To You, Who Will Die Alone in Paradise Chapter 58

Dandeleon bit his lip and stepped onto the stairs leading down.

The stairs were narrow and long. Since there was no light source at all, it was difficult to gauge how deep they went. Dandeleon advanced hesitantly, relying solely on the candle in his hand. Every time the frightened Dandeleon flinched and came to a stop, the candlelight would also flicker.

No more sounds could be heard from below. A tomb-like, cold silence enveloped Dandeleon, whispering that it was all his imagination.

However, despite his fear, Dandeleon moved forward with conviction. He had definitely heard a sound from below. What’s more, that voice was not unfamiliar. It was a voice he had certainly heard somewhere before.

How long had he been walking? The stairs, which felt like an eternity, finally came to an end. Dandeleon descended the last step and set foot on the cold stone floor. He was a little out of breath, perhaps from walking so tensely. He tried not to breathe too loudly as he held up the candle to illuminate his surroundings.

Just like the stairs, there was nothing in this space to light up the darkness. Dandeleon felt the wall with his hand. He had expected to feel dust or cobwebs, but surprisingly, when he opened his palm, it seemed this was not an abandoned space.

After taking a few steps inside, the furniture in the room came into faint view. A large cupboard stood against the nearest wall. Dandeleon examined the boxes and jars lined up on the cupboard, then chose one and opened it.

It had a sweet smell. When he shone the candlelight on it, he was surprised to see something that looked like shriveled entrails inside, but upon closer inspection, it was dried apricots.

Slightly bewildered, Dandeleon opened the box next to it as well. It was filled with hard-looking biscuits. Dandeleon bent down to check the lower shelf. The two lower shelves were filled entirely with large, heavy jars. When he kicked one with his foot, he heard the sound of liquid sloshing.

Dried fruit, biscuits, and water or some beverage.

Dandeleon smiled with a look of anticlimax.

Food supplies that were good for storage, kept in a cellar accessible through a secret door. This was clearly a shelter space prepared for an emergency.

The royal palace had many similar hidden spaces. Not only Château Grand, where the king and queen resided, but also the west building where Dandeleon had lived had separate passages created to escape in case of war or a comparable emergency. It was the first time he had seen such a well-made shelter room, but considering the entire royal palace, it was a common thing.

‘This is less of a big deal than I thought….’

The strength drained from Dandeleon’s body. As his tension eased, his movements became a little bolder. Dandeleon took the candle and went deeper inside.

The room was smaller than he thought. On one side of the wall leading from the door was the cupboard where the food was stored, and opposite it was a bed. Against the wall farthest from Dandeleon was a small desk, and….

Clatter.

Dandeleon almost dropped the candle.

The desk against the wall had shaken. It was very slight, but the sound was distinct. The fear that had briefly subsided swelled up again.

Dandeleon raised a trembling hand and shone the light toward the desk. But perhaps because of the distance, it wasn’t clearly visible. He could barely make out that there was something on the desk.

Being only faintly visible without being identifiable only stimulated his imagination. What was on the desk? Could it be a beast, or something even more terrifying? Maybe it wasn’t on the desk, but hiding underneath, or beside it… As Dandeleon’s gaze wavered, flitting here and there, the table shook again with a clatter.

“……!”

This time he saw it clearly. Something was twitching on the table as if convulsing. Dandeleon bit his lip hard. He was so scared he wanted to run away right then and there.

But instead of heading for the door, Dandeleon approached the desk. If he didn’t confirm what that thing was, there was no point in coming down here. If he ran away now, he would just end up with the same conclusion he had reached upstairs.

Things would continue as they were, peaceful yet unsettling days.

The desire to avoid that alone overcame his fear of the unknown. Dandeleon, though trembling, approached the desk step by step.

As the candlelight got closer to the desk, the darkness thinned and a distinct shape was revealed. The desk was old, its rough wood grain clearly visible, and on top of it lay something bizarre. It looked like a shriveled tree branch, or perhaps the hide of a beast, and it was.

“Heok…!”

Dandeleon clamped a hand over his own mouth. If he hadn’t, he would have screamed.

“Zar…?”

The demonic beast he had seen in Herma’s ‘laboratory’ was there.

It still retained the appearance of an elf, but in the same horrific state, with only its upper body remaining, without a lower half. The only thing that had changed from before was that one of its two arms was gone.

“Zarmash…?”

The demonic beast muttered unintelligible words and tried to turn its head toward Dandeleon. But the beast’s neck, its single wrist, and its waist were bound in iron restraints, firmly fixed to the desk.

Since it couldn’t move its neck, the only things it could move were its eyeballs. The beast’s violet eyes swiveled to an angle a human could never achieve and then fixed precisely on Dandeleon.

“Zarmashiii!”

The demonic beast let out a piercing scream and writhed. The iron restraints didn’t budge from that much movement, but they couldn’t stop the desk from clattering from the force. The small room filled with a terrible noise.

Dandeleon was stupefied, like a herbivore before a predator. The voice, like scraping metal, entered his ears and grated on his brain.

‘Run.’

A single remaining thread of reason shouted at him.

‘Run now! Run and tell Kellewen!’

The strength drained from his hand, and the candlestick trembled precariously. The only light he held was about to fall to the ground.

‘That a demonic beast got into the cellar….’

A cold voice put a stop to his thoughts.

‘Could Kellewen really not have known?’

Dandeleon gripped the candlestick with both hands. He was scared and confused. It was a situation where it was difficult to make a proper judgment.

But if he thought about it a little more calmly, if he assessed the situation without being crushed by the terror before him, only one question still came to mind.

‘Who locked the demonic beast in here?’

“Heuk… Euk….”

A sobbing sound.

Dandeleon thought it was him crying. But no matter how many times he blinked, no tears fell. Dandeleon clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth. And yet, the crying sound continued.

As if waking from a dream, Dandeleon suddenly came to his senses. The crying sound was coming from the top of the desk.

Dandeleon gasped for breath and approached the demonic beast. And he saw clear tears flowing from its violet eyes.

“……!”

As he got closer, he could see the beast’s appearance in more detail. It was ridiculous to say this about a body cut in half, but he was in a much more battered state than when he had seen him before. Not only was one arm cut off and gone, but there were knife cuts here and there on his body. His dark violet hair had fallen out in patches, exposing his scalp, and the scales that had sprouted on his body were also sparse.

The demonic beast, weeping in its wretched state, was, despite all these features, surprisingly similar to an elf, and for that reason, was unspeakably pitiful.

“Zarmash….”

The demonic beast mumbled.

Was this the language of demonic beasts? It was a language Dandeleon, who had a knack for foreign languages, had never heard before. As expected, it was probably impossible to communicate with demonic beasts. Just as Dandeleon was thinking that, the beast’s mouth opened and uttered an unexpected word.

“Noble… blood….”

Dandeleon was startled. He had never even heard of a demonic beast that could communicate with the people of the continent.

But thinking about it again, Dandeleon hadn’t even known about the phenomenon of mutation until Herma had told him. Perhaps among demonic beasts, there were individuals with high intelligence. Or perhaps the beast before him was able to communicate because it was originally an elf.

“Um….”

Dandeleon spoke to him cautiously. But once he had called out, he didn’t know what to say.

“Are you… okay?”

In the end, he just threw out some random words and immediately regretted it. Asking if he was okay when he had no lower body and one arm was as good as mocking him. Dandeleon waved his hands in a fluster and made an excuse.

“No, that’s not it… I mean.”

“Zarmash.”

The demonic beast whispered. Its eyes met Dandeleon’s.

“…Ah.”

The beast’s eyes were a beautiful shade of purple. Dandeleon was captivated by the color as if bewitched.

It was a very familiar color. The purple he had always seen on his mother’s face, in his dreams, and in the mirror. As brilliant as an amethyst and bright as if it emitted its own light in the dark….

“Give me your blood, noble one.”

The demonic beast said to him. Its voice was much clearer than before.

“Please, have pity on me….”

The demonic beast convulsed as if it would leap up, and the desk clattered. Startled, Dandeleon backed away. Tears flowed from the beast’s eyes again.

“That elf gave me pain.”

The demonic beast sobbed. Dandeleon, who had been at a loss and confused, stopped dead in his tracks upon hearing those words. His complicated thoughts vanished all at once. It was as if his mind had gone completely blank.

“He tore me to shreds and shattered me to pieces… He enjoyed my screams and loved my pain.”

In his empty mind, the face of a smiling elf appeared. The blue eyes that came closer, not caring about the blood splattered on his face, were terrifying. His own reflection was visible in those eyes. A face that had given up even on begging to be killed. Himself, who, tormented by pain, had finally let everything go.

‘Filthy demonic beast.’

Herma had said to him.

Dandeleon could imagine him torturing the demonic beast. As vividly and clearly as if he had seen it himself. He even imagined the cold blade digging into his own stomach.

No, he remembered the torture Herma had inflicted on him. Herma had torn his flesh and broken his bones. Just because he hated him, just because his pain was enjoyable….

“I was incomplete and had no choice but to be defiled… but Zarmash, if I had your blood….”