Chapter 122: Eden Part 8

Helena spoke to Kult with an awkward expression.

“I asked the Doctor for a favor because I wanted to talk to you one last time, big brother.”

“What is there to talk about? Is there still anything left unsaid between us? We had enough time. And yet… why now, all of a sudden…”

Kult pushed Helena away.

Though he rejected her with a cold demeanor, the twisted look on his face made it clear—

Kult was afraid.

“When you stabbed your own heart and ended up like that… do you have any idea how I felt…!”

“Big brother.”

“……”

“Were you sad?”

“Yes…”

“Was it painful?”

“Yes…”

“Did you regret it?”

“……”

Helena’s death had been painful and sorrowful for Kult too.

Because he was someone who had continued to struggle, holding onto a sliver of his humanity until the very end.

But…

“No.”

Kult did not regret it.

He had chosen to move forward without ever looking back.

That resolve…one could admire its strength.

But what of the scenery that greets you when you do suddenly look back?

What of Helena’s face, tugging at Kult’s sleeve to turn him around. How can he bear to look at that?

Kult was still filled with fear.

“Actually… there was a time when I thought you might not be wrong, big brother. That the world was broken, and maybe fixing it just like you said would be the better choice.”

“In the new world, you won’t have to question anything anymore. So please, Helena…”

“But after speaking with the Doctor, my thoughts changed.”

She was probably talking about when I had been trapped in Kult’s paradise.

I must have had some sort of conversation with Helena there, though I’ve forgotten most of it.

All I vaguely remember is that Helena had taken her own life and asked me to show her brother a dream.

But if it really was our conversation that changed her mind, then what I said must have been something like this—

“Big brother. The world isn’t what’s broken.”

The world had never been broken.

It was always people who were at fault.

And that’s why only people can fix it.

***

Helena saw the paradise Kult had created.

A world with no pain and no sorrow. A paradise.

In that paradise, Helena could run without gasping for breath.

She never felt hunger or pain.

In a world where no one envied or hated another, she saw everyone smiling.

This is big brother’s ideal world.

It was beautiful.

So much so that her resolve began to waver.

Because the paradise Kult had sacrificed everything while even staining himself with evil to create, was a place where everyone was happy.

And then, suddenly—

Helena spotted a familiar face.

Unlike the other people who were part of Kult’s ideal world, this one felt… off.

There was something unnatural about him.

“Doctor Johan?”

“Ah, Helena? What’s the matter? Is it okay if we don’t play anymore today?”

Johan was smiling in an unpleasant way.

The moment she saw the corners of his eyes that were usually furrowed in a frown gently curve, Helena was so shocked she forgot all her past anguish.

“Your memory’s been sealed… Let me undo it for you.”

“Huh? What do you mean by—”

Just as the Prophet could wield divine power without anyone teaching him, Helena too was able to handle a small amount of it.

She released the memory restriction Kult had placed on Johan, and only then did she feel at ease.

“Ah, that’s more like the usual Doctor. Your frown’s even deeper now.”

“…It’s the stress.”

“I see.”

With his memories restored, Johan’s expression steadily darkened.

He had fully grasped the situation he was in.

“Are you the real Helena? Or are you just another illusion Kult created?”

“I’m real.”

“…Yeah, I guess that’s why you were able to unlock my memories.”

Helena nodded repeatedly.

As someone who had started to lose herself in this paradise, Johan’s cynical presence grounded in reality was a welcome relief.

“So what the hell is going on?”

“Well, it’s kind of a long story…”

Helena began to explain everything she’d done and the changes that had occurred in her body.

Johan listened quietly until she got to the part where she said she had taken her own life. At that point, he gritted his teeth.

“Fine, I get that you had your reasons… you little brat!”

Trying to understand… Johan gave up that halfway and smacked Helena lightly on the head.

This wasn’t something he could understand.

No, it wasn’t something he should understand.

“Hehe…”

Helena gave an awkward smile.

She hadn’t had any real choice, but she also understood how terribly it must have looked to others.

“So? Now that you’ve seen the paradise Kult created, your resolve is starting to waver?”

“Yes…”

“Well, I get it. You can’t exactly force yourself to hate a place that’s basically heaven. That guy didn’t try to destroy the world just because he’s evil to the core.”

“…Then are you saying you agree with big brother’s ideals?”

“Nope. I don’t even get a say in this. What could I possibly do to stop him?”

“Still, can’t you at least give me your opinion?”

“I’m against it.”

Johan didn’t hesitate.

Even though Johan was surely adrift in this paradise as well, he still held firm in his convictions.

“From the start, I think saying the world is what’s wrong is a flawed statement in itself.”

“And why is that?”

“Because I’ve lived through the world twice. And honestly, here or there… it’s all the same.”

“.….?”

“So yeah, there was a time when I hated the world too.”

When his past self died.

And when Alice left.

Johan had blamed the world.

“But looking back, that wasn’t it. It’s not the world I hated.”

As he spoke, Johan gently patted the top of Helena’s head, pretending not to notice the lump forming there.

“It was always people who were the problem.”

Humans were far too small to judge whether the world itself was wrong.

There was no way for everyone’s opinions to align, and it was impossible to ask for input from beings that weren’t people.

“Divine power is supposed to be whole and complete, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yes…”

“So what does ‘complete’ even mean? Is it perfect in and of itself?”

Johan shook his head.

“If it were perfect as it is, why do people need food and shelter? Why do we wear clothes and live in houses?”

“Because people aren’t complete?”

“Then when you heal someone with divine power which is supposed to represent wholeness, why don’t they become perfect?”

“I don’t know!”

“Good answer, Helena. Very honest. The way I see it, divine power doesn’t represent wholeness.”

“Then what does it represent?”

“It probably means ‘restoration’ to a former standard. Giving people a chance to start over anytime.”

Even Johan hadn’t reached that realization just by healing wounds.

But when the dagger Yuna had thrown turned into a lump of metal in midair,

That’s when he understood divine power wasn’t about wholeness.

“People aren’t perfect.”

“No.”

“If we didn’t have clothes, we’d freeze to death in winter. If we didn’t eat, we’d starve. So then, how have such flawed people managed to survive until now?”

“Because we wear clothes and eat food?”

“Right. We made clothes, gathered food, built houses, and prepared for outside threats. That’s how we’ve grown.”

That’s what aspiration is.

Of course, aspiration hasn’t always led to good outcomes.

Excessive greed has harmed others, and those who couldn’t adapt inevitably fell behind bit by bit.

“The way I see it, the world itself isn’t the problem. The problem is people.”

“In that case, the paradise big brother created isn’t entirely meaningless.”

Helena looked around.

A world so perfect there wasn’t even room to feel the urge to improve.

She saw people simply content and happy with the way things were.

To Helena’s eyes, that didn’t seem entirely bad.

“Yeah. It doesn’t look all that bad to me, either. The guy who let things spiral this far wouldn’t have created a dystopia.”

Johan shrugged as he spoke.

Even the paradise Kult created wasn’t so bad.

In a world like this, one could live out the rest of their days without worries or cares.

“But who’s to say this is the most perfect utopia?”

Johan remembered his past life.

He’d known a world far more convenient than this one. And even that world was nowhere near a true utopia.

There’s always room for improvement.

“The world isn’t broken. Only people are.”

And that’s why Johan repeated himself.

“But it’s also people who correct what’s wrong. People who’ve tried to build a better world.”

“……”

“Some people commit crimes and live out their days in comfort without ever being punished. And the opposite happens too. Someone who dedicates their life to others ends up meeting a tragic end.”

“Yes…”

Helena recalled the stories of Kult’s friends he once told her.

Those tragedies were precisely what drove him to create a paradise.

There was no afterlife.

That was why Kult continued to insist that the world was what had gone wrong.

What meaning was there in punishment if even death didn’t bring justice for one’s sins?

But Johan had his own thoughts.

“People come together, share their opinions, and establish laws. They’re still flawed and full of loopholes. But based on that foundation, we decide that, at the very least, people should be able to distinguish between good and evil.”

People were improving.

They were making efforts to do so.

Of course, there were times they failed, and sometimes progress led to setbacks.

But even through that repeated cycle of advancement and regression, the world had continued to move forward.

“I believe in the potential of the future more than in the ideals of the present.”

The man who had clung to things once thought impossible throughout his life spoke.

He had cured Varg’s Curse.

He had cured Transcendence Syndrome.

“Isn’t that a little more romantic?”

The boy who would go on to challenge many more impossible things rejected paradise.

***

Helena had seen Kult’s paradise. And she had heard Johan’s thoughts.

Through what she had seen and heard, Helena spoke to Kult.

“Big brother.”

She conveyed Johan’s opinions.

She shared her own feelings as well.

She spoke honestly about what she had liked and what she had found uncomfortable in life. And she also expressed her thoughts on Kult’s paradise.

“The paradise you created was truly a beautiful place.”

She had felt the goodness that resided within Kult.

She could sense his sincerity in wishing for everyone’s happiness.

“But now, I want to live in the future. I want to build a paradise in this world with my own hands…just like the one you created, big brother.”

Having experienced it all, Helena came to her own conclusion.

She didn’t reject paradise.

But neither did she agree with it.

In a way different from Kult’s, and in the way Johan had affirmed, she said she would try to turn this terribly imperfect world into a paradise.

The same Helena who once wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice her life to persuade Kult now wanted to live. To dream of the future.

“……”

Kult looked at Helena.

A child he could never bring himself to hate.

He saw the light in Helena’s eyes, the same eyes as his own.

And in that gaze, he also saw a reflection of himself.

“Helena.”

“Yes, big brother.”

“It will be a hard path. Do you still want to walk it?”

“Yes!”

There was no falsehood in Helena’s eyes.

And Kult asked the self reflected in her eyes:

“Is it because you want to? Not because you feel you must?”

“Of course!”

“……”

Kult had committed countless sins in order to bring a god into this world. He had acted because he believed there was no hope left in it.

He had always carried guilt for those actions.

They were not things he did because he wanted to. But because he thought he had to.

And the road was far too long to walk with only the end in mind.

Kult looked back.

He looked back at the path he had walked, the path he had forged.

“I see……”

And then, he looked at the girl standing in front of him.

Even within paradise, the girl did not lose herself. Instead, she declared her resolve to build a paradise in the real world.

It was something no one else had ever done.

Some had rejected paradise outright, but no one had presented a better alternative than Kult’s.

But Helena did. While affirming Kult’s paradise, she declared she would lead the world toward something better.

And in doing so, paradise was denied.

“…I can’t compete with that.”

Kult smiled and closed his eyes.

And when he opened them again—

Kult saw Dietrich charging at him with his sword in hand.

“……”

Kult raised his hand again.

Just like before, a simple wave of his hand would be enough to send Dietrich flying.

But this time, he couldn’t bring himself to swing it. Frozen in place, Kult let out a resigned smile.

“Thank you, Dietrich.”

Thud!

Dietrich’s strike pierced through Kult’s heart.

The happy memories Kult had cherished throughout his life were engraved into that very heart.

What Dietrich had wanted to tell Kult—

To show his friend who believed sadness had swallowed everything that there were still beautiful memories to be found.

“Kult, you…”

Looking at Kult who had accepted his blade, Dietrich lowered his head.

“You are a real son of a bitch.”

“Yeah… I am.”

Dietrich let out a bitter cry.

Even in this moment, he had truly thought of Kult as his friend.

That was why he ended it with his own hands.

Not for the sake of the world.

But because he believed it was a friend’s duty to stop his friend when he was heading down the wrong path.