To You, Who Will Die Alone in Paradise Chapter 62

Should I have said yes when Kellewen took my hand on the beach and asked me to marry him? Just before that, when he told me he loved me, Dandeleon was truly, incredibly happy. Maybe because I was so happy then, I was even angrier at the words that followed. To not even be the first for the person I wanted to say ‘I love you’ to for the first time in my life was just too miserable.

Was the mistake thinking I would corrupt Kellewen in the first place? If so, then this might be Yggdrasil’s punishment for Dandeleon. For brazenly snatching away the sacrifice it had raised for itself.

But who was more in the wrong? The thousand-year-old tree that barely sustained its life by sucking the life out of others, and me, who thinks it’s fine for some stupid tree like that to die. Of the two, is the latter worse?

No, or maybe… should I have not gotten involved with him from the start? If I hadn’t given him any kind of attention, would we have come this far?

Tears flowed down Dandeleon’s cheeks again.

I retraced my memories to find regrets, but no answer came, only a feeling of defiance. It might have been because the memories that surfaced each sparkled beautifully in their own colors.

Dandeleon remembered Kellewen proposing to him with Roallante in the background. He remembered that when he was being beaten by Pierre, the only one who saved him had the sunlight behind his head like a halo. He remembered Kellewen getting angry at the word ‘livestock’ at the dead prince’s fountain. He remembered everything, even his face revealed beneath Benoit’s chandelier on the night it all began.

In all those moments, Kellewen was so very beautiful. And Dandeleon….

Perhaps, I think I was happy in each of those moments.

After meeting Kellewen, it was a succession of such moments. The experience of being mesmerized by a beauty so captivating I couldn’t tear my eyes away, the sorrowful joy when a hand of salvation reached me even while I was miserable, the warm feeling that surged in my chest when I discovered affection in eyes that shone for me.

Things Dandeleon could never have expected to enjoy in his life.

So, I could never bring myself to say that I shouldn’t have gotten involved with him from the start. If someone said they could turn back time, if they asked what I would do when I stood at that crossroads of choice again.

Dandeleon would answer that he would approach Kellewen this time too.

“…I have to go.”

Dandeleon wiped his tears and stood up. Strength returned to his limbs, which had been limp as if dead. The motivation he had lost in his heart flared up again.

Kellewen was not normal right now. But that didn’t mean it was time to say that the Kellewen he knew was lost forever. Kellewen needed help. And in this world, the only one who could help Kellewen was Dandeleon.

Because only Dandeleon did not want Kellewen’s death.

‘If I can get out of here, where should I go?’

He obviously couldn’t contact the elves, including Herma. All they wanted was to take Kellewen away and kill him as soon as possible. Most others would probably think similarly, but the Crown Prince was a bit different. He expected something from Kellewen other than death.

A lighthouse. For the Crown Prince to get the lighthouse from Kellewen, he absolutely needed Dandeleon.

In other words, the conclusion was that the one in Benoit who least wanted Dandeleon’s death was the Crown Prince. It was a funny thing, considering their past relationship, but that’s just how the world works.

Anyway, after escaping, the only person Dandeleon could rely on was the Crown Prince. Although not as much as the King and Queen, he had comparable power, so he could also provide practical help. But the distance between Chateau Grand, where the Crown Prince resided, and this place, the Celeste Domain….

‘Chateau Grand.’

Those words triggered a certain memory. Dandeleon’s eyes sparkled.

‘A secret passage.’

Dandeleon checked the candle he had placed on the cupboard. In that time, its height had shrunk by about a fingernail’s length. Dandeleon hurriedly snatched the candlestick.

‘I have to hurry!’

He held the candlestick and began to shine it on the walls here and there. His other hand diligently felt along the wall, searching for a gap. There must be a gap. A door with a structure similar to the one that led here from the first floor, one that a finger or two could fit into.

Judging by the items stored in the cupboard, it was clear this was a shelter. And most shelters had more than one door. This was because making only one door created the risk of getting trapped inside the shelter.

Dandeleon had read in a book that the secret passages of Chateau Grand were complex like a maze because of the effort to connect dozens of shelters with two or more different passages each.

This was a separate palace, so he couldn’t expect that level of complexity, but since it was a building within the royal palace grounds, they wouldn’t have made just one door. There must be a way out, and it was highly likely that it led to the outside rather than inside the mansion.

‘Please, please….’

Dandeleon concentrated all his senses on his hands, recalling the door he had seen above. Unlike the corridor floor, which was decorated with ornate mosaics, the walls here were of a rough form, made of haphazardly cut stones piled up carelessly. The size and shape of the stones were random, making it difficult to know where a mechanism might be hidden.

He hadn’t intended to find it with his eyes from the start, so Dandeleon frantically felt and knocked on the wall like a madman, searching for the door. In the meantime, the candle grew shorter, slowly but surely.

He had checked two walls, but with no success. Dandeleon anxiously gauged the length of the candle and felt the last wall. His palm stung from constantly brushing against the rough stone wall.

But Dandeleon didn’t care. He had already cut his palm with a knife before; a little pain like this wouldn’t make him flinch. What truly frightened Dandeleon was not finding the secret passage by the end. Or, that there was only one door from the beginning….

Click.

Just as he was about to despair because he felt nothing no matter how much he swept his hand over the last wall, a metallic sound, like gears interlocking, was made when he pressed a protruding part in the right corner. A jolt of thrilling tension ran down Dandeleon’s spine, making him straighten up.

The wall moved on its own without a sound. Dandeleon gasped for breath and extended the candlestick beyond the door.

A narrow, cobweb-filled path was revealed.

“Let’s go.”

Dandeleon was about to enter the passage and nearly hit his forehead. The ceiling was lower than he thought. It was so low he had to bend his back awkwardly just to walk. With his anxious heart leading the way, he nearly fell several times as he walked, almost running, down the narrow corridor.

After quite a long time had passed, a wall suddenly appeared before the candlestick. It was a dead end, and there had been no forks in the road on the way here. Dandeleon was certain this was the exit and began to feel the wall again.

The moment his hand, which had been feeling the wall, touched the ceiling without success, his fingers, as if drawn by a magnet, immediately found a small indentation. When he pressed the hole that felt like a scratch, the stone ceiling slid open without a sound, just as the door connected to the corridor had done.

“Ah…!”

Dandeleon let out an exclamation without realizing it.

Beyond the open door, the night sky was full of stars. The wind carried in fresh air and swirled into the damp underground. The candle in his hand had gone out, but it was okay now. The moon, about a day short of being full, was illuminating Dandeleon from the western sky.

Dandeleon climbed out of the underground passage and lay down on the grass. As his tension eased, his legs trembled and his whole body ached.

“Where am I….”

Dandeleon muttered, looking up at the sky. He thought he had walked quite a lot, and indeed, when he sat up and looked behind him, he could see the castle wall. He had come out of the royal palace through the underground.

Realizing that fact, Dandeleon was a little shaken. He had lived his whole life dreaming of escaping the royal palace, and he had suddenly achieved his dream. Moreover, no one knew he was here.

‘Should I just run away?’

It was just as that thought suddenly crossed Dandeleon’s mind.

Thwack!

Something lodged itself in his shoulder blade. Before he could even check what it was, excruciating pain washed over him. Dandeleon screamed and fell forward.

His left shoulder blade felt like it had been shattered. It was so bad he couldn’t even lift a finger.

“Well, look who it is.”

At the voice that cut through the darkness, Dandeleon momentarily forgot the pain. A mental anguish deeper than the physical pain washed over him.

“For a prince to appear in the middle of a field, Yggdrasil must be helping us.”

With the moon at his back, a pair of blue eyes smiled at him.

Dandeleon felt behind his shoulder. A thick, spear-like object was embedded there. When he managed to get up and look toward where the voice came from, he saw Herma approaching, holding a bow as tall as himself.

‘This is an arrow?’

Dandeleon touched the thing stuck in his wound again and nearly fainted. He had only forgotten the pain for a moment in his shock at seeing Herma; it was still there. No matter how hard he grit his teeth until they could break, he couldn’t bear it. Dandeleon curled up and swallowed a scream of pain. In the meantime, Herma had come to a stop right in front of him.

“It seems there’s some kind of secret passage. Anarel, check it.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Just hearing the voice made his whole body tremble. Even amid the shattering pain in his shoulder, Dandeleon shuffled his body back, trying to get away from Herma.

But it was no use. Herma’s hand grabbed Dandeleon’s blond hair and yanked it up. Dandeleon was forced to face Herma, who was squatting in front of him.

“Good evening, Your Highness.”

Herma smiled as he greeted him nonchalantly.