Chapter 42

"I've been waiting for you, Chief!"

The nothingness behind my back ripped open, and a familiar girl's voice came from beyond. It was Alice's voice, sweet and melodious.

"This Alice is here to help! Ahem!"

And with that, the heroes before us stop walking.

As if wary of the waves of black, dark shadows that ebb and flow beneath their feet.

"Snake...!"

Nike's expression freezes as she calls out.

A brief confrontation.

The Black Snake was there, a group of villainous villains bent on the destruction of the world and in front of them, the heroes who had given their all to protect this world.

"Ah, there you are."

In front of those heroes, Silan laughed bitterly.

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

He revealed the three hundred eyes behind his snake-like slits.

"Are you happy that your heroic dreams have come true, little brother?"

As if remembering the hero who was there, he pushes away the memories he can never forget.

With an uncharacteristically nostalgic expression, he's caught up in the irrevocable web of the past but no answer comes back.

Once again, a short silence descends.

"This is no time for frivolous sentimentality, Silan."

The dark-haired Selena at his side adds coldly, her voice sounding uncharacteristically bitter.

"We all know that, don't we?"

"Haha. That's true, too, sister."

She added, then leaned in close to me and whispered.

"Give me the order, Captain."

Then, as usual, he asked me what I wanted.

"Uh, either way...I'll do as you say...."

Said Gretel the witch.

"Me, I don't know... other than that...."

The man laughing beside her was no exception, just laughing.

Everyone was waiting for my answer.

I, who didn't know anything about the truth of the world, who didn't even know the purpose of the organization I belonged to until just a short time ago.

As if they could not decide anything for themselves, but would only be loyal and obedient to my will.

A short silence descended.

"What?! What do you mean, they're worth fighting for, aren't they? There, you, stuffed as a hero!"

After the silence, the figure of a wolf could be seen in front of them, fierce and fiery, charging at one of the heroes.

I fell silent.

"...will fall."

After a silence, I answered.

"For now."

With a line that couldn't have been more villainous I turned and walked away silently toward the passageway beyond with the light still burning behind me.

The heroes didn't stop us, either.

So the rest of the Black Snake, too, will follow my lead and leave the place in silence, leaving the goddesses and heroes behind.

In the tombs and mausoleums of the heroes, I believed I would find the answers I sought. No, indeed, it was not without its harvest.

But the answers I did find were pushing me further and further into a labyrinth of incomprehension.

Before I realized it, we had already disappeared beyond the mausoleum's passageways. Every last one of my followers had made it out safely, and the goddesses and heroes who remained didn't bother to follow.

They probably let me go on purpose, I can tell that much.

The real battle with them is just beginning.

─That's it.

At least for today, the story is over.

When I turned around to look at the landscape behind me, I saw the interior of the abandoned factory where we had been staying until just now.

The Black Snake's members, who had followed me, had also returned safely.

They never questioned me, only obeyed and followed my orders.

After the twists and turns of that place, nothing had changed.

"Welcome back ...Rain!"

The others in the room, including Dalgi, jerked their heads in surprise, and I asked calmly.

"Do you still have anything left to say?"

"Oh, no. After facing the heroes of the Mausoleum, did you come back alive and unharmed?!"

"As you can see...."

I replied like it was nobody's business.

"Do you still have something to tell me?"

"That, that...."

As she knelt on the floor and shook her head, I saw no point in continuing the conversation.

"Fuck off."

I said.

"Yes, yes...?"

"To you, who can't even think of joining hands with us, much less face the trappings of the mausoleum–I have no further interest in you."

"...!"

"Is there anything left to say?"

I asked with a cold voice.

"If you wish to offer something to the Black Snake and share it equally, bring something worthy of it."

I said.

"Not some lowly charade like the one you're making now."

"...."

Dalgi just shook her head and said nothing but I didn't care.

After a short silence, she hesitantly pushed herself to her feet.

At the same time, her face was filled with humiliation and shame, and she wordlessly asked for my position.

"Alas, it's Rain...."

On the face of Dalgi, whose face should have been contorted in such submission and humiliation, was an incomprehensible joy.

"Truly the one I should serve, the vessel of the one I should serve."

Dalgi smiled.

"I will gladly endeavor to live up to your wishes, my lord."

I didn't care, just watched as she rose to her feet and walked away, as if it were no one else's business and were once again alone in the abandoned factory.

A group of villains whose goal is the destruction of the world, a goal so close to insanity that even the word conviction can't describe it.

The leader of the villainous group, the Black Snake, looked around wordlessly.

"To all of you, I have something to say."

I said, after looking around.

"What? Speak up, leader!"

"What, new orders?!"

Alice and Sandalphon shouted curiously, jumping up and down. I didn't answer right away.

"...Thank you."

There was a very short pause before I replied.

Thank you.

It was the first time I'd ever said something that came from my heart, not from anyone else, not from a role or pretense.

"-Huh?"

The wolf-haired man's eyes widened at the words.

I wondered if he was embarrassed by the line, which was in some sense un-Rain Gray.

"To all of you who have followed me, I want to thank you."

I tell it like it is.

"Chief, you're not saying anything new!"

Chuckles exclaimed in disbelief.

"That's right, we're going to follow you wherever you go!"

Alice was next to speak and the rest of the group was no exception.

They don't even think about the implications of my words, they just nod their heads in affirmation.

And in front of all of them, I don't answer right away.

I headed there, to the mausoleum, in search of answers.

In a sense, it would be fair to say that I got them. The truth of the world and its heroes, the purpose of Rain Gray and the Black Snake.

But the answers I found only pushed me further into the depths of the labyrinth.

I was then, and am now, a foolish puppet who knows nothing and can do nothing but be manipulated.

I stared at them behind me in silence, faced with a truth that was nothing new.

The people who willingly aligned themselves with Rain Gray in the face of the absurdity of his goal, the destruction of the world.

For what reason are they willing to become "Black Snakes" under Rain Gray?

At the same time, I remember what they looked like when they met the heroes at the mausoleum.

'They sang about wanting to be heroes....'

'Are you happy that your dream of being a hero has come true, little brother?'

The rest of them were no exception to Silan's words.

'There you are, stuffed as a hero!'

It was as if he had known them from the beginning.

Is that why they are following the absurd cause of <world destruction> with Rain Gray?

I don't know.

For I know nothing, now or then, and I am only a fake, mimicking the role of Rain Gray here.

So it would be absurd for that fake to think it was their job, just because it was close to their truth or the reality of the world.

It didn't make sense to me.

And yet

To me, it was all about the name.

─because that name was all I had in this strange world.

Without that name, I was nothing.

The name of the Black Snake must always be absolute to me, and so I would not tolerate anyone who insulted it, and those who stood in our way were no exception.

Faced with the name of the Black Snake, which I had cherished in order to survive, I truly realized that it was now my everything.

That it was all I had.

It was the same word, but the meaning of the same word was different then and now.

After thinking about it, I raised my head wordlessly, turned to them and spoke as before.

"Can you make me a promise?"

A promise.

"What do you mean, Chief!"

"A promise, that's a sudden thing to say."

"Yes, a promise, now that you mention it! Did you get it mixed up with an order?!"

"Yes, a promise from the leader, I'll do anything!"

I was silent for a moment as they chattered back and forth and listened to the chatter of my men, who didn't seem to mind my silence.

After listening, I finally spoke up.

"Don't die on your own terms."

With those words, the sound died away. In the freezing silence, Silan laughed.

"Haha. What a ridiculous order from our leader."

"I agree."

"Yes, it's an order! It's an order from the leader, don't die on a whim!"

Selena shrugged her shoulders in disbelief, and Alice raised her voice like a child.

"If you die on your own, you'll be fined a hundred times over!"