"..."
Bernadette had been watching Mr. Sparrow's expression closely. He frowned, then pursed his lips, then looked inexplicably annoyed—all in the span of a few seconds. After hesitating for a moment, she reached out and poked him gently with her finger.
"Mr. Sparrow, what's wrong?"
"Nothing!" Edward replied offhandedly, forcing his tone to stay even. "You go back to sleep. I'll be heading off now."
"Wait!" she called out softly, looking a little hurt. "Mr. Sparrow, where have you been all this time? I've been so worried about you…"
Her lips pouted as she muttered, "You finally came back, but now you won't tell me anything and you're leaving again. You're just like Daddy—completely unreliable!"
Edward paused mid-step. Then he sighed, helped her sit back down on the sofa, and said warmly, "I'm sorry, Bernie. It's just that my current situation…might be a little complicated. Once I've sorted it out, I'll come visit you again, alright?"
Her small face immediately tightened with worry. "Huh? What's wrong with you?"
He didn't explain—it was far too complicated, and much of it wasn't something she should know. So he summarised it briefly, "I just got a little hurt, that's all. It's nothing serious. I just need to rest for a while."
"Ah—then you should go back and rest quickly!" Bernadette said hurriedly, standing up to push him toward the door with her tiny hands.
Edward chuckled, patting her on the head. "Alright. Good night, then."
"Good night~"
The little girl waved as his silhouette shimmered and faded away.
———
Back home, the discomfort returned with overwhelming force.
The feeling of constraint—the invisible pressure that seemed to bind his very soul—had reached its peak. It wasn't physical pain, but a suffocating, irrational unease, the kind that made him want to crawl out of his own skin.
He knew he wasn't actually injured.
It was more like…a compulsion. Like the maddening urge of a perfectionist trapped in a messy room, desperate to fix everything. The stronger the urge became, the more intense the rebellious counter-impulse that rose in response.
The two impulses clashed endlessly within him, making his emotions spiral into irritation.
Damn it…
This side effect from resurrecting through someone else's memory was far worse than he'd imagined.
At this rate, he felt like he'd entered some kind of rebellious phase—the more he was not supposed to do something, the more he wanted to do it. Worse yet, it seemed to be almost beyond his conscious control.
Bloody hell! Why would Bernadette's impression of me be that of a rebellious teenager?!
I haven't even done anything that rebellious…have I?
He paused. Wait…to her, sneaking out at night to look for mermaids, keeping "secrets" from her parents, and helping me "punish" Roselle together…that probably does count as rebellion, doesn't it?
…Yeah. That actually sounded very rebellious.
Smack!
Edward slapped a hand to his forehead.
"Fine. My own damn fault. I did this to myself."
Still—no matter how inconvenient this was, it was a thousand times better than when he'd lost his humanity. Just thinking back to that made his skin crawl. Back then, even when he knew his actions might alter the future drastically—might even cause irreparable harm to Klein or Audrey—he'd given the same cold answer as that mad priest: 'It's a necessary sacrifice.'
He couldn't even tell whether that line of reasoning had come from his own logic or just the echo of the priest's memory bleeding into his mind.
"First things first," he muttered, "I need to stop wasting energy fighting myself over this stupid issue of whether to stay an adult or a kid."
He took a deep breath and emptied his thoughts, deliberately shifting his focus elsewhere. As his mind calmed, his body rippled—shrinking back down into that of a boy once again.
"..."
He glared at the reflection in the window, his irritation bubbling up anew. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
What the hell is this mess? Why am I like this?
Arms crossed, Edward began tracing the blame backwards like a detective building a case:
If I hadn't advanced to Sequence 3, this wouldn't have happened.
But without the materials, I couldn't have advanced to Sequence 3.
And without Adam's intervention, I never would've gotten those materials.
But if Amon hadn't chased me, Adam wouldn't have intervened.
And if Intis hadn't betrayed me, Amon wouldn't have been chasing me in the first place.
And if—
His eyes suddenly lit up.
"Ah-ha!" Edward's expression brightened in vindictive realisation. "Finally found the culprit!"
You bastard, Intis! Not only did you sell me out to Amon, you even vanished off the face of the earth afterwards—and now you're trying to skip out on the reward you promised me?
Even my pet dog from last life can't bear this, neither can I!
I'm settling this today!
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Edward transformed back into Zaratul, appearing directly inside the royal palace of Intis. Hands on his hips, he bellowed, "Intis! Get out here! I'm here to settle accounts with you!"
His clear, childish voice rang through the entire palace like a thunderclap.
Within seconds, every extinguished gas lamp flared to life, and the sound of hurried footsteps echoed through the corridors as squads of soldiers rushed in his direction.
Edward stomped his foot, and [False Reality] instantly expanded across half the palace.
The soldiers—none stronger than mid-sequence—fell into a shimmering, illusionary maze, stumbling aimlessly as he strode deeper inside, shouting along the way, "Intis! If you don't come out right now, I swear I'll tear this place apart!"
"You've got the guts to screw me over but not the courage to face me?"
"I know you're here—come out! Come out and face me!"
"INTIS!"
His voice was arrogant, but his actions were anything but careless.
He had hidden the surrounding space within a layer of distortion, keeping himself concealed and ready to flee at the first sign of trouble from the two Sauron family angels—or from the Church's powerhouse Beyonders.
But…
To his surprise, no one came.
Not a single church member.
Even the two angels he'd encountered before didn't show up this time.
"…Trying to lure me into a trap?" he muttered. "Heh. Joke's on you—I'm no dog!"
Following the guidance of divination, he soon reached the deepest part of the palace—a pitch-black hall. Almost the instant he stepped inside, a man clad in black armour, radiating semi-divine aura, charged at him like a streak of shadow.
Edward didn't even slow down. He raised a hand casually, and a phantom door materialised out of thin air, swallowing the armoured man whole—banishing him into the void.
Then, with a flicker, he appeared inside the grand hall and yelled again:
"INTIS! INTIS! YOUR GRANDDADDY'S HERE—GET OUT HERE AND FACE ME!"
The hall's chandeliers flared to life.
A man dressed in splendid royal attire stepped out and sat down upon the throne.
"He…no longer has the chance to meet you."
Edward raised an eyebrow.
"You're…the King of Intis, right? What was your name again? Eh, doesn't matter. What happened to Intis? Why can't he see me?"
King Dorian Sauron clenched his fingers, forcing himself to remain composed.
He knew the "old man" before him—this was a Sequence 2 Angel. The Sauron royal family couldn't afford to provoke someone like that.
Normally, the Church would have intervened immediately if a high-sequence Beyonder stormed into the palace in the middle of the night.
Yet not a single clergyman had appeared.
That alone said everything.
And all of this…was thanks to Vermonda's sins.
"Your Excellency," Dorian said cautiously,
"The 'Intis' you're referring to was sealed beneath Trier about three weeks ago—by a certain lady."
"???"
Edward froze.
"You're sure about that?"
You expect me to just take your word for it? Wouldn't that make me look like an idiot?
"If I'm not mistaken," Dorian continued,
"You must be one of the individuals he commissioned to guard the Bronze Pillars of Intis. His original intent was to use those pillars to…"
The young king quickly summarised everything he knew, leaving Edward staring at him in stunned silence as wave after wave of expletives filled his head.
So that's what this was all about?
The "commission" from Intis had been part of such a colossal scheme…
And it had dragged so many people into it?
So—"Intis" was actually the Conqueror's Beyonder characteristic beneath Trier?
A living one, at that!
Those bronze rods had been nothing but bait—to lure the demigods of the Hunter and Witch pathways?
And Intis had truly planned to sacrifice Trier itself?
In the end, "Intis" had been nothing more than a pitiable pawn arranged by Adam?
And those two angels hadn't appeared tonight because they'd both been tricked to death by him?
Truly, divine equality!
Whether stranger or kin, Intis had scammed them all the same!
No wonder Roselle had been able to seize power and crown himself emperor so easily. The Sauron family didn't have a single fighter left who could stand on their own.
"Wait!"
Edward suddenly caught on to something important.
"You said the one who sealed 'Intis' was a woman in a black dress?"
"That's right."
…It couldn't be, could it?
Edward rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then broke into a wide, boyish grin.
"Mind if I take a look at your memory? I'd like to see what this woman looks like."
Dorian Sauron: "…"
Wasn't this going too far?
Did he really think the Sauron family didn't have a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact to fight back with? If need be, they could go down together!
After a long, tense pause, Dorian took a deep breath and said,
"I can…draw her for you."
"That works too."
Dorian subtly loosened his grip on the hidden object in his pocket—
"Just kidding!"
"!!!"
The next second, the young king's face lit up with blissful joy—He'd been struck by the Imperius Curse.
Some things just had to be seen firsthand to make sure there were no mistakes.
After all, Edward wanted to confirm with his own eyes whether the "woman in black" was the same one he'd encountered before.
Instead of questioning him, Edward cast Legilimency, gazing straight into the king's eyes. Images flickered rapidly through his mind—proving that the king had told the truth.
And in those memories, he saw her.
"So it really was her."
Could this woman be the "Demoness of Catastrophe" who'd defected from the Demoness Sect—the one Intis had mentioned before?
A Sequence 2, an enemy of the Witch Pathway…someone who might even know Lilith, or at least information about her?
The memory fragments showed not only the woman's face, but also what she'd said to the king at the time.
Edward's thoughts clicked together instantly. No wonder the major Churches remained unnaturally silent that night—it must've been by the gods' will themselves.
Tch.
He smirked. "And here I thought 'Intis' was some master schemer—turns out he was just a poor bastard being toyed with by everyone around him. No wonder he went completely silent after that."
Now that he knew the truth, Edward couldn't help feeling as if he'd punched through air. The anger inside him deflated, replaced by weary amusement.
But then—
"Hmm?"
He was just about to leave when another fragment surfaced from the king's mind—one that made Edward's eyes widen in disbelief.
"Oh…ohhhh—so that's why you never got married all those years, and then the very next day after 'Intis' was sealed and your family's angels died, you suddenly went rushing off to find a woman!"
He turned toward the enthralled monarch, his grin spreading in wicked delight.
"So the young King of Intis…is actually a woman!?"
———
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