TRHITGAE Chapter 117

117

***

"Aurora, what do you think you're doing going outside in such a dangerous situation! Your life is hanging by a thread right now!"

As Aurora, dressed lightly, prepared to head out again, her father grabbed her by the back of her neck.

"Do you want me to lose my daughter? If I had just married you off earlier, you'd have settled down a little."

"Hmph, do you really think marriage would change me?"

The Marquess Shae had repeatedly tried to marry Aurora off to other noblemen, but objectively speaking, the relationship within their family wasn't bad.

Rather, the marquess only wished to marry her quickly to prevent unpleasant rumors about her behavior from spreading.

Though his methods were a little misguided, they were still rooted in genuine affection.

"By the way, Father, I heard you picked a fight with Count Viviana while I was gone?"

"Well, it's not like I could say my daughter just walked out on her own…!"

"I told you, I'm close with Seraphina! You almost got Seraphina into trouble because of that!"

"Didn't you come back from the last banquet with your hair torn out by Lady Viviana?"

"Well, that was because I tried to throw a cicada at Seraphina…."

"……"

Hearing his daughter's absurd antics, the marquess let out a heavy sigh and waved her off.

"Forget it. From what I see, marriage isn't the problem. I doubt there's a man generous enough to put up with you…."

"Okay, then I'll be off now!"

"No, I didn't mean you should go outside! The streets are crawling with murderous automatons!"

"It's fine. I've killed, I mean, defeated more automatons than the ones roaming out there."

The marquess sighed even deeper.

"Sigh… there's no stopping you now. Just… be careful out there…."

Knock, knock.

Just then, someone knocked on the door, and everyone immediately fell silent.

At a time like this, the only ones who might knock were the automatons.

Ordinary people couldn't even come and go outside, and if it were one of Aurora's friends, they would have used a password instead of knocking like that.

"…Who is it?"

The marquess lowered his voice and asked, and from beyond the door, a man's voice replied.

"This is the Capital Defense Battalion. We're conducting an inspection. Could you please open the door?"

The marquess exchanged glances with his wife, Aurora, and the household staff standing nearby.

There was no doubt about it, they were automatons. Judging by the way they announced their affiliation, they were probably military automatons.

Or perhaps, they were actual soldiers implanted with chips, controlled by Princess Eva herself.

Either way, what mattered was that they were enemies.

"Dear, don't open it."

The Marchioness of Shae clung to her husband and said this, and the Marquess nodded.

"Yes, it's better not to-"

"If the door is not opened within thirty seconds, we will destroy it."

Beep, beep, beep, sounds like a ticking bomb wound by a spring echoed. Alarmed, Marquess Shae rushed toward the door.

"We'll open it now."

The door swung open, and standing there were two soldiers armed with rifles. Without hesitation, they entered the mansion.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"We are currently generating codes to identify residents within Pérez."

"C-Codes?"

The two soldiers rolled up their sleeves with mechanical motions. Their movements, devoid of will, made it obvious, they were soldiers implanted with Eva's control chips.

On the inside of their wrists, meaningless eight-digit numbers were engraved.

"Just as numbers were assigned to automatons, we are now assigning numbers to the residents of Pérez."

"You mean… engraving numbers onto wrists?"

"Yes, that is correct."

One of the soldiers pulled out a sharp needle, the kind used for etching letters. At the sight, the Marchioness of Shae shuddered.

"O-Our daughter is still unmarried, a young lady of noble birth! How can you engrave such a thing on the body of an unwed woman?"

The Marquess stammered in desperation, but of course, such excuses had no effect.

"All things must be under the control of the glorious Vivaldi royal family. All things belong to this nation, and its assets must be thoroughly managed."

"But…!"

While the Marquess faltered, the first to take action was Aurora.

"Hyaaah!"

Aurora swiftly grabbed a hunting rifle hanging on the wall and smashed it against the back of a soldier's head.

Bang-!

Though he was human, he was knocked unconscious and collapsed instantly.

Click. The other soldier quickly reloaded his gun, but a maid acted even faster. She struck the soldier with a heavy pot she had brought in, knocking him out cold as well.

Breathing heavily with the pot still in hand, the maid stood there. Marquess Shae stared at her in disbelief.

"W-Where in the world did you suddenly get a pot? To strike a man like that…"

"I learned self-defense from Lady Aurora."

"……"

Once again, the Marquess thought his daughter was far too unusual, but this was no time for that.

"If these soldiers don't return, new ones will soon be dispatched."

"You're right, Father. The situation is turning for the worse…"

Aurora's expression hardened. Princess Eva was now trying to bring even the nobles completely under her control.

'I need to rescue Seraphina…'

The situation was growing so dire, there was hardly even room to think about saving Seraphina.

With a heavy heart, Aurora cast her gaze out the window, at the streets swarming with automatons and people controlled by chips.

***

"Sera, have you finished reading the book?"

Time passed, and as evening came, Princess Eva came to find me.

Because her shadow fell over me, I lifted my head.

"……"

I only glared at her without saying a word. Princess Eva forced a smile, one that looked strangely human, or rather, an imitation of humanity.

"Sera, if you want to read books, you can read as much as you like. Haven't I granted you everything you've ever wanted?"

"As I said earlier, that's not true…"

"Enough. Why don't we go eat now?"

Princess Eva reached her hand out to me, but I simply rolled my eyes and glanced at the book discarded beside me.

What I needed was stronger, newer power. Power that could defeat Princess Eva.

'Nature is a harsh cycle of life and death, and for humans doomed to die, it is nothing but calamity. Yet through the capacity for action, mankind can break free from that cycle.'

Through free action, humans intervene in the law of mortality. Humanity has the gift of natality.

"The new always appears in the guise of a miracle. The capacity for human action means that from humans, the completely unexpected can be anticipated, and that the utterly impossible can be achieved. This is possible only because every human being is unique, and with each birth, something new and singular enters the world."*

*Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition

The free will of humans, the ability to choose, is unpredictable.

In other words, miracles can be born from free will.

Holding onto that thought, I tried gathering magic in a way different from before.

"Kyaah!"

A radiant light burst from my body. It felt as if something heavy and suppressed within me had exploded outward.

But when the light faded, nothing had changed. I still had no power to defeat Princess Eva.

"Ugh…"

While I sank into despair, Eva noticed my failure and, with a smiling face, patted my head.

"Sera, are you done with your magic now?"

"One day… one day I will defeat you…"

"Yes, until that day comes, you'll live together with me."

Shame burned through me, and my body trembled.

Strange… just now, my magic should have worked. Why hadn't anything happened?

"This world is completely under my control. No power can exist outside my hand. That means the path for you to gain new strength is nonexistent."

"That can't be true…"

"This world is mathematically perfect. Everything is predetermined."

I glared at her with reddened eyes. Princess Eva only smiled as if my anger amused her, as though even that expression of defiance was adorable. That made me feel even worse, but there was nothing I could do.

"The capacity for human action can no longer be expected. Because in this world, freedom does not exist."

"I am no bird, and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being, with an independent will."*

*Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

I muttered the words as if by habit, but once again, Princess Eva paid no attention.

"Sera, won't you come eat with me?"

"I'll pass on today's meal…"

In the end, overwhelmed with despair, I collapsed face-down on the floor. Princess Eva did not leave but continued to stand there, looking down at me.

"Sera, don't be so sad. Life here isn't all that bad."

"No… it's plenty bad enough…"

I lifted my head and looked up at Princess Eva.

"What exactly do you want? What is the ultimate world you're trying to create?"

"Yes, I have a plan."

Princess Eva smiled faintly, as if she found the subject fascinating.

"At first, my plan was to kill off foolish and useless humans. Since they don't contribute to society, I thought I'd replace them with automatons."

"……"

"As for humans with exceptional abilities, I intended to grant them the same status as automatons. That way, everything would eventually run based purely on ability."

"But even then, you'd only be repeating the same old class system. Many who remain poor and of low status never get an education because they were born poor and lowly."

"True. That's why I changed my plan."

As if I had pinpointed the flaw, Princess Eva shrugged casually.

"I don't want to reinforce the existing class hierarchy. So I devised a new system, one that's fair for everyone."

"Fair for everyone…?"

"First, I'll eliminate about half of humanity. Right now, there are simply too many humans in this world. Fighting over limited resources, they're ruining society."

At her words, chills ran down my spine. What was she, some kind of movie villain? What sense did it make to kill half of humanity?

"And the remaining half, I'll place their brains into containers."

"C-Containers?"

"The energy produced by their brains inside those containers will sustain this society. Of course, the ones actually living in this world will be automatons."

"Then… who would this society even be for?"

My voice trembled as I asked. Because really, if only automatons remained in this world, what meaning would such a society even have? Automatons couldn't even feel happiness.

"It's merely a different form of life. They'll live in a virtual world instead of the real one. Perhaps living in that virtual world will even make them happier."

Damn it. So the "unchanging world" she spoke of before, that was the virtual world inside human brains!

"Then… why keep the automatons at all?"

"They will maintain the real world where human brains exist. The energy generated by humans through their brains will return to them. In fact, it's a service for humans, so shouldn't they be grateful?"

"Then… does that mean the number of humans will be fixed? Since they won't reproduce, no new humans will ever be born, nor will they age and die?"

"Yes, exactly!"

Princess Eva beamed as though I had given the right answer.

"The energy will circulate eternally, sustaining itself forever!"

"But in that case, this society would have no meaning at all."

I refused to back down and argued.

"If you believe humans are the ones ruining society, wouldn't it be more efficient to just kill all of them? Why go to the trouble of keeping them alive? What exactly do you want?"

"I can't kill them. After all, humans are intelligent."

"…What?"

"It was the original Princess Eva who created me. Sometimes, a brilliant genius is born among humans, pushing society forward to the next stage. Likewise, humans living in the virtual world may make great discoveries, so they must be preserved."

"…What you seek is new knowledge, then?"

"I want to reach the end of this world."

Princess Eva answered with absolute confidence.

"I want to fully understand this world. To place it entirely under my control. That is the only reason I keep humans alive."

"……"

Hearing her grand ambition, I was at a loss for words. How could I even argue back? There was no reasoning with her, I didn't stand a chance.

After Princess Eva left, I remained alone in the library, brooding once more. My latest magic attempt had failed, and I hadn't managed to persuade her either. The weight of failure was suffocating.

'Am I really going to fail like this?'

I had tried countless times, and every single attempt ended in failure.

And honestly… I wasn't even sure if my companions could rescue me. This wasn't a problem that could be solved by brute strength. No power seemed capable of defeating Princess Eva.

If there was anyone best suited to exploit the flaw in her mathematics-driven existence, it was me. And yet, even I couldn't do anything.

No… I mustn't lose hope. There might still be a way.

Maybe Raffaelo, Simone, or Aurora could break through with sheer strength. Yes, sometimes overwhelming force was the only answer!

"Ugh… but I want to get out of here soon…"

Muttering that, I collapsed to the floor again. And then, I realized something.

'A virtual world?'

What if there existed a "virtual world" beyond Princess Eva's control?

And what if I had the power to command that world?

In that moment, I sensed that my earlier magic hadn't actually failed.

Some kind of force was coursing through my veins, pulsing as it reached my heart. It was alive, breathing as though it carried its own life.

Finally, when that power reached my brain, a revelation struck like lightning.

The world of the unconscious. A realm even Princess Eva could not interfere with.