Chapter 1200: The Price (1)
A host of tanks stretched to the horizon.
Armored vehicles and rockets. Fighter jets and warships revved their engines, idling.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!!
Soldiers stamped their feet and rhythmically slammed their rifles on the ground.
The roar that echoed each time tens of thousands of legionaries moved together violently shook the earth.
Waaaahhhhh!!!!
Kwagagagagaga!!!!
The 2nd Legion, stationed deep within the Western Front, and the 4th Legion, coordinating the battlefield across the Central Front, led the charge.
The 5th Legion, deployed for firepower battles across the continent, and the 6th Legion, responsible for the Southern Front, formed the two wings.
The 8th and 9th Legions, overseeing the Northern and Western Fronts respectively, fluttered their flags at the very rear.
Deadrise, which began as a private military company in Vulcan and established itself as the continent’s largest legion.
A vast military force, too extensive for human eyes to encompass, overwhelming simply by its sight.
Now, as the parade showcasing the power of the legion dominating a corner of the Central Front was in full swing.
Lennok walked a small side path behind the Command Headquarters with Ethan.
“Ah, the insignia of General Cheonram. He was the commander of the most troublesome warlord during the expansion of the Eastern Front.”
“……”
“The legion’s early flags are hanging alongside it. They were made with my comrades when we founded the PMC. It took a long time to complete because Song-ha was terrible at drawing.”
A quiet stillness, completely detached from the boisterous parade grounds.
The Command Headquarters Annex. The path continued around the back of the main building, past the garden where he had met Ethan.
Beneath an open vista that offered a good view of the parade, objects unrelated to the surrounding environment were on display.
“Gagameon’s helmet. He was one of the strongest warriors in the Vulcan Civil War. We had to gather all the unit commanders from each front to face him.”
Ethan walked with Lennok, taking in each object.
“With Cheondun’s help, we bought time, and only after we cut off his head with Gileon’s wings did we realize he had died standing upright long before.”
“……”
“The award certificate from the Great Battle of Illyma. It was the only thing we received as compensation from that warlord after enduring all sorts of hardships and surviving. Armut barely stopped Baragan from tearing it up in a fit of anger.”
Equipment once used by someone. Now forgotten emblems or insignias. Souvenirs documenting events from long ago.
Such items, with no practical value, were displayed in rows in the garden around the Command Headquarters.
Fragments of memory the entire legion had gathered for Ethan.
Ethan walked around the Command Headquarters with Lennok, recalling old memories.
“This… this is a souvenir from when we all went on a business trip to Larabelli.”
A branch with blue, magically glowing fruits hanging from it.
A faint smile, imperceptible until now, appeared on Ethan’s lips, which usually betrayed no emotion.
“On the way back, we rested near the World Tree. Peshia pestered us to let her eat a fruit. She tried to touch it secretly from the druids, got scolded, and had to run away.”
“……”
Memories from before Deadrise even took the form of a legion flowed naturally from Ethan’s lips.
Clearly, they too must have experienced countless events, gained and lost things, to arrive at this point.
Ethan’s appearance, reminiscing about old memories Lennok didn’t know, and probably never would.
But Lennok silently watched Ethan, not uttering a single word.
He knew that even this moment of recalling memories was a necessary process.
Because he understood that Ethan needed time to answer Lennok’s question.
“Every single one… just cherished memories. It’s natural, I suppose.”
Ethan slowly turned around.
“After all, all these objects were left here to remember our beginning.”
“……”
“Our beginning was certainly very humble.”
A long corridor piercing through the center of the Command Headquarters.
Ethan spoke in front of a glass walkway overlooking the headquarters’ scenery.
“Vulcan’s vigilantes. Bajour’s security detail… We didn’t even have a name. We thought we’d just gather like-minded people, work together, and part ways whenever we wanted.”
“……”
“Before we knew it, we were involved in many events that happened in that city.”
How much time had passed since the parade began?
Ethan’s words were about memories from a very long time ago.
Memories from before Deadrise had a name or form.
The beginning of the legion.
“Only after the civil war to decide Vulcan’s hegemony broke out did we realize how exceptional we truly were.”
Ethan lifted his gaze.
“When we realized it, we had completely conquered Vulcan and become a legion.”
“……”
“After the project failed, I don’t remember much… No, perhaps it was never worth remembering in the first place.”
Ethan slowly turned and looked at the marching army through the glass, speaking in a faint voice.
“We must have won and taken everything. It wouldn’t have been difficult. We wouldn’t have cared after taking it. We could always take it back again.”
“……”
“Having lived until now, looking only for one thing after losing everything…”
Ethan murmured, looking down at the legion passing the Command Headquarters.
“That’s probably why I feel no emotion from this sight.”
“……Is that so.”
Ethan Bajour had no interest in his own legion.
The dry sentiment he displayed when he first appeared at the Command Headquarters was nothing but an honest reaction, not pretense or deceit.
That’s why Lennok could finally ask Ethan now.
“Then why did you return?”
Lennok lifted his gaze.
“Why did you come back to life after dying once, and stand before the legion like this?”
“……”
“Now that Kaiser is dead and the project has failed, you—”
Lennok, continuing his words, ignoring Ethan who didn’t answer, suddenly stopped.
He re-examined the emotions he had felt just before meeting Ethan.
Recalling the thoughts he had pondered for a long time, waiting for this moment.
He shifted the direction of the question he had repeatedly asked himself.
“Who are you?”
“……”
“Are you truly Ethan Bajour himself?”
Ethan stared at Lennok with an expressionless face.
After silently looking at Lennok for a long time, Ethan raised a hand and touched his nape.
At the instant Lennok’s expression sharpened and even his will-thought twisted eerily.
“I see.”
Ethan smiled faintly.
“So you’ve been chasing me for a very long time.”
“……”
“Setting The Prohibition was a consideration to prevent something like this from happening. But I couldn’t shake everything off.”
Ethan slowly lowered his hand and turned around.
“Indeed, you must have come looking for me because of the project, right?”
The true nature of the Black Consumer Project.
At the mention of those words, it was as if the blood in his head had momentarily stopped.
He didn’t know how to react to Ethan’s counter-question, which he uttered so easily.
Even though he had acted, believing Ethan held all the secrets, that the final clue lay with him.
Facing it now, Lennok couldn’t even guess what he himself was thinking.
Ethan moved, looking at Lennok.
“If you wish, I’ll tell you. It’s not difficult. My existence is already completely detached from The Prohibition.”
“……”
“It seems you’ve already obtained the ‘Core’ as well. In that case, you won’t need to worry about the backlash.”
Ethan turned his gaze towards the silent Lennok.
“If you want to hear about our failure, tell me. What do you want?”
“……I.”
The truth of the project he had long pursued was before Lennok’s eyes.
Because he knew the Black Consumer Project had reached the closest point to the world’s demise.
Because he knew the Pontiff and the Director had intervened in the plan that led to Kaiser’s death.
And because he was certain the project’s truth was related to him, hadn’t he pursued it for so long?
The project’s failure and Kaiser’s death, encountered during his journey through Machina, Yorta, and Kundara.
The end Kaiser Bajour met.
Upon encountering his remains in the Ninth Tribulation, Lennok had already realized it.
The entity that had severed Kaiser’s head. The project stakeholder who could use that outcome as they wished.
Only the Revived, returned from death, could move freely in the Ninth Tribulation, which symbolized life and death.
Attending the parade as Cheonbeon was precisely to ask Ethan about that fact here and now.
The truth he had waited so long for was before him.
The pure inner workings of the project, unbound by The Prohibition. Kaiser Bajour’s failure, which Lennok had pursued for so long.
Not the result, but the process.
Therefore, Lennok—
“……No.”
Lennok closed his eyes.
After a long hesitation, Lennok spoke.
It had taken him a very long time to utter those words.
“I… did not come here to hear the truth of the project.”
“Then what?”
“I came to confirm what I truly desired.”
Lennok’s answer, denying his previous purpose for attending the parade.
Lennok slowly opened his eyes and replied.
“For a very long time… I was overlaying Kaiser and myself.”
“……”
“I knew he desired the same thing as me. I also knew he was capable of doing so.”
Lennok said in a subdued voice.
“I feared that I might have been in Kaiser’s position, that I might fail like that someday.”
Lennok stared at his own hands and murmured.
“That’s why I wanted to know so much. I wanted to know to find peace.”
“……And not now?”
“Because I realized that the unknown… doesn’t necessarily have a negative meaning.”
Lennok answered, his head bowed.
“Not knowing is a possibility. I am here because I placed meaning on the process of learning, rather than on knowing something.”
“……”
“By taking the as-yet-unreached possibility as my answer, I finally found my answer.”
Lennok’s wavering voice turned calm.
His mind, agitated while conveying his answer to Ethan, settled and found its center.
“The Black Consumer Project is merely a result, not a process. The more I cling to its failure, the more I will ultimately restrict my own possibilities.”
“……”
“So, while I will pursue the project, I will not obsess over it. For me, who seeks the process, it will ultimately be just one more result.”
Lennok murmured.
“It took me too long to admit that.”
The Black Consumer Project was a plan focused more than anything on ‘results,’ gathering all the world’s failures.
It was antithetical to Lennok, who valued the process over the outcome and made the moment of arrival itself his goal.
Because the project was closest to the world’s demise, Lennok had investigated it and followed Kaiser’s trail until now.
But only now, on the verge of confirming everything, could Lennok completely shake off that lingering attachment.
Lennok was not Kaiser, and Lennok’s answer was different from Kaiser’s.
Because he desired the path not taken, he had strived until now to make the opportunity to choose itself the answer.
Lennok’s answer lay beyond the project’s failure.
“A seeker who took the process, not the result, as their answer…”
Lennok, his decision made, stared at Ethan with a serene expression, and Ethan nodded.
Ethan slowly tilted his head, whispering softly in a faint voice.
“You were the most exceptional and wise among the mortals unbound by The Prohibition. To have strived for so long, yet be capable of abandoning everything for what you believe in.”
“Crudely put, I simply decided there was nothing more to learn from the failure of the Black Consumer Project.”
Lennok said in a chilling voice.
His cold gaze swept over Ethan’s nape.
“No matter how much I fail, how broken and corrupt I become, I will not stoop to a level where I’m suspected of having sewn on the head of a blood relative.”
“……”
It was unknown whether Ethan Bajour was Ethan himself, or some other entity.
Lennok was not yet certain if he had truly severed a head and attached it.
But no matter how Lennok failed or fell, he would never become like the project’s failure.
He would never choose a method so broken as to sew on someone’s head to prolong his life, or be suspected of doing so.
Meeting Ethan brought an answer to the constant doubt that had gnawed at his chest throughout the parade.
In either case, Lennok realized here that he would never be like Bajour.
“I see. But one thing is wrong.”
Ethan, even after hearing Lennok’s resolute answer, turned his back with an expressionless face.
“There is no such thing as absolute in this world. There is no person, no heart, no answer that never changes. Weren’t you, too, chasing the non-existent next because of that?”
“That’s—”
“You believe you won’t change, but that is not something you can stop or resist yourself. By the time you notice, you’ve already changed, or perhaps you were already changed from the beginning.”
Ethan, passing Lennok who was momentarily speechless, whispered.
As if he had been waiting for this moment to say these words to Lennok.
“Just as the Pontiff and the Director did in this Third World.”
“……Ethan Bajour.”
This time, all emotion vanished from Lennok’s face.
But Ethan, leaving Lennok behind, moved forward without hesitation.
“My answer, then as now, is only one. The truth you were curious about, and that I was going to tell you.”
“……”
“You no longer want the answer, but I will answer nonetheless.”
Walking through the empty glass corridor, Ethan reached the end of the corridor and turned around.
At a distance too vast to estimate with the eye.
From beyond the incomprehensible, where they could neither see, touch, nor understand each other.
“The Black Consumer Project is…”
Ethan answered.
“A plan to ‘edit’ and ‘set’ human destinies as desired. It is the power to directly manage all causality given to humans, including aptitude, nature, and talent.”