"Partner~"
Cyrene no longer looked anything like the sophisticated woman from the earlier meeting. The moment she saw Caelus, she seemed to shrink down into a chibi plush-doll version of herself, then climbed onto him using both hands and feet, looking as though she were about to cry.
"Aglaea can accept red and green together now, but she still refuses to accept yellow and purple! I already told her that you need eyes capable of discovering beauty! But she still can't accept it. She says those colors look terrible together!"
Caelus looked at Cyrene lying in his arms, her enormous cartoonish eyes decorated with several little tear drops. He reached down and stroked her head.
"You've worked hard. Beauty is a very subjective Path. Its followers generally pursue whatever they personally perceive as beautiful. Some people see beauty in imperfection, while others prefer completeness. Some favor symmetry, while others favor asymmetry.
"Everyone's idea of beauty is different, and even the same person's sense of beauty can change over time. With so many contradictory perspectives existing at once, Beauty itself is naturally fluid and complex. If you want Aglaea to become a Pathstrider of Beauty, all you really need to do is strengthen her determination to pursue beauty.
"So what is true beauty to Aglaea? Is it the perfect combination of colors in clothing? The ideal design for an outfit? Or is there something else she values far more than those things? What you need to help her understand is what matters most to her, and what kind of beauty she most desperately wants to express."
"...Partner, you make it sound so simple. Don't you understand this pretty well yourself?"
"No. I understand the principles, but I can't teach someone how to recognize the beauty within their own heart. That kind of emotional resonance is beyond me."
Caelus shook his head. Anyone could explain the theory, but truly teaching someone required establishing an emotional connection with them, and that was extremely difficult for Caelus. Aside from Cyrene, he had never really tried to resonate that deeply with another person's emotions. For everyone else involved, that would probably be far too frightening.
"Ugh... I understand the emotional resonance that Beauty seeks, but getting Aglaea to truly face her own heart and find the beauty she genuinely wants to pursue is really difficult."
"I'm dealing with almost the same problem. In this cycle, I raised Mydei from childhood and taught him to value justice. But right now, the reason he works so hard to pursue justice is because he wants to fulfill the expectations I placed on him. He still hasn't found his own sense of justice or truly confronted what he wants for himself."
"Speaking of that, why was Mydei abandoned in this cycle? Before, it was because of the prophecy. What happened this time?"
"...In this cycle, Mydei's mother died in childbirth. His father was nothing more than an ordinary athlete this time. After losing the wife he loved more than anything, he was devastated and felt that his life had lost all meaning and direction. So he threw Mydei from a cliff, then ended his own life not long afterward."
"An irresponsible father and an equally inadequate husband. His wife's last wish was for him to take good care of their son, but instead he became consumed by the grief of losing her, blamed their child for the tragedy, made that choice, and then ran away from reality.
"If this had happened outside Amphoreus, I imagine he would have done everything in his power to enter the Eternal Dreamscape you created, Partner, just so he could reunite with his wife."
"And his wife would have slapped some sense into him inside the dream. Across countless cycles, Geor always loved her child deeply. If she learned what her husband had done, then as his wife, perhaps she could understand his grief. But as a mother, she would never allow that coward to hide inside a peaceful dream."
"Do you think that once everything is over and they recover the memories of their previous cycles, Mydei's father, the king he once was, will have anything to say when he sees how cowardly this version of himself became?"
"He'd probably reject it outright and insist that could never be him, much less someone from Castrum Kremnos. Peaceful times give people safe and stable lives, but they can also smooth away every edge from people who might otherwise have become heroes."
"You two seem rather troubled."
A familiar voice interrupted them. Cyrene instantly changed from her chibi form back to her normal appearance, then rose from the chair together with Caelus. Both of them looked toward Lygus, who had approached without either of them noticing.
"I must admit, Anaxa is an excellent student. He understands my lessons extremely quickly, absorbs everything I teach him, and can readily apply that knowledge to new problems. His intellect may still fall short of some of the geniuses I've known, but even in a universe filled with countless brilliant stars, there would still be a place for him."
The moment Lygus arrived, he began talking about his student. He explained that Anaxa would soon finish all the necessary groundwork. Once he completed the final step of turning the false into the real, he would be able to become a genuine Pathstrider of Erudition.
"Most importantly, he approaches everything with skepticism. Even when I teach him something directly, he still studies it with doubt rather than accepting it as unquestionable truth. That is an exceptionally valuable mindset. Question everything, analyze everything, understand everything. That is how a Pathstrider of Erudition should think, and it is also the philosophy Zandar once followed."
And then Zandar created Nous to analyze the entire universe.
"Of course, I didn't come here simply to boast about my student. I only wanted to ask whether we should increase the intensity of the Black Tide."
"It is only because disaster exists that peace becomes precious, and only because suffering exists that a stable life becomes something worth longing for. That is what makes the life people enjoy now seem truly beautiful.
"And once disaster arrives, once despair and suffering spread across the land, I imagine that desire for justice will finally be awakened as well. After all, no matter what happens, they are still meant to become heroes, aren't they?"
Caelus stared at Lygus. He understood perfectly well why the man had appeared before him and asked that question.
On the surface, Lygus was offering assistance. In reality, he wanted Caelus himself to give the order to intensify the Black Tide. He wanted Caelus to personally decide to destroy the peaceful future of this era.
He wanted Caelus to sacrifice everything beautiful about the present in exchange for the possibility that Amphoreus could truly exist in the future.
Lygus was curious whether Caelus could make that choice. Caelus also suspected that Lygus had already prepared the next step. Once this cycle approached its end, Lygus would likely step out from behind the scenes and expose Caelus as the mastermind, allowing Mydei to learn that the teacher who had raised him was responsible for all the tragedy around him.
Then the real question would be laid before him.
Would that sense of justice, cultivated in you by someone else, compel you to fight the very person who raised you in the name of justice?
Mydei, what will you choose?
After a long silence, Caelus finally spoke.
"Activate the Black Tide at full strength."
"Oh! Every sacrifice is made for the sake of a greater tomorrow! It seems that, fundamentally, the two of us aren't so different after all, are we, sir?"
Lygus chuckled.
"I never claimed to be a good person. I don't have any particularly grand ambitions. I'm simply willing to help certain people achieve theirs."
Caelus spoke calmly.
(To be continued.)
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◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)