Book 2: Chapter 541
The entire clear space was gently enveloped by moonlight.
Only the occasional hooting of an owl and the sound of grasshoppers were heard, and hardly any presence was felt at the orphanage in the middle of the night.
Footsteps.
Someone appeared there.
A woman with a fragile expression, her face stained with stress, fatigue, and guilt.
Lukas knew who she was.
─Grecia Larson,
By blood relation, she would be Lukas's mother.
‘…Ah.’
Lukas finally remembered.
He had seen this scene before. How could he forget?
The origin of Lukas,
The moment he was abandoned at the Trowman Orphanage.
This was also the first scene Lukas encountered through the corpses at the Dumpsite.
‘How could the Beginning Wizard see this scene…….’
No.
With the ‘Spring of Wisdom,' one could glimpse everything.
Then the question should not be ‘how?' but ‘why?'.
Grecia walked past the confused Lukas and made her way to the door of the orphanage.
Before she could even knock, creak, the door opened.
A middle-aged woman with a plump figure appeared, her wrinkled hand holding a candleholder that warmly illuminated her gentle face.
“Mrs. Larson?”
“It’s Grecia Larson.”
“Ah. You’re a bit later than scheduled.”
The middle-aged woman smiled warmly.
“I'm sorry. I had to deceive the servants’ eyes……”
“That’s alright, Mrs…. Oh, I’ve been late in introducing myself. I’m Sophia. I am managing things here temporarily in place of Mr. Arias, who is away on personal business.”
“Yes, Ms. Sophia. Thank you for accommodating my personal request this time.”
Sophia smiled softly.
“The night air is chilly. Please, come inside first.”
The scene replayed exactly as Lukas remembered it, down to the smallest detail, which confused him.
What exactly does the Beginning Wizard want to show me?
This is Lukas's past.
If he knew it in more detail than the him, seeing it again wouldn't offer any new insights since he had already seen this scene thousands of times in his inner world.
─This is not your past.
The voice that suddenly rang in his ear was that of the Beginning Wizard.
“What did you say?”
─It might seem similar up to this point. But keep your eyes wide open and pay attention. Will the events that follow unfold as you remember?
At that moment, Sophia suddenly turned around and said,
“…But where is the child you mentioned?”
“He came with me.”
Grecia stated, although no child-like figure was visible in Sophia’s line of sight. As doubt crept into her wrinkled eyes, a voice was heard.
“Here I am.”
It came from behind Grecia.
Taking a bold step forward, a boy about seven or eight years old made a daring expression.
“──.”
Lukas momentarily lost his words.
Why hadn't he noticed before?
Grecia was not alone. It had been the same in the past. She had been accompanied by a boy then, too.
Lukas hadn't paid much attention to it, probably unconsciously thinking of him as merely a servant.
Could that really be?
Grecia had said herself,
She was late because she had to deceive the servants' eyes.
The boy was not a servant.
“You are……?”
“My name is Mark.”
─Why didn’t you realize it before.
That child also had blond hair.
Blond hair just like Lukas's, and Grecia's.
“From today, I will be under the care of Trowman Orphanage.”
The boy, Mark, said with a slight grin.
* * *
To Lukas,
He had a sister.
Her name was Lesha Trowman. It was a fact he would have died without knowing had he not come to the Void World, but that wasn’t the only secret hidden.
He also had a brother.
‘I knew it.’
There was a blood relative named ‘Mark,’ he had acquired that information.
Of course it was obvious. With how many ‘Lucas' he had absorbed?
However, Lukas did not pay much attention to that fact. The only thing he knew about the person named Mark was his name. He had never encountered him in his life.
So, he had not anticipated it.
That the boy accompanying Grecia was Mark─
“The Beginning Wizard, your older brother ‘Mark Trowman'?”
Once again,
As if reading his mind, the Beginning Wizard spoke.
The short video had ended before he knew it, and they were once again standing in space, facing each other.
“…Are you saying I should believe this?”
“Believing or not is your choice. If only you could truly deny it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Can you dismiss everything I say as a lie? No, that would be difficult. I know you. You're not the type to let emotions cloud your judgment.”
That tone of knowing everything.
It would be futile to get annoyed by every little thing he said.
Lukas sighed deeply and then said,
“…Alright. Let’s say you are, my brother.”
Brother.
Just uttering the word made Lukas feel an unfamiliarity he could never have imagined.
“What does that have to do with you acting like you know everything about me?”
Lukas’s distrust was not directed at the existence of ‘Mark Trowman’. As mentioned before, he had a brother, and that was an undeniable fact.
But that alone couldn’t explain too many things.
“Why do you want to help me? What's the reason you wanted to kill Lukas now? To you, what exactly is Lukas?”
“A younger brother.”
Lukas’s lips twisted coldly.
“That’s the worst possible answer I could think of. I hoped it wouldn’t come to something as nonsensical as brotherly love.”
“There’s a saying that blood is thicker than water. There are cases where long-separated parents and children recognize each other at first sight.”
Ha. Lukas outright laughed.
That might be well described as elevating nonsense.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Our situations are completely different. You and I had no connection at all. Don’t you understand what that means? Among the ‘many Lukases’ I've assimilated, not one had ever met you.”
At that, the Beginning Wizard burst out laughing.
“Keuk, kekeke… Yes. That’s exactly the point, Lukas.”
With a somewhat joyful voice, he continued.
“There wasn’t even a hair’s breadth of connection between you and me besides being brothers. We never met. All we knew was of each other’s existence.”
“Then, why.”
The Beginning Wizard smiled broadly and clapped his hands once again.
Zzzak─
Just like before, a star exploded.
But this time, it wasn't just one.
Dozens, hundreds of stars positioned behind the Beginning Wizard burst simultaneously, creating an unprecedented fireworks display.
Within each spark was embedded a memory.
The past, the hardships, the memories Lukas had experienced─
[No.]
Residue said.
[Look closely, Lukas Trowman. That there isn’t you.]
At those words, Lukas corrected his gaze.
Residue was right.
The figure existing in the place where Lukas should have been was someone else.
…Mark Trowman.
“Can you understand?”
And bitterness tinged the Beginning Wizard’s voice.
“Within the near-infinite possibilities of parallel worlds, the two of us never exchanged a single word. We never met. And when you failed to rise, after facing a meaningless death… I took over your role, Lukas.”
“…What are you talking about.”
“It means I became the Grand Wizard.”
He still did not understand.
“It was a sequence of fucked-up events. I wanted to give up many times. The life of a Grand Wizard, I know it well. Just as you said, it’s not a life I’d recommend to anyone.”
“……”
“I cursed the world, and blamed the gods. Why only me, why did this happen only to me? I thought about it thousands of times a day, but nothing got better, nothing changed. And in the end, I was defeated by fate.”
As the Beginning Wizard, who had been speaking in a crushed voice, finally spoke with a relaxed face,
“Those are the memories you carried, leading you to be abandoned here.”
“…What happened after that?”
“Nothing much. I wandered the Void World, met the previous Beginning Wizard, and inherited his position, memories, and knowledge.”
Speaking calmly didn't mean the content was easy to accept.
“…You inherited them?”
“The position of Beginning Wizard is different from the other Twelve Void Lords; it is passed down. And I learned about the meaning of places like Magic Planet, our roles, the Void World, the Void King, the Four Knights… about the Apocalypse too.”
“……”
“I also learned about the Spring, and I began to look beyond its surface into the world. The Three Thousand Worlds, the foundation of everything… Do you know? It seems to everyone living there that they are surrounded by light. It's so brilliant and dazzling… almost blinding.”
The voice of the Beginning Wizard grew desperate, his eyes seemingly reddened as if he might start crying any moment, which made Lukas fall silent with the poignancy of the moment.
“While I was acquiring the knowledge of the Three Thousand Worlds… I learned about you.”
Now, his eyes, no longer hidden behind a mask, softened.
“I had never imagined. There was a being who had experienced not just the desperation I felt but an even greater despair…!”
Life sparked in his voice.
The Beginning Wizard spread his hands and said,
“I cheered for your struggles. I desperately hoped you would never give up. But at the same time, I felt anxious. The path I had walked was not an easy one… Despite such worries, you coped magnificently and achieved more than I ever did. Can you imagine the euphoria I felt when I confirmed that?”
Lukas could somehow picture that scene.
…If the positions were reversed, Lukas would have done the same. This meant that he was gradually beginning to empathize with the Beginning Wizard's words.
“There was something I wanted to ask you after meeting you. I saw every moment you experienced, and in some ways, I came to know you better than you know yourself, but there was still one thing I could never know.”
“…My feelings.”
Lukas said with a cracked voice.
And the Beginning Wizard nodded.
“How you prepared yourself for all those events, only by asking could I know about that. You faced every moment without showing weakness, always composed. [Is it really bearable?], [Does it not affect you at all?], [Is it actually hard? Do you want to escape?] My questions only grew. Meanwhile, a miracle happened.”
“I came to the Void World.”
The Beginning Wizard nodded.
“That's why I'm thankful for this world. Without it, I would never have met you. A dumpsite? A world of discarded possibilities? No. Because it is such a world, a miracle like this could certainly occur.”
“……”
“When I finally met you, I naturally learned. What you felt, how you live with those feelings.”
A short sigh was heard.
It sounded like the punctuation at the end of a story.
Lukas remained silent for a long time, and the Beginning Wizard said nothing either.
How much time had passed?
The Beginning Wizard put his mask back on.
Swoosh─
The universe that had spread all around contracted as if shrinking, and then disappeared completely, with the darkness around them returning to vegetation.
In the middle of the clearing, the Beginning Wizard spoke.
“─That's all there is to tell as Mark Trowman.”
“……”
“Shall we walk together? You might not know since you haven’t much explored Magic Planet, but there are quite some splendid places.”
He walked away with his back turned.
After a brief hesitation, the moment Lukas started to move,
[That guy.]
Residue spoke in a displeased voice.
[It seems he didn't lie.]
“Yes.”
[But Lukas, don't let your guard down. There might be no deceit in his emotions towards you, but…]
‘I know.’
Lukas nodded and said,
‘That he has more secrets than what he has revealed to me.’
*****