By Zephyria 
He smiled broadly. I was displeased by the way he stared intently without answering my questions. The radiance of Divinity he wore did not calm my heart. I met his gaze.
After enduring a long silence, he slowly shook his head with a hum.
“No. I didn’t bring you here. The Oasis must have told you… that it was you who brought yourself.”
“The Ninth God?”
“Yes.”
“Then why is that bastard leaving me here like this?”
“Would any fool pluck an unripe fruit?”
“…What?”
“The Sierren royal guard are not yet ripe.”
A powerful realization struck my mind.
It was the Ninth God who brought me to this land, and who had been constantly trying to increase the mana density around me. He had decided to cause a mana explosion by bringing the royal guard and killing them all at once.
As I contained far more mana than them, I would naturally be a better ingredient.
Now I understood the reason behind the enlightenment the Fourth God had steadily pushed into me through various illusions. While facing monsters and spirits far larger than those in the Central Plains, I had easily resolved every crisis simply by infusing my sword with immense mana. However, the new power granted to me was not entirely my own.
If I lost this immense power, would I still be…
…an outsider capable of killing a god?
“You want me to kill the Ninth God too, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Do I have to kill another god?”
“No, not necessarily… though I might have to kill one more.”
“In what form does the karma of killing a god manifest?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen a human who killed a god.”
“And yet, you think I can do it?”
“Yes.”
I swallowed a large sigh and wiped my face with my dry hands.
“…Why on earth are you trying to make me angry?”
He widened his eyes.
He was the God of Records. Unlike other gods, he lived much closer to humans. He had no need to hide his intentions by smiling broadly and giving short answers. The smile faded from his face as he read my exhaustion.
Now, he too sighed like me. It was a profoundly human expression.
“…I had to test you. To see if you would ‘berserk’ even now.”
“Berserk?”
“You are not a soul ‘we’ created. Yet, you succeeded in containing the youngest one’s power within that body. Honestly… I thought you would explode when you were ten. Controlling mana like you do is not the law of our world.”
“….”
“But you did it.”
The god no longer provoked me.
The glass bottle floating high above landed on the ground. With a soft exhale, the figures within one by one began to stir. Hugh Benson, regaining his senses, started shouting something from inside the glass wall.
The god’s gaze remained fixed on me.
“I was checking if you would be alright even after experiencing great emotional turmoil. We couldn’t put a defective product forward at the risk of the continent’s fate.”
“What if I had lost my reason?”
“Then it would have been better for you to explode then. Now that you know how to control vast amounts of mana, it will begin to flood in at an ever-increasing speed. If an Explosive Artifact must detonate in my garden, I wanted it to detonate when it was as small as possible.”
Even though he treated a human body like an object, I felt no anger.
Perhaps it was because I had already experienced the Oasis. I was simply dumbfounded.
Since the other party’s attitude was gentle, I decided to remain calm as well. What other questions had Rubel been curious about? I rummaged through my tired memory to retrieve them. I wanted to finish all the necessary questions before this god disappeared.
“Am I the only outsider?”
“No.”
“How many are there?”
“Quite a few. The youngest one is greedy… but there are only three outsiders with clear consciousness like yours.”
“Three?”
“You, and the two you killed.”
I didn’t know whether to be glad or sad that none of the Orthodox Sect members retained their complete memories. I suppressed a sigh and composed my expression again.
“Then, do you happen to know Edwin Kiadris’s true identity?”
“That…”
He smiled faintly, pausing his answer.
“That’s not something you’re curious about, Michael Ernhardt. I know you’re just reciting the words of your cute and cunning other half.”
“….”
“It would be better to tell that child directly. The transmission of records is not passed down orally. Besides, now.”
The god’s gaze flicked upwards to the vast sky.
“It would be better for you to return to your partner for now.”
“…What?”
“I told you. It’s late, so hurry back.”
…My partner.
Rubel? Did something happen to the child?
Without realizing it, I glanced back towards the villa. There were no longer white floors or high walls. With a wave of the god’s hand, the glass bottles that had imprisoned the knights vanished. But I had no time to look back at them. I immediately kicked off the ground and ran towards the villa.
The god, floating in the air, leisurely followed me.
This time, a surge of indignation rose within me.
“You, you damn bastard… If you hadn’t wasted my time…!”
“I’ve barely used a day. The incident had already occurred. Look.”
Above the villa, which was rapidly approaching, flocks of birds were flying.
The magic defense barrier cast by Mage Boulder did not block beings that were permitted entry by the people inside. The feathers of the birds flying into it shone in various colors.
Ranunculus.
Nearly a hundred Ranunculus were pouring down onto the villa.
❖ ❖ ❖
As soon as I landed on the villa’s gate, a cacophony of noise assaulted my ears.
The sheer number of Ranunculus chattering simultaneously made it impossible to know which one to grab first. My gaze immediately sought Rubel’s presence, heading towards the third-floor balcony. The child was holding onto the balcony railing with a deathly pale face.
I looked at Rubel, and Rubel looked at me.
In that moment, a Ranunculus with a powerful voice shrieked.
“The Emperor is dead! The Emperor is dead!”
…What?
Generally, Ranunculus were well-trained and supposed to speak in order. However, the urgency of those wanting to deliver the message was so great that each Ranunculus flapped its wings, pecking at each other to speak first.
Amidst the clamoring voices, I heard a familiar one.
“Michael! Go to Withrow. I am holding your parents and family, so don’t worry! You cannot trust Kiadris or Yeldidus either, so go to Withrow! Join the Duke’s army there! You must survive!”
My Uncle, Oscar Valencia.
“Rubel. Come to the capital as quickly as possible and secure a position. I’m on the run with a Divine object right now. I won’t tell you where I’m going. But the capital’s protective magic circle is strange. It’s bubbling… I can’t fix this. You do it. Please, please Rubel… Dad, sniffle, Dad…”
Third Princess Lucilla Anti Sieron.
“Damn it, I don’t know if this is right… I’ve summoned the Macbeth Merchant Guild. If you want to infiltrate the capital, go to Centrum and find Macbeth. Use this Ranunculus as proof. There’s almost nothing I can do now. If Macbeth doesn’t listen, consider it a lost cause and just run. I’ll be dead by then too.”
Edwin Kiadris.
Hundreds of other familiar and unfamiliar voices intertwined.
I stood frozen, utterly dumbfounded, unable to speak. The Emperor of Sierren does not die easily. Divine Blood is a powerful, restricted form of Divine Magic. The Magic Tower claimed that a powerful magic of 1.5 million mq was cast on Sierren’s succession ceremony.
Therefore, most Sierren Emperors did not die by means other than natural causes.
The Shiaren Great Reform was a war that arose from the struggle between princes and princesses succeeding an Emperor who had died naturally. Not someone who had already ascended the throne. By what method, and who exactly, killed the Emperor of Sierren, Rubel’s father? The First Prince? Wesley?
I had been complacent. I thought the First Prince would aim for the Sierren throne through legitimate means. That’s because he seemed to be steadily managing his reputation in high society and planning for the future. But if not, was this how he had planned and schemed from the beginning…?
The God of Records, standing beside me, interrupted my thoughts in a calm voice.
“See. It seems the incident occurred four days before you came to me. It takes about that long for a Ranunculus to reach here from the capital, doesn’t it?”
“…You knew it would turn out like this.”
“I knew he would kill Beneto. Though I couldn’t know the exact time.”
At that moment, Rubel grabbed the balcony railing.
Startled, I ran to catch the child, but Rubel was slightly faster. Yes, Rubel was also a top-tier Sword Expert. He wouldn’t get hurt just by jumping from a third-floor balcony.
However, it hadn’t been long since he was injured. I was worried about the child using his body carelessly, which bothered me.
Rubel neatly brushed off his clothes and walked straight towards Ikyun.
His bearing, evident in his gait and gestures, was still the same.
His posture was upright, bowing with one hand on his chest, as one often does when addressing a noble.
“Thank you for instilling in me the thirst for knowledge. I greet the God of Records and Lakes.”
“You are polite.”
“I have received the honor of standing on my own two feet before a distinguished guest.”
While the Ranunculus continued to repeat the same words like screams, Rubel smiled leisurely as if he heard none of it and asked in a low voice.
“I am well aware that you have come here with the intention to help.”
“Yes, what shall I help you with first?”
“Please help me dispel Biban’s darkness with my own strength.”
Biban?