Chapter 364 – Legacy of Order.
Crackle, crackle! Usher stared blankly at the fragments of flame that rose red from the heat of the flame, rose together with twisting wood grain, and scattered across the sky.
“Oh, are you awake now?”
A somewhat nostalgic voice.
“Mister?”
Usher raised his body, which had stiffened for a moment, and looked at his eyes.
“I’m just preparing dinner. It’s good.”
-Kkangkang!
“Ah! Be polite and get into the pot!”
There was Krikaliev, with a large cross sword stuck in his back, pushing a large scorpion he had caught somewhere into a pot. The scorpion struggled and pounded the pot with its hard carapace. He struck the chestnut with his index finger and broke the scorpion’s head.
“Gee, did you fail to control your strength again?
Then, as if regretting it, he licked his lips and saw him putting it on the firewood.
“Where did this tree come from?”
Obviously, trees are valuable.
“Didn’t you break one while training today?
As he listened, he realized that the shape of the tree, charred in the flames, was at least partly familiar. No matter how Krikaliev handled it, it was only natural that a weapon made of soft wood would wear out after a long clash with a real sword. Usher looked at the black and reddish throat spear in the center of the flame and opened his mouth.
“…What do paladins learn?”
“Why do you think it’s easier to learn magic if you learn it the way the Paladins do?”
“That’s it, yes.”
Even today, in the sparring with Krikaliev, instead of fighting properly, he was just trying to block it. At least it would have been nice if I could use magic quickly. Maybe if you learn like a real paladin, you’ll be able to catch a clue about magic? Because I couldn’t let go of the thought.
“I’d like to say it’s a good idea, but what Paladins learn isn’t that different from what an apprentice knight usually does.”
It seems like I’ve said it before.
“Why do you think so?”
Usher listened to him, pondered, then opened his mouth.
“Isn’t it easy to manifest magic?”
“That’s right. Even if she gets her powers from her, activating her powers is another matter.”
Therefore, the training of paladins is no different from that of ordinary knights.
“Even if you manifest magic, there won’t be much difference in what you learn, so it’s best not to expect too much.”
Even though he was disappointed with Krikaliev’s words, he opened his mouth just in case.
“Is there really nothing different?”
“…Um, isn’t that the case?”
“Uh, what is it?”
Usher asked, thinking maybe he could get a clue from it.
“Well, this isn’t knight training, it’s training according to religion.”
“Religion?”
“Yes, paladins are not necessarily called paladins because they serve God, but usually they believe in God.”
“Teach me that too!”
He wondered if he would be able to use magic only if he practiced the same as the paladins.
“That sounds like a tough one.”
“Why?!”
Seeing him shaking his head in impatient heart, I shouted. Usher was startled by my voice, but Krikaliev didn’t seem to care.
“That religious practice is so messed up right now.”
“Tossed up?”
“Yes, if you hold each person in the Holy Land and ask them about doctrine, they will all answer differently.”
At least, the sects centered on saints will tell consistent stories, but if you ask the residents, they say that they are so different that it is questionable whether they are religions that worship the same god.
“Is that possible?”
“It’s possible and it’s a situation like that. But considering the characteristics of the Holy Land, I can’t help it.”
Under the name of pilgrimage, holy places are visited by all kinds of people from all over the world every 5 years or 20 years. After the collapse of the Tsushima Age, most of the proper scriptures and records of doctrine have been lost. In such a situation, humans who fell elsewhere had no choice but to convey doctrine from word to word, even if they belonged to the same religion.
“Even the Holy Land has few proper scriptures and records. What about other places?”
It seems that this situation has come about as the doctrines that have changed depending on the region and people gather in the holy places.
“However, since the records of the Holy Land are the most authentic, the sect centered on the saintess is only holding the initiative.”
Usher couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he knew he was far from using magic anyway.
“…Then why do people believe in God?”
Actually, I wasn’t asking out of curiosity. Maybe he was upset that what he thought he could get a clue from was pointless. It was only because they couldn’t understand why they believed in the same God if their beliefs were different and their doctrines were different.
“Perhaps because they miss order more than anyone else.”
Maybe it was because he wasn’t interested, but Usher still didn’t know what Krikaliev was talking about. Rather, he only wanted to save Belka as soon as possible. Then the question that came to my mind was about Krikaliev.
“Why do you hate him?”
“Huh? Who are you talking about?”
At his question, Krikaliev looked at him puzzledly, sticking his skewer into his scorpion. Usher wondered if he should say this, but he replied thinking it would be fine.
“That wizard.”
“Kek, is that him?”
– Whoops!
“…Oops.”
Frightened by Usher’s words, he grabbed another scorpion struggling from his hand and crushed it. Krikaliev, pretending not to know, kneaded the broken scorpion with his hands into dumplings, threaded them on his skewer, and said:
“I think it’s even more amazing that there’s a guy who likes that guy.”
“It is, but it is.”
When Usher agrees with him, Krikaliev thread another scorpion on his skewer.
“He’s a guy who looks down on everything in the world and behaves like a dick just because he knows something that others don’t know in the first place. He has no reason to look favorably on a guy who does everything he’s supposed to do.”
Usher pondered for a moment before opening his mouth.
“It’s a fact that others don’t know.”
“Well, it’s a nonsensical truth that he proudly speaks.”
“Truth…”
He tried to mumble the words. Perhaps figuring that out is the condition for becoming a wizard.
“Then what is truth?”
“Even if I want to teach you, teach me I can’t, man. If I could have done it, I would have been yelling at you a long time ago and being treated like a madman.”
Krikaliev grumbled, finished his last skewer and put it near the brazier.
“That’s why he’s acting like he’s better.”
“What on earth is that truth, and what does he say?”
“Kkeuh, it’s hard to talk about this… Yeah, maybe it’ll be okay if we talk like this.”
Soon he had a good idea and started drawing something on his floor.
“Do you know what these two things are called?”
“Didn’t you just connect the lines in a circle?”
“The Sephirot tree and the Qliphoth tree.
“A tree?”
Usher looked again at the painted floor, but he didn’t look like wood at all. Nonetheless, when it comes to trees, he recalls the zelkova tree in his memories of being with Belka.
“How big was that tree?”
“Huh? No, it’s just a tree in words, not a tree that actually exists.”
If it’s a tree, it’s a tree, but what else does it mean to be a tree? His words became more difficult today.
“Then why do you call it a tree?”
“I don’t know if it was called a tree because there was such a tree, or if someone called it a tree so it came into existence.”
But one thing is for sure.
“This is the most important doctrine still recorded in the Holy Land and is a figure called the path of truth.”
“Then this is…?”
“No, it’s different from what he and I have come to know. This is a kind of norm and practice.”
I listened to him and saw him, but there was no way I could know anything with only circles and sticks drawn.
“I don’t have anything.”
“It’s natural because I didn’t write anything down. Anyway, the reason why this is called the path of truth is because each one of these circles is the truth.”
“Then it doesn’t mean much, does it?”
“No, it’s a problem because it’s the truth.”
He drew his skewer along a line from under the tree of the Sephiroth.
“It’s often thought that if you learn the truth, you can become a wizard and do anything. But that’s an illusion.”
“A misunderstanding, huh?”
“The truth doesn’t end with finding out. If you know the truth, that’s where it begins.”
Next he stuck his skewer into another painting, the tree of Qliphoth, which had been painted right next to it.
“A man who prides himself on being enlightened thinks: I am enlightened.”
What does he see in his eyes when he stops thinking he has reached the top? The way he went? People who are worse than themselves, people who don’t know what they know, people who waste time in the wrong places and don’t even dare to step on the end of the road. And myself standing on top of it.
“He stopped walking.”
Chaos is the only place he steps out of the way of order. It was natural.
“Order is a castle and a tower built on a foundation of chaos.”
Therefore, Jude was chaos incarnated.
“That’s also a child who only sees the world through his eyes.”
“Originally, if you don’t have eyes, you can’t see?”
“It’s just ignored.”
Usher still thought of Krikaliev as a strange man.
“Are you slowly coming to your senses?”
“Ah…?”
Then, suddenly, a strange yet familiar voice came from him. I was so startled that when I opened my eyes, I realized that someone was walking on my back. I realized who he was when I saw the luxurious white cloth peeking out of the armor in my blurry vision due to sleep.
“Mr. Kein?”
Because he was the paladin who had been captured along with him. As he blankly checked his surroundings, he saw a wall passing by with moist air.
