By Zephyria 
Old Dragon’s slowly opened eyes rolled around, capturing my figure. Those eyes stared at me silently for a long time, as if I were something fascinating. I quietly met Old Dragon’s gaze before opening my mouth first.
“I heard you can help me.”
Only then did Old Dragon blink and exhale a small breath.
“Yes.”
Immediately after, he turned to Newit and continued speaking.
“Newit, if you go behind this cave, there should be some old ornaments placed on a stone platform. Could you bring them here? Carefully, so they don’t break, understand?”
“Yeah, got it!”
Newit, having received the request, passed through the gap between the prostrate Old Dragon and the wall, and not long after, he carefully emerged, holding something in his arms. What he brought out were one ornament to be worn around the neck and two ornaments presumed to be worn on the arms.
“Give them here.”
Old Dragon extended one arm and spread out the claws he had been retracting. At that, Newit placed the ornaments he had brought onto Old Dragon’s palm. Old Dragon then showed them to me again.
“Can you believe it? These are items that were used before year 70 of the Genesis Era.”
If it’s year 70 of the Genesis Era… that means it’s about 1500 years ago from now. It had passed through an unimaginably long time, but perhaps because they were made of pure gold, they had hardly rusted.
They had an old feel, but I couldn’t easily imagine that they were that old.
Soon, a faint light began to leak out from the ornaments placed on Old Dragon’s palm. It was a signal that a protective barrier, perhaps put in place to further enhance their preservation, was being released.
Somehow, they were strange ornaments that caught the eye.
I stared at them silently before opening my mouth.
“So, the reason you brought these out is?”
“……”
“It can’t be just to show them off.”
At that, Old Dragon hummed in affirmation.
He extended his arm a little further toward me and said,
“These aren’t ordinary ornaments. They are items imbued with sacred power, called ‘Divine Objects.’ They were possessed by someone who was called the ‘Proxy of God’ during their life. And… now they are yours. These Divine Objects will give you the help you need.”
Divine Objects.
The moment I heard that word, I felt that I had come to the right place. There were still many stories that were difficult to understand… but I also knew that I would gradually come to realize them from now on, without rushing.
“……”
I reached out as if drawn by an invisible force. Old Dragon didn’t say anything after that, but I had a strange conviction that everything would begin only when I came into contact with these objects called Divine Objects.
It was when my outstretched fingertips touched the Divine Objects.
The Divine Objects, which had seemed quiet, suddenly began to show a violent reaction. They emitted a strong force and a pure white light, and I heard Newit, who was startled, shout briefly, “Wah!”
I, who had briefly frowned at the dazzling light, felt a flood of memories rushing into my head like a strong current and a strange sensation of my body growing hot, and then I became dizzy.
It was a situation where it was difficult to understand what was happening. Amidst the confusion, I saw Newit rushing toward me with a surprised face as the world went dark. It seemed like I had closed my eyes.
Immediately after realizing that, my eyes snapped open.
That place… was no longer inside the cave.
‘Where is this?’
Buildings built in an architectural style I had never seen before and humans wearing unfamiliar clothes, as if they were only draped in white cloth.
I was standing inside a huge Royal Palace, able to look down at them all at a glance. In fact, I couldn’t know if this building was really a Royal Palace, but somehow I was certain that it was.
‘What on earth is this…’
I, feeling flustered, wanted to grasp the situation. But I couldn’t move my body at my own will. I couldn’t speak as I pleased either.
I was merely sharing the body and gaze of this ‘man I didn’t know who’ he was.
“Your Majesty!”
At that moment, the people gathered in front of the Royal Palace all shouted toward ‘me’ with faces full of reverence. That was the Runic language, a language said to have been used in ancient times. And ‘I’ waved my hand toward them.
With that as the last, the world melted and mixed as if it were melting, and then it began to change to a different scene.
‘…I see. This isn’t reality.’
Even if I didn’t do anything, this world surrounding me was moving on its own to show something. It could also be said to be like rewinding and showing a previously recorded video.
‘Am I seeing a part of the memories from that time, melted into the Divine Object?’
In other words, the place I was seeing was the world of 1500 years ago.
And I naturally became aware.
That this was… the King’s memories, and also my memories.
That these were very old memories that I had lost.
I was only seeing a part of the memories, so I hadn’t been able to find out everything yet, but I could certainly realize that these memories I was seeing were mine. The one sharing my gaze wasn’t some man I didn’t know who he was, but ‘I’ who had actually existed a long time ago.
“Your Majesty, what is that guy doing?”
In a scene that had changed once, a man was speaking to ‘me.’ Judging from the scenery outside, this place seemed to be inside the Royal Palace. ‘I’ answered the man’s question.
“He is still rampaging, hating the world.”
“Haa. Why don’t you completely obliterate him? Aren’t you also having a hard time keeping him contained? Even though God only told us to seal him… now that we have succeeded in taking away all of his power, there’s no reason to keep him alive any longer, is there?”
“The command given by God is absolute.”
Even when ‘I’ closed my eyes as if tired, the conversation continued.
“No, that stubborn part is the problem, you know?”
“What is stubbornness?”
“I’m saying that your current appearance is ‘stubborn.'”
Somehow, the way he nagged like a nanny gave me a familiar feeling. I wanted to check his face, but ‘I’ was still closing my eyes or only looking down at the floor, so I couldn’t see the man.
“…You don’t have to endure everything. Even if you were created by God for the purpose of sealing Chaos, you are alive like this now, aren’t you? You’re the same as other creations.”
At the slightly more serious voice, ‘I’ finally raised my head. The man in front of me was wearing a hat that looked like a Chaperon Turban. And I… had to be startled when I recognized that face.
“Sealed Soul. You are not an object.”
The face that was looking down at ‘me’ with concern was….
Because it looked so much like Herman.
☠
Meanwhile, while Raymond was entrusting himself to the sea of memories….
Newit, who had supported Raymond as he collapsed as if fainting the moment he touched the Divine Object, turned to Old Dragon with a flustered face. For Newit, it was an event that had suddenly occurred while he was only watching, unable to understand the flow of events, so he needed an explanation of the situation.
“What do we do? Grandpa!”
Old Dragon said, trying to soothe such Newit.
“It’s alright. Lay him down comfortably over there.”
“Is it really alright?”
“Yes. He’s just fallen asleep for a while.”
And when he wakes up again, everything will be alright. Old Dragon narrowed his eyes as he looked at the soundly sleeping Raymond. A strange light flashed in his eyes.
‘Seeing the Divine Object react, it seems he really was the reincarnation of the Sealed Soul.’
If so, that means the mission that our clan has protected for over a thousand years will also end here. Old Dragon recalled the time when Newit had first shown him the necklace made of Mana Condensation Stone, saying, “I received it as a gift from a friend,” and was delighted.
‘At that time, I was happy, thinking that the day to fulfill our mission had finally come.’
Somehow, he felt both relieved and sad.
On the other hand, he also felt worried about what would happen in the future.
‘What on earth is that guy thinking of doing?’
Old Dragon briefly recalled an event that had happened before. It was when Ardian had suddenly invaded the dragon’s nest long before Raymond came here.
-There’s nothing I can do. So you help Ray.
He had suddenly invaded and immediately sought out Old Dragon, and he had brought up the main point from the start. It was quite threatening for a request for help, so it was more like a warning.
At that, Old Dragon had replied, “We will not move first until the day of destiny comes,” and thanks to that, he had heard curse-like words that the god really liked destiny.
-Don’t try to forcibly twist fate.
-Fine. If you won’t hand over the Divine Object, I’ll take care of it myself.
-…I’ve been watching your actions all along. I don’t like you. If that person comes, I will tell them everything, that you are the same person as Gilbert.
-Do as you please.
-…….
-It doesn’t matter anymore.
The guy who had muttered that was already wearing eyes that had decided on something. That made Old Dragon’s heart feel very uneasy.
Unlike his grandfather and father, who had come down to the third generation, the current Old Dragon didn’t know much, but he knew that Ardian was obsessing over Raymond to a maniacal degree.
In addition, he also knew that his hatred for God was deep.
That guy was someone who wouldn’t be strange no matter what he did.
‘But… this is also the flow of the world.’
Old Dragon can’t do anything more.
Trying to understand God’s thoughts is, of course, an absurd act. He would just watch what kind of life the Sealed Soul, whom God had loved, would live in this world that God had arranged.
After that, time passed.
Because Raymond was only sleeping without moving a muscle, Newit’s worries grew day by day. To such Newit, Old Dragon told him to prepare food in advance for when Raymond woke up, and it was when Newit, who happened to have nothing to do, gladly left for the food storage.
“……”
Raymond’s eyelids, which had been sleeping without even a single stir, quietly opened.
It was at the point when a full week had passed.