Vol 7 Chapter 11

"Good! Let's finish by taking out ten each! Heave-ho!"

Working together, the task progressed faster than expected. When Kapros stood up after picking all ten flowers, hyung was also getting up not far away with hands full of flowers and covered in dirt.

"Got them all?"

"How about hyung?"

When Kapros nodded and asked back, a broad smile spread across hyung's face.

"I found all of mine too! It's done! I can take these to her tomorrow, right?"

Hyung gathered the 100 flowers and carefully tied them together with long vines from around them to make one large bouquet. It was somewhat amusing because there were so many flowers that hyung's face was barely visible. Perhaps because his usual personality was so far removed from flowers, being buried in flowers looked unbalanced yet somehow suited him well.

"Kar, why are you laughing?"

"...I wasn't laughing."

At hyung's sharp question, Kapros quickly returned his expression to normal. Though hyung looked somewhat suspicious, fortunately he soon lost interest. When they went to the log cabin lodging, unlike Kapros who had been there before, hyung, visiting for the first time, seemed so impressed by the peaceful sight of the house under moonlight that he circled around outside for quite a while without going in.

"Wow, I really like this place. Would be perfect if it were our house."

Despite his wild appearance, the more one got to know Kion-hyung, the more he seemed to have peaceful tastes.

"Whew. I want to see how it looks in daylight. Must be amazing. I should log out right here. How about you, Kar?"

Kapros slowly shook his head.

"Haven't been able to train much lately... so I'll do some before leaving."

"Still a training maniac, I see."

Looking at Kapros once with eyes as if seeing something nostalgic, hyung grinned and waved his hand.

"Alright. Don't overdo it. Hyung's going first. See you later."

When Kapros nodded and waved back, hyung's body soon flickered with light and disappeared. In the silent forest where not even animal sounds could be heard, probably because it was built on the desert, now only Kapros remained in this house.

'Good.'

While loosening his stiff neck and shoulders, Kapros looked down at the Superior staff at his waist. The staff, which would normally emit at least a faint light, was completely quiet now. Thinking that its true form as a wooden staff without any light looked quite plain, he made his way through the darkness inside the log cabin toward the room.

Actually, what he had told Kion-hyung about training was, regrettably, an excuse. He had stayed behind to think carefully about Superior's situation. After finding the bed he was looking for, he lay down comfortably and slowly closed his eyes.

Starting from the words Superior had said when meeting Ilumine, through the past memories that hadn't been much of a hint to him, to Superior's reactions when they had met Kor the Flame Dragon before, he recalled and examined everything in as much detail as possible. Just where in all of that could assumptions arise that would make Superior mention being "afraid"?

The most striking fact learned through Kor the Flame Dragon's words was about another Superior that Superior couldn't remember - until now, probably assumed to be the original Superior who had left behind the avatar Superior.

He had suddenly visited Kor one day, helped move his lair, and left after making the meaningful remark that Kor could visit whenever he wanted. The avatar Superior accompanying Kapros today had said that he felt considerable dissonance from his own appearance that Kor had described, and frightening assumptions had occurred to him. Exactly what had he said...?

"Surely you're not suggesting that the demon god's power is rising again?"

"That's impossible. That which I sealed..."

It seemed somewhat... predictable yet not... should he think about it more?

The original Superior who met Kor had supposedly met Ilumine right before visiting Kor. Though it wasn't clear how many times Superior had visited Ilumine after the war ended, from the memories he had seen so far, their meeting that he could know in detail was only once, combining what he had learned earlier in this log cabin using Aiagas and what he had seen today that seemed to continue from there. What had Superior said to Ilumine in that meeting?

First, in the memory seen through this log cabin... even thinking back, there didn't seem to be anything particularly important. At most, it had only briefly shown his sadness about the deaths of past companions. But what Superior had said in today's memory...

'Dividing himself in two...'

Though he didn't know what that meant, judging from Ilumine's words about it being close to taboo and being suicidal, it was clearly something serious. Since Ilumine had accepted Superior's proposal just before the memory cut off, it would be right to assume Superior's plan was eventually carried out. This led to the conclusion that the Superior currently with him was probably the result of that.

The avatar Superior who had no memory of these matters at all. How had he introduced himself when they first met?

Hadn't he said he was an avatar left behind for his future complete self, possessing only about 1/10 of the original's power but proper memories and knowledge? He had even explained in detail how the avatar was created and had clear awareness of his position as merely an avatar and consciousness of the "original."

The original Superior had only planned to create trial grounds for future successors, and as part of that, had first created himself as an avatar and placed himself in Rezul, he had said.

However, the original Superior in today's memory didn't seem to have created his avatar with such lighthearted intentions. The difference between an "avatar" and "dividing oneself in two"... what exactly was it?

'Sigh. The more I think about it, the more complicated it gets...'

At this rate, figuring out what kind of assumption was making this avatar Superior act this way seemed far off. Though this guy must be the key, he wouldn't open his mouth.... As Kapros stared intently at the Superior staff hanging at his waist that somehow felt unfamiliar in the darkness, as if sensing it, a low voice echoed in his mind.