The gentleness in his voice carried a weight all its own, and it walked straight into the Leech Queen’s heart.
A strange sensation rose up through every part of its body.
On the surface, though, the Leech Queen betrayed nothing.
It only answered coldly.
“Don’t mention it.
That you earned my help at all is a credit to your own ability.” Ivan neither agreed nor disagreed.
“I heard every word you said just now.” “There are a few things I’d like to say, if you’ll allow it.” The Leech Queen extended a hand, gesturing for him to go ahead.
Seeing the motion, Ivan inclined his head slightly.
“Has it occurred to you that ever since James Marcus died, right up to this moment,” he said, “you have been acting according to his temperament, carrying out his dying wishes?” “That you have never once, in any real sense, chosen to act by your own will?” The corner of the Leech Queen’s mouth twitched, and its voice wavered.
“No!
I am James Marcus!
Everything I do springs from my own will!” The contradiction in those words left Ivan unmoved.
He knew that inside the Leech Queen’s mind, two figures had been locked in a struggle all along.
On one side stood James Marcus’s emotions and memories, by far the stronger force.
On the other stood the Leech Queen’s own will — far weaker by comparison, and yet never once extinguished.
Ivan pulled off his night-vision goggles and handed them to Rebecca, then turned his gentle gaze back to the Leech Queen.
He shook his head, like a saint grieving for the world.
“No.
You don’t know what there is in life besides revenge.” “You don’t know where you’re supposed to go once your revenge against Umbrella is finished.” “You don’t even know who you are right now.” The Leech Queen had lowered its head.
Its fists clenched.
Its body shook.
“Stop talking nonsense.
What would you understand… I am James Marcus…” “I am the god who conquered death, the one who will create a new world!” Ivan did not argue the point.
He simply went on laying out his thoughts in that soft voice of his.
“The root of all of this is that the meaning of your life was handed to you by someone else.” “But the reason we are standing here right now is that you have already begun trying, by your own will, to find a place of your own to stand in this world.” “Think back.
When did that start?” (When did it start?) The Leech Queen remembered the sight of Ivan saluting Edward.
It remembered the beauty of Rebecca and Ivan holding each other.
It remembered the way Ivan had held that tablecloth up in front of Billy.
It remembered the moment Billy’s identity as a convicted murderer was officially confirmed, and Rebecca and Ivan laid their hands on his shoulders — telling him that even if the whole world refused to believe him, they would still stand at his side.
It remembered the joy on Rebecca’s and Billy’s faces when they found Ivan again after he had fallen into the depths, lost and then returned to them.
That flicker of longing in its eyes, the one Rebecca’s earlier words had stirred up, burned brighter and brighter, slowly driving the confusion out of its heart.
It felt as though it were about to grasp the answer hidden in the haze.
Then Ivan’s voice came again.
“The self that already exists in you means that, in the end, you are not him.
You can carry out his dying wish, but there is no need to shoulder that burden for the rest of your life.” “There is no need to live as a second James Marcus, because you are one of a kind.” “You can choose to go looking for love, for family, for friendship — for every experience this world has to offer, beautiful or sorrowful.” “Just like me, like Rebecca, like Billy, like every ordinary person alive.” The Leech Queen lowered its head again.
Its face sank into shadow, yet its pupils blazed with a color they had never held before.
It began to murmur to itself.
“Can I really?
Can I truly do that?
Am I even qualified?” Ivan knew this was the Leech Queen itself asking.
James Marcus’s influence over it had been fully suppressed.
Ivan’s gaze was steady, his voice carrying the weight of absolute conviction.
“Of course you can!” The words filled the hollow place inside the Leech Queen in an instant.
It raised its face, lifted its head, and the sullen malice and the cold indifference toward ordinary people were gone from its features.
In their place came something new: anticipation, and relief.
It flashed across the ground to stand before Ivan, its voice trembling with excitement.
“Can I go and see this world together with all of you?” Ivan nodded firmly and rested a hand on the Leech Queen’s shoulder with a smile.
“Nothing would make us happier.” Having Ivan’s answer, the Leech Queen turned its hopeful face toward Rebecca.
Meeting its gaze, Rebecca’s pale face broke into a sincere smile.
“I trust Ivan’s judgment.
Welcome aboard.” The Leech Queen grew happier still.
Holding down the swell in its chest, it looked over at Billy, the one who hadn’t spoken yet.
Billy’s face twisted with reluctance.
After a moment, he sighed.
“Well, if you’re the one who saved the life of the guy who saved my life, what choice do I have…” In the end, Billy agreed to the Leech Queen’s application to join the team.
Honestly, if not for Ivan, the two of them would have found it very hard to accept the Leech Queen.
Whatever its reasoning, one problem could never be dodged.
A great many people had died in the catastrophe it had unleashed.
But the two of them also understood that even without the Leech Queen, given how eagerly Umbrella courted its own destruction, something like this would have happened sooner or later.
It was a problem with no solution.
Unless some force existed that could wipe out Umbrella and every laboratory under its banner in a single stroke.
Only then, perhaps, could the matter be settled for good.
But that was impossible.
With all three of them in agreement, a smile rose on the Leech Queen’s face, welling up from somewhere deep inside.
Its fervent gaze returned to Ivan, and then the figure of white-robed man began to melt away.
It no longer needed to play the part of a young James Marcus.
It was simply itself.
One small leech, accepted by the three of them.
And now it would go with them, and measure a new world with its own eyes.
Standing behind them, James Marcus watched with tender eyes as that plumper little leech crawled out of the swarm and into Ivan’s palm.
He set aside every last shred of his arrogance, bent at the waist, and offered Ivan a flawless aristocratic bow.
“Please treat her well, Mr.
Ivan.” Ivan smiled and nodded.
“I will, Mr.
James Marcus.” Then the leech, already settled in Ivan’s palm, suddenly slipped away from it.
It scurried to James Marcus’s feet and pressed itself against his trouser leg.
James Marcus crouched down, and the wrinkles on his aged face smoothed out.
In that moment he looked like nothing so much as a kindly old man, gazing down at the small creature at his feet with eyes full of affection.
“Little one, I’m sorry.
I made you carry things you were never meant to carry.” “My hatred, my ambition, my ideals — none of it should ever have been yours to bear.” “I’ve grown old.
So old that even living a second life wasn’t enough for me to see what you truly wanted.” “So old that I never once realized what it was you longed for.” “Go on, child.
Stay with Ivan and the others, and go see this wide world together.
There is so much beauty out there waiting for you.” Walnut-chan🔥👻 🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: Rewriting Fate in New Eridu — read it on The_Mikudayo 📚 Forty chapters of advanced reading at Walnut-chan, and it goes straight into keeping the translations on schedule Let’s achieve our community goals: