The rumor spread uncontrollably fast.
I hadn’t realized it, but it seemed Alice was fairly well-known publicly.
Of course, it wasn’t that her true identity as the Oracle had been exposed.
Basically, since she always went around with her hood pulled over her head, it naturally made her an easy target for curiosity in many ways.
That said, it’s not like her face was never seen at all, and since she was quite attractive, it seemed she had been drawing public attention for various reasons.
“So what are you going to do about this?”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“No…! Then…!”
I was at a loss for words.
The Oracle didn’t care whether rumors spread or not. It’s not that she didn’t care about rumors involving me—
It was clear she simply didn’t care what kind of rumors they were.
“There’s nothing good about this kind of scandal spreading. I have a social reputation to maintain too.”
“You had one?”
“I should at least stop it from getting any worse.”
“I see? I thought you didn’t care about that sort of thing, considering you go around flirting with every woman.”
“I’ve never done that.”
“Sure.”
The Oracle let out a small snicker.
That openly mocking expression irritated me. But since she happened to resemble Alice, I couldn’t even properly get angry.
“What about you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re okay with rumors like this spreading about you?”
“It’s not like I’m in a position relaxed enough to be swayed by something like this. And I don’t care if rumors spread.”
Was that confidence?
Or did it mean she had no intention of caring about romance at all?
I had thought she didn’t feel quite human, but was her emotional range that different too?
“I’m going to die soon anyway.”
“…What?”
“I’ve got about a year left.”
The Oracle spoke of her situation as if it were nothing, casually sipping her tea.
Meanwhile, I felt as if I’d been struck by a hammer.
The Oracle and Alice are different people. She said so herself, so it must be true. Their personalities are different to begin with.
But still—
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“If something has a beginning, it’s bound to have an end, so there’s no need for you to worry.”
I didn’t like how casually the Oracle spoke about death.
“Oh, and until this matter is resolved, I have no intention of dying either, so you don’t need to worry about that part.”
“That’s not what matters.”
“Then what is? I trust you’re not going to say you’re worried about me. Honestly, we’re not that close, are we?”
“No, I think we’re at least close enough to be sad about each other’s death.”
“Then be sad.”
“How can you say something like that…!”
No matter what I said, the Oracle responded calmly.
She acted as if her own death meant nothing to her.
But was that really true?
“Aren’t you afraid of dying?”
“If there’s anything I fear, it’s failing to achieve my goal. But I believe you’ll somehow take care of that part. So there’s no reason for me not to be fine.”
“Don’t you have any regrets? There must be a lot more you want to do.”
“I’ll have regrets, of course. But Johan Damus, you should know by now. There are things in this world more important than life.”
“…….”
“To me, that is this world.”
There are things more important than life.
Yes, that’s possible. Even the students who died in the cradle must have held that belief.
There are examples even around me.
Kult Hereticus abandoned even his dreams and died for Helena.
Tillis accepted her sins and shattered her soul for Mastema, her only companion.
Vidar didn’t care if his body was torn to pieces for the future of his people.
Deus didn’t hesitate to discard his own body for the sake of his dream.
Something more important than life.
That was called conviction.
“To me, this world is more precious than anything else, and I want to protect it.”
“What do you mean, ‘the world’? You’re going to throw your life away for something so vague? In the end, it’s about saving others, isn’t it?”
“No, Johan Damus. There’s something you need to correct.”
“..….”
“You have Yuna Hermod and Ariel Ether, don’t you? Answer me honestly. Would you risk your life for them?”
I couldn’t lie.
If it were me, I would do the same. Because they’re no longer just strangers to me.
That’s why I was afraid of getting involved with people. Because once they stop being strangers, they become more important than myself.
In the end, I had no choice but to remain silent at the Oracle’s question.
“I like that about you. You can tell as many lies as you want for your own sake, but when it comes to those you love, you don’t let a single lie pass your lips.”
As if she expected that, the Oracle smiled brightly.
Since when did she know how to make an expression like that?
Lately, I found myself thinking that more and more often.
“I have watched people by seeing both the past and the future.”
Snap!
As the Oracle snapped her fingers, space shattered like glass, revealing the cracks between worlds.
“I’ve witnessed both their sorrow and their happiness, sharing in the ‘process’ of their lives.”
For a moment,
The oracle overlapped with the woman from my dream, the one who introduced herself as Alice.
Her appearance, her expression, and—
“If everything has a beginning and an end, then I will shape that process as much as I desire so that I won’t regret it when the end finally comes.”
Hearing the Oracle repeat those exact words from the dream without missing a single syllable made it feel like my breath had stopped.
With that, the Oracle stepped beyond space and disappeared.
“……”
Slowly, I covered my mouth and collapsed into a chair.
Mephi and Lapis once said that everything in this world has a beginning and an end. At the time, I came to recognize the “Beginning” and “End”.
But there was something everyone had overlooked.
Why did the Demon King split his soul?
What was he trying to conceal by raising a black sun in the sky?
– This world doesn’t have only beginning and end.
That day, the Demon King realized it.
– Between every beginning and end, there exists a process.
The existence of another apostle.
To hide her existence, he willingly sacrificed himself.
“Then…”
Mephi had said that as the world approached its end, their power would also grow stronger.
If that’s the case, then if the process between the beginning and the end were extended, that power would have grown exponentially.
It’s said that the Oracle has existed since the founding of the Empire. It’s also said that with each passing generation, an Oracle would appear.
She had been part of that entire process.
“Could it be that you…?”
There was someone who disappeared before even reaching two digits in age.
A person whose body couldn’t withstand such overwhelming power and burned away with starlight at a young age.
If she too had been an apostle of “Process”…
At such a young age, would an apostle of “process” who had already accumulated more power than she could bear have ever been given another chance?
No, or maybe….yes, then that means—
From the very beginning, that day—
“……”
If Alice hadn’t died,
If she had survived in some form,
Then perhaps…
***
“Cattleya Tales!”
“Oh, you’re here? You seem unusually emotional today, Johan Damus.”
“This is your doing, isn’t it?”
“My doing? What are you talking about? Why are you suddenly coming at me like this?”
“I’m talking about the rumors. No matter what, unless someone was pulling the strings, there’s no way they would spread this fast!”
“What rumors?”
“You’re saying you don’t know rumors that even street kids are aware of?”
There’s a limit to how shameless someone can be.
“Why don’t you sit down first? I don’t know what happened, but you look like you’re about to drop dead.”
“……”
“How about you stop taking your frustration out on me? I don’t know what it is, but it’s obvious you’re acting emotional just to avoid thinking about it.”
“Damn it.”
“Yeah, just like that.”
I don’t want to think about it.
I don’t even want to suspect it.
So I looked away. The problems right in front of me were already overwhelming enough.
I don’t have the luxury to get distracted by other thoughts right now.
Something like the Oracle’s true identity isn’t something I should be worrying about at the moment.
I can’t afford to mess up my priorities.
“That’s an uncharacteristically frightened look in your eyes. Where did you run away from?”
“Please shut up.”
“You’re the one who came to me. So what’s going on. Why does your face look like that?”
“……It’s because of the curse. I’m just not feeling well.”
“Sure it is. If you don’t want to talk, I won’t pry anymore. Still, I like to think of myself as a reliable adult. This is disappointing.”
“Funny hearing that from a merchant who’d swindle anyone. There’s a limit to how shameless you can be.”
I misjudged.
The woman in front of me had a sharper eye for people than anyone.
Just like that, she saw right through the masks and lies others had built up.
I chose the wrong destination.
“Please answer the question.”
“Oh, right. I was the one who spread the rumor.”
“Seriously……”
It was Andvaranaut who spread the scandal between me and the Oracle.
In the first place, the only group with the manpower to spread such rumors in such a short time was Andvaranaut.
They had once buried the scandal with Lobelia by covering it up with another rumor.
I figured something like this would be easy for her.
“No, seriously, why would you do that?”
“Obviously, for Emily.”
“…Ha.”
Figures. It seems she wanted to chip away at my image like this.
What a hopeless siscon.
“And it’s not such a bad thing for you either, is it? There’s nothing better than a scandal to divert people’s attention.”
“Do you even know what I’ve been doing lately to say that?”
I hadn’t told Catleya yet that I was planning to meet Faust. More than that, I had no idea how such rumors would help with meeting Faust.
Isn’t this just harassment?
“What do you mean, what have you been doing? Just looking at the source of the rumors spreading in the imperial palace, it’s obvious.”
“Aren’t you the one who spread them!”
“No, not that. I mean all the chatter about you becoming the strategist of the Guillotine Knights.”
“…What does that have to do with anything?”
“Are you really asking because you don’t know? The source of that rumor is Count Python.”
“I know that.”
“Then do you know how Count Python rose to his title?”
“……”
“You don’t, do you?”
“Just explain it.”
An unexpected hidden threat.
Thanks to that, my mind was able to cool down unintentionally.
“Count Python became a count by pushing out all his siblings. Then how do you think the youngest, who had neither ability nor popularity, managed to drive them all out?”
It’s nothing unusual.
How many times has something like that happened in the world?
“Politics and schemes, obviously. Do you get it? Count Python is an extremely devious person. To exaggerate a bit, he’s no different from Loki. And someone like that is spreading rumors meant to provoke you. Don’t tell me you still don’t see what the problem is?”
***
He stops at nothing to achieve his goals.
“The idiot of the Python family.”
That was the excuse people used to call him.
Not even just a weakling, but an idiot…what greater insult could there be?
But at the time, Count Python, Veil Python, was someone who could do nothing even when he heard such words.
“Stupid Veil,” “Incompetent Veil,” “Try being half as good as your brother,” “That’s why you’ll never amount to anything, Veil.”
All kinds of dagger-like words clung to his name like thorns.
Because of that, there was something he always said when meeting someone for the first time.
– Please, just call me Count Python.
Not his name, but his title.
That was the only thing Veil Python felt had any value.
“Isn’t it quite astonishing?”
He disguised an unfortunate accident to break the arm of his promising knight brother, then spread disgraceful rumors to bring him down.
He poisoned his sister, who was widely known to be wise.
He drove away his younger sibling who was called a prodigy to a distant land, and dealt with even his parents and relatives.
Truly the path of a villain.
Count Python had no intention of denying that he was a villain.
From the beginning, that was his talent.
Slander, schemes, traps. Finding the cracks in all kinds of crimes.
It was a truly dreadful talent. He crushed every member of his family and rose to the rank of count. The reason he went that far to become a count wasn’t anything special.
“After all, the one everyone called lacking and idiotic is now leading the family this brilliantly.”
It was rebellion.
It wasn’t that he had something he wanted to do after becoming a count.
Nor was he fascinated by the title.
He simply became a count to take revenge on those who said he couldn’t. In other words, it wasn’t the goal, just a byproduct.
“This is how I see it. People don’t change.”
Count Python said, tapping his desk with his finger.
He laughed as he looked at the corpses of fools who mistakenly thought he had softened and let their guard down.
“If someone looks different, it’s only because their clothes have changed.”
Count Python had not changed for even a moment. He was merely skilled at hiding himself in splendid garments.
“Does a snake stop being a snake just because it sheds its skin?”
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