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Last Embryo Volume 6 Interlude Part 4

「. . .」

「Thinking about it now, it should have been pretty obvious. The Victory Condition for this First Gift Game of the War is to 「Unravel the mystery of The Chief God’s Declaration」, or in other words, to understand that the thing that gave rise to the Greek Mythology in its entirety was the great love that Zeus, the Greek King of the Gods felt for a human woman, and by extension, for all of humanity, because if the Players participating in this Gift Game will not be able to understand that love, it is going to be impossible for them to defeat {The Youngest Child of Gaia}.」

That was what surprised Heracles the most just now. The fact that not only this man already understands what 「The Mystery of the Chief God’s Declaration」was all about, but also the close relationship between The Chief God’s Declaration and the monster known as {The Youngest Child of Gaia}.

「Heracles. I need you to understand that I did not declare victory because I claim to understand the extent of Zeus’s love towards humanity. I just declared that I have solved the mystery of the Chief God’s declaration, but just because I did that, it does not mean that the Game itself is going to end. To truly end the legend of The Lost Continent of Atlantis, all of the participating Players need to understand the true meaning of its greatest mystery. . . and the true Game that is being played behind the scenes of the 2nd War for the Sun’s Authority.」

It is precisely because James was aware of the danger that this task entailed that he decided to seek out Heracles. He came alone to what was essentially his enemy’s encampment, and willingly sought out one of the strongest of people who were his enemies, and even though he knew that even in his wounded state Heracles could still kill someone like him million times over if they ended up fighting each other . . . he still chose to approach him and talk to him openly. He did all of that for but a single purpose: the purpose of completely clearing out {The Lost Continent of Atlantis} Gift Game.

「If it means anything to you, then allow me to apologize on Krishna’s behalf for what he did to you yesterday, and for him lying to you. He claimed to be {Uroboros’} founder, but the truth is that he is only acting as a substitute for it, not to mention that the job of planning all of our Community’s action usually falls onto me. . . so, would you be willing to believe in my words now and listen to what I have to say?」

Heracles felt that there was no lie in his words, but his vigilant eyes were still fixated on this man and his every move without letting him go for even a split second. The biggest issue for him right now was to determine if it was even worth it to negotiate with him, or to ignore everything he might be trying to say, like he initially intended to do? And while he was considering all of these options, James waited patiently for him to make up his mind, emptying his pipe of ash and lighting it anew in the meantime and then nodded his head.

「Oh, before we go any further, let me ask you this as well: do you have any additional conditions?」

「I do have some. One, in fact. Instead of blindly following your ideas, I want you to release Orpheus from 『Uroboros’』 grasp. Only if you agree to that, I am going to be willing to listen to what you have to say to me, once. But only if you agree to that demand of mine.」

「All right. If you complete the task that I would like you to perform, then I promise to arrange for Orpheus to be freed as soon as it will be done.」

「No. You did not understand me. You are going to release Orpheus, and you are going to do so now, right this instant. Otherwise, I will not listen to you and I will not move from this hut for even an inch.」

Heracles declared stubbornly with a face that showed that there will be no room for any kind of concession on his part, which made James give him a terribly hurt look. He understood why Heracles would be so cautious of him, but even so, he believed that he has demonstrated all of the information that he managed to obtain in a sincere and honest fashion, and he was still met with the kind of treatment that could only be described as downright terrible. He came to him with the best of his intentions in mind, and yet Heracles did not seem to trust him even a single bit and simply continued to glare daggers at him without letting his own guard down.

「I understand what you are trying to say, and I also sensed no falsehood in your words when you claimed to have met the Victory Conditions and expressed your desire to see the Atlantis Gift Game brought to its proper conclusion, so you must have been telling an honest truth about that. If I sensed even a shred of a lie from you at any moment, then you can believe me when I say that me claiming your life would not have been enough in the way of an apology for your transgression.」

「If you realize that much about me, then what else are you still dissatisfied about? To tell you the truth, from the moment when I first laid my eyes on you, I had you figured out for a violent and selfish kind of man, but I decided to put my personal feelings about you aside and try to give you the benefit of the doubt, so it would be nice if you could do the same thing for me, because to be honest, as mild-mannered as I consider myself to be, then your vehement distrust of me despite my good intentions is making me quite uncomfortable. Therefore, if it is not a problem of course, could I ask you to share with me the reason for why you are so adamant about refusing to put your trust in me?」

James looked up at Heracles with a worried frown, clearly troubled. While it is true that he does not want to disclose any kind of information about 『Uroboros』 or the Community’s inner situation to Heracles out of concern the he would most certainly report back about everything he had heard to the higher-ups behind the 2nd War for the Sun’s Authority, who are, to put it lightly, not on friendly terms with those belonging to 『The Demon Lord Alliance』, then everything else that he told him was an honest to Gods truth, and even the fact that he shared the information that they managed to obtain by reaching 「The Pillars of Heracles」as the very first Community showed that he was willing to go quite far and make the utmost confessions just so that he could secure Heracles’ cooperation for himself.

Not to mention that the way James looked at it, Heracles’ purpose and goals were not really all that far from his own, but that made the impasse that they were currently locked in all the more infuriating, because even after James went out of his usual comfort zone to demonstrate his sincerity to him, Heracles still refused to budge from his standpoint of not trusting him, which was really beginning to get under his. . . .

「James.」

「. . . Hmm? Yes, what is it?」

「Your mouth, and the words that come out of it. . . they all have a foul stench about them. They both stink. That is why I cannot bring myself to trust you even of you want me to.」

「. . . . .」