Chapter 847: Fox and Flower
Rookie stepped into his own space.
For a very long time, it had been a place where he had stayed alone. Recently, one by one, traces of other people had begun to settle there. In the wide living room connected to the field, a large TV had been installed. The sofa and table in front of it were for Young Chaos.
As Yu Myungwoo ended up staying there continuously, Rookie had made him a separate workshop and bedroom as well. On the living room wall hung a framed Christmas card. Beside it was the portrait of Rookie that Han Yujin had drawn for him. Rookie’s gaze came to rest on the picture.
‘Honey…’
Unavoidable sacrifice was a reality there was no escaping. No matter what kind of intelligent life one spoke of, sacrifice had always existed within their histories. Not everyone could survive every time. Most living creatures abandoned a portion so that the majority could live on.
Rookie had seen countless worlds, and he knew that fact clearly. Even so, he could not tell Han Yujin that he was wrong.
Even when this might be the last moment.
“How much longer do you think Elder can hold out?”
Yu Myungwoo, who had returned after Rookie, spoke the moment the path closed behind them. Rookie turned to look at him.
“…He’s already held on long enough.”
It would not have been strange if Crescent Moon’s Cradle broke out of the dungeon at any moment. Yu Myungwoo let out a short sigh.
“Even if Yujin uses Final Recompense, it will be difficult for him to handle the Cradle as well. Above all, they have hostages on their side.”
The world where Han Yujin’s precious people were waiting for him.
Even if the system administrators gathered and began protecting it, the Cradle had far more transcendents. If they threw themselves in without regard for their own lives, the administrators would be at a disadvantage. Besides that—
“I also don’t believe the administrators besides you, Rookie, will fight desperately to stop them.”
To them, it was only one world.
Rookie’s expression darkened as well.
“There is the reason that they have to protect the system, but… if the situation turns against them, they’ll say it would be better to cut the Fifth World’s system away entirely and use that to block them.”
“And the duration of Final Recompense is only seven days. If the Cradle’s transcendents simply drag things out for a week, Yujin will revert to normal before he ever gets the chance to go after Crescent Moon.”
If his own world was attacked, Han Yujin would not be able to leave it. Fighting to protect something was not easy. It was a difficult fight even with no burden at all, and if there was something he had to carry, the odds of victory would drop even further.
“So we have to do something, one way or another.”
Yu Myungwoo spoke.
He took a step forward. The surrounding scenery changed, and a space meant for a system administrator appeared. At the same time, hundreds—thousands—of system windows rose all around them. Yu Myungwoo felt a faint regret that he only had ten fingers.
“There’s nothing you can do, Blacksmith!”
Rookie, who had followed immediately after him, shouted. Mana circuits belonging to the system flowed across the endlessly high ceiling and the vast walls. Here and there, bluish light flashed.
“We don’t have time. First, please grant me the qualification to be your successor as system administrator. I’m asking you.”
“I’ll do that, but, Blacksmith, you said you were going to help Honey go home!”
As he opened his own system management window, Rookie’s ears twitched. He bared his sharp teeth, making it very clear that he was angry, but Yu Myungwoo paid him no mind and looked up at the system hall.
“I should at least be able to manipulate the dungeon and help Elder.”
“If you interfere in such an unbalanced way!”
“I am well aware that I will have to bear the price for it.”
“That isn’t something you can say so lightly!”
Yu Myungwoo possessed the aptitude to be an administrator. He could be called a disciple both of Sharlos, the former system administrator, and Rookie, the current system administrator. And since he was the master of Sharlos’s space, the Golden Forge, he could touch the system even though he had not yet become a transcendent.
However, he did not yet have the ability to pay the price for abusing the system. If Rookie or another transcendent interfered, it would be no more than falling into a long sleep. But Yu Myungwoo might have to wager something beyond his life.
“And dungeons aren’t omnipotent. At best, you might only buy us a few hours. It could end up completely meaningless!”
Rookie’s two ears trembled. Why were they all so reckless? Why was everyone—
“Honey, Lord Chaos, and you too, Blacksmith!”
Even Chain.
“Why are you all trying to go that far…? Blacksmith, you’ve already done everything you can for Honey. More than enough—”
“Because I want to.”
Yu Myungwoo smiled.
“To be honest, I believe I’ve already repaid everything I owed Yujin. If we weigh it out simply, making Grace was probably enough.”
He had poured his materials without reservation into the most precious magic stone.
Even if Yu Myungwoo rose to the position of transcendent, it would be difficult for him to make such an item again. The magic stone of Sharlos, the original master of the Golden Forge and Ismuar. The materials Sharlos had left behind as his keepsakes. The final flame of Sharlos that Ismuar had carried.
The item born when all of those conditions aligned was Grace. Grace was young, and once she fully matured, she would become a being impossible to assign a rank to.
“Yujin made my potential bloom. I gave him the greatest fruit I could produce.”
The finest work that Yu Myungwoo’s potential could have created.
When he handed Grace over to Han Yujin, Yu Myungwoo’s debt had vanished completely.
“After that, it was simply as his friend.”
“…Simply as his friend?”
“Yes. That reason is enough. I know what I want to do now, and I’m able to do what I want to do.”
Yu Myungwoo knew himself. His own abilities, his own worth, and the will he carried. That was why he moved toward what he desired without hesitation.
“To be honest, I’m not really in a position to scold Yujin. I’ve acted however I pleased too. I still am.”
However, the Han Yujin reflected in Yu Myungwoo’s eyes tended to treat himself as a tool. Wanting to protect others because he chose to do so and throwing himself away in order to protect others looked similar, yet were completely different. Han Yujin, too, had changed a great deal by now, but still.
“It truly is something I want to do, so what can I do about that?”
Yu Myungwoo’s gaze turned to Rookie.
“You should do the same, Rookie.”
“M-Me too?”
“You’ve worked hard and done well until now. So it’s all right for you to do what you want at least once.”
Rookie flinched and blinked. A powerless voice slipped out of him.
“I don’t think I’ve… done well. Lord Chaos said I interfere with the system too much, and Honey got angry at me over and over…”
“It’s true that the Unfilial Children tried to manipulate people while looking down from above. Even so, your purpose was to save worlds, and in reality, you did save them.”
“…Yes! There are several worlds we helped without causing any particular problems, without deceiving them or using them one-sidedly!”
Rookie clenched both fists as he answered.
It was true that he had devoured his own world. It was true that he had grown terribly numb and looked down on people as targets he had to save. But at the same time, it was also true that Rookie had saved people.
“You will need to draw a clear line and make sure you don’t cross it, but the fact remains that you and the other Unfilial Children are performing a service without asking anything in return. Most people probably don’t even know the system administrators exist.”
“…Because they mustn’t find out. We only pass limited information to a very small number of S-Rank Hunters, and only when necessary.”
Rookie’s ears drooped.
No matter how hard he tried, nothing came back to him. Within the same group, they merely congratulated one another, saying they had saved another world and that was enough. Perhaps that was why they had come to look down on the people belonging to those worlds from a step removed, not treating them as equals. One did not seek recognition from mere tasks that had to be completed, rather than from fellow people.
“I still find it unpleasant that you tried to use Yujin. The Mermaid Queen’s behavior in particular.”
“I’m truly sorry about that!”
“Even so, as someone who belongs to a world and yet also has a foot in the system—thank you for your hard work.”
Yu Myungwoo bowed his head politely. Rookie, flustered, bowed back.
“Thank you.”
“N-No, I’m—!”
Rookie clutched his own ears. He could not tell what he was supposed to do. It felt different from when Han Yujin had told him thank you. Yu Myungwoo knew what Rookie had done all this time to protect many worlds and acknowledged it before offering him those words.
Apart from what had been wrong, he had worked for everyone.
“It was something I wanted to say once I came to understand the system more deeply. If not now, I may never get the chance.”
“Blacksmith!”
“Even if time flows a little differently here, it will soon be ten minutes. I want to help my friend.”
Rookie looked up at Yu Myungwoo, then nodded.
Rookie’s fingertips and tendrils began touching the system here and there.
“You are already my junior, Blacksmith, so the registration itself won’t take long. If I do this… it’s done.”
“Then—”
“And I am your senior.”
Beeeeep—
With a sound like a warning alarm, the system windows around Yu Myungwoo vanished all at once. At the same time, a rounded hemispherical barrier enclosed him.
“What are you doing?”
Yu Myungwoo’s hand touched the barrier. He tried to analyze and nullify the flow of mana within it, but it was layered and complex, too intricate for his still-inexperienced self to handle. Worse, whenever he thought he had caught a thread, the flow changed and sent him back to the beginning.
“Now you’re my successor too, Blacksmith. Someone I have to keep safe, protect, and teach. You’re one of mine.”
Rookie smiled. His small body lightly floated upward. Systems gathered around him.
“Rookie!”
“Then does that mean I can call you by name now? Yu Myungwoo. Myungwoo. It feels awkward.”
A hint of regret appeared on Rookie’s face.
“I… don’t have a name to teach you. I was never given one.”
Memories he had buried long ago slowly began to surface.
To draw out every bit of the power he possessed, Rookie looked into himself. Into the deepest place he had avoided for so long.
“Don’t worry, Yu Myungwoo. Honey is my friend too. And I’ll be much better at this.”
A king locked in a tower.
A small, high window where moonlight seeped through.
A festival was taking place outside. A festival whose honoree had long since been forgotten. They gave thanks to the king inside the tower who brought abundance to the world. Yet no one knew the king’s name or face. Not a single flower from the festival reached inside the tower.
The petal-like hem of Rookie’s clothing swayed.
The desert village where he had been born.
The young beastkin had pointed ears and a full, bushy tail. Unlike now.
Rookie’s eyes squeezed shut.
‘It’s all right.’
No matter what he looked like, it was all right now.
Han Yujin had told him it was all right.
And they had not been mere words. He was a person who had embraced even a complete flame.
‘An unlucky black!’
Someone in a distant memory shouted.
A fox with black fur.
His two eyes were pure white, reflecting nothing at all.
They said he was cursed. His parents wept, saying a desert evil spirit had switched their child. It was a barren land with no room to raise a disabled child.
The fox kit was abandoned in the desert.
A few days later, when the villagers came to collect the corpse, they saw water rising around the child. The child had instinctively drawn water forth in order to survive.
A young child with powerful magic.
The child was taken in and raised to serve the village. He had been born to help people, and it was his duty to bring abundance. The child believed that was only natural. Even after he began to perceive his surroundings through mana instead of sight, even after a childish curiosity was born in him, he endured it. He believed it was right for him to live trapped in a house surrounded by high walls.
The day the child went outside was the day people from the city came and persuaded both the child and the village.
That day, he crossed the gate for the first time.
He was a child capable of perceiving everywhere his widely spread mana could touch, but moving through it directly was something different. Among the gathered villagers, children were laughing. Healthy children living in abundance. One of them, dressed prettily, ran toward him.
‘Thank you for everything until now.’
The child held out a wreath of flowers precious in the desert.
Soft, wavy beige fur. Red, round eyes.
Perhaps the adults had told that child to do it.
But it was his first and last.
The child entered the tower.
At some point, the color of his black fur faded, and his white eyes turned red. They reflected the world in an ordinary way. He did not grow any further from his small childlike form. There was no one to tell him that he had changed, so he himself did not recognize it either. His perception had always been spread outward. He never looked at himself.
“I am the nameless king locked in the tower.”
Rookie’s body grew.
His drooping ears rose into sharp points. His hair lengthened and flowed loose.
“A system administrator. Rookie, who is no longer a rookie.”
Now he had a junior and successor.
His red eyes turned pure white. A faint blue light lingered in them.
The tails of the young and ancient fox spread out like flowers in full bloom. Half of his hair was black. The other half had been bleached white by the years. The same was true of his nine tails.
Blue and white light wound around him.
Eyes that could not see looked upon the system.
Eyes that fundamentally pierced through the flow of all magic in the world.
He perceived Yu Myungwoo, Han Yujin, and Young Chaos at the same time.
So that all of them could do what they wished to do.
‘The system.’
The system maintained by its first creators, who had thrown themselves into it.
He recalled the history of the system’s creation that Young Chaos had told him. Its process and principles.
His two hands spread wide.
‘For a few hours, at least.’
He would be able to support it with all the strength he had.
And the result would be—
The fox’s body began to accept the system, support it, and assimilate with it.
At the same time—
– Don’t worry.
A single flower brushed past his ear.
– Everything will be all right.
Within that gentle whisper, the fox fell asleep.
Ruuuuumble—!
The earth split open, forming a colossal rift.
The trail of destruction raced across thousands of meters, shaking everything in every direction. The sky was a chaotic riot of colors, like every kind of power had been mixed together, kneaded at random, and splattered like paint. In some places, the cold was enough to freeze even the air. In others, the heat boiled so fiercely that a single breath would cook one’s organs.
“What hardship in my old age.”
Young Chaos spat out blood carelessly.
The situation was not particularly good. He had no room to recover the arm that had been severed. Broken and melted weapons were scattered everywhere. Even his last remaining sword had snapped in two moments ago. Even so, his stance had not yet faltered. There was no sign whatsoever of surrender or intimidation.
– It is a shame for an ancient transcendent to disappear.
One transcendent spoke in a tone suggesting that he should retreat even now. Their advantage was certain, but the transcendents, suppressed by Young Chaos’s presence, could not rush in easily. If he bowed his head now, he would be able to survive.
But.
“I am enjoying myself right now.”
Even though his one remaining hand was empty, Young Chaos smiled.
“There is nothing to pity and nothing to regret, so fold your tongues away and come at me.”
If anyone pitied him, that would be what angered him instead.
Young Chaos stared straight at the surging wave of power. If there was one lingering attachment left to him, it was concern for the little ones he had somehow ended up taking in.
‘I should have paid them a little more attention.’
Other than that one fragment, there was nothing left behind.
Young Chaos stepped forward.
And in front of him—
Kwaaaang—!
The attacks pouring down were blocked by something.
Then came a voice thick with concern.
– How did you end up looking like this?
A pair of fluttering veils gently brushed over Young Chaos. Other voices followed.
– It’s been a long time since we’ve seen you this much of a mess!
– Still, you seem the same as ever. That’s a relief.
– My goodness, why are you carrying so much?
– Is this because of the promise? You could have forgotten it in moderation.
– How much time has passed? I’ve been asleep the whole time.
– Lighthouse Keeper, you did wake up from time to time.
– Sloth woke up too. Recently. Hey, don’t fall asleep here of all places!
Dozens of voices clamored all at once.
The expression of Young Chaos, who had stood unshaken even at the edge of a cliff, stiffened for an instant. His two red eyes trembled faintly.
“…Wildflower.”
– Hello.
A sky-blue bundle of fur circled Young Chaos like a drifting flower seed.
Even though countless enemies stood before him, Young Chaos turned his head. Right now, he could. It was all right.
“…Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?”
Familiar faces entered his eyes.
“Or am I already dead? A revolving lantern?”
– Don’t say something so unlucky!
Wildflower’s antenna struck Young Chaos on the back.
– We don’t have long! If this goes on too long, the child might disappear completely.
– Maybe it’s because he’s young, but he’s reckless.
“A child? …Don’t tell me it’s Rabbit.”
– He’s a fox. That child temporarily took the entire system onto himself alone.
– That is how we were able to wake for a little while.
– We do not have time for long greetings.
The system’s first creators looked up at the Cradle’s transcendents.
– We’re poor at fighting, but—
– One sword is enough.
“…Yes. Always.”
Young Chaos smiled.
He turned around again.
Gentle streams of mana began pouring down toward him. The arm he had lost instantly returned to its original form.
– What have you been doing all this time?
– You’re a mess, an absolute mess!
Every kind of curse and restriction that had piled in layers upon Young Chaos’s body began to wash cleanly away. Then powers of protection and blessing settled into him.
“I am your sword.”
A wooden stick appeared in the hand of the oldest sword.
To knock some sense into the young ones, this would be enough.
As long as those who stood behind him were there, he was the sword itself, one that would never lose.
Wrapped in soft veils, Young Chaos kicked off the ground with a lightness beyond compare.
–TL Notes–
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