Chapter 68

When I realized, I was in the abyss.

At the same time, I realize it's Rain Gray's magic name, spoken by my own mouth.

A name I've never heard before in either this world or the lore of the game.

I had once recited it before, in front of a man called Sir Roland.

In the blink of an eye, the entire landscape flashed before me, and when I opened my eyes, it was all over.

I didn't even know what had happened; the next thing I knew, the mightiest knight in the kingdom was dead.

But what about the hero who answered the wishes of men?

What is this "Garden of Original Sin" that Rain Gray talked about in the first place?

Is it okay to leave me in the darkness of the moment again, never knowing what happened?

No, no, no.

It was not my will.

I was obligated to witness with my own eyes the landscape that lurked in the shadows.

─I open my eyes, focusing my consciousness.

To not let this moment, this fleeting moment, and all that it holds go to waste.

To face the hero in front of me, and at the same time, to realize the meaning of the Garden of Original Sin that was etched in Rain Gray's memory.

"─"

My eyes opened.

At the same time, the place was still an abyss where everything sank into darkness.

I was still walking on the abyss but I was not alone.

"...."

There was someone else in the abyss, someone else who remained silent.

At first, I thought it was a hero, caught in this realm with me but I soon realized where the "hero" was.

The hero was there too, at the feet of someone else, someone else in the darkness.

Just like he was then – sprawled at my feet like a doll with a broken thread. Dead, unable to do anything worth fighting for.

It was instant death.

"...Is that you."

At the same time, a voice spoke from the darkness.

A cold, emotionless voice, with a casual air.

It was a man in a raincoat.

My heart beat fast. For the first time in my life, emotions of confusion, bewilderment, and agitation were etched across my face.

"Rain Gray...."

And with that, I opened my mouth. For the first time, I spoke my own name, here and now.

For the first time, I said my name, the name of the person I am here and now.

Suddenly, I felt better about the hero who had fallen. He died without even putting up a fight, leaving me with no emotion. I didn't even care.

"Is that you...?"

I asked again. My voice is unbelievably shaky as I repeat the question.

"...Yes."

The man, Rain Gray, replied. To my surprise, it sounded exactly like the voice coming out of my own mouth but I knew that's the real thing.

That this was the truth I had been desperately mimicking and acting out all this time, given a role without knowing the language.

He didn't even deny it. He just affirms it so casually and moves on as if it's nothing.

It's my turn again.

There are so many questions I want to ask, I can't even begin to count them, but I know that the man in front of me, the man who has spent days and nights standing here, is not going to answer them all.

"Is this all your doing...?"

I asked.

Every question I had, condensed into a single sentence.

"Do you want answers?"

Rain Gray asked back.

"Yes."

I replied.

"I did."

At my answer, Rain Gray finally spoke up. He said he did it. He didn't need to say anything specific. That answer was all it took.

"What the hell do you want me...to do?"

"That's hard to answer."

Rain Gray said.

"Because the moment I answer, everything will be meaningless."

"─What does that mean?"

"You don't need to know."

The answer was as flat as it was curt.

"I'm afraid you won't get any kind of answer that you're looking for from me."

I chuckled to myself at the tone of his voice.

"You think that's going to convince me?"

"Not really."

Rain Gray shakes his head.

"You don't have to listen to me to be convinced, and you don't have to accept it."

After a pause, he said.

"It is your freedom to find your own answers, or to continue wandering aimlessly."

"My freedom...?"

"Yes."

He replied.

"You seem to value the members of the Black Snake."

"...!"

"Well, then, that's the way it should be."

"Wasn't it your will?"

"Of what?"

"As the leader of the Black Snake, to care about its members."

"Not exactly."

The next answer was surprisingly cold.

"I don't remember caring much for the members."

The voice was eerily cold, devoid of any of the bonds or emotions I'd come to expect.

"But if you value them so much, I suppose it can't be all bad."

"─What about Aria?"

"Do you like her?"

Rain asked.

"If you do, then that's what you should do."

Not to the real Rain Gray there, but to myself, his stand-in.

There was still an eerie nonchalance in the way he said it.

─as if it were all right.

A leader who believed that the members of the Black Snake were his everything, and gave them his loyalty without question.

He believed that they were his everything.

But Rain Gray's answer was surprisingly unexpected.

Unbelievable.

"Every single one of them risked their lives for your cause."

It was never my cause.

It was Rain Gray's cause.

"-My cause."

The words made Rain Gray chuckle. And then he shed the body of the fallen hero at his feet.

The remains of a hero who had appeared in this world without any foreshadowing, and who had fallen in a similarly fleeting fashion.

"You speak as if you know what it is."

"<The End of the World>."

I replied.

"The goddess I saw in the mausoleum told me that was your purpose. Am I wrong?"

Even the Black Snake members did not deny the words.

"...Not exactly wrong."

Rain Gray doesn't deny it.

"The whole troupe was still giving their lives for you, even now."

That's why I said it.

I didn't want them to end up as a meaningless puppet show, playing into the hands of a con artist.

I wanted their dedication, which had been by my side since I opened my eyes as Rain Gray, to be rewarded in some way.

"Isn't it worth it, isn't that why they're all giving it their all?"

"...."

"Isn't it because it's worth it that they all agree with your cause and sacrifice their all?"

"...."

"I believed so, and so in desperation, lest their faith and loyalty be betrayed, I played the part of the 'master' they believed in."

Rain Gray did not answer.

A short silence. At the end of the silence, there was a sound.

It was laughter.

"Do you know the greatest difference between a man and a tool?"

After the laughter, Rain Gray said.

"...What is it?"

"If you don't know, that's it."

Rain Gray didn't answer my question.

"But let me tell you one thing."

The answer betrays everything I've ever believed.

"I have never, not for a moment, valued a member of the Black Snake."

"─"

"Not Aria, not Alice, not anyone, not anything else in this world."

Nothing in this world is important to him.

Not Aria, not Alice.

"I only wish for their destruction."

There was no emotion in Rain Gray voice as he spoke about their foolish blindness and loyalty to their leader.

"To that end, kill them if necessary, take them into the fold if necessary. It's been that way from the beginning."

As he spoke, there was only one word I could use to describe him.

Evil.

I chuckle at the irony of it all.

"Are you sure that's all it was...?"

"Yes."

"Then why, instead of finishing it all yourself, did you ask me to take your place?"

On that subject, Rain Gray dropped everything and disappeared, watching everything from here.

"What the hell are you doing hiding here, what are you up to?"

"You seem to have forgotten what I said."

To that, Rain Gray replied.

"You don't have to listen to me, you don't have to understand me, you don't have to accept me."

He said.

"I'm just telling it like it is."

"And you expect me to believe that after seeing you hiding in a place like this, hatching dubious plans?"

"I suppose so."

Rain Gray said.

"As I said, it's up to you to decide what answer to give."

Repeating the same answer to the same question.

"But if there is any unintentional misunderstanding, I hope this clears it up."

─When I realized it, a pure white blast of magic flared from Rain Gray's fingertips.

I instinctively assumed it was an attack on me and unleashed all manner of defensive spells.

"...!"

It wasn't.

A gunshot echoed through the air.

When the sound died down, the Rain Gray in front of me was draped over the hero at his feet.

Two bodies lay at my feet.

At the same time, the blackened landscape returns to life.

"Master!"

"Master!"

I hear the voices of the troupe calling out to me, the voices of the troupe, who are both nothing and everything to Rain Gray.