Chapter 2357: An Ancient Story

Chapter 2357: Chapter 2357: An Ancient Story

"Both Madeline and I were powerful Transcendents at the time, and the Church of the God of Love always arranged for us to act together. During an ordinary mission, we suspected that everyone in an orphanage located some distance from the settlement was infected by a dreadful Evil Fiend, so we were assigned the task of killing everyone there... For that era, it was a very ordinary task."

Shard glanced sideways at the orphanage on the distant hill:

"Let me guess, there was someone you spared?"

"It wasn’t me, it was Madeline."

Richard stated calmly, as if recounting a story that wasn’t his own. The sound of the river gurgled, perfectly setting the mood for a story:

"It was a child only seven years old. Madeline was very certain he wasn’t infected, but she was very sure it didn’t matter, for the safety of the settlement, he couldn’t be spared either... Yet, Madeline still spared him. She told me about it afterward, so I reprimanded her."

"Did Madeline’s judgment fail?"

"No, her judgment was correct, the child was indeed normal at the time.

But afterward, to avenge us ’evildoers’ who killed all his family, he threw himself into the Wrath of the Great Sin. About three years later, on the eve of my wedding with Madeline, he reappeared and killed most family members of everyone involved in that mission. I was an orphan with no relatives to die, and Madeline only had her mother, who survived because she visited Madeline that evening."

"This... well, another story like this, go on. Though it’s tragic, surely it wouldn’t cause you two to turn against each other? Besides, it’s not your fault."

He asked, and Richard shook his head slightly, his body becoming more transparent than before:

"No, our love was deep. We tacitly agreed not to talk about it, but Madeline’s faith wavered because of it, questioning whether benevolence was truly right. I still can’t say what exactly she encountered during that time, but surely it was then that she came into contact with that mermaid."

Shard sat up a bit straighter, for this was the part he wanted to hear:

"Did the mermaid tempt her?"

"Or perhaps it was Madeline, shaken in her faith, who willingly approached my master’s enemy, her heart seeking solace. I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. Maybe she just wanted some comfort; during that time, none of us, myself included, noticed her abnormality. Until two years later, on another mission, we once again received orders to clear out an orphanage... In those times, children and the elderly were the groups most prone to accidents."

Shard sat on a large stone, unwilling to judge the actions of a past era:

"Go on."

"It was like going back many years, but this time I was the protagonist. I encountered a child who pleaded with me, and I was very certain he was normal, too."

The robed man paused:

"The story is momentarily paused; may I ask you a question? If it were you, would you spare him or follow the regulations and kill him?"

Shard answered without much thought:

"I’m grateful I’m just facing this question and not really encountering it. I choose the latter, after all, rules are rules, and since Madeline made a mistake once, you shouldn’t repeat it. Just believing the child is fine is, after all, not reliable."

Then he added:

"Of course, if you had chosen the former, I could understand you, too. Sometimes, when people face choices, they find that none of the available options are entirely right."

"Indeed, I chose the latter. I did not spare him, but Madeline blocked my sword."

There was finally an emotional tremor in Richard’s voice:

"She questioned me at the time about whether to abandon the pursuit of justice because of a bad result from insisting on justice, and if so, whether one really still trusts the justice they uphold." ℯ𝐥.𝒄ℴ𝓶

It seemed as if a sigh was heard under the moonlight.

"It’s an interesting question. Of course, I can’t say whether sparing the child counts as justice. But as I said, no matter what choice you make, I can understand. There is no completely correct option with such questions; we’re just mortals. So, what happened to the child in the end?"

Shard asked, and Richard lowered his eyes slightly:

"He was still killed by me; it was a requirement of our action... Afterward, Madeline and I had an extremely intense argument, to the point that our planned wedding was postponed. Madeline believed I had betrayed our vow, abandoning the benevolence and justice we held dear. After that, we drifted apart, and others in the Order finally discovered she had turned to that mermaid."

Shard raised an eyebrow but made no comment.

"On one long, dark night, Madeline left us, completely becoming the emissary of that mermaid. I thought we would never have a chance to meet again, but during a mission, tasked with exterminating a remote settlement of the elderly, I found Madeline’s mother."

Richard paused again, even though the notebook was about to completely collapse, he was still caught up in memories of the past, and was in no hurry to finish the end of the story:

"The same kind of mission, and I still chose to stick to my principles. So, I personally killed Madeline’s mother."

The night wind swept across Shard’s back, and the summer night’s wind was still somewhat cold.

"Shortly after, Madeline’s corpse drifted ashore, and an autopsy revealed that she died of a broken heart. I don’t know if, upon hearing that I executed her mother, she was heartbroken because I killed her mother or because I still adhered to such principles... In any case, she died because of it, and her spirit was not conjured through necromancy."

Shard and Richard together looked at the pink crystal that had completely encased the notebook at that moment, "Desire" had said that before Madeline died, she offered her soul to her, and thus she used that soul to forge this infinitely powerful dagger.

"Although most things don’t have completely correct answers, your two stories really are... What happened after that? You’re still alive, so the story hasn’t ended."

"I... I guess I went mad when I saw her corpse."

Richard’s voice had already begun to blur:

"I wanted to prove to her that my beliefs were not wrong, I wanted to prove to her that all justice must be asserted through death. Even if she was no longer around, I wanted to prove this, yes, even if she was not there anymore... I left the Order, and as a Lone Walker ran through dangerous dark nights, treading in that dark age. I wielded a sword and killed countless evildoers, countless monsters, until one day I could no longer wield my sword, and so I too died."

The last few words were trembling, but not due to an emotional fluctuation, but because the power of that relic was about to be exhausted.

"Then because of your obsession, your soul wasn’t able to reach the end, but was trapped in your notebook, and later became a relic?"

After hearing the story, Shard frowned and looked at the notebook pierced by the sword:

"I can’t judge who was right or wrong between you and her, although I would like to comfort you by saying ’this is the tragedy of the era,’ but you probably don’t want to hear something like that, do you?"

Richard did not answer this question:

"I have no intention of judging my past, who was right or wrong, it doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve done many things in my long life, and I don’t need others to evaluate me... Most people in the Order believed that the mermaid was connected to my lord, that its power was the reverse side of my lord’s power."

This also matched the information that Shard had discovered when investigating "Desire" at Green Lake, where "Desire" and the "God of Love - The Lock of the Red Heart" could possibly be two sides of the same coin.

"I specifically told you this story not to evoke your sympathy, but because I wanted to pass on the knowledge I held, some information shouldn’t disappear because of my departure. Over these years, I have become a monster, and thus discovered some... truths that are more frightening than history and myth."

Shard looked past him towards the river behind him, there was no sign of a hand or head suddenly emerging. When using spiritual power to perceive the surroundings, he also didn’t sense any likelihood of being pierced by a beam of light shot across the air targeting Richard.

"Some power has shrouded the truth of history, maybe that mermaid and my lord were not two sides of the same coin... Before ascension, my lord might have just been one of the many faces of the mermaid."

Shard’s face finally turned serious:

"Do you know what you’re saying?"

"Of course, desire originates from the moment the first mortal in this world opened their eyes. Isn’t love also a ’desire’ to love and be loved?"

The nearly transparent man continued to question:

"How much do you know about her? Do you only think she represents bodily desire?"

Indeed, that mermaid herself had said that she represented all desires, not just simple "lust." Otherwise, the reward Shard obtained from consuming that piece of flesh would have been the "Chains of Lust" instead of the "Great Sin Chain."

"So it is such an ancient existence. It makes sense, otherwise, she wouldn’t display this level of power."

He softly sighed, then looked up in gratitude:

"Thank you for telling me this, although you said you don’t need others to evaluate you, I still do not agree with your sense of justice."

"Then do you know? I inhabited the notebook after death, and later became a relic, thus possessing great power, because of the obsession of the soul, the Whisper Element granted me a special damage effect on that mermaid... I am one of the few relics that can directly harm her true form."

Richard asked again, while Shard merely raised an eyebrow:

"Saying this is no longer useful, after all these years of killing so many, it’s time for you to leave. I don’t know if your soul will be completely destroyed or move towards the end after this notebook is destroyed. But at least, your soul and Madeline’s soul are together. Hmm... Madeline’s Love, is that what it means?"