Life didn't get easier, even in another world

324 Twist it

Kairen couldn’t help but think about the teachings of the religion he had learned about before.

“Isn’t it also what they worshiped?”

“What they worshipped?”

Kairen nodded his head.

“A religion... That guy you call Samuel was their holy saint, he was the one who created it.”

The redhead’s eyes rose up in surprise.

“He did what?”

“You didn’t know? He brought religion to that world with unique principles. His believers worshipped an ‘Idea’ rather than a ‘God’, which made the religion different from the other ones in that era. I’ve read that they had to worship the ’cause’ of everything. They believed in chains of actions, the cause, and the result. They worshipped the first cause and the last result and called it god. They also said that their god was the source of the unique powers, which made the religion have opposing ideas with the empire’s people who said that emperor Reynold bestowed the unique powers to people. They said if they were a good follower, they would get a place in the chain and manage to gain a unique power. They had seven temples all around the continent with each being named after one of the unique powers and went up against the empire, killed The Dragon of Frost, and did a lot of other strange stuff.”

The man named Reynold stared at Kairen, his face that of someone who was in utter shock.

.....

“That crazy bastard did them all?”

Kairen nodded in his answer.

“That scumbag!”

The redhead cursed with anger.

“Why the hell would he do those things in that world- Ah!”

He suddenly gasped as if suddenly recalling something.

“That’s because of those places... That piece of shit!”

He cursed even louder.

“What places...”

Reynold took a deep breath.

“The three platforms I had created there long ago...”

“Huh?”

“Sigh!”

Reynold leaned back a little bit and placed his palms on the ground, supporting his body with them like two pillars.

“It has a long story.”

“I’m listening.”

“Haaa!”

The man let go of the ground, his body slumped down, making a plopping sound.

“I really shouldn’t talk about those secrets during the first hour of meeting with you.”

“Didn’t you say you know me?”

“Yeah, but not the you of now.”

“Are the me of now and the previous me too different?”

“....”

The man closed his mouth and stared at the ceiling for a few minutes.

“Maybe you are... and maybe not... I can’t be sure. I’ve met the previous you so long ago that I’ve already forgotten a lot of things about him.”

“...Really?”

Kairen doubted the man’s words. His actions didn’t match with the things he just said.

“Yeah...”

But he decided to act as if he was believing the man.

“Why do you keep regretting your words after you are halfway through the subject?”

“....”

Reynold was still staring at the ceiling. He didn’t say anything for a whole minute after hearing Kairen’s question.

“Maybe because I can’t distinguish the you of now from the you that I knew...”

Kairen didn’t say anything. He was still confused and bewildered by this... reincarnation fact. It would be hard to believe that someone who was sitting, no... actually lying on the ground just beside them was someone they had known before dying... in another life... and more that this person was some freak who called himself an emperor...

Kairen wondered, if this man was telling the truth, then who was he in his previous life for the great Emperor Reynold to care so much about him? Was he an important figure in the empire? Maybe he was a close friend or something like that?

“We found out about The Reason.”

The man suddenly started talking again, making Kairen snap out of his thoughts.

“It was me and my close friend. We were experimenting... to create a way to defend our country...”

“A way to defend your country? You mean one of those ancient civilizations that existed before the catastrophe?”

Reynold shook his head.

“Not here. Not this land.”

He moved his arms slightly, supporting his body with them to get up and seat once again.

“I’m talking about our own country. My home. My nation. Not this place, but ruined land.”

Kairen tilted his head. There was only one meaning in the man’s words.

“Another world?”

Reynold gave a slight nod, making Kairen’s eyes widen in shock.

“It was a small, peaceful land. A place where every race could live in harmony. We didn’t sake much in life and weren’t greedy for power.”

The redhead’s eyes, talking about his homeland, were deep and sorrowful. Kairen wanted to question the man if he had mistaken him with the Kairen of his previous life when Reynold suddenly started to talk, but when he heard about the man’s origin, he decided to keep his mouth shut and listen to his words.

“It had nice weather, friendly people, and the best of the cultures. We had great technology, probably one of the most advanced worlds... Even more than your previous world... My people enjoyed gaining knowledge and using them... I was also one of them... They used to call me their prince...”

“You are a prince?!”

Kairen forgot about his decision to keep his mouth shut and instead shouted that question.

“I once was.”

Reynold shrugged.

“But that’s for the past. A destroyed land doesn’t need a prince.”

“Destroyed? Why?”

“A war broke out. Our small nation had nothing to rely on for survival other than luck.”

The man paused in between each sentence. It was as if he was thinking if it was alright to tell these things to Kairen for a few seconds before each word. Kairen had occasional questions after hearing the man’s every word, but he didn’t ask all of them as they would change the subject.

“That was when we discovered about The Reason. While searching for a way to defend ourselves, we found out about the origin of the world... Actually, it wasn’t me who found that out but my friend, Samuel.

He had been researching the cause of everything for a long time. He had joined the royal academy to study for a cure for his sick sister... He said it was when he got interested in the endless chain.

He told me, that if we could reach The Reason, we could gain any power...”

The man lowered his voice bit by bit.

“I was greedy...

Our nation was about to fall...

There was no hope. Nothing to do. We would die anyway...

So I let him do whatever he wanted. He asked my hand in seeking The Reason... So I helped him out.”

He paused. Using this chance, Kairen threw one of his many questions at the man.

“How did you want to seek The Reason?”

“By twisting the chain.”

“Twisting the chain?”

Reynold nodded his head.

“There are a few things that can twist the chain. You might’ve seen some in your previous life... Some special reactions inside atoms... Some objects in the space... Black holes, wormholes... All of them still have their reason and result, but as they get stronger, the more twist they make, the more intertwined their reasons and results get.”

Reynold didn’t explain things in detail, but Kairen could understand what he meant more or less.

.....

“What Samuel suggested was to trigger time and space.”

“Trigger space and time?”

The redhead nodded.

“To twist space-time...”

“How can you even twist space-time?”

Reynold shrugged his shoulders.

“I told you. Our world was advanced more than any. It wasn’t hard for Samuel to create a device to do what he wanted. Using the support of the royal family, his experiments advanced even faster... And he finally did what he wanted.”

Seeing that Reynold had paused again without any word, Kairen urged him to talk.

“So? What happened? Did you succeed?”

The man shook his head.

“It didn’t go as planned... And we... Ended up breaking the chain instead of twisting it slightly.”

“You what?”

They... broke the chain? The chain of reason and result? By twisting the space-time? Seriously? Wait, was it that easy to break such a thing with just some... attempt from a human? Wasn’t that too easy? Like... Was the chain that kept the world ongoing made out of glass or something?

Noticing the look on Kairen’s eyes, the man chuckled.

“I call it breaking as it’s no different than it, but it’s in fact a little bit different... The twist in the reason and result was... not a wise idea. A small change in one thing could lead to multiple changes in different results... And we just tried to twist the whole chain...

We didn’t manage to reach The Reason. All we could do with those high-tech devices were to... maybe create a small fluctuation in the original chain.

The small fluctuation though... spread out. It affected multiple chains, ever so slightly, and changed different results, reasons, and again results. Just that small change we made was enough to affect the whole cycle... That was a success for us, that was what we wanted in fact... Though we didn’t know how big things could get.”

Feeling as if he was watching, or maybe listening to a sci-fi movie or story, Kairen asked in an agitated tone.

“How big did the things get?”

Reynold shrugged.

“So big that it awakened The Reason.”