To You, Who Will Die Alone in Paradise Chapter 73

A person was floating in the distant sea. Face up to the sky, as still as if dead, just entrusting his body to the water. At that distance, he should have looked like a small dot, but strangely, Kellewen’s eyes recognized the face floating in the sea exactly.

“Leon!”

His body moved before he could even think. Kellewen ran toward the lake. The distance was far, and his heart was racing. There was no time to think about why Dandeleon was out there. His feet pushed off the ground, launching his body.

In that moment, Kellewen’s body soared into the air.

He was going in the right direction. He had just jumped excessively high and far. Though bewildered, Kellewen landed on the ground without difficulty. He had covered a distance that would have normally taken at least ten steps in a single leap. He took another step. His body shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring.

In just a few steps, Kellewen reached the sea. He plunged into the sea without a second thought.

As the cool seawater touched his body, he felt a thrilling sensation and a surge of strength. It was as if the water were directly supplying energy through his skin. Kellewen cut through the water and moved forward.

It did not take long to reach Dandeleon. He was waiting for Kellewen. Seeing Dandeleon sit up and look straight at him was a relief. He had thought he had drowned or lost consciousness, but Dandeleon was fine.

Kellewen opened his mouth to call Dandeleon’s name.

“Kellen.”

But Dandeleon was faster. When he uttered his name, Kellewen became unable to move, as if under a spell.

The sunlight struck the purple water and scattered in all directions. A halo of light enveloped Dandeleon like an aura.

He was unspeakably beautiful. He was similar to how Kellewen remembered him, yet subtly different. He looked healthier and a little more mature. He also looked unreachably sacred, dizzyingly captivating, and at the same time, frighteningly overwhelming.

In the shimmering purple sea, Dandeleon felt like the master of this world.

Beautiful eyes reflected Kellewen. Kellewen remembered that those eyes took on a darker hue in bright places. But now, Dandeleon’s eyes sparkled more beautifully than the shimmering surface of the water.

“Kellen.”

“Yes.”

Kellewen answered as if entranced. Dandeleon’s face clouded over. Fearing he had done something wrong, Kellewen was suddenly scared.

“…Do you know who I am?”

But Dandeleon asked a strange question.

The words were so absurd that it was actually difficult to answer. Kellewen observed him anew, but no matter how many times he looked, he was the same. There were some slight differences from what he remembered, but they were not significant.

While Kellewen was wrestling with his inner confusion, Dandeleon’s face grew darker by the second, and he now looked on the verge of bursting into tears.

“Could it be…”

“I know.”

Kellewen answered quickly. It seemed if he delayed any longer, he would really see Dandeleon’s tears.

“Leon… Dandeleon, it’s you, isn’t it?”

But even that answer could not stop the tears.

“Kellen!”

Dandeleon burst into tears and threw himself into Kellewen’s arms. His body tilted and sank beneath the seawater.

Down, down. Further down.

The sparkling sunlight on the water’s surface grew more and more distant. Amid his bewilderment, Kellewen tightened his arms around Dandeleon. He felt good even as he sank into the unknowable depths. It felt like falling into heaven.

Dandeleon, who had been burying his face in Kellewen’s chest, finally lifted his face. He said nothing and moved closer to Kellewen. Kellewen closed his eyes.

A fragrance like flowers bloomed on his lips.

Out of the water, Kellewen took a deep breath. The humid air filled his lungs. In the sea, it felt like he could go an hour without breathing, but once he was on land, the air was a welcome sensation. Kellewen savored the warm air and sunlight for a moment before turning his head.

Dandeleon was lying on the sand. Unlike Kellewen, he showed no signs of being out of breath. He hadn’t noticed before, but now that he saw him out of the water, he seemed a little taller than he remembered. It was hard to find any other differences, but the mystical aura remained.

“How much do you remember?”

Dandeleon asked suddenly. Kellewen answered slowly.

“You said you were leaving… that there was something you wanted to do before that. And then….”

He hesitated on whether he should say what came next.

“After that…”

“I stabbed you.”

Dandeleon cut him off and sat up. He faced Kellewen with a resolute expression.

“I borrowed Sarphana’s knife. I used it to cut open your stomach.”

“I see….”

Kellewen fumbled at his stomach again. Scales had grown there, but there was no pain, let alone a wound.

“I’m lucky to be alive.”

“Is that what’s important right now? Shouldn’t you be asking why I did it?”

Dandeleon shot back sharply.

Kellewen smiled sheepishly. He was curious how Dandeleon would react if he said he figured he must have had a reason, but he held back. He already looked displeased, and provoking him further seemed like it would just make him cry again.

“Why did you do it, Leon?”

“To put my blood in you.”

“Pardon?”

“I was trying to mutate you. Because I’m… a monster.”

The nuance of the word ‘mutation’ was chilling. Kellewen jerked his gaze down to his own stomach. He now understood the meaning of the bluish veins and the scales on his abdomen. Kellewen spoke in a trembling voice.

“How….”

He had been about to ask how such a thing was possible. The mutation he knew of was a phenomenon where one became a mindless monster. But Kellewen’s mind was clear, and his memory was vivid. He was simply amazed by that fact, but before he could finish his sentence, Dandeleon cut in.

“Don’t ask me how I could do such a thing. I never intended to get your permission from the start. It’s not like you asked before you saved me, either.”

“Leon, I….”

“I just wanted to save you. Do you understand? Blame me if you want. But know this one thing.”

Dandeleon was firing off words so quickly that Kellewen missed his chance to say he didn’t blame him at all. While he was fumbling for a way to convey his thoughts, Dandeleon spoke.

“Just as you saved me because you love me, I did it because I love you.”

Kellewen doubted his ears. He looked at Dandeleon as if in disbelief before barely managing to speak.

Dandeleon’s eyes wavered. As if he had only just realized what he had said.

The amount of time Kellewen had spent with Dandeleon while repeatedly turning back time was immeasurable. In that time, he had learned many things about Dandeleon.

One of them was that Dandeleon felt a sense of terror toward love.

No matter how many times he asked, Dandeleon never told him the reason. Nor had he heard about Dandeleon’s complex feelings about love directly from his mouth. It was something he had simply realized after observing him for a long time. Whenever Kellewen said he loved him, Dandeleon would become more anxious than happy, changing the subject or doing something else to evade an answer.

In fact, Kellewen had never heard him say the words ‘I love you.’ Not even once.

But that was fine. Dandeleon’s feelings were conveyed well enough through his eyes and actions.

And perhaps, Kellewen had thought.

It seemed he had subconsciously thought that while Dandeleon cherished him, cared for him more than anyone else, and perhaps even truly loved him but couldn’t say it, it was still less than the love he had for him.

Otherwise, there was no way he would be this flustered at hearing the words ‘I love you’ at this moment.

Kellewen inhaled until his chest felt like it would burst. His heart pounded. He was worried about how Dandeleon would respond. It would be fine even if he denied having said such a thing. But if he said it was true, if he said it just one more time….

“I….”

Dandeleon muttered blankly.

“You….”

Dandeleon’s head dropped, and his shoulders began to shake.

Kellewen thought he had burst into tears. But soon, he heard the sound of chuckling laughter. Dandeleon stayed like that, with his head down, laughing for a long time.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Finally, the laughter ended, and Dandeleon raised his face. His eyes, filled with joy and ecstasy, looked directly at Kellewen.

“I love you. I did it because I love you.”

Dandeleon said.

That was enough. With just those words, decades of time, hundreds of failures, and thousands of pains melted away like snow in midsummer.

Kellewen reverently accepted those words under the bright light.

“Leon.”

Dandeleon.

You who were my suffering and my pain, but in the end, my salvation. My god who changed my everything and finally completed me.

My world.

“I do not blame you.”

Kellewen confessed to him.

“Thank you. For not giving up on me. For saving me. For… loving me.”

Dandeleon listened to his words quietly, then burst out laughing.

“Those are my lines.”

“Sarphana.”

“Speak.”

“I have something to ask you.”

Sarphana just nodded. With half his body submerged in the sea, Dandeleon spoke.

“If I mutate Kellewen, what will happen then?”