Third Outer World Story Series: Pumpkin Sorcerer - Chapter 44

Translator: MadHatter Editor: MadHatter

“????????”

“?????????”

“Here is…”

When Pumpkin’s eyes eventually opened, he encountered two men quarreling in a dimly-lit house while dressed in ragged clothing.

The faces of the two men, notwithstanding their age difference, looked somewhat alike, which led him to believe that they were probably father and son.

And at the same time, he came to a realization: this was the same thing that he had seen at that time. 

“??????”

“…”

The youngster was hanging his head down and quivering as though going through something, while the older of the two men, who was possibly the father, turned his back on the man who seemed to be his son.

“??????”

“…!?… ??????”

“!?”

When the father mentioned something, the son then leaped up in his face with rage, rushed forward gripping a nearby kitchen knife, and at the moment the father perceived his son’s abnormality, the son launched himself at the father’s abdomen…

…and pierced him.

“????…”

“…”

One can say that this was a… tragedy.

Having stabbed his father in the abdomen, the son ran away, undoubtedly repulsed by the severity of what he had done. His father, wailing, sought to reach him powerlessly, yet his touch failed to connect with him.

Then, the following words, whose meaning had never reached Pumpkin’s ears comprehensibly until now, somehow penetrated his ears effortlessly.

“I am sorry… my son.”

And…

“…”

The father’s hands fell to the ground as his strength exhausted, and the walls of the house dispersed like sand swept by the wind.

“????????”

“?????????”

What eventually presented itself was a repetition of the previous scene.

However, the two arguing figures appeared to be more affluent than before and were attired in the style of Western aristocrats in their previous lives.

Yet, the ending had not changed. After his son drew a sword from his waist, the father was stabbed in the abdomen and succumbed to his death.

“…”

Then all over again, the same spectacle began to unfold itself, as the obstacle and the father’s memories started to fade away.

“This is getting awfully out of taste…”

Pumpkin himself could vividly tell who was displaying him this scene and where he was right now. That was why he posed the question to them.

“Don’t you think so? Lean-sama.”

“…”

From the direction Pumpkin turned his gaze, he perceived the presence of something invisible, and as his words reached the target, the presence wavered briefly.

He then noticed that all the repetitive spectacles around him had been turned into sand and scattered, revealing the usual heaven and earth inverted world spread out all around him.

“That’s why I utilized you to terminate this cycle.”

“Huh… I knew it was something like that after all.”

He realized that this scene, which was still playing out, represented Tangosack’s past—or, to be more concise, the end of his prior life up until this point—when Lean’s words came from the spot where there was a presence.

“He’s, you know… no matter how rich or poor, how clean or indulgent, or whether he had a son or not, he’s always faced the same ending.”

“He will be killed by his son…?”

“A more succinct way to put it would be that he was stabbed to death in the abdomen unexpectedly by the one he would call his son.”

The sorrow was somehow evident in Lean’s voice.

But still, by his son huh… from what Tangosack said, I suppose I’ll be playing the role of his son in this life.

And that originally I would have killed Tangosack too.

That reminds me, I punched Tangosack in the abdomen right after becoming a pumpkin as well… What a horrific tale when I think about it. 

“I believe the proper way for the world to be, is for those who deserve it to be rewarded. That is why I hoped to remedy his repetition. But destiny itself is merciless and impermanent, and the more we wish to change it, the more it opposes our wishes to prevent us from changing it.”

“…”

“That’s one of the reasons why there are so many things I can’t tell you. If you know their destiny and want to change it, the world will conspire against you to thwart you from changing it. Ignorance is a sin, yet it is also the most formidable weapon that can overthrow any destiny.”

In other words, Lean-sama knows too much and therefore can set things up by manipulating the environment and guiding my thoughts, but cannot directly save them?

The word called “world” is utterly vile.

However, the reason why Lean-sama can’t act is probably because of the existence of the other party whom they cannot be discovered, as they mentioned before.

“You may live your life as you wish, for it will save you.”

“…”

Along with Lean’s words, his surroundings faded to pitch-black, and his consciousness rapidly drifted away.

?????

Guchuri…

In the absence of any light source, something was wriggling in the room.

They were naked men and women, giant snakes, lush young trees, wolves with huge jaws, insect legs protected by solid shells, something that looked like thin threads moving in wiggles, wings of birds so massive that they obscured the heavens, and parts of creatures that could only be described as bizarre. Overall, many of the silhouettes were similar to those of human women, yet all manner of beings that could be roughly categorized as living creatures were melding and fusing together, blending thoroughly and profoundly, with the occasional coquettish voices.

It was questionable whether this existence could be regarded as a single living thing, but if it were to be regarded as a single existence, “chaos” would be the most fitting term to refer to them.

“May I have a word?”

And here, a white light leaked out as if it were a square cut out of one corner of the pitch-black room, from which a woman’s voice emerged.

[[[What can I do for you?]]]

The woman was in full view of every creature that constituted chaos, and each one of their lips was uttering the same word.

“I was going through some of the old lists and found one that doesn’t match up with the current one. I suspect it might be… This needs to be investigated at the earliest opportunity.”

[[[Hmmm. For my part, I don’t really care. What’s more important is my own optimization and enhancement process.]]]

Chaos gave a sluggish reply to the woman’s statements.

“…I’ll tell Mother.”

[[Why don’t you just tell her? I’m a failure anyway. Neither one of us is going to interfere with each other now.]]

Chaos, oblivious to the faintly indignant voice of the woman, gradually converged into a uniform form while forcibly restraining the struggling creatures from being drawn into the crucible of chaos.

“Tsk…”

“Well, at least find out where ‘that’ went. If you find ‘that’ and everything’s intact, retrieve it.”

As she passed a visitor to the room wearing a white robe that she had abruptly put over her skin, the woman with the orange hair and three horns was apparently agitated by Chaos.

“Now, if only things were as entertaining as they are… hahaha.”

Chaos muttered this to no one in particular.

—————–

A/N:

Obviously, there are other sources of reincarnation other than Kurokiri world and HASO world.

T/N:

These characters probably already made their appearances in the author’s second Outer World Story series (This is the third Outer World Story by the way). But I don’t really have much information about the second Outer World Story series characters so it’s quite a jumble here. Well, just think of it as a mystery. It is a mystery anyway for those who only read this novel specifically and not in Outer World Story’s sequence.