Chapter 459: Return (4)
'Identity, huh?'
It wasn't just that Isaac had been hiding it because he didn't want to talk about it. In fact, until now, it was closer to the truth that he couldn't reveal it because he didn't know.
But now Isaac knew where he originated from and what he was born for. It was too big of a secret to handle to carelessly blurt out, but Isaac accepted it differently.
In the first place, it wasn't a secret meant to be handled alone. This power also wasn't a power given to be enjoyed alone.
That's why the Lighthouse Keeper fell and the Mother of All Gods became a disaster. Isaac had no intention of following the same path.
"Isolde, actually..."
Isaac slowly told her about the things he had experienced in the Outer Boundary.
The new Chaos God who descended to earth whispered a secret for the first time to his beloved lover. The lover listened intently as if she wouldn't miss a single word.
Isaac was worried about how Isolde would accept the story that he wasn't from this world, but surprisingly, she wasn't very surprised.
She was more puzzled by Isaac's embarrassed reaction.
"Doesn't that just mean there are other countries outside the Outer Boundary?"
"............It's a little different... No, never mind."
When he thought about it, in the midst of angels shaking the world and heaven being torn apart and falling to earth, it was only natural that the story of coming from another dimension would be accepted as just foreign immigration.
Isaac was secretly disheartened that his unique characteristic was less special than he thought.
Isaac told almost all of his story. That his body was a newly born, 'not yet' named Chaos, and that the personality of Isaac had been placed on that idiotic spirit. And that all of that was the plan of the Archangel White Owl.
"And that Archangel White Owl is Isaac's mother, you say."
"Actually, I don't know if we're biologically related like that. I was definitely influenced, though."
Isaac roughly understood it as a concept that the Chaos that flowed out of Al Rieedu's shell was raised in the White Owl's womb and then born.
'Thinking about it like this, biologically, it doesn't seem that different from the fertilization process of ordinary creatures...??'
He didn't particularly want to meet her, but if he were to meet Al Rieedu again, he wondered what it would be like to say, 'I'm your son.'
Shocked, she might throw herself off a cliff on her own.
There was no reason to be newly shocked now that he was born from a loveless relationship. But Isolde seemed to have other things that were more troublesome.
While she was muttering strange things like, 'I thought Isaac was like an angel, but I never thought my mother-in-law would be an angel and my in-laws would be the Outer Boundary,' Isaac asked Isolde a question in return.
"Ah, now that I think about it, how did you find your way here? How did you summon me? No, more than that, what are those undead? I kept missing the timing to ask, but why is the Immortal Order cooperating with you?"
"There are too many questions, can I answer them one by one?"
After thinking hard, Isaac decided to ask what he was most curious about.
"Now... how many years have passed, by any chance?"
Isolde smiled slightly sadly.
"Shall we start there? Actually, no one knows. Now there's only day and night, we don't age, no children are born, there are no seasons, and everything is stagnant."
Isaac was terrified by that answer alone. Even so, there was day and night, which meant that a lot of time had passed, to the point where it was impossible to count.
Isolde quietly began to tell her story.
"Let's start from the point when I went to look for you."
After the Millennium Kingdom, the Lighthouse Keeper and the Holy Grail Knight disappeared together.
But the Millennium Kingdom descended even in an incomplete form.
The Codex of Light, judging that they had 'won,' immediately began to suppress heretics and pagans.
However, there was an unexpected point: the heaven that had fallen to earth was not only for the Codex of Light.
Elil, the World's Forge, the Red Chalice, the Olkan Code, the Salt Council...
Even the Issacrea Dawn Prayer Meeting had their heaven descend.
Thanks to that, the entire continent waged a strange spiritual war that never ended because no one died.
Judging that all of this was the work of the devil, 'Isaac,' the Codex of Light began to persecute the Issacrea Dawn Prayer Meeting... no, not only them, but also many people who were under Isaac's influence.
Too many people had seen him fighting against the Burning Maiden and the Lighthouse Keeper. But Isolde, who had already sensed something before that, had long since taken refuge in the Issacrea estate. And she and the Issacrea Dawn Prayer Meeting unintentionally took on the role of a kind of 'rebel' who rescued or liberated people who were persecuted under the Millennium Kingdom.
"Wait, rebels?"
Isolde stared at Isaac when he interrupted the story, but soon nodded.
"The fanatics came up with creative torture methods that made people who didn't die no different from the dead. There were even cases where people were caught and tortured just because they boasted that they had talked to you. I couldn't just stand by and watch those people being unfairly persecuted."
Isaac thought for a moment and then scanned her inner self with the Eye of Chaos. He wasn't trying to do the shameless act of reading her thoughts or memories. Rather, he was trying to examine something more fundamental, her beliefs and faith.
"......Are you still a believer of the Codex of Light?"
Isolde looked at Isaac as if she was a little surprised, and then quietly nodded.
"The fanatics are distorting and damaging the Word with heretical logic, but I didn't want to be swayed by such nonsense. I still think I'm a believer of the Codex of Light. The priests wouldn't say that, though."
Isaac groaned without realizing it.
Isolde was a true Inquisitor. A believer who wasn't swayed by any sophistry, sweet talk, or the opinions of the world.
She was on a different level from the Inquisitors who committed assassinations and purges according to the orders of blind followers.
A conviction that would never be tainted.
'Because she's such a strong-willed person, she was able to summon me in that chaos.'
A believer of the Codex of Light summoned Nameless Chaos and fixed it in the world. That fact was meaningful to Isaac. Perhaps the two were concepts that couldn't exclude each other.
But Isolde's history of rebel activities that followed was too long for Isaac to remember in detail. He felt sorry for Isolde, who had listened to his story, but the part that Isaac properly remembered was from the point when she decided to come to the Holy Land Lua.
"One day, an undead came to the Issacrea estate with this book."
What she took out of her arms was none other than the 'Book of the Nameless Worm'.
"You found traces of Isaac?"
It was right after Isolde heard a report that she had caught and captured an undead on the outskirts of the estate and rushed over.
Claire, the priest who had arrived first, hastily handed Isolde the book with a distraught face.
Isolde didn't know what the Book of the Nameless Worm was, but Claire said urgently.
"I'm sure of it. This book exudes the same energy as the Holy Grail Knight. I've seen him carrying it before. Maybe, as Sir Tuhalin said, the Holy Grail Knight was banished to the Outer Boundary and hasn't returned yet."
Isolde felt her heart pounding. She hastily gestured with her chin.
"Where is that undead now?"
[I'm here. And please release me. After all, the 'power of murder' that you boast about doesn't work on me.]
The place where the mental waves were heard was below the bridge. Two undead were tightly bound by ropes and hung over a bottomless valley.
Isolde looked at Claire with an absurd look, and he said as if making excuses.
"The undead were immortal even before the Millennium Kingdom, so they say they still don't die. But I didn't think it would be of any use to tie up that skeleton with a rope, so I was going to drop it if anything happened..."
Certainly, it wasn't likely that restraining that emaciated body would properly restrain it. But considering that the undead had come all the way to the Issacrea estate, which was designated as 'forbidden', and even from the Urdantu Empire, it was unlikely that they had come with bad intentions.
"Bring them up. I'll interrogate them."
A little later, the undead were pulled back up onto the bridge. Isolde looked at the undead's eyes and momentum and thought that Claire had done something unnecessary.
"One is a Lich, the other is a Death Knight."
If she had made a mistake, everyone here could have died. But seeing them obediently restrained, it didn't seem like they had any intention of doing so.
[Huh, you recognized me at a glance? I came after erasing all the signs that would be recognizable.]
"I can't forget your disgusting and impious smell. What business do you have here? Where did you find this, and what does it mean?"
When Isolde shook the Book of the Nameless Worm, the Lich politely greeted her.
[I'm Al Theodore, and I used to be an exclusive merchant of the Imperial Family. But as you know, our Emperor has gone missing, and the Urdantu Empire has collapsed. So I think you can treat me like a merchant belonging to an ordinary Golden Idol Guild.]
"What nonsense..."
As Isolde said in disbelief, Al Theodore took out a nameplate for her.
Along with the nameplate that he belonged to the Golden Idol Guild, there was an engraving that said, 'Leonora Bessia certifies this person's identity'.
Isolde didn't know who Leonora was, but the nameplate was genuine.
[Since the Immortal Emperor disappeared, the undead have lost their sense of direction. In other words, they are no longer under anyone's control. So it's not strange to return to the group I used to belong to, right?]
Isolde had many things she wanted to retort, but that wouldn't advance the conversation. Above all, he was the one who had come with valuable clues about Isaac, who she didn't know how long it had been since she had seen. She threw the nameplate at Al Theodore and said.
"So what, are you going to make a deal?"
[Something like that.]
Al Theodore said with a sinister glint in his eyes.
[I found that artifact in the Holy Land Lua. The place where the Emperor and the Holy Grail Knight disappeared. I think our purposes are roughly similar at this point.]
The Lighthouse Keeper had also disappeared in the same place, but Al Theodore didn't mention it as if it wasn't worth mentioning.
Isolde was in trouble, but in fact, the answer had been decided.
She and the Issacrea Dawn Prayer Meeting had been asking other countless faiths to help them find Isaac for the past long years. But all that came back was a polite refusal.
The Elil side refused, saying that they 'didn't think they would be helpful', and the World's Forge avoided them, saying 'he will return when the time comes'.
Since the incident in the Holy Land Lua, those two faiths had been acting as if they were slightly out of their minds. Isolde gritted her teeth, saying that they were cowardly, but she didn't get angry.
There was their tacit pressure in the fact that the Codex of Light Order didn't attack the Issacrea estate. The Issacrea estate, located in the northern part of the Empire, was in a good position to receive help from the two kingdoms at any time.
When you think about it, Elil and the World's Forge were no different from Isaac's personal allies, so in Isaac's absence, it was the same as showing goodwill to this extent.
But that was that, and this was this.
In the midst of that, a cooperation request came from the Immortal Order, who had been enemies for a long time, along with undeniable clues.
Claire was about to go find him alone even if Isolde refused.
"What should I do?"
In response to Isolde's answer, Al Theodore revealed a look that was so happy that it was recognizable even though he was undead.
[We've already thought of all the methods and plans! You just have to put a spoon on it. Just trust us and follow us.]
"Wait, we also have preparations..."
[Preparations for what? We'll pay for the costs, and we'll provide the troops. We have a lot of money. The Orcs took it all, but it's basic to diversify your assets in the first place...]
Isolde was dumbfounded by the conversation that was difficult to think of as coming from the Golden Idol Guild, but on the other hand, she could see how desperate they were. The disappearance of the Immortal Emperor was as shocking to them as the loss of Isaac was to Isolde and the Issacrea Dawn Prayer Meeting.
"We still don't trust you. To gain our trust, you have to buy enough trust first..."
Then, the Death Knight, who had been silently watching from the side, stepped forward.
[I'm Amarinde. I was the leader of the Avalanche Knight Order. Has the Holy Grail Knight ever told you about Gebel Krantz?]
Of course, she had heard of him. Gebel was Isaac's mentor and father figure.
And she also heard that he was from the Avalanche Knight Order.
Al Theodore had really prepared everything so thoroughly that Isolde 'only had to put a spoon on it', as he had said.