Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2499 The crushing disappointment

"...And what did you answer the cosmic elder?" Billy asked again, his eyes fixed on Robin as he waited for the answer.

Billy's heartbeat, along with those of the inhabitants throughout the universe who were watching the broadcast, slowed dramatically at that moment, as though everyone instinctively understood the weight carried by the answer that was about to come.

Every side conversation vanished almost instantly, and anyone who couldn't remain silent despite the tension was beaten until they lost consciousness... Everyone wanted to hear Robin's answer clearly, without missing a single word because of some meaningless noise around them.

"I told him I'd obviously prefer to survive with my followers." Robin chuckled as though the answer were still as obvious to him now as it had been back then. "Why would I die for people who wouldn't even pay me any attention or give me my due reverence after everything I did for them?"

"Ugh..." Billy's heart plunged into an icy abyss the instant those words left Robin's mouth, and the little hope he had been clinging to began to sink along with it.

"Our conversation that day went on for quite a while. It ended with me pursuing my own way of seeking glory, while he continued down his path as the guardian who never compromised with evil, the one who protected everyone without expecting even a single word of thanks in return." Robin then laughed as he remembered what followed. "Guess what happened afterward?"

"What?" Billy asked through his tears, already dreading the direction Robin's words were taking.

"Rumors spread that he had died, so the inhabitants of the entire universe started cursing the guardian they knew absolutely nothing about." Robin chuckled at the absurdity of it. "Imagine that. The day before, they didn't even know someone had been protecting them for millions of years, nor did they know what he had been doing for them throughout all that time, and then, the moment they heard that guardian had died and could no longer provide them with free protection, they started insulting him and cursing his memory."

"....."

"Immediately afterward, I went and treated the old man as much as I could, and that's why he looked younger when he later appeared and killed the Space Beast that was terrorizing everyone that day..." Robin sighed as he recalled what happened next. "But immediately after that, he withdrew from everyone, started finding wives for himself, and fathered a large number of children." Then he shrugged casually. "You could say he was convinced by my words."

"The Cosmic Elder himself... became convinced that he should save only himself and his followers and leave the universe to burn?" Billy found that conclusion extremely difficult to believe, especially after everything he knew about the person they were discussing.

"Of course." Robin nodded without hesitation. "The Cosmic Elder, Zolan, used the Master Law of Balance in a way that truly befitted the Law's name, with justice and equity. He prevented evil from oppressing good and planted seeds of goodness everywhere he could... but throughout all of that, he forgot one thing." Then he narrowed his eyes slightly as his expression became more serious. "He was planting in land that wasn't his."

"....?" Billy stared at him, not immediately understanding what he meant.

"That's how unpaid services work, my friend, especially when you don't make the person in front of you understand that what you're doing for them is a favor in the first place." Robin sighed. "Once people become accustomed to kindness and receive it for long enough, that kindness gradually turns into an acquired right in their minds, and when you take it away for any reason, regardless of why you stopped providing it, you become the villain." Then he gestured into the distance as he continued, "Back then, people forgot Qarun, who controls the Star Academies. They forgot Sevar, who's famous for possessing strength comparable to the Cosmic Elder. They forgot Athena, who brought those beasts in to begin with, and instead they started cursing the dead Cosmic Elder. Can you imagine? After something like that, why wouldn't he change his mind?"

Then he shook his head and returned his attention to the book in his hands, continuing to read as he spoke. "Regrettable, truly regrettable... Anyone who truly understands human nature would realize that what happened to the Cosmic Elder was bound to happen sooner or later. He was simply far too optimistic about the goodness within human hearts, believing in it more than he should have, and in the end, he saw what I see... He saw the truth."

Then he smiled faintly as he continued reading. "And I won't put myself in that same position. I won't take my forces and fight in silence for people who don't even know what I'm doing for them, people who would curse me and spit on my grave if I failed in my mission instead of raising my banner and saying that I did everything I possibly could... Yes, that's my answer."

Billy swallowed hard and tried to speak, struggling to get the words out beneath the growing pressure in his chest. "That was your answer... back then... when you were still young... But now, with all those forces under your command, all those armies, responsibilities, and—"

But he didn't finish—

At that very moment, Robin's smile vanished completely as though it had never existed. He abruptly stood up and BAAAM! hurled the book onto the ground with such force that the entire mountain shook violently beneath their feet. "More memoirs! More damn memoirs!!"

Then he reached toward a metal tablet, snatched it up, and skimmed through its contents at an unbelievable speed, his expression growing darker with every passing moment. "Morgana's memoirs about establishing the Star Academies and her experiences with the White Shadow? Memoirs, memoirs, memoirs!!!"

"C-Calm down!" Billy immediately stood up and took two steps backward, instinctively putting some distance between them as he could clearly feel Robin's anger blazing more fiercely by the second. "What's wrong with all this? Why do you hate memoirs so much?"

"If it had been one or two of them, I would've swallowed it and moved on, but this has become unbearable!" Robin shouted angrily and pointed toward the entire collection of books before him, the repetition no longer looking remotely coincidental in his eyes. "Do you know what writing all these memoirs and pieces of advice at this particular time means?"

"W-What?" Billy tried to force a smile onto his face despite his growing unease, hoping that perhaps appearing calmer himself might help calm Robin down even slightly.

"It means they're certain we're going to lose the war!"

Robin roared furiously, his voice carrying such force that even the arrays guarding the mountain shook beneath the weight of his anger.

"It means they're telling me to run away and rebuild everything from scratch using their experiences once things reach the point of no return, as though all these books were deliberately left behind so that I could use what they learned after everything else is already gone!"

Then he pointed angrily at Billy, fixing his gaze directly on him and refusing to let him avoid the question. "You wrote your own memoirs too. Look me in the eyes right now and tell me you weren't thinking exactly that while you were writing them!!"

"....." Billy took a troubled step backward beneath Robin's furious stare, unable to immediately produce a convincing response. "...I-I... don't know about the others... but the intention behind it was good..."

Crack. Robin clenched his fist so tightly that a sharp sound came from it as his anger continued to rise. "You say the intention was good, but what I see in it is a complete lack of trust and the belief that I'm some reckless fool who doesn't even know his own limits!"

Then he struck his chest forcefully as he continued, each word coming out heavier than the last. "I'm the one who postponed taking revenge for my wife's murder and my son's torture for decades until I had gathered enough strength to do it. Do all of you suddenly think I'm easy prey now just because three fuckin' clowns decided to stand in my way? That I've suddenly become reckless and can no longer judge the situation in front of me?"

Then he raised his voice even further, his anger no longer limited to the books scattered before him but directed at the meaning he saw behind them. "Do all of you think I'm sitting here sunbathing and calmly waiting for you to die so that I can start over again in some wasteland after everything is finished? What the hell are you thinking?!"

"...." Billy took another step backward under the force of Robin's fury, his body moving almost instinctively. He had never seen Robin this angry before, not once in all the time he had known him.

"You think..." Robin took a step forward while breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling as a single tear escaped from his eye despite the way he gritted his teeth and tried to contain himself. "...that I'll stand there and watch all of you die at the hands of scum who aren't even worthy of licking any of your shoes, and then I'll simply go somewhere else and start again using your memories and everything you left behind? Start what... and for whom?" Then he narrowed his eyes, his voice rising even further as the hurt behind his anger became impossible to miss. "How exactly do you see me? What kind of monster am I in your eyes?!"

"..." Billy continued backing away, unable to bring himself to approach Robin in his current state. This was the first time in his entire life that he had truly been afraid of Robin, and at the same time, the first time he had ever felt such an enormous amount of disappointment concentrated in a single person. "W-We didn't mean..."

"Good... good, good..." Robin cut him off before he could finish, then stopped where he was, wiped the tear from his eye with his hand, and began nodding repeatedly as though he had finally reached a conclusion.

"Clearly, even my own children and my closest followers, the people who have remained closest to me all this time, still haven't understood my strength or my personality deeply enough."

Then, with his eyes still reddened, Robin walked forward until he reached the very edge of the cliff and raised both hands out to his sides, lifting them until they barely rose above the height of his shoulders.

"Then let me explain to you... and to the entire universe... who Robin Burton truly is."

HUUUUUUUM

Golden light exploded violently from Robin's body, bursting outward from him all at once.