To You, Who Will Die Alone in Paradise Chapter 1

The story begins at the point where the High Elf’s pilgrimage ends.

On that day, in that place, Dandeleon Benoit meets the High Elf Kellewen. This is the starting point of all the events.

Who is Dandeleon Benoit?

The third prince of the Benoit Kingdom. Twenty years old. His hair is golden, as is traditional for the Benoit royal family, and his eyes, which he inherited from his mother, are a mysterious purple, like amethysts.

The prince was beautiful and intelligent, so everyone in the royal family loved him… no sweet fairy tale like that exists.

Dandeleon is an illegitimate child. His mother was the king’s mistress, and she died before Dandeleon even turned ten. A boy who, under normal circumstances, would never have set foot in the royal palace and would have been reduced to a vagrant on the streets.

The king forced the position of prince upon the boy.

Many protested, but the king did not listen. The man who had lost the woman he loved felt as if he would go mad if he did not keep at least the trace she left behind by his side.

So he confined the young Dandeleon in the splendid prison called the royal palace. Without ever asking what that young child truly wanted.

Naturally, no one welcomed him. Not even his father, the king, loved him. The king seemed to think that bringing his son to the royal court fulfilled his duties as a father, and thereafter, he fully immersed himself only in the sorrow of losing his lover.

Dandeleon grew up like a seed carelessly thrown on the dirt, without anyone’s care. People who had initially been wary of the king gradually began to whisper about him as casually as they would step on a weed.

The king’s illegitimate son. A troublesome problem. An unforgivable prodigal son. A bewitching demon. A piece of trash as frivolous as his lowly birth would suggest. Unpleasantly beautiful in his face alone, just like his mother…

That was Dandeleon Benoit.

This is the story of how that Dandeleon Benoit died.

It is also the story of how the continent was destroyed.

*

That night, the banquet hall of the Benoit royal palace was filled with more guests than ever before.

Not only were the kingdom’s nobles and famous figures present, but a few royals and distinguished guests from other kingdoms were mixed in as well. They exchanged looks full of anticipation, waiting for the real star of the day to appear.

However, Dandeleon was not there.

Deeper inside the banquet hall, there was a door in the innermost part. Passing through the area where a red cloth was draped like a curtain led to a lounge with several beds.

It was a place made for taking a short rest when one felt tired during a banquet, but in reality, it was a place more frequently sought by lovers whose bodies grew heated as the night deepened.

“Leon!”

Dandeleon was lying there. In the empty, vacant lounge, as soon as the banquet had begun.

“Leon! You are here, right?”

A familiar voice was heard, but Dandeleon ignored it. As he closed his eyes and took another deep drag from the pipe in his mouth, smoke mixed with a mint scent swept through his lungs.

His already languid body grows even heavier. The soft bed feels like a swamp swallowing his body.

If only he could just sink like this.

With that thought, Dandeleon breathed again. Deeply, very deeply.

“Leon!”

The voice that had been coming from a distance was now heard clearly right in front of him. At the same time, someone snatched the pipe he was holding.

“What on earth is this?!”

Only then did Dandeleon slowly open his eyes.

The inside of the lounge was dark to provide a comfortable rest. Fortunately, Dandeleon’s eyes felt no discomfort seeing in the dark.

He had known from the start who had come, anyway.

“You caught me.”

“I asked what this is.”

“Aren’t you being too rude for a servant, Zellos?”

The man called Zellos glared at Dandeleon with a stern look in his eyes. His wolf-like ears, a characteristic of the Lycan tribe, perked up on his head as if reflecting his state of mind, then folded back slightly.

It was certainly not a polite attitude, but if he were to say that, Zellos would probably feel it was unfair.

He was the servant who had stayed by Dandeleon’s side for twenty long years, ever since he was born. Having spent that much time together, to Zellos, Dandeleon was less of a master and more like a younger brother, or a nephew.

So how could he not be angry? His nephew, whom he had raised with utmost care, was holed up in a lounge on this important day, inhaling some strange smoke.

“If you don’t answer, I will smash it right this instant.”

“It’s a hookah from Lusha.”

Dandeleon, sensing that Zellos was serious, answered quickly. He could not lose his precious collectible. He had paid so much extra to buy this.

“Why on earth are you smoking something like this! Do you even know what’s in it!”

Zellos made a fuss, his eyes wide as if the world was ending. Dandeleon chuckled and watched the scene for a moment.

“No, forget it. I will lecture you later, so let’s go out quickly. They say he is arriving soon!”

“The elf?”

At the words Dandeleon tossed out, Zellos’s eyes widened again. He shuddered as if he had heard something he should not have.

“What kind of way to talk is that!”

That reaction was funny again, so Dandeleon, knowing full well, feigned ignorance and tilted his head.

“Is he not an elf?”

“Kellewen is not just any elf!”

Zellos’s voice grew even louder.

“He is a High Elf, born after hundreds of years. The one who will save everyone on the continent. If it weren’t for him, the Guardian Tree…”

“Would wither at the end of its life, and the continent would be destroyed?”

Dandeleon cut Zellos off. Zellos flinched. His voice, which had been only playful just a moment ago, was as cold as ice.

“What does that have to do with me?”

Dandeleon tilted his head slightly and looked up at Zellos. Through his soft hair, his light purple eyes were piercing. Eyes that seemed to emit their own light, and were therefore beautiful, but sometimes alien.

“I will die sooner than the Guardian Tree.”

Dandeleon finished his sentence and smiled sweetly. As if all these words were a joke.

But both of them knew it was the truth. Therefore, Dandeleon’s smile did nothing to lighten the mood. The air instantly became heavy.

“…Anyway, it is true that Kellewen is an amazing person. I just wanted to say that today is an important day.”

Zellos chose his words while watching Dandeleon’s expression. He should have known from the moment he saw him defiantly smoking a hookah in a place like this, but it seemed Dandeleon was in a very bad mood today.

“A great many amazing people have come. If you don’t even show your face, it will be a really big problem.”

It was a tradition of the Benoit royal family for all royals to greet distinguished guests when they arrived. Kellewen was the most precious being on this continent right now, so it would be a great discourtesy if even one member of the royal family was missing.

Even if that member was a fake royal who was in the family registry in name only.

“Do I just have to show my face?”

Dandeleon asked with a frown. He was well aware of the Benoit royal family’s traditions and Kellewen’s position on this continent. His asking this now was more like him being childish with Zellos.

“It does not matter if you go back after just greeting Kellewen.”

And his loyal servant was someone who tolerated even this kind of childishness well.

“Alright, then.”

Dandeleon sighed and got up. Taking reluctant steps, he pushed aside the red curtain of the lounge door and came out into the banquet hall.

At that moment, the atmosphere in the banquet hall was slightly disturbed.

There were many guests from outside the kingdom on this day, and most of them did not know who Dandeleon was. Those who saw him for the first time were helplessly captivated by his beautiful appearance. His golden hair, draped over pale skin, glittered as if it produced its own light, and his large eyes, revealed under long eyelashes, looked as if amethysts had been set in them. As the doll-like, beautiful man headed towards the seats where the Benoit royals sat, the admiring whispers of the people grew louder.

But the people who knew Dandeleon well were, in contrast, very cold. Some cast looks of contempt, while others cast looks of anger. Very occasionally, an unpleasant and sticky gaze would follow him.

Dandeleon was so tired of it all, it was familiar. To the point where he no longer even got hurt.

“I have arrived, Your Majesty.”

As he offered a greeting that showed not even a trace of proper etiquette, the man sitting on the throne looked at Dandeleon. He furrowed his brow and opened his mouth, but as soon as his eyes met Dandeleon’s, he shut it again. Dandeleon looked at him with a defiant attitude.

At Charles III, the king of Benoit and his own father.

“…Prince, return to your seat.”

He said. That was the end of it. Sitting down in his prepared seat, Dandeleon let out a dry laugh.

He cannot scold the rude attitude, nor can he offer a gentle greeting with a smiling face. Every time Dandeleon saw the king, he faced the conflict unfolding within him.

The sense of duty that he must act as a father and the agony of not being able to face the trace of the woman he loved. And thus, the weakness of always doing nothing and running away.

A feeling he was sick and tired of.

As Dandeleon sat down, he felt a sharp gaze from the seat next to him. Dandeleon blatantly ignored it. As he leaned his languid body, still under the influence of the hookah, against the chair, the entire banquet hall came into view.

The guests filling the banquet hall all looked happy. Most of the guests, gathered in small groups, laughing and chatting, were wearing green-colored clothes, and if not, they wore leaf ornaments on their clothes or in their hair. It was an ornament symbolizing the Guardian Tree, Yggdrasil.

Yggdrasil. The Guardian Tree that protects the continent, and the name of one who was once an elf.

*

A long, long time ago, more than a thousand years past, demons suddenly appeared from the sea and attacked the continent.

Countless demons came onto the continent, and even more people died. Because of the demons’ miasma, the sea became murky, and the land rotted, causing plants and animals to wither and die. The fragile bodies of the continent’s people were torn to shreds by the demons’ teeth and claws.

At that time when everyone foresaw destruction, an elf finally found a way.

His name was Yggdrasil. The oldest elf and the most powerful magician in history.

He poured out all the magical power he possessed to turn himself into a tree. The magical power dwelling in the body of an elf who had lived for over a thousand years exploded and swept across the continent, and in the places where the magical power had passed, neither demons nor miasma remained.

Yggdrasil saved the continent. Everyone on the continent cheered, calling out Yggdrasil’s name.

The wounds left by the demons’ rampage healed quickly. Farmers planted crops again on the purified land, and fishermen brought back fish in nets filled to the brim. As life was restored and fear disappeared, some even suggested subjugating the demons.

The fact that the demons came across the sea meant that there was a demon stronghold beyond the sea. The reason was that true peace could only be achieved by wiping that place out.

But that was impossible. After a little time passed, a fact that was unknown at the time was revealed.

It was that Yggdrasil was not eternal. To be precise, the purifying power that Yggdrasil possessed was not.

Yggdrasil’s power, which had at first covered the entire continent and even stretched beyond the sea, grew weaker and weaker over time. The range of purification narrowed around Yggdrasil, and the miasma began to encroach again, starting from the distant seas. The sea, covered in a purplish miasma, gradually became a place unreachable by the people of the continent over several decades.

Yggdrasil’s power is not eternal. That struck fear into the people.

Everyone tried to find a way, but this time too, it was the elves who found the answer. The elves studied his purification magic for a long time based on the records Yggdrasil left in the elven forest, and at the end of it, they reached one conclusion.

Yggdrasil’s power uses magical energy. Therefore, if the magical energy is replenished, the power of purification will continue.