"Vanessa Siren… Koller Spencer…"
Lying on his bed, Roy replayed the dream in his mind, silently memorizing the two names. In his head, the images of a dog and a snake—non-human, yet possessing human traits—floated up, and he couldn't help thinking of the Ants.
Other than the Queen, all three Royal Guards—Youpi, Neferpitou, Shaiapouf—along with many squadron leaders, had humanoid features just like Vanessa and Koller. They too were sapient types.
And they all shared the same potential: to become followers.
It was a pity, though…
[Broad Dream Gate] was limited by his own Nen reserves. He couldn't just open it whenever he pleased; the number of people he could "pull in" right now was capped at two. So if he wanted to perform a proper knighting ceremony for Vanessa and Old Koller, he'd have to wait—at least a week, until the cooldown ended.
Roy flicked a glance at his panel.
[Broad Dream Gate on cooldown. Remaining cooldown: 1/7 day]
He let out a slow breath.
Shaking off that vague, unreal feeling, he swung his legs off the bed—
Then suddenly sat back down again, his soul visibly jolting in place.
Out of nowhere, a wave of dejection… weariness… negativity… and depression surged up from deep inside him.
It was like some twisted shadow-snake slithering around his heart, coiling, squeezing, making it hard to breathe.
"What the hell?"
Roy grabbed the edge of the bed, bit his tongue, forcing himself to focus through the pain, and sank his consciousness inward, immediately activating [Eye That Shatters Illusion].
Inky black pupils ignited with twin suns.
The illusions cracked. The haze peeled away.
Scenes began to unspool like film strips in front of him—
Vanessa and Old Koller scraping by to support their families; the hardships; the failures; the hopelessness.
All the negative emotions they'd accumulated over the years erupted at once—
and detonated in his heart.
Roy realized in an instant:
This was backlash from Nature.
Grandpa Zigg had written in West Continent Chronicles:
[If you use faith as a medium to tap into other people's Nen, Nature will always strike back.]
He'd taken Vanessa and Old Koller as followers. He'd accepted their offerings. That meant, as payment… these negative emotions were Nature's counterattack.
"So tired. I don't want to do anything. Why am I still alive… wouldn't it be better to just die…"
A breeze slipped through the gap in the curtains. Moonlight poured across the floor.
Roy could literally feel himself wilting—
from a spirited young man in full bloom to something limp and hollow, sprawled half against the headboard like a frostbitten eggplant, all energy drained away.
No wonder that Benjamin Frederick had gone from a praised knight of the security corps to a fallen archbishop who abused girls.
This kind of backlash was enough to shatter a person's personality and erase their reason.
In the space of a heartbeat, his mind spun out a dozen suicidal impulses.
His right hand moved on its own toward Yubashiri's hilt, fingers fumbling for his own throat…
Roy took a deep breath—
Then simply stopped resisting.
He flung open the doors of his heart and let every bit of that negativity charge straight for his core.
Straight for his Sun.
"—tsss."
Hot.
Blindingly hot.
Blindingly bright.
The Sun.
For an instant, the shadow giddily thought it had the upper hand. The next, it was being melted down to nothing.
Less than a second later, the tide receded.
The gloom vanished. The depression dispersed. Roy's hand snapped back off the sword, his senses slamming back into place.
He clung to the edge of the bed, panting hard, cold sweat soaking his back.
"That was close."
"Does this count as cleansing the backlash myself…?"
He sat there for a long moment, staring blankly, until the corner clock chimed.
DONG.
Five in the morning.
The darkness outside thinned; along the horizon, a streak of pale fish-belly white began to show.
Dawn pushing back the night.
Another line appeared on his panel.
[Heart of the Sun: By leveraging the Sun's property of dispelling darkness, as long as the host's Nen is strong enough and Nen reserves sufficient, all "pollution" and "curses"—including backlash from Nature—can be purified.]
The notification echoed in his mind.
Roy looked down at the brand-like curse on the back of his hand and understood.
He didn't need some "Exorcist" anymore.
He was the Exorcist.
So long as he labeled something as "evil Nen" in his heart, his Sun could burn it away.
If it couldn't burn it—
then that only meant, very simply, that his Nen still wasn't enough, and he was still far from the realm of gods.
The heaviness in his chest melted. At the edge of his awareness, sunlight began to seep into the world.
This time, when he rose, his feet landed solidly on the floor.
He washed up, changed, and settled at the table with West Continent Chronicles open in front of him. After a while, Gotoh pushed in the breakfast cart and began setting out dishes.
Roy took a spoonful of cream of mushroom soup and flipped to page 7—Further Speculations on Faith.
His ear twitched.
A chair scraped. Someone sat down.
A scrawny old man.
"I was already planning what kind of coffin to use," Maha said around a bite of bacon sandwich. "Shame you didn't die. Bit of a disappointment, really."
"Tell me about it. You'd already had me grieving for a whole few seconds there."
Another shadow peeled off the wall, a head of white hair gleaming. Zeno strode in, clapped a hand on Maha's shoulder, and shamelessly stole his chair.
He scooped up a spoonful of steamed egg and slid into the third seat.
"Old ancestor… Old Master…" Gotoh nearly dropped the teapot. He bowed in a hurry, then straightened just in time to see a third figure amble in.
"…Master," he added quickly.
Silva walked over with his hands in his pockets, his face utterly blank. Without a word, he pulled out the chair at Roy's side, snatched the soup spoon from Roy's hand, and took the entire bowl of cream of mushroom soup for himself.
"Reckless," he said flatly.
"No food for you today. That's your punishment."
"Great-Grandpa, Grandpa, Father…"
Warmth spread quietly through Roy's chest. He drew a breath and asked, "So… you all know?"
"Know what? Old man was just here to collect your corpse," Maha snorted. "You didn't die. Shame."
"Grandpa, want me to kill him now?" Zeno asked helpfully.
"Shut up."
"…Yes, sir."
The sounds of chewing, of slurping soup, of bread tearing—
Four generations of Zoldycks, all crammed into Roy's bedroom.
Silva said nothing more, just flicked his fingers to send Gotoh off to fetch an extra portion of food. After finishing off Roy's soup, he set the bowl down and turned to inspect him.
"Talk," he said. "What happened?"
Zeno dabbed delicately at his mouth with a napkin.
Maha chased a mouthful of sandwich with some milk, complaining under his breath, "Too old… teeth aren't what they used to be…"
Roy huddled into his corner of the table, sorting his thoughts.
After a while, he scratched his head and said honestly:
"I kind of… accidentally became an Exorcist."
"That's all."