In the Northern Mountain Range, the man who had disappeared less than ten minutes earlier reappeared.
Upon returning, Bercouli found that his companions had yet to leave. Thanks to Alice's healing, their conditions had improved considerably.
The moment he appeared, Alice turned toward him. Her expression first brightened with relief, then shifted to confusion and anger.
That anger was not directed at Bercouli.
It was aimed at the man rising from the throne behind him.
During the ten minutes he had been gone, Bercouli had traveled to the imperial capital of the Dark Territory. There, through the throne that served as a system console, he learned the truth about their world.
The throne had shown him the real world outside.
He had seen the "server" that contained their entire world—an object no larger than a single building.
He had also been shown how people in the outside world could observe everything that had ever happened here. Bercouli had even watched footage of what he himself had been doing the previous day.
To him, such abilities were indistinguishable from divine power.
The people of the outside world truly were the gods who had created them.
Bercouli desperately wished the revelation had been nothing more than a nightmare.
But it might also represent hope.
If the man had told him the truth, their world would be preserved. The people outside would not interfere excessively with its future.
In fact, the man claimed that he merely wanted to observe how far this world could develop on its own.
"Lower your weapons. This emperor is not our enemy."
"Not our enemy? Uncle, what are you talking about?"
Alice was the first to respond. She stared at him in disbelief and tightened her grip on her sword.
Given the circumstances, it was entirely possible that Bercouli had been placed under the man's control.
To save the lives of the other Integrity Knights, the Knight Commander had apparently followed him back to the Dark Territory. There was no telling what the man might have done to him there.
"Our enemy is the Highest Minister, Alice. You've begun to suspect that yourself, haven't you? Your right eye should have already given you the answer."
As he spoke, Bercouli touched his right eye.
Then he pulled it out.
"Uncle, you—"
Alice recoiled in shock, her voice catching in her throat.
She had expected the gruesome sight of him tearing out his own blood-soaked eyeball.
Instead, what Bercouli removed appeared to be a prosthetic eye. It was as though his real right eye had already been destroyed and replaced with an artificial one.
"Now that the seal in your right eye is gone, you should be able to think more freely. When I called the Highest Minister our enemy, you didn't immediately object. That means you're genuinely considering the possibility."
Bercouli looked at her with open admiration.
"Alice, you're incredible. You broke through the seal in your right eye on your own."
"You didn't break yours yourself, Uncle?"
"No."
Bercouli shrugged.
After learning the truth, he had used the throne to establish a connection with the outside world. The people there had helped remove the seal from his right eye without causing him much pain, then replaced the destroyed eye with a prosthetic one.
Of course, if they captured the Highest Minister and obtained true administrative authority, his original eye could be restored.
Alice, however, had clearly broken the seal through her own will.
In that regard, she was far stronger than he was.
Bercouli had once attempted to resist the seal in his own right eye, but the overwhelming pain had ultimately defeated him.
Alice had succeeded where he failed.
Her willpower had surpassed that of her own mentor.
"Knight Commander, do you understand what you're saying?"
"Are you certain you're in your right mind? That you're not being controlled?"
"I'm perfectly lucid, and I know exactly what I'm saying. I have seen the truth of this world. The Highest Minister is not a Child of God. She is a witch who stole the authority of the gods."
The grim declaration caused the expressions of every Integrity Knight to shift.
Alice was especially shaken.
Not because her uncle had made such a blasphemous accusation, but because she desperately wanted to know what truth he had witnessed.
Just as Alice was about to speak, a spider drifted down from somewhere and landed between the two sides.
The instant it touched the ground, its body rapidly expanded, transforming into a gigantic, furry spider more than two meters tall.
The sight startled Alice.
The spider then performed an oddly humanlike gesture. It raised two of its legs to its mouth and pulled out a bundle of hair.
No—it was not a loose bundle.
It was a carefully woven braid, apparently belonging to a young girl.
The braid suddenly transformed into a short sword shaped like a cross.
The spider drove the blade into the ground.
Light erupted across the earth, forming a pulsating ring around the sword.
As the ring began pulsing faster, the blade abruptly dissolved into countless motes of light. They gathered into a narrow pillar.
The pillar then expanded.
No—it widened, becoming a flat panel of light enclosed within a rectangular frame.
When the brilliance faded enough for Alice to see clearly, she realized what it was.
A door.
The handle turned from the other side.
Someone was coming through.
The door opened, and a petite, slender girl stepped out.
Her clothing and the dignified air surrounding her made her look like a sage of extraordinary learning.
"Cardinal, aren't you afraid Quinella will come after you the moment you leave your sanctuary?"
Those words brought Alice back to her senses.
The King of the Dark Territory knew this girl.
"If it were anyone else, Quinella would have appeared immediately to kill me. Since she hasn't, that proves you truly are a god descended from the Divine Realm—one of our creators. Am I correct, Lord Creator?"
The statement from the girl called Cardinal left Alice's mind unable to function.
It was not that she failed to understand the words.
The information was simply so shocking that her thoughts descended into chaos.
Fortunately, the confusion lasted only a moment. Once her mind recovered, she stared at the man in disbelief.
"A god from the Divine Realm?"
"You must be joking!"
"Then how do you explain the fact that he can't be killed? Or that he can execute Sacred Arts without chanting? Can any ordinary human do that?"
The Integrity Knights did not want to believe it.
Yet if the man truly was a god, then everything about his absurd abilities suddenly made sense.
A god had actually descended into their world.
"Does that mean he's the Dark Emperor?"
That question caused fear to grow within the hearts of the assembled knights.
"No."
"Then what is he? And who are you?"
Alice pressed for answers.
"I am Cardinal—the other Highest Minister."
That answer stunned them yet again.
There was only one Highest Minister.
Administrator.
"Lord Creator, shall I tell them the entire truth?"
"You may."
"Understood."
Cardinal pointed toward several of the Integrity Knights.
"You, you, and the two of you—please move at least fifty meters away from here."
Half of the knights had been singled out and forbidden from hearing the truth.
Anger immediately appeared on their faces.
"I am not trying to exclude you," Cardinal explained before any of them could protest. "Based on my observations, the four of you may be unable to withstand the truth. The shock could cause your Fluctlights to collapse and kill you."
"We can't withstand it? My apologies, but we will not leave. If we're unable to bear the truth, then that is our responsibility."
"Very well. The choice is yours."
Cardinal cast a long, searching look at the Creator.
Then she began explaining the truth of their world.
(End of Chapter)
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