Chapter 62

TLN: Zeitgeist is a word that comes straight from German — zeit means "time" and geist means spirit, and the "spirit of the time" is what's going on culturally, religiously, or intellectually during a certain period.

As I realized, I was one of those humans, like the people of the kingdom, who longed for a hero more than anyone else.

Someone who, more than any of the people, desperately wanted a hero to appear.

It was inevitable.

Until a hero appeared, this chaos would never stop and I had no intention of stopping.

"...You sang about wanting to be a hero like that."

"Are you happy to fulfill your dream of being a hero, little brother?"

That day, in front of the heroes in the mausoleum, I remember what the members of the Black Snake said.

They weren't words spoken to a stranger who had never seen them before.

"They're worth fighting for, aren't they? There you go, brother stuffed as a hero!"

They were supposed to be forgotten by the world after fulfilling their heroic mission, but the troupe remembered them all too well.

At the same time, I was no stranger to the heroes, and I was no exception.

Every single one of the 18 heroes there was an alter ego that I had created.

It was supposed to be just a game, a story I watched through a monitor. And just when I thought it wasn't, it was, and just when I thought it wasn't, it was again, a game story with my fingerprints on it.

What is this world? How did I end up as Rain Gray?

What did the real Rain Gray want and where is he now?

No matter how much I think about it, I can't come up with any answers.

But if the heroes are truly the "puppets of the world," as I saw in the mausoleum, then they will continue to stand in the way of the Black Snake, as they have always done.

In other words, I can't guarantee the lives or deaths of the members of the troupe who are currently standing by my side.

I didn't want to let that happen.

I don't want an ending where the character I've raised from beyond the monitor casually defeats the members of the Black Snake.

As their leader, I had a duty to lead them, even if it was a meaningless mimicry filled with lies.

Just as they, Aria, have stood by my side as I wander this strange world.

Though it may have been the result of blindness and foolishness, of being so pleasantly deceived by my lies, they were all I had.

When I realized, all I was left with was the lie of the "Black Snake" relationship.

At least for me, that crimson lie bled redder than any truth.

In order to protect that lie, the presence of the heroes I saw in the mausoleum is a stain on me that must be erased from this world.

Therefore–mixed in the crowd, I longed for heroes more than anyone else.

*

The man was revolution personified.

More than anyone else, he advocated a radicalized form of revolution, and he hated the deeply entrenched hierarchy, unjust authority, and submission to the system by force.

Therefore, he believed that a revolution that overthrew the country from the bottom was the true spirit of the times but such a revolution ended in a daydream.

"It is not too late, Sir ...Robespierre, to go into exile in the Empire, where you will be able to plan for the future-"

"The Empire?"

The embodiment of the Revolution echoed in a voice that froze at the word.

"You mean to say that we, who fight for freedom, equality, and charity, should flee to the Empire."

"We have no choice!"

A small barony whose name isn't even on the land rolls. A barony, in other words, a tiny patch of land at the edge of the Holy Kingdom, a place that is virtually unknown.

The cramped enclave was the last bastion of a revolutionary force that once came close to overthrowing the kingdom.

Maximilian Robespierre, the leader of the failed revolution, now the ringleader of a band of traitors, bit his lip until it bled.

The man known as the Incorruptible had given his all to the revolution.

"This is how the dream of a republic ends."

After biting down, he muttered.

"─The villains have won."

At first, it was a small whisper.

"The villains have won."

Then it became a slightly louder murmur,

"The villains win! The villains won!"

Soon he was screaming like a maniac, repeating the same words over and over again. His voice was so overcome with evil that it was impossible to tell whether he was laughing or sobbing.

But none of the comrades present restrained the raving Robespierre.

At first glance, it might have seemed as if they were all swallowing their words with the same excitement.

Indeed, at first they did, but at a certain point they did not.

No one in the room had the ears or the head to hear and empathize with Robespierre cries anymore.

-Patter.

The human figure split into a cube and fell apart on the spot.

The mass of flesh, blood, and bones that should form the human face and body collapsed into countless geometric cubes with the height of the sides and the length of the bottom sides exactly matching.

A single human being, shattering into thousands or tens of thousands of cubes.

With it, a figure emerged from the shadows in the corner.

The silhouette of a woman, her hood pulled down deep, her black coat billowing like a uniform.

The hem of the coat fluttered freely in the absence of wind, and countless blades clashed against it, emitting an eerie clatter and clang.

"...is that Robespierre?"

When he realized it, Robespierre was the only one left standing.

But he wasn't afraid or intimidated. He didn't even panic; he just understood.

"Evil has come!"

And once he understood, he shouted in an endless frenzy.

"The triumphant evil has come to snuff out our last breath, to mock good, to defeat justice, to crush the writhing spirit of the age!"

The silhouette of a woman in front of the glowing Robespierre did not care.

"The spirit of...the times."

"Yes, it is. Revolution is the spirit of the age, the dream and ideal for which it cries out and longs!"

"I'm sorry to hear that," she says, her voice icy cold as if it were a matter of course, as if it were no one else's business.

"But I must correct that statement."

"A correction?"

"To be precise, revolution was once the spirit of the age."

"Certainly, revolution was once the spirit of the times," said the Reaper, claiming the last word before swinging her scythe.

"But apparently, the times have changed their minds."

"What do you mean, a change of heart?"

"A simple change of heart."

A change of heart, what does that even mean?

"It is impossible for me to know what the chief is thinking."

To say that the spirit of the times has changed its mind is the same thing as saying that the chief has changed his mind.

For the spirit of the times was the spirit of Rain Gray, the leader of the Black Snake, to whom she was loyal.

To Selena, there was no difference between the two subjects; they were homophones with the same meaning, just different pronunciations.

"Because there is only one unchanging spirit of the times, after all."

"...What is that?"

Robespierre asked, out of sheer curiosity.

"That which is at enmity with the world," replied the Grim Reaper.

"A man of the age is one who stands against the world."

"...."

"The spirit of the age, then, is the struggle against the will of the world."

At these words, Robespierre madness ceased.

He somehow understood what she was saying. It was so natural. Like a man of deep insight glimpsing the truth behind a veil.

An era is one that confronts the world.

"The enemy of the world."

Her master, too, is an enemy of the world.

That's why Selena of the Moon has sworn loyalty to him.

Still–to her, the two words made no difference, just different pronunciations that shared the same meaning.

"...History is the dialectic of the struggles of the ages and of the world."

Robespierre recalled the words of an earlier ideological historian who had once said.

"You speak difficult words."

The Reaper shrugged and laughed.

"I'm afraid I'm an unlearned elf, so I don't know much about such things."

She was not an elf learned enough to understand such difficult, metaphysical discourse.

She only knew and felt it with her skin.

As a dark elf, she had been born at the bottom of the dungeons and traveled from place to place until she met the man and became a member of the Black Snake, giving her all for his ideals.

The conversation ended there.

Suddenly, the man in front of her was no longer in one piece.

"Why did you leave us like that?"

Selena of Darkmoon, a dark elf, spoke to herself as the man became multiple pieces.

"...Lane."