Trigger warning: there is self-harming near the end of the chapter
Bai Liu makes a simple comnt, "Sounds like what the from another tiline would do."
Tang Erda gives him a look, "if this case is just that simple, it would only be one of the many cris you've committed."
He pauses, "I wouldn't rember it until now too."
Bai Liu tilts his head to look at Tang Erda, "what happened after?"
"...After Armand died, Georgia regained consciousness. But he was crushed again by the death of Armand when trying to avenge him. He was heartbroken, he wanted to work but he couldn't work normally, the Anomalies Authorities had to force him to take a long break..."
"After his break, Georgia locked himself in Armand's room, whenever he did that he would sit there for a whole day. I went to see him a few tis to try to communicate with him, to ask what Bai Liù did to him, but he just kept talking to himself soullessly--it's not supposed to be like this, the future I saw isn't like this, I should've been the one that died, it should've been anyone else, not Armand..."
Tang Erda falls silent for a mont, lifting his head with a cigar in his mouth to stare at the words 【Golden Dawn】 on the whiteboard.
"I later asked his coworkers if Georgia had said anything about what Bai Liù did to him, but his coworkers only told , Georgia said Bai Liù just let him look at the 【Future】."
"No one knew what's the 【Future】 that Georgia saw, but what happened next was out of my expectations."
Tang Erda looks at Bai Liu, "Bai Liù eliminated six secret strongholds of the Anomaly Authorities in a row, robbing us of the highly dangerous anomalies. Even though we managed to shoot down The Clown that's here to destroy the anomalies, we still lost a lot."
"But the scariest thing isn't losing a lot of things, it's how Bai Liù is able to know the Anomaly Authorities' secret strongholds that contained a special first-grade class red anomaly that has gone through all kinds of encryption, only Georgia knew, and won't tell anyone."
"--Unless it's soone that Georgia fully trusts, and in Georgia's heart, that person can only be Armand."
Tang Erda sighs softly, "Even though we refused to believe that Georgia would betray the Anomaly Authorities and tell the secret strongholds to Bai Liù, we investigated Georgia out of caution."
"Georgia passed 127 rounds of being tested by the balance. We confird that he abhors Bai Liù and would never betray the Anomaly Authorities, nor betray peace and justice. Under everyone's fair judgent, Georgia kept his position, and the investigation made toward Georgia beca a cold case."
"In the world outside of the ga, the investigation had co to a halt. But in the ga, I noticed that Bai Liù's team has a new bench teammate that wore a mask. His attacks are powerful, and he kills without hesitation, just like a killing machine. His form and height are all similar to Georgia, but the part that draws my suspicion the most is his ability."
Tang Erda stares at Bai Liu for a long ti before tilting his head to take a puff of his cigarette, speaking in a hoarse voice, "his ability is a bow, it's called The Bow of Reversal, it can reverse the ti on a human body to three hours ago."
"Between the ti of Armand's death and the ti we find his corpse is exactly three hours."
Tang Erda takes two deep breaths, "I found Georgia and asked if he is Bai Liù's bench player, and he admitted it."
"I didn't understand why he would choose to join Bai Liù's team. Georgia had been through the tests of The Balance, I truly believe that he hates Bai Liù from the bottom of his heart, and believes in peace and justice, but he still beca Bai Liù's bow and arrow willingly for unknown reasons."
"So I asked him why. Georgia said no matter how hard he tries to redeem, this will not lead to the future of peace and justice, and wouldn't be the future where Armand exists. He wants to fix that future, and only Bai Liù has a way to change that future."
"No matter how much he despises Bai Liù, he still willingly beca a bow tainted by the blood of the innocent for Bai Liù for the correct future. The mont Armand cos back to his future, he will die for his sins, that's the correct future."
The cigarette in Tang Erda's hand is already burnt to its tip as they converse. Bai Liu hands an astray to him, lifting his eyes to stare at Tang Erda as he suddenly falls silent, "What happened to Georgia at the end of this tiline?"
Tang Erda puts out his cigarette in the ashtray Bai Liu gives him quietly, turning his head toward Bai Liu as he huffs out a final puff of smoke, "He won The League with Bai Liù and got a wish, I don't know what his wish was, but he killed himself the next day."
"Georgia died at the spot where Armand died. We found his corpse after three hours."
"I wish that Armand can revive in the right future."
Georgia sees himself covered in blood in his dream, kneeling down in front of a vague outline of light as he made his wish, besides him was a long silver bow that is stained with blood.
He vaguely realises that the form bathing in light is a powerful being -- a god-like being.
God asks him, "Do you not need to live in the right future?"
Georgia sees himself shake his head, "I don't deserve a future like that, I made a wrong choice, I should take responsibility for it, death is the only future that I deserve."
God asks him again, "You are a kind victor, don't you want others to be able to exist in the right future?"
Georgia then shakes his head, "A wrong future is caused by each individual's every single wrong choice, just like how I should be responsible for my wrong choices. Everyone in this world is the sa, they should all carry the burden of a cruel future for letting loose of their desires."
Then God asks again, "Armand is the sa, you are condoning his mistakes, giving him a rightful future despite that he had made wrong decisions."
"This is your selfishness and desire, Georgia, this is your injustice."
Georgia closes his eyes and lowers his head silently. Blood drips down from his eyelashes, as if pitying his tears.
"That's right. it's my selfishness as a brother. I know e did sothing bad, and that he should take responsibility for it, I only wish that all sins can fall upon , and not Armand."
"But I know this is impossible."
God says, "You and Armand should pay for your selfishness and injustice."
"As a punishnt, you will lose the future with Armand in it forever, and Armand will never have the future with you."
"Except for birth, you two will always be a pair of brothers that walks opposing paths."
Georgia wants to wake up from this uneasy dream, but no matter how much he struggled, the dream continued on, becoming more mixed up and broken.
He sees himself bowing with respect in front of a person covered in darkness, and his neck is full of dark red whip scars.
The person fixes the black whip in his hand casually, lifting Georgia's chin with his dress shoe lazily, and Georgia could finally see this person's face clearly.
The person is sitting on a wide leather couch and has fair and soft Asian features, there is an amicable smile on his face as he talks to him leisurely, just like he is having a chit chat, "Georgia, I am very satisfied with you."
"I know your heart doesn't obey , but you did too well." Bai Liù lowers his eyes, using the handle of his whip to lift Georgia's chin higher.
Georgia's long neck is taut from being lifted too high by Bai Liù's mischief, and his Adam's apple slides up and down, the whip scars on his collarbone are very obvious.
"You killed dozens of normal players that have no relations to you with zero hesitation, and the six secret strongholds were told by you as well, news of hundreds of your past teammates' death was put in front of you, yet you didn't even blink."
Bai Liù complints him with a sigh, "Whether it be your looks or your abilities, you are perfect like a machine."
"Soone in the ga praises that you are a fairy with no emotions." Bai Liù caressed Georgia's face which holds no feelings with his thumb, "I completely agree with it, you can't see the high and mighty captain Georgia anymore."
"This really surprises , a death of a loved one can change you so drastically."
Bai Liù retracts his hand, gripping his whip as if he is deep in thought, "I had been through the sa thing, but the only change it did to , is when I saw that you and your brother have such similar features, I nearly failed to hold back my anger."
His tone was lazy, making people think that he will whip Georgia harshly as he is speaking.
But Georgia who is kneeling seems to be used to being whipped by Bai Liù, only flinching once before lowering his head and becoming motionless again.
"Let think, this ti when you killed those innocent people, which lethal part did you strike?" Bai Liù asks plainly, "I believe that our captain Georgia must rember that, correct?"
Georgia's eyelashes have a minuscule shiver, he answers softly, "I rember."
Bai Liù's eyes are half-lidded, "You should repent for your cruel murders, take off your clothes."
Georgia stands up and removes his clothes obediently. His body is filled with whip wounds that are not yet healed, they are like venomous snakes wrapping around his waist and thighs, sticking their tongues out of his pale skin.
Georgia who is in the dream breath quickened--he subtly realises that each whip scar ans that he had killed one person.
The person in front of him is torturing him.
This person knows that he will not feel pain because of simple flesh wounds, but he will be in excruciating pain for his impurity, incorrectness and injustice.
So each ti they had been through a competition, when Georgia had killed a person during it, this person will make Georgia announce their na and where he shot them, then give him the sa whip scar where he had shot them.
Bai Liù is using these scars and pain to remind Georgia of the cruel reality: the things I'm doing to you now are not even close to the cruel things you did to those people.
To cover his whip scars, Georgia is wearing a zipped uniform with a long collar, it can be zipped up to his chin. After bearing Bai Liù lashing out his emotions on him, he stands up steadily and puts on his clothes, bowing to Bai Liù with respect before exiting Bai Liù's room.
Georgia sees himself trotting through a few long hallways without looking at anyone, making his way to a door to a room and opening it, then imdiately dashing to the toilet bowl and starting to puke while scratching the painful scars on his body.
He seems to want to throw up so certain thing that made him abhor himself, but no matter how hard he tries he could only puke water, he ends up having spasms on the floor from trying to force himself to puke.
Georgia continues to final ways to torture himself, even using a knife to slice the wounds on his body, trying to deepen the wounds to punish himself. Georgia heaves quietly, tears continuing to flow out.
At last, Georgia sees himself laying on his bed in exhaustion, curling into a ball as he holds a pocket watch in a daze. He seems to want to open the pocket watch, but at last, he rely places a kiss on it, shutting his tearful eyes and falls deep into slumber.
Georgia recognises this pocket watch, he knows that there is a picture of him and Armand.
Bai Liu sends Tang Erda out of his room, they are chatting as they walk on the street.
"I'm curious, after you found out Georgia had betrayed the Anomaly Authorities, you must've told the Anomaly Authorities imdiately." Bai Liu turns his head to look at Tang Erda, "What did the Anomaly Authorities do with him?"
Tang Erda shrugs as he puts on his jacket, turning to face him, "The first take Georgia's position. then they start to investigate the reason behind Georgia's betrayal. But the mont that the investigation starts, Georgia ran away.
"At that ti, the Anomaly Authorities has two explanations, the first one is that Georgia has been corrupted by Bai Liù using so certain anomaly items, and his sanity lowered which is why he was controlled by Bai Liù."
"But this cannot explain how Georgia is able to tell Bai Liù the locations of the secret strongholds--even if Georgia went crazy, if Bai Liù had no way to make Georgia fully trust him, he had no way to learn the locations of the secret strongholds from Georgia."
"The other explanation is just speculations from so people..." As he speaks, Tang Erda strangely cos to a halt, and his features start to twist, "soone speculated that Georgia got Stockholm syndro and fell in love with you, that's how he got controlled by you."
Bai Liu raises a brow, "you guys are pretty gossipy."
"...This is not gossip, this is to find the truth, we had to hypothesize from different angles," Tang Erda explains with difficulty, glancing at Bai Liu as he adds, "There's a reason why this saying is pretty widespread, it's because Georgia has unexplained whip wounds on his body, and your...Bai Liù's weapon is a whip."
Bai Liu, "..."
Him from another tiline, is he really that kinky?
Translators notes: HOLY SHIT I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO ADD A BUTTON AFTER SO LONG!!!!! Ti to go back and edit everything haha...
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