The space emitted light, then turned into white ash and scattered in the air. Basileon returned to reality. It was his sister’s room where he had lost consciousness. He thought he would be trapped in the illusion and unable to escape for a long time. It was his first time overcoming the illusion in this way. He left his sister’s room without a moment’s hesitation. Then, after going outside the Duke’s castle, he ran towards the Dark Forest.
However.
Whoosh—.
For whatever reason, flames erupted from his scabbard. While running, Basileon cast a glance at the sword slowly burning in its scabbard.
‘…Flamberge.’
Basileon could roughly guess the reason the sword was igniting on its own. He stopped for a moment in the middle of the forest. And threw the sword on the ground. The evil god must have done something. Either tampering with it so he couldn’t use the sword, or planting another curse.
The Flamberge was definitely a weapon he particularly cherished, but it was also a family heirloom. An heirloom was a tool through which the evil god could exert influence. After throwing the Flamberge on the ground. He regretted his past self who had cherished that sword terribly. To think that even his obsession with the Flamberge was due to the evil god’s brainwashing. Having realized that, there was no need to keep the sword. The sword igniting on its own was a very bad omen. Basileon hid the Flamberge so it wouldn’t be found by anyone, then set off again.
“Young Master! Huff, puff.”
Without hearing the voice calling him from afar. Basileon could hear or see nothing but thoughts of Evien. So he just looked forward and moved ahead.
“Young Master! Huff, oh dear.”
Having chased after him through immense hardship, Adolf repeatedly panted and collapsed on the ground.
‘Good grief. What am I doing at my age?’
While Adolf was resting, he discovered an object emitting a red glow. The item burning between the boulders was none other than Flamberge.
“Hmm? Why is this…”
Adolf tried to pull the sword out, groaning.
“Hey guys, come over here and save this fellow.”
Before Adolf even gave the order, the weapons flew over and nudged the Flamberge.
Crackle—.
But it didn’t go as Adolf intended. Because the Flamberge, whose flames had stopped, burned pitch black and turned to ash. Under normal circumstances, there was no way a sword would burn in a fire. Adolf was suspicious of the familiar black smoke rising from the burnt ashes. What the evil god mainly manipulated was black smoke, fog, and things like that. Realizing that point, Adolf was able to understand something important.
“…It seems It has judged that it can no longer use the Young Master.”
Adolf turned around and fixed his gaze on the Duke’s castle standing magnificently. It was definitely the castle he saw every day. But today, unlike usual, its energy was extraordinary.
“A bloodbath is coming…”
Adolf moved to inform everyone in the Duke’s castle of this fact.
* * *
“Die. I said die.”
The ghosts of the past wanted my death. Those nightmarish memories were tormenting me again. I have to find Havel. I have to step up before the survivor dies. Why am I… Tears soaked the floor. Dried tear stains had been clinging to my face for a long time.
“Die. With your own hands!”
The black shapes urged me to strangle myself with my own hands. That was so terrifying I couldn’t open my eyes.
“Ugh…”
Why did I return to this place again. To somewhere in past Korea, to this place I never wanted to come back to.
“It’s a waste of air for you to be alive.”
“Just don’t breathe, you.”
The black shapes gradually multiplied in number. What was a dozen became twenty, then forty.
“Gasp…”
I was suffocating. Just like when I felt shortness of breath when I went up to the sky, it was hard to breathe again. I couldn’t bear to look at those things in front of me, so I collapsed on the floor. I felt strange. Beyond suffocating, my mind went blank.
Don’t tell me, if I get annihilated like this… Will my existence disappear from the game? As a terrible thought occurred to me, tears flowed again. Anyone would do, I just wished someone would take me out of this mansion… but there’s no possibility of that.
“You dying is for the sake of the Earth.”
“Stop… stop it.”
My stomach churned and my vision blurred.
‘I knew it, so why did I walk in here on my own two feet. I’m truly crazy. I’m hopeless, a human like me.’
In the end, I ended up thinking like the me of those days. The origin of all misfortune is me. Because I was born. Because I am breathing and alive. Because I had to move like this of all things. I thought I had definitely overcome these thoughts, but it became a repeating cycle like this again.
“Huff… huff.”
If I stayed like this, it felt like my existence would truly disappear. What would happen if I disappeared? Would the world still go round just fine?
‘….’
The moment I was about to resign myself to my fate, Basileon suddenly came to mind. He was the single person who came to mind on the verge of death. Perhaps the only person in this world who liked me. Of course, I wasn’t sure if he sincerely liked ‘me’. If I told him I came from another world…
I don’t know well. He definitely said last time that it didn’t matter what form I existed in, or where I came from. It was just surprising that there was someone who cared about me that much. But people change at any time. I believe in the theory of innate human evil. Saying one thing to your face and acting differently behind your back. Because that’s human nature.
‘….’
After being buried in such gloomy thoughts again, a certain sensation returned once more. The soft body scent and masculine facial features. The touch of skin. Firm hands. The romantic fluttering feeling I felt for the first time in my life. The emotions I felt then were truly happy. To the point where remembering it makes me want to experience it once more.
‘…Am I seriously crazy.’
While thinking about Basileon, I felt my breathing return to normal.
“Are you crazy? You’re smiling in this situation?”
One of the black shapes pointed its finger at me.
“Don’t smile. Do you think smiling will make you happy?”
“….”
At the voice whipping me again, I lost my spirit. The black shapes had now become so numerous they couldn’t be counted. They all pointed fingers at me and spewed insulting words. I quietly held my breath.
“Right. That’s how it was.”
Maybe their words were right.
“Even if I try to smile to become happy amidst misfortune…”
At that moment. A single ray of bright light seeped into this dreary space.
Pop—!
While my words trailed off, the black shape in front of me burst like a balloon.
“…Huh?”
Pop—. Pop, pop—.
The number of black things decreased in an instant. Someone had definitely entered, but with my blurry vision, I couldn’t figure out their identity at all. That person swung something like a long stick and popped the black shapes. What I could recognize was a tall height and black hair. Pale skin…
‘No way. It can’t be…’
The number of black things noticeably decreased, and eventually, only he and I were left in this place. Just the two of us. Even with blurry vision, a somewhat familiar silhouette could be seen. But I couldn’t be sure. There’s no way he would come to this abyss just for someone like me. But that person ran towards me and hugged me tightly with his whole body.
“It’s neither unhappy nor terrible.”
“Who is it?”
Actually, I could tell right away who it was from hearing the voice, but I still couldn’t believe it. There’s no way… there’s no way.
“A person who is relieved that you are alive.”
“What are you talking about. I’m a dead person…”
As my eyes, accustomed to darkness, were exposed to sudden light, it was blinding. Blinking my eyes and looking around, bright light filled the space before I knew it. The black shapes that had brought me pain disappeared without a trace.
Sniff sniff.
The scent of the person I missed, which I wanted to smell again someday, and the warm body heat. The person hugging me was definitely Basileon.
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