Super Righteous Player
Chapter 859 - 396: The Candidate Never Activated

Chapter 859: Chapter 396: The Candidate Never Activated

——A resolute escape.

Hearing this, Annan suddenly understood Philip’s thoughts.

His entire life up until now had been a mistake, already straying from the original path.

But he wasn’t a fool unaware of this.

Philip was not like Bella, who lived in a muddle... even clumsy enough not to know what his actions meant to others, nor the impact of his behavior.

From the third life, Philip had already known everything.

Knowing clearly his mission, and realizing he had trodden the wrong path... Philip resolutely chose to escape this mission.

——He actively betrayed his original mission, which he had forgotten, and chose to live for himself, enjoying his current days.

This itself could indeed be considered a pragmatic act.

But this precisely contradicted what he deduced about himself from the first life, who "held an important mission." Because of this... Philip felt uneasy.

...Like the constant unease of forgetting to turn off the gas when leaving the house, or forgetting to lock the door.

And what created this unease was exactly his "desire for a peaceful life." This conflict of fate was probably why the tragic playwright took interest in him.

——But this was not the whole truth.

After understanding Philip’s way of thinking, Annan’s gaze became sympathetic.

He very clearly realized—Philip had overlooked something. And this was something Philip couldn’t realize... it was crucial information that only Annan knew, only Annan could infer.

If he wasn’t mistaken...

Annan had once again come to know the whole truth.

"...Did you think of something?"

Philip sharply noticed the change in Annan’s gaze.

Annan nodded slowly and said, "Yes.

"But the question is... do you really want to hear it?"

"...What is it about? Can I hear it?"

Philip asked cautiously.

He suddenly had a vague premonition—the answer to this question was very important, so important that it might affect many things.

The safest thing to do was not to listen. Then nothing would change.

But...

"...I don’t want to miss anything anymore. Rather than regretting it when the time comes, let me endure some agony."

Philip took a deep breath, "Please speak, Your Majesty."

"What I am going to say is exactly what you have forgotten."

Annan spoke slowly: "It’s about the part concerning your mission."

Hearing this, Philip froze for a moment.

He clearly didn’t quite understand what Annan meant.

"Are you afraid because you’ve forgotten an important mission? Are you dissatisfied and puzzled because Noah erased your traces of existence?"

Annan spoke softly, his eyes slightly closed: "Philip Flamell was a highly intelligent sage, known as ’The Rhetorician,’ a half-elf sage. He was a Transcendent with a Stigmatized soul, and his friend, the first Noah, was also the keeper of the Great Calamity Curio.

"Noah undoubtedly knew the side effects of the ’Fourth Doctrines’, and since he allowed Philip to use it, he most likely also told Philip about the fourth hidden side effect. Even if he really didn’t say, Philip, not knowing the fourth rule, would definitely know the third rule.

"What he wrote then, ’the preset future’... how did you know it hasn’t been fulfilled?"

Annan continued slowly: "Or rather, how can you be sure...that losing the key memory of your first life isn’t the ’future’ you wrote in the first life?"

——This was a possibility only Annan could think of.

Because he himself was also walking on this path.

The first Annan discarded his memories, abandoned self, and laid out plans at the cost of self-erasure, making the second Annan unknowingly grow into an adapter for the Heart of Justice and the contractor for the Book of the Celestial Chariot.

Of course, Annan wouldn’t be conceited to think that he was the only one in this situation.

Let alone the fact that the ritual he used was already existing... The only difference was that even though he cleared the "memories belonging to this world," he still retained the "memories not belonging to this world."

This was also why Annan adopted this ritual.

But was there someone who thought like the first-cycle Annan?

It was certainly possible.

It just so happened that King Noah didn’t warn Philip, and Philip was completely unguarded, and the lost memories just happened to cover the whole truth, and moreover, King Noah didn’t know why he erased Philip’s existence in history to anger him... and until Philip took the throne, no precaution was taken against "Philip’s reincarnation."

——Compared to this stacking of many "slight possibilities."

It’s more reasonable to assume that Philip of the first cycle had already anticipated everything.

And if Philip "forgot his mission," that was his purpose.

What could this help Philip achieve?

"If everything went smoothly...you were supposed to be a mirror."

Annan sighed.

Hearing this, Philip’s pupils sharply constricted.

He vaguely realized something...

"Think about it, if Claus had searched more thoroughly at that time...to the extent that he had taken the Book of the Celestial Chariot from Tan Juan Geraint. You would have been my first mirror."

Annan spoke slowly: "The Light of the First Day is the[purest strong and bright light]. In the presence of bright light, dimmer light is darkness. Hence, different destinies are outlined...

"I also found it strange at the time. Tan Juan was similar to me, but this degree of resemblance was too insignificant compared to the Dream Stealer Denton, Henry the Eighth, Bell Monk Bernardino, and others...

"But I later realized, Dream Stealer Denton avoided his fate of becoming a mirror and handed over the fragments of the Book of the Celestial Chariot to the Viscount Barber of Roth Fort.

"I was thinking...perhaps Tan Juan’s mirror wasn’t originally supposed to be on him?"

Annan looked at Philip.

His pupils shone like mirrors, reflecting Philip’s anxious expression.

If indeed Philip was supposed to be the first mirror...everything matched up.

Being the same "confused beings of the first life," but due to his [purest strong and bright light], Annan embarked on the right path; while Philip was just pursuing a peaceful, oblivious death.

"Why would King Noah erase your historical records? Because he didn’t want you to find out about yourself, to realize the memory you had actively forgotten. Your original destiny was to be one of the seven mirrors of the Book of the Celestial Chariot."

... That is to say, from the beginning[Philip]was a tool.

——He was a "spare Annan."

A "candidate for the protagonist," to be activated only if Annan had not arrived.

A candidate that would never be activated.