Chapter 364: Episode 102: White Bird (5)

Oscar let out a groan.

"…"

All the questions and responses hereon would be based on the documents of the [Scriptorium]. Those were the records left behind by the personality of Vintage Clock, 'White Bird', because the white bird was in charge of Yu Jitae.

Oscar and the Judges all viewed the same records for the same information. Because of that, Oscar had anticipated how they would try to accuse Yu Jitae in the trial and had prepared for them beforehand.

However, there was one thing that was difficult to argue against, and that was information about [Hostility] which did not exist inside Yu Jitae's memories.

He wasn't expecting them to mention that already.

According to the records, Yu Jitae could not discern which enemy it was that was holding [Hostility] against him since there were too many victims he had created.

How would anyone remember the number of bugs they had killed?

"Why are you not saying anything, Attorney?"

Oscar turned and glanced at Yu Jitae, who was still staying silent.

"In regards to that point, I believe it is worth mentioning that Vintage Clock's personality was fully responsible for tracking it." Oscar opened his mouth.

"Are you trying to shift the blame?"

"No. In the 7th iteration, there was the necessity to put exceptionally more effort into the baby dragons. Jobs had to be divided up. Because of that, the defendant, 'Keeper of the Clock' had no reason to pursue Hostility, nor did he have the time to do so."

"So in the end, you are saying he 'doesn't know'."

"…I request you take into consideration the process."

The 3rd Judge and its large pool of light slowly began to come out to the centre of the courtroom.

"I will now begin the true question. Recently, Vintage Clock's personality had left us and vanished. Even though we, the Judges, had personally gone looking for it, we could not find a single trace.

"Like how the transcendent authority had selected us Judges from respective lands for a flexible observation of reality, 'Personality' must have had been a similar 'existence'. Ahh, by the way, it was in the shape of a white bird. Ahh, how we miss it already…"

Coming to the centre, the Judge continued.

"…It stayed holed up in the workshop everyday working without any rest. Even though it was always busy after being chosen as the 'personality' of the Vintage Clock one day, it became even more busy with the start of the 7th iteration of the Keeper of the Clock."

"May I ask what it is that you are trying to ask?" interjected Oscar.

"O, Keeper of the Clock. Do you know where the 'personality' is?"

Oscar heaved an irritated sigh.

"I believe that is an unsuitable question for the defendant."

"Why would that be the case?"

"The corresponding 'personality' is a subordinate of the transcendent authority just like everyone here including myself. It is something even we, who are responsible for the works of the transcendent authority, do not know. So how could you ask that to an 'existence'?"

"So you mean, he doesn't know."

"I am not saying he doesn't know; it is simply impossible in the first place. This issue is not something that can be considered with such a simple…"

[Stop there.]

Oscar closed his mouth as soon as the Punisher opened its mouth.

[Attorney, do not doubt the question of the Judge itself.]

"…As you say, esteemed owner of the Temple…"

With an amused smile, the Judge continued.

"Esteemed Punisher. Do you see this? This is that 'Keeper of the Clock'. A life that should be used honourably by an existence was used seven times by him, and he wasted all of them. Even with those seven lives, he could not undo the entangled Providence."

The Judge laid out facts.

"In a situation like that, even though the 'personality' who should always be protected and communicated with has disappeared, he has no idea where it has gone to, and has no idea about the reason for the rampant [Hostility] even though it was clearly brought about by himself. Because of that, the entangled Providence remains twisted, and it is now overly jumbled to the point we do not know how it can possibly be fixed.

"What does this suggest?"

All the facts that had been interpreted in the way they wanted to led to one conclusion.

"–Does this not prove his incompetence?"

Their conclusion was that 'Yu Jitae was incompetent'.

It was then.

Oscar shouted with a scowl.

"Please wait! I have an objection."

[You may speak, Attorney.]

Oscar Brzenk knew how much pain Yu Jitae had to endure in his seven iterations of life. And he also knew how Yu Jitae had withstood them in harsh moments of life with superhuman willpower.

"He is not incompetent."

Remembering the records he had seen for over a month before Yu Jitae came to the Temple, Oscar added.

"In the 2nd iteration, he had to see the death of his lover with his own eyes. The last several years of the 3rd iteration were horrid even though he risked his life in massacring monsters at the cost of his body and mind. And in the 4th iteration, he had to watch the suicide of an existence he had treasured for over 20 years."

Was it correct to see someone who lost in a competition as a weakling? Was it correct to see someone who couldn't achieve their goal as a loser?

Oscar's answer to that was 'no'.

"After that, Keeper of the Clock avoided people, distanced himself from relationships and did not give affection to anything. He was desperate, and had struggled more than anyone out there making the most out of his given conditions."

However, the process building up to his success, were nothing but repetitive 'records of failure' in the eyes of some. The Judges gave uncomfortable frowns.

"You have to judge based on the result. Is it not true that he has failed, Attorney?"

"Can you not consider that a journey to success?"

"Nonsense! He has had seven opportunities already, and has failed six times! What is he if not a loser?"

"We do not know the result of the 7th attempt yet!"

"5 years have gone by already! Where can you find any record of success from those 5 years? Give me one line! If there is even one line of his success, then please do show us!"

Oscar clenched his jaws.

Indeed, there was no record of Yu Jitae going close to success in the repetitive iterations according to the [Records of White Bird]. So the fundamental issue was that there was no way to rebut the logic, 'Didn't he fail in all of them?'

But—

"This iteration is different."

Oscar rebutted.

This time, it was different.

He could say that with certainty.

"Please come out. Esteemed owner of Dimensional Providence…"

With his murmur, a black cat peeked out of his chest, from the gaps of his breastplate.

<The Authority, [Key (EX)] gazes at the Temple of Providence.>

The black cat was looking at the world with its yellow pair of eyes. 'Wait! T, that is…!' the Judges yelled in a fluster.

"Esteemed Punisher. I request for this personality of a transcendent authority to be the witness."

[It has been requested beforehand and will therefore be permitted.]

The suffocating air eased a little, at least in Oscar Brzenk's opinion. He sneaked a glance at Yu Jitae who had closed his eyes by the time he realised.

Before long, the memories of the transcendent authority were conveyed to everyone as black fragments. It included the journey Yu Jitae had experienced after the disappearance of Vintage Clock as he headed to the final goal.

His experiments with Myu.

"The entangled Providence is starting to be undone."

The process and results of those experiments.

"After a long journey of pain, Keeper of the Clock has managed to find the answer."

The [Conceptual World] of a black dragon that Yu Jitae had jumped into, and the coordinates of the outer dimension that was finally revealed at the end of the experiment.

"Now, everything will be fixed in just a little bit of time."

Oscar shouted with a desperate heart.

"The Keeper is not incompetent!

"It is only that Providence is so jumbled up; the occurrences that happened outside the influence of Providence became regrettable events that cut off his two legs and arms, forcing him to crawl with his body."

The Sovereign passionately defended the struggle of a human that desperately tried to reach the unreachable goal.

"Based on these records, I request the Esteemed Punisher for a reduction of his punishment!"

Tension filled the air.

First question was about Yu Jitae's lack of results and Oscar had displayed the outcomes he had created as a response.

[That will be counted as an appropriate response to the first question.]

Great. It was a success.

Hiding his delightful mood, Oscar lowered his head.

*

[Key (EX)] turned its head to look at Yu Jitae. In the yellow eyes of the cat was a man who had closed his eyes a while ago.

What was he thinking? In curiosity, the cat jumped down from Oscar's chest and approached Yu Jitae before jumping high up and sitting on his broad shoulders.

Lowering its head, the cat slowly brought its nose to his neck. Immediately, the cat pulled its head back in shock.

The cat could identify emotions with temperature.

And his blood was very hot – as hot as lava.

[Judges may begin with the next question.]

The 12th Judge walked out in response to the Punisher's words.

"Let me begin. Whether he reached the objective or not at this point, is irrelevant to the current agenda."

"What do you possibly mean by that now," Oscar asked.

"I am saying that is beside the point. What is more important is that the Vintage Clock's personality has disappeared. Immediately after giving him a certain 'power', that is."

A scene flashed past Oscar's mind. It was when Yu Jitae was emotionally pushed into a corner; when he was trying to distance himself from Unit 301.

"We need to focus on that point. There is a gap in the record. Around 30 seconds based on the standards of Earth. Is that correct?"

"…Yes."

"I will hereby refer to this as the '30 second gap'."

Oscar thought to himself.

Vintage Clock's personality had personally visited Yu Jitae, and had shared a certain conversation.

But that was omitted from the record.

In addition, this was something even [Key (EX)] had no idea of. It might be that it was simply staying silent despite knowing the truth, but in any case that was how things were.

"Vintage Clock's personality had pulled in and used a tremendous amount of Providential power for the Keeper. It had flooded him with authority that was exceptionally over the top for a '7th life'. It is because the personality had been treasuring him too much.

"My speculation is that his incompetence forced the personality of Providence to create the 30 second gap to give additional power to him. We can assume that the white bird had voluntarily used up all its energy due to that.

"That is not the end. The clock tower has stopped operating. It was locked from inside and is unable to be opened despite the constant attempts of several Judges.

"Do you know what all of this suggests?"

The Judge suddenly raised its voice.

"That incompetent man, is wasting the power of our authority–"

***

Clone 2 absentmindedly wiped his face.

"Huu…"

He met a lot of Vintage Clock's subjects, and listened to a lot of their conversations but not a single one of them gave him a concrete direction about the white bird's location.

No-one in this [World of Providence] knew anything concrete about the clock tower or the white bird.

"Ah, seriously…"

He was in a rush.

The clone had already been in a rush but he was becoming more and more impatient.

Since he had already been to most of the important places, he now couldn't even tell where to go for more information. That was when a status screen of [Conceptualisation (SS)] appeared in his sight.

<The Authority, [Conceptualisation (SS)]'s owner is shaken.>

In that instant, the world fluctuated as objects and the dimension started to wobble.

Clone 2 instinctively noticed that something had happened to Yu Jitae's inner mind.

"Where? Where do I have to go… Why does no-one know anything. Why, why, why…"

His irritation uncontrollably rose up in a strange direction. He had to follow Yu Jitae's orders no matter what, but he simply didn't know how to approach it.

"…"

However, he had no time to powerlessly whine so Clone 2 headed straight to the clock tower (Vintage Clock's workshop) without holding back. Underneath the sky-reaching clock tower, he could see a small door which would barely fit one person.

Kung kung!

He knocked on the door, but received nothing in response.

"Hello!"

Kwang kwang!

Even though he was told not to do anything that might attract the Temple's attention, he had no other choice at this point.

"Anyone inside!"

Kwang kwang kwang!

"If there is someone inside, please open this! I have things to do inside!"

Kwang kwang kwang!

"Come out!"

Kwang–!

He kicked but there was still no-one coming out as if no-one was inside the building. To be fair, it was an enormous tower so it was possible they couldn't hear him.

"…"

Suppressing his hurried mind, the clone turned his head to the sky and glared daggers at the clock tower. It was tremendously enormous even when he was seeing it from a distance and naturally, it appeared even bigger when he was this close.

How many metres would this thing be…

How heavy would that swinging pendulum be… it's as big as a house…

It was when he was thinking about some random things that something strange entered Clone 2's eyes.

"…Nn?"

The clock tower was obviously in the shape of a vintage clock. Beneath the sculptures that looked like a leaf, a bird and a turtle was the face of a clock, and on it was an hour hand, a minute hand and a second hand.

So far it was the same as a normal clock… This conceptual world only had a day and night, with no existence having any interest in time apart from that. Because of that, he was the only one that could tell something was odd.

…The clock looked rather strange.

Why was the hour hand still at 1 o'clock?

Even though the minute and the second hand were moving…?