Chapter 63
I often feel this way.
Chloe has a slightly catlike side to her.
“K-Kim Yul? How did you get here?”
When Chloe, who had been leaning at an angle in the parlor chair while reading a novel, saw me, her ears twitched.
Judging from what I've observed so far, that was delight.
“It's our first time meeting in private, young lady.”
“A saintess…?”
But then her ears shot up sharply.
I could clearly see Chloe's gaze momentarily linger on Roseline's divine-power pouch.
Same as when she faced Historie last time.
Apparently our poor knife-ear seems to have quite a serious inferiority complex about her chest.
I added another line to my mental teasing notebook.
“You said you had rage sickness, right? I brought the saintess just in case.”
“Mm, thank you for worrying about me. But I think that saintess over there probably knows it doesn't really mean much.”
“Huh?”
Wondering what she meant, I looked at Roseline.
Before long, Roseline had taken a seat in the chair as if it were her own parlor and started sipping the tea the butler had brought while explaining.
“Honestly, I don't fully understand it either, but you elves do not acknowledge the goddess's existence. Instead, you believe the World Tree is the true representative of the Creator. Unfortunately, for such unbelievers, the goddess's blessing does not descend.”
Truth be told, I'm an atheist too.
In a fantasy world, there ought to be at least one sleek, busty erotic goddess, or at the very least some airhead who uses flowery, poetic language—I had thought something like that.
To think you could be blessed just for having such impudent fantasies.
As expected, that's a goddess for you.
At Roseline's explanation, Chloe gave a little cough and added her own explanation.
“That's right. The very existence of the World Tree Svalbard gave birth to us elves, so how could we believe in a goddess?”
Svalbard, Svalbard.
For some reason, the name feels familiar, like a mutt's name.
But that sense of déjà vu wasn't important right now.
“Hmm.”
Roseline's eyes narrowed.
A very bad sign.
What each of you believes is up to you. Still, um, if we just count this as coming to visit together? It'd be better than lying in bed and groaning alone, and we can get some air while we're at it.
I tried to open a window and at least let in some fresh air before the mood turned icy.
It was stained glass.
Ugh, rich-people interior design is just like this.
I sighed and turned around.
“The divine power bestowed by the goddess is real. It would be wonderful if you elves would acknowledge that.”
“Isn't divine power just a kind of magic after all? It's only a difference in aptitude.”
The saintess and the elf mage had vanished somewhere, leaving only two cats to glare at each other and growl.
Religion is truly a wondrous and terrifying thing.
Watching my dependable doctor and my dependable boss fighting like this.
“The cookie is tasty.”
I felt like inspiration might strike.
Theology was something I should probably never touch again, considering how Roseline was arguing with veins bulging in her neck.
Wasn't there also a great figure in the East comparable to Nazareth's monkey wrench?
A towering 9-foot-6 frame.
The life of Master Kong Zhongni, the philosophy world's fist master who single-handedly beat up Zilu, a man boasting superhuman combat power, and drilled benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom into him through brute force, might also make for interesting material.
Mm, but the novel might end up being boring...
While I was lost in thought and absentmindedly watching Chloe's ear tips grow redder and redder...
“Please admit that the World Tree is just a giant tree. The goddess is kind and merciful, and she'll forgive all your misguided notions.”
“Even if I shrivel up, I can never put such words in an elf's mouth! You big-breasted saintessss!”
Ah.
I never thought Roseline would resort to a 'Sign here!' at a time like this.
Chloe, thoroughly triggered by that, finally exploded.
It was about time to put an end to this dreary holy war.
“You must respect the World Tree! The World Tree has saved countless elves' lives simply by existing── ahh?!”
I strode up to Chloe, who was muttering in dialect, grabbed one ear with one hand, and pressed the other hand to her forehead.
“It looks more like a cold than a fit of rage. Take care of yourself, and don't growl so much.”
“Hah, ah.”
“Saintess, don't be so hard on the sick knife-ear. She's already running a fever this high because she can't even get healing.”
“Mm, I got a little worked up. Sorry, Chloe. Kim Yul.”
Roseline, who had widened her eyes in slight surprise, soon seemed to realize her own lapse in decorum and apologized with a slight blush and a polite bow.
Today's conclusion.
Let's not put these two together.
Their chemistry is terrible.
“Hkyaaah!”
“Don't grind your teeth while staring at the apologizing person's chest.”
I shoved the two Tylenol tablets I'd brought just in case into Chloe's mouth.
Well, her behavior is cat-like.
She isn't going to die from taking Tylenol, is she?
* * *
The next day.
“Ohohoh! This one is fully recovered, desuwa!”
Chloe, who got the full effect of the acetaminophen, made a dazzling comeback.
And she carefully reviewed the latest installment of Novelpia that she hadn't been able to read because of her illness.
“And now Zhang Fei is dead too, desuwa──!”
Yet another disaster struck, making her clutch the back of her neck again.
While Chloe was making a pitiful face over Kim Yul's atrocity of making her sick, then giving her medicine, then making her sick again...
The capital's largest salon.
At Jean Renobil Salon, the story of the 'Two Heroes' was also in full bloom.
Today's debate topic.
How would Liu Bei deal with the deaths of his two sworn brothers?
Opinions were sharply divided.
First.
“Liu Bei has never abandoned his ultimate goal, no matter what adversity he faced. Of course avenging his sworn brothers is important, but he'll devote himself to defeating Cao Pi, the very traitor who can be said to embody treason against the Han. Didn't even Zhuge Liang judge that to be the right course?”
The Endurance-King Liu Bei theory.
Even while already in a fierce standoff with Wei at Hanzhong, there's no way he'd launch a two-front war by taking on Wu here just because Jingzhou is in danger.
Because that is the way of a ruler.
It was an opinion that especially won strong support from people who liked politics.
“I disagree.”
A genius at heroic tales, a master of misery.
The saintess's officially certified horny bastard.
Basiline laid out his opinion with a solemn expression.
“If developments this tragic keep piling up, then naturally Liu Bei should be burning with revenge. So it's more likely that he would even make a truce with Cao Pi's side and go punish Wu instead.”
The revenge-king Liu Bei theory.
His two sworn brothers, who had said they'd die on the same day, were killed by the alliance's cowardly betrayal, so another view held that Liu Bei simply couldn't stand it here.
Because that is the way of brothers.
Interpretations from those who viewed the 'Two Heroes' not as a state-centered narrative but as a story centered on individuals mostly supported this side.
But both had merit.
And both had strengths and weaknesses that were far too pronounced.
“Return to Jingzhou here? The country is doomed!”
“Not avenge his brother here? Then romance is completely dead!”
“Politics isn't done with romance!”
“If you abandon humanity's last shred of conscience, are you fit to be a ruler!”
“Does conscience save a nation!”
A free-for-all debate erupted at once.
“Fine! Let's settle it with a duel!”
People were even fanning out their decks all over the place with a shhk sound to prove their claims.
“Let's see. Are you there? To settle this, we need to chew over the deeds Liu Bei showed as the protagonist in Part 1 of Two Heroes.”
To bolster their arguments and reason more precisely, true readers were digging up Liu Bei's deeds all over and putting their heads together.
Even as the night grew deep, the fervor didn't die down.
“You too?”
“As expected, you were thinking the same, sir.”
Some people left their seats, but...
Jean Renobil Salon's miracle cocktail.
While sipping Jägerbomb, a drink that somehow gets you more and more hyped and clear-headed the more you drink it.
They stayed up all night.
Naturally.
When the morning sun rises, the newspaper is published.
When the newspaper is published, the latest chapter is updated.
Then all the mysteries are solved!
And so, through the dead of night, the early dawn, and the break of day...
At a place the size of Jean Renobil Salon, newspapers would normally be delivered straight to the salon without members having to go out of their way to buy them.
And it was common for members to gather in small groups to read those papers together or pass them around.
If Kim Yul had seen that, he would surely have vomited blood, crying, 'Kraaagh! My views!'
“Newspapers have been delivered!”
But Kim Yul was, once again, writing until dawn and taking a brief rest.
A horrifying scene briefly unfolded in the salon, with at least three people clinging to each copy of Novelpia and savoring today's chapter.
And then.
Between coldness and passion.
Liu Bei burned with resolve.
At that fierce cry that he would squeeze out nearly every force he could muster, despite the remonstrances of his ministers and even Zhao Yun, to settle things with Wu in a fight to the death...
“Kyaa! Loyalty is Liu Bei after all!”
“Foolish. So foolish...”
Joy and sorrow mingled among the crowd.
The jingling of coins rang out noisily for a while.
But.
Only half.
That was only half of it.
With today's absurdly piled-high amount of content, the readers quietly wrapped up their mid-chapter tally and turned the page.
Liu Bei's advance.
- If they're the same enemy, how about striking the bigger enemy, Cao Pi?
Even though Wu belatedly apologized, Liu Bei, with both his balls already blown off, didn't even care and kept advancing.
And what emerged at the forefront was.
Guan Yu's sworn enemy alongside Lü Meng, and a rising strategic genius.
Lu Xun.
“Uh, uh...”
“This development is looking a little ominous.”
The brisk development that followed was enough to instill unease in the readers, especially those who understood strategy and military tactics.
It was blatantly written into the novel that Liu Bei had gone blind with rage and was forcing the march.
And then.
Yiling began to burn.