Chapter 90: I Will Be Here. Daddy, Go Away. |
Drip, drip.
The sound of flowing blood dripping into the lake.
In this vast lake, a single drop was so insignificant that it couldn’t be noticed, but the ripples from the diluted blood drop were gently reaching where I stood.
Contrary to the emotional state I saw before losing consciousness, it is now eerily quiet and cold.
“You seem deep in thought, Daddy.”
As I was silently observing, Pheloi, with her cloudy eyes fixed on me, began to speak.
The girl, still with her bloodied sword thrust into the surface of the lake, continued in a blunt tone, not changing the title she used for me.
“After all, in Daddy’s memory, I was just a naive little girl. This dirty appearance must be unpleasant to you.”
Dirty? Honestly, that thought never crossed my mind.
“But what does that matter now? Daddy, you didn’t come here to have such trivial conversations, did you?”
Pheloi continued, as if my thoughts on the matter were irrelevant.
Then, with her lifeless eyes fixed on me, she asked,
“What you want, Daddy, is for me not to have killed Mom, right?”
Drip, drip.
The silence was so profound that the sound of blood droplets falling into the lake was clear.
In such stillness, I found myself unable to give any response to Pheloi.
I knew for sure that her actions were not born of a curse, but of her own will, and even the reason seemed justifiable now.
“Fortunately, Daddy isn’t someone intoxicated with moral superiority.”
Pheloi took my silence as an affirmation, seemingly relieved.
Such palpable malevolence was commonly seen among adventurers used to grim tasks.
Yes, as if teaching me, she could no longer return to being the child who once acted coyly towards me.
“Right, just as Daddy guessed… That woman once left her daughter and went away without a word. In an era where wars exist everywhere, she abandoned her own daughter, barely even 10, without a sense of responsibility.”
With a sneer, she lifted the corners of her mouth in a bitter smile.
In her eyes, which fiercely gleamed, there was only emptiness.
“It’s only natural to want to kill her. That damned mother.”
“…Pheloi.”
“Of course, Daddy might not have any bad feelings towards Mom, but once something has started, it’s impossible to end it with just our wills.”
As if mocking me for thinking there might still be a way.
Pheloi maintained her stance, intent on firmly continuing her argument.
“Daddy.”
Still addressing me with the same title.
“Knowing full well that I harbored a grudge against her, did Mom really extract a soul from a dead body and create a replica of her daughter for no reason?”
I flinched involuntarily.
It was a reaction before I even comprehended it with my mind, as my subconscious accepted Pheloi’s words.
“Yes, just as you’re thinking now, Daddy.”
To purify the soul of a being with revenge in mind and turn it into a weapon…
Wasn’t the reason all too obvious?
“From the beginning, Mom created me, hoping that I would be the one to kill her. She chose you, Daddy, to help with that, to grow me to this extent.”
Yet she seemed to dismiss the notion of any doubt as trivial.
Pheloi, without giving me any respite, wanted to drive her point home.
“You also have a guess, don’t you, Daddy? About what Mom really is. And that a person of her stature wouldn’t give away something as precious as a mithril-made Ego Weapon without expecting something in return.”
“……”
“…Right, there’s no need for further explanation after this.”
Swoosh.
Then, as the sword pulled out of the water and its tip pointed at me…
Despite draining enough blood to form a pool beneath it, the tip pointed at me was still stained a crimson hue.
As if to show that her desire for revenge wasn’t so light as to disappear with a few words.
“Daddy, you now understand why I am like this, don’t you?”
Yes, everything I had been through had been pushing me towards this.
This child was an entity based on the soul of a hero with a vengeance against her mother.
Tacchia, who made her into a weapon despite knowing this, must have also considered that she would inevitably be killed.
“You clearly know what you need to do to survive, right, Daddy?”
And for that reason, she handed this child over to me for free.
To me, who needed power more than anyone.
Because without a weapon, I was nothing, and knowing my obsession, I wouldn’t part with this weapon.
“…Yes, as you say.”
And that thought was spot on.
After all the dependence, I couldn’t think of parting with this child now.
“If that’s what you want, and Tacchia also wants it… Having received help from both of you, I must comply.”
If a price was indeed needed for the achievements I had made so far…
I must not refuse this offer.
“You finally understand. Then…”
“But not yet.”
Despite this, my inability to accept the current conclusion abruptly cut off Pheloi’s words.
For a brief moment, the smile on her lips began to distort noticeably quickly.
“Not yet, you say?”
“…Yes, not yet.”
A feeling of betrayal.
Guessing that my next words would be far from the answer she desired, I couldn’t face her expression and bowed my head.
“I think it’s not yet time to give a definite answer to that.”
I knew it was cowardly, but it was too sudden for me.
I couldn’t easily accept that I had to kill someone who had shown me kindness overnight, and that the child I considered my companion was leading this mission.
“…So that’s what you were going to say.”
Despite hanging my head in shame, Pheloi’s emotions were clearly reflected in my eyes.
Even without looking directly at her, I could see her face reflected in the blood-stained water.
Bang!
The moment I realized her expression carried anger, a loud noise erupted.
As my face contorted with the fierce splash, Pheloi had already struck me down onto the water’s surface.
“Daddy, do you think you have any choice now?”
I felt a cold chill from the water soaking my body.
And then a colder, sharper blade was pointed at my face.
“The reason you’ve survived all the dangers so far is because of me. If I don’t cooperate with you here, you won’t live much longer.”
I knew that.
No matter how much I had grown, without this child, I would inevitably return to my previous state.
“For you to continue surviving, you must swear here and now to kill Mom with me!”
“I know. I understand that much.”
“Then why…?!”
“Because I still don’t know anything!”
Facing Pheloi’s cries, I also raised my voice in frustration.
There was no hesitation.
Even though a blade was pointed at me, I still had to say what needed to be said.
“Pheloi, I don’t know anything right now. I only just understood why you want to kill Ms. Tacchia, but beyond that, I’m clueless.”
“Is that so important? All you need to know right now is that if I don’t cooperate, you’ll die…”
“Do you know how painful it is to be manipulated without understanding anything?”
Flinch. The sword pointed at me wavered.
This must be a reaction because my words hit the mark.
The pain of being helplessly swept away by circumstances was something this child, who remembered wailing alone on the battlefield, knew all too well.
“Pheloi, you also want me to be sincere in your quest for revenge, right?”
Was she not someone I had come to care for?
Even if she had committed sins in the past, there was a disconnect between that and the woman I knew.
How could I thoughtlessly pursue the goal of killing her just based on that one sin?
“Then give me time, at least to understand why Ms. Tacchia abandoned you…”
“Do you think knowing the reason will change the outcome? Whatever the reason, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s trash for abandoning her daughter on the battlefield and running away!”
“Why would such a person be using your name as an alias?!”
A shout born of frustration.
Pheloi, seemingly unable to digest my words, glared at me with wide eyes, her mouth shut tight.
“…That’s something you’re more curious about than I am, Pheloi.”
I appealed to Pheloi in that state.
Hoping that the sense of unease I had always felt towards this child, driven by murderous intent and hatred towards her, wasn’t false.
“I’m not curious.”
“If you’re not curious, then why do you keep calling Ms. Tacchia ‘Mom’?”
If her hatred was truly clear, there was no need to call her by a term as endearing as ‘Mom’.
The title itself suggested she hadn’t yet severed her affection and bond with her, so how could I simply follow this child’s coercion?
“……”
“Pheloi, give me time.”
Pheloi bit her lip in silence.
In that moment, realizing there was hope in this argument, I reached out my hand to Pheloi.
“If revenge is truly necessary, let’s start by understanding Ms. Tacchia first…”
Even if, in the near future, revenge seemed to be the only answer.
We should delay our decision, allowing time for both of us to make a proper judgment and mindset.
Crack!!!
But before our hands could touch, a slash of the sword cut through the air in front of me.
“…I’m disappointed.”
My fingertips were blown away by the wind pressure, and with that, cracks began to form in the trajectory of the swung sword.
And then, the collapse of space began.
As everything around the cracks was being sucked in, Pheloi, with her back to me, said quietly,
“I thought that if I had a father, he would always be there for me, but if you react like this…”
“Pheloi, wait.”
“I don’t want to talk.”
A sense of betrayal mixed with disappointment and anger.
As if closing the door to her heart, Pheloi began to drift away from me.
“I refuse to have a weak, foolish father who doesn’t know his place.”
“…I can’t stand the sight of you, so never appear before me again.”
“Pheloi, wait!”
We mustn’t part ways yet.
There was too much we still didn’t know; we couldn’t just part like this.
Whooosh!!
Despite my desperation, I was unable to resist the force drawing me in and was engulfed by darkness.
“Are you awake?”
Time passed, and a kind voice reached me.
As I was drawn by the voice and sat up, I realized I was lying in a bed.
Had I been moved to a bedroom after losing consciousness?
“The spear…”
“Here it is.”
As soon as I realized, the elderly man who had been watching over me handed me the spear, responding to my immediate concern for Pheloi.
It was a face I had seen before.
The old man who had introduced me to Tacchia…
“Judging by your expression, it seems the conversation didn’t go well.”
I wasn’t sure why he was here, but from his continued presence and words, it seemed he had some understanding of the situation.
It didn’t seem strange.
He was the one who introduced Tacchia to me, so he must know something about Tacchia and Pheloi.
“What happened to… this child?”
“You would know better than I do. Weren’t you the one who directly talked with that child?”
True to his words, I felt no response from the spear in my hand.
Just like the last time I saw it, this child had completely closed her heart to me.
I could still hold it, but without her cooperation, it would be nothing more than a solid spear.
“So, young man. What will you do now?”
The old man asked me, looking sympathetically at the spear.
To him, who seemed to understand my situation to some extent, I returned his question, already knowing the answer I sought.
“Do you know, sir? How I can meet this child again…”
“More important than meeting her is to gain her recognition.”
“Recognition?”
“Regardless of the reason, she is ultimately just a tool. You couldn’t control her because her growth far surpassed your own.”
So, to properly handle this child, I needed to grow and gain the power to control her.
But how?
Could I, with only the ability to engrave names, grow enough to take control over this child?
“For that reason, I have a suggestion to make to you.”
The old man, smiling at my worried expression, began to speak.
As I stopped to listen, he started to make a suggestion that I never expected.
“Why don’t you become a hero?”
Something I had always considered since coming to this world.
As if to tell me that the opportunity to resolve that lingering thought had finally arrived.