MTLNOVEL Chapter 17
Chapter 17: Stage 2. Celestial Stone (10)
“……Rebellion.”
Kedral’s eyes widened.
“Tell me in detail. Tell me everything.”
“If the one who controls the Grand Canal plots a rebellion, there’s no way to stop it.”
“But the Diamond family doesn’t have many private soldiers, does it? There are limits to the number of troops a noble family can possess.”
“The sailors who operate the ships, the workers who transport and unload the goods. The country doesn’t pay their salaries.”
That was why Kedral had to die when the Grand Canal was completed.
If he controlled the Grand Canal for even a single year, he would become a figure the royal family couldn’t stop.
A solo rebellion would be difficult, but if he joined hands with another country, a coup d’état wouldn’t be impossible.
This wasn’t a matter of whether Kedral had the intention to do so.
Kedral’s capabilities were a matter of national security.
“I see. That’s how it is…….”
Kedral placed his hand on Dominic’s shoulder.
“You must know that humans are just shallow fools moved by greed and habit.”
“…….”
“You must have seen the movement of the sun and stars and realized that the earth is round, and you must have been unable to accept that a civilization that has lasted for thousands of years hasn’t escaped the level of savagery.”
“…….”
“Because all the information you see and hear is converted into shapes and charts, and because the calculations in your brain never stop, your nights must have been longer than your days.”
It was madness, and also a sense of relief.
That someone like him existed in the world.
“So, you and I are the same. Dominic Diamond.”
But Dominic couldn’t understand one thing.
“Why…… did you become a noble, even knowing you would die?”
The Grand Canal construction was a project that made Kedral a noble, but it was also a knife that would cut off his head.
Why did he choose this path?
“That was the question that silenced me until I was thirteen. But think about it the other way around.”
Kedral smiled, revealing his teeth.
It was the first time Dominic had seen that expression.
“I endured a world ruled by monkeys for thirteen years.”
* * *
A day passed, and another day passed.
Dominic was still staying at the Dia family’s main residence, living his daily life.
He was starting to get confused.
Was it all a dream?
Were all the memories of living as a Tera Defense soldier just an illusion?
But the level of his swordsmanship was too vivid to be so.
He swung his sword in the training hall, and it wasn’t much different, except for the lack of mana.
In the end, Dominic came to one conclusion.
He had traveled to the past.
Whether it was because of the Celestial Stone or the Ring’s ability, he had returned to being seven years old.
In other words, this was reality.
All the regrets that had turned Dominic into a fugitive hadn’t happened yet.
His heart began to pound.
It wasn’t because he was excited by the thought of changing the past.
It was because of his mother and father.
He could meet the two who had passed away.
And he knew in advance that ‘that incident’ would occur.
The one that drove his parents to their deaths and destroyed the Diamond family, which had a little bit of hope left.
Dominic wanted to see his parents as soon as possible, but Kedral didn’t allow it.
He said that he would follow the rules and wait a week before announcing Dominic as the official successor.
He felt a little guilty.
He wasn’t as much of a genius as Kedral thought.
He could only pretend to be a genius because he knew the future and had the wisdom of an adult.
But becoming the successor would make it easier to deal with ‘that incident’ that was about to happen.
A week passed, and finally, his time at the main residence came to an end.
Soon, Dominic’s entire family, as the successor, would move into the main residence, but not yet.
Dominic ran.
It would be faster to travel by carriage, but he couldn’t just sit and wait.
His family lived not far from the main residence.
He skillfully navigated the alleys he thought he had forgotten, passed through the commercial district where various guilds gathered, and the scenery he had longed for began to appear.
Not too big, but a mansion spacious enough for three family members to live in.
Now, if he just crossed the hill, he would be able to meet his mother hanging out the laundry, and his father cleaning the house.
Or maybe they would be reading a book together in the study.
Dominic ran.
He was out of breath, but he didn’t stop.
The moment he crossed the hill, the shape of the world blurred and all boundaries collapsed.
The sense of reality of the space he believed to be real faded.
What filled the space was something that was neither darkness nor light.
Despair filled him.
Was all of this really an illusion?
Had he been deceived?
But his steps didn’t stop.
Just once.
Just once would be enough.
If he could just see his parents’ faces.
If he could just see their smiles as they waved at him.
However, the collapsing boundaries of reality, like a burst dam, erased Dominic’s wishes.
‘No…….’
The people he had longed for his entire life were beyond this hill…….
He wanted to see them…….
The world went dark.
* * *
Velicaya felt bewildered, and she felt bewildered at herself for feeling bewildered.
She, who was in contact with countless secrets, rarely got surprised.
Of course, there were many beings in this world superior to her.
Right now, she was hiding in the “Tower of Paradox” to avoid the Celestials.
The Seven Knights and the Four Emperors were also of higher or equal status to Velicaya.
But Velicaya wasn’t surprised by those beings.
Not being able to win and not being able to understand were different matters.
But now it was different.
“How……?”
She couldn’t understand at all.
She was interested when a sacrifice in the tower’s territory was materializing the Celestial Stone.
If the sacrifice could materialize the Celestial Stone, she could experiment with many more things, and she was even glad.
But the sacrifice wasn’t easy to deal with, and materialized the Celestial Stone to attack her.
It was absurd.
The Celestial Stone wasn’t something that could be used in that way.
Even if it were possible, one would have to pay the price for daring to use the “Record of Singularity.”
But the sacrifice didn’t pay any price.
How was this possible?
Was the sacrifice closely related to this forest?
Moreover, the sacrifice broke through her territory with a handful of mana and a vulgar technique called Mana Burn.
Everything was full of things she couldn’t understand.
As a result, the sacrifice disappeared from this world as soon as it touched the Celestial Stone.
It was empty.
Humans must die when they touch the Celestial Stone.
Velicaya almost died when she touched the Celestial Stone.
No, she died.
Her memories were inherited thanks to the artificial body she left in the Tower of Paradox, but biologically, she died.
So, that sacrifice would also face death as a price for glimpsing the Singularity.
“Ah……!”
Velicaya stamped her feet in regret.
She was really too bad.
If she could secure such a sacrifice, she could conduct tremendous experiments!
She could get one step closer to her goal!
Velicaya, who swallowed her regret, was about to turn around.
Shaaaaaaa!
Suddenly, a bright light burst out, and the Celestial Stone began to shine.
Something was being reconstructed in the light.
Soon, the sacrifice that had been sucked into the space of singularity appeared with all its wounds healed.
“What?”
It touched the singularity and came back alive?
How on earth?
She was surprised, but it wasn’t a bad thing.
It was even better since she could use it as a sacrifice.
If she investigated what relationship this man had with the singularity, she could learn more.
Velicaya grinned and approached the unconscious sacrifice.
She didn’t know his name yet, but they would spend a long time together.
Velicaya, who was in such a good mood, was about to rise into the air with the sacrifice.
Gooooooo-
“-!”
She began to feel a terrible gaze from the Tower of Paradox.
No, terrible was an illusion created by Velicaya’s fear.
“That thing’s” gaze had no emotions at all.
It was just immeasurable.
The indescribable immeasurability didn’t put pressure on her but gave her a sense of pressure, and it didn’t threaten her but gave her fear.
Velicaya knew the being that was looking down on her very well.
“The immeasurability of the 10th floor……!”
The Tower of Paradox had 10 floors, and Velicaya had conquered most of the tower.
But the 10th floor was an exception.
Velicaya had become an inhuman sorcerer through the death of her body, but she couldn’t dare to approach the 10th floor.
That was the realm of something incomprehensible.
It wasn’t just power, but she couldn’t understand the properties and laws of space at all.
She had sent countless dummy bodies with different characteristics to enter the 10th floor, but none of them could withstand it.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be much different even if Velicaya’s main body went.
But…….
“Don’t bluff.”
Because it had such power,
If mythical beings could exert influence at will, the world would have already been destroyed.
Causality was necessary.
Even the
So, there was no need to be afraid.
Velicaya, who made that judgment, gritted her teeth and growled.
“This is mine. You just watch from there.”
She didn’t want an answer.
She just declared it to gain the courage to fight against the terrible being.
But surprisingly…….
An answer came.
[NOT PERMITTED]
“What?!”
At that moment, a stream of light poured out from the 10th floor of the tower.
The light reached the sacrifice, ignoring all of Velicaya’s defense magic.
Velicaya, who bit her lip tightly, tried to resist, but she had no choice but to fall off quickly.
In the meantime, the altitude of the sacrifice floating in the air increased.
[DESIRE]
The tower swallowed the sacrifice.
* * *
Surprisingly, Dominic was watching everything.
From the moment the world he wanted to believe was real collapsed, to the moment he returned to the ominous forest.
He was unconscious, but he could see.
No, he could feel it.
This wasn’t limited to the five senses such as sight and smell.
He could read Velicaya’s inner thoughts as if he had become a god.
He didn’t know how this was possible.
But thanks to this, he was able to understand the existence of Velicaya.
Velicaya was a being who repeated countless experiments to reach “a certain singularity” in the Celestial Stone.
In Dominic’s eyes, Velicaya was already dead.
Only an artificial creature with the terrible obsession of a mage was walking around the world with memories.
The only regret was that he couldn’t know exactly what singularity Velicaya saw.
Because she didn’t have any specific thoughts.
Dominic stared into the darkness while thinking about that.
Darkness ever since the tower swallowed him.
A being whose identity even Velicaya didn’t know and speculated as
What the hell was this being?
Was it the owner of the Celestial Stone?
Or was it the owner of the Ring?
Was it this being that threw him into the closed time?
He could read Velicaya’s mind, but he couldn’t read the mind of the being on the 10th floor.
To be exact, it was closer to something that couldn’t be decoded.
If all the books in the world were combined into one sentence, it wouldn’t be something that could be decoded.
It was then.
Meaning bloomed in the darkness.