307 Volume V - Chapter 25: Three People in the Same Body
For screwing up the plan.
That was the answer to the question of why I was here on this sunless sky and relaxing grass. But... it wasn't any answer at the same time.
With his emotionlessness, with the emptiness behind his gray eyes, I felt the need to avert my eyes for no reason. Yet I didn't give in to the feeling, I didn't want to miss a single thing.
I swallowed, tried to release the tension in my body, tried to let myself relax into the comfort of the grass I was lying on, and it worked. So, I asked a question again.
"What plan?"
The person next to me, lying on the grass just like me, sighed slightly. His eyes left me again and turned to the sunless sky.
"Ethan. Do you really still think that your coming into this world was simply a 'reward'?"
No, I didn't. I had my doubts since the day I started seeing the memories of the person whose body I was controlling. With each passing day, these doubts only grew more and more. During the war on the Holar continent, I hadn't had a chance to think about it much, so I had kind of forgotten about it, but the phoenix calling me a puppet had only refreshed the thought in my mind in recent weeks.
Could it be that this world... wasn't a 'game' from the very beginning? Could my days as Ethan, my identity, have been a lie?
No matter how much I thought about it, the answer to this question was no. Because the days I spent on Earth were too real. The thought of them being fake was absurd in itself.
But... there was one more possibility. And that possibility, as absurd as it was, could be real.
"The people who brought me here to Lunerra... the people who spoke to me as the producers of the game The Lands of The Lunerra... the Lords, right?"
Aiden Tenebra continued to stare at the sky instead of answering my question. And I... my brow finally furrowed, and my eyes twitched.
"You were the one who told them or suggested they do this, weren't you?"
Again, he didn't answer me. In the silence that fell between us... I finally let out a deep sigh.
"I used to forget most of the dreams I used to have, though they were more memories than dreams... But you know, now I remember them all. Every single one of them, down to the last detail. I even remember the ones I forgot from beginning to end, even the ones I had but didn't even realize I had them because I had forgotten every single detail."
I sat up from where I was lying, squinted my eyes, and turned them to the real Aiden Tenebra lying next to me.
"I remember your childhood. I remember what you went through in that lab. I remember how you changed every day, why you grew so 'emotionless'. I remember why you were so attached to Clara and loved her so much. I remember how you murdered your family. I also remember... how you had different thoughts compared to the Lords."
Aiden Tenebra quickly turned his face toward me as he straightened up, just like me. He spoke in the same soulless tone, his flat lips and empty eyes literally staring into my soul.
"And that doesn't mean anything, Ethan. Because what you don't know is still so much more than what you think you know."
I couldn't help clenching my fist, my teeth. Getting more and more frustrated with each passing second, I finally stood up.
"And I'm well aware of that. But... what I'm curious about has nothing to do with that."
I thought about the first day I arrived in Lunerra, how stupid I was, how I couldn't stop smiling every second. But... that wasn't the only thing I thought about.
I didn't think much about it because I attributed it to my loneliness and my need for a family, but now that I was in this situation and I thought back to those times, it was clear what had happened.
"You were the reason I was so attached to Clara in the first place. Larry carrying the authority of greed was something that was not in my memory, you erased it from my mind or made it not exist in the game I played in the beginning. You also made me feel extreme anger toward him so that I would become a wiera."
Now that I think about it... there's some weirdness even after that.
"The wiera part of me wasn't even acting normal... not like a normal wiera, and that's because of you. How much did you manipulate me for your own plan? How much of the things I think, the actions I take, do you have a hand in?"
He opened his mouth and started to say something, but I didn't let him, I kept going, getting more and more frustrated with each passing second. My body was shaking more violently, tensing up.
"At first, I saw your memories as a third person, like someone watching a movie... But as I continued to witness these memories, slowly but surely this began to change. I... slowly I started to not recognize myself as a third person. I slowly became Aiden Tenebra himself, you, who was actually experiencing these events... not Ethan, who was witnessing the events from the outside."
As each of those memories replayed in my mind, I focused on how real and... how much they felt like my memories.
"I experienced everything with you, from the pain you suffered to the emotions you felt. Even my personality slowly started to change. Why... Why are you trying to turn me into who you are?"
Aiden Tenebra waited where he was for a few seconds to see if there was anything else to say. When he realized that he should be the one to break the silence between us, not me, he stood up.
"Because no one who belongs to this world can prevent the end of this world, Ethan. But no one who does not carry a piece of this world can also prevent the coming end. The enemy you fought in the last part of the game you played is only one of the possible endings of this world. There are many more threats. Some closer than ever, some farther away than anyone even realizes."
I just stood there listening to what he said. But with the last sentence... I couldn't help my lips curling upwards involuntarily and I couldn't help smiling.
Because... it was funny in a way.
"So... are you trying to say that losing my own identity is what I have to do to save a world I shouldn't even exist in?"
I clenched my fist tighter, feeling the heat seeping between my fingernails as my teeth gritted involuntarily, but I didn't care. The expressionlessness, the soullessness of his face on top of what he was saying... it was just more annoying.
"I... I was just trying to get out of mediocrity, I wanted something different in my life, I wanted to get out of my loneliness and unhappiness, not be a puppet in some big secret plan that I don't even know what it is!"
As I looked at the expressionless face of the person in front of me, Aiden Tenebra, my anger flared even more. Finally, I stopped holding back, tensed my fist, and swung it at him.
But... I didn't have even one percent of the strength I had as Aiden Tenebra. Ethan Subter was weaker than Aiden Tenebra, who was one of the most ordinary people in the Lunerra. Yet he wasn't the one who stopped my punch, he didn't even try to avoid it. Instead... a third person suddenly appeared between us. He caught my fist in mid-air and then gripped it so tightly that I couldn't move a muscle.
I quickly turned to the person between me and Aiden. And what I found in front of me... made me stand still for a moment.
This person had bright, purple eyes. And... he looked like me, Ethan Subter. He was like a twin of mine... except that he had purple eyes and was many times stronger than me. He was my wiera side, this person.
But... he was also different than ever. He didn't have his usual smile on his face. It didn't look like he was trying to make me suffer. He was calm... too calm.
"You... what...?"
He returned my clenched fist back to me without saying anything. I staggered back a few steps off balance and fell to the ground, staring meaninglessly at the pair of them. It was at this point that Aiden talked again.
"And that's one of the things I'm trying to prevent, Ethan. I'm trying to stop you from becoming a puppet. I'm trying to stop you from becoming someone you shouldn't have been in the first place. I'm trying to stop the end of this world. Now... let's start from the beginning. At least as far back as I can tell."
He took a few short steps toward me. When he was in front of me, he held out his hand toward me, leaning slightly as if he wanted me to stand up with him.
I squinted my eyes as I looked at his hand and then at his face, and with his help, I stood up again. Aiden simply looked into my eyes without any expression on his face. My wiera side, meanwhile... just folded his arms together and sighed.
Aiden, looking at this awkwardness between us, must have decided to clear this mess first because he looked at me and pointed to the purple-eyed wiera next to him.
"First of all... he is not a simple person, as you might have guessed. Let's clear this up first. The person in front of you has changed a lot because he carries your consciousness, but he is the former representative of greed. He is Alaric Wisderm."
H- ha...? Did… Did I hear wrong?
"Alaric Wisderm? Wait, wait... the most insane of all the wieras, Alaric Wisderm?"
Aiden nodded slightly. I... just kept my eyes fixed on my wiera side, and he turned to me. For a moment, an emotion I couldn't quite put my finger on appeared in his bright purple eyes. I felt as if the world had indeed frozen as his lips curled slightly upward in the way I remembered and he opened his mouth to say something.
"Exactly. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but it's been a while. At least for me. I have your whole memories, you see... Oh, and also... I'm not going to apologize for what I've done in the past, just so you know." Thanks for reading :)
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