Chicken-Rattling Antimony

April 1—that was Fool's Day.

Four was itself a Sacred Number of the Path of Wisdom, just as the Fool's Eulogy Grimoire itself was a grimoire of the Path of Wisdom.

Before the Constant Self Era arrived, this was the day the elves commemorated the death of the Fool Dionysus.

By now, few humans still remembered this.

Back then, the Constant Self had yet to ascend to the position of Pillar God, and the Dawn Angel had yet to be born. The Age of the "Beast" had not yet ended, and the rule of "Power" still remained—in a world of endless darkness, everything was primitive and savage. The victor took all; the weak were preyed upon by the strong.

The Fool walked across the land, seeming mad and crazed. He sarcastically flattered the great figures by calling them "sages," yet viciously pointed out their selfishness, ignorance, stubbornness, madness, and greed. Even the churches and the Pope often appeared in his criticisms.

He sympathized with the mortals who were helplessly caught in the friction of the war between the gods, struggling to survive from day to day, and called them "fools." He cursed them, sympathized with them, and praised them all at once.

Someone like that naturally offended many people.

However, the Fool also had many friends, and he really could fight. Thus, he only made people feel utterly helpless. When the great figures in many places saw the Fool approaching, they treated him with utmost respect, precisely because they feared he would say something else that gave them a headache—or record his insults in poems that would be passed down for all eternity.

He himself was a strong man, yet he stood on the side of the weak.

Back then, before the sun had risen, the Fool was the only