To You, Who Will Die Alone in Paradise Chapter 53

Someone called to him from far away. With a sorrowful, desperate voice.

“-ps-ra…!”

His vision wavered as if he were underwater. Someone was in front of him, but he couldn’t see clearly. For a moment, he thought he saw purple eyes shining and wondered if it was his mother. Dandeleon unconsciously reached out his hand. Yet, he didn’t expect that hand to reach.

But the person in front of him grabbed Dandeleon’s hand tightly.

Dandeleon was startled. At the same time, he realized it wasn’t his mother. The hand that touched his was much larger and strangely colder than his mother’s. And it was hard. It was as if it were clad in armor.

“Apsara!”

Someone who wasn’t his mother shouted.

“Come to the sea…!”

Dandeleon opened his eyes.

The first thought that came to mind upon opening his eyes was that he had somehow survived. But the next moment, Dandeleon was surprised by the fact that his body felt unexpectedly light. It was as if the terrible pain from yesterday had been a lie.

Dandeleon grimaced. The pain that had felt like it was burning his entire body, starting from the inside of his throat, was still vivid. He seemed to have vomited blood, but he couldn’t remember it clearly.

He remembered Zellos calling his name in surprise. And then he had gone out, saying he would bring a doctor. He thought he had wanted to hold onto Zellos. Because Dandeleon thought he was going to die right then and there….

‘Wait, but did I really not die?’

In fact, Dandeleon had felt a lack of reality ever since he woke up. The old inn ceiling was clearly visible to his eyes, and he could distinctly feel the hard pillow supporting his neck and the thin blanket that smelled of old dust. Yet, Dandeleon felt as if everything surrounding him was a dream.

It was because he thought it made no sense. For him to be alive.

‘It was the first time I’d ever been that sick, so it’s no wonder my head’s a little strange.’

After clutching his forehead and groaning for a while, Dandeleon came to a sober conclusion.

He felt an unidentifiable sense of unease, but all his other senses were working properly, proving his survival. So, he had no choice but to assume that the strange feeling was just the shock of being severely ill.

Dandeleon stretched and sat up. There was some muscle pain in his shoulders and back, but considering the ordeal in the carriage yesterday, it was manageable. And his legs were a bit numb and heavy….

Dandeleon’s eyes widened. Something heavy was resting on his feet. Dandeleon rubbed his eyes and checked again to see if he was seeing correctly. Since it didn’t disappear no matter how many times he looked, it didn’t seem to be a dream or a hallucination.

It was Kellewen. He was kneeling on the floor below the bed, asleep. His legs had felt heavy because he was resting his head on them. When he listened carefully, only then did he hear a very faint sound of breathing. Kellewen’s shoulders rose slightly and then fell again.

Dandeleon looked at Kellewen as if in a dream.

Kellewen, asleep in the middle of the old, damp room, looked like an angel who had briefly descended to earth to rest. His long hair flowed down, half-covering his face. As Dandeleon admired the entirety of Kellewen’s face not hidden by his hair, he got a strange feeling.

The last time he had seen Kellewen was yesterday morning. So only about a day had passed, but Kellewen, as reflected in Dandeleon’s eyes, was strangely unfamiliar. Dandeleon wracked his brain to find the words to express the impression he received.

“Umm….”

Kellewen frowned and let out a groan. The moment he saw that expression, Dandeleon realized.

Kellewen looked incredibly tired. His white face and tightly closed lips were pale and bloodless.

Was that why he felt like an old man, despite his beautiful face? Until now, the only times Kellewen had felt old were when he spoke in an archaic manner like an elder.

“Hk….”

Just then, Kellewen’s face contorted, and he let out a pained voice. It seemed he was having a nightmare. Dandeleon debated whether to wake him or let him sleep. But before he could finish his deliberation, Kellewen opened his eyes with a start.

“Leon…!”

Kellewen called out to Dandeleon and shot up. His face, which had looked like a frightened child’s, was filled with emotion the moment he saw Dandeleon. Kellewen whispered with an expression on the verge of tears.

“Leon.”

Dandeleon replied blankly.

“Yes…?”

He felt like he should say something kinder and better, but nothing came to mind. Because Dandeleon, too, had a mountain of questions for him.

Kellewen slowly approached and embraced Dandeleon.

Somehow, he had expected this. The last time… no, even yesterday, Kellewen had been like this. It was hard to believe that was only yesterday.

“Leon, are you alright?”

Kellewen asked in a voice so weak it sounded like it might break. Dandeleon checked his body once more and then said softly.

“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt at all. In fact, I think I feel better than usual.”

“I see….”

Dandeleon gently patted Kellewen’s back to soothe him. While doing so, he glanced under the bed out of the corner of his eye, but the floor was clean. He couldn’t tell if vomiting blood had been a dream, or if Kellewen had cleaned it up.

“Um, Kellewen….”

Judging that Kellewen had calmed down to some extent, Dandeleon spoke carefully.

“I’m sorry, but could you explain? I don’t understand anything right now.”

“……”

Kellewen nodded but held him in his arms a little longer. After a while, Kellewen pulled away and met Dandeleon’s eyes. His gaze was lonely and pained.

Dandeleon raised his hand and caressed his cheek. He didn’t know why, but he wanted to comfort him.

“When did you get here? How did you know I was here….”

As Dandeleon was speaking, he remembered someone he had forgotten.

“Zellos? Did you see Zellos?”

At the name spoken without thinking, Kellewen’s gaze instantly turned cold. He said in a low voice.

“He ran away.”

“…Zellos did? Why?”

“Because he was found hiding here. Kidnapping a royal—he would not escape punishment if caught, so he had no choice but to run.”

Dandeleon was taken aback. It took him a moment to realize that he was the kidnapped royal.

“I went out to find you as soon as I heard you had disappeared. It was hard to find you at first, but by using magic, I was able to find this place faster than others.”

A series of shocking statements poured out. He had heard that High Elves were not supposed to use magic, but this was already the second time Kellewen had used magic for Dandeleon’s sake. Just imagining how Herma would react if he found out made him dizzy.

“So I arrived here, and you were… in this room, collapsed after vomiting blood….”

Kellewen couldn’t finish his sentence and hung his head. It seemed he had been greatly shocked when he found Dandeleon.

Dandeleon told Kellewen several more times that his body was perfectly fine now and, in fact, in better condition than usual. Kellewen barely managed to nod.

Not wanting to agitate Kellewen, who was trying to calm himself, Dandeleon kept hesitating. But he felt he couldn’t let this issue go unaddressed. Dandeleon waited until Kellewen had calmed down to some extent and then carefully brought it up.

“But Kellewen, I wasn’t kidnapped….”

Kellewen looked at Dandeleon with a complicated expression. Dandeleon felt a little intimidated by the strange expression, from which he couldn’t read any inner thoughts. His voice grew a little smaller as he explained, becoming somewhat defensive.

“It’s true I came with Zellos, but I agreed to it. Zellos asked me to go with him to pay respects at my mother’s grave….”

“So you left without a word?”

Kellewen said with a look of disbelief. His tone was also clearly accusatory. Dandeleon felt a little choked up by that reaction.

“Normally, I wouldn’t have. But you were trying to kick Zellos out. I thought I might never see him again, so I just wanted to visit the grave as a last goodbye.”

Of course, Dandeleon knew now. Looking back, Zellos’s behavior had been strange. He had said uncharacteristically harsh things and had suddenly changed his attitude, acting like the most pitiful person in the world. Dandeleon vaguely understood that it had all been a scheme to lure him out of the royal palace.

But if you get down to the fundamental reason why Dandeleon fell for it, it was ultimately Kellewen. Because he had arbitrarily tried to drive Zellos away, Dandeleon, too, had become desperate.

The word “kidnapping” was also absurd. Dandeleon hadn’t been dragged here by force; he had come here of his own will. Hoping that everything was the result of a misunderstanding, Dandeleon said.

“Zellos didn’t drag me here by force. And me being sick yesterday had nothing to do with Zellos at all….”

“Visiting the grave, you say.”

Because Kellewen cut him off, Dandeleon felt even worse. Just as Dandeleon was about to glare at Kellewen and finish his sentence, he spoke.

“You were going to your mother’s grave, right? The grave is in Roalante. Is that correct?”

“It is, but is that important right now?”

“It is important. Because right now, we are near the eastern gate of the capital.”

Dandeleon felt confused for a moment. To get to Roalante, one had to pass through the capital’s south gate and then head southwest. But for them to be near the eastern gate meant….

“Zellos did indeed kidnap you. You just didn’t know it yourself.”

Kellewen said coldly and solemnly, like a judge delivering a verdict. Dandeleon, who had instantly become a culprit, couldn’t say a word. His vision blurred and his head felt a little dizzy.

“I understand that he tried hard to persuade you. It’s not your fault that you fell for it, but….”

Kellewen seemed to have more to say but sighed and shook his head.

“…No, never mind. We finally met like this. Let’s stop talking about this.”

A surge of indignant frustration welled up.

Dandeleon wanted to talk more. There were more than one or two things he wanted to argue with Kellewen about. He wanted to shout at him, asking why he tried to kick Zellos out, and that even if he wanted to, he should have asked for his opinion.

But now that it had been revealed that Zellos had really kidnapped him, none of that mattered.

Kellewen had seen through Zellos’s dark intentions and tried to protect Dandeleon, but Dandeleon had ignored his sincerity, acted selfishly, and gotten himself kidnapped. In the end, that was how the story concluded.