Chapter 61: Thrillers Every Year, But Especially Many This Year!
The old man saw Liliana behind Annie but ignored her; his gaze held only Annie. However, regarding the old man's expectation, Annie merely said in a teasing tone, "Don't say that. You are, after all, the gatekeeper who guards time and space. Faithfully recording the trajectory of historical corrections and personally returning to the past to intervene in historical facts is part of your job."
Hearing this, Liliana was startled, realizing that the person before her also possessed the ability to walk through time.
"Don't let personal feelings get mixed in; complete your work diligently. This is also the obligation of labor."
"That may be so! But historical correction rarely happens. In this millennium, I have only returned to the past three times! Those toyed with by fate or the gods who end up in the past rarely trigger events that change history!"
The old man's shoulders shook with rage at Annie's teasing, and his tone was intense.
"But that woman simply changes history on a whim! She has never once considered how much impact her actions will have on the future! Not even once! What's even more exaggerated is that this time, three God-slayers have returned to the past! Among them, that Hikigaya Hachiman is even more excessive—he is a repeat offender!"
"Then why don't you go to that era and obstruct their actions?"
"You know very well that with my abilities, I cannot restrain those God-slaying barbarians!"
"So you're asking me to do the killing? And you want me to deal with three at once?"
"Exactly! Please, before they disturb time and space again, strike quickly and kill them!"
Right in front of Liliana, the old man voiced the request he had made to Annie. Liliana's eyes widened in disbelief. As for curiosity... excuse me, she had some before, but now there was only fury. Or rather, the old Liliana might have remained curious while angry, but that was impossible now.
"I cannot treat those words as if I didn't hear them!"
She no longer had any interest in knowing who this old man actually was, but in a flash, several images flickered through her mind.
—An immortal without divinity, one unbound by fate.
—Once a great historian and a master of occultism, now responsible for managing the stone tablets that record the Akashic memories and compiling the correct course of history.
However, what exactly was the "correct course of history"?
"Hachiman said that even the gods have no right to meddle with or define human history. Not the gods, not the God-slayers—no one has that right." Liliana spoke with a cold face, her right hand gripping the hilt of her sword as she addressed the old man. "You are strong, but that doesn't mean you have the right to decide whose actions are correct, let alone openly speak of murdering Hachiman."
The old man dismissed Liliana's aggressive movements with disdain, continuing to ignore her.
Annie frowned. She believed her old friend should understand her meaning in bringing Hachiman's subordinate here, but he was pretending not to see it. Thus, she decided to remind him again in a way he could not evade.
"Elder, you want these three dead, but do you have the means to kill them? Do you intend to open a time-space corridor and send me to their era?"
The old man snorted in displeasure.
"That era already has three troublesome figures; sending a fourth would be sheer idiocy! O King, you too are a child of Epimetheus. Going back to the past would surely disturb the chronological order and rewrite history!"
"You really are an expert, Elder." Facing this rude remark, the Devil King only gave a slight smile. "Regarding the disturbance of world peace, I have confidence that doesn't fall behind my kin. However, the trouble is, I can't kill them without crossing time."
"O King, simply activate the weapon at your waist and fire the Arrow of Artemis. The Authority of the Magic Arrow you possess can traverse the time-space corridor to strike the target."
"Oh?"
Through her power of Divine Vision, Liliana knew that what the old man said was not far from the truth. The Devil King of Los Angeles had usurped the Authority of the Magic Bullet from the hunting goddess Artemis. The magic bullets possessed various versatile divine effects; as long as a target could be accurately located, it was possible to snipe a target in another era through a time-space corridor.
Liliana decided she would endure no more; this old man was pushing things too far. But Annie saw her anger and took a step forward, blocking her line of attack.
"Be at ease," Annie said, then looked at the old man. "Elder, since it's come to this, I'll be blunt. I will not do it. I highly approve of Hikigaya Hachiman's character. Furthermore, you know very well how tenacious a race the God-slayers are, don't you? Attempting to kill one without even meeting face-to-face is something even a god cannot achieve."
"Ugh... damn it..." The old man gnashed his teeth.
"Besides, Hikigaya Hachiman possesses the Authority to traverse time. I really don't want to imagine what he might do to you because of this. He is a man who very clearly distinguishes between favors and grudges."
The old man let out a pained murmur; he could not deny Annie's deduction. Even while staying here, as a chronicler of history, the old man knew very well the nature Hikigaya Hachiman had displayed throughout the long river of time.
—Causing the downfall of the civilization built by the Dasa people, leading the ancient Aryans to chant in the hymns of the Rigveda: "O Indra, O Vishnu! You destroyed the ninety-nine fortresses of Sambara! You defeated a thousand invincible heroes under the Asura Varchin hundreds of times!" —Killing the nearly 200,000-strong army of the Assyrian King Sennacherib beneath the walls of Jerusalem, causing this army to die quietly in a single night. —Causing the Hebrews to waver between God and pagan deities, triggering the Babylonian Captivity. —Instigating the priests of Babylon to openly oppose the royal family, causing the gates of Babylon to be flung open for the Persian army.
There were far too many such incidents...
The old man desperately wanted to tell the God-slayer before him just how much of a "wild card" her so-called "man of good character" actually was in history. But he hesitated. Amidst his anger, his reason told him that Hikigaya Hachiman was indeed different from Madame Aisha. The difference wasn't just in their attitudes toward history, but that Hikigaya Hachiman often seemed like the implementer of history and the creator of myth.
But whether Hikigaya Hachiman's actions were inherently part of history, or whether he had changed the history of that era to form the "history" the old man knew, was something the old man could not confirm. He felt fear because of this.
What he feared was that perhaps what Hikigaya Hachiman was doing was exactly the answer he had sought for a long time—what happens when history changes and cannot be corrected.
Perhaps at this moment, he believed Hikigaya Hachiman was disturbing history, but in the next, the disturbed history would become the "correct" history in his cognition!
In his heart, he believed that eliminating Hikigaya Hachiman was the best outcome, which was why he had made that request to another God-slayer. But Annie had now told him with a clear attitude—don't even think about it.
Just as the old man was about to try one more time, an anomaly suddenly appeared.
The bronze stylus in his hand automatically left his grip and floated into the air, scratching onto the stone tablet on the easel, rapidly writing a line of text.
"The Brave One descends upon Gaul... this... is fifty-two years earlier than historical fact!?"
Before the old man's expression of shock could fade, the bronze stylus continued to write.
"The Son of God is repeatedly sent back to the heavenly realm by the Barbarian King holding the Divine Jar?"
This time, the old man's eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of his head...
Truly, thrillers happen every year, but there are especially many this year.
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