3-06: The Unreasonable Palm III (1/4)

3-06: The Unreasonable Palm III (1/4)

What?

Hah?

Eh!?

Everyone was shocked speechless, but they couldnt be blamed for that.

This boy had gone out of his way to use the saint as bait, used a spell so grand it altered the terrain, and he even went as far as to use a forbidden spell, yet it turns out that he did all that just so that he could let out some stress.

No wonder everyone was looking blankly at him in doubt, but the boy didnt seem to notice that and just cheerfully continued.

My frustrations have been piling up because I have to pay attention to so many things. Im always worrying about public attention, yet I have to be meticulous, and I also havent had time to rest. Thanks to that, Im sleep deprived and havent even been able to eat properly.

He sounded just like one of those men that would grumble at the tavern about work.

He even made that thousand-mile look while sighing and looked like he would die from overwork.

So I was really in a bad mood until just awhile ago and was hoping for someone to beat up to clear my mood, the boy laughed.

Not a hint of guilt could be seen on him. If anything, he at most he looked like a child being scolded after pulling a prank, and that made Gulde tremble.

To this boy, what hed done until now was just on that level.

W-Wait a moment!

You were feeling bad until just awhile ago?

Anyone was fine, you just wanted to beat someone up?

Dont tell me

But the people most affected by his confession were in fact the maids and the otherworlder behind, and their faces all simultaneously twitched.

It was at this point that Gulde finally understood why they were all beaten.

But it was too late for that, and the boys expression changed again, so Gulde chose to just keep listening to the boy.

But you know, it was really hard to find a suitable target. There are a lot of bad people in the world that ought to be eliminated, but the cleanup afterwards would be a mess, so they didnt make for good stress relief. A monster outbreak wouldnt so conveniently happen either, and even if one did occur, depending on the place, youd have to watch your back, and thats plenty exhausting in its own way. There are people who make a living from hunting too, so Id feel bad taking away their prey for such a reason. Monster Beasts were out of the question too since over-hunting could cause the ecosystem to collapse and that would cause more work for me. It turns out the world is surprisingly connected in many ways, and its actually hard to find someone that you can kill without consequence.

Thats why his frustrations piled up, but that brought them back to the initial question.

Which meant to say that no one was paying any attention to him, and no one even knew that he existed.

Since then, he has always been alone, peering into the depths of the forbidden and researching as he pleased.

He has used people on occasion, but he never had someone he could call a partner or a peer.

Gulde didnt need others; therefore, Gulde wasnt needed by others.

He was neither alive nor dead, so the ecosystem didnt need him either.

The forbidden arts were sustained by the blood and flesh of people, while he was only sustained by their resentment, so he wasnt a part of the circle of life.

Whether he kept living or died, he wouldnt become someone elses sustenance; hence, his existence was not relevant to others.

Impossible

This shouldve been the immortality he longed for.

No one to bother him, no one to judge him, no one to connect with him.

A being that was complete on its own; an existence that has transcended life.

But when the boy judged him as such, he suddenly found himself trembling at how insecure and worthless he felt.

Because he had isolated himself, there was no one who would think of him or remember him after he died.

Now that it was certain that he would disappear, the only connection he had would also disappear, and the tragedy of that froze his soul that was about to burst.

I had an errand at Kulash and happened to see you early on. As soon as I saw you, I knew you were the one, so I leaked some intel and led the saint on to bring you to the forest where the Tenkorius lived. I figured that if its there, people would just blame it on the Tenkorius even if I destroyed the forest. It was a great plan, right? The boy said proudly.

This boy(calamity) cared so much about human society, the ecology of monster beasts, the researchers and hunters that relied on monsters, and even took care to pick out an appropriate location for his plan.

Yet he didnt care one bit about the fact that Gulde would disappear.

He just naturally ignored that as though it was something that had already been decided.

Because no problems would arise even if he disappeared, because he had no influence, because he was perfect for his stress relief

It was almost as if

Thats why Gulde-kun, youre really convenient for me. Thank you for spending your three hundreds years in vain. Thanks to you, I feel so much better.

He was telling him that he was the most worthless being in this whole world.