Chapter 707: Questions

Inside a building that had lost its original appearance and name due to a great disaster.

A lonely silence descended, filling the entire space.

This was the effect of Oliver’s question, and it wasn’t just limited to the building. It applied to people too.

Marie, who sat across from Oliver with her body wrapped in bandages, reacted the same way.

Her eyes were wide open as if startled or pricked, but she said nothing.

Oliver silently stared at her.

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As if paying the price for their silence, the stillness deepened even further, until Marie, unable to bear the weight, opened her mouth.

“I, I…”

“-Now that I think of it, Marie was the first.”

“What?”

“The first person who genuinely helped me. It seems Marie was the first.”

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“Joseph was the one who pulled me out of the mine, but he had his reasons.”

Joseph, who became a Dark Sorcerer for a wealthy and refined life, saved Oliver from the mine to offer him to a devil.

Lacking talent as a Dark Sorcerer, Joseph sacrificed his gifted disciples to a devil to enhance his own power and enjoy the life he desired.

Ironically, he met his end at the hands of Oliver, one of those disciples, after suffering a fatal injury and being abandoned by the very devil he’d devoted his life to. Slowly and painfully.

“Marie was different. You helped me without any calculation or ulterior motive.”

Marie lowered her gaze and stayed silent.

“Don’t you remember? When I was being scolded by Overseer Tom?”

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“In the middle of being beaten, you helped me. With pure intent. I thought Kent was the first, but after thinking about it, Marie was.”

“I remember.”

“I don’t think I thanked you at the time. Instead, I just asked about what it meant to be an official disciple. It’s late, but even now, I’d like to thank you.”

“No.”

She shook her head in silence. She looked pained.

“I… I’ve never done anything to deserve your thanks, Oliver. I didn’t help you with pure intent.”

“Really?”

“The reason I helped you was purely out of survival. To increase my allies… As someone lacking talent in Dark Magic, the only way for me to secure my position was to gather more allies and prove myself capable as an overseer.”

Now that he thought about it, at the time, there were quite a few girls her age around Marie. That meant she had influence. After Joseph’s death, it was largely thanks to Marie that the family had operated smoothly.

“So you don’t need to thank me. I only did it for myself.”

Marie frowned, as if confessing a sin. But Oliver’s assessment of her didn’t change.

“Even so, Marie is a good person. Even if your actions had a reason behind them, you helped me out of compassion. It must be because of your past. Back when you lived near the dye factory.”

At the mention of the dye factory, Marie froze for a moment.

It was, after all, the darkest period of her life.

During that time, Marie’s hair had been stained purple due to the factory’s wastewater, and she lost both her mother and father, barely avoiding a much worse fate. Thankfully, she was taken in by Joseph.

Considering all that, Marie’s reaction was perfectly normal.

In contrast, Oliver’s ability to bring up such memories without any concern was odd. He had always been a bit indifferent, but this time it was a little excessive.

Not that he cared at all, though.

“That’s also why the people outside are going to such lengths to protect you. Because you genuinely understand them and care for them, they want to safeguard you in return. Otherwise, they wouldn’t worship me as a god on their knees.”

“That’s not because of me, but those followers, they…”

“-You’re saying people worship me as a god on their knees all by themselves, without your help?”

When Oliver pressed, Marie fell silent. Just as the stillness was about to settle again, Oliver spoke once more, continuing their conversation.

“I know Marie doesn’t have bad intentions. Quite the opposite, actually. It’s admiration, respect, longing, gratitude, and…”

Oliver stopped halfway through, gazing at Marie. More precisely, scanning her emotions. The intense feelings she had toward him.

“…those and many other favorable emotions. And you encourage others to have those feelings toward me as well, right?”

Oliver gestured toward the people outside the building.

Though they had been momentarily frozen by Oliver’s unusual atmosphere, they still believed in him. They fully trusted that he would solve all their problems.

If Second hadn’t been blocking the entrance, they might have stormed in to kneel and pray for help by now. Begging him to save them.

Without caring about Oliver’s own feelings.

Marie showed a flash of guilt over their selfishness.

“I’m sorry.”

“I understand now, to some extent. I get why you knelt and called me a god. The world is dark and full of hardships, so you all needed something to believe in. I understand that. Everyone does. Even the greatest wizard in the world sought the same thing in the end.”

A wizard who had once committed terrible sins but was earnest in his repentance.

“He knelt before me and begged. Begged not to be abandoned, holding onto my pants leg. The greatest wizard in the world begged me.”

“Did you… What did you say?”

“I said I couldn’t. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. His sins were too clear in my eyes.”

Oliver pointed at his own eyes with his fingers.

“I could see it as clearly as if it was happening right in front of me—how he cut people open while they were still alive to fill his vanity, experimented by injecting diseases into them, and recorded the agonizing reactions of their families.”

Marie listened quietly.

“Of course, I know. I know he’s truly remorseful. And his repentance isn’t shallow, just meant to erase his crimes. But even so, I couldn’t do it… Marie?”

“Yes, Oliver.”

“I appreciate that you think highly of me, but in truth, I’m not that remarkable as a person. Back in the orphanage and the mine, survival was my only goal. I’d eat potato soup even as the person next to me starved to death.”

“But you saved me, and everyone else here.”

“Yes, there were times I risked my life.”

Oliver acknowledged willingly.

“But that was only because the alternative was worse than death. I’m fundamentally a coward. Isn’t the fact that I’m doing all this because I fear my fate proof of that?”

Yes, Oliver was a coward. He was so afraid of his fate that he ignored and left the orphanage director to suffer, trapped inside a tree.

Marie wanted to argue, but she couldn’t. The pain and burden he was feeling were apparent from the slight twist in his expression.

“Originally, I hadn’t planned on coming here. I was just going to sit back and do nothing, no matter what happened to the world.”

“Then why did you come?”

“I thought something might change if I met people I know. Whether it was determination or my heart. But I don’t know.”

Marie wanted to ask what he meant by not knowing, but she didn’t have the courage.

“It’s not that I’ve come to dislike any of you. On the contrary, you’re incredible. Even as the end of the world approaches, you keep striving to do your part and continue improving yourselves.”

Marie couldn’t grasp Oliver’s emotions through her eyes alone, but she could tell his words were sincere.

“But even with all that, I don’t have the courage to grant the Elder’s request. Your sins are too vivid. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to do anything right now, whether the world ends or not.”

After collapsing and barely making it to Randa, nothing had changed.

To come to Randa at all was a significant change in itself, but nothing had progressed further.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Marie’s breath caught at Oliver’s question, but she couldn’t refuse. She had done far worse to him.

“You don’t have to answer, but I’d like your opinion. What do you think I should do next?”

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“I may be the Prince of Hell, but that’s just a coincidence. Just like my talent. While that talent has granted me many blessings, isn’t this too much? I didn’t ask to be born a prince.”

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“So if you know, please tell me. What should I do now?”

“I…”

“That’s spot on! You weren’t born that way because you wanted to be! That’s right!”

Just as Marie was about to answer, an overly lively third voice interrupted.

It wasn’t a voice they heard often, but it was one they recognized immediately.

“Ewan?”

Oliver stepped outside the building. As expected, there was Ewan.

With unkempt facial hair, dark circles, and an expensive outfit tucked beneath his cloak, Ewan, the master of Dark Magic, stood before him. Oliver looked at him silently. Strangely, there wasn’t a single trace of sin on him.

“Yes, it’s me! The genius negotiator who traded beans for a cow, the great debtor, the wanderer who’s been to the desert lands across the sea, to places where dragons fly, to insane worlds where rats shoot guns and giants live in the clouds. Don’t forget, those are my achievements! So save my life, would you?”

Ewan, who was pinned to the ground with a gun barrel pointed at his head by Second, audaciously begged for his life.

Having tried to force his way in, he ended up in this state. One of the Anti-Development Committee members, wrapped in bandages, tried to approach in order to save him, but was stopped by Second, who aimed their split arms, each forming a gun barrel, at him.

“I’ll shoot.”

Ready to fire as soon as permission was granted. However, Oliver didn’t allow it. After all, Ewan had been the one to get Marie to safety here.

“… I’m sorry.”

Oliver apologized to Ewan as he had Second step back. Ewan stood up, seemingly unbothered.

“No worries. I should endure it since I’m weak. Besides, we’ve got more important things to talk about… And yeah, you’re right. Not many people would want to be born like you unless they’re masochists.”

Ewan’s voice was as casual as ever, but Oliver could feel a sense of shared understanding. At that moment, Ewan spoke again.

“By the same token, your friends didn’t want to be born like that either.”

“Who are you referring to?”

“Who else? The thug cook, the kid caught in delusion, the one with the longest grudge, and Sleeping Beauty.”

Their nicknames were nothing short of contemptuous, but because of that, it was easy to figure out who Ewan was talking about. He had previously explained them to Oliver in person.

The thug cook was the Flesh Cook, the deluded kid was the Eternal Child Fen, the long-grudging one was the Pied Piper, and the old hag Sleeping Beauty likely referred to the Sleeping Beauty herself.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. Do you think they all wanted to be born as the foundation for someone else?”

Oliver understood. In fact, he had known for a long time.

That they had all lived and been born just to become the foundation for him.

After all, Oliver had consumed the Flesh Cook’s flesh to gain immense strength, absorbed the shadow Creatures of Fen’s dreamland Neverland, and extracted the rage of the Pied Piper to break free from his shell.

Sleeping Beauty was no exception. She had been waiting alone for Oliver for centuries before his birth.

In the end, if you skipped the process and looked at the outcome, Ewan’s words were true. They had lived their painful lives for Oliver’s sake.

“What’s your point?”

“Fate is like a military draft. You should dodge it if you can.”

“… What do you mean by that?”

“It means that a nice guy like me may be able to tell you how to escape from all the restraints and shackles of fate. Just like I did.”