CH 147

[Fury, Confusion—True to Heart]

The puppets (knights) under Joseph’s control chased the escaping Sakurai and co.

The middle-aged man in the middle of them, the knight with short reddish-brown hair and a thick mustache, muttered while gnashing his teeth in anger.

“‘Morph’, ‘Fuse’.”

Some distance behind him, the puppets dismantled by Sakurai and Ayako began to move as if they were being manipulated by threads from the empty sky.

Their cut-off limbs floated in the air, their heads turned into lumps of flesh like crushed clay, and their bodies pulled themselves towards each other, then they fused.

Thus a bizarre beast of prey was born.

It was one of the puppet models Joseph had designed in advance for use in battle.

With four legs made of bundles of human limbs, and a headless and meatbag-like front half, whose only feature was a gaping mouth.

Inside the mouth, suits of metal armor originally belonged to the knights forming the monstrosity lined up in a disorderly manner. Bit by them, and one would get not lacerations, but bruises, broken bones, and contusions.

“Go, devour that man.”

The beast reacted to the order given without even a glance at it. In the twinkling of an eye, it overtook Joseph and his puppets, caught up with Sakurai and co, then pounced on them.

“Hm? Hup.”

Sakurai, who had his back toward the beast, suddenly turned around just before the beast jumped at him.

He moved without hesitation as if he knew the timing of its attack. Leaning forward as if he was about to fall over, he slipped under the belly of the beast, then he swung his nodachi in a big circular motion.

The slash soon cut off the beast’s four legs, rendering it immobile. Sakurai then kicked the beast’s now limbless body away toward the frontmost knights, knocking them down.

His series of movements, his brilliant skills, they amazed the mad Joseph.

And at the same time, they let him regain some of his composure.

(Did he read its movements?)

He often used the beast of prey-type puppet as a preset, but he never showed it to Sakurai as far as he recalled. In addition, he never left any records of its information.

However, the way Sakurai subdued it clearly indicated that he was familiar with it. That much was obvious to Joseph’s observational eyes as a researcher and engineer even though he was not a warrior.

Joseph reached out his hand to confirm his suspicion.

This time, he divided the limbs of the beast into smaller pieces, created several small birds from them, then had the birds fly toward Sakurai and co.

The small birds were more difficult to control than the four-legged beast, so he couldn’t have it too far away from him, but they were perfect for short-distance tracking and fieldwork.

At times, he also used this type of bird puppet to attack by having it swoop down on the target and change its form into a sharp pebble of sorts midflight.

“‘Mor—’”

“Birds now?”

The moment the birds caught up with Sakurai and co and were about to swoop down on them, Sakurai’s thread slashes bisected the birds one after another.

He didn’t simply bisect them. With just a sideways glance, Sakurai accurately determined which birds Joseph had tried to use ‘Morph’ on and took them down in order.

(Now there is no doubt about it. That guy, that scumbag, knows about me…!)

He had no idea how or where did he get the information, but Sakurai Tōru knew more about him than he had thought.

No, in fact, from the fact that Sakurai preemptively attacked the birds before he even got to have them attack, it could be said Sakurai didn’t just ‘know’ him—he ‘understand’ him.

Joseph already burning anger burned hotter.

The fact he knew so little about Sakurai and yet he had such a high level of understanding about him gave him the creeps and made him maddeningly angry.

Understanding others was something that was acquired in the process as the bond between one and the other party deepened.

Therefore, understanding was something that always occurred ‘mutually’, but Joseph never had even a single friend in his life, and the only bond he had ever nurtured was the bond between him and Ayako—a bond between parent and child.

Thus, to Joseph, understanding was the output of the bond between parent and child. Or in other words, understanding was the proof of the parent-child relationship.

The fact that Sakurai one-sidedly understood him presented a possibility for Joseph.

That was, Sakurai Tōru was Joseph Asanaga’s illegitimate son.

“Nooo!!! That’s impossible!!!”

It was.

However, Joseph, without his knowing, possessed mad love for his family. Seeing the symbol of that love, Ayako, being touched inflamed his anger so much that his brain, which was normally as flexible and cold as water, heated intensely.

As a result, his boiled head drew out strange thoughts. Or to put it simply, he was currently so angry that he couldn’t think rationally.

For a very, very brief moment, his rational thought returned, but then it melted like a grain of ice in a boiling pot.

With that last shred of calmness melted away, all that remained was a completely seething rage.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! I’m not thinking straight! I’m not thinking straight, calm down and don’t think about it! Stop thinking!”

When one couldn’t control one’s anger, telling oneself to not think was like casting a curse upon oneself.

The more Joseph told himself to stop thinking, the more he became conscious of the things he wanted to ignore.

Because of that, Joseph ended up inadvertently reinforcing that possibility with his own ‘assumption’.

Therefore, ignoring the timeline, Joseph derived a super-theory that made sense to him.

The fact that Sakurai managed to deal with his attacks—which, of course, all the courtesy of his knowledge of the original game—meant that it was highly likely that he was his illegitimate son.

(I must kill him! I can’t let him live!!!)

First of all, Joseph’s child was only Ayako. He didn’t want a son, nor had a recollection of making one.

Second of all, if the possibility were true, it would mean that his own son had robbed him of his dear daughter—just the thought made him feel faint.

However, the fact that Sakurai understood him and Ayako so well, that Ayako who had been disconnected from him became able to operate independently, and that she was rebelling against him—they all would only make sense if Sakurai was truly his illegitimate son.

Because he was his illegitimate son, he knew and understood Joseph and Ayako one-sidedly.

Because he was his illegitimate son, he was able to modify Ayako created by Joseph.

Because he was his illegitimate son, he was able to imbue Ayako with needless and extra things, put her under mind control, and make her take hostile actions towards Joseph.

The dots ended up being connected. Things that should have linked ended up getting linked.

Was he insane? Of course, he was.

However, he had the distorted idea that an advanced understanding of others could only arise from the bond between parent and child, and on top of that, he was currently beyond incensed, his rational mind and calmness were swallowed by fury, resulting in an abnormal situation where Joseph somehow ended up connecting dots had no connection with each other.

And so, Joseph came up with a possibility that couldn’t get farther from the truth, but strongly hated it.

It was only natural, however, as Joseph didn’t remember ever begetting Sakurai, nor did he remember ever having sexual intercourse with a woman when he had a fleshy body.

Yet Sakurai indeed existed. If he didn’t present himself with undeniable proof that said otherwise, the possibility would stick in the corner of his mind forever. Such was the sad nature of being a researcher.

Therefore, to punish him for laying his hands on Ayako, and to deny the—actually 0%—possibility, he firmly vowed to kill Sakurai.

He would kill Sakurai, then erase all traces of his existence, making him never exist.

If there was nothing remaining of Sakurai, be it his body or memories of him, it would be equivalent to he had never existed, after all.

(To that end, I have to make a stronger and more perfect puppet…!)

Joseph thought of making a puppet especially to kill Sakurai.

During the pursuit, he had already known that they were heading for the cathedral. Given the way they infiltrated the barrier enveloping the cathedral and its surrounding area, even if they went to the top of the spire, he knew they wouldn’t be able to get out of the barrier.

In other words, they aimed to fight back. And they must have chosen the cathedral as the battleground.

Since he knew where they were going, he could take his time a bit.

Joseph decided to think of a way to kill Sakurai until he caught up with them.

Sakurai and co, completely unaware of that, gradually widened the distance and disappeared into the cathedral.

As Joseph saw them off, he was convinced that the next time he met them would be their last battle.

He had discovered the possibility of Sakurai being his illegitimate son as a result of his incurring his wrath, and he vowed to kill him for that reason.

It could be said that landing himself in such a weird situation no one could have expected was very Sakurai-like retribution.

—

Around the time when Joseph Asanaga followed Sakurai into the cathedral.

When Iris confirmed that the ‘Nexus Crystal Ball’ she had been holding like a charm shattered on its own, she immediately restrained the female knight, Joseph’s puppet who was in a dormant state after he had pulled out his consciousness from it, then she proceeded to eliminate the remaining puppets inside the hospital before rushing outside.

After summoning Freon with a whistle that echoed in the sky and getting on his back, Iris, together with the artificial Pegasus, soared to the sky, overlooking the city centered on the cathedral from high up in the sky.

“……”

The cathedral inside the barrier. Two sources of ‘heat’ were flaring up there.

And apart from them, small ‘heat’ scattered here and there across the city centering around the cathedral.

Iris was sure that the small ‘heat’ belonged to the puppets under Joseph’s control.

She didn’t know the underlying principle of ‘Puppetry’.

But as the niece of Anubis, the god of the Netherworld, the ruler of the world of souls, she had a deeper understanding of ‘souls’ than anyone else in this world.

Iris was unable to verbalize it due to her lack of memory and her decline in intelligence from the age regression inflicting her, but, without anyone telling her, she had instinctively come to understand and realize that pieces of Joseph’s soul were trapped in his puppets while observing them.

(One of the ‘heat’ in the cathedral is Sakurai-san’s. The other was Joseph’s, and it is the same as the ‘heat’ spread around the city.)

Iris could pick up the strength, scale, and degree of the ‘heat’ with her magic eyes.

And just as there were different types and trends of ‘heat’, there were also differences in the degree of each ‘heat’ she felt.

(Souls’ heat spreads. If the ‘heat’ touches another soul, even if it has no will, if they have some kind of connection, it will be affected by the heat.)

Iris identified the puppets through the ‘heat’ and the tracking techniques that—even though she had no memory of—had been ingrained in her body.

“Hihiin?”

“I’m sorry, Freon-san. You ended up having to indulge my selfishness.”

“Hihin, hunhun, hunsu.”

Iris gently stroked the horse’s back as he neighed while flapping his silver wings, apologizing to him.

The ‘Nexus Crystal Ball’ Sakurai had handed to her.

He told her to act as she saw fit if it broke.

He likely meant while ensuring Cordelia’s safety at the same time—or in other words, she should have evacuated with the saintess.

Yet, she opted to move by herself.

Yes, she had cleared up Cordelia’s surroundings, and had received her permission after explaining her reason, but still—

“—Let’s go, Freon-san!”

“Hihiiin!”

Disgust, resentment, vengeance, self-satisfaction, and personal anger.

The ‘heat’ dwelling in her heart was ultimately selfish, and it wasn’t something she could proudly say.

But still, she decided to move.

Because someone deep in her heart was telling her: ‘She mustn’t forgive that evil’, ‘she mustn’t forgive the man that had crossed the line’.

As such, Iris ran through the sky on the back of the artificial Pegasus (Freon). She set out to destroy the puppets Joseph hid in the city below.

“We’ll start from the south, then we’ll quickly circle around the city as we crush them!”

Souls’ ‘heat’ spreads. People are affected by others’ ‘heat’.

As a matter of course, the same applied to Iris, and the owner of the ‘heat’ she felt had always been true to his heart.

That was precisely why, she, affected by his ‘heat’, also stayed true to her heart and began to act as her heart told her.