Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2383 I understand

On the seat Caesar always used while contemplating the two siblings, Robin sat down without making the slightest sound.

His elbows rested upon his knees while his gaze remained fixed upon the floor in absolute silence. His eyes were barely open, unfocused, and seemingly devoid of life. Anyone who had not witnessed everything that had happened from the very beginning would probably mistake him for a statue at first glance, because nothing about him suggested the restless storm quietly raging beneath that perfectly still exterior.

The Northern Region of Nihari.

What were the possible explanations for several Master Laws having been used there?

Had one of the Seerʼs enemies attempted to accomplish something on that planet?

...Yet no matter how many possibilities he considered, he found absolutely no indication that anyone of such a level had intervened. The inhabitants of the planet were complete trash, far beneath the level required to attract beings capable of wielding several Master Laws, and whatever they did, didnʼt really show any affect.

Had the Seer perhaps been marking the planet somehow... or removing traces left behind by one of his enemies?

...But the Seer himself had said that he had been preparing this board for Renara and Helen since long before Robin was even born. Would someone who planned that far ahead really descend to the planet just before Robin arrived and use a few master law? for what?

Perhaps he had been enlarging the planet... or adding special properties to it in preparation for helping his future Candidate?

...But would something like that truly justify Neriʼs terrified reaction? No... that fear had gone far beyond what simple preparations should inspire.

Perhaps those had been traces left behind by his own Laws?

But according to Helen, the Law of Truth left behind no trace whatsoever, and during that period he hadnʼt even mastered Spacetime. He only reached that point much later during the Greenland Wars.

It had to be the Seer.

There was simply no way someone else of comparable standing had appeared on that planet, whether by coincidence or design. It was a board he himself claimed to have been preparing for thousands of years.

But what had he done...

What exactly had he done there?!

”....”

At last Robin slowly raised both hands, pressed his fingers against either side of his nose, and quietly closed his eyes, as though attempting to silence the endless stream of unanswered thoughts filling his mind.

There was no way for him to know.

There was no longer any way for him to contact him.

He had already checked.

The Seerʼs Soul Fragment had completely disappeared from his Soul Domain the very moment the shackles were broken.

Most likely, when he forged his own seals, he erased the Seerʼs spiritual imprint from the Seerʼs Seal itself. Once that happened, the Fragment no longer had anywhere to remain, and it was automatically destroyed together with the shackles, disappearing without leaving behind the slightest trace.

Now...

He had questions.

Far too many of them.

And the only person capable of answering every single one...

No longer existed.

”Itʼs painful... isnʼt it?”

Robin opened only one eye ever so slightly before slowly lifting his pupil toward the source of the voice...

Toward Helen.

She continued quietly, ”Discovering that the person who gave you your strength is the very same person who has been hurting you all along... itʼs painful, isnʼt it? You donʼt have to answer me... Iʼve experienced it myself.”

”...”

Robin silently closed his eye once again without saying a word.

”I can feel everything filling your heart right now,” Helen continued in an equally calm voice. ”Anger... resentment... the humiliation of realizing you were used... the feeling that you were made a fool of without ever noticing. You want to destroy everything. You want to prove that youʼre stronger and better than the one who hurt you... but you still donʼt know how.”

”.....”

Robin slowly leaned back until he was sitting comfortably once again, rested both hands upon his knees, and finally turned his cold gaze toward Helen.

There wasnʼt the slightest fluctuation within those eyes.

Only silence.

Only patience.

Only a frightening stillness that made it impossible to guess what thoughts were truly passing through his mind.

”I can see it in your eyes,” Helen continued in a quiet, unwavering voice. ”You feel betrayed... used. You want to sever every remaining connection to him, to become someone who belongs only to himself and carve out a path that bears no trace of the one who manipulated you. Youʼre already thinking about every possible way to hurt the person who hurt you, even if doing so means hurting yourself along the way... I understand it better than you think, Robin Burton. Iʼve stood exactly where youʼre standing now, and I know how intoxicating that hatred can become.”

”....”

Robin quietly rose to his feet.

Without answering...

Without even acknowledging her words...

He simply began walking toward Helen.

His pace was slow.

Measured.

Every step carried exactly the same rhythm as the last.

”Iʼve heard what you did on Planet Jura after learning what happened to your wife, and judging from everything that has been said before me today... this incident is connected to her as well, isnʼt it?” Helen continued without retreating, her voice remaining strangely calm despite Robinʼs steadily approaching figure. ”Let me guess. Right now youʼre planning the greatest genocide humanity has ever witnessed... or perhaps youʼre searching for a way to interfere with everything the Seer spent all those years building. Maybe youʼre thinking about a method to keep your wifeʼs blood forever frozen in time. Forgiveness no longer has any place inside you... now all you see before your eyes is blood, and every thought eventually returns to it.”

Then, as Robin drew closer and closer, she slowly lifted her head until her eyes met his.

”The real question is...”

”...Will you succeed?”

”Will you truly manage to break free from his manipulation...”

”...or will he continue moving the board around you, tightening every path little by little until you become nothing more than the shadow of everything you once dreamed of becoming?”

A faint smile slowly appeared upon her lips.

”...Thatʼs the answer you should be searching for.”

”....”

Robin lowered his gaze toward her without the slightest fluctuation in his expression.

Helenʼs face now rested almost directly in front of his abdomen.

For a brief instant...

Neither of them moved.

Then Robin calmly raised one hand.

Smack!

”Ah!”

Several of Helenʼs teeth were sent flying by the blow, while the back of her head and forehead slammed violently against the crystal coffin. Had the coffin not been supporting her body, the force of the strike alone would have thrown her completely off it.

Instinctively she pressed a trembling hand against her swollen cheek before slowly turning back toward Robin, her eyes filled with pain, confusion, and unmistakable grievance.

”...?!”

Robin, meanwhile, had already returned both hands behind his back.

He wasnʼt even looking at her anymore.

Instead...

His gaze had drifted into the distance once again.

His half-lidded eyes remained cold.

Sleepily cold.

His breathing was unnaturally calm.

Even the rhythm of his heartbeat had become astonishingly slow...

Almost impossibly faint...

Perfectly steady...

...And therefore unimaginably terrifying.

”I donʼt need a fallen woman like you telling me how I feel... or what I should do.” Robin spoke at an almost leisurely pace while continuing to look into the distance, as though the slap he had just delivered required no more attention than brushing dust from his sleeve. ”Once your legs begin working again, pick yourself up, go to Hedrickʼs side, and serve me there as the little, obedient weapon you are. Donʼt waste even a moment worrying about whatever I choose to do.”

Only then did he slowly turn back toward her.

Those icy eyes finally settled upon Helen once more.

”Everything youʼve witnessed today...”

”...will remain inside your mouth forever.”

”If even a single word reaches anyone else...”

”...Iʼll drag you into an eternal hell crafted by my own hands specifically for you.”

”There...”

”...even if you beg for death...”

”...Iʼll personally make certain you never reach it.”

”...Then Iʼll simply forget you ever existed.”

He took one final step.

Hummm.

A golden gate silently unfolded before him.

Without another glance...

Without another word...

It swallowed Robinʼs figure whole before closing again, leaving behind nothing except an empty room and an even heavier silence.

”Haaah!!”

Only after he had completely disappeared did Helen violently release the breath she had unknowingly been holding.

She immediately began gasping for air, one trembling hand clutching desperately at her chest to reassure herself that her heart was still beating, while the other covered her bleeding mouth where Robinʼs slap had landed moments earlier.

From the very beginning of that conversation...

Until its final moment...

She had not taken a single proper breath.

Even though her body was still recovering...

Even though her soul remained that of a Monarch of the Law of Incineration...

She had experienced genuine fear.

Not because of the threat itself.

Not because of the slap.

But because of...

That look.