Chapter 141
A cold sense of unease crawled along his spine.
Aldraya's calmness felt unnatural, like the stillness before a storm.
If she truly understood that Theo was the intellectual architect of Flo Viva Mythology, then that knowledge was an extraordinary form of power.
And someone who realizes she lives within a narrative construct, then discovers she is facing one of its sources of inspiration, possesses the potential to act beyond all existing logic and prediction.
Theo suddenly realized that the greatest threat was no longer how he mapped out the storyline, but the possibility of the birth of a completely wild free will.
Aldraya, with her newfound awareness and this secret knowledge, could become an unpredictable variable that not only disrupted the game's scenario but also perhaps interfered with Theo's own understanding of the reality of the world in which he was trapped.
This new fear of his was not about what Aldraya would do to him, but what Aldraya would do to the fate of this world now that she knew the "creator god" stood before her, trapped and perhaps just as fragile.
'Taking another step forward, are you?'
Just as Theo's mind was flooded with a storm of analysis and worst-case scenarios, a familiar voice jolted his awareness back to the cold and silent reality.
That sound was the calm yet certain rhythm of footsteps, echoing softly across the frozen ground.
Theo's eyes, which had glistened from the weight of his horrific contemplation, immediately refocused on the figure in the distance.
There, Aldraya had begun to move again.
Her upright back returned to being a silhouette that slowly drifted away, surrounded by a thin mist of night dew.
She moved her legs step by step, with the same slow and rhythmic pace as before she stopped, as though the exchange of words that had shaken reality had never occurred.
There was no final glance.
No closing motion.
Only a cold departure and an unshakable determination.
Theo watched her, and for the first time, he felt truly unmoored.
All predictions, all mapping of the plot, seemed so naive and meaningless.
Aldraya was no longer merely a character in a game, nor just an individual aware of her world.
She had become a fully autonomous entity whose decisions—to act or not act, to speak or remain silent—were entirely beyond Theo's control or comprehension.
Her abrupt departure was the strongest declaration.
That whatever she had learned about Theo, she chose to take it with her, leaving Theo to remain within his own uncertainty, trapped in the world he had inspired yet no longer understood.
'Ideally, I do not want to interfere with the predetermined storyline.
My role is only to ensure Aldraya survives, while allowing Ilux to grow until the moment of his victory arrives.
But….'
Fuuuh!
'This time, I must intervene.
I cannot let Aldraya face that bitter truth when everything is already on the verge of being too late.'
The freshly rebuilt silence shattered instantly with a short breath that lingered in the cold air.
Theo, who had always adhered steadfastly to the principle of not interfering with the grand narrative already written, felt the foundation of his neutrality tremble.
A deeper impulse—beyond the mere duty of preserving a life, something akin to compassion toward a fate about to ensnare—forced him to open his mouth.
The words that came out were not full sentences, but a sequence of questions broken softly, sharp, and piercing directly into the heart of the inner turmoil that might be boiling within the figure before him.
Each syllable he uttered was like a pebble thrown into the stillest lake, disturbing the silence and reflecting ripples of doubt that had previously been hidden.
The effect of his words was immediate and palpable.
Aldraya's steps, which had regained their rhythm and should have carried her farther away, stopped in place.
Her body froze perfectly, like a statue struck by a curse.
There was no rejection, nor acceptance.
Only a dense silence, a stillness that echoed louder than any scream.
She did not turn, nor offer the slightest clue through her body language.
Her upright, slightly bowed back became the only sight before Theo, an unshaken fortress now harboring the storm of questions he had just cast at her.
"If my authority as the author were truly absolute—not only understanding but shaping every line of fate in this world—what do you think I should do about the future tragedy I've discovered?"
Uhhhh!
"...."
"It's clear, isn't it?
I will not allow myself to be bound by the scenario I once wrote.
I would rather replace it with the narrative I desire—a scenario that leads to the best meaning."
Hhhh!
"As long as that meaning remains its purpose, let freedom take place.
And I grant the same to every slave or employee who has been given their right to freedom.
More or less."
The night wind drifted softly, carrying the weight of the philosophical question Theo had just dropped onto Aldraya's lap.
A test of imagination that demanded her to envision an unfathomable cosmic power.
'What if the man before her truly held the key to the world's entire narrative, an architect of fate capable of tracing every breath of the future?'
The question was no longer about acknowledging identity, but an invitation to dive into an ocean of possibilities and responsibilities nearly unbearable.
Theo allowed the question to hang between them, letting the surrounding silence become a sea of contemplation for Aldraya, who remained like a motionless statue, as if her soul had momentarily slipped from her rigid body.
After a pause that felt like eternity, where only the whispering leaves filled the void, Theo spoke again.
This time, his voice carried a tone of assertion, a personal declaration that cut the chains of his own life.
He stated that if he indeed possessed such divine authority of the pen, he would not allow himself to be imprisoned by the scenario he had written.
Rather than becoming a slave to a rigid script, he would choose to become an active puppeteer, weaving the story anew, stitching threads of fate that aligned with his desires and values.
To him, true creative freedom lay in the courage to change, to bend, even to tear the old pages to create a more exalted meaning—a more dignified ending.
The man then continued with his deepest analogy.
The freedom to create and alter destiny, he said, was fundamentally a right inherent to any being with consciousness.
He likened it to a slave finally being freed, or an employee whose contract of freedom had been signed since their initial recruitment.
Every self, in its own capacity, had the right not merely to follow the current of the predetermined scenario, but to swim against it, searching for its own river's mouth of meaning.
He spoke these words not with the tone of a lecturer, but with the calmest and deepest conviction, intending to plant seeds of empowerment in the silent listener before him.
And with concluding words that were simple yet laden with meaning.
Wusssh!
With a silence deeper than the ocean trenches, Aldraya swallowed every word spoken.
To be continued…