Paladin of the Dead God-Chapter 447: Forest of Forgetfulness (2)

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To become the sword that cuts down the Millennium Kingdom.

It was a statement that could be considered blasphemous, but since he had already tried it, Isaac wasn’t particularly surprised or shocked. However, he was merely suspicious of her saying that the plan was to bring about the Millennium Kingdom and then destroy it.

"How exactly do you want me to do that?"

"Hmm, shall we go inside somewhere and talk while eating something?"

What was she talking about, eating something in the middle of the Outer Boundary? Tentacle monsters? Face-eating spiders? A cluster of creatures made up of acquaintances’ faces? Isaac had already eaten plenty of that, so he wasn’t particularly hungry.

Isaac tried to ask again, but the White Owl had already found an intact house and was entering it.

"You managed to find an intact house even after crushing the entire city."

"Because I needed it."

The White Owl said something incomprehensible and plopped down at the table in the middle of the living room.

"What do you want to eat?"

"I’m not hungry."

"That can’t be. A growing child like you should always be hungry."

The White Owl nonchalantly ignored Isaac’s words and snapped her fingers. Before long, a door opened, and a fragrant smell wafted out. Surprisingly, a well-dressed butler walked out, spread a tablecloth, and servants brought out dishes one by one. Chicken, pork, beef, and all sorts of ingredients were lined up, seemingly from nowhere. The smell alone whetted his appetite, but Isaac couldn’t easily reach for it.

He had already figured out that the city itself wasn’t intact and that the surrounding area was all wasteland. The only life forms he had discovered so far were Isaac himself, an angel, and a biological cluster, so where did these ingredients come from?

"You don’t have to worry. I’m just replaying familiar tastes."

"...Familiar tastes?"

"It’s just regurgitating memories. So, it’s neither harmful nor beneficial. But there are times when I miss warm food and the bustling scenery of a city with lots of people."

The White Owl said, tearing apart a chicken leg. Her tentacle fingers picked up the hot chicken without any hesitation.

"You already know, don’t you? The Outer Boundary is like a trash can of history. The histories that are no longer ’existing events’ are stagnant there. I just know how to separate and recycle useful memories in that cauldron of chaos."

She kindly offered Isaac a suckling pig roast, as if she knew that he looked for it and ate it whenever he was hungry. Isaac hesitated but eventually reached out his left hand and grabbed a pig.

If he was really uneasy, he could eat with his tentacles instead of his mouth. As always, the protruding tentacles began to gorge voraciously as if they were hungry. Seeing that, the White Owl smiled contentedly and said, "But wouldn’t it be meaningful just to have a cozy meal like this with you?"

’A family meal using tentacles in the Outer Boundary, where monsters abound.’

He was thankful that he wouldn’t be criticized for his table manners.

***

As the meal progressed, Isaac looked at the White Owl with complicated feelings. He didn’t particularly consider the White Owl as a parent or feel any biological affection. But the White Owl seemed to expect a sense of bonding from him.

Before the conversation veered off into awkward topics, Isaac opened his mouth about the subject he had been suspecting.

"Are you the Nameless Chaos?"

"Ah, half right and half wrong."

The White Owl said, sucking on the oily tentacles. "To be exact, I should be called an angel who is pretending to be the Nameless Chaos and trying to control it. Like the Lighthouse Keeper. But honestly, since I was practically a nanny, I can’t say that the Nameless Chaos wasn’t influenced by me."

Isaac recalled the endless goodwill and protective instincts, the violent attitude, and the endless appetite that the Nameless Chaos had shown him. All of it wasn’t entirely the White Owl’s influence, but it might have been influenced to some extent.

"As you know, I’ve been in the Outer Boundary since my Fall. It was difficult to exert influence on the world."

The White Owl pointed at Isaac and said, "Until you appeared in this world."

Isaac was silent for a moment. He asked a question that had been lingering for a long time, one that he thought he would never get an answer to.

"Did you call me into this world?"

The White Owl was silent for a moment.

"That’s also half right and half wrong."

"Please tell me exactly."

"The Nameless Chaos called ’you’ from that world. I gave birth to you and guided you to this place."

The White Owl was distinguishing between ’Isaac’ and Isaac. Isaac found it difficult to understand what that meant. Was she thinking of the two as her child together? Or as a being from another world who had stolen her child’s body? In the first place, it was doubtful whether a normal parent-child relationship could even be established with an angel.

"This world is still in a soft, uncompleted state. Despite so many people’s efforts, it still isn’t. That’s why Chaos occasionally brings in new ’concepts’ from the outside, like bringing in the Lighthouse Keeper. And every time that happens, a period of chaos and turmoil comes."

The White Owl brought an egg to the table and placed it in front of Isaac.

"For example, this is the original universe we live in. Bland and without any personality. Then Chaos brings a crack and change begins."

The White Owl said that and then cracked the egg and poured it into a plate. The yolk and white jiggled and rolled on the plate.

"From here, Chaos brings ’heat’. Then this egg will become a fried egg."

As the White Owl heated the plate, the egg on the plate began to turn white.

"And from here, you can bring ’salt’ and add flavor, or you can stir and break it to make ’scrambled eggs’. Or you can top it with other vegetables and shape it to make ’rolled omelets’."

Each time the White Owl spoke, the egg on the plate changed shape in a versatile way, wriggling. It was a bizarre sight, but Isaac saw the world in it.

Rain poured on the hard, rocky land, life sprouted, mysterious power resided, and beings with wondrous power thrived. The White Owl was saying that the seemingly solid world was ’still’ in the process of being completed.

The White Owl said with a gentle smile, "What do you think the Lighthouse Keeper was like to the countless ancient gods that existed during the Age of Turbulence of the God of Myriad? To them, the Lighthouse Keeper was nothing less than a standard-bearer of great chaos who destroyed the existing solid order. In the end, chaos becomes a new order, and that order is broken by another chaos."

"...Then, am I the ’new concept’ that Chaos brought in?"

"That’s how it is. I don’t know what the Nameless Chaos expects from you, but I’ll actively support whatever you bring. It’s always been like that until now."

Isaac was reminded of what the Immortal Emperor had said. Chaos creates cracks in order, and light flows out from those cracks. It seemed that Isaac was the one who was creating cracks in the walls of the current era and bringing in light, just like the Lighthouse Keeper had done a thousand years ago.

"But the Lighthouse Keeper crossed the line. The Millennium Kingdom is nothing more than a patchwork of the past and present. There will no longer be any new concepts introduced into the world. It will remain permanently unfinished."

Isaac understood the White Owl’s words, but he also understood the Lighthouse Keeper’s position. In the Lighthouse Keeper’s view, he would have felt that this was a sufficiently completed world. In his view, there might have already been too many new concepts in this world. To use the egg dish in front of him as an example, it would be like topping a fried egg with ketchup, jam, coriander, chocolate, and wasabi. If the Lighthouse Keeper were here, he might say, ’I just want to enjoy a fried egg as a fried egg!!’

That was the ’common sense’ perspective of the Lighthouse Keeper, who came from the same world as Isaac.

"Then am I in this land to break the Millennium Kingdom?"

"No. I wish I could say that, but I won’t lie. Chaos doesn’t want anything from you. It doesn’t matter what concepts you introduce into this world. You have only been chosen as someone that will bring change to the world."

Change brings both respect and fear. As the standard-bearer of revolution that advances and transforms the era, or as a destroyer that collapses the existing system. That may be why people feel both awe and fear for the Nameless Chaos.

"If you want to become a chosen hero, you can, and if you just want to live as a farmer in the countryside, you can do that. Mom will support whatever path you choose. But honestly, as a parent, I hope you do well, right?"

***

Isaac could tell that it wasn’t the White Owl’s intention that he was kidnapped (?) from his original world. That’s just how this damn world works. Just as you can’t get angry at why the waves crash and why the sun rises in the east, Isaac couldn’t get angry at the Nameless Chaos.

"To kidnap someone and use them to fill in the gaps that are lacking, it’s a violent world."

At those words, the White Owl said seriously, ’It wasn’t something I could decide, but Isaac, this was definitely something you agreed to. And strictly speaking, you are not ’Isaac’ himself. You are a Urbansus’s shadow of the person named ’Isaac.’"

"What?"

"A shadow of Urbansus. You know what Urbansus is, right?"

Isaac was at a loss for a moment. When he was slow to answer, the White Owl explained leisurely.

"Urbansus is the past of everything. When the original leaves a trace, the shadow of that original is cast in Urbansus. Chaos has only brought in the shadow of the existence called Isaac. The original Isaac is in the world where he originally lived."

As a shocked Isaac was unable to speak, the White Owl said defensively, ’Of course, from the moment you were brought here, you are a new original. Let’s take the published manuscript as an example. The first draft has its own value, but if I engrave letters on a booklet made by printing a edition, that booklet is also original and has value."

"But that’s..."

Isaac closed his mouth. He didn’t feel a sense of identity crisis. Even if he met the original Isaac again, he wouldn’t feel like he wanted to return to the original Isaac, even if that person envied him. As the White Owl said, from the moment he experienced Isaac’s life, he was another original.

To be honest, Isaac liked this world. This world, where magic, miracles, mysterious laws, and irrational rules coexist, was more to his liking than the world where ’Isaac’ originally lived. One of the reasons why he was able to adapt to this world so quickly was because of that point.

But he couldn’t help but feel complicated.

"And to be precise, the existence called Isaac is not the original either. Strictly speaking, it’s just a copy of Urbansus in that world."

"...There’s no Urbansus on Earth, though?"

"There’s no way there isn’t. The rules that govern your era are different, and the names have changed, but everything is connected."

For example, you. You who are reading these letters are already a shadow of the past. The present is only fleeting, and everything is left like a film that was manifested in the past. But it would be difficult to give this as an example to Isaac.

"No, but there were no gods in our world."

"Isaac. In this world right now, there was an era when gods were swarming everywhere, and there was an era when hundreds of millions of dragons lived. There was also an era when elves who created magic and power were raising angels in glass bottles. Is a world without gods that great?"

Isaac felt like he had nothing to say. Thinking about it, Earth didn’t seem like such a unique world. It’s only been about 15,000 years since humans established a civilization-like civilization on Earth.

The White Owl chuckled and said, "Anyway, I studied Urbansus when I was an angel and the Forest of Forgetfulness after my Fall. I’ve been combining and manipulating all sorts of timelines and memories that the Lighthouse Keeper threw away, looking for someone who could smash that insidious geezer."

’Was the Crimson Tomb successful? Rejected. Did the Great War break out? Rejected. Has the Caller fully awakened? Also rejected. The timelines that were rejected in that way were abandoned and stagnated in the Forest of Forgetfulness. And the White Owl began to combine those remnants.

"I’ve been hoping that someone would contact this world and find the answer. I’ve been scattering traces everywhere through the Nameless Chaos... and the Nameless Chaos brought you to this world."

In other words, the game ’Nameless Chaos’ was this world itself from the beginning, and the White Owl was a game developer and writer who created the game by combining the resources left in Urbansus, and the Nameless Chaos was the publisher. In other words, this world is not just a virtual game but real. It was a fact he already knew, but hearing it confirmed like this made him feel eerie again. Isaac felt a chilling sense of reality in the earth he was standing on and in the oil glistening on his fingertips.