Chapter 59

"But you're innocent. I KNOW that you're innocent. I merely manipulated what I know to fulfill my revenge. To satiate my rage and emotions. I could've wrongfully killed you as I did with others. That's not justice, that is murder." He said in a confused tone.

"At the same time, isn't that same emotions the sole reason why murder is wrong? The loss of significant someone causes suffering, especially emotionally. If not for that fact, we wouldn't have known that murder is wrong. After all, we murder animals to eat. But we don't care about them enough to call it murder and not do it… It's merely for survival.

They say it's because justice is based on logic and revenge on emotion, but what difference does that make? Would logic return the people you've lost? Would they alleviate your pain? Would the thought of seeing them live after they took away what you have… be gone with some logical thought? Personally, I don't know. And I don't care. As long as I kill those connected to the loss of that important someone, I wouldn't think that I'm wrong."

Hisashi said so as he smokes the cigarette. He felt a stare from his side so he looks at it only to see Jihu staring at him.

"Oh. I'm just saying that if I'm in your situation with full honesty. I'm not saying so to sympathize with you. Definitely."

The two sit in silence as the sky starts to darken. Hisashi even gave some apples to Jihu and they both eat while smoking cigarettes. Then, Jihu notices the small paper beside Hisashi, which looks like the view from their sitting place.

"Why are you painting? And also, why do you go around hunting ruins? Do you not have anyone?" The old man asks as he took the small paper. Hisashi didn't answer for quite some time.

"I got someone. Maybe… As for the painting? Nothing. Just as a hobby. Why not paint the places you went to in adventure? That includes ruins. After all, if ever I tell someone the tale of my adventures, it's easier with pictures, right?"

"As a hobby? You go around different places for adventure and hobby. You don't seem that hedonistic to me." Hisashi didn't reply to this remark and changed the topic.

"Did you bury her? The Aime that I know, I mean." He asks.

"I would've. But the scroll absorbs her body back just like how my dolls disappear after I use them. The only thing that didn't get absorbed was this." Jihu said as he takes something out of his pocket.

It was a small glowing orange ball which has mana enveloping it. Seeing the ball made Hisashi knit his brows and almost took it by instinct.

"Can I check it?" He said which Jihu hesitantly accepts. While holding the small ball, Hisashi was reminded of something but wasn't sure.

"What is this? Is this some sort of a core?"

"I… I don't know. I just saw it for the first time and even if it is, I didn't check as I don't know how I was even able to create Aime. Whenever I used the spell, I would summon the dolls I used to fight you but then, they're not living like Aime. They're merely… dolls."

'Is it the thing I detected before inside her?' Hisashi thought. Thinking of the only thing that reminded it of him, he went to work and put some mana into it.

As soon as he did, he feels the familiar sensation he got on the dungeon. His mana was being sucked but it was miniscule compared to the real dungeon core. In Hisashi's speculation, it just probably has a function like so to help Aime be self-sufficient, unlike Jihu's other dolls.

The thing that makes him wonder was… what's their difference? He thought of it for a long time and even gave back the bead before he thought of something.

According to the old man, when Aime returns as a doll, she didn't know anything, akin to a newborn even anything about her father. That same miracle also happened while Jihu held his old family's dead body.

"Old man. You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but how recent is your family's corpse when you reach them?" The question contorts his face but he expects that the kid has something to say.

"I don't know. I'm not an investigator or an expert on that." He says.

"But in terms of the look, did you reach your daughter still with a breath?" Hisashi asks, blind to the old man's displeasure.

"No. But…" "But what? I'm trying to help here." Hisashi's tone almost made the old man snap.

"She wasn't cold! Unlike my wife."

"Then would you believe me if I told you?"

"Told me what? Don't stop at important bits!" The old man was now pissed.

"That your daughter's soul was inside this? Or at least a fragment of it."

"What? What do you mean?!" He was shocked, almost grabbing Hisashi by his clothes.

"Do you know where the souls of a person come to after they die? I'll save you the trouble. Some say that it breaks and gets sent to Limbo, or becomes one with the universe. However, before each of that happens, they would be given a brief moment.

So most probably, before your daughter's soul fully pass away, it synchronizes with your sorcery and created a core similar to the ones fueling dungeons and you basically recreated her. However, since it was broken, it must've been just a fragment making her not remember anything."

This revelation shocks him to his knees that even when he was sitting down, he almost fell. He was trembling so much that his voice was also shaking.

"A-A-… Are you sure? Is that true?" He eagerly asked.

"No. I don't know about what happens to souls when someone dies. But if there's something that I was confident about, it's the fact about your daughter's soul being in here. Meaning…"

"I can recreate her!" Jihu shouts. "Yes." The teen answers.

After that, the old man quickly took out his scroll and creates parts for Aime's new body. Compared to before, it looks a little older… probably accurate to her supposed age, but Hisashi simply watched the process with no change of expression – not even a smile.