Chapter 718: Schizophrenic Neo

Chapter 718: Neo's Schizophrenia

The meeting concluded.

Neo walked outside, standing on the balcony with his hands resting on the railing, bathing in the cold wind.

The winter sunlight in Wien was like a gold coin hidden beneath a stingy merchant's bed, rarely dared to be shown to others.

Alfred stepped out and stood beside Neo, pulling out a pack of Thunder God Cult cigarettes; he drew one for himself and handed the rest of the pack to Neo.

Neo reached out to take it, flicking his wrist so that a cigarette flew out, spinning through the air before being perfectly caught between his lips.

"Click."

Alfred produced a match and first lit Neo’s cigarette.

"How wonderful. For Karen, and for all of you, everything has returned to the right track—no, it has returned to an even better starting point."

"You are correct. Today's meeting is destined to be recorded in the annals of history."

"Even as a mere bystander, I felt a bit thrilled, as if I were stepping directly into history."

"No, you are not a bystander."

"It seems you already view me as Karen’s subordinate?"

"I do not think that way, and neither would you. If we compare this to a gamble, you are the partner standing right beside the young master, looking at the hole cards together to discuss whether or not to call."

Neo turned his face to look at Alfred, exhaling a ring of smoke and smiling. "I am quite curious, how do you manage to remain so intensely focused all the time?"

"In what aspect do you mean?"

"Your passion for a certain cause; is it out of love? Because of faith? Or simply habit?"

"Are you rejecting my answer in advance?"

"Heh, I want to hear your honest truth."

"There is no reason." Alfred looked out toward the rooftops of the complex ahead. "We always habitually spend far too much thought and energy searching for reasons before we do things. In reality, that is just an illusion. Because whether you do it or not, most of the time it has nothing to do with the reasons you imagined beforehand. If a reason is truly needed, people usually just look to make up for it afterward."

"Making up for it?" Neo flicked away the cigarette ash. "I do not like that answer."

"Because my own capability is insufficient to provide you with an answer regarding this matter." Alfred bowed slightly in apology. "Aside from not wanting you to die, the young master does not seem to have taken the initiative to give you an answer either."

"He is just afraid that he will be lonely after I die."

"Yes, to the young master, you are the most special one, completely different from the rest of us."

"A pity, then, that I failed to die this time. Who knows how long I will have to wait for the next opportunity."

Neo turned around, preparing to leave.

Alfred remained in place, facing Neo's back.

After walking a few paces, Neo stopped and turned back to ask, "Do you have something you wish to say to me?"

"Your condition right now is very poor."

"Oh?"

Alfred raised a finger to point at his own forehead. "I know that not long ago, you borrowed the power of the Dice Roller to seal your own personas. But after the unexpected events of the cavern expedition, I suspect that because of a partial invasion of divine pollution, the seal has already become unstable. Most importantly, today, with the young master's return, your status within the Order was officially stripped away. Your ship, steered by multiple helmsmen, has lost its true ballast stone."

"Are you worried about me?"

"Yes, indeed. I do not wish for my young master to be lonely."

"Rest assured. I, Neo, will never die in a state of muddled confusion."

"That, I believe. You will certainly choose the most spectacular way to die."

Neo continued walking forward, raising his hand and waving it.

"See you around."

"The young master’s ritual for the Purifying Divine Servant will take about two days to prepare. You will come to observe the ceremony then, won't you?"

"We'll see."

...

While walking down the stairs, Neo was still humming a song.

Immediately afterward, he felt a wave of dizziness.

His gaze shifted continuously, transitioning from gloomy to deep in thought, and from calm to manic. This caused his body to briefly lose its balance, forcing him to grip the handrail with one hand to locate his true sense of spatial orientation.

Otherwise, he might very well have ended up walking straight up the wall. He possessed such a capability; after all, a bat could hang anywhere.

That

"I was only just lulling the child in my arms to sleep, singing him a lullaby, and who knew that as I hummed and hummed, I would sense you.

You did say you were willing to have me as a guest in your domain."

"I did say that, but shouldn't you have given some prior notice, sir?"

"That is no concern of mine, the fault lies chiefly with you. The concentration of pollution here has weakened far too much because of Karen. Though it will coalesce back given time, at least during this period..."

"What will happen during this period?"

"Because you absorbed a portion of the original power of faith and personally tainted yourself with the divine pollution here, coupled with the recent drop in pollution concentration, you yourself have gained the ability to echo this portion of the power of faith.

It is just as you said, I have a back door into your domain. In truth, it was a door you deliberately left open back when you proactively sought to 'steal things.'

Furthermore, it was not that I purposefully sought you out, but rather that you actively called to me. It is not that I came uninvited, but that you forced me here.

Your current situation seems somewhat grave. Have you encountered some new trouble?"

"What is the point of my talking to you?" Neo countered. "You are not that Luther in the cavern, you are merely his avatar."

"Oh, so that is how it is. I understand, ha-ha. I really had not realized it before; I actually thought I was the true self, ha-ha. So, what do I belong to now? I can faintly discern several others present here. Am I like them, belonging to your personalities?"

"You could try being a little quiet."

"Quiet?" Mr. Luther smiled. "That has nothing to do with me. I am not myself, yet I am you. Every personality possesses a rather intense desire to express itself, like a flock of children anxiously waiting to be praised by their parent."

"Now, please return from whence you came for the time being, or shut your mouth, if you will."

"I refuse. Since I am not my true self, whatever actions I take have nothing to do with my true self. Now, I shall begin my speech. Ahem, I have a dream..."

"Fuck your dream!"

Neo’s fingernails lengthened, and he felt an uncontrollable urge to gouge a hole into the space between his brows, to drag out the mentally hyperactive little figures within one by one and strangle them to death.

Yet before he could act, the world suddenly fell silent.

The whispers of the bloodthirsty aberration ancestor, the preachings of the mad pope, and the speech of Mr. Luther all went silent.

"Neo, your current state is very terrible." This was Philias.

"I know, Philias, I know."

"Have you lost your sense of self-identity? This has directly caused a derangement in your internal hierarchy, which is why they have become so active."

"Yes."

"You must be careful. If things continue like this, they will grow more and more active, and you will uncontrollably begin to absorb other personalities."

"I understand, I will handle it."

"That is well, Neo. Let me first help you soothe them."

"All right, thank you, Philias."

"Think nothing of it, it is only my duty. After all... the horn of the long voyage has already sounded! Let us embark upon a new journey; the mysterious sea and countless islands await our exploration and discovery..."

Neo: "..."

"My apologies, Neo, I was also somewhat influenced."

"It is fine, just speak a little louder, you are not as noisy as they are."

Neo stood up and dissolved the isolation barrier. The sound of the man and woman arguing in the bedroom grew even louder than before. The woman was questioning the man about his ambiguous relationship with a certain female subordinate, claiming this was what caused his lack of "spiritual power" when casting spells on her.

The man explained that he had been busy lately with Minister Neo's memorial service and was too exhausted, which led to his lack of energy and poor performance.

Neo frowned, noticing that the clerical robes the two had discarded in the living room were still pinned with small white flowers.

Heh, my memorial service isn't even over yet, and you two simply couldn't wait.

Neo stepped out of the room, walked downstairs, and upon leaving the dormitory building, headed straight into the headquarters building.

The memorial service was still underway, and Neo wove his way through it.

Regional Director Gasper was currently standing before the funerary portrait delivering a speech: "My deepest apologies, Minister Karen's old injuries flared up due to excessive grief, hence his temporary absence from this memorial service. I shall stand in for Minister Karen to deliver the address.

Today is a sorrowful day. My closest and most trusted comrade-in-arms, the former Minister of Scouting, Neo, has left us forever..."

You've only been in office for a few days, are we even that close?

While laughing inwardly, Neo threaded through the mourning guests. He had not come to attend his own funeral; he had come to cast a glance upon old acquaintances.

Such as Paige, Fannie, and Wind, those former subordinates of his. He purposefully stood beside each of them for a brief moment, and then, as the address drew to its close, chose to depart.

Just as Neo's figure vanished from the mourning hall, Paige, Fannie, and the others instinctively glanced around themselves. They seemed to have caught a trace of a familiar sensation just now, yet upon closer inspection, it had vanished without a trace.

And at that moment, Gasper's speech was also drawing to its conclusion:

"Though Minister Neo has left us, he will forever stand by our side."

The crowd began to applaud, Paige and Fannie clapping with a particularly deep resonance of shared feeling.

...

Neo walked out of the headquarters building, hailed a taxi on the highway, and uttered the location of the cemetery.

The taxi driver was a very loquacious young man, enthusiastically recommending two stocks to Neo and asserting with absolute certainty that these two stocks were bound to experience a massive surge next.

Seated in the rear passenger seat, Neo spoke: "Shut your mouth."

The taxi driver awkwardly fell silent at once.

In truth, Neo was not speaking to him, but rather because Philias in his mind had begun blowing a conch shell, causing a roaring in Neo's head as though a cruise ship's foghorn had been installed within.

When even the gentlest and most orderly Philias had become this hyperactive, it was evident just how wretched his current mental state truly was.

If the divine pollution Karen suffered in the cavern could be likened to a tsunami, then he himself had merely been squirted a few times by a water gun. Yet those few squirts had dissolved the seal he had previously established.

The true descent into chaos, however, was spurred by Karen's return today, which officially annulled his own identity. The story belonging to "Minister Neo" and the "Old Hound" had thoroughly become a thing of the past.

This was equivalent to a patient who already suffered from severe psychological issues suddenly receiving a massive shock; the condition deteriorated with terrifying speed.

Damn it, had I known, it would have been better to just die in that cavern and let that manservant skin him for his young master; he certainly would have been willing and proud of it.

Despite the intense discomfort he was enduring, before the car reached its destination and Neo stepped out, he still purposefully tapped the back of the taxi driver's seat and said to him:

"Take my advice, dump them immediately, or else you can look forward to fighting the vagrants at the alley entrance for a spot next to the trash cans."

Stepping out of the vehicle, Neo headed straight for the cemetery.

The new cemetery keeper's management of this place was quite clearly inferior to old Old Saman's. It was not even dark yet, and he had already locked the main gates and returned to his quarters to sleep.

Neo's form dissolved into a dark mist, permeating through the gates.

Since Karen now possessed the ability to continuously awaken, could Old Saman perhaps return to resume his former occupation?

In terms of work ethic, Old Saman was undoubtedly responsible; after all, his own wife's grave was also located here.

Should he simply bury this irresponsible cemetery keeper instead? Perhaps the next one would be a bit more dutiful?

Neo arrived before the tombstone of his wife, Elisa. There was no profound gazing or hesitant trepidation born of approaching sentiments; after all, the little horn in his brain was still blaring away.

Resting his right hand against the tombstone, Neo sank to one knee, pressed his forehead against the stone monument, and closed his eyes.

...

Neo's consciousness space.

In an environment resembling the reading room within the library of the Wien Empire, the ancestor of the bloodthirsty aberrations was letting out a piercing laugh, the mad pope was staring with wide, furious eyes as he railed against the problems currently facing the Light, Mr. Luther was standing atop a chair holding a speech manuscript to deliver an address, and Philias was providing a collective musical accompaniment for them all.

"Bang!"

Neo, clad in the divine robes of Order, pushed open the door and bellowed inside:

"Quiet the fuck down, all of you!"

The Vampire Ancestor stopped laughing, the Mad Pope ceased his cursing, Mr. Luther halted his speech, and Philias quit bragging.

The reading room plunged into an abrupt silence.

Yet, everyone still bore a faint smile upon their lips.

Neo strode over to the coffee table, slapped his palm flat against it, and cursed, "Since you’re living here, you better learn some goddamn rules and keep some sense of Order!"

After venting, Neo pulled out an empty chair and sat down, sneering, "Heh, from this moment on, I will sit right here and watch you. Let's see who dares to misbehave, or else I'll..."

Neo picked up a book titled *Regulations of Order*, but it was far too thin.

Because he himself had once told Karen that there was no need to memorize the *Regulations of Order*, as one could just make them up whenever necessary, leaving nothing of the regulations in his mind but the cover itself.

Neo tossed the book aside, let out a cold laugh, and kicked his feet up onto the coffee table, pointing downward:

"Whoever dares to act up, I will tear them apart!"

The scene remained entirely hushed.

But the Vampire Ancestor offered a quiet reminder, "Are you going to watch over us?"

The Mad Pope snorted, "How long can you stay with us?"

Mr. Luther cleared his throat, "I will continue once you leave."

Philias, however, smiled faintly, "Have you decided to exile yourself forever, disregarding reality, Neo?"

Just then, another Neo appeared at the doorway, only this one was dressed in casual attire.

The others inside froze instantly, their expressions shifting to utter astonishment.

The casually dressed Neo shrugged and asked, "Well? Surprised? Disappointed?"

The Vampire Ancestor looked at the robed Neo before him, then at the Neo standing at the door, nodded, and said, "You are brutal."

The Mad Pope sneered, "Heh, what a brilliant method."

Mr. Luther said helplessly, "Once again, I bear witness to the public opinion controlled by Order."

Philias clapped his hands, "Congratulations, Neo."

Yes, Neo had completely lost his identity within Order today; he was no longer a Priest of Order.

But he had actively created an "Order Neo" personality, specifically designed to keep watch over his other personas.

Order, after all, was meant to be used this way.

"Get along with each other, and make sure to keep the noise down."

Neo turned, intending to leave this place and wake up.

To his surprise, the moment he turned around, he saw a deeply familiar figure standing outside the door—it was Elysa.

Elysa wore her purple formal gown, gazing at him with that same sweet, gentle look from the past.

When Karen had first met Miss Elysa, she was already deceased; he had never witnessed the past between Neo and Miss Elysa, but he had never doubted the affection between them.

"Elysa..."

"Neo..."

Subconsciously, Neo reached out and caught Elysa by the wrist, then lowered his head, wishing to press his lips against hers; at this moment, it felt as if they had returned to that bygone era.

None of the personalities within the reading room interrupted; they felt that today, there would likely be one more "companion."

Neo was already drawing Elysa into the reading room, but just as his lips were about to touch hers, Elysa pulled her neck back slightly, evading him.

It was not out of resentment or disgust; her gaze remained just as soft, her smile just as sweet.

She had always been so deeply understanding; during their time together, she was always the one looking out for him.

She did not want to go inside, she did not want to remain in the reading room, and she did not want to become one of Neo's personalities.

She wanted her husband to live a proper life, rather than choosing self-imprisonment because of her; if she stayed here and became one of his personalities, then everything within this door would become the shackles that bound her husband.

In truth, every personality here was "Neo" himself.

The Mad Pope, the Vampire Ancestor, Philias, Mr. Luther, including the Elysa before his eyes.

Elysa's retreat was actually Neo's own retreat; he had once told Karen that he would never choose to drown himself in illusions, for his pride would never allow him to do something so ridiculously childish, and his wife certainly would not wish to see her husband reduced to that.

Neo blinked, his eyes growing moist;

In reality, with his forehead pressed against the tombstone, tears were already tracing down the corners of Neo's eyes.

Neo stood by the door, and after Elysa avoided his kiss, she began to actively step backward, attempting to widen the distance; she wanted to ensure her husband's safety, to ensure he would not do something foolish and pull her in on an impulse.

In the world of emotion, the easiest thing was actually to love wildly without condition or restraint; the hardest thing was to stop when necessary, granting the other a more comfortable space.

Neo smiled, opened his arms, and embraced his wife openly and directly.

The dividing line between them was the threshold of this door, a mutual constraint with a clear boundary, without a single shred of transgression.

After embracing like this for a long while, Neo spoke:

"My dear, you don't need to step back anymore; I simply won't move forward."