Chapter 533 – Room 207, Gate Room – Fourth Trial ‘Fallen King’ (19)
– Han Kain
“I wonder, is this horrific world really the Virgin’s intention?”
With my question, the meeting commenced.
“Don’t think like a regular person; think like the head of the Vatican.”
“The head of the Vatican?”
“They’d feel pity for the 10% of people suffering painfully. True, it’s sad. But from the Vatican’s perspective…”
“Isn’t it that such people suffered in the old world too?”
“Exactly.”
A nightmarish amalgamation of Marx and Hitler’s dreams realized.
But if we view the world from Aedia, the head of the Vatican’s perspective…
About 10% of people had been suffering from chaos entities for various reasons in the old world anyway.
Thus, ‘Paradise’ isn’t a place where 10% suffers, but a place where 90% are saved.
— Tap!
With a light tap on the table, Grandpa opened his mouth.
“The final boss of Room 207 is Aedia. Or rather, the mirror. Do you agree?”
Everyone, including me, nodded.
At this point, where the end of Room 207 is vaguely seen, defeating the Virgin Aedia and destroying the ‘original mirror’ is considered the solution to Room 207.
“Let’s do this. Kain, you fly to the moon and fight Aedia! During the process, gauge Aedia’s power. If you kill her, great, if you fail—”
“Mooksung can rewind time. We’ve still got about three weeks left, right?”
“Exactly!”
Grandpa’s plan was simple.
I had to fly directly to the moon, face Aedia, and gauge the Virgin’s power.
If I win, great; if I lose, I’ll rewind time and fight from a better position.
It’s a plausible plan, but there was just one problem.
“Did you forget the note?”
“Horus, be careful of the sky. If you make too much noise, you’ll be discovered.”
“… ”
“There’s an unidentified eye in the sky. Thanks to Aedia’s measures, it can’t find us right now.”
“If we make too much noise, we’ll be caught… Is flying to the moon a noisy behavior?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
Everyone fell silent.
The Virgin is on the moon, and to reach it, we have to fight that ‘eye.’
If I expend too much effort before even meeting the Virgin, that would be futile.
“Should I just rewind time now? If we go back to before Aedia’s reality change, then the eye wouldn’t exist.”
Ari immediately pointed out.
“Are you an idiot? Then you’d have to face her without gauging her power.”
Just as I was about to dive into contemplation, a knock sounded.
Is it a hotel staff member?
— Ding Dong!
As Grandpa, Miro, and I hurried to put on our clothes, Ari went outside and brought in a guest, who, like us, was completely wrapped up.
“Ah! Ari, you’re still not dressed—”
“It’s fine. Just take it off.”
“Pfft! You all look adorable.”
“Sofia!”
The guest was Sofia!
Indeed, as a great sorceress, a plane crash was nothing to her.
“Just take it off?”
Even if it’s Sofia, if she feels physiological disgust towards us—
“Sofia is on the 10% side.”
And that clarified the situation.
*
Sofia’s explanation lasted a long time.
Unlike us who had just awakened a few hours ago, she had wandered through the changed world for the past week, so she knew a lot more.
“I was part of the unchanged 10%, just as Ari said. It was probably Aedia’s choice.”
Aedia claimed that she would use ‘us’ as insurance against her failures. And Sofia was included in that ‘us.’
“Thanks to that, I had a hard time! Everywhere I went, people wanted to kill me. It reminded me of the witch hunts of my childhood.”
“… You had it rough growing up.”
“Of course! But it was bearable. I was waiting for you all to wake up.”
“Thanks for your hard work.”
I then conveyed the plan we had formed.
During this process, I had to briefly mention the power of ‘One More Chance,’ as it was necessary for the explanation.
“W-wait, you’re saying you can rewind time? Is that even possible?”
“It is.”
Sofia was so shocked she got up and started spinning around for a while.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Do you understand the plan? And what’s the problem?”
“Yes. The ‘Guardian’ is the problem, right?”
The entity that had pressured us a few hours ago was named the ‘Guardian.’
The people of the changed world regarded the Guardian as a divinely sent apostle.
“Actually, yes, the Guardian is a being that protects the world. Sort of like a vaccine against rampaging demons.”
“Hmm…”
Hearing that explanation helped me understand the general structure of the ‘paradise’ Aedia created.
First, she implanted a twisted form similar to Songee’s ‘Affinity’ into 90% of humanity.
The chosen ones began to cherish and love each other, while chaotic entities grew fond of them.
This greatly reduced the instances of chaotic entities harming humans, but it didn’t eliminate them entirely.
After all, the true owner of Affinity, Songee, had been attacked several times.
There were still vampires who had to harm humans to survive and many monsters that simply went berserk.
The former would sacrifice 10% of the ‘offerings’ to keep them at bay, while the latter would be wiped out by the ‘Guardian.’
“… It seems better structured than I thought. But can this method truly free 90% of humanity from the chaos entities’ fear?”
Miro tilted her head and questioned.
“But, um, isn’t this ‘scenario’ deemed a failure by the hotel?”
In other words, it was likely ‘collected’ and adapted by the hotel before being presented in the Gate Room.
That was definitely incorrect.
Just not knowing why it’s incorrect was bothering me.
— Tap!
Grandpa tapped the table to regain focus.
“We’ll leave the philosophical musings at that! What matters is solving Room 207!”
“…”
Normally, I’d agree with Grandpa’s attitude, but this time I had an odd hunch nagging at my head.
‘Why is it wrong?’
Answering that question seemed quite essential in Room 207…
At that moment, Sofia spoke up again.
“Let me summarize your plan. You want to go to the moon and gauge the Virgin’s power. Winning would be great, and if you lose, you’ll rewind time to try again. But the Guardian is preventing you from getting to the moon. Is that right?”
“Spot on.”
“I have one method in mind…”
“Oh! Tell us.”
“The Guardian is extremely powerful, but it’s only one being.”
“Ah?”
“If someone draws the eye’s attention away…”
Simply put, while someone else distracts the Guardian, I would fly to the moon to confront the Virgin.
Ari asked the most crucial question.
“Who would do that?”
“Um…”
“You do realize if you cause chaos in Florida, and the Guardian catches you with its gaze, you’ll be dead in 0.1 seconds, right?”
“… ”
Just luring the attention away won’t be enough.
Whoever would distract the Guardian needs the strength to endure until I arrive at the moon and assess the Virgin’s power.
“I don’t have confidence. After all, I’m dealing with a creature made by Aedia to protect the entire star.”
“I’ve got a piece of the mirror—”
Ari sharply cut off Sofia’s words.
“The mirror is a magical artifact that brings out Yaldabaoth’s power. The guardian is a monster crafted by Yaldabaoth at Aedia’s request.”
“… ”
“Are you saying you’re going to use Yaldabaoth’s power to kill Yaldabaoth’s apostle? Do you think Yaldabaoth would lend you his power?”
In the end, it’s a matter of who other than me confronts the magnificent being called the Guardian in the sky.
If we can’t solve that, we’d have no option but to rewind time and go to the moon with zero information.
Once more the discussion fell into a standstill.
“I… um, maybe I should try?”
Miro cautiously spoke up.
“If it’s ‘Midnight’s Miro,’ I think I could handle the Guardian.”
Is this the right moment to use Midnight’s power?
It feels like it could work.
“Miro.”
“Yes!”
“According to you, now’s the appropriate time to expend Midnight’s time—”
— Ding Dong!
The doorbell rang again.
Sofia had already joined us, so this time it had to be a hotel employee!
“Clothes! Clothes!”
“Hey! Give me my top!”
“Sofia—! Mask, mask!”
“Eek! Horus, why are you suddenly taking off your top?”
“No, I wasn’t trying to—”
“Sofia, Kain is originally like this.”
In the midst of frantic clothing donning, Ari came back after meeting with the staff.
Ari’s expression was anything but ordinary.
“Sofia.”
“What, what is it? Is it a staff member? I’m almost dressed—”
“Sofia.”
It was only then that the weirdness registered in Sofia’s mind.
“What is it?”
“Didn’t you say you killed Fortuna 50 years ago?”
“50 years?”
“… Didn’t you?”
And then—
— Crack!
The door shattered in an instant.
Squinting, Ari summoned a non-regular polyhedron.
Grandpa instinctively summoned ‘One More Chance.’
Sofia gripped the shard of the mirror tightly, enough for blood to flow from her palm.
In the chaos, a young man entered boldly.
In the midst of the strange tension, he looked at me and said,
“Wow! Kain, long time no see!”
The moment I heard that oh-so-familiar voice, my tension melted away.
At least, that’s how I felt.
*
For a brief moment of calm.
At least here, the two of us, Miro and I, had never clashed with ‘Fortuna,’ so we could treat him purely as ‘Park Seungyub.’
He recognized this too, so he only spoke to Miro and me.
“Bro, isn’t this a bit much? Thinking of how much everyone has suffered due to Aedia…”
“Sorry! I’ll explain as we go outside.”
“That’s alright. You’re smart, so I figured you had a plan. I’m really glad to see you. Oh, Miro, it’s been a while!”
“Really? I feel like I just saw you not too long ago.”
“Haha! Thanks to the immortal sarcophagus? I envy that. I’ve been stressed because my waking time is so long.”
“Sorry.”
“No need to apologize. I’m just happy to meet you now.”
The emotional resentment or disappointment I felt was suppressed by rationality.
Unlike me, who used to be a middle-schooler only thinking about games, Miro seemed to have had a comforting time during her stay in the immortal sarcophagus.
He looked more grown up.
“On my way here, I overheard your discussion. My hearing is quite good.”
“Oh~! Is that a skill? You sound a bit stronger now!”
“H, from now on, just call me the greatest Park Seungyub in the world!”
“Haha!”
“The problem is who draws the Guardian’s gaze? I’ll give it a shot.”
As we started talking, the tension naturally eased.
I had been expecting grave stories related to ‘Fortuna,’ so I was tense, but this young man, no matter how you looked at him, was ‘Park Seungyub,’ not Fortuna.
His acting skills were good enough to deceive me?
He didn’t seem the type to master his acting over time.
What Ari said was true—
Fortuna is a distorted version of Seungyub created through the mirror, and it has been reverted to Seungyub thanks to Ari’s ‘hypnotherapy.’
So, it makes sense for this young man to be ‘Park Seungyub’—
“Everyone step back! Right now!”
There was one person in this place who absolutely could not forgive Fortuna.
— Ting!
Illuminating the shard of the mirror, Seungyub frowned, and everyone became flustered.
“Sofia!”
“Horus, you’re being deceived right now!”
“… ”
“This man is a monster. You know what he did, don’t you?”
Ari tried to persuade again.
“Sofia, I told you several times already. This guy is different from the Fortuna you know. He’s reverted to Horus before being distorted—”
“Shut up!”
The sudden outburst left Ari speechless.
She felt a tempest of rage, sorrow, and resentment.
This wasn’t a situation for words to work.
“This man is already dead! I killed him with the mirror! I turned him into a writhing mass of flesh!”
“… Sofia.”
“Horus, please, listen to me. This monster must be killed.”
“He’s not Fortuna; he’s Park Seungyub, my companion, no my angel.”
Sofia’s eyes went vacant.
“… Are you giving a command?”
“What?”
“If you command me not to attack, I won’t. I am your law king.”
This statement caught me slightly off guard.
Is she going to enforce it through coercion?
I could, of course, do that, but as for Julia’s daughter, and my long-awaited comrade, I couldn’t go as far as—
At that moment.
The young man sweetly smiled at Sofia.
“You still hate me, huh?”
“Of course! I’ve spent thousands of nights anticipating the moment I get to kill you! I can’t possibly forget the memory of burying my mother with bloodied hands, even after 1,000 years!”
“Then did you use your mentor as bait?”
Using her mentor as bait?
What on earth was that?
I glanced at Ari, who also had a clueless expression.
As it happened, none of us knew exactly how Sofia had killed Fortuna.
Seungyub silently approached the window, then touched the glass as if reminiscing about someone.
“After waking from that long dream thanks to Ari, I thought…”
The first thought that returned to him as he morphed back into Seungyub.
“I must capture Yumi again and entrap her soul.”
“Ah…!”
Ari slightly parted her lips.
“Fortuitously, the last piece of Yumi remained in this world. I believed if I could capture that, I could revive Yumi.”
“Seungyub…”
Grandpa’s eyes trembled.
“I won’t be sane. In my fragmented mind, I may have become a madman. But it’s all fine. I’ll look after her, and even if I can’t recover here, somehow, I’ll take her out…”
In Room 207, Yumi couldn’t be restored.
But how about after returning to the hotel?
If I use Eunsol’s flute?
What if I obtain some special means from the merchant?
I believe there’s a possibility.
As far as I know, the hotel is the most omnipotent place in the universe.
“So, Sofia, I entered the cave following your guidance. I was trying to contain the half-collapsed Yumi again. For that, I had to take my ‘soul’ out of the vessel.”
The moment Fortuna lost her immortality to recapture Yumi.
“That day, I died once at your hands. It wasn’t only me. I was swept up in your monstrous curse, allowing even Yumi’s last fragment to vanish eternally.”
Sofia had killed Seungyub and Yumi.
“Yet you still haven’t avenged yourself.”
At that moment, heavy silence surrounded us.
A sardonic voice broke through.
“Sorry, but it was the Virgin who tore my master into pieces. You’re the Virgin’s slave. And now, you blame me for your master’s death?”
What can I say? That statement wasn’t wrong.
Seungyub acknowledged the truth without resistance.
“Yeah, I admit it. At least regarding my relationship with you, it’s not the time for me to brag.”
“If you’ve realized that—”
“So, I’ve prepared one gift.”
“What? Ha! The only thing you can give me is death!”
“Listen more. Law King Sofia.”
“What—”
“I’ll make an offer you can’t refuse.”
An offer I can’t refuse?
“I will send you…”
“What?”
“To heaven.”
In that moment of shock, all stayed frozen.
Seungyub added one more word.
“I’m the only one in this world who can send you to heaven.”
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