—
Nodding his head, Richard acknowledges that he has never seen another version of himself that did not resemble him. He is particularly confused now, realizing he may be both Yoriichi Tsugikuni and Richard Haris simultaneously.
This confusion prompts him to question why he became like this in the first place. Considering the possibility that Yoriichi Haris might not be the only person summoned by Elder Blood to help Ciri, Richard listens to Loki's explanation about the nature of his existence.
"Then I will have a hard time explaining this. Hmm, okay then. Let's start with a timeline. In the universe, there is this…"
Loki begins to explain timelines, sacred timelines, multiverses, variants, and so on, leaving Richard increasingly confused. He struggles to understand why these concepts affect the multiverse beyond the cluster.
"And the One Above All replicates these timeline systems from the infinite cluster to create his own timeline. Essentially, this allows him to walk around and somewhat influence the multiverse, as he shares his authority with others before being trapped in the House of Ideas for eternity. Or, as your people might say, trapped in the singularity forever. Now, back to the variants. Because the One Above All copied this timeline to essentially simulate the infinite cluster, the concept of variants, where we have other versions of ourselves out there, becomes prominent in my multiverse. That's why I somewhat know this information. So, in order…"
However, after further explanation, he finally grasps the possibilities of how he came to be. First and foremost, Richard realizes that he did not come from different clusters altogether through the Conjunction, as the veil separating these multiverses was not yet broken. Instead, he is a copy of different variants of himself from other multiverses.
Elder Blood, in its urgency to save Ciri from dying due to the White Frost, wanted to transfer strong and wise individuals from another cluster so that they could save her. However, since the veil had not yet been broken before the Conjunction, Elder Blood chose to copy atoms from these individuals instead.
Specifically, variants of Yoriichi Tsugikuni, representing strength, and variants of Richard Haris, representing wisdom, were targeted. The rationale for using two variants instead of one was because Elder Blood operated with two distinct powers.
As for why Elder Blood decided to copy instead of transferring an individual to a different cluster, it might be because the veil could directly tear apart the individual being transferred, not merely break the bond and connection as Richard amateurishly thought.
Although the complexity of the situation only adds to Yoriichi's confusion, he nods in understanding, acknowledging that quantum physics is rarely straightforward. He dismisses the notion of simple reincarnation or transmigration to another multiverse, as proposed by many fantasy authors in Richard's previous life.
Because Elder Blood could only copy atoms, it needed a vessel to merge these two identities, representing strength and wisdom, into one. The most suitable vessels were the variants of Yoriichi and Richard in this multiverse: a stone cutter named Felix, a Temerian living in Holloway village outside Oxenfurt.
When the monsters began to mutate in the Pre-Conjunction, Felix was outside the wall of safety in the forest. Chosen by Elder Blood as one of the lucky few, he was suddenly struck by memories that were not his own—memories from two different individuals. Not just memories, but the very existence and every atom of these two individuals had fused into Felix's body.
But because the process was hurried, resulting in a blundering mistake, Elder Blood copied the existence of everything in the surroundings as well. This is why Felix has Yoriichi's outer clothing, Richard's cheap Amazon katana, and still wears simple common folk inner clothing. Even his hanafuda earrings are made of two entirely different materials: one is slightly crumpled paper, and the other is plastic that still retains its features.
So, a stone cutter, a demon slayer, and a cryptography engineer fused into one, with the purpose of helping Ciri out of her predicament. In this case, Yoriichi can easily guess that when she cries out in pain, it's not just about uttering Sun, Sword, and Breathing; there might be another sentence she spoke.
For example, it could be Water because her lips are cracked, the never ending Sea of frost due to the snow hitting her body, or avenging the Admiral of demonic vessel who put her in that state in the first place.
Remembering Jaina's hair, which had strands of white mixed with her original blonde, and noting that she wore a different style of blue cape than other sorceress students, Felix slowly realizes with a sense of foreboding that he might not be the only special person Elder Blood has transformed into this world. After thinking hard about the seemingly endless combinations of words, Richard then decides to focus on anyone who goes to Undvik, as ultimately, all of them have the urge to save her or at least to meet Ciri.
Remembering the little girl Nemsy, who wore goggles—something he had never focused on or thought much about—Yoriichi then realizes there was a notification from his watch hours ago from Margarita.
Ignoring Ciri's message, which seemed strange, Felix reads Margarita's message with a tone of madness, noticing that it is all in caps. The content of the message reveals that she found out that the data, consisting of Bella, Stella, and Cindy's souls, along with Radovid and Mannimarco, have disappeared silently without warning.
In the message, Margarita only realized this when she intended to carry out her routine torture of the demon and his master. In a subsequent message, she expressed her depression and questioned whether it is more beneficial to torture and allow them to live rather than outright killing them. Because, keeping them alive to be toyed with every day could leave the possibility of hidden danger, since there is no absolute prison in this world.
Seeing Rita fall into a moral quandary that seems to have a simple logic—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—but which leads to rabbit holes of many bittersweet outcomes, where there is no clear right or wrong answer, only that evil is evil, Felix let out a bitter laugh.
Knowing there is no simple solution like absolute strength that fixes everything, he realizes that he, too, falls into the category of thinking where power equals competency, never realizing that these two concepts and ideologies are fundamentally different.
This realization is reinforced by reading Richard's memories of how Yoriichi failed to kill Muzan because he kept talking, and how Richard gradually forgot the early days as a hacker full of failures, mistakenly believing that becoming a cryptography engineer had made him immune to exploitation.
"Ah, I see this vision—a contradictory choice. Friend, I don't want to take advantage of your emotions, but this is a junction that will lead us to different outcomes, whether stranger or buddy. So, let me use this point of the event. Would you like to learn about quantum physics, quantum engineering, and quantum mechanics?"
Knowing that mastering these three areas would make the Sa'angreal more impervious to exploitation, Yoriichi bowed, setting aside Richard's intellectual pride, and said, "Pray, sensei. Teach me. Teach me to vanquish the demon once and for all."
"Don't—just don't call me that. It makes my skin crawl just hearing those honorifics," Loki shivered at the thought of being called that for a long time. He then continued with a sigh, saying, "As for killing your enemies, you need to come to terms with it yourself."
Felix was torn between the two choices: on one side, he felt satisfaction from keeping the demon alive for torturous research, following the single-minded logic of an eye for an eye, which could result in hidden dangers that might blow up at any time.
On the other side, he felt a sense of duty to kill the demon and rid the world of it once and for all, knowing the foreboding outcome that, sooner or later, it might escape like Muzan. In the end, he chose to become the stone cutter Felix, deciding to remain silent about it and letting the winds of time deal with the matter.
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