Bai Liu simply commented, "This sounds like something I would do in any other timeline."
Tang Erda looked at him. "If that's all, it's just one of your many criminal achievements." He paused. "And I couldn't have remembered until now."
Bai Liu glanced sideways at him. "What else happened back there?"
"…After Armand's death, Georgia recovered, but the fact that Armand had avenged him devastated him again. He was so distraught that he wanted to work but couldn't perform properly, and the Heretics Bureau had to force him to take an extended leave of absence."
"After his leave, Georgia locked himself in Armand's room and sat there all day. I visited him a few times, trying to talk to him and ask what Bai Liu(6) had done, but he just muttered to himself distractedly: 'This isn't how it's supposed to be. This isn't the future I see. It should be me who dies, not Armand… it should be the rest of the world, not him…'"
Tang Erda fell silent for a moment, biting his cigarette as he glanced at the words Golden Dawn on the whiteboard.
"I later asked one of his colleagues if Georgia had said what exactly Bai Liu (6) had done to him. The colleague told me that Georgia said Bai Liu (6) had just shown him the future."
"No one knows what Georgia saw, but what happened next was beyond my expectations."
Tang Erda turned to Bai Liu. "Bai Liu (6) destroyed six of the Heretics Bureau's secret locations in quick succession, taking many high-risk heretics with him. We did manage to kill the Joker, who had come to destroy the heretics, but we still lost a lot of resources."
"But the scary part wasn't the loss—it was how Bai Liu (6) knew the secret bases. The exact location of the high-risk sites holding the Extraordinary Red Heretics was encrypted through layers of protection by all sorts of tortured heretics. Only Georgia knew the locations, and it wasn't something he could casually share."
"Unless he told someone he completely trusted—and in Georgia's mind, that person could only be Armand."
Tang Erda sighed softly. "Although we didn't want to believe that Georgia would betray the Heretics and give Bai Liu(6) the location of the secret strongholds, we began investigating him out of caution. Georgia passed 127 rounds of scales. We confirmed he hated Bai Liu(6) and would never betray the Heretics or abandon peace and justice. In the end, all parties agreed to keep Georgia in his position while moving the overt investigation underground."
"The investigation outside the game stalled, but inside the game, I saw a masked reserve suddenly appear on Bai Liu's (6) team. A powerful attacker, cold and decisive—a killing machine. Similar in appearance and height to Georgia, but what made me suspicious were his skills."
Tang Erda stared at Bai Liu for a long moment, then exhaled a sideways puff of smoke, low and muffled: "His skill is a bow and arrow called the Bow of Retrospection. It can rewind a person's body three hours into the past."
"The time between Armand's death and when we discovered his body was exactly three hours."
Tang Erda took two deep breaths. "I confronted Georgia and asked if this extra reserve on Bai Liu's (6) team was him. He admitted it."
"I wondered why he joined Bai Liu's (6) team. Georgia passed the scales test; I'm sure he hates Bai Liu (6) and aspires to peace and justice. But for some reason, he was willing to be a bow in Bai Liu's (6) hands."
"I asked him why. Georgia said that no matter how hard he tried to undo it, the future wouldn't lead to peace and justice, nor would it allow Armand to exist. He intended to correct that future, and only Bai Liu (6) had the means to do so."
"So, despite his overwhelming hatred for Bai Liu (6), he was willing to be a bow in Bai Liu's (6)hand—stained with the blood of innocents—for the right future. The moment Armand returned to that future, he would die for his sins. That was the right future."
Bai Liu handed him an ashtray, lifting his eyes to Tang Erda, who had gone silent. "Where does Georgia end up in this world?"
Without a word, Tang Erda put out his cigarette in the ashtray and exhaled the last ring of smoke at Bai Liu (6). "He won the League after Bai Liu (6) and got a wish. I don't know what he wished for, but he killed himself the next day."
"Georgia died in the same place where Armand had died, and we found his body three hours later."
-----------------
"I hope Armand will be resurrected in the right future."
Georgia, in his sleep, saw himself kneeling before a mass of light whose outline could not be seen, covered in blood, making a wish. At his side rested a long, rusty, silver, streamlined bow.
He was vaguely aware of an extraordinary presence in the light—a divine presence.
God asked him, "Don't you want to live in the right future?"
Georgia shook his head. "I don't deserve that future. I made a wrong choice, and I should be responsible for it. Death is the future I should have now."
God asked again, "You are a good winner; don't you want others to exist in the right future as well?"
Georgia shook his head again. "A wrong future is the result of every choice made by everyone in this world. Just as I am responsible for my own unjust choices, so is everyone else, who must bear a cruel future for their indulgent desires."
God added, "Armand too. You are indulging his mistakes and giving him the right future after he made the wrong choice."
"It's your selfishness and desire, Georgia. It's your injustice."
Georgia closed his eyes and hung his head in long silence, blood falling from his long eyelashes like tears of pity for himself.
"Yes, it's my selfishness as a brother. I know he did wrong and should be held accountable, but I wish all the guilt were mine alone and not Armand's. But I know that's impossible."
God said, "Both you and Armand must pay for your selfishness and injustice. As punishment, you will forever lose the future of having Armand, and Armand will never exist to have you as a brother. Remove the moment of his birth, and you will be brothers who will forever walk opposite paths."
Georgia tried to wake from this vaguely disturbing dream, but no matter how much he struggled, it continued, becoming more fragmented and intertwined.
He saw himself, head bowed in respect, half-kneeling before a figure hidden in the gloom. The back of his bare neck was covered with interlacing dark red whip marks.
The man slowly straightened a long black whip in his hand and lazily lifted Georgia's chin with the toe of his leather shoe, revealing the man's face.
He sat in a wide leather chair, an extremely handsome and seemingly harmless Asian man, smiling with a casual tone, as if chatting. "Georgia, I am very pleased with you."
"I know you didn't mean to submit to me, but your grades are too good." Bai Liu (6) dropped his eyes and lifted Georgia's jaw higher and higher with the shank of the long whip instead of his toe.
Georgia's long, slender neck strained to its breaking point as Bai Liu (6) lifted it with playful malice. The knot in his throat moved up and down with restraint, the whip marks above his collarbone unmistakable.
"In one game, you can kill a dozen ordinary players without hesitation, seize six secret strongholds just by pointing them out, and absorb hundreds of former players' intelligence without blinking."
Bai Liu (6) sighed appreciatively. "You're perfect as a machine—in looks and execution. You were praised in the game as a beautiful, emotionless elf. I agree; you don't look anything like the holy and noble Captain Georgia anymore. It amazes me how the death of someone close can change a person so profoundly."
Bai Liu (6) withdrew his hand and gripped the whip thoughtfully. "I've been through the same thing, but the only change it brought me was slight control over my anger—when I see your face, which is too similar to your brother's."
His voice was lazy and light, belying the fact that he was ready to strike Georgia with the whip as he spoke.
But Georgia, on his knees, seemed accustomed to Bai Liu's (6) whippings. After a small shudder, he lowered his head once more, resigned.
"Let's see… when you shot those innocents in the game this time, where did you hit their deadly points?" Bai Liu (6) asked blandly. "I'm sure our Captain Georgia remembers, doesn't he?"
Georgia's eyelashes fluttered slightly. He replied softly, "I remember."
Bai Liu (6) half-closed his eyes. "You should be punished for your brutal killings by removing your clothes."
Georgia stood and obediently stripped. His body was covered in interlocking whip marks that had yet to fade, twisting around his white skin like a viper coiled around his waist and thighs, leaving a cruel message in its path.
As he stood there, Georgia's breath caught. In a trance, he realized that each whip mark represented a person he had killed.
The man before him was torturing him—not merely with pain, but with the weight of guilt, impurity, and injustice.
After every match, when Georgia killed someone on the field, Bai Liu (6) would ask for the name of the victim and the precise spot they had been struck by an arrow. Then he would mark Georgia's body in the same place with a whip.
Bai Liu (6) used these marks to drive home a harsh truth: What I do to you is not one-tenth as cruel as what you did to them.
After enduring this emotional torment, Georgia dressed, bowed respectfully to Bai Liu (6), and exited the room, wearing a uniform with a long collar and a zip that reached his jaw.
He walked down a corridor, unblinking, opened a door, rushed to the toilet, and vomited, clawing painfully at the whip marks on his body. He seemed to try to purge his self-loathing, but could only bring up clear water. The act eventually threw his entire body into spasms.
Georgia continued punishing himself in other ways, even carving deeper into the whip marks with a small knife. He gasped silently as tears streamed down his face.
Eventually, he collapsed on the bed, curled into a ball, clutching a pocket watch. He seemed to want to open it, but instead kissed it, closed his tear-stained eyes, and sank into a deep sleep.
He knew the pocket watch well—and that inside it was an old photograph of Armand and him.
-----------------
Bai Liu escorted Tang Erda out of the room, chatting as they walked down the street.
"I'm curious. You must have reported to the Heretic Council as soon as you found out Georgia had betrayed them," Bai Liu said, glancing sideways at Tang Erda. "What did the Heretic Authority do with him?"
Tang Erda shrugged and pulled at his jacket, turning slightly. "First, Georgia was banned from his position. Then they launched an investigation into the reasons behind his betrayal—but the investigation only began after Georgia had already defected."
"There were two main theories within the Heretic Authority at the time. The first suggested that Georgia had been contaminated with some kind of heretic by Bai Liu (6), and had been spiritually manipulated and controlled by him."
"But that theory doesn't explain the fact that Georgia willingly told Bai Liu (6) the location of the secret stronghold. Even if Georgia was mad, Bai Liu (6) couldn't have learned the secret location unless he gained Georgia's full trust—even a mad Georgia."
"There's another theory some people have speculated…" Tang Erda hesitated, his face twisting slightly. "Some believed that Georgia fell in love with you during the Stockholm incident, and that's why Bai Liu (6) had total control over him."
Bai Liu raised an eyebrow. "You guys in District 1 sure like to gossip."
"…It's not gossip," Tang Erda replied defensively. "To uncover the truth, we had to consider every angle." She glanced at Bai Liu and added subtly, "Another reason this claim gained traction was that Georgia always had inexplicable whip marks on his body—and your… Bai Liu's (6) weapon just happened to be a long whip."
Bai Liu went silent.
Did he… play that intensely in other timelines?