“...This is.”

“Khh—!”

The pressure wrapped around me vanished.

As I dropped to the floor, I sucked in rough breaths.

‘Just now...!’

The me in this place did not possess a physical body.

That meant I had no need to breathe.

The reason I was gasping like this was not because I lacked air.

‘The one called me almost came to an end...!’

It was not that I had literally been suffocated.

It was the moment when the being called me had nearly ceased to be me forever.

What I would have done in that moment was simply being expressed through my soul.

Right.

I had no means of resisting that thing.

Ordinarily, I would have been forced into entanglement with it exactly as it intended.

“Hm, I see.”

But for some reason,

what it tried to do had failed.

“As expected... information gained only from another’s memories contains enormous omissions.”

The Progenitor stared blankly down at its own hand as it spoke.

“That is the problem. Information the owner of those memories did not properly understand enters me in a distorted state as well.”

“What...?”

“That lump of flesh in your memories said something... Had you fully understood what it meant, I would have been able to guess this in advance as well.”

As if this had become a little troublesome,

it frowned and scratched its head.

“It seems even I cannot handle your fate however I please.”

At those words,

even as I was inwardly startled, I thought,

‘The flesh in my memories... something Morzan said?’

Morzan had said more than one or two things to me.

I could not even guess which part it was talking about.

Still, one thing I could guess was that whatever it had been trying to do to me,

it was something impossible—

“But!”

...That was what I was thinking.

As if to crush that thought,

it stretched a hand toward me once more.

“Heh heh, but I am not the type to give up so easily.”

The Progenitor reached out a hand toward me.

And then.

Cracklecracklecrackle!!!

As if trying to shove that hand away, an unidentified force pushed the Progenitor’s hand back.

“This much... resistance...!”

It muttered with a frown.

“What exactly have you done, that even in your mere mortal days you are wrapped in a fate of this magnitude...!”

Whatever that power was,

it was clearly effective against the Progenitor.

“But... fate is ever-changing...”

Even so,

it spoke with a smile.

“No matter how much it tries... to remain fixed...”

Craack... crack...

“What does not change... is no fun... is it...?”

Craack...

“What has been decided is only the result—that you become a being whose future even I cannot glimpse. In that case...”

That hand,

crushing down the resisting force, moved closer to me.

“Then interfering in the process... is still possible...!”

Crack!!!

Its hand split apart into dozens of shredded pieces.

Inside the grotesquely torn flesh,

a bizarre blackish-red shadow flickered and leaked out.

-Kieeeek...

The screaming souls began to become visible from beneath its torn skin.

‘Even the ones screaming in there...’

Every last one of them was a being with a level beyond anything I could even dream of handling.

Just how many powerful beings had that Progenitor devoured—

and just how many of them?

“That only makes me more excited!”

And so,

even while enduring the collapse of the very shape of its soul,

it kept reaching out toward me.

“When someone with a fate like this chooses to walk the path together with me!”

That hand—

“What in the world will happen then!”

—touched my body.

Fwoooosh....

At the same time,

massive ropes burst out from the deepest part of my body.

Ropes of all different colors, each with a different appearance.

Objects I had seen before.

‘That time, the ones Mirinae showed me...!’

The beings entangled with my fate.

These ropes were the embodiment of them.

“I suppose I owe an apology to those who were originally bound up with you!”

The ropes embedded deep within my body were forcibly yanked outside.

The tangled skein wound deep inside me was being violently unraveled by the Progenitor’s power.

The Progenitor was forcibly unbinding the fates of those originally tied to me,

and meant to dig itself into the empty space that remained.

And then—

“Your fate will now be joined to mine!”

Clang!

From the deepest place of all,

the single last rope still remaining revealed itself.

...Except.

Thud....

That rope...

was a little different from the others that had been pulled free so far.

Rather than a rope...

it looked more like an enormous chain forged by linking together gigantic pillars.

If that thing were meant to bind something,

it felt as though it would have to be something the size of a planet, not a small human like me.

A shape so vast and so terrifying.

Just looking at it for a moment sent chills all over my body with the ominous aura it gave off.

“...Huh?”

And then.

The instant it saw that shape—

“Why is this... here...?”

The face of the Progenitor,

which had been smiling,

turned to shock.

***

Fwoooosh!!!

That thing had even suppressed the force pushing it away and dismantled the entanglements of the beings originally bound to me,

all to seize the fate of the human called me in its hand.

That process had clearly seemed to be reaching its end.

If it dismantled just that one final chain,

it would have monopolized my fate.

“H-how.”

But.

“Th-th-th-this, why.”

The one that had been unraveling the ties bound to me without hesitation staggered backward, face gone pale.

“Wh-why... is this, here...?”

There was no trace left of the light, casual demeanor it had shown at first.

The oppressive pressure that had crushed me was gone as well.

It was so overwhelmed that it could not even finish its words properly.

‘...What is this?’

Watching that,

I could only stare at it in confusion while still dragging in ragged breaths.

‘The other beings bound to me weren’t light existences either.’

Every one of them was capable of grasping and shaking the fate of an entire world.

Even if they had faced the Progenitor directly,

every last one of them would have been a great being the Progenitor could not have handled lightly.

In fact,

Mirinae had been extremely cautious when it held those ropes in the past.

It must have been because it knew that touching any one of those ropes carelessly could lead to disaster.

But.

The Progenitor had unraveled the fates of such beings without a second thought.

‘This is the same thing that said that if it saw something stronger than itself, its first thought was still to try devouring it.’

It had already earned the hatred of countless beings.

Even though this could easily earn it the resentment of others too,

it probably felt no fear at all at that fact.

And yet—

“You...”

That very thing was looking at me with utterly disbelieving eyes.

“What in the world are you...?”

For the first time since being dragged into this space,

I saw it.

Fear and despair.

A face twisted by shock and pain. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Tap....

As if it had seen something that should not exist,

it staggered backward away from me on trembling feet.

‘...Come to think of it.’

The ropes tied to me.

The first one to mention those ropes had been Mirinae.

At the time,

I had entered the realm of level forty ahead of others... the rank of a Hero.

That had almost exposed the existence of the one called me to the beings outside.

Mirinae had appeared in my dream to prevent that.

-{To catch the eye of beings like that would be unfortunate.}

Back then,

I had only thought the beings outside were extremely dangerous.

But—

-{Hm? Well. That depends on your perspective. In the usual case, it would be nothing but advantageous for the person involved.}

If what Mirinae had said back then was true,

then under normal circumstances there was no need to hide one’s existence the way mine had been hidden.

If anything, one could receive great help from such beings.

It might even have been better to be known to them.

And yet,

Mirinae had gritted its teeth and tried to hide me from the beings outside.

The reason was simple.

-{...It is far too ominous.}

Deep inside my body,

there was a rope even Mirinae could not grasp easily.

And even in the brief instant it held it,

it had broken out in a cold sweat and shown fear.

-{Just how much rank has that being amassed... and just how much karma has it committed?}

Against a being like that,

my existence absolutely could not be revealed.

“Good... heavens.”

The Progenitor had read my memories through my blood.

But those memories were, in the end, only memories within the range of what I myself understood.

As for the realm beyond my own understanding,

even the Progenitor, having read my memories, could not know it.

That was why—

“There was still a being connected to Him...?”

There existed a realm it could not know merely by reading my memories.

The Progenitor had learned about that realm—

about me in a way even I myself did not know.

The way it was reacting resembled the confusion Mirinae had shown in the past when it held that final rope.

More than that—

‘...Him?’

Mirinae had seemed able only to sense that being’s presence, without knowing its identity.

But this thing was different.

The moment I realized that, my eyes widened.

‘It knows the identity of this being tied to me!’

Because that meant this thing knew what even Mirinae did not.

***

“You...!”

I, too,

did not have zero curiosity about that terrifying existence said to be tied to me.

It was just that there had been no way to find out no matter how I tried,

and Mirinae had warned me that trying to find out might bring about a bad result, so I had not investigated it on purpose.

But.

“You know about that thing tied to me?”

If something that knew its identity had appeared right in front of me,

then the story changed a little.

‘My profession is cook.’

My specialty was gathering information on the other side and then fighting.

Even if I had to take a bit of a risk,

it would still be better to find out at least a little information about that being—

That was what I was thinking.

“Ah, yes.”

Then.

“You said you were a cook.”

At the voice coming from its mouth, I could not help flinching.

‘Did it read my thoughts...!’

The first time I thought it had read my thoughts, the Progenitor had denied doing any such thing.

But this time was different.

This was not like before, when I had carelessly let my thoughts show on the outside.

I had not spoken that name aloud.

Nor was this a situation where that word could suddenly have come out of its mouth for any natural reason.

Unless it had read what I was thinking—

“Ah, good heavens.”

But unlike what I had been thinking,

it seemed to have no interest whatsoever in my thoughts.

With a staggering body, it touched its own face and muttered to itself.

“What on earth was I mistaken about?”

Across that face stained with fear and shock,

a great realization passed.

“Him.”

And after that realization,

another emotion settled onto its face.

...That emotion was one I, too, had seen several times recently.

“He could never have vanished so easily...!”

Ecstasy and awe.

Faith and praise.

“I have changed my mind!”

Its face flushed red with joy.

As though overwhelmed, it even shed tears.

And drawing back the hand it had been reaching toward me, it said,

“I shall make sure never to touch you again.”

For me,

it was such an anticlimactic declaration of surrender that it left the strength draining out of me.

***

“I shall make sure never to touch you again.”

With those words,

it withdrew its hand.

At once, all the various kinds of pressure and bizarre forces that had been reaching toward my body vanished in an instant.

“I will give up on binding your fate to mine as well.”

Fwoosh....

The ropes that had been forcibly unraveled by its hand also returned to the inside of my body the moment it pulled its hand back,

and began tangling around me once more.

“What are you playing at?”

“What do you mean, what am I playing at?”

When I spoke in disbelief,

it replied with a faint smile.

“I am acknowledging my defeat and apologizing. It seems the one called you was not a being that the likes of me should ever have laid a hand on.”

“...What does that even.”

“Take comfort. You need only go on as you always have, continuing to carve out the life you want.”

At a glance, it sounded like a nice word of encouragement.

But I could not understand a single part of it.

Such an absurdly abrupt change in attitude.

‘What the hell is going on?’

I could not understand.

Not the identity of that final rope that had appeared from inside me.

Not the reason this thing’s attitude had changed so drastically after seeing it.

Still,

I could at least tell that it no longer intended to force me.

“As I said, I don’t like you.”

Suspicious, I opened my mouth.

“I won’t be working with you in the future either. I might even get in the way of what you’re trying to do. And even so... you’re saying you’ll just let me go?”

“Well, what else am I supposed to do? I tried, in my own way. Then I realized you are not something I can lay a hand on and gave up.”

At my words,

it shrugged as it answered.

Then—

“But there is one thing I think I should correct.”

Wearing a meaningful smile,

it looked at me and said,

“You said there would be no occasion for you to work with me, didn’t you?”

“...?”

“As I said, I will no longer involve myself with you directly. Nor will I obstruct the path ahead of you. But...”

And then,

as if it could see the future—

it said something like that.

“One day...”

“You will, of your own will, come to be with me.”