To You, Who Will Die Alone in Paradise Chapter 60

In that respect, he was the same as Herma. He couldn’t empathize with the demonic beast’s pain and suffering, as if it belonged to someone else.

“A little while ago, I sprinkled the last of the blood outside the royal palace. It will look like it went outside, so now Herma has no reason to stay in the palace.”

Kellewen raised his voice with a bright face, as if relieved.

“All of the Tuella Deum will leave the royal palace. They’ll wander around Benoit searching for a non-existent demonic beast. In the meantime, you’ll be safe. Perfectly…!”

His voice was filled with a joy so pure it was beautiful. Kellewen looked at Dandeleon with a happy expression.

“This time, it will really work out, Leon.”

Kellewen whispered.

Thump.

Dandeleon’s body staggered, bumping into the desk. He had backed away and collided with it without realizing. Kellewen stood up in surprise, but Dandeleon held up a hand to stop him. The tips of Dandeleon’s fingers, extended toward Kellewen, were trembling faintly.

“…You’re insane.”

Dandeleon said.

“Leon?”

“Think about it. What you’ve done, how dangerous it is….”

Dandeleon barely maintained his balance by gripping the edge of the desk with one hand.

“Releasing a captive demonic beast, and contaminating the royal palace here and there with its blood? What if something had gone wrong? The entire royal palace, no, everyone living in Benoit could have died.”

Even as he spoke in an accusatory tone, Dandeleon thought he was being deceptive. Dandeleon was not angry because of the people of Benoit who had almost been pitifully sacrificed. That, in truth, didn’t matter to him at all.

The real reason for Dandeleon’s anger was the demonic beast. It was because he felt so sorry for that demonic beast, who had suffered under Herma and then suffered again under Kellewen, and in the end had burned and vanished without leaving a trace.

“Leon, this was all for you….”

“Please, stop talking such nonsense!”

He was angry that that pitiful creature had died just because of him, no, because of Kellewen who was trying to protect him from a non-existent threat.

“Yes, Zellos tried to kidnap me. It’s also true that I returned safely thanks to you. But that’s already over. I’m safe now. Even without you coddling me like that…!”

“That’s not true at all, Leon.”

Kellewen’s voice turned noticeably cold. He said.

“You’re still in danger. If I don’t protect you, you will die.”

“That’s!”

Dandeleon shouted. His chest felt so suffocated that he couldn’t bear it without screaming.

He tore at his hair and glared at Kellewen. The time he had spent as if trapped in this small palace felt ridiculous. He had thought that if he just endured for a little while, Kellewen would be reassured, that if time passed, everything would go back to how it was….

“Just your delusion!”

During that time, he had been continuously breaking.

Drip. A tear rolled down from Dandeleon’s eye and fell to the floor. A scream as sharp as broken glass failed to escape the small room, hitting the wall and bouncing back. Dandeleon kept repeating the words he had shouted in his head.

It’s your delusion, Kellewen. It’s all your delusion.

“Haha.”

A low laugh could be heard.

Dandeleon raised his tear-streaked face. Kellewen was looking at him and laughing. The laughter was quiet, but it continued for a long time. Kellewen’s shoulders shook as he laughed as if sobbing, and then he spoke.

“Delusion… I suppose it would feel like a delusion. Hahaha, I think so too. How ridiculous is it? That you die the moment I take my eyes off you. That you die so easily, as if your being alive was the illusion.”

Kellewen’s voice, laughing as if crying, was nothing short of eerie. His appearance suited this cold, dark room all too well. Twisting his white face, Kellewen continued to murmur.

“Do you know what a great miracle it is that you’ve survived until now? Has it been a month since we met? Or has it not? Haha, anyway, do you have any idea how many times you’ve died to reach this day, and the sacrifices made to reverse it…?”

That voice ensnared Dandeleon and dragged him downward. Like a person sinking into a swamp, Dandeleon fell very slowly into despair.

“I don’t want you to remember. I’m enough for such a terrible thing. But, to call it a delusion… Leon. Don’t say such things.”

Kellewen had truly gone mad.

The person standing before him was not the Kellewen Dandeleon knew. Where had the kind and soft-hearted elf, so overly pure it was frustrating, gone? Had the Kellewen who loved the world more than anyone else already died and gone?

“Someday… Leon, someday there will be a day to explain.”

Who on earth was this person calling my name in front of me right now?

“But it’s not now. I really don’t have many chances left. That’s why the present is more precious. I can’t ruin it anymore. Because I can’t, so, here.”

The stranger with Kellewen’s face spread his arms toward him. With a gentle smile, in a kind tone.

“Come here, Leon. Let’s go up. Just think that you had a bad dream and let’s go up and sleep together.”

Dandeleon knew that this was Kellewen’s offer of reconciliation. If he went into his arms like this, everything that had happened here would be undone. Kellewen would even forgive him for denouncing him with the word “delusion.”

However, Dandeleon would also have to forgive everything about Kellewen. Locking up the demonic beast, burning it to death, and the fact that he had gone completely mad… he would have to dismiss it all as a bad dream and forgive it.

Only then could he go back. To the beautiful but unsettling daily life.

Dandeleon shook his head.

“Leon….”

Kellewen lowered his arms with a pained expression. The silence between them was more awkward than ever before.

“Yes, you’ll need time to accept it.”

After a long while, Kellewen spoke and turned his body. He went up the stairs and headed up first. Dandeleon did not follow him and stood still. After Kellewen left this place, he planned to stay here a little longer and mourn the demonic beast.

“Until you accept everything… it would be best for you to stay here until then.”

But Kellewen, who had almost reached the top of the stairs, said something meaningful.

Led by a foreboding premonition, Dandeleon belatedly went up the stairs, but it was already too late. Kellewen, who had gone outside, closed the door even after seeing Dandeleon follow him.

Click.

At the same time, the sound of metal engaging was heard.

“Kellewen!”

Dandeleon rushed forward and pushed the door. But the door didn’t budge. Dandeleon pounded on the door with his fists and called for Kellewen at the top of his lungs.

There was no answer. The firmly closed door did not open again.

Rustle.

One side of the dense thicket shook slightly, making a small sound. At the same time, Herma’s hand went to the quiver at his waist.

He drew an arrow, nocked it on the bow, pulled the bowstring, and then immediately released it. His speed was so fast it was doubtful whether he had even aimed, but as soon as the arrow left the bow, Herma was certain it had hit.

An arrow was firmly embedded in one side of the thick bushes. Herma frowned as he approached the spot where the arrow had flown.

He had clearly heard something being pierced, but the magic contained in the arrow did not explode. If so, even if the arrow had hit something, it was not what he had been aiming for.

Indeed, in the spot where he had pushed through the bushes, a large snake lay dead. The snake, with its head pierced straight through by the arrow, looked more like a ridiculous toy than a carcass. Herma clicked his tongue and pulled out the arrow.

“We have received word that the purification of the vicinity has been completed, Captain.”

As Herma straightened up, the subordinate standing behind him spoke to him. Herma sent a message to the purification team to join them here, then ordered the surrounding tracking teams to take a short break.

The elves, who had been scattered in all directions, gathered in one place. Their expressions, reflected in the campfire, were all dark. Even without hearing a report, he could easily guess that there was no progress in the pursuit.

“Haa….”

Herma leaned against a tree stump and let out an irritated sigh. Above his head, the stars twinkled indifferently.

It had already been more than ten days since the demonic beast escaped. In that time, it was fair to say that the Tuella Deum had achieved nothing. While the demonic beast consistently moved toward the outside of the royal palace, all they had found were a few strands of hair. And their opponent was just a single demonic beast, crawling around without a lower body.

It made no sense. The demonic beast Herma had captured was neither highly intelligent nor physically overwhelming. It was impossible for such a beast, with its injured body, to evade the pursuit of the Tuella Deum’s elite.

The movement of the contamination leading outside the palace was also extremely unnatural. Contamination would suddenly appear in a place that had been thoroughly searched the day before, and the traces led out of the palace while maintaining a distance that was neither too close nor too far. Anyone could see that an artificial hand had been involved.

There was someone who was using the demonic beast, which everyone on the continent feared, as they pleased. Who on earth could it be?

If you thought about it from the time the demonic beast escaped, the answer was simple. Someone who knew that there was a demonic beast in Ardenberg, someone with enough magical power to break Herma’s seal, and someone who would gain the most from this kind of action….

“Kellewen.”

Herma ground his teeth.

Of course, it was a difficult fact for Herma to accept as well. It was shocking that Kellewen had pushed aside the rite, mad with love, but it was still barely within the realm of understanding.

But if he had let the demonic beast escape and induced the contamination, that was an act that could never be forgiven, not just as a High Elf, but as a living being residing on the continent.

Herma, wanting to know if Kellewen was really the culprit, continuously tried to talk to him. But since meeting at the main palace, Kellewen had refused all contact not only with Herma but with any other elf.

Herma found out that he had moved his residence to a small palace on one side of the royal palace called Céleste Domaine, but that was all he could do. The situation was bad for storming in without solid evidence. At least in Benoit, where the Crown Prince was staunchly defending him, it would be difficult.

“What on earth happened to the Elders?”

Herma muttered, looking up at the sky. It had been a long time since he had sent a message to the Elven Forest, but there was still no news.

Herma was the leader of the Tuella Deum, but with the Benoit royal family protecting Kellewen, there were limits to what he could do with his authority. He needed support more than ever, but the Elders hadn’t even sent a reply telling him to wait. Thanks to that, Herma’s insides were drying up with anxiety with each passing day.

“Still no word from Elbardon?”