[Serajin’s Fallen Priest]

[Freshness - Worst]

“Grrk.......”

It was clearly dying.

Watching it, I thought,

'I did think something was off.'

What I’d felt when I talked with it was this:

It was more normal than I’d expected.

Despite that vicious-looking exterior, there were actually more times when I found myself feeling a strange kind of goodwill toward it.

But even so.

It had one odd part—just one place where it was warped.

At first I wondered if it was just a difference in species, but......

“No. That wasn’t it.”

To begin with.

I’d already thought it was weird that something that rational would have only one part of itself warped “because of species.”

If the reason for that distortion was something acquired.

If it was something done with intent, then I could understand.

'So it [evolved] so it wouldn’t suffer because of someone else’s suffering.......'

Right before it died, crushed under guilt toward itself.

Desperate to avoid that death no matter what, it made that choice.

And.

Evolution wasn’t an injury, and it wasn’t a disease.

No matter how exceptional a healer it was, after it escaped death that way, it wouldn’t have been able to make that evolution “not happen” again.

A priest who, to save its own kind, clung obsessively to an evolution for survival.

And the result of that priest losing only its empathy for others—

was the doctor standing here now.

Its empathy for others gone.

Only rage left toward the one who betrayed it.

A monster born that now clung obsessively to research that had even lost its purpose.

'Hmm.'

If that was the case.

Staring at its body as it crumbled, I muttered,

“Then...... it’s not like there’s no way.”

***

When I reached my hand out—

SWOOSH!

My hand pierced through the shadow on the ground.

The [Shadow Veil] had briefly closed because of Ariella’s injuries, but.

With her injuries recovered, it was released again.

I pulled out the various tools and ingredients I’d stored inside.

'The vibrations I was feeling from above...... they’re gone.'

Up there, Ariella and the unit members would’ve been holding that monster back, but.

Its master—the one in front of me—was gasping, a step away from death.

It probably didn’t have the room to control its true body because of the pain I’d inflicted.

Meaning.

“All right. Let’s begin.”

I had enough room—

to cook.

FWIP!

Countless kitchen knives and cooking tools like frying pans flew into the air.

[Assistant Chef]

As my level went up, the effect of my skill, [Assistant Chef], had gotten stronger too.

SHHKSHHKSHHK!

Slice, slice.

SCREEEE...... BEEP!

If before, the limit was moving a kitchen knife or a ladle around, now even things like an oven found their own places.

And a gas burner went and brought a gas canister on its own, slotted it into itself, and lit.

And then.

As I also went into cooking with a kitchen knife in hand—

{What...... are you doing?}

The dying thing stared at me with dim eyes and spoke.

“What does it look like? Cooking.”

{.......}

When I answered lightly with a shrug, it seemed to think for a moment, then opened its mouth.

{You said something like that earlier, too.}

“Hm?”

{So the Legion Commander...... was a cook.}

At that.

My hands, in the middle of cooking, twitched and stopped.

It was only after hearing that that I realized.

“Did I...... not tell you?”

It answered me honestly, but.

Me, on the other hand.

I hadn’t even told it that I was a cook.

Even while feeling that sense of kinship, I’d still hidden even the most basic thing about myself.

Being a cook was both my secret and my most essential weapon.

And in this damned world, it’s better to hide one or two of your most important weapons.

So even I, adapted to a world like this, had been hiding information about myself from it without even realizing it.

“My bad.”

{My bad...... huh.}

Then, with its dying body, it forced the meaning over to me with difficulty.

{I can’t understand why the Legion Commander suddenly started cooking. Maybe my brain function has declined, that’s why....... But if I’m going to die like this anyway, there’s one thing I want to ask.}

“Well. It’s probably not only because of that...... you’ve got a question?”

{Before the fight broke out...... why did you say that to me?}

After the alliance with it fell apart, and I was trying to leave Gangnam and return, I could’ve left this land as-is, pulled the Legion’s forces back together, and returned.

{If that was truly your plan, you didn’t need to tell me. You could’ve just returned to the Legion, brought the troops, and that would’ve been that. But why.......}

In that time it would’ve grown stronger too, sure.

But at the very least, it wouldn’t have prepared defenses with my betrayal in mind.

That might’ve been the better direction for putting it down.

{Why did you reveal that to me?}

But.

I openly told it that I was going to go back and bring troops.

Honestly, it was stupid.

Because of that, I almost lost valuable fighting strength—enough to make you think, What kind of idiot does that?

“Mm. How do I put it.”

Even so, the reason I said it was simple.

“Because you seemed like you hated lies.”

If it had been honest with me, hiding nothing, then I, too, felt like I had to be honest with it.

“Even for something as simple as a goodbye, I didn’t want to lie.”

{.......}

That was the conviction I had.

***

{So that’s how it is.}

At my words,

{The Legion Commander...... didn’t lie to me.}

As if it had realized something, it began to mutter in a small voice.

{It wasn’t that you’d been lying from the start with the intention of killing me...... you really did just change your mind partway through.}

“Well, for now.”

I could’ve clarified right after that—that I hadn’t lied.

But even if I did, the result wouldn’t have changed.

'Both it and I were in the same position—thrashing around because we were afraid of death.'

I had to kill it.

And for it to live, it had to kill me.

If that situation wasn’t going to change, I didn’t think there was any need to pile up excuses.

{So I’d been under a ridiculous misunderstanding.......}

...By the way.

A ridiculous misunderstanding, huh.

“About that misunderstanding—you weren’t the only one doing it.”

{......?}

“Sorry. I ended up seeing it by accident.”

I tasted the broth I’d poured into a small bowl as I spoke.

“Even that so-called father you served didn’t lie, either.”

{......What?}

At the words I tossed out lightly, a fierce presence burst out of its dying body.

{Someone who doesn’t even know...... saying that kind of thing......!}

It had only had its empathy for others removed.

Its emotions hadn’t been removed.

It shouted in rage at my words.

{He deceived me!}

For something dying, it seemed to still have room in its mana.

That voice was so intense it made my head ring and buzz.

Thinking inwardly, With that, it doesn’t look like it’ll die right away, I also thought:

'In its memories...... I saw the appearance of that god a few times.'

And.

'Those few times were different.'

The first time I saw it, my “eyes” succeeded in identifying it.

[Lord of Healing and Recovery]

[Serajin]

But.

The second time was a little different.

[A god whose name was stolen]

That divine name and that name itself were gone.

'There’s something I learned not long ago.'

A divine name is practically the same thing as that being’s identity itself.

The examples Mirinae showed of what happens when external existences come to rule this world—

the reason those examples were so excessively extreme was because, to begin with, they were beings that leaned to extremes in accordance with that divine name.

And.

“That thing had lost its divine name.”

If a divine name is that being’s identity itself, then a god that has lost its divine name is—

“At that point...... it wasn’t the god you all knew anymore.”

Not the same existence as the original.

Something entirely different...... an existence where only the shell of the body remained.

Just like Mountain, my retainer, is no longer the same existence it used to be.

“That lump of flesh was nothing more than a corpse. The being you worshiped...... was already gone.”

Even Morjan, who I’d seen not long ago, had lost many things, but its name and identity still remained.

But Serajin had lost both its name and its divine name.

“The one that lied later wasn’t the one you called your father.”

The one that lied later was an existence completely different from the being that had been called their father.

It would be right to see it as a completely different life-form—something that simply arose naturally from the remaining body.

{So he didn’t...... lie.......}

And.

That truth seemed to hit it pretty hard.

{H-haha...... I see. Right. If that’s really what happened...... a lot of questions get answered.}

“.......”

{Sure. Of course. If he was truly already dead...... then what that shell said was no different from rigor mortis....... Putting meaning in it would be something only a fool would do.......}

It muttered to itself blankly, and then, after a moment,

{Then what...... was I supposed to do?}

It spoke in a voice that sounded slightly choked.

{Back then, was I supposed to figure out somehow that it was only a shell...... that our father was already dead?}

“.......”

{After proving it was a shell, persuading my brothers, and somehow leading everyone in the direction of achieving evolution...... are you saying the outcome could’ve been different?}

Even though it had already lost its empathy for others, that old obsession it once had—saving its own kind—

seemed to still remain in it.

{Right. If I’d done it like this back then...... things could’ve been different......!}

It was.

Recalling its past.

Experiencing enormous regret.

And.

Even while I kept cooking, I looked down at my chest.

[Divine power resonates with intense feelings of regret!]

From inside my chest, a red light glittered, as if responding to its regret.

'The power [Matron] left behind.......'

The one drop of red tear she left behind.

For some reason, this power kept forcing me

to look into its past.

To look into its regret.

'Matron’s will left this universe a long time ago.'

This wasn’t something done by her will.

It was the power she left behind—

this tear itself—acting on its own.

And.

Only now did I think I understood why.

'Regret is a force that clings to the past.'

And the emotion inside regret is...... 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

'It shouldn’t have been that way.'

The feeling that it shouldn’t have happened.

In other words—

“It was trying to tell me.”

That it shouldn’t have been that way.

That I shouldn’t have to go ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) through regret like that.

By showing me that regret, so I wouldn’t end up walking that path, it was trying to tell me.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

{......What?}

And......

“You did your best. In that moment, you did the best you could—the very best. It was just a situation too severe to stop, even then.”

{What are you saying.......}

The cautionary example I needed to see and learn from wasn’t it.

{Then who are you saying was wrong!}

“Hm?”

{If I did nothing wrong, then whose fault was it? My brothers who tried to stop me? All my own kind who never doubted our father to the end? Who, exactly!}

“That would be...... your father.”

At its words, I tipped my chin slightly upward as I answered.

{......What?}

“And.”

Holding the finished dish out in front of it as it stood there flustered, I said,

“I’ll be a little different from your father.”