3 bar menu

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 468 Part 2

ShangriLa Frontier Chapter 468: Dragon, Oh Dragon! PART 45 Part 2

It is not a defeat in the classical form of the word. It’s just that…… Right now, Siegwurm was no longer able to protect the reason for his existence. When everything will be finally over, he won’t be there to see what is about to come. It will be those “humans” or “human-like beings”. They will be the successors of his will…… They will be the one to burn the light of the Origin, the task and the battle that Siegwurm’s creator left in his hands all that time ago.

Siegwurm the Heavenly Emperor, the fallen soldier from the Era of the Gods…… No, that’s not it. That’s not who he really is. He is but the Incineration Unit “Siegwurm”.

If Siegwurm was a human being, he surely would have lived in the past and lamented it over and over again. However, Siegwrum is a weapon. He accepted the end before he would even be given a chance to regret it.

「CAN YOU POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND THE DESPAIR OF LEARNING THAT THE OBJECT OF YOUR LONGING IS NOTHING LIKE YOU HAVE IMAGINED IT, THAT IT WAS JUST A VISION IN YOUR HEAD THAT DOES NOT EXIST IN REALITY? CAN YOU UNDERSTAND THE ANGER OF WANTING TO BE LIKE SOMEONE ONLY FOR THAT SOMEONE TO LAUGH AT ALL THE EFFORT YOU HAVE PUT INTO CATCHING UP TO THEM!?」

That is why Noirlind hated Siegwrum so much.

It’s because of the amalgamation of all those negative emotions that Noirlind wanted to shout out “I AM STILL A BETTER DRAGON KING THAN YOU ARE!!!”. All because he admired Siegwurm so much. And he did not want anything more in this world but be praised by that powerful Dragon King one day. That was a dream his dumb heart gave birth to all those years ago.

「HOWEVER…… WHEN HE LOOKS SO MISERABLE NOW, I CAN’T EVEN FORCE MYSELF TO LOOK AT HIM.」

Siegwurm has been hurt by his own power. He spoke out loud that he was about to die, and now he even asked others to kill him before that could happen. It was nothing else but assisted suicide.

Seeing the object of his admiration in such a state, how could Noirlind not lament that? A dragon who is said to have once conquered the Heavens themselves was now begging for humans to put an end to his entire existence.

「IF IT HAS TO BE THAT WAY, GETTING INVOLVED WITH HIM WOULD BE THE ACT OF MERCY HERE…… HMPH, I GUESS THAT BEING KILLED BY HIS OWN POWERS WOULD MAKE HIM FEEL EVEN MORE MISERABLE.」

Hearing all that coming from Noirlind’s mouth, Akitsu Akane could not possibly find the right words to speak up. Those words were just too heavy of a burden.

If Akitsu Akane was like Sanraku, perhaps he would have been able to find the right words to say, or even throw a single sarcastic comment. But unfortunately, Akitsu Akane does not possess such skills…… so the only thing he could do here was to speak his own mind up, his words coming straight from his heart.

「A little while ago, I asked you a certain question, Sanraku-san…… Do you remember that?」

For someone like Akitsu Akane, who keeps running around and looking for a goal to follow after, someone like Sanraku, who always seems to have something to look up to and to chase after, is someone who Akitsu Akane respects the most…… But he is also a person who causes Akitsu Akane to always be in doubt about himself.

「How? How can you do it, to constantly give it your very best like that all the time? And can you do that whilst you don’t have a goal to look forward to……?」

…

………

……………

「No, even if you go and suddenly say something so unpleasant…… I mean, I can just look the other way or pretend not to hear it, but……」

「Ah, umm, I mean, that’s not what this is all about in here!」

「I thought as much. I don’t think that someone like you would be able to be that kind of person, even mentally…… Oh yeah, I also have something like that…… something that I long for with all of my might.」

「Eh…… Even someone like you?」

Even someone like Sanraku has longings and ambitions? Even though he certainly has the power and means to make them all a reality without issue? What could that longing possibly be? Becoming a professional gamer? Or maybe an athlete? Or maybe reach the heights the likes of which only fictional characters were able to reach before?

But the answer that Sanraku gave him was quite different from what Akitsu Akane was expecting to hear.

「My future self.」

「Pardon……?」

「When it comes to games, no matter how unique or diverse they may be from one another, they are all pretty much equal when you start thinking about it.」

In the past, games were being operated via buttons and different controllers, and no one would even imagine a future where Full Dive VR technology would become a standardized norm. Whether you are a kindergarten child or an old man, you can push a button to punch out a small fry enemy with a single blow. Whether you are a man or a woman, you can defeat the Great Demon Lord who threatens to destroy the world by raising the level of your character and maximizing the potential of your equipment.

「So if those are the ambitions that the player can realize inside of a video, why would we not want to dream of something similar in the real world?」

Sanraku then continues speaking, even though he simply refused to admit that TAS is basically impossible outside of the virtual world.

「Just because you are unable to do something now does not necessarily mean that you will be unable to do that in the future. In fact, I have managed to get my revenge on the alter ego of Nightprowler Luukan, even though it was kind of a hollow victory in the end. But as you can clearly see, what was previously impossible for me have now become very much accessible.」

「So…… does that mean that you have managed to become that future self that you were longing after? Or perhaps you want to push yourself even further?」

「That’s right. Do you wish to give up just because you are unable to do something? No, that’s not it. If you wanted to quit, you would have done so already, long ago when things started to not go exactly the way you wanted them to go. But that inability to do something can serve as your motivation to keep on pushing forward, for as long as you keep on trying you can achieve anything. …… The one thing that I admire the most is the future where I’m working hard towards making my goals a reality. The one that I am constantly chasing after is myself from one second into the future.」

However, Sanraku concludes, human beings are organisms that always live in the present and put the future as their goal. And even though Akitsu Akane could not see that, it seemed that Sanraku even blushed a little under his mask while he was saying that.

「The only thing that I can do right now is to simply be proud of myself and the past choices I have made, right?」

……………

………

…

「…… I’m sure that there is no right or wrong answer to the way in which you can admire someone. After all, each person is different in the way in which they go about certain things and what their aims are…… but even though they may be different, there is no way that their methods or feelings are wrong or bad! At least that’s what I believe in!」

No matter what your motives may be, you can always be proud of the road that it took you to reach your goals. Those were the words that Akitsu Akane spoke to Noirlind when they met for the very first time.

That is also why Akitsu Akane right now put his hands on Noirlind’s shoulders…… and spoke up. The words that left his mouth were mostly the same as those he spoke up on that day. But this time around, he also had something more he wanted to add to that.

「I…… I just cannot leave someone on their own when they are doing their best! That is why…… Let us beat Siegwurm together! You and I!」