
But even when those weren’t born of malice, people don’t think that way. They assume it’s because they’re evil at their core.
Frondier’s curse shoved that straight in their face. In Elodie’s case, the past of how she’d treated Frondier would have always been right before her eyes. A curse where, even if she tried to forget, even if she tried to push it out of her awareness, it would keep surfacing in front of her.
That was what Frondier had done.
"......Well."
Frondier gave a short laugh.
"In the end it was all pointless because my body got taken over so suddenly."
"......So even you never managed to confirm whether the curse you put on Elodie really took effect."
"Yeah. If I’d just confirmed that, I could’ve given the others an even more certain curse. I was all set to turn them into cripples who couldn’t use divine power or anything else at all."
I looked at Campe.
"So he came to Tartarus despite not having committed the sin yet?"
"Like I said before, that bastard didn’t die properly. That’s why he’s been stuck here in front of this place for years. But having a soul leave the body without going through the process of death is an irregular. Not some tiny mistake, but an irregular on the level of the entire world."
Campe’s eyes flashed with killing intent as they looked at Frondier.
"Now that the bastard’s admitted it himself, I can say this, but if his soul hadn’t slipped out, he would’ve undoubtedly used that curse. This is something the Moirai had already predicted, and something that bastard himself would admit. It’s a filthy curse that tramples on the minds of both the god who granted divine power and the human who received it. Of course it’s a grave sin. Rather, he stopped before doing it and didn’t go straight to Tartarus. He should consider that luck."
"......"
Maybe.
Maybe when I played the game, most of the characters I saw had already been cursed by this bastard?
The Roach family didn’t appear often in the game, but even Atjie and Angfer, already?
All those countless game overs I’d seen. Had Frondier had no small influence on them?
"......Ha."
I closed my eyes.
Calm down.
That was enough. I’d learned more than enough why Frondier was here.
Now I had to do what I needed to do.
I looked at Atjie.
"Atjie."
I took a step toward him. I called Atjie by his name, when I’d always called him hyung-nim.
It was the natural thing to do, yet it felt so incredibly awkward.
And Atjie stepped back.
"Don’t come near me."
"......"
"I can’t accept you."
Atjie clearly rejected me.
"From the day Frondier was born until now. For a long time, I’ve watched Frondier."
I’d only met Atjie in the last three years.
But Atjie had watched Frondier for well over ten years.
Then his younger brother had suddenly changed, and he’d only learned that three years later.
"My heart isn’t big enough to tolerate you."
Of course not.
Right now Atjie must be shaking with a sense of betrayal toward me.
Since I knew that, I could say this.
"Yeah, that’s fine. That’s not what matters right now."
"......What did you say?"
"As you know, we’re at war with the gods right now. Humanity needs you, Atjie."
"......"
"I feel the same way. I have no intention of playing at some kind of friendship game."
Normally it would’ve been simpler.
If I hadn’t met Frondier here.
I wouldn’t be talking to Atjie like this.
Why did I have to be wearing this face?
Why did it turn out this way.
"You might not believe me, but."
I had only,
"I came to save you."
those words.
I let them out feeling utterly like shit.
"......You did something dangerous. Stepping into a world like this."
Atjie looked at me with a stern gaze.
There was no joy that someone had come to save him, but rather.
......His tone sounded like he was worrying about me.
"I fought Thanatos and lost. That’s why I died."
"I don’t care anymore."
I shook my head.
Whether Atjie had really died or not.
Whether Atjie wanted to be brought back or not.
"I’m just going to do what I want."
I was going to save Atjie.
I’d decided that.
The one who cut in on my words was Campe.
"Like I said before, you can’t."
I looked at Campe and said,
"Atjie’s not dead."
"No. Once a soul gets here, as far as I’m concerned, they’re all dead. No exceptions."
"Because that’s the rule?"
"That’s right."
Campe nodded.
So.
"Got it."
I nodded too.
"......Huh?"
Campe looked at me and asked back.
Their face was extremely uneasy. Like my answer had given them a bad feeling.
If so, they had excellent instincts.
"Campe."
I looked at them and asked,
"Where’s Thanatos?"
"What did you say?"
"Thanatos’s Ecleksis forcibly dragged the opposing soul here, so it’s bound to that rule, right."
"......You bastard. Don’t tell me you’re planning to kill Thanatos °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° and erase that rule?"
"That’s certainly one of the reasons."
I agreed.
If I weighed up the rationality of this action, that reason would probably be the biggest.
But.
"Even aside from that, I’m going to beat the shit out of him."
It wasn’t the main reason in my heart.
