#214. World Tree (2)
—
*Rustle.*
Receiving and tearing open the envelope from the man, Ray momentarily froze.
The letter was written in ancient script.
He couldn’t pronounce it, but he could understand the letters. And the moment he focused on them—
「This is a warning.」
「Do not come any closer.」
「Be content with your current state.」
「Cease seeking emotions.」
—someone’s voice rang out in his head, following the transmission of the message’s meaning.
“…?”
He quickly sharpened his senses, but the colorless, odorless voice had already vanished without a trace.
…Was it just his imagination?
No, it had been far too clear to dismiss as a mere hallucination.
Thinking that it might even have been the Doctor’s voice, Ray retraced the message conveyed in the letter.
‘Stop seeking emotions and be satisfied with the current state?’
It was as if whoever had sent the letter knew all about his particular nature.
But how?
Aside from Veronica, Philip, and Graham, no one had been told the full truth about his emotional incapacity.
Even if they had been monitoring him with homunculi, it would have been impossible to discern that from mere external observation.
There was only one highly probable conclusion.
‘The Doctor is someone who already knows a lot about me.’
Doubts and curiosity surged within him, and before he realized it, Ray was already asking questions.
“Where’s the Doctor?”
“……”
“What are you guys?”
“……”
The homunculi remained silent.
They just stared at Ray with doll-like, expressionless faces.
Then, at some point—
“What’s the Doctor’s goal?”
“Emotions are useless.”
The man who had handed him the letter finally spoke.
The surrounding homunculi echoed in unison.
“Emotions are useless.”
“Emotions are useless.”
“Emotions are useless.”
The man spoke again.
“Answer.”
Again the chorus followed.
“Answer.”
“Answer.”
“Answer.”
Ray immediately sensed that no matter how much he tried, he wouldn’t be able to converse meaningfully with the homunculi.
Even if he captured and interrogated them, he wouldn’t be able to extract any information.
“Answer.”
“Answer.”
“Answer.”
But answer what, exactly?
‘Are they demanding a reply to the letter?’
If they were asking for a response to the warning about ceasing the search for emotions, then his answer was already decided.
Ray, casting a cold glance over the homunculi, spoke.
“Be content with my current state and stop coming any closer? Yeah, not a chance.”
What happened next was almost instantaneous.
Red mana flooded into the empty circles of the homunculi.
The homunculi shifted into stances ready to hurl fireballs from their hands.
And then—
—KWAANG!
With a deafening roar, Ray’s vision flashed white.
Only blackened ash remained where the homunculi had been standing, and Ray’s body, having momentarily entered a state of electric acceleration, returned to its normal form, scattering sparks.
At that moment, the space beside him rippled—and Curiosa appeared.
“I heard a loud noise and came out… but it seems the situation’s already over.”
“The homunculi came.”
After a brief pause, Curiosa glanced around at the surrounding ash and said,
“Well, I figured it was about time they started coming directly.”
“Curiosa, you were right. At first, they had no emotions whatsoever, but at a certain moment, they suddenly erupted with emotions. Anger and malice toward me. And as if resonating with that emotion, mana filled the previously empty circles.”
Curiosa furrowed his brow.
“There were circles…?”
“They even used fire-type magic.”
“Magic, huh…? None of the ones I’ve seen before used magic. Maybe the Doctor improved them? Or—on second thought, maybe they were just hiding their capabilities all along…”
Curiosa muttered, lost in thought.
Ray, watching the lilac curiosity swirling wildly around Curiosa, asked,
“What exactly are homunculi?”
“They’re artificial lifeforms created by the Doctor.”
“Artificial lifeforms? Not human?”
“That’s my guess. They almost all have identical faces in each group that appears. It’s like he’s creating copies of someone. Using some unknown magic or technology.”
…Artificial lifeforms.
“That makes sense. The circles of the ones that appeared today were all extremely clean, like they had only just been created.”
At that moment, Ray spotted something sparkling amid the ash.
Handing the letter to Curiosa, he used telekinesis to gather the objects in front of him.
They were small, nail-sized red crystals with a familiar appearance.
“…Bloodstones.”
High-quality mana-charging stones carried by members of the Murcred organization.
It seemed these bloodstones had been the cores that breathed emotions and mana into the homunculi’s vessels and circles.
Then, from behind him, Curiosa’s trembling voice rang out.
“The last sentence here sounds like it’s targeting me specifically. Says if I somehow broke the curse of loyalty and disobey orders, I’ll face severe punishment? That bastard Doctor…! After already carving that damned curse that stops me from controlling my own emotions, now he’s threatening severe punishment? Just wait, Doctor. I’ll personally rip you to shreds.”
Curiosa’s fury was palpable even from behind.
Ray, fiddling with the bloodstones in his hand, muttered as if looking off into the distance.
“He said emotions are useless.”
“Yeah. They are useless. Because of emotions, you get angry, you cry, you fall into depression. All evil starts from emotions. Damn it. Honestly, if the only other option was living every day consumed by unwanted curiosity like I do now, I’d rather live like a machine without any emotions at all.”
Curiosa, who had answered without thinking, belatedly glanced at Ray’s back and asked.
“Who said that to you?”
“The homunculi.”
“The homunculi…?”
Instead of answering, Ray turned around and met Curiosa’s gaze, countering with a question of his own.
“Do you think living without any emotions would really be better than living like this?”
His tone was more serious than usual.
Curiosa, who had initially planned to brush it off, found himself calming down and thinking seriously.
“…Whether you can feel emotions or not, both have their pros and cons. But if I had to weigh the overall advantages… I think living with emotions might have the upper hand.”
He sounded irritated, as if the question was giving him a headache.
“Damn it. Why are you asking such hard questions all of a sudden? If you want something from me, pay up. You little brat—you’ve been ordering me around without giving me any information for a while now, you know? Not a shred of conscience in that tiny body…! Give me something! Anything that’ll satisfy my curiosity even a little—!”
“I agree.”
“—About what? That you have no conscience?”
“No, that living with emotions has greater benefits.”
Curiosa’s anger evaporated instantly.
“Ahem, so it’s about values. Got it. Information about your values… What’s next?”
“I think living with emotions has greater benefits.”
“Has greater benefits… Noted.”
Watching Curiosa furiously scribble notes into his notebook, Ray pocketed all the bloodstones.
And, raising a gust of wind to scatter the ash piled on the ground, he thought to himself.
The claim that emotions are useless.
‘…They said their goal was to return the world to its original state.’
Perhaps this was related to the Doctor’s objective.
*
The bus sped across the wasteland, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Their destination was the outskirts of Sector 33—coordinates where Rael Row would already be waiting.
*Vroooom──!*
Without passing through the intermediate numbered sectors, the bus was taking the shortest route possible.
Thus, the expected travel time was under five days.
But—
*KWAANG──!*
*SKREEEEE──!*
—unforeseen variables massively delayed them.
All across the wasteland, rugged vehicles had been lying in ambush, now charging at the bus with vicious force. Veronica hurriedly deployed defensive barriers.
*KWAANG─!*
Vehicles that crashed into the barrier overturned and rolled out of sight behind the side mirrors.
*THUD─! THUD─! SCREEEE─!*
Other vehicles kept slamming into the barrier from different angles, swerving wildly.
“I’ve blocked anything from getting inside the defense zone for now!”
Veronica shouted urgently.
The white barrier was withstanding the barrage of attacks without issue—for now. But they couldn’t afford to relax.
The number of enemy vehicles easily reached into the hundreds.
“We’re completely surrounded. I heard sometimes bandits target travelers. Could they be after our valuables?”
“They’re not bandits. They’re homunculi.”
Ray replied, staying focused on driving.
He flicked a glance around—their emotions couldn’t be sensed at all through the windows of the attacking vehicles.
Not even the faintest trace.
‘Homunculi.’
There was no other conclusion.
“These are the same ones that attacked when we left the mansion yesterday, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Seems so. When I concentrate, I get the same unsettling feeling as yesterday. Looks like this ‘Doctor’ is hellbent on targeting you after you ignored his warning.”
“I agree. Hang on tight.”
Ray yanked the steering wheel sharply to the right.
The white hemispherical barrier moved with the bus—
*KWAANG──!*
—and the enemy vehicles that had been clinging too close were toppled en masse.
“Good tactic. Since we’re moving fast, just a light bump is enough to knock them off.”
Grine maintained her balance with her elf-like sense of equilibrium and spoke calmly.
*Roll—!*
Veronica, meanwhile, tumbled three times but rose naturally as if it had been intentional, gripping the armrest.
“My mana’s still plenty—.”
*SKEEEEE—!*
—but the bus tilted left sharply, making her roll forward three more times.
Grine spoke, her voice quicker than usual.
“Ray, please open the windows. I’ll use magic to repel the pursuers.”
“No, check the mansion first. This might not be the only place under attack.”
“Understood.”
Grine disappeared up the stairs to the second floor of the bus.
Soon she returned, alongside a rumpled Chief.
“There are about 30 homunculi at the mansion too. All roughly first-circle mages. Curiosa and the mansion’s mages are holding them back at the walls for now.”
“I’ll take over driving.”
Fortunately, it seemed that the mansion’s defenses were holding up without difficulty.
The boy, his worries fading from his bowl, pressed a button and opened all the windows on the right side.
Vrrrmm──!
“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”
“Yes, leave it to me!”
After handing over the driver’s seat, he passed by the girl who was merged with the floor, climbed the stairs, and ascended onto the roof of the bus through the ceiling hatch.
His view brightened.
Because the surrounding barriers blocked the wind, there was no moment of staggering or instability.
Whooosh─!
At the rear of the bus, he could see seeds imbued with green mana transforming into thorny vines, lashing out and engulfing the pursuing vehicles.
‘The rear should be fine. The left side is a sheer cliff. That leaves—’
He turned his gaze to the right.
Dozens of vehicles were racing alongside the protective barriers as if to block the bus’s escape.
In the enemies’ hands, extended out through their windows, were bombs, each clutched like a blazing ball of fire, on the verge of being hurled.
Fwoosh!
Flames erupted from the boy’s palm, reaching skyward.
Fwoom!
In an instant, the flame swelled.
Fwoooom!
It grew to a size larger than the bus itself, and even then, it continued to expand without end.
The high-quality mana stored within his third circle.
Added to that, the red mana resonated with the boy’s emotions.
The fact that the mansion—his home, his sanctuary—had been invaded had ignited a fierce flame in his territorial instincts.
As a result, the emotion welling up in the boy’s heart was a rage of unprecedented scale.
Fwoooooom!
The massive heat devoured the smaller bursts of fire, sweeping over the vehicles on the right side.
And at that moment—
At the edge of a cliff, a woman was watching the scene unfold.
“Amazing, truly. Now I understand why Father was so wary. And why Vicious was defeated, too.”
The woman with brown hair curved her lips into a bewitching smile.
—
