125 – Sierra’s Awakening
This world is absurd.
While someone scavenges through garbage cans for a meal in the back alleys of the royal capital, someone enjoys a dinner prepared to the extent that their upper legs bend in a cozy mansion restaurant.
When someone works day and night to live a day and exhausts himself, someone enjoys profligate entertainment as if there is no tomorrow.
For some, this world is a place of asceticism to die, but for others, it is a land of happiness full of all joys and achievements.
A world in which winners and losers are divided even before they are born.
This world was a garbage dump full of the stench of absurdity.
However, there were surprisingly few people who hated the absurdity.
The common people who starved to death because they didn’t have a loaf of bread resented themselves. That is, he was born as a commoner. If you go a little further, you will resent the aristocrats who built a tower of wealth by exploiting commoners. There were very few commoners like that, and even such commoners cursed their fate of not being born with a high status in the end.
It was strange.
Why don’t people resent this world?
Because they were born as commoners or slaves, they are trampled on and exploited by people born as nobles. This world tolerates it. After all, the worst thing was this world.
‘He’ thought. The reason people don’t hate the world is that they just don’t know.
So he made up his mind. Let’s become an apostle who hates the world and lead people.
This wrong world needs to be corrected. But changing the world is painful. It is necessary to turn the vested interests parasitic on stinky absurdity into enemies, and to enlighten the ignorant and oblivious people who do not understand the right ideal.
None is an easy task. Even if you do all that work, it’s unclear if you’ll be able to correct the world.
A task that no one can rush to challenge.
But someone must take on the challenge.
‘He’ volunteered for the job. With a martyr’s heart, he committed himself to the difficult task.
The reason he jumped into this impossible task was simple.
Because someone had to do it.
He was just himself.
“Captain! Is this the mansion!?”
Agnis, Blue Flame.
The lieutenant of the blue army under the nihilist.
What caught his eye was a mansion full of vines. The garden was not maintained, and the windows of the mansion were broken everywhere. Extremely exposed design that seems like it would go in even if the cold wind blows.
I was very impressed with the appearance that I would not prefer unless it was a ghost. If you find a house like this, you’ll be more curious about whether or not there are ghosts than wondering who lives in it.
If it wasn’t for the information obtained in advance, Cheong’s team would have passed this place. Would there be one or two abandoned houses like this all over the capital?
Investigating all of them was neither outrageous nor the right way. Such a slow investigation would only buy time for the fleeing party.
“hehehe. The power of predicting the future is truly amazing. Even if you hide like a rat, you can find it at once like this.”
Ignis frowned at the smiling subordinate. Aside from the fact that the procedure for obtaining wisdom was extremely difficult, future foreknowledge was not a force they had to rely on. That’s why Ignis didn’t like talking about wisdom so lightly.
“The absurd, itself.”
“Yes?”
A subordinate who can’t fathom his boss’ intentions and tilts his head.
Unlike his blunt expression, kind Ignis explained in a clear voice for such a subordinate.
“The power to determine the future ignoring cause and effect. Future foresight is such a power. It is truly the height of absurdity.”
A world with a fixed future has no value.
If the beginning and end of every human being is fixed like an opera scenario, what meaning would that life have?
If the joys of life and the sorrows of life are just fixed external scenery that passed by moving along a set track, what value can be given to that life?
I just dance for a while on the stage of the world and come down.
That’s why the future foreknowledge was a disturbing force. A force that must disappear for the sake of a nihilist ideal.
It is not a necessary evil, it is a pure evil.
“Uh…. But isn’t wisdom the captain’s strength?”
“Yes. It means that I am also a person who is not needed in the new world.”
Ignis answered indifferently.
As far as his men knew, he was a man who didn’t lie and didn’t know how to tell. That he said so….
The atmosphere in the unit has subsided. It’s a bad situation ahead of an important mission.
The target of this mission is a man who is judged to have no strong skills or traits, but has evaded nihilist eyes many times. It means that it is not a mission that can be undertaken without tension.
“Concentrate everyone.”
“Oh, I see.”
At Ignis’ words, his men gulped and nodded. The captain tried to get what he had just said out of his mind, but it wasn’t easy.
“Go in.”
Ignis lightly spurred his ground and climbed over the fence. Members of his unit followed him.
As soon as I entered the opponent’s territory, my disturbed mood calmed down. Yes, it was helpful to focus on the mission like this when I was feeling dizzy. The crew raised their vigilance and went into serious mode.
“A trap?”
A question mark was written in Ignis’s mind as he carefully expanded his senses and looked around. This unmaintained garden is full of well-kept traps. A typical example is the mousetrap you see in front of you.
It’s cleverly designed to look like a mousetrap, but it’s actually a booby trap that prevents people from maneuvering. However, the trap was neatly cut. It means that someone has dismantled the trap.
The owner wouldn’t have dismantled the trap like that. There is no hunter in the world who disposes of the traps he has made so that they cannot be reused. Even if there were, such a hunter could not escape the eyes of a nihilist for so long.
Ignis knew very well that their goal, Shazan, was not such a person. There were only a few possibilities he could think of.
‘Could it be that the other units arrived first?’
The possibility is zero. The pursuit of Shazan was an arbitrary mission entrusted to the Qing troops. Other troops won’t even know who he is. There has never been a single case in the history of a nihilist who hijacked another unit’s mission. At least as far as Ignis knows.
If you ask that the existence of Shazan is a person who will change the history of such a nihilist, then of course it was not. Shazan was the opposite of their ideal, but he was never the target to assassinate so eagerly.
In that case, there is only one possibility left.
I was chased by someone other than a nihilist. For example, a group of assassins….
‘Or Angra Mainyu?’
They claim to be followers of evil, and they are a group of madmen who cannot read their actions. If Shazan was involved in any way with them, he wouldn’t have looked good.
‘You’ll understand when you go inside.’
If these speculations are true, Shazan should not be taken away from them. It is Ignis who broke the taboo of wisdom to catch him. If you miss him here, he loses his reason for breaking the taboo. It was hard for Ignis to accept.
I don’t worry too much. Because Shazan was clearly dead from his foreknowledge. Even in your own hands.
The wisdom he saw had never given a single wrong answer. That’s why it was a power that shouldn’t exist.
“Enter the mansion.”
I quickly passed the garden where the trap disappeared and arrived at the mansion. The tightly closed front door left traces of dust sweeping. This means that it has recently opened. There is also a faint handprint on the doorknob.
‘Someone has come.’
Thump!
I kicked the door and went inside.
“Come here!”
“You’re welcome.”
Welcoming them was a pair of men and women who seemed to be still in their prime.
From noble mtl dot com
—
Shazan’s monitoring device confirmed the identities of those who entered from the outside.
‘Blue Raid Leader Ignis.’
A tricky enemy appeared at this timing. But it’s not like I didn’t think about it at all. Ignis is the enemy chasing Shazan in the original story. In terms of time, it’s just a lot later than now.
As expected, the twisted story in the Angra Mainyu Gun was making a mess of what was scheduled. It was disturbing, but at the same time fun. Because this is a story I’ve never cleared before.
Moreover, I wasn’t completely engrossed. Realizing that the original story had a twist, I made a lot of preparations.
I took an item from my magic bag. Originally, it was intended to be given after Sierra had grown a little more.
“What are these clothes!?”
Sierra was surprised to see the clothes I prepared. What I took out was a gown designed in a combination of black and white. It is characteristic that her shoulder part flows down loosely.
“This equipment is prepared for you.”
“Me, for me!? Really?”
Sierra was moved by her trembling. I’m about to shed tears. No, she shed real tears.
“Of course it’s real. Try it on I think it will suit you well.”
“The first clothes gift I received from John! I will never take this off for the rest of my life!”
“But wearing it for the rest of your life….”
Unfortunately, the clothes I presented were combat uniforms. It’s not a 5-minute keynote, and you can’t wear a combat uniform for the rest of your life.
Sierra wore ‘Twilight Dew’. The outfit fit perfectly, just like the original Sierra, without any jokes. It has to be.
“Uh… ? This outfit…. Something is strange.”
“Strange? What?”
“It fits me like I’ve been wearing it for a very long time. Oh, it’s not that it’s the right size…. Oops! I don’t know what to say… It’s like, it was mine from the beginning! It’s not unfamiliar at all! John! Where did you get these clothes!?”
Sierra opens her rabbit eyes and asks me.
This is an item purchased from a gold merchant for a large sum of money.
‘Twilight Dew’
This gown is the equipment worn by Sierra Grimkeeper, the mid-boss of the original story. Drops with a low chance when Sierra is defeated.
[Dew of Twilight (B+ Grade): The villainess wearing her back alley is a gown. The design completed using white and black in harmony is neither too heavy nor too light. It seems that you can see the agony of the owner who always had to walk a tightrope in a black world.
The gown presents the wearer with feet as nimble as the wind and bad luck. Perhaps because of the karma of the owner who never missed a prey he aimed at, the effectiveness of the equipment becomes stronger when dealing with a moribund enemy.
Agility +7 Luck +5
Definitely applies a ‘collapse’ debuff when the opponent’s HP is below 10%
Apply special buff ‘Shadow of Deception’]
[The karma of ‘Twilight Dew’ reacts! The powerful power hidden in the equipment is revealed!]
[‘Sierra Grimkeeper’ got a new nickname, ‘Master of Destiny’!]
[The title effect of ‘Master of Destiny’ increases the proficiency of thief skills and thief equipment to the highest level! As the master of karma, you can maximize the effect of ‘twilight dew’!]
‘Huh?’
An unexpected notification window appeared in front of me.
‘Twilight Dew’ is an item originally used by Sierra.
It seems that the item in the hands of its true owner exerts a hidden power. A development that was not in the original story.
‘Honey!’
For me, of course, it was a good thing.