Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)

687. The Solemn Thorns of Red Roses

The Allegory of the Cave was a thought experiment that explored perception and reality. The metaphor likened one to being trapped in a cave, who could only perceive the shadows as reality.

These shadows came from an object and a light they could not see. Any object that cast a shadow constituted their perceived reality. Those who were stuck in the cave could not know of the reality beyond it. Some were chained, others feared the light of the flame for their eyes would sting with the blinding truth.

There was more to the archaic metaphor of the Allegory of the Cave. Raoul had learned it at some point in his life, as Deiman likely did as well. The issue was that the knowledge itself did not exist outside of specific circles or schools of thought.

But there was clearly more to this as Raoul took the young man by the collar and dragged his feet behind another monolith.

“I’ve never heard of a Deiman.” Raoul spat. A thumb pressed against his throat, drawing a small droplet of blood. “Nor do I recognize that color of hair. What magical principles do you follow?”

“… I don’t know…”

“Then how did you solve the monolith?”

“I can see lights… Can you see them too? Bright rings. Blue, red and yellow.”

“Show me.” Raoul twisted him and pressed him against the monolith.

If Deiman was any weaker, then his ribs would have cracked. It made no sense as to why Raoul was violent all of a sudden. Deiman simply accepted this. He didn’t call for help or struggle. He only did what he was told, and pointed at various parts of the text where yellow lights were.

“Blue lights… are from a different kind of teaching. Red lights are red herrings… Like the shadows.” Deiman confidently said, showing Raoul exactly where these were after the yellow rings. “The yellow ones are the truths.”

His interactions caused the light around the room to move again. The shadows of the monoliths crept over one another all except for theirs. It was like they were basking in the spotlight.

“The light is something that should be faced head on. To depart from darkness. Blue light… is a different approach. It’s of the moon. I can’t see that one fully like you.” Deiman said. “How come?”

“The Blue Dahlia inscribed those ones. They’re also a red herring.” Raoul immediately answered.

Deiman wanted to ask why he was so fixated on them then if they were red herrings. But before he could ask, Raoul elaborated.

“Dahlias come in every color aside from blue. The only instance that they can become blue is when they glow under the moonlight. Rather, the many dots I see along these monoliths are like the countless forget me nots. The reds you see are isolated roses. The yellow of something else.”

Raoul placed his palm flat against Deiman’s back.

“Yellow confirms that you are part of the Golden Dawn. Stand still. I’ll make your death painless.”

Deiman didn’t try to fight back. He allowed Raoul to continue feeling the tatooes that were permanently etched into his back like an engraving. They were deep enough for a fingernail to slip through. If anything, they were closer to external Mana Channels that the Demons possessed which streamlined magic for them.

Raoul paused abruptly.

“… I was wondering how you were able to see multiple lights. You… You were not just with the Golden Dawn.”

Deiman was a Demi-Human fox man, but he had experimental traits of a Demon.

“A Demi-Human that already takes on the basic form of a human. Then you have Demon characteristics…”

Raoul was wary all of a sudden, as if he stumbled on something he should not have touched. However, the symbol of the Golden Dawn caused him to believe otherwise.

“You were an experiment? A lost thorn? No… you were likely something more than that. But you’ve found another place to call your own. The Golden Dawn.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Deiman wanted some clarity on his past. He slipped through Raoul’s hand and turned to face him.

Raoul’s hand latched onto his throat, but before he could squeeze to threaten the young man…

… He noticed Deiman’s empty eyes.

“Can you tell me more about them? About myself? I want to remember too. If you hate me because of something I did, then can you at least tell me before you kill me?”

Raoul grit his teeth. He couldn’t look into those eyes any further. Not when they looked just like the ones the twins carried. His sincere ignorance caused a wave of guilt to strike Raoul, causing him to release Deiman.

“You’re a Shell too. And you don’t remember a thing of what turned you that way?”

“I do not. I just know that I want to live. But I also know that I can’t stop you from killing me.”

Raoul refused to look in Deiman’s direction again. The memories of the twins haunted him, and Deiman’s complicated existence caused Raoul’s shadow to flicker like an unsteady flame.

Eventually, as the other three conversed without a care in the world, and after hearing Ara’s laughter, Raoul tapped on where the yellow lights were as Deiman pointed out earlier. After a sequence of clicks, and as the ball of light spun around, he asked Deiman to follow him to the next monolith.

“The Golden Dawn has roots with a group that called themselves the Red Rose on the surface. Used to though. They don’t exist anymore, but fragments of them still do. It didn’t occur to me that your yellow eyes meant that you were probably a slave at some point. But now it makes sense. You were probably found by the Golden Dawn. But before that, you were certainly a part of ‘that’ group.”

“What does that make me?”

“A traitor.” Raoul bluntly said.

He didn’t explain or elaborate further.

The monoliths went down with ease at first. But after the tenth they became far more difficult. The yellow light Deiman saw eventually became one of the illusions of the cave. It was but a flame that cast the shadow at that were represented by the red and blue light.

“A dead end?” Ara called out to them. “Surely you’re strong enough to break through!”

“That is another way…”

“Ignore her. We will not be able to preserve this place.” Raoul was determined to solve the puzzle than to use brute force.

“Why don’t you say that out loud to her?” Deiman asked.

“Because it will stop her from smiling. Ara… takes me back to old times. Her music’s able to touch on good memories.”

“To what kind of time?”

“Listen, brat. Any more lip and it’s off with your head. Those kinds of days are long dead.” Raoul growled. “Now help me with the interpretation of this one. We only have five left to go.”

Deiman didn’t know what else he could do. He fell into deep thought and tried to tap into his memories. But those shelves were empty. His library of memories was as silent as his own thoughts.

Suddenly, he felt a warm ray of light coming from the orb. Its light was far too intense to stare at directly. Even Raoul had trouble with this. But Deiman, who had nothing to lose, stared deeply into the light before suddenly…

… the cave walls turned white.

“Anything?”

“… The shadows are still here despite everything being so bright. Are the shadows just as real to us as the outside?” Deiman asked himself, speaking in a trance-like manner as he touched the now pale monoliths. “… It will be to people. I think…”

Deiman saw a new ring. It was white; a pure, untouched light that led him to solve all but one last monolith. By now the others had packed up and prepared to leave, seeing that the doors would soon open.

He pressed his hand against it, and the monolith turned dark all of a sudden. The text became blue, uttering the teachings of whoever designed this puzzle.

“Gibberish. It’s like whoever wrote this must have forgotten how to write…” Deiman said.

“It does appear that way.” Raoul solemnly whispered and touched the etches. A faint, blue lens-like object was held in that same hand that longingly brushed against its rugged surface.

The doors were swallowed into the walls, revealing the blinding rays of the sun. Raoul called Ara to his side. She bid farewell to the others, knowing that Raoul did not want to travel with them.

Besides, they had their own separate goals.

Deiman stared at Raoul’s back. Despite the intensity of the light from both the cave and the world outside, his shadow did not disappear. It was perpetual, and it stalked him even in the brightest of truths.

“Deiman. Be careful.” Raoul offered his parting words only to the young man. “I wouldn’t stay in the Bellum Empire for more than four days at most. White Midnight has presence there. If they knew you were from the Golden Dawn, then don’t expect them to be as merciful as I.”

“Are they the Red Rose…?”

“They’re only a small, insignificant thorn. But that thorn is still one of the 13 major Syndicates. There are many thorns like them waiting for people like you, and Autumn to appear. Red eyes and golden hair. With enough thorns you can construct a rose, however imperfect that may be.”

Raoul turned to Ara.

His crimson eyes shimmered in the light.

“Let us never meet again.”

With that, Raoul disappeared into the light.

“What he means is – let’s meet again! But in a better place than Grandis!” Ara exclaimed, waving at them before she followed him into the light.

The path into the Bellum Empire was now opened.

Raoul’s words of warning mirrored Mae’s own.

And just as she was about to tell them, “I told you so!” –

“At least we’ll find Frost earlier~”

“Mhm. This is good for us.”

“W-Wait! WAIT! You two can’t possibly –!”

They disappeared before Mae could get them to reconsider.

“LISTEN TO ME DAMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT! JUST WHEN I WAS STARTING TO WARM UP TO YOU TWOOOOOOOOO!”