To You, Who Will Die Alone in Paradise Chapter 51

However, no matter how much he thought about it, a way to escape didn’t come to him easily. Escaping alone would be simple, but the condition of getting away with Dandeleon, without getting caught, raised the difficulty.

What if Dandeleon resisted? Even if he was weak, running away with a resisting adult was no ordinary matter.

‘If I can’t escape with him and I can’t have him, then it would be better to….’

Zellos’s thoughts were on the verge of heading in the worst possible direction.

“Hm? You there….”

The sound of footsteps on grass was heard, and then someone spoke to him. Zellos turned his head and came face to face with an unexpected person.

“Weren’t you Prince Dandeleon’s attendant?”

A tall stature, broad shoulders, and a solid build. His neatly tied, wavy ash-gray hair flowed behind his simple elven attire. The leader of Tuella Deum, Herma, was approaching him alone. Zellos noticed a strange sense of anticipation in Herma’s eyes as he looked at him.

Perhaps because of the urgent situation, Zellos’s thoughts moved several times faster than usual. Having made up his mind in an instant, Zellos ran to Herma and dropped to his knees before him.

“Please help me…!”

Zellos shouted, bowing his head.

“I don’t know why you’re suddenly doing this. What do you need help with?”

Herma said so, but he showed no sign of surprise. Not intending to get into a power struggle with him, Zellos got straight to the point.

“Didn’t the High Elf refuse to return to the Elf Forest?”

As soon as he spoke, Zellos raised his head and confirmed that his judgment had been correct. Herma’s relaxed face had clouded over slightly. Herma clicked his tongue and muttered.

“How far has that rumor spread?”

“It’s not a rumor. I overheard it. I heard him telling Leon… Prince Dandeleon.”

“Is that so? Kellewen has certainly been busy since this morning.”

Herma said sarcastically. It had been less than an hour since he had spoken with Kellewen at the main palace. But Zellos, unaware of this fact, thought Herma didn’t believe him and grew anxious.

“It’s true! He… has feelings for Prince Dandeleon. He wants to have him!”

“I know that too.”

Herma cut in coldly.

“Anything new? If not, I should get going.”

“If you help me, the High Elf will return to the Elf Forest!”

Zellos urgently grabbed hold of Herma. He had hesitated for a moment before speaking, but Zellos decided now was the time to take a risk. He clutched Herma’s clothes and whispered in a low voice.

“I want to sneak the prince out of the palace. If you help me, I will take him and hide somewhere the High Elf can never find him. So they can never meet again…!”

Herma looked down at him and remained silent for a moment. Zellos prayed that a sign of hope would appear on Herma’s hardened expression.

“…Are you asking Tuella Deum to kidnap the prince? That would be difficult.”

When he finally answered, Zellos cheered inwardly.

The fact that he refused was not important. The key was that he hadn’t shown a negative reaction to the idea of sneaking Dandeleon out. Mentioning Tuella Deum also clearly meant that it was difficult to help officially. Confident of victory, Zellos asked.

“In that case, is there any way for you to help me personally, Mr. Herma?”

A faint smile spread across Herma’s face, which had seemed as cold as stone. He crouched down in front of Zellos and put a hand inside his clothes. From within the elven attire, whose structure Zellos could not comprehend at all, a small bottle emerged.

“Do you know what this is?”

He had already seen the silver liquid inside it in Dandeleon’s room. Zellos said.

“Isn’t that the medicine you gave as a gift yesterday, Mr. Herma? You said it was an elf’s elixir….”

“That’s right. Did your master take it?”

Zellos shook his head. He had asked Dandeleon after dinner if he would take the medicine, but he had refused with absolute disgust. Zellos had thought it was a waste since it was a rare gift, but he couldn’t force him to take it when he didn’t want to.

As Zellos explained this, Herma let out a short laugh.

“This is a medicine made with magical power. It’s a medicine that alleviates the magical power stagnation of elves. The principle is that it resonates with the magical power in the body to facilitate its flow.”

The explanation was needlessly long, but Zellos suppressed his urgent feelings and put on an expression of attentiveness. Herma shook the bottle in front of his eyes and said in a light tone.

“But I heard that if a race without magical power drinks this, they fall asleep?”

Zellos’s eyes widened. He hastily glared at the glass bottle. The bottle was smaller than the one Dandeleon had received, but the color of the liquid inside was the same.

“Your head gets hazy, and then you collapse as if falling asleep. If you don’t believe me, test it on yourself. You’ll know if you drink about a mouthful.”

“Is it not dangerous?”

“Not at all. I take it periodically myself and have never had a problem. Here, look.”

Herma opened the medicine bottle, tilted it so it wouldn’t touch his lips, and drank the medicine. About a third of the bottle disappeared into Herma’s mouth. After closing the medicine bottle again, Herma looked at Zellos and said.

“See?”

“Yes….”

“Well, to be honest, it can’t cure the prince’s illness. In that respect, you could say I lied. I’m sorry about that.”

Herma said shamelessly.

“But you don’t care about that right now, do you?”

Indeed, Zellos wasn’t the least bit curious about the purpose for which he had given the medicine in the first place. At that moment, the only thought that dominated his mind was that the medicine would be a great help in getting Dandeleon out. If Dandeleon lost consciousness, he wouldn’t be able to resist, making it much easier to take him out.

Zellos quickly bowed his head to Herma.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Will you take this? It’s the same as the medicine I gave the prince, but he might have already thrown it away.”

Zellos nodded. Even if Dandeleon hadn’t thrown the medicine away, he thought the one Herma had drunk right before his eyes was much safer. After all, Herma might think it better to kill Dandeleon than to kidnap him.

After Herma left, Zellos confirmed the medicine’s effect with his own mouth. There were no signs of harm. His head became foggy as if in a mist, and it only cleared after a few minutes.

Zellos returned to the room where Dandeleon was waiting with a triumphant smile. And he met the unfamiliar attendants who were moving the luggage, and was summoned to the Céleste Domaine….

And so, he was here, in this place, now.

“Give me the antidote right now. Or at least tell me what to do, if you don’t…!”

He shouldn’t have trusted an elf. Regret turned to anger, and anger became fuel for violence. Zellos grabbed the elf by the collar and raised his hand. If he wouldn’t answer, he would beat an answer out of him.

But at that moment, his vision swayed, and the elf’s face disappeared from before his eyes. Instead, damp earth, stones, and fallen leaves scattered about chaotically.

‘Huh?’

Zellos opened his mouth in surprise, but no sound came out. Even when he moved his mouth, the only thing that came out was a panting breath that didn’t feel like his own. Zellos tried to touch his face with his hand. His hand didn’t move at all. His legs, his body, he couldn’t feel anything at all.

The fact that his own neck had been severed and was rolling on the ground—Zellos didn’t realize it until his last breath was gone.

Elbadon wiped the blood from his sword and glared down with an annoyed expression. At his feet, the corpse of a Lycan, its head and torso separated, was rolling around.

It was the first time he had actually seen a Lycan, and he was surprised at its unexpected strength. It was no match for Elbadon, who had a weapon, but almost getting hit and having his collar grabbed was a truly unpleasant experience.

After wiping his sword clean, Elbadon tidied his disheveled clothes. Then he extended his magical power in all directions to check for any witnesses nearby.

A few life responses were caught in his net of magical power, but they were nothing more than small animals like squirrels or owls. He couldn’t sense any elves, humans, or anything comparable.

‘Mission successful, then.’

Elbadon thought, letting out a sigh of relief.

He had been following the prince’s party continuously since they left the royal palace. It was Herma’s order that he must never be discovered and must never lose them.

It was by no means an easy task, but Elbadon was an elf whose tracking skills were second to none even in Tuella Deum. He watched from a distance as the prince’s party’s carriage sped away as if being chased, as it couldn’t go far because the road was blocked and instead retraced its path, and as it finally entered an inn in a small village.

Captain Herma had given him two instructions.

First, to help a Lycan named Zellos kidnap Prince Dandeleon. The captain planned to frame it as Zellos and Dandeleon running away together in a lover’s escape.

Second, if Dandeleon escaped from Zellos or if they both changed their minds and tried to return, he was to eliminate Zellos and secure Dandeleon’s person. In that case, Herma would use the prince’s life to bargain with Kellewen.

“Use these two as your guiding principles, but there’s one more thing to keep in mind.”

Captain Herma had said, tapping his lips twice with his finger. It was a signal that what he was about to say should not be divulged anywhere or left in any official records.

“If, during the journey, the prince suddenly vomits black blood and collapses, or writhes in pain, then you are to eliminate everyone who witnessed that scene, including Zellos.”

Elbadon was a little surprised but didn’t inquire further. Herma disliked subordinates who questioned him. Not wanting to get on his bad side, Elbadon kept his mouth shut and listened quietly to his instructions.

“Bring the prince back, whether he’s breathing or dead. It’s fine if he gets a little hurt if he resists too much.”

At that point, Elbadon vaguely guessed what Herma was thinking. It was because he had heard the expression ‘bring back’ before.

During their journey from the Elf Forest to Benoit, a comrade who had been bewitched by a shapeshifting monster had eventually been consumed by demonic energy. Back then, Herma had said the same thing. We need to study it, so let’s bring that thing back.

‘Is the prince a monster?’

Elbadon thought. He didn’t know if it was true, but it seemed certain that Herma suspected as much.

The Elf Forest boasted richer knowledge about demonic energy and monsters than anywhere else. Most of it was disclosed to the public for the common good, but some information was released only within the Elf Forest due to concerns about causing confusion. The concept of mutation was a prime example, as was information about high-level monsters.