The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

Chapter Six: In the sea: The test has just begun

"ha?"

White gas is thick in the air, holding on to the cold moonlight.

After a short syllable, Bronya suddenly raised her hand and grabbed Mikael's collar with force.

"Mikael, what do you mean?"

"What are you doing, Bronya!"

Mikael held her wrist in his hand, and neither his expression nor his tone caused any fluctuation.

It was as if this scene had been expected, and as if even if it was unexpected, it didn't matter at all.

"I am the captain of this mission, Bronya. You should have learned in the recruit camp what attitude you should face..."

"boom!"

Mikael's answer was a cold fist.

"Is this fun?"

Mikael tilted his head to the side, and the red and swollen area caused by Bronya's pounding returned to normal in an instant.

"Oh, what do you mean?"

Mikael's answer still contained no special emotion, just like a mechanical puppet in a stage play that would only move towards the originally set script.

Bronya bit her lower lip tightly, and her whole body began to tremble violently.

"Stop pretending, Mikael. Isn't this all directed by you? Killing all the children here is fake. Everything Bronya saw from the beginning is fake! These are just lies. In order to test me..."

Bronya couldn't care about anything else anymore. She didn't care that Kevin and Xi'er might hear all this. She didn't care about who Mikael was in front of her. She yelled these words directly. Then, like a gun with an empty magazine, only a faint white vapor slowly floated out of the mouth.

However, Mikael's bland answer once again made Bronya's anger fall into place.

"So that's what you think."

But he didn't care. He grabbed Bronya's wrist before she punched her again, twisted it gently, and then forcefully broke away her hand that was holding her collar. He pushed Bronya hard and pushed Bronya away Ya pushed a step or two away.

"You really think highly of me. I don't think I have the ability to direct such a grand play like this. I don't know why you are so confident in me."

"and you……"

"I told you from the last time that what I created is a world bubble that is infinitely close to the real world. Creating a world bubble and then letting everyone in it act according to my will is different from simply creating a world. Bubble, isn’t it obvious which one is more difficult?”

Bronya was choked for a moment, but she quickly realized that this was just Mikael's words.

"No! Even if it's the latter, you are fully capable of guiding this story into what you want Bronya to see, right?"

The muscles in Mikael's cheek twitched slightly, his lips slightly pursed, his eyes moved twice in unison, and then he broke out into a forced smile.

"No, Bronya, you still don't understand. The reason why a story becomes a story is precisely because it has self-consistent logic. Many times we feel that certain things lack logic, as if they happened suddenly, which is often evidence. Lack of logic caused by insufficient chain.”

"Bronya doesn't want to hear your nonsense here."

Mikael scratched his head in embarrassment and raised a finger under the moonlight.

"In short, if I use my personal power to force this story to develop in the direction I need, it will only destroy the authenticity of the story and fail to allow you to experience the 'reality', and then the 'test' will be lost. It's like, after you heard what I said, your first reaction was that I was causing trouble and that I deliberately led things to this point, rather than 'this kind of thing can't happen at all', right."

"..."

"Actually, I'm not good at making up stories, so everything you are experiencing now, just like what you saw in the last world, all happened in history. It's just that at that time, I was playing Cocolia The person who plays this role is a comrade of Kevin and I, and the one who is sent to perform the cleanup mission is another comrade of Kevin and me. You still know her. "

Bronya's eyelids twitched, and she instinctively wanted to follow Mikael's words to find the so-called suspect, but she finally controlled her divergent thinking and listened carefully to Mikael's words.

"So, do you still feel that all this is incomprehensible? Honkai disease is incurable, and this kind of thing will not change with the times. Take these children away from here, spend time and resources to check their health It is all in vain. In the end, they will be tortured by illness, emaciated, and will inevitably die after experiencing life worse than death. Instead of doing this, it is better to inject them with special injections while they sleep. There will be a painless end in a sweet dream, and their remains can be recycled in a more valuable state to create serum to resist the collapse disease."

Mikael placed the so-called "superior order" in the communication in front of Bronya and shook it, but this kind of thing was not important at all.

Mikael's voice was still so plain, so plain that it had no waves or any emotion. Even when it fell into Bronya's heart, it did not cause any shock.

Yes, there was no shock. Although she was furious at first, when Mikael made everything clear, Bronya found that this logic was not difficult to understand, or rather, Bronya, who grew up in hell, understood this truth from the beginning.

Moreover, even if this orphanage is still called Cocolia Orphanage, except for Seele, the children in the orphanage are just children who have just known each other for a short time.

Bronya is originally indifferent, which is not something that can be blamed, because in terms of her growing environment, indifference is an extremely necessary protection.

Moreover, what Mikael said is indeed correct. For those who are bound to die, is it right to respect life and let them die after suffering, or is it right to understand their pain in time?

Bronya, who has done countless such things with her own hands, still does not understand this.

But...

But...

But I still feel that something is wrong in this.

I still feel that things should not be like this, or there should be other choices.

Or... I don’t know why, at least this time, she felt that she couldn’t make up her mind to make a decision.

Is it because of the "heart"? The meaningless concept that Mei instilled made her troubled by a strange feeling in her heart not long ago.

No, Mei just gave simple and plain words. She just made Bronya realize something that already existed in herself, rather than letting Bronya have something out of thin air.

In other words...

No, no no.

"If this is an assessment, there should be other choices, right?"

Mikael raised his eyebrows, seeming to be very satisfied with Bronya's reaction.

"Of course, it's a choice that suits your heart - you can choose to refuse this order."

Bronya's eyes twitched - too obvious.

This is too obvious.

How could anyone fall for such an obvious trap?

"Behind these two choices, there should be something deeper and worth considering, right?"

"Hmm."

Mikael snorted happily, then lowered his head as if he had done something wrong and knocked his head.

"That's right! Stories need logic, and in reality, it's cause and effect that weaves logic together. No matter what choice you make, there will be corresponding consequences. That's why choices become so important." Bronya swallowed softly. "Then... what are the consequences of the two choices?" "Hmm? You ask me?" Mikael pointed at his nose and laughed loudly. "Bronya, this is a test for you, not for me. Do you understand? Which option you choose is entirely out of your free will and has nothing to do with me. Similarly, I don't know what the consequences will be, and even if I know, I can't tell you. You can't expect the questioner to tell you the answer, right?" "But if that's the case... isn't everything Bronya saw a farce that doesn't make sense?" "Ah. Ah... that's how you understand it." Mikael narrowed his eyes and raised his chin. Bronya's whole body twitched for no apparent reason. The Mikael in front of her... the tone and manner of his speech... suddenly gave her a sense of familiarity, but then it became disconnected.

Mikael did not give Bronya time to think. When Bronya felt something, his voice came one after another, disrupting everything:

"After all, you are not from our era, so you always look at the world with the childish values ​​you learned from St. Freya. But, Bronya, forget those things, think about everything you experienced when you were a child, and think about everything you saw in the last world. The era we are in is a chaotic and dark era. Even you, you, Mei, Kiana, Seele, in a sense, you have indeed experienced a lot of suffering in your life, but you are too lucky, so lucky that suffering is a kind of tempering for you. So much so that you ignore that suffering is suffering, it often does not bring growth to human beings, but only pain and despair."

"..."

"..."

The wind continued to roar, and the nightingale was not to be outdone, mixing in a miserable and sharp "chirp" sound.

Kevin leaned against the door frame quietly and slowly opened his eyes. The moonlight was not dazzling, but the long darkness made his eyes sensitive and stinging when he touched even such a weak light.

He closed his eyes again, and the tears that flowed unconsciously moistened his eyeballs because of the sourness.

After a while, he opened his eyes, and the "brother and sister" were still standing stupidly in the courtyard not far away.

"Really..."

Kevin raised his head silently.

He did not agree with everything Mikael said.

It was as if he also knew that the world constructed by Mikael, no, not just this world, but everything that happened in the previous world, was far from their real experience.

But...

He did not just sleep like this for five hundred years in the sea.

Whether it was subjective or passive, consciousness would always be involved in some world bubbles, helplessly watching those worlds that no longer existed in the sea proving their existence over and over again with endless reincarnations.

Many, many times, he even couldn't help but doubt. It is also an endless reincarnation. They are proud of it, sad for it, and despair of it. In the end, they have even forgotten the original meaning, but they still want to protect and save the original world. Is it just a world that has been destroyed long ago? The reflection of the world, so it can only perform the tragedy of destruction repeatedly in endless reincarnations.

It was in this intense confusion and doubt that Kevin saw another way of unfolding the "original world" in those world bubbles.

That is, what is happening in front of me.

Mikael's world never existed.

Because of his momentary hesitation, the Sixth Herrscher took away tens of thousands of lives in a whole shopping street.

He shouldered everything and personally ended the world of Himihu who became the Herrscher.

He couldn't do anything with all his strength. He could only watch Destobia, Blanca, Hen and more comrades go forward and sacrifice themselves one by one in the world in front of him.

It was the world where the boy who admired him and admired him took off the medal he had always cherished from his chest and threw it at his feet.

In the end, everyone who was forcibly kneaded together ended up falling apart because of their own conflicts.

Those worlds where neither Mikael nor Alicia exist, those worlds where no matter what, they ultimately failed to cross the threshold.

After seeing it too much, sometimes I start to wonder... is the world I have experienced... even though it is a real pain, is it at least better than what is shown in these phantoms?

The ending is the same, but the process has a lot more joy worth remembering, and it's not so depressing, right?

Although compared with the final ending, these often give people more despair and depression.

"call……"

Kevin let out a long breath.

He knew what Mikael was doing and what his so-called test was.

When he opened his eyes again, the confrontation between the "brother and sister" was over.

"Bronya doesn't think what Bronya learned at St. Freya is childish. On the contrary, in Bronya's eyes, you, Mikael, who keeps saying 'this is the world', are the childish."

"snort."

Mikael smiled and spread his hands:

"I said it. Words are powerless. Bronya Zaicek, if you want to prove that I am the naive one, please use a more mature approach."

"Bronya will."

Bronya bit her lip tightly and looked at Mikael without showing any signs of weakness.

But soon, Mikael's palm once again couldn't refuse, and he couldn't avoid patting her head.

"However, don't make decisions when you are emotionally unstable. I should have taught you this, right?"

He moved his palm away and then patted her twice hard on the shoulder.

"Okay Bronya, you have a whole night to think about which path you want to choose and how to deal with the consequences of your choice."

With a gentle push, Bronya's body fell back two steps. She quickly lowered her head and stepped towards the darkness.

The moment she passed by Kevin, her steps paused for a moment, but then she walked straight past him.

Kevin's eyes were closed, and he didn't know what he was thinking about. It wasn't until Bronya returned to the kitchen and the door panel closed with a sore "squeak" that Kevin opened his eyes and looked at the sight of him again. Mikael in front of him.

"Why go to such trouble to test this girl? There are some things that cannot be made understood by this method."

"Maybe it's because..."

"Um?"

"nothing."

Mikael sighed with a wry smile.

"Then again, Kevin, what choice would you rather have her make?"

"My personal wish?"

Kevin tilted his head and thought about it.

"Actually, most people would prefer not to execute the order."

"Even if you know the consequences of doing so?"

"Yes, but this is more humanitarian after all. I am not the one who needs to make the decision and take responsibility for it, so I naturally hope that the person who makes the choice can make a more humane decision, no matter what happens , it has nothing to do with me, right?”

The corners of Mikael's mouth barely moved.

"It's really your style..."

"Then...Mikael, do you mean that you would rather Bronya choose to execute the order?"

"How is that possible?"

Mikael waved his hand exaggeratedly and set the timer on his phone in front of Kevin.

"Sorry to disappoint you. The content of this test has never been about 'which option to choose', but... haha, the real test has just begun."