Chapter 247. Conclusion (2)
Putting together everything I had learned so far, Merlin’s plan had several stages.
The first stage was to create artificially enhanced Contractors around the world.
The most successful example had been Ha Mina’s Vessels, but apparently several other plans had been carried out in parallel.
For example, Round in Britain had ultimately been operating according to a system Merlin had created.
But just like Ha Mina and King Arthur, no one seemed to have realized that Merlin had been manipulating things from behind the scenes.
The second stage was to plunge the world into conflict so Contractors could gain real combat experience.
Ha Mina encouraging the Vessels to fight one another, Round traveling around hunting Vessels, and Hector attempting to provoke Japan into invading Korea...
all of it had ultimately been part of Merlin’s intentions.
The third stage was to place those strengthened Contractors at the front and drive Pandemonium out completely.
From that point onward, Merlin had planned to use the S-rank Constellations under him to gather powerful Contractors from around the world and form an enormous organization.
The fourth and final stage...
was to enthrone the absolute powerhouse who became a global hero after defeating Pandemonium as king...
and create a unified world-state.
“That really was an enormous plan.”
I sighed while looking at Merlin across the polygonal table.
Merlin wasn’t the type to meticulously plan every individual detail.
Instead, he created a broad framework, then arranged things so that no matter how the people within it moved, events would ultimately reach his intended destination.
“If you hadn’t interfered, I could have continued carrying out my plan from the shadows.”
“Right. While continuing to manipulate Constellations.”
Heracles.
Achilles.
Perseus.
Cú Chulainn.
Siegfried.
Beowulf.
Hector, or later Karna.
Every one of them was a Constellation comparable to Arjuna, the highest-ranking figure among our own forces.
Merlin had been trying to move the world according to his will while using heroes of that level as his hands and feet.
“Nameless King, prophecy isn’t really about using some supernatural power to see what will happen in the future.”
“Is that so?”
“It’s simply a matter of processing the countless pieces of information in the world and deriving the future most likely to occur.”
“Only people with certain special qualities, like Ha Mina or me, can do it, and there are plenty of limitations.”
Merlin tapped his temple with a fingertip.
“Until now, no matter what happened, events eventually converged on the future I wanted.”
“But once you began leading Constellations directly into the Material Realm, things slowly started going off course.”
“So that’s why you finally showed yourself?”
“I concluded that I couldn’t stop you unless I intervened personally.”
“In the end, I still failed.”
Merlin’s voice was surprisingly relaxed.
Perhaps because he had already accepted his defeat completely.
“Merlin, I don’t think your plan itself was entirely bad.”
“What?”
“Raising Contractors, driving out Pandemonium, and making the world peaceful.”
“That part isn’t bad.”
A lot of Constellations had probably found Merlin’s speech to Kang Yujin persuasive.
“But you only tried to draw the big picture.”
“That’s the problem.”
“What do you mean?”
“You scattered seeds across the world.”
“But you didn’t carefully control how those seeds grew.”
"..."
“And because of that, countless tragedies happened.”
The technology used to artificially enhance humans into Vessels could have become a way to save people in desperate circumstances, like Saionji Keito.
But Ha Mina had used a cult to kidnap people and force them into human experimentation.
That had created victims like Kang Yujin.
And countless other tragedies had probably occurred throughout the world.
“You wanted to erase the world’s tragedies using the power of a unified nation ruled by an absolute powerhouse.”
"..."
“But some of those tragedies happened because of you.”
Seen from that perspective, Merlin had something in common with the old Arjuna who had ignored Saionji Keito’s suffering.
He had avoided directly interfering with the Material Realm and let his Contractors live as they chose.
But unlike Arjuna, who had continued watching his Contractor out of compassion...
Merlin had planted the seeds himself and then avoided responsibility for what followed.
“I won’t accept you pushing that responsibility onto people like Ha Mina on the ground.”
"..."
From that standpoint alone...
Merlin was unquestionably an enemy I couldn’t tolerate.
“Kang Yujin probably couldn’t accept that part of you either.”
“Yes. He told me as much.”
Merlin let out a long sigh.
“In my own way, I was trying to respect other people’s autonomy.”
“I wanted to intervene only to the minimum degree necessary, then leave the rest to them.”
“I didn’t want to micromanage every single person’s actions.”
That was the exact opposite of my own method.
I had directly interfered with Kang Yujin and the others countless times.
Both approaches had strengths and weaknesses.
Which one was more correct probably depended on perspective.
This time, the flaws in Merlin’s approach had simply been exposed.
“If human nature were far more virtuous, your method probably wouldn’t have caused much trouble.”
If Ha Mina had truly been a saintly and benevolent person, receiving the idea for Vessels might not have caused any problems.
She could have selected only people who volunteered for the procedure, or those who genuinely needed it, and raised them as heroes to save others.
“But humans aren’t like that.”
“If you hand someone a weapon far beyond what they should possess, there’s always a chance they’ll abuse it.”
“Not every human, of course.”
“Yes.”
“That was my mistake.”
Merlin admitted his fault and covered his face with both hands.
“In the end... the one who defeated me was Kang Yujin, someone whose life was ruined because of me.”
“From that perspective, perhaps that was the true reason I lost.”
If Merlin had handled things differently, the Morning Star Church might never have imprisoned Kang Yujin and subjected him to human experimentation.
Then Kang Yujin might never have become my Contractor.
And Merlin would never have been defeated by him.
In the end...
Merlin had lost because of the irresponsible way he allowed Ha Mina to act.
“So I brought it on myself...”
Perhaps he found the irony bitter even to himself.
Merlin continued murmuring.
“Nameless King, the truth is... I was the same even long ago.”
“Long ago?”
“In the distant past, when I was alive... I ultimately failed to prevent the fall of Britain.”
Merlin’s voice darkened.
“I had foreseen Britain’s destruction.”
“But I never gave King Arthur detailed guidance.”
“I only gave him fragments of information.”
“That he would be destroyed by a certain knight who had yet to be born.”
“That the Holy Grail existed.”
