"Luo ...... Orchid. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ”

An ethereal, carrying voice came from behind Roland.

It was a voice that had no reason to speak of.

Committed to the frenzied, whispers of malice from the abyss.

Roland turned his back to him and smiled lightly: "Professor, long time no see." ”

"Long time no see...... Rowland. ”

As time passed, his hoarse, ethereal voice grew clear again. But the malice in it was still so full that it almost overflowed.

"It turns out that the betrayer is you...... It's a shame that if I had known, you would be dead by now. ”

"In the same way, Roland. I will send you the same sentence. ”

Gentle and elegant, but always giving the illusion of metallic coldness, the voice came from behind Roland: "If I had known that you would have lived until now, you would have died in the City of Wealth." ”

"Who is to blame for this, Professor?"

The corners of Roland's mouth twitched, revealing a mocking smile: "This can only be blamed on you for being stupid." Take history as a mirror and make people wise - you have 1,800 years of history and still be mixed up like this bear, which is enough to show that your ability is limited to this. ”

"Admit it, Professor. You have been on the wrong path from the beginning, and now you are even more depraved. ”

“…… Fall, you say? ”

Victor couldn't help but laugh out loud, and shouted with pride, "No kidding, Roland! I'm not like a god-made monster like you! I am human until I die! ”

"From head to toe, every steel frame, every piece of gear, every drop of Aum's blood, I made it with my knowledge—with human ingenuity! Nothing of it is a gift from others, everything belongs to me! ”

"What is a human being? Does it have to be flesh and blood to be called human? So a person with a prosthetic leg is not considered a human being? I swapped my hands, I swapped my legs, I swapped out every bit of flesh, every gut, but I always believed that I was who I was—I never became anyone else! ”

"If the eye is polluted, I'll throw it away, and if the head is polluted, I'll take off the head—it's better to have one eye and one head fall into the dusk than a monster like you whose soul has been dyed yellow!"

"Roland, you don't deserve to be a savior! You're more of a monster than I am - and I'm human! ”

Victor, who had lost his head, stood straight, without hesitation in his words, nor in the slightest of the frenzy of being polluted by dusk.

His voice was sonorous and powerful.

However, Roland only asked softly, "Are you finished?" Okay, let's talk about it. ”

"I'm not like you, Victor. I didn't live through the golden age of a thousand years ago, and I don't have that 1,800 years of history in my head. The splendor of this world is only a pile of words to me, and when I come this world is already on the verge of destruction...... Also, I'm only twenty-two years old. By your standards, I'm not even as good as a baby. ”

Roland sighed and turned slowly.

The sound was heard like glass cracking, like snow being trampled.

In the next moment, the crack that appeared on the surface of Roland's body quickly spread. Black, graffiti-like crooked cracks spread all over Roland's body, as if Roland would be torn apart at the slightest push.

Looking at Roland at this moment, the professor was stunned for a moment, and was unexpectedly silent.

"But I still have the determination to save the world. I don't know what a savior is, but if you want to say that I am, that is. ”

Roland slowly stretched out his cracked right arm to show the professor—as he moved, the cracks on his arm collided and creaked, and the larger pieces of the shards cracked even more finely.

He looked directly at the professor and read word by word: "This is the price I paid...... That's what I realized. The consciousness that the broken bones must also move forward. ”

Speaking of this, Roland smiled brightly.

"You don't understand, Professor. Why do I do this? ”

“…… You said. ”

The professor was silent for a moment, then replied in a low voice.

"A long time ago, someone asked me that. He said, 'Do you still want to save the world!?' ’…… So, I answered him like this—"

Roland paused and repeated softly:

"I said, 'I'm happy because these people are alive, and I'm sad when they're dead. I don't want to see them die, even if it's for my own pleasure, I have to save the world. ’”

"—In short, it's 'I'm willing.'"

"I give of my own will, I fight of my own will, I burn my life of my own will—I have no last wish that must be fulfilled, no obsession that I must die if I can't do it, no one forces me to do it, and no one kidnaps me with feelings. Everything I do, it's all out of my own volition. ”

"—This is called freedom."

Roland slowly lowered his right hand, and there was a slight cracking sound of glass being crushed.

“…… I wanted to be a liar before, so I was a very happy liar; And then I'm going to be a sage, and I'm going to be a very good sage. Now I want to be the savior, the emperor of mankind, the supreme of Faenns, that's all. ”

"That is," the professor couldn't help but say, "you only got this far because of your own greed?" ”

"Greed?"

Roland couldn't help but sneer: "Have you ever seen whose greed would drive his master to do such a thankless task?" Yes, I have only been in this world for a few dozen days, but I have been walking on the tip of a knife for dozens of days, and if I am not careful, I will fall into hell and never turn over. ”

"And before that - does the world have anything to do with me or my sister?"

The professor couldn't answer.

Because, he also knows, there is only one answer in the end.

"That's, no."

Roland did not hesitate to deny his connection to the world.

"But," Roland spoke again before the professor could speak, "Ann Joth is my friend. Anviglia is my benefactor. My mentor treated me like a family member, and Elukado was a part of my body. ”

"Lilia has complete faith that I can save the world, Cyra is my lord, Kakarit is my sword, Cyra is my shield, and Gahalad is my complete supporter."

"I miss the missing Maken, I lament the fate of Claude, I grieve at the tragedy caused by the drinkers. I still hate the Sick Village, I can't understand Farina, I apologize to the City of Wealth, and I'm proud of the survivors of the White Tower that I saved. I still remember the smile that Anvilia gave me, and I remember Natalia who returned to Suze to inherit the family business. And Oleta, Chriss, Esther, Scott...... I've been in touch with the world for a long time. ”

"And now, I'm told that the world will end, that everyone will die, and that there is no way to avoid it—how can you make me gladly accept it?"

Roland's voice grew up, and there was a slight flicker of fire in his eyes.

"My sister nailed the banner of the silver to the land of this world, and now I have to pull up the banner again. What a desperate fate, a doomed future, as long as I can't kill me, I will resist, as long as I am alive, I will resist - until death, until I am crushed. ”

"Professor, that's what humans call it. This is the will of man. ”

Roland sighed and looked at the headless man who was silent in place with pity: "It is true that it doesn't matter if you change flesh and blood, bones, or even internal organs. Human beings are not shapely chunks of flesh made of meaningless piles of flesh and blood. ”

"But the moment you abandon your feelings as a human, and when you start simulating your will as a human with cold data, you are no longer human, but a robot with all the memories of the venerable pioneer Victor, named 'The Professor.'"

"You can only repel the twilight, but you can't save the world...... Because that's what you're set up to be. [Whatever it takes to defeat Dusk]...... The destruction of the world is, of course, one of the ways in which it will be unscrupulous. ”

Roland said as he walked slowly towards the professor. With every step he took, there was a shattering sound in his body.

After only two steps, he approached the professor.

Pure white flames gradually ignited from Roland's body, and light shone out of the cracks.

But the professor was like a dead corpse at the moment, and remained silent.

Roland slowly closed his eyes, and the crystal crown gradually appeared on his forehead, and the moment it appeared, the cracks in Roland's body lit up with white light.

"You are indeed a pioneer of the world, an undoubted sage...... But I'm running out of time. ”

"—I have only one choice." (To be continued.) )