Chapter 175 - Those Who Realized (1)

Teira the archaeologist.

Once a fifth-tier mage of the Red Magic Tower, he had become fascinated by an artifact discovered in Coloni. For some twenty years since, he had braved every danger in his pursuit of relics from a forgotten age.

At first, he had wondered why Karmakses III had summoned him. The king's patronage had allowed him to remain in Coloni and study archaeology, but Teira knew that Karmakses III had little interest in archaeology itself. What he wanted was merely the by-products that accompanied the ancient objects Teira discovered and unearthed.

And so—

"Do incarnate gods truly exist?"

Karmakses III's question only deepened his puzzlement. To summon him so abruptly and ask something like that... Had the king suddenly developed an interest in archaeology?

Nevertheless, Teira answered as earnestly as he could.

"... So, according to you, incarnate gods might actually exist?"

"Rather than saying they might exist, I believe it would be more accurate to say that incarnate gods truly do exist."

"Can you stand by that statement?"

"Yes."

Teira nodded confidently at the follow-up question. He had, after all, seen an incarnate god himself.

It had happened while he was exploring the mysteries of antiquity. Venturing into the lizardmen's lands despite the risk of being killed if discovered, he had witnessed an incarnate god whose appearance alone set it apart, and whose power was of an entirely different order. It wielded not borrowed divine power, as priests did, but the very essence of that power.

Awe, fear, ecstasy.

He could still vividly recall the fervor surrounding the throngs of lizardmen who worshipped it.

But why was Karmakses III curious about incarnate gods? Teira had wondered whether something the king had overheard had sparked a passing interest, but—

'He's serious.'

His expression was more solemn than Teira had ever seen it, as though he were deliberating over a grave matter upon which the nation's fate depended.

"... Is there perhaps a way to determine whether someone is an incarnate god?"

"Determine, Your Majesty?"

"Yes."

It was an unexpected question.

"Forgive me, but what exactly do you mean...?"

"Exactly what I said. Can you ascertain whether someone is an incarnate god?"

"There is scarcely any need to ascertain it. Incarnate gods differ from ordinary humans in appearance alone. In other words, one can readily identify them by sight."

"... Is that so?"

Once again, Karmakses III's face twisted strangely. After considering for a moment, he cautiously spoke.

"... Then is it possible for an incarnate god to disguise itself as a human?"

"If you are asking purely whether it is possible, I do not believe I can rule it out."

"Then is there a way to see through that disguise? Preferably without the person knowing that we are trying."

With each new question, Teira began to gain some faint understanding of why the king was asking about incarnate gods.

'Has he found someone he suspects is an incarnate god?'

It was a fleeting conjecture. With too little information to pursue it, however, he set the thought aside and nodded.

"I have never attempted it, but to answer your question, there is indeed a method."

"There is?"

"Yes."

Teira recalled an object he had recently acquired from one of the forgotten ancient ruins.

"Then I will summon you when the time comes and entrust it to you. It should not be long. He said he would be coming to Coloni soon."

"Understood."

Setting his curiosity aside, Teira answered and withdrew. At last, Karmakses III was alone.

'... If Marquis Pallatio truly is a god—'

His eyes grew profoundly solemn.

####

The following day.

Having finished all his business in Lartania, Alon met with Rine before leaving.

"So you're leaving now."

"I must."

"I'll miss you."

Unlike yesterday, the unease had vanished from her expression. In fact, she looked even better than usual.

No—she was trying to look fine. Behind her gentle smile, she was desperately striving not to show any other emotion.

Watching her, Alon considered for a moment. Then—

"Rine."

"Yes?"

He spoke calmly.

"The past is just that—the past."

The smile on Rine's face slowly faded away.

In truth, Alon had debated whether to bring this up. It meant breaking the mask of normalcy she had put on and drawing out something she did not wish to discuss.

Even so—

'I hope this can put Rine even a little more at ease.'

That wish had outweighed his reservations.

Of course, he did not know exactly what she had suffered in the past, or why she feared having it exposed. There were only two things he could tentatively infer: that a past incident—probably connected to the apostle's machinations—had left her deeply traumatized, and that Rine feared its revelation might change how others, including Alon, regarded her.

He did not want to force her to expose a wound she was desperately trying to hide. But unless it was exposed, there would be no chance for new flesh to grow.

That was why, after much deliberation, he had spoken.

"Ri—"

About to continue, Alon slowly swallowed the rest of his words. Instead, he gave her shoulder a few gentle pats.

Even if he meant it for her sake, prattling on when he did not know what she had endured might itself be doing her a disservice.

Besides, no more words were necessary. Seollang might have been another matter, but Rine would have understood what he meant.

"I'll be going."

After patting her shoulder a couple more times, Alon was about to leave when—

"... Thank you, Godfather."

The voice that reached him eased his heavy heart a little. A smile had formed on Rine's lips.

Not a contrived smile, but a faint, natural one.

Seeing it, Alon wondered if this might be the first time he had seen her true expression.

"Of course."

He answered softly and turned away. Though Alon did not notice it, a small smile had crept onto his own lips as well.

####

In a small ravine on the northern outskirts of Lartania, where silence reigned and only a few monsters roamed—

THUMP!

A hand suddenly thrust out of the earth. The arm had a corpse-like bluish tinge, as though it had lain buried for a very long time.

Repeated cracks came from it, as if its bones were snapping into place, and color gradually returned. Then the mound of dirt crumbled, and a naked woman emerged from within.

"Whew..."

The woman who emerged with a quiet sigh was none other than Emil, the apostle of Greed.

She rose, brushing the dirt from her body as though it were a nuisance. In the blue moonlight, her bare flesh was as blue as a corpse's.

Soon, however, her entire body began to reconstruct itself with a series of cracks, and before long it had regained the healthy color of a living human.

Inspecting her restored body as if appraising it, she smiled and murmured softly.

"Ah, I went and died."

She sounded a little disappointed, yet her reaction was far too casual for someone contemplating death.

But death was not particularly frightening to her, enough so that she could afford such a reaction. Whatever might be true of the other apostles, the memories Greed had bestowed upon her granted her the power to reverse death and resurrect herself at least a few times.

'Marquis Pallatio, was it?'

Having fully regained her life, the apostle of Greed recalled the man who had "killed" her. The mage—no, the Magus—who had cast his magic with an utterly impassive expression.

'The more I think about it, the stranger he seems. He must be a half-baked Magus without so much as a spell formula, so why is his magic so exceptional?... Fine, even if I accept that he's powerful, what on earth is that godly power blended into his mana?'

A strange expression crossed Emil's face.

In truth, she had possessed the power to escape the prison Alon had created. She had stored enough mana in the Book of the Rotten Tree she wielded to make an escape possible. Yet the godly power contained in Alon's mana had prevented her from properly manipulating the mana stored in the book.

'The vessel was only a little stronger than expected... Well, even the information suggested he had quite a few tricks, but meeting him proved he was even more than that.'

She admitted that she had underestimated Marquis Pallatio.

'Perhaps I should have broken him before putting the plan into motion.'

The reason Emil had taken such a relaxed approach to Marquis Pallatio was that she intended to use him to awaken Rine as a vessel. All the evidence pointed to the marquis being someone profoundly important to the vessel.

Having judged him useful at the time, she could not kill him.

'Well, there's no changing what's done. Shall I recover first?'

Emil looked down at her hands, which were beginning to tremble.

Naturally, she could not resurrect endlessly, and the risks involved were considerable. For one thing, her stats plummeted the instant she came back to life.

That was because resurrection took the form of a "body transfer." Rather than reviving in the body that had died, her soul separated from it and moved into another body prepared in advance.

In short, however hard she worked, the moment she died she lost everything she had achieved through her physical abilities, even if her knowledge remained. In game terms, she inherited only her traits and started again at level one.

Of course, retaining her knowledge allowed her to regain her former stats quickly, but still.

'Well, I can make the preparations again. Good thing I didn't use the "materials" ahead of time.'

Emil began restructuring her plan in her mind, devising a way to awaken Rine as a vessel with certainty without underestimating Marquis Pallatio.

After spending a little time revising it, she thought:

'This time, perhaps I'll take things slowly and prepare at my leisure.'

With a small smile, she began to step into the dark forest—

SHUNK!

"Huh?"

—but never completed the step.

"Hello."

Beneath the blue moon, someone stood with the clearest of blue eyes shining, having deftly slipped a blade into her back.