Chapter 1160 – #276_Prologue (8)
#1154
One.
Duke Erelim walked down a dark hallway.
The beautiful building that Keter is said to have put the most effort into is even its interior has been delicately sculpted.
However, there is not a single candle in the candlesticks lined up at regular intervals in the hallway, and the moonlight seeping in through the window on one side is the only light that illuminates the field of view.
Erelim felt her heart beating little by little in this bleak, bleak, and bleak space.
There were many things I wanted to ask.
There were many things I wanted to know.
In the end, why did they create order for humans even by betraying the witches?
Why did he choose Shin Si-woo as his successor rather than himself, who silently protected this city while swallowing his love and hate for the ideals of Kether?
And what should I do in the future?
“…”
It’s truly been a long time since I visited.
However, even if there is no thought, there is a sense of familiarity in the flowing steps.
Its toes are pointing toward Keter’s defense and defense.
-Clutter
After a deep breath, the door opens as soon as his fingertips touch it.
At the end of my gaze, there is a familiar figure.
There is Kether, whom I resented so much and yet loved at the same time.
But her appearance was very different from what she remembered.
No, even the appearance of this workshop was extremely unfamiliar to Erelim in the first place.
A huge magic ceremony is spread throughout the room.
Bottles and packs containing medicine were hanging like fruits hanging all over the magic plant, which resembled an old tree.
In terms of the amount injected, the drugs, which would be more than Keter’s body fluids, are directed to Keter sitting on the throne through a thin hose.
Erelim is also well-versed in alchemy magic, and she has figured out what they do.
A narcotic-class drug that has a strong analgesic effect on the spiritual body, an inhibitor that minimizes metabolic activity, and a magic structure.
That is not a measure for treatment.
This is a measure to prolong life.
Kether was no longer a much better witch than Erelim.
Erelim observed that her remaining strength was barely enough to match that of her archwitch.
If Kether’s appearance in the past reminded you of a tired ancient dragon.
Keter’s appearance, with dozens of hoses hanging from it, looked like a dancing doll tied to strings, and at the same time, it looked like a white butterfly caught in a spider’s web.
It was a miserable fate.
“Blanche.”
Her door opens and a moment later Ketergae looks at Lelim, who lifts her heavy eyelids.
The golden eyes that once shone brightly with intelligence and spirituality became hazy in the medicinal energy.
“Long time no see.”
“…”
Erelim could not get her words out easily.
She knew she had her illness, but she had no idea it would be this serious.
I realized it at the same time.
This invitation is not an invitation from Kether.
Even through her clouded reason and worn-out emotions, Keter caught a glimpse of the question, ‘Why are you here?’
“Where did you put the tea? Oh, it’s here. It’s not easy, but drink a lot. So what happened?”
Keter used telekinesis to prepare something for her rattle.
It was not the unique way of speaking that she began to use as a reason to exude dignity.
This is the natural way of speaking from when the two were once older sister and younger brother, mother and daughter, and friends.
“…”
But Erelim was dumbfounded.
What’s on the table Keter brought out for tea time is not a teapot or teacup.
I just put the miscellaneous things up as if they were playing house.
What is Keter looking at now?
“Did something bad happen? I don’t like the facial expression. Please sit down first.”
She feels dazed, as if she has been hit on the head.
I have always dreamed of a reunion.
I also knew that Keter was suffering from an illness.
But I didn’t want it to be this miserable.
Erelim bit her quivering lip and sat down in the seat she offered her.
“I specially prepared it with your favorite tea leaves.”
While saying that, what Keter held out was a bundle of dried mushrooms whose purpose was unknown.
“… Thank you.”
“What are you thankful for?”
The playful tone flows out of the distorted facial expression and atmosphere where it is unclear what he is seeing or thinking.
She was like a broken tape recorder.
A recorder that only plays back past memories and personalities.
But Erelim soon gathers her troubled mind.
I’ve been through a lot of breakups.
The breakup that I had always been familiar with and had always anticipated came in a slightly different form.
“I want to ask you something.”
“However much.”
“Do you know what is going on in this world now?”
Keter remained silent and then slowly nodded her head.
“Know.”
“I learned that you created order for humans. “He turned many witches into outcasts and even killed many of their friends.”
“…”
“I want to ask why. I deserve it. “Don’t avoid me this time.”
As if the channel was changing, the atmosphere around Keter changed.
Keter, smiling bitterly, touched a teacup (or something she thought was a teacup) and opened her mouth.
“Yes, I remember your dedication. She put aside her doubts and rewarded Yeo with loyal trust. “I’m just grateful.”
“There is no need for gratitude. “What I want to know is what you think.”
Erelim was sure.
It’s not a matter of acting or prevarication, it’s that Keter’s mind is not sound right now.
Therefore, paradoxically, we may be able to get closer to the truth.
“My mother always said. We are beings who cannot find the right answer. All we can do is struggle endlessly and get infinitely closer to the right answer. I had to follow her mother’s words and make the witches prosper, and in the process, keep the humans and witches from fighting with each other. At the same time, I also had to move toward transcendence.”
This is what Erelim guessed up to this point.
If so, we can also guess that the order that Kether has insisted on and still insists on is the realm of morality and belief, not the result of reason and logic.
“But she soon felt her limits. Although I received the stigma of her mother, it was a stigma that was flawed in many places, just like me now, because I put in too much effort into it. “I felt the need to throw off the shackles in order to stand on the rainbow.”
Thus Kether shook off the dirt and debris from his body.
In the process, her Kether hierarchy went down significantly, but she became a being closer to ‘order’, and the ‘chaos’ that was in her became ‘Lilith Kether’, the witch of whispers.
“Looking back, it was something I shouldn’t have done. It was nonsense. After that day. “As time passed, I changed.”
This is also what Erelim guessed.
In order to achieve a higher state, Kether even gave up some of its lofty hierarchy, leaving only the order within itself.
Perhaps chaos was also a part of completing order?
Isn’t all that remains of Kether an imperfect order?
I’ve been thinking this for a long time.
Like a mechanical device obsessed with her obsession, she strived for order, even killing her colleagues and compatriots.
Aside from the sense of betrayal, the conversation up to this point explains why Kether continued the order for humans.
But that’s it.
Why did she give her inheritance to Shin Si-woo instead of Erelim?
Why has it become such a thing that it would collapse without the power of medicine and magic?
Now Erelim has no answer as to what to do with her.
“That…”
“Don’t be too hasty. I’ll tell you everything. “I wanted to tell you someday.”
The sense of distance is blurred by the friendly tone of voice.
It must have been hundreds of years ago that two people spoke so affectionately.
“Yes, I have been studying magic ever since. It wasn’t difficult because I had already walked it once. But I soon realized it. “Her mother’s grave mistake.”
“Mistake?”
“Yes, it must have been my mother’s first time too. She is crossing dimensions and writing a new destiny. “Even if she was a creative witch, she was bound to make mistakes.”
The soft tone of voice sounded an alarm in Erelim’s heart.
It was a warning of instinct rather than reason, brought on by the experience of life accumulated so far.
This shouldn’t be heard.
It is a truth that is better left undiscovered, and that is why Kether has kept it hidden until now.
Since Keter has been reduced to a broken machine, there is a truth that can be said carelessly.
“Every witch who prays to her mother is a failure. “None of us can stand on a rainbow.”
Stand on a rainbow
This is used as an idiomatic expression in witch society.
To become a flawless and perfect being, that is, to reach the 32nd rank, which is the feat of the Witch of Creation.
“Even for me, who personally received her mother’s bowl, 30 ranks was the limit. For witches who don’t, rank 25 is the final destination. What should I say about this… Yes, I can’t explain it other than that it’s a defective product. How is it? “Isn’t it fun?”
Keter laughed.
It was a laugh that was somehow twisted and broken, close to resignation.
A faint despair clouds her eyes.
The essence and fate of a witch is the pilgrim’s steps that end in death.
Using one’s teacher as prey and giving the promised despair to a student who is like a child.
What makes one turn one’s eyes away from the cruelty is the witch’s pride and awareness as a seeker of continuing the feat of the witch of creation.
It all was doomed to failure, says Keter.
What Erelim found when she visited Kether to get her answer was nothing but endless despair, completely denying the pride that had held her heart until now.
