To You, Who Will Die Alone in Paradise Chapter 72

Surprised, Kellewen grabbed Dandeleon. But Dandeleon was not surprised at all. Instead, he wrapped an arm around Kellewen’s shoulders and patted him gently. Confused, Kellewen opened his eyes, but Dandeleon’s hand covered them.

“It’s okay.”

Dandeleon said in a trembling voice, tightening his arm. Held in his embrace, Kellewen gasped for breath.

‘Ah.’

A moment later, he realized Dandeleon’s intention.

He intended to kill Kellewen right here. So they could be together until the very last moment, so he would not die alone.

Once he thought of it that way, he was no longer flustered or afraid. Even the pain in his abdomen felt sweet. Kellewen smiled and buried his face in Dandeleon’s embrace.

“Why are you smiling?”

Dandeleon’s voice was too quiet. He couldn’t tell if he was laughing or crying, but Kellewen thought that he, at least, should be smiling until the end. That wasn’t so difficult. Because right now, Kellewen was happier than anyone.

“Because you, because you are by my side….”

The more he spoke, the fuzzier his mind became. His body lost control and tilted on its own. Only the scent of Dandeleon was abundant. Blood, the sea, and flower petals mixed together and filled Kellewen completely.

“I’m so happy….”

The sentence was not completed. Kellewen lost consciousness. It was a peaceful death.

Kellewen had a dream. It was a dream where Dandeleon died over and over again.

It was a truly terrible nightmare. The death of a loved one, even if experienced only once, leaves an indelible scar. But Dandeleon had died more than dozens of times. Sometimes before his very eyes, sometimes in places he did not know. Sometimes horribly, other times in vain. At the hands of others, by illness, by accident, and very occasionally, by his own hand….

All those moments shattered and rained down like fragments. Each glittering, mirror-like shard was one of Dandeleon’s deaths.

Kellewen stood넋 lost in the middle of the sharp rain of death. He wanted to avoid it, but he had no strength left. Every time a fragmented moment brushed past Kellewen, his skin split open and bled. Blood pooled at his feet, forming a puddle.

It hurts. It’s agonizing. It’s sad.

Kellewen thought, dripping with blood.

Back when he had tried to avoid the rain, even such thoughts were a luxury. After realizing that it would not end with just one or two attempts, Kellewen had deliberately killed his emotions. He deceived himself so that he would not collapse from exhaustion.

Dandeleon’s death can be overcome.

A single death is nothing, since I can just turn back time and try again.

It’s not painful. It’s not agonizing.

I do not feel sadness at his death.

As the time of deception piled up, Kellewen became solid. But without his knowing, the inside of his shell had rotted away until it was empty. He had finally achieved what he wanted, but in the end, he realized.

Every time Dandeleon died, Kellewen had been hurt, agonized, and sad. Every single time, every single moment, without exception.

The memories poured down endlessly. Kellewen was already covered in scars. Yet the rain did not stop. The repeated pain was overwhelming. He wanted to escape from this agonizing place.

Wouldn’t it be okay to be at peace now?

The moment he thought that, time stopped.

The pouring memories halted mid-air. The fragments that had glittered in full color began to lose their light. Their sharp surfaces smoothed out, and they stopped replaying the moments of death.

Before he knew it, the rain was falling again. But now, it was nothing more than raindrops, not mirror shards. Transparent raindrops that reflected nothing brushed gently against Kellewen’s skin and fell to the ground.

At first, it was comfortable. The bleeding stopped, and he was no longer getting new wounds. His mind settled calmly. It was peaceful. If he could just stay like this forever, without feeling any pain….

In the meantime, the world surrounding Kellewen was gradually shrinking. A purple mist was creeping in from a distance, but he didn’t notice, too busy watching the falling raindrops.

One particularly large raindrop fell slowly. Something inside the raindrop glinted. A beautiful face looked at Kellewen and smiled brightly.

It was a face he did not know. He felt like he had known it a long time ago, but now he couldn’t even remember the name.

Kellewen was flustered. He was unsettled by the fact that he didn’t know the face in the memory that had brushed past him. Just a moment ago he had been surrendering himself to tranquility, but now he was as anxious as if he were being chased.

If he closes his eyes like this, everything will be peaceful. Nothing would be able to hurt him. Knowing this fact, Kellewen still reached out his hand to the falling raindrops. He gathered the shards indiscriminately and brought them before him.

Round glass beads glittered in his hand. The same face was reflected in every bead. The situations were all different, but the smile directed at him was the same. Kellewen remembered that the wavy hair was as soft as golden thread and the eyes, wide open towards him, were a vivid violet.

…Leon.

Kellewen opened his mouth to say his name. But no voice came out. Instead, a large air bubble gushed out and popped.

Before he knew it, Kellewen was underwater. The purple waves undulated, pulling him into the depths. The deeper he went, the more Kellewen’s body dissolved little by little.

He had experienced something like this once before. A long time ago, so long ago it was now a distant memory, he had made contact with a great being. That being, the one that had tried to melt him and absorb him into itself but had not been able to, no, had chosen not to, its name was….

My child.

Yggdrasil whispered to him. At the same time, a light burst from within his body and enveloped Kellewen.

His dissolving body regained its form in the light. Kellewen was still sinking, but his mind was clear. He could remember now. The moment he first heard the voice whispering to him, everything he had experienced since, and….

May you be happy.

Even the name of the one most precious to him.

Kellewen opened his eyes.

The first thing that came into view were leaves. Long leaves hung from the ceiling, fluttering.

The leaves, soft like the fins of a fish, were each a different color. Some leaves were a tender green like freshly sprouted buds, and some were a deep green like moss in the shade. Very occasionally, black, glossy leaves like Kellewen’s hair were mixed in.

When he sat up, he could see the ceiling better. Kellewen discovered that the countless fluttering leaves above his head extended from a large branch.

Following the branch with his eyes, he saw a large tree. A tree stood tall in the middle of the room, its branches growing wildly, intertwining to form a vast ceiling.

Even for Kellewen, who had visited many places while on his pilgrimage across the continent, such a sight was unfamiliar. The shape of the tree trunk and the color of the leaves were things he had never seen before. Come to think of it, the air that touched his skin was also quite different from usual. The temperature was high like midsummer, and it was very humid.

‘Where is this place…’

Kellewen thought as he looked around.

He had been lying on a bed in a spacious room. He was wearing only light pants, with no shirt. Because a large tree stood in the middle of the room, he had at first thought he was outdoors. But upon closer inspection, he noticed walls that seemed to be woven from tree trunks. This too was an unusual method he had never seen anywhere on the continent.

‘I was definitely in Roallanté.’

He tried to retrace his memory from before he lost consciousness. A blue sea and white sand came to mind. In that place where two colors of sea could be seen, Kellewen had prepared himself for their parting. Dandeleon had approached him and asked.

‘There’s one last thing I want to do.’

Kellewen frowned. And then, he had definitely….

‘Will you close your eyes?’

While saying that.

‘Kellen, do you trust me?’

He had stabbed him.

Kellewen, startled, fumbled around his abdomen. At the time, he thought Dandeleon was trying to kill him, but now that he was conscious, it felt like an absurd idea. But the pain had definitely been there. He had been stabbed by something, and that was why he had fainted.

His fingers, fumbling at his stomach, felt a strange texture. At first, he thought it was a scab from dried blood. But the more he touched it, the more he felt it was excessively hard. It was hard enough to make a sound when tapped with a fingernail, and it was even cool like metal.

Kellewen looked at his stomach with his own eyes. And he discovered scales that had sprouted where the wound should have been.

“……?!”

He couldn’t believe his eyes and checked several times, but the scales were still there. Kellewen touched the scales again with his hand and then sensed another change.

Kellewen’s skin tone was on the fair side. So, places where his veins showed through, like his fingernails or the back of his hands, should normally have a faint reddish tint. But now his hands were a strangely bluish color. It looked as if they were bruised, but that color tinged not just his hands, but his entire body.

An unfamiliar place, an unfamiliar climate, and the strange things happening to his body. Kellewen was lost in confusion for a moment before he shot up. He glanced around the room, found a door, and pushed it with his hand.

The door opened smoothly without a sound, revealing the outside.

“Ah…!”

Kellewen let out an exclamation without realizing it. For a very brief moment, he completely forgot the situation he was in and became captivated by the scenery before him.

Under a sky so blue it was chilling, a vast, green curtain unfolded.

The trees, soaring high as if to pierce the sky, were all different in size and color. Flocks of birds were a colorful sight among the trees that spread their branches in a free-spirited manner. When one bird spread its bright yellow wings and soared into the sky, dozens of birds followed behind it. A feast of beautiful colors, as if paint had been scattered on a blue canvas, chirped as it flew up.

Kellewen dazedly took a step forward, then drew his foot back in surprise. The dirt ground sank in the shape of his foot, and water filled the depression. It didn’t seem to be a swamp; after waiting a moment, the ground swelled up again. Kellewen carefully walked on the waterlogged ground.

He tried to walk where there was less grass than other places, but he wasn’t sure if it was a path. After walking for a long time, he looked back and saw that the building where he had first opened his eyes was far away.

He might get lost if he went any further. Kellewen hesitated, then moved forward again. He planned to walk just a little further, and if he didn’t meet anyone, he would go back.

But his view, which had been only dense trees, suddenly opened up. A sloping land continued for a long stretch before being blocked by a purple wave.

He could hear the faint sound of waves in his ears.

A vast sea stretched out below his feet. The purple sea spread out beneath the jungle looked like a fantasy. Beautiful and unreal.

Kellewen, dumbfounded, looked down at the sea and then discovered something.