Chapter 21 (Reissue
Chapter 21 (Reissue
70
"Richard," I called to him, "what are you doing?"
The boy who was squatting on the ground, not knowing what he was doing, turned around, hurriedly wiped his dirty hands on his clothes, which were not much cleaner, and stood five meters away, lowering his head to me: "Teacher."
"There is an old lady in this village who used to help me. Now she is in poor health and can't see well. Her children are not around, so I will come to take care of her when I am free." Richard's bag contains matches, pens and newspapers for sale. In this era, newspapers were not widely distributed. Only the capital Trier and the surrounding big cities had newspapers. The newsboy shouted to sell newspapers in the streets and alleys. He also had shoe-shining tools in his bag. "I would read the newspaper to her, boil water for tea, and talk to her, and she would be very happy."
Richard Ernst was a special human being.
But it wasn't very special. I looked at him, and through the unique induction of my authority, I saw dozens of transparent threads wrapped around his hands. They were souls who were "saved by him and established important connections." Although he saved some people, he always did what he could. He helped those he was able to save, just like saving people from war, but he never tried to stop it from the root, such as promoting the concept of peace, or publicly opposing the radical aggressive ideas of blindly worshipping Russell.
From this point of view, he is indeed just an ordinary person.
"You're dirty," I said. "You can't come back with me like this. Why did you get yourself like this?"
"...Sorry, she lives in a small alley in the slums, and there is no complete sewage system there." Richard was a little embarrassed.
I nodded slightly. "Then go back to my manor through the small door of the stable and clean yourself up in the bathroom, just like before."
"Yes," he said, and followed me two meters away with his head down.
The road was very quiet, which surprised me. Because he always had a lot to say about various aspects. After all, as a young human, he had a lot of life experiences. For example, not long after becoming a Beyonder, he was persecuted by his peers with different ideas in the organization. He was taken away by his teacher and other seniors. Then, he was chased and attacked by the Indulgence Faction on the road, and more than half of them were killed or injured. Finally, he escaped to the manor of a nobleman by chance, and then found that the nobleman was a "devil" of a similar sequence...
"You're worried about something," I said.
Did he realize that being protected by the devil was not a glorious thing after all, or did the remnants of the temperance faction come to him and take him back?
"...Teacher, I am confused."
Richard spoke softly, his voice floating from behind: "People can earn money through their own labor, nobles also help the poor, the gods have established churches to protect the elderly, children, women and children, the Son of Steam has implemented the Civil Code to protect people's livelihood, and various injuries and illness subsidies and compensation for the families of the dead have gradually been improved. Why do people still live in such pain?"
“Because no one actually cares about people’s lives.”
He looked surprised, which I found strange.
Humans all act for their own interests, the gods act for anchors and reputations, and the nobles just slip a little money through their fingers. The codes and subsidies promoted by Roselle are to make the people participate in the war enthusiastically. No one is running for the people. Isn't this a clear thing?
I thought he could figure it out, so I didn't add anything.
"Okay, well, what you said... maybe..." After about five minutes, Richard finally responded hesitantly, as if his ideas had been broken down and were being reorganized. "Then, then, how can we change all this...?"
"Change?" I asked him, "Why should we change? People are as humble as blades of grass and are everywhere. We don't need to care about them. Even if they are burned to death, drowned by water, or killed by disease, there will always be more survivors. People will build their own nests, find food, and reproduce. They only need a period of recovery before they can continue to thrive. They are a cheap renewable resource. Why should we care about them?"
His eyes widened. His decades of life experience were not enough to react quickly to my answer after his worldview was shattered. His emotions kept changing like a revolving lantern. After a while, he finally calmed down, but his whole body seemed to have lost color in an instant.
"…Is this how you view the people?"
Richard regained his ability to speak and his usual calmness, and quickly began to think: "It has been like this for thousands of years... Could it be that the gods and high-ranking people look down on humans from this perspective?"
"You can think of it this way."
"No, that's not right." He suddenly realized something. "What about you, teacher? You have always been different. As a demon, you often stop killing when necessary and don't enjoy it. As an angel, a subordinate god in mythology, you never care about your believers or your sect. Since all gods are for anchors, why don't you need an anchor?"
...True God? I sneered in my heart.
"Because I am a god more powerful than all the gods currently on this planet." I answered him calmly. Although it was a bit absurd for a Sequence 2 demon to say these words, the demon path is inherently crazy and unreasonable. "The weak do not want to forget where they came from, so they cling to human nature. They clearly rely on humans to maintain themselves, but they cannot love people equally. This is their cowardice and hypocrisy."
"I don't need humanity. Because I know what it is."
"However, if you want to save the people, I have another theory to explain to you." Before he completely despaired, I changed the subject. He has outstanding talent and is an excellent actor. He is well-known among several batches of temperance fugitives. Although he was also despised by another group of people, he finally stood firm and was not afraid of the pursuit of the indulgence faction. This is a valuable chess piece, a prop that can only be cultivated. I don't mind wasting a little time to help him understand the world again.
"What is it?" he asked me expectantly.
"The world is now in an era of righteousness and capitalism."
"I know." The good student nodded. "This term was proposed by Mr. Russell and is of epoch-making significance." "..." I felt speechless for a second, and then said, "In theory, there is indeed a more advanced era, where material resources are extremely abundant, no one will starve or freeze; everyone has received a good education and will not compete with each other; there is no need to work hard, as long as everyone works eight hours a day, everyone can be fed."
"…God, a world where everyone can have enough food, clothing, education, and not have to work themselves to death? I can't imagine it." Richard muttered to himself, "So when will this era come?"
"It will never come." I interrupted his fantasy and watched his face change again. "In that era, everyone was equal. Everyone could live well on their own. What was the need for God?"
Richard's face suddenly changed.
"You, you mean." A row of dense cold sweat suddenly appeared on his forehead, "The gods... won't let that time come? Oh my God, the gods won't allow us to live on our own, because that day people will no longer believe in God... We will never be saved?"
I smiled and didn't answer the question directly. Instead, I called him to my side and said, "There will always be people who can be saved, such as the rich and the devout. Now that you know this path is not feasible, do you still want to continue studying?"
Richard hesitated for two seconds and nodded firmly.
71
"On October 29th, Zaratul, the leader of the secret society, visited me again in secret. I couldn't guess his true intentions. He seemed to just want to strengthen communication and mutual understanding between the two sides?"
"I felt that Zaratul was more powerful and mysterious than the two powerful men of the church I had met. He gave me a very similar feeling to my fellow demon. So I asked him casually without much hope if he was also an angel. As a result, he actually answered me!"
"He said he is a Sequence 2 'Miracle Master'!"
"Sequence 2? He, no, "He" is actually an angel too!! There are two angels surrounding me. Compared to the halo of the protagonist of the era, I suspect there must be some deeper reason behind this that I don't understand."
"Miracle Master? A master who is good at creating miracles? The name of this potion makes me imagine a lot! Is this the Sequence 2 of 'Fortune Teller'?"
"I tentatively asked Zaratul again, whether the so-called miracle is a miracle of fate? Is the 'Fortune Teller' path a way to gradually understand fate and manipulate fate? Zaratul skipped the first question and told me that fate is only a part of the 'Fortune Teller' path, and the path that truly represents fate is the 'Monster'!"
"He gave several examples of 'monster' pathways, Sequence 7 'Lucky One', Sequence 5 'Winner', Sequence 2 'Prophet', and the 1 at the top of the sequence, 'Mercury Serpent'! This is also known as the 'Snake of Fate'. This is the first Sequence 1 I know of, and it hits me exactly right!"
"Zaratul has accumulated a lot of knowledge that is very coveted. Out of curiosity about my fellow demon, well, I admit that I am a little afraid, so I asked Him for the name of the Sequence 2 of the "Demon" pathway."
"He glanced at me, as if he could see through my inner thoughts. He said frankly that it was because of the existence of his fellow villager that he postponed the timing of his first visit, because demons are always crazy and cold-blooded. He said that he was not sure about the Sequence 2 corresponding to the "Demon" pathway, but the name of Sequence 1 was "Filthy King". This is also a very amazing name. It sounds like the big boss in the dungeon! In order to play the role of Filthy King, does the demon fellow villager have to establish a demon empire? Hiss, it's terrifying to think about it."
"..."
"As far as I know, the 'Monster' path should be controlled by the Life School. This school seems to have some sequences of the 'Pharmacist' path. They advocate the three-fold division of the absolute rational world, the spiritual world, and the material world. Hmm, that's pretty cool."
"Zaratul also added meaningfully that the School of Life worships the moon. Why the moon? And not the goddess of the night?"
The long diary was finally finished. The amount of information was so huge that Klein once again experienced the feeling of having his head filled with knowledge. This was also the first time he learned the name of Sequence 1, and two at a time!
"Mercury Serpent", "Filthy King", both sound very desirable. Although "Miracle Master" is also very powerful, I always feel that it is still a little less imposing than "Prophet". I wonder what the name of the Sequence 1 potion of the fortune teller is... Based on the sequence name of the "Monster" path that he had already known, Klein judged that Zaratul was not lying. The following diary still contains a lot of information, such as the extraordinary characteristics will be inherited by the offspring, which can be regarded as answering some doubts about extraordinary creatures, in line with the law of constant number of characteristics. Turning back, he also learned that the current "King of the Five Seas" Nast Solomon was born in the era of Emperor Roselle, and is a high-sequence strongman over years old!
After reading all the diaries this time, Klein's emotions were completely obscured by the gray fog. He paused for a moment, tapped the bronze table with his fingers, and said with a smile: "I'm going to issue a task."
Mission! Audrey's eyes widened, she was both nervous and excited. At the same time, she found that the "Hanged Man" seemed to have not changed, but in fact he had become extremely nervous. Only the "Sun" was still confused and everything was normal.
"You can choose to accept it, or not." With the help of the Joker's ability, he spoke in a normal tone, "One of my followers has arrived in Backlund. He wants to accomplish something, but it is inconvenient for him to show up himself."
Seeing that Justice and the others did not speak but were thinking on their own, Klein issued his own tasks:
"What he wants to accomplish is to assassinate the ambassador of the Republic of Intis to the Kingdom of Loen, Beckran Jean Martin."
TBC
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A small collection of memories.
At the beginning, Richard was just an ordinary good man. Later, he learned to act beyond his ability and to rush into the fire.
Re-edit: Oh, by the way, I always felt that Edward's character gave me a familiar feeling, if I think about it carefully, white and black + has a frightening hobby in some aspects + a very likable appearance and personality + a middle-aged man who is very good at fighting + his wife died and has a child + a cross.
Isn't this Kotomine Kirei?
(End of this chapter)