The S-Classes That I Raised

Chapter 676: People of the Past (3)

The night sky was dark. All the eyes that had been sparkling like stars were gone. Swept away by the moonlight, they had fallen or fled far away. It felt like everything had curled up, holding its breath in fear. After making it end up like this.

“Even if every world and every culture is different… if you love someone, shouldn’t you treasure and cherish them? I mean, there are cases where someone says they love you and still wants to hurt you… they do exist.”

Just look at Yuhyun. His desires were outside my common sense, but since they said that was fire’s innate nature, I accepted it as an expression of affection.

“But if you truly like someone, I don’t think you should demand your feelings one–sidedly.”

So Yuhyun and I talked it out and decided we’d each compromise a little. My little brother and I are very different, but even so, we liked each other and wanted to stay together.

“Claiming you love someone all on your own… how is that love?”

My chest felt strangely heavy. If she just ignored me, I’d give up, thinking we simply couldn’t communicate, but even now Crescent Moon was listening to my voice with gentle attention. If a loved one’s indifference was a simple thirst, then Crescent Moon’s existence was a thirst where you swallowed seawater.

“There is no reason, child. I just find you adorable.”

“Some died and the rest all ran away though!”

“All of those forms. Those who climb to the noblest heights wrapped in light, and those who fall to the lowest place in utter misery alike make my heart pound with the same lovableness.”

Crescent Moon’s gaze went to Young Chaos, then back to me.

“The two before me are equally lovable. So, Yujin, I wish for nothing. Whatever you do, whatever you think, always, forever. Without a single condition.”

Chaos’s hand gripped my shoulder.

“…Unconditional love, huh. Sounds nice in theory.”

On a normal, common–sense level, anyway. But this was far too extreme. She accepted absolutely every version of us.

“In the end, doesn’t that just mean you don’t care what happens to the other person? Even if I just dropped dead right here, you’d only look at me with those loving eyes and… watch.”

An indescribable nausea washed over me. It felt disgusting. Young Chaos clicked his tongue and pulled me back.

“I told you not to try to understand. Just think of it as a passing breeze.”

“It’s not! The wind doesn’t have eyes or a mouth!”

“You’ll feel fine too as long as you don’t desire anything. You just gained one more unchanging affection directed at you. That’s why so many like Crescent Moon. But if you start wanting something from it…”

“You’d go crazy, flipping out.”

I took a deep breath. Usually, when you like someone and they like you back, you don’t want to lose that affection. So you try to treat them well, try to become a slightly better person they’d like.

But Crescent Moon’s affection would stay the same no matter what I did. In a way, it could feel stable and comforting, like a hometown that never changes, always on your side, always there to go back to.

“Sure, fine. Let’s say that. But if you don’t wish for anything, doesn’t that mean you shouldn’t do anything either? Just let people live however they want.”

“Yes. As long as they live. As long as life repeats, even death is welcome.”

Crescent Moon raised her head. The eyes in the night sky looked off into the far, far distance.

“The Source is the end of all existence. I do not wish for those I love to be swallowed.”

“…That’s what you want.”

“They need not change. They may change. The good and the evil, the outstanding and the lacking, I love them all. So I wish only for them to remain as they are, existing without being devoured.”

Crescent Moon’s gaze dropped back down to me.

“The one thing my love wishes for.”

Our very existence itself. Even if some die, people go on living. Birth continues and so does death. Even if one or two of the countless worlds disappear, it’s the same. But if every world is swallowed, neither life nor death can continue.

That was why Crescent Moon helped create the System, why she produced more Transcendents and tried to cultivate a new, safer Source.

On a grand scale, that was the right thing. Crescent Moon’s actions came from goodwill and love toward everyone who lived. As shitty as it was, that was the truth.

“…But I have to live too.”

I took a step forward. Young Chaos’s hand slipped from my shoulder and Crescent Moon came closer. I walked right up to her like I might grab her by the collar and stared straight at her.

“If you try to sacrifice us, I don’t give a damn what your reasons are. I’ll fight to the end, I’ll hold out, and I’ll survive somehow.”

Even if I have to knock off the head of the loveliest moon. Crescent Moon laughed.

“Mm. You’re cute.”

“Wha–!”

In an instant she yanked me into a tight hug. Wait, hold on! Hey!

“Live like that, my love.”

“L–let me go!”

I get it, you’re as stubborn as a stone Buddha, so stop proving it! Crescent Moon gently wrapped around me and patted me. It felt like I was buried in a cleanly washed, sun–dried, crackly goose–down comforter. Not too hot, not too cold, so cozy my eyes almost slid shut and my whole body relaxed before I jerked myself rigid. Why does a damn moon feel like sunlight!

“You’re my enemy, my enemy! You just killed everyone a moment ago!”

“Not to me right now. Even if you tried to strangle my neck this very second–.”

“Yeah, yeah! You love me!”

Saying I got it, I wriggled out of Crescent Moon’s arms. She smiled just like when I first met her in the forest. She was seriously insane. I backed away toward Young Chaos.

“…Quit being pointlessly affectionate. Why did you even listen to me? The hair too. You said you didn’t care either way.”

“I also have no reason not to. As for my hair, you were the first ever to say anything. If someone said they liked blue and asked why it was pink, I’d change it.”

“I don’t like pink.”

“That lack of honesty is cute too.”

Crescent Moon laughed brightly like a child and spun around. Her pink hair, shot through with silver, swayed like smoke. Faint lights flickered on the far side of the night sky. They seemed to be spying, unable to come closer. Jingle jingle, a bell rang in warning. Crescent Moon’s toes lightly stepped on moonlight and she floated up into the night like a wavering lantern.

“…Honestly, I’d rather you just disliked me.”

“That is how it usually goes. But there is little in the world that divides so cleanly. Good people sometimes do crazy things, and crazy bastards sometimes do good deeds.”

“Sir, how did you end up helping the system creators, anyway?”

I asked as I turned around. They did seem pretty close. But the burden was way too heavy. In the end, he ended up alone.

“They said they wanted to try really hard at something new.”

“Huh?”

“What can you do when a bunch who have lived more than enough years jump in all excited like kids to push something new forward? And they say it’s good for the youngsters.”

“You make it sound like you just got swept up in it.”

“The ones fired up with passion are the ones who drag the world along. Whether it crashes or succeeds, something will change either way.”

Well, that’s true, but still.

“Sir, is there anything you want to do?”

“I’m already living exactly how I want.”

“Right. I stared up at Young Chaos. I envied how unwavering he was.”

“…I’m old enough to be ancient, so how did I end up raising a kid like this.”

“Sorry?”

“Must’ve gone senile.”

“You’re perfectly fine! You’re actually more respectable now than before.”

Compared to now, anyway. Chaos grabbed the back of my neck and shook me. Rough mouth and rough hands, this guy! Chirp must have found it fun, because he hopped up and down on Chaos’s head.

“And I, ugh, I grew up on my own just fine. You are doing the teacher job for my little brother and the kid I cherish like a younger sibling though!”

“That’s because you latched onto me.”

Right on the nose.

“What the hell did you do to make this tiny brat–.”

Chaos broke off mid–sentence and turned his head. A hazy beam of light slowly circled and drifted toward me.

[You made it before it was too late.]

The voice sounded directly in my head. Young Chaos set me down and looked at the beam.

“Furball?”

[There are no cheat codes, but can you come over here for a bit?]

Guess they’re going to help! I quickly nodded, and the beam of light wrapped around me. A white space appeared. Furball himself wasn’t in sight. Instead, long cords like his antennae slowly wound through the air in every direction.

“Mr. Furball?”

[No! I’m Wildflower. I look like a flower no matter how you look at me! You’re still so rude!]

…He was about as far from a flower as you could get, but somewhere out in the vast universe there might be a flower that bounced around looking like a fuzzy ball with antennae.

[The System is almost complete. We’ll fall completely asleep inside it, and this fragment of consciousness I left behind will disappear soon as well. Little human, I could make something like a cheat, but what happens here won’t be of any use.]

“Probably not.”

Sigma escaped that world, but that didn’t mean Seong Hyunjae became free. He just became a separate existence. Even if the System, like Sigma, broke out of the virtual and became real, it wouldn’t merge with the existing System; a whole new System would be created.

Though turning a colossal law like the System into reality was close to impossible in the first place.

[But we can at least try to trick the law, the System.]

Furba– I mean, Wildflower spoke cheerfully. I could almost see him bouncing lightly in front of me.

[Right now, it should be possible. So, you’re going to take part in creating the System!]

“…Huh? In creating it?”

[Make it feel that way, at least. This System here and the System you know are still based on the same laws. So if you become an assistant creator here, the System outside will also recognize you as an assistant creator. Now, hold out your hand.]

…Will that really work? I asked, a bit uneasy as I held out my hand.

“I’m grateful and all, but is it okay to help me like this? You don’t even know much about me.”

I’d told him a bit about the future, but wasn’t he trusting me too easily? He wasn’t just some random Transcendent, he was a System creator. Was it really okay for him to be like this? It felt awkward to just accept it. The beam of light wrapped around my wrist and Wildflower answered.

[Because of the look in your eyes when you were watching Young Chaos.]

“…My eyes?”

[Yes. You like him clearly, and you were worried and pained for him. In the distant future, you must be close to him. The way your hand stroked his hair looked familiar. Little human.]

Wildflower’s voice trembled faintly.

[Is he happy?]

I couldn’t answer yes right away. I thought back on the Chaos I’d seen so far. It was hard to speak definitively about someone else’s feelings.

“He grumbles that at his age he ended up having to look after kids, but he looks happy to me. Above all, he’s someone who only does what he wants to do.”

[That’s right. Yes.]

His voice held a smile. I couldn’t see any eyes, nose, or mouth on the Furball, but I was sure he was grinning.

[That’s why I liked him. I’m not a future–sight species, but I can faintly tell. He’ll be left alone for a very long time. At the end of twilight, without the slightest waver.]

“…Yeah. He was.”

I don’t know why Chaos left the system administrators, the Unfilial Children, and stayed alone in the first world. For so long that even Transcendents’ memories of him faded into legend.

“These days, there’s a new recruit, a young Transcendent, staying with him. They seem to be doing well.”

[What kind of kid?]

“Small, fluffy like a puppy, and cute.”

[I see. I knew it. I’m glad.]

I heard laughter. A faint scent of flowers drifted by.

[As a System creator, this is something I shouldn’t do. But I like him. Little human, I’m going to be dissolved into the System core and never be able to wake again. So I’m going to be greedy.]

At my feet, small sky–blue, fluffy flowers bloomed, swaying lightly as if they were delighted.

[Promise me just one thing. That you too will wish for his happiness. I’m not asking you to make it your top priority. I just want there to be at least one person by his side who wants him to be happy.]

“Even without a promise, I like the old man. So of course I’ll promise.”

That even after I was gone, there would be at least one person beside the one I liked who also liked him. I could understand Wildflower’s feelings as if they were my own. I thought and wished for the same thing. Though in Yuhyun’s case, I had to set that kind of wish aside.

[I’m sure he finds you adorable too. How is it?]

“He nags at the drop of a hat. Tells me to take care of my body.”

[He used to grumble that I was a nag!]

“He’s still bad at handling the System. There’s really not much difference from now.”

[He must be so inconvenienced when he’s alone. I’ve never seen a Transcendent so bad at handling their creative power! All he knows how to do is break things. That’s why I worried even more.]

A breeze like a sigh brushed past my ear.

[Now, it means nothing for you to influence the current System. But if the current System influences you, then the future System will accept this un–happened past as real past. You’re tricking it.]

If I punch the A inside a memory of the past, present A won’t get a bruise. But if past A punches me, then present me will end up bruised, because I’m the one who exists now. And with that bruise, I can go to A and say, You hit me, right? Want to check the fingerprints on my cheek? That’s the kind of argument it would be.

[There is a chance that when you return to your original place, all of these effects will disappear. But you undeniably exist here, don’t you? It’s hard to completely erase what you went through as if it never happened. Just like how even if you turn time back, traces of its influence still remain.]

“Yeah, they definitely do.”

[It would take a long time to explain, and we don’t have it. Just move your mana the way I guide you. There. You seem better at this than Chaos.]

That’s just saying I’m better than a rock. My mana reached toward the System, and the System’s mana seeped into me to form a connection.

[It’s a very simple assistance. But you’ll be left with traces of taking part in the initial creation of the System. This isn’t something I should do, but I’m going to sleep forever, and once, I already chose to do nothing. So this time, I’m going to try.]

The original Wildflower must have worried for Young Chaos yet quietly gone to sleep.

[Even if the System recognizes you as an assistant in its initial creation, it might not be much use. By your time, many things will already have changed.]

“Still gotta try. It’s better than doing nothing.”

[That’s right. You should. Little human, it was nice meeting you. Give him my regards!]

Wildflower’s voice grew faint and then disappeared. I blinked, and instead of the white space, Young Chaos and Chirp were in front of me.

“What kind of nagging did that Furball give you this time.”

Watching Chaos tilt his head, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You’ll get just as bad when you get older too, sir.”

“…What?”

Chirp hopped and flew over to me, and as if he, or whoever was behind him, was saying things here were over, the space around us shuddered.