The Definition of Love (2)
"Your Majesty."
Areon's corpse arrived in the Mikas Kingdom.
The prince's aide Fisk was nowhere to be seen; what returned was only the cold body of the son.
"Oh—?"
King Delkido of Mikas forced his weakened legs and rose from the throne.
"Huh?"
When Areon's pale face was revealed, the courtiers sank to the floor and the chambermaids began to wail.
The brothers were composed.
'He was always arrogant. In the end, this is how it goes.'
Their private thoughts were unknowable, but a father's feeling at witnessing his eldest son's death was different.
"Oh— ohhh…"
Forgetting his dignity, Delkido dropped to his knees, clutching Areon's corpse and lifting his face.
"Ooooh!"
Was it a cry of grief?
"Ooooh!"
Or was it raging fury aimed at whoever had struck the heart of the Mikas Kingdom?
"Seize them."
Delkido's face contorted like a demon.
"All of them—capture them."
Everyone in the grand hall bowed at once and answered in one voice.
"Yes!"
The kingdom began to move.
Shirone, dreaming of Yorahan, sensed it even in his unconsciousness.
Everything a single human life had wanted to convey had been for this very moment.
'The first Yora.'
One who learned love within the original sins of eating and procreation.
And by that single definition, the person whose body housed the god of the Yore sect…
'I must watch.'
This is a story.
"Armand!"
A tragic love between a man and a woman that had to be erased from Omega's records.
"Yorahan!"
As armed troops galloped through the burning woods, the two reached for one another.
"Charge! Charge!"
But as the Mikas cavalry split in two, their gazes gradually drifted apart.
'Damn it!'
King Delkido threw the entire Mikas force at capturing whoever had slain his son.
Whether he loved his son enough to abandon a conquest is unknown.
Perhaps, but his fanatical obsession with revenge revealed a wounded royal pride.
Bound and thrown into a mobile prison, Yorahan crawled to the edge and peered out.
The noble district they'd been moved through so many times was turning to ash again.
'Why… are humans so relentless?'
The king of Mikas inflicted every imaginable torment on Yorahan and the Flower Clan.
Yorahan was confined to an isolation cell.
With the tendons in his limbs severed, he had to listen each day to the screams echoing from outside.
"Why…?"
Tears fell.
'How can they be so cruel? How can they do such terrible things to another being?'
Plucking another's nails doesn't make your own hurt, perhaps—but you can imagine it, can't you?
'You cannot know another's truth. Therefore humans are trapped by the self called "I"… they can only look out for themselves.'
While imprisoned, Yorahan thought about the selfishness inherent to "I."
'Love that steps outside of "I"… I gave up on changing the world, and perhaps I can never change it, but with my tendons cut, the only thing I can do…'
One day the isolation cell's door opened and the king of Mikas appeared after a long absence.
"You vicious bastard."
In Delkido's gaunt, dried eyes a murky madness glittered.
"After hearing the Flower Clan's screams, you're still not mad? Well, it suits me all the same."
He snapped the whip taut.
"Do you know why I cut off your limbs but left your eyes, ears, and mouth? So you'll howl pathetically in a despair that no one can save you. Feel even a ten-thousandth of my righteous anger." Screams burst from the corridor.
There was no expectation anyone would be spared; they only wished for an easy death.
"Isn't this enough revenge for one man's cause? Your son killed a member of the Flower Clan too."
"Arrrgh!"
Delkido cracked the whip.
"How dare you judge my son? He was a prince of the realm! His neck cannot be compared to one of the Flower Clan!"
Yorahan could neither block nor avoid it, but he looked straight into the king's eyes.
"Life bears no rank. Your grief at losing family—those of the Flower Clan feel the same. Why do you not consider their hearts?"
"Why should I!"
Dropping the whip, Delkido kicked Yorahan.
"My son is dead! What good is that? My son is dead! My son!"
Me, me, me.
Can humans never escape that?
With no reaction from Yorahan, Delkido breathed hard and glared for a moment.
"Hng."
If he could plunge this loathsome creature into despair, he would do anything.
"So you'll remain calm to the end, hm? Same as a married couple. Fine, I'll show you myself."
Delkido ordered, and a cart carrying a large potted plant was brought into the isolation cell.
"…"
Yorahan's expression went blank.
What was planted in the pot was not a flower but a member of the Flower Clan—his beloved Armand.
"How is it? Do you like it? A bonsai, I suppose. I cut and cut, froze the joints so it can't move. The most beautiful flower in the world."
Treating a person like a plant.
"Yorahan."
A pleased smile touched Armand's lips at seeing her husband, but it soon turned sad.
'Her body is so damaged.'
Even without small-world projection, their feelings could be read from their eyes.
Yorahan asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yes."
Armand nodded bravely.
The only way to beat Delkido was to actively embrace death.
"But I'm getting bored."
Delkido pulled a huge pruning shear from beside the cart.
"I'll change things up."
Before Yorahan could speak, Delkido used the shears on the human body.
"What do you think? Handsome, isn't it?"
Helpless, Yorahan felt the core question.
'Where did it all go wrong?' If I hadn't killed Areon, would this tragedy have befallen the Flower Clan?
'No. I protected my family. At the time it couldn't be helped.'
Again… me?
'I can't even abandon myself. But nothing changes this way. An endless recycling of pain; to break that chain…'
In that instant, Yorahan's mind expanded at the speed of light, stepping beyond "I" and encompassing all humanity.
"Ah."
Tears slid down Yorahan's cheek.
'I see.'
What love is…
"Sniff! Sob!"
Hearing Yorahan's sobs, Delkido turned with a vile smile.
"Haha! Well? Now do you feel even a little of my heart—"
The king froze.
Yorahan's lips curled into a smile even as his face contorted with crying.
"Is he mad?"
"Armand."
Yorahan said, "Let's forgive."
Armand's eyes widened in surprise, and Delkido, stunned, repeated, "Wh—what?"
"Forgive everything. Forgive this world. Let's end it here. We'll… we will end it."
Armand considered Yorahan's words and gave a sad smile.
"I understand."
She was finally ready.
"What nonsense!"
Offended, Delkido cracked his whip, but his jaw trembled.
'What could I possibly fear?'
Because Yorahan's expression, that instinctive malice, foreshadowed something to come.
"Haha."
Yorahan laughed.
"Hahahahaha! Hahahahaha!"
It wasn't the laugh of someone simply mad; it was liberating, thrilling, and Delkido took a step back.
"What are you? What are you going to do?"
"This is… too theatrical, is it?"
Yorahan stopped and spoke calmly.
"Is this too artificial?"
"Kill him! Kill this creature!" Delkido roared.
"I—"
Yorahan closed his eyes gently.
'Truly.'
With blind sincerity—no falseness, no gap.
"Let's truly forgive."
When he opened his eyes again, Yorahan's face had changed into an ecstasy no human could normally wear.
Hahahahahaha!
His facial muscles twisted completely into the happiest laugh.
"Stop… stop."
It was the embodiment of the concept of love. Hahahahahaha!
"Argh!"
Whatever he feared, Delkido fell to the floor, hands clamped over his ears, and screamed.
"Please! I'm sorry! I was wrong! Please… please…"
As if struck, Delkido's back straightened and a beam of light shot from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
"Oooooh!"
Starting with him, the prison guards' eyes, noses, and mouths began to emit light.
"Ahh! No, no!"
They were being purified.
Extreme emotions turn into ma—demonic force—while the utmost exaltation spills into Drimo and becomes something else.
Hahahahahaha!
From Yorahan's laughing, joyful eyes, bloody tears flowed.
'What is love?'
His organs twisted, blood poured from every cavity, intestines tore apart.
'This is… love.'
A total embrace of everything—an intense self-sacrifice and transcendent madness.
"Yorahan."
Unlike those flailing in terror, Armand waited with a sad smile.
"Goodbye."
Then, through Drimo, Yorahan's feeling surged into her as well.
A heart that forgave everything.
That feeling flowed into all the Flower Clan, and soon even into the people of the Mikas Kingdom.
"Oooooh!"
When the concentric rings of light expanding from the prison swallowed the entire kingdom—
"Lord Luber!"
The Drimo system overloaded.
"This is bad! We cannot process this dream! If this continues, all humankind—"
They would be unified into love.
"Hmm."
Luber watched, too.
The chaotic dreamworld of all thoughts being swept away by the great flash demanded a choice.
"Follow me. There's no time." Luber and Monga cut through the wave of light and entered Yorahan's mind. Armand stood beside his smiling avatar.
'Small-world projection.'
Arriving where the two dreams had merged, Luber approached Yorahan.
"You did what a human cannot do." Truly forgive.
"But stop now. If this continues, everyone will begin to live in your dream."
Armand said, "Only one thing remains within Yorahan. He cannot hear me."
"But you can, can't you? You are Yorahan, and Yorahan is you."
"…Why must that be? If you are godlike, answer our question. Yorahan has forgiven the world. Then everyone will live in Yorahan's dream. No pain, no despair. Isn't that enough?"
"But it's not everyone's life. It's Yorahan's life. Would Yorahan truly wish that?"
Armand fought back tears.
"Why must Yorahan always be the one to sacrifice? Leave him be. Until now…"
"Understood."
At Yorahan's voice, Armand turned her head.
"You…"
A holy light shone from Yorahan's composed face.
"You're right. I cannot make everyone's dream mine. I will step back now."
Armand shook her head.
"No! You've finally made your dream come true. If you give that up, I… I…"
In reality, her husband would already be dead.
"There is a condition."
Yorahan said.
"If there is someone—"
He paused, then smiled.
"If there is someone who thinks as I do, give them my life."
It was the beginning of a transmitted dream.