Chapter 195 - That Wasn't My Intention, But (3)

3

We finished preparing to enter the next floor.

Everyone had completed their quests in the previous stage. That made choosing someone to eliminate difficult, but fortunately, one of our companions volunteered to withdraw.

"If you absolutely must choose someone, let it be me."

The Paladin raised her hand.

I wondered whether she really needed to go that far, but she shook her head.

"It's fine. I need to go down to the first floor to establish Black Knight anyway. I'm also uneasy about leaving the neighborhood watch unattended for so long. And perhaps it's a little late to say this... but I don't particularly want the Gillfin Folk to gain supremacy over the continent. As long as they have enough to live on, that's sufficient."

That was just like her, a woman who donated most of her earnings to orphanages.

"Hmm."

The Black Dragon leader seemed to know something more.

"Are you sure those are your only reasons?"

"... What are you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing. I just thought someone might be lonely all by themselves."

The Black Dragon leader's eyes curved with amusement, like a cat sitting beside a sunny window.

"Anyway, I'll leave establishing Black Knight to you. If any of my guild members interfere, tell them, [The cafe run by the Witch is in a semi-basement down an alley past the three-way intersection]. If they ask what's on the menu, say, [Pumpkin latte, hold the ice]."

"Is that Black Dragon's password?"

"Yes, this month's. It probably hasn't been updated yet."

"Your tastes remain as peculiar as ever..."

The Paladin looked at me with a wry smile.

"I'm sorry to leave the clearing party first, Death King. I'll make up for it by laying a solid foundation for the guild. By the time you return after clearing the fortieth floor, everything will be ready."

"Well, if you're really sorry, could you do me one favor?"

"Of course. Tell me."

"Once we're finished with this expedition, please teach me music."

"Ah." The Paladin drew her brows together.

"We did discuss that. You said you wanted to play for the Duchess of Ivansia, didn't you?"

"Yes. When I confessed my feelings to Raviel, I promised I'd learn music and play for her."

"Wonderful. Jazz is love."

The Paladin smiled, seemingly pleased.

"With a lover more romantic than anyone, you'll certainly need music. I have no talent for teaching others, but I'll do my best."

"I'll be counting on you, teacher."

"Mm."

We shook hands.

"I'll leave the rest to you, Gongja."

Light ate away at the Paladin's smile.

[The Paladin is eliminated from the stage!]

[The Princess Who Walks Through Mirages tallies the points.]

[You have gained 1,510 Race Points!]

[You currently have 7,112 Race Points.]

The Paladin's points were distributed among us.

If the races were our children, these points were, so to speak, child support.

It would be best to spend them for the benefit of every race, not just the Earth Spiritfolk.

'But the races' welfare isn't the most urgent thing right now.'

I clenched my fist.

One of my children had waited hundreds of years just to meet me.

'Wait for me, Uburka.'

Light enveloped my vision as I was transported to the thirty-fifth floor.

'Your father is coming!'

4

Immediately after descending into the era of the thirty-fifth floor, I pestered the Black Dragon leader into coming with me.

"Hurry! All we need to do is head for the tallest mountain on the continent!"

"You... You're not treating me like a taxi driver, are you?"

"I always respect you from the bottom of my heart!"

"You certainly know how to talk..."

The Black Dragon leader sighed, but granted my request. Using her [Instant Teleportation] was far faster than wandering around as spirits.

"Is it over there?"

After crossing the sky for a long while, using clouds as stepping-stones, we found a mountain range stretching beneath our feet. Lofty mountains. The traces of the earth bending and folding remained etched into the world. The farther we went, the whiter the heads of the peaks became.

"... These look taller than the Himalayas."

The Black Dragon leader surveyed the ridges with an uncomfortable expression.

"Just looking at them makes me cold. Is your apostle really here? That makes no sense."

"The princess briefly showed me an illusion."

It was definitely somewhere around here.

I looked around.

"He should be nearby..."

Suddenly, an ominous premonition swept over me.

There was a gap of about 150 years between the previous stage and this one.

Perhaps Uburka hadn't survived those 150 years.

"..."

The wick of my heart began to burn black. If that was true, I had missed my last chance to see Uburka again.

My jaw tightened.

Thinking of Uburka enduring alone for over two hundred years made me clench my teeth.

'... It's all right.'

I instinctively touched my shirt.

A handkerchief carrying the scent of lilies rested in my breast pocket.

'If necessary, I can regress.'

The two of us set foot on a snowy peak. As I considered how to obtain Raviel's permission to regress, I scoured the mountaintop with my eyes.

I spread aura in every direction, but detected no life.

"Death King."

Something did catch my eye, however.

"Over there..."

In the direction the Black Dragon leader pointed, a mummy sat quietly in the lotus position.

"..."

My breath stopped.

The mummy had dried out until only a husk remained.

Like the corpse of a cicada that had died of thirst in midsummer and fallen onto concrete.

There wasn't the slightest hint of life in its skin.

'I'm too late.'

My heart constricted.

'I came too late.'

The mummy's face was deeply wrinkled. Yet I could sense traces of Uburka in it.

An infinitely peaceful expression.

The few remaining strands of hair stirred in the blizzard.

Seeing that face, lightened of all the suffering in this world, I couldn't even bring myself to cry.

'I'm sorry...'

Just as I reached out to stroke Uburka's head—

"Father?"

A familiar vibration seeped into my ears.

I stopped reaching out and turned my head.

"Ugor."

A voice oddly detached from worldly affairs.

Its resonance, always holding a sip of laughter in a corner of the heart, traveled through the snowy mountain air.

"It really is you, Father."

Uburka stood tall upon the pure white snowfield.

Rugged mountains stretched beyond my child's shoulders.

This was the highest point on the continent, so no one else in this world would be standing at the same altitude as us.

"U..."

I opened my mouth.

"Uburka...?"

"It's good to see you. It's been 363 years and roughly seven months, my father. You've brought an honored guest I've never met."

"Good heavens."

As though bewitched by a ghost, I looked back and forth between Uburka and the mummy.

"W-what happened? I thought you had died and become a mummy..."

"Ah, that?"

Uburka strode toward the mummy with a nonchalant expression.

"This isn't a corpse. It's a shed husk. A caterpillar must endure the prison of its cocoon before being reborn as a butterfly, mustn't it? This is my cocoon."

Uburka lightly nudged the mummy with his large index finger.

It lost its balance and softly crumbled away.

I gaped at the husk sinking into the snow.

"A-a shed husk...?"

"After meditating for sixty days straight, enlightenment came to me. Ugor. A dreamlike landscape appeared before my eyes, and when I stepped forward, I found myself living in that dream."

Uburka spoke of a realm I had never even heard of.

"In that dream, I was born into a distinguished martial family. However, I was born with a constitution that prevented me from using aura. Though I was the eldest son, I suffered all manner of scorn and disregard because I couldn't use it. Uger, in the end I secured the position of family head through politics and intrigue."

"Th-that's awfully detailed for a dream."

"I suspect it may have been my past life. My body was frail, and I died of illness at twenty-six. When I awoke from the dream, my original body sloughed off like a husk."

Uburka grinned, baring his fangs.

"I originally intended to leave it as a memento, but now that Father has returned, it doesn't matter. Proof of waiting is kept only for the joy of meeting again. Now that we've reunited, my waiting has already become joy."

"Uburka..."

My nose prickled.

To think my child had grown into someone so wonderful.

"Death King."

The Black Dragon leader tapped my shoulder.

"It's fine to show off what a doting father you are, but haven't you noticed something strange?"

"What?"

"We aren't using any items right now."

The Black Dragon leader was watching Uburka with deeply contemplative eyes.

"We haven't used [Animal Possession] or [Person Possession]. We're still spirits. The people living in this world should be completely unable to perceive us. So how can that child see us as though it's perfectly normal?"

Ah.

Only then did I sense something was wrong.

'She's right, isn't she?'

No one could notice us while we were spirits. That ironclad rule had been proven throughout floors thirty-one through thirty-four. Yet Uburka had conversed with me as though it were only natural, and had even noticed the Black Dragon leader's presence.

What's more...

'I definitely searched the area with aura earlier, but I didn't detect any life.'

It was strange.

I met Uburka's eyes.

"Uburka, how can you see us...?"

"Ugor."

Uburka stretched his neck up, down, and from side to side.

CRACK!

The sound of bones shifting into place rang out loudly.

"After attaining enlightenment and shedding my present life, I began to see things that had been invisible before. The world is the ultimate other. If I can perceive the world as a single whole, then I, too, can be said to have become a being comparable to the world."

"Uh..."

What was this child going on about?

My brain tended to stutter whenever difficult words were fed into it. I didn't understand a single word Uburka had said.

"Child, what are you talking about?"

"Put simply, this is what I mean, Father."

Uburka snapped his fingers.

[The constellation 'Muscle Pig Who Dreams of Defying His Father' looks at you.]

What?

[The constellation 'Muscle Pig Who Dreams of Defying His Father' is delighted to be reunited with you!]

Good heavens.

I stared blankly at Uburka.

It felt as if someone had hit me over the head with a shovel.

"Y-you..."

"There are truly many mysterious principles governing all creation."

The smile on Uburka's lips deepened as he looked at me.

"Seeing Father's dumbfounded face makes me glad I trained so hard. What do you think? To my knowledge, no one in this land has attained a higher realm than I have. I've become the greatest warrior of all time, in both name and deed."

"But..."

He had become a constellation in a Hobgoblin's body.

I knew he was a genius, but I had never imagined he was this gifted.

"By the way, Father."

My son, now a constellation, grinned.

"We can catch up on my story anytime. Today is the joyous day of our reunion as father and son. Shouldn't we share the longing of these 350 years?"

"Ah, yes. Of course. You're right."

Little time had passed for me, but for Uburka, it had been a truly long, long stretch of years.

The joy a parent and child should share upon meeting after so long needed to be expressed through gestures, not conversation like this.

I spread my arms wide.

"Come here, Uburka. I may be tiny compared to you, but I'll gladly give you a hu—"

"Ugor. Then I won't hold back."

[The constellation 'Muscle Pig Who Dreams of Defying His Father' challenges you to a duel!]

Huh?

"Prepare yourself, Father."

Uburka clenched both fists.

"I've waited eagerly for a day like this to come!"

Then he charged at me.

With a single step from Uburka, the mountain range trembled. The snowfield on the peak collapsed and cascaded downward, while the blizzard reversed direction and surged into the sky.

"W-wait. Son. Just wai—"

"I suffered an ignominious defeat 350 years ago, but today will be a little different!"

Uburka threw a single punch.

[The constellation 'Muscle Pig Who Dreams of Defying His Father' roars.]

At that moment, heaven and earth shook.