Chapter 710 – Someone’s Rest, Someone’s Hardship (6)
—
User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 21
Current Location: Floor 3, Observation Room
Sage’s Advice: 3
—
Han Kain
— Tap!
From the moment Eunsol and Songi descended, I briefly paused the ongoing observations.
My headache was getting worse, and it didn’t seem like anything dangerous was about to happen.
“Hmm…”
Just as I was about to get lost in complicated thoughts, Elena’s voice reached my ears.
“Are we taking a break?”
“Oh, right. It looks like there’s nothing urgent at the moment.”
“How are Unnie and Songi doing?”
“They’re following the plan. They’re exterminating the rampaging Is race and calming the chaos. The dukes aren’t intervening for now; they must also be in extreme turmoil.”
A human-established nation can fall into political chaos overnight when a president or prime minister suddenly dies; immediate civil wars often follow.
Imagine if a god that supported a race for eons faced a crisis close to destruction?
No matter how great the race is, they’d definitely lose their minds.
Neither the lower beings nor the dukes could possibly keep their sanity.
“Have you been using your new ability well?”
“Well, it seems a bit confusing for now.”
Even I, who was observing, struggled to grasp exactly what ‘Noblesse Oblige’ was capable of.
“Is it a difficult ability?”
“At first, I thought it was some kind of charisma. Eunsol seemed to think similarly…”
“And?”
“Well, it doesn’t seem to be something you can easily pin down.”
At that moment, Elena wore a vague expression, as if she understood something.
“It reminds me of when I first obtained a sinister imagination.”
“Hmm?”
In the next moment, Elena focused on a piece of cookie on the dish.
— Crackle!
“…”
Suddenly, what looked like insect legs popped out from the cookie piece and began scurrying around.
If someone with a weak stomach were here, they probably would’ve vomited right away! Fortunately, there was no such person around.
“At first, I thought it was a kind of demon-manufacturing ability.”
“Really?”
“Then…”
— Clang!
Suddenly, the coffee cup shook, and bubbles started boiling up.
“I thought it was some sort of curse ability.”
“Like turning your coffee into poison?”
“Something like that. At one point, it felt like dark magic trying to escape a human’s form.”
“…What about now?”
Elena faced the ceiling with a gentle smile.
— Flicker!
In an instant, the lights in the observation room flickered, casting a hazy glow around.
At the same time, a reddish liquid began flowing from the table, and squirming shadows appeared.
— Squeak!
Something unknown was about to leap out from the bedroom, like a final touch in a horror film.
In the blink of an eye, the observation room transformed into a hellscape straight out of a horror movie.
And—
— Clap!
At that moment, a remarkably beautiful blonde girl standing at the center gently clapped her hands, causing all the previous phenomena to fade away like a midsummer night’s dream.
“There was really no need to search for another explanation. It was a sinister imagination, quite literally.”
“…”
“Do you get what I’m saying?”
At this moment, I was more surprised by Elena’s actions than her explanation.
She seamlessly used her sinister imagination, as if it were second nature! The proficiency she displayed now was a far cry from when she first obtained that ability.
I had heard that she developed her sinister imagination to its peak during a lunar event, and it seemed she had dramatically leveled up since then.
“Ugh…! I wanted to put it simply, but now I don’t know how to say it.”
Elena had gained a realization from using her sinister imagination, but she struggled to express it logically.
So, if I had to simplify Elena’s thoughts…
“It seems we shouldn’t force ourselves to understand the unclear and abstract aspects of inheritance or blessing.”
“Sounds similar! Forcing ourselves to understand might diminish the ability’s potential?”
“Exactly!”
We don’t need to change the sinister imagination into separate concepts like ‘demon creation,’ ‘curse,’ or ‘dark magic’ to understand it.
If we grasp it that way, the ability might get stuck in that form.
It’s like if the hotel dropped a hundred, and since human intellect can’t fully comprehend it, we try to narrow it down to just ten—over time, you’re left with only ten’s worth of power.
Applying our conversation to Eunsol gives this conclusion:
“Noblesse Oblige, carrying a duty grants nobility. We don’t need to worry about how much duty entails or what nobility specifically means.”
“I think that’s right.”
“That’s a valid opinion. Unnie should realize this fact quickly.”
“Hmm, I think she will soon.”
While we discussed, I glanced at the half-empty coffee cup and the plate that had just crumbs left.
It seemed Elena had spent quite some time here in the observation room.
“Ha ha! Were you perhaps waiting for me to finish the observation?”
“Oh, did you notice?”
“I was completely oblivious until just now. Do you have something to say?”
The next comment was a bit random.
“Um, have you seen me in reality before?”
“Excuse me?”
“I don’t mean in person, just even on TV would be fine.”
“Um…”
Was she referring to life before coming to the hotel?
“I’m not really sure.”
Elena’s expression immediately darkened.
“…I guess not.”
What does she mean by “not”?
“As you know, I’ve lived several lives before coming to the hotel. Thanks to that, my memories are quite hazy and fragmented.”
“W-Well, then you probably saw me but forgot?”
“Right.”
“Heh heh!”
Elena let out a joyful laugh and left the observation room.
In that moment, I was bewildered, not understanding the situation.
While I grasped that Elena got disappointed and then cheered up again, I had no idea why.
At times like this, I really felt the limitations of insight.
“… Should I give it a try?”
“Advice: 3 -> 2”
‘What does Elena suddenly mean by that?’
“High expectations lead to great disappointments.”
What is this bird saying again?
—
〿◀◨▱◈ reflects.
The current situation must surely be a nightmare, not reality.
One day, while enjoying a swim in the sulfuric sea of the Kitalsmore star system’s third habitat zone, a shocking message came from Duke 13.
It seemed the king had departed from the material universe.
According to the measurement of the causative flow, he might be facing a crisis of extinction.
I thought it was an utterly incomprehensible message.
The king of a great race was an entity detached from the weak mortal fate. No one, even a black hole’s jet or the gamma-ray explosion from a supernova, could shake an immortal!
However, it was not something I could refuse just because I found the duke’s order unbelievable.
…
The location where the king disappeared was a small planet on the outskirts of the galaxy.
It was special in that it was the home planet of intelligent beings capable of dreaming of space exploration.
On the flip side, it was also an utterly mundane planet.
There was no need to use weapons above level 12 stored in the Great Library, nor did high nobles from inside Zone 9 need to respond.
Just sending around 10,000 lower beings could easily topple the civilization there.
…
〿◀◨▱◈ regretted belonging to the ‘lower beings’.
In the end, 〿◀◨▱◈ could not understand until the very end.
The thought that the king being killed by such a civilization was impossible.
Regardless of the goodness or evil of the human race, they simply lacked the capability.
A mouse cannot harm a sleeping dragon, after all.
…
With the onset of grace, I heard the distant sound of celestial ascension.
I felt an unfathomable depth shining down from a peak I couldn’t even imagine.
In face of that vastness, distinguishing between a great race and a bug by the riverside was unnecessary.
Those ugly memories, sprawled on the ground like bugs, desperately awaited the end of incomprehensible despair.
When I looked up, knowing the situation had ceased, I realized—
The king had perished.
This signified the collapse of the worldview within which 〿◀◨▱◈ had lived.
…
Time passed in vain, wild like a beast.
I wasn’t exactly acting with some purpose or intent.
It was the same as a human exposed to unbearable suffering, screaming and throwing things around haphazardly.
I knew it was foolish behavior, but my reasoning was far too weak to hold back the wave of emotions bursting like a tsunami.
…
At some point, an unknown force blocked 〿◀◨▱◈’s awareness.
Thinking a strange change occurred with the host’s body, I detoured, but still saw nothing.
In a situation where I couldn’t find the next host, I was bound to die helplessly.
Oddly enough, 〿◀◨▱◈ found that death wasn’t particularly terrifying.
It wasn’t that I gained a profound comprehension to be detached from death.
It was just that the despair from the death of the great was wrecking my thought process.
I wanted to end it with death.
I wanted to escape into the embrace of death.
When I accepted a fate of turning to cosmic dust and letting everything go…
I heard a voice.
“Possess this body.”
“Is it okay? I’m a cat.”
“They can survive even in the body of a beast, right?”
Awakening in the body of a cat, I saw two mysteriously atmospheric humans before me.
Back in the day, I couldn’t distinguish between the individual characteristics of Homo sapiens, but now, years into my mission on this small planet, I could tell.
One appeared to be in their late teens, while the other looked like they were in their late twenties, both female.
Seeing them commanding the surrounding beings with a wave of their hands, these two were likely leader-type entities.
Judging by their insights on human society, the probability of being affiliated with the Administration Bureau was high.
I had thought the remnants had all but collapsed by now and couldn’t believe there were still descendants left!
Oh…
What a meaningless thought.
What could I possibly do in a beast’s body?
“Ahem! Can you hear me?”
“…”
“I want to end this chaos and stop the war between humans and the Is race. I want a truce!”
“…”
It sounded too ridiculous for me to even consider replying.
It seemed she was from the Administration Bureau, but her judgment was dumber than a monkey’s!
The king had vanished without a trace; what kind of truce are we talking about?
“Uh, Eunsol Agent! I worked in the Busan branch of the Administration Bureau, so I know a bit about those monsters!”
“So?”
“Agent, those monsters can swap bodies! Just because I’m in the cat body doesn’t mean I’m, uh, trapped. A cage means nothing to them! They’re just tired now and will attack as soon as they recoup their strength.”
“…”
“We have to kill them… Please! We must kill them!”
The words of this middle-aged man claiming to be a former Administration Bureau employee sounded far more realistic.
After all, a human-made cage meant nothing to me.
“You won’t do that.”
“Agent! What do you mean—”
“Silence.”
She stepped closer to me and began to act in an incomprehensible manner.
“I must clarify that the root of chaos does not lie with humans but solely with you.”
So what now?
“Even so, I chose to set aside revenge and opt for a truce, which is my intent to save everyone’s lives.”
Suddenly, I realized the way she spoke had drastically changed compared to before.
“You are the beginning of that. I chose to grant you life, not death, amidst your rampage; that is mercy.”
I never asked for mercy.
“You must now understand honor and accept your destiny.”
I thought it was utterly ridiculous.
It felt like the other party was performing some kind of theater.
In 〿◀◨▱◈’s mind, the ‘honor’ the counterpart spoke of was just a foolish delusion that backward humans chased after.
Let alone beings from another galaxy, even humans of this time would find it absurd.
…
Strangely, the surrounding humans began to bow their heads with dazed eyes.
As if they were entranced, believing the king was a divine agent, and that the feudal lord was a proxy of that king.
Just before losing consciousness, 〿◀◨▱◈ realized too late.
The other party wasn’t a foolish woman or a time-displaced fanatic.
She was merely a possessor of an incredibly terrifying ability.
…
I owe grace, so I must heed the noble’s will.
This is the fate given to the lower beings; rejection is disloyalty.
“From now on, your name shall be Happy.”
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