By Zephyria 
I didn’t even think about having to choose one of the two options. Allen’s voice, stopping me, was gentle as if he was doing me a great favor, and I couldn’t trust Allen.
“Lennox. You and Allen knew each other from the start. You and Allen spent your childhood together in the same orphanage. Look again. Open your eyes wide and look.”
Don’t you really know? As Lennox listened to my words, which I was spewing out quickly as if defecating, he slowly turned his head towards Allen. And then, very slowly, he blinked. As if trying to retrace his memories.
▶ It is assumed that you have selected Ask the question.
Continuing on.
“Really…”
A faint sneer appeared on Allen’s face as he looked back and forth between Lennox and me. He muttered as if scoffing.
“Such a troublemaker. I give you advice after thinking it over, and you don’t listen at all, geez. It’s always like this.”
I warned you, Noah.
Don’t even think about coming near this until the restoration is complete.
Why don’t you listen to me, you troublemaker, geez.
Always…
Beneath Allen’s words, filled with the gentlest and most tender mockery in the world, someone’s words that I had never heard before were thickly layered. My head hurt. I clutched the area around my temples and slammed my head on the table.
“Ugh, ugh, ugh…!”
Thump, thud. I heard the sound of someone falling to the floor. Did I fall? I couldn’t get my bearings at all due to the powerful dizziness that made the whole world spin. All I felt was a headache. I gritted my teeth and barely opened my eyes to check my vision. But it wasn’t me who had fallen. It was the archmage, called the genius of the century, who couldn’t possibly have a rival among humans.
Allen looked down on the fallen Lennox as if he were dealing with a worthless bug, and then approached me with fluttering steps.
“Are you okay? Don’t try to force yourself to remember. Just leave it to fate. Then you’ll be comfortable.”
It was the protagonist’s kind and disgusting, truly kind advice.
“What… what the hell is this memory…? This is related to you…”
“Well. I don’t think that’s particularly important right now.”
Right, Noah?
To you, dear, ‘Player’ politely advises.
*
Ugh, ugh, ugh…!
Noah Hamilton’s expression, distorted by pain, was indescribably ecstatic and wonderful. When his noble blue eyes were contorted with pain, it made the absolute being who overlooked the world feel pleased, as if he was finally alone in his complicated mind.
What… what the hell is this memory…? This is related to you…
“Well. I don’t think that’s particularly important right now.”
Well. I don’t think that’s particularly important right now.
When the absolute being spoke with will, the lips of the marionette under his control also moved busily. The absolute being cherished his marionette, whose mocking expression was even beautiful, quite a bit. That was because the marionette named Allen could be said to be the body itself of the lover he loved so dearly.
The beloved lover, who was guaranteed eternity, threw away all the destined glory without a shred of regret. Then he escaped to the afterlife before he could even turn back. The lover’s corpse, which had faded away while still young, was still beautiful, and he found a piece of power left by the ancient god and safely buried the corpse. No matter how many times he turned the world back… The corpse buried in the sanctuary, where his power could not reach, was perfectly preserved without being affected in any way, and faithfully performed its assigned role every time it was revived. That’s right. The empty corpse, which no longer contained the lover’s soul, would never die. But that didn’t mean it would live forever either.
The corpse, neither dead nor alive, became the most powerful tool to taunt the traitor. He could no longer even distinguish whether this long-standing obsession with his lover was hatred or affection.
Was there a need to distinguish?
Over countless eons, the absolute being had reached that conclusion.
When he saw a crying face, his heart ached and he wanted to wipe away the tears somehow, but when he saw him smiling brightly for reasons other than him, he wanted to take away even the insignificant happiness that his lover was clutching and throw it into the fires of hell. Without leaving a trace. His face, bitterly crying and resenting him, would be beautiful. If he could monopolize it, it didn’t matter whether it was love or hatred.
“Right, Noah?”
Right, Noah?
He asks with love. The moment he speaks, a part of the form and meaning that made him up crumbles and disappears. The form and meaning he possesses are almost infinite, so even if they are lost and lost again, it will not affect his ability to continue to exist, but it will be difficult to maintain his status as the only absolute being in the entire universe.
This was a wise method. No one would be happy. The lover was broken, and the absolute being who had broken the lover himself had also been broken for a long time.
Nevertheless, he cannot stop. From the moment the administrator and absolute being, who inherited the ancient god’s power of omniscience and omnipotence, began to defy the rules of the entire world and universe, bewitched by just one human soul, it was already a foregone conclusion that he could not stop.
The role given to him was to harmoniously operate and manage the countless worlds of possibility that were newly born even at this moment, and the countless worlds that were dying out. But what about him now? The only world he is concerned about is always the one universe in which his lover exists.
All the remaining worlds abandoned by God naturally settled into the orbit of destruction one by one. The world became nothing more than a crucible boiling in the cauldron of destruction. Among them, there were those who had accumulated quite threatening power and cursed God with all their hearts. In some universes, they gathered the vengeful spirits of all intelligent life forms and attacked him.
The dogmatic god could not come to his senses even as his own flesh was being cut away. As long as only one world was intact, as long as he could look into only one soul contained within it, it didn’t matter.
However…
One of the last pieces of the ancient god that remained awakened the power he had used through the marionette, which was quite threatening to him as well.
Of course, it was not the absolute being himself, who existed outside the world, who was threatened. To be precise, it was the marionette itself that he was controlling that was threatened.
Due to the reaction of the power, the marionette was almost half destroyed. It would no longer be possible to strongly intervene in the world through the marionette as before.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t intervene if he really wanted to, but if he did, it was clear that his beautiful marionette would no longer be able to withstand the load and would break down.
He didn’t want to break the marionette. He wanted to fix it, fix it, and fix it again… If possible, he wanted to keep it in its original state. It didn’t matter if it was just an empty shell without a soul, but wasn’t it the body that his lover had possessed when he was first conceived? That alone was enough to qualify it to be God’s possession.
The absolute being evaluated his own desires as quite affectionate and romantic. Noah Hamilton wouldn’t have been able to hold back his rising disgust if he had known.
The lover’s foolish appearance, refusing the easy path in front of him and choosing to roll around in the thorny path every time, made his heart ache. What should he do with the guy who doesn’t listen like a troublemaker child? The fact that even that appearance looks lovely and cute, well, kindness was a disease.
It was the same this time. The fact that the lover’s corpse and Lennox grew up in the same orphanage was not something that actually happened. It was just a ‘Setting’ that had been manipulated. Usually, he would subtly manipulate Lennox’s cognition before the time came for the corpse to open its coffin and reappear, but this time things got a bit twisted.
Noah met Lennox first in the gap when he was unable to interfere with the world because he was stopping Andrew Hamilton’s sudden actions. By the time he was able to intervene, Noah and Lennox’s relationship had already solidified, and Lennox had also blossomed as a magician.
If Lennox’s talent or achievements were only slightly above average, it would be one thing, but he was the owner of a brilliant ability who could dream of escaping the realm of humans if given enough time. He couldn’t clumsily tamper with the cognition of a magician who was already on the path. Completely crushing him so that he couldn’t even protect his ego was simpler than breathing… This world, as well as all the objects he had carefully built up near his lover, were too fragile. That was the biggest reason that made the absolute being hesitate to act.
To you, dear, ‘Player’ politely advises.
Since it’s a memory that will be erased anyway, I guess I can leave this much confession behind.
To be so devoted even after being betrayed. I’m too merciful after all…
Do not doubt ‘System’.
‘System’ loves you.
The absolute being, who carves out the lover’s brain whenever he shows actions that deviate from his will, praised himself arbitrarily.