Chapter 240: A Foxian Tale of the Haunted 『 Part Fifteen 』
"If that is the case, why didn't she simply submit a resignation request herself?"
"Heheh, Lady Yuheng, when it comes to terminating labor relations, the intricacies are manifold. But to put it simply: if Qingque had resigned of her own accord, the probability of securing such a substantial severance package would have been virtually nil."
Looking up at Qingque's cheeks, flushed rosy with delight, Yanfei spread her hands and remarked,
"Perhaps Miss Qingque has truly been waiting a very long time for this day, hasn't she?"
—
「 "Hehe, I also felt that idling away my days was rather unbecoming—playing tiles with one hand while accepting the Divination Commission's stipend with the other… It really is a bit, how does the saying go…"
"Intoxicatingly delightful?" Stelle interjected.
"A waste of life." Qingque thanked the Master Diviner for giving her that push, forcing her to make a change. But before that change could take hold, she still had to help Stelle resolve the trouble plaguing the Divination Commission.
Looking at the bedeviled Fu Xuan, everyone felt somewhat at a loss. The entity possessing her seemed to have no intention of trapping them within an illusion, nor did it wish to initiate an attack. If the enemy refuses to make a move, how does one break their stance?
"Bedeviled? This seat is perfectly lucid—nay, never have I been more awake," Fu Xuan declared with absolute certainty. "From this moment forth, this seat shall devote heart and soul to deducing the destined future of the Xianzhou Alliance, and proclaim it to the world, so that all may live with absolute clarity."
"Saying that makes you sound less than lucid."
To deduce the future of the Xianzhou Alliance… the causal variables involved would likely require a computational load that not even the Matrix of Prescience could sustain.
"This seat knows what you wish to say. 'Man conquers heaven,' 'free will'… but these are merely hallucinations produced by the human brain. From the very beginning, there has only ever been one path." Fu Xuan sneered, turning her gaze toward Stelle. "You, Stelle, are nothing more than a chess piece manipulated by the Stellaron Hunters."
"All the choices you believe you made from your own heart are but tributaries destined to converge upon the river of fate. You helped the Xianzhou defeat Phantylia, but that outcome was scripted long ago by that slave hidden behind the curtain."
Fu Xuan crossed her arms, brimming with confidence. "Just as in this very moment, your choices are limited to merely—'Brandish your bat and charge at me,' 'Loudly but futilely refute me,' or 'Sink into silence without uttering a word.' Those are the only options."
Stelle realized that the choices really did seem limited to just those few… She could only choose silence. 」
「 .....」
〜Gintama World〜
"Why do I suddenly feel a little envious…"
Gintoki suddenly sat bolt upright on the sofa, a gleam of covetousness flashing through his dead-fish eyes.
"Is there a way to let this Keralum possess me, but without completely taking over my body and consciousness?"
"Gin-chan, if you want to daydream, I suggest you get a different pillow,"
Kagura said, sitting cross-legged on the windowsill while chewing on pickled seaweed.
"Just like in Naruto, you know? undergo some kind of training to perfectly master the power of the Heliobus inside you, using it for your own ends. Then I could predict horse race results, stock market fluctuations, or even help rich ladies predict who their husbands are cheating with… Wouldn't we strike it rich?"
"Hah? You can predict the future, and that's the best you can come up with? Have some higher aspirations!"
Shinpachi's retort went up an octave.
"Besides, a normal Heliobus wouldn't work, right? It has to be Keralum. But that guy is completely obsessed with the logic that 'the future is decided, life's choices are meaningless.' Once possessed, Gin-san, you'd just turn into an idiot puppet."
"The future is decided? You mean the amount of pickled seaweed I'm eating right now is also destined?"
Kagura suddenly went quiet, tilting her head as she asked.
Shinpachi nodded.
She looked down at the bag in her hand, then suddenly dumped all the seaweed into her mouth.
"Then I'm gonna eat double… mmph, triple, aru! Wouldn't that make the prediction wrong?"
"The logic holds up, in a way."
Gintoki narrowed his dead-fish eyes into slits, thinking hard.
"Even if the future is destined, isn't our discussion about it right now also part of the future?"
Shinpachi paused for a moment.
"Gin-san, occasionally you actually say something that makes sense."
"Of course. But rather than thinking about that…"
Gintoki stood up and stretched lazily.
"We should think about what to have for dinner. I predict we're having beef hot pot tonight."
"Really, aru?"
Kagura's eyes lit up.
"False. Because we don't even have enough money for tofu."
Gintoki fished around in his empty wallet.
"Gin-san, you aren't predicting, you're just making a wish, aren't you?"
Shinpachi sighed.
"Sigh… this is the destined reality."
—
「 Seeing that the group remained unconvinced, Fu Xuan offered to demonstrate to them exactly what 'destiny' meant.
She brought everyone into an illusory realm containing a Divination Commission game board. Through pre-issued commands, the mechanstriders on the board would navigate precisely to the exit according to those instructions.
Fu Xuan intended to use this game to prove that humans are no different from the mechanstriders within: they appear to have choices, but in reality, they have none at all—they merely move according to the commands of fate.
"Correct. For a pre-programmed game, any choice is a meaningless error," Qingque refuted Keralum unhurriedly. "But the universe is not anyone's game, nor does it have a single solution. Being within it, I can do anything."
"Even on the same workday, I can hide in the library to read leisure books, or I can find someone to play tiles with. That is freedom."
Sushang was deeply impressed upon hearing this and gave Qingque a thumbs-up. "To speak of such slacking off with such righteous conviction, and actually make it sound so logical… The diviners of the Divination Commission are truly cultured!"
"Huh? Shangshang, wake up! Your brain is about to be invaded by the slack-off Heliobus!"
Keralum was rather dismissive of Qingque's arguments, believing that Qingque's so-called choices were nothing more than a meaningless waste of time. She bore the heavy burden of the Xianzhou and thus had to select the path that led the Xianzhou to the optimal solution—the only solution. Aside from that, any other choice appeared meaningless to her.
"Sigh, that really is a typical, zero-EQ Master Diviner statement…"
Qingque sighed softly and expressed her willingness to play another, more complex round of the board game with Keralum, to which the latter readily agreed. But this time, Qingque not only walked the first path but, utilizing the positioning of Stelle and Huohuo, carved out a second path.
However, this path drew ruthless mockery from Keralum. "Qingque, you are merely swapping concepts. I could weave thousands upon ten thousands of such routes for you, but they all lead to the same end. What meaning is there in such a choice?"
At these words, even Stelle couldn't help but laugh.
Qingque slowly shook her head, her expression turning uncharacteristically serious. "Monster, oh monster… You truly do not understand humans at all." 」
「 .....」