Charles began to lament his luck.
After leaving the pirate world, Charles and Stella headed to the world of a certain grim reaper grade-schooler.
As everyone knows, that's a world ruled only by "Conan-ology," where the most basic laws of time and matter that hold elsewhere are casually trampled underfoot.
Charles never expected that in just seven days he would go through three Sundays and two Christmases. It was absurd.
Even more unexpectedly, Conan-ology didn't just demolish science; it also mangled magic beyond recognition.
After several worlds, Charles's world magic had upgraded to freely modulate the flow of time between different worlds.
But after a tour of the Conan-ology world, he found the timelines of all worlds in disarray.
Thankfully, the worlds that mattered most to Charles hadn't been disrupted too badly; otherwise, he wouldn't even have a place to cry about it.
It served as a lesson: some worlds look safe on the surface yet hide their own risks.
He had planned to study that miraculous APTX-4869 through Conan, but soon realized that Conan-ology couldn't be parsed by magic at all.
Charles knew plenty of size-altering spells, but they all relied on mana, a supernatural energy. How could a world without magic do the same?
In Charles's perception, Conan had nothing unusual about him, leaving Charles with no way to study him even if he wanted to.
He did recall that this world had a true witch, Akako Koizumi, heir to Crimson Magic, but for some reason he couldn't find a trace of her.
Coming up empty, Charles finally left this world with nothing.
He suddenly felt that the smooth success of the Summit War had used up his luck; upon arriving in the New World, he found himself in a snow-falling mountain forest.
The whistling cold wind sent snowflakes swirling. The world of white was beautiful, but having his first New World map look like this certainly made gathering intel harder.
As Charles was fretting, he caught the scent of blood, oddly mixed with a repulsive stench.
In weather like this, the smell was stark, and he could easily find its source.
Stella, whose mastery of Dragon God Possession had grown nearly perfect, also smelled it and looked to Charles.
Charles nodded. "We don't have any other leads right now, so let's go take a look."
Having decided, neither hesitated; they quickened their pace toward the scent of blood.
The soft snow couldn't hinder their steps, and soon a small cabin came into view.
As they approached, Charles saw a girl collapsed by the door, clutching a younger child in her arms.
Both of their bodies were soaked with blood, which had congealed into red crystals in the wind and snow.
Beyond the smashed door was a hellish scene: two boys lay fallen at the threshold, eyes wide but already losing their luster, turning cloudy.
In a corner, a woman in a kimono had shielded another child behind her, but both had been pierced through vital points at the same time.
From the traces around them, Charles could even reconstruct what had happened.
A family living peacefully here had been visited by an uninvited guest.
He might even have knocked politely, then immediately struck the girl who answered. Wounded, she instinctively protected her little brother in her arms, but the killer still delivered the fatal blow.
The two boys who came out at the sound were slain in turn; their mother shielded the last child behind her, only to be ruthlessly run through together.
Charles could tell the assailant's strength wasn't low—at least far beyond a normal human. For someone like that to strike at defenseless women and children...
"What a vile piece of trash!"
Seeing this, Charles guessed which world this was; the culprit behind the carnage had to be that scum who ought to be dragged into the sun.
Charles narrowed his eyes and, as he spoke, unfurled his perception.
...
At the foot of the mountain, a man in a patterned kimono suddenly felt as if seven hearts inside him were being clenched at once.
A memory etched into every cell made him instantly recall the last time he felt this.
It had been an ordinary day when he'd run into that man wearing Hanafuda earrings.
He'd thought him a common swordsman, and he was long bored of Breathing Styles, so he planned to dispatch him casually.
Unexpectedly, in an instant that man's blade severed his arm, thigh, chest, and neck.
More horrifying, his regeneration failed; the wounds carved by that man would not heal.
When that man asked, "What do you take life to be?" this was exactly how he had felt.
The man didn't know what had happened or what caused the feeling; he forgot to think and fled at top speed on instinct.
Joking aside, no one cherished his own life more than he did. Until he figured out what threatened him, he absolutely wouldn't show himself again.
...
Charles had found his target; that aura like a condensation of malice was hard to miss.
But just as Charles sensed him, he was already fleeing at full tilt.
Charles let out a cold laugh. The distance wasn't short, but he could definitely catch up if he gave chase.
As he gathered mana to accelerate, Stella suddenly cried out.
"Charles, this girl's still alive, and this child is breathing too!"
Two?
In Charles's memory there should have been only one survivor; he turned his head on reflex.
Stella had already noticed the girl at the door was alive, and after he moved the woman's body, he found the girl she had shielded behind her was breathing as well.
Their mother's sacrifice had kept her daughter from being struck in a fatal spot, but these wounds wouldn't hold off death for long.
Meanwhile, the target in his perception had fled far and was about to slip beyond its range.
Charles suddenly had the feeling that if he chose to give chase, the girl here would go ahead and die on him.
Only by giving up on killing that final big bad could he save this girl.
No wonder so many say the goddess of fate is a bitch; she really knew how to make things hard at times like this!
Even so, Charles made the same choice as this world's future protagonist.
True, taking down the final villain now would end all tragedies caused by him and save countless victims.
But the life before him was no different from the millions in the future.
And the responsibility for any additional victims wouldn't land on Charles, either. He would avenge them, but he wouldn't foolishly burden himself with guilt.
In the end, life's value cannot be measured by numbers.
As soon as Charles made his decision, even without him doing anything, the heartbeat of the girl in Stella's arms grew stronger, and the malevolent aura in his perception vanished entirely.
______
(≧◡≦) ♡ Support me and read 20 chapters ahead – patreon.com/Mutter
Every 100 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter on Saturday.
Every 5 reviews = 1 extra chapter on Saturday.