Chapter 119
Ignoring the pain surging up from my ankle, I used the dagger as a lever and struck the handle with my fist. The handle, soaked in that unidentified, foul-smelling liquid, slipped once.
I couldn’t find a proper point to hit. It was already covered in pitch-black, soft, squishy filth. Even as my hand slipped and scraped, I kept striking it.
I could tell my ankle, caught in Ernst’s grip, had been crushed… but the only thing I could do right now was remove that damn helmet.
So…
Again.
Thud!
If I struck it about three times, the dagger would vibrate up and down once. Using that vibration as my guide, I kept hitting it.
Slowly, the helmet opened, and some unknown liquid poured over my face, flooding into my mouth as well.
One thing was certain… it wasn’t blood. Yes, it wasn’t blood. It didn’t smell metallic like blood, but like something stale, like rotten water.
That filling my mouth was definitely not pleasant. It felt like drinking lye. Spitting it out repeatedly, I struck again.
—
[Your entire body is in tatters.]
[It feels like it will be crushed.]
[An immense pain is surging over you.]
—
Beneath all those messages…
My life force kept decreasing.
—
[Life has decreased by 1.]
[Life has decreased by 1.]
[Life has decreased by 1.]
—
One more time.
Just once more.
Just once…
Crack.
Something sticky seemed to fall from inside the helmet.
Along with the message that my health had decreased again, the helmet fell off with a dull thud.
Inside the helmet was a man with an unsettlingly neat appearance. The only strange thing was that his eyes looked like those of a dead fish.
—
[A ‘Near Death’ status has been added.]
[A ‘Crushed Ankle Fracture’ status has been added.]
[If you do not receive treatment immediately, your life may be in danger!]
—
My slippery hand finally lost strength, and I fell backward.
—
[The boy spoke his story to someone for the first time in a long while.]
[Many thieves had passed through this place, but most either ignored the boy entirely or harmed him. Some tried to help, but none succeeded.]
[Was there ever a success? The boy did not know. His memory was not very good.]
[All the boy wanted was for someone to look at him. The reason was simple… he was unbearably lonely and afraid.]
[Between unresponsive statues, adults who would not acknowledge him, and Ernst, who only cried, the boy could do nothing. He merely wasted time staring at this cursed window… the narrator burst into loud laughter at this part.]
—
‘….’
—
[When he kept trying to leave while treating him like a child, the boy fell into despair.]
[If he left, the boy would once again be left alone with this window.]
[The boy felt like he might faint at this very moment.]
—
– Do not pressure the master.
—
[The loyal mansion tried to block the master’s sight and hearing. But the boy did not want his senses to be blocked right now. The mansion’s loyalty was thus reduced to scraps.]
[The mansion shook once.]
[Was it trying to manifest? But the mansion was merely a replica, a fragment of memory, a map… so it could not.]
[Let it be said again. It could not.]
[The shaking mansion returned to normal. It was a meaningless resistance, a futile rebellion.]
—
“…”
—
[Shh, the narrator speaks to the boy. Because the boy was trying to use more than what had been allotted to him.]
[You are only allowed the mansion. Don’t try too hard. You don’t want to lose everything and be absorbed again, like last time, do you?]
[The boy recalled it… the time a long darkness had devoured him.]
[So he decided to do nothing.]
[It was no longer his domain.]
[Because the boy was only a fragment.]
[The boy cried. Black hair, black eyes. In contrast, a pale-skinned man fell down in rags.]
[The boy could only watch that. To hide everything, he threw himself toward Ernst. Because that was what had been decided.]
[He leaps.]
—
“Ugh….”
—
[Inside the helmet that had finally been removed, Ernst’s eyes, now faded gray, were looking at the boy. Perhaps the countless years had dulled those once-bright eyes.]
[The boy leapt forward and embraced Ernst. What was the boy looking at? What was he worried about? Ah, in truth, that was not important.]
—
“Nam Muyeong!”
—
[Several sounds like screams struck the ears, and someone caught the body that fell like a rag.]
—
“…Ernst.”
—
[A voice that had never reached him despite sharing the same space for what felt like eons. Is he crying because he has finally reached Ernst, or for another reason? That was not important. It was not important.]
—
“…□□□□, □.”
—
[Ernst replied.]
—
“Are you… well?”
—
[Every time he opened his mouth, that strange liquid flowed out. It did not seem grotesque. He had seen it several times. His dulled senses were now filled only with the thought that he had finally seen Ernst.]
[Ernst took a step forward. Pieces of armor began to fall. First, the armor on his shoulder.]
—
Thud!
“I’m sorry….”
—
[The boy said that to Ernst as he approached him.]
[What is he sorry for?]
—
“I’m sorry….”
—
[The armor attached to his arm fell off.]
[Ernst kept walking forward.]
—
“Please don’t cry, □□□□□.”
—
[The clearly audible voice somehow felt distant.]
[Inside, where the armor had fallen, the body was crumbling into dust. The boy averted his eyes. Running away from guilt was his ingrained trait.]
—
“How old are you now? I’m sorry I couldn’t attend your birthday parties all this time. Are you upset because of that, □□□□□?”
“……”
“I’m sorry.”
—
[Everything returns to its natural course.]
[The boy recalled the end of this entire farce that proceeds ‘as it should.’ He, cursed to remember a little more because he was a fragment of something absolute.]
[Ernst willingly knelt and embraced the boy with one arm. With an arm that was turning into dust. Bone was visible.]
—
“You said you would come back.”
—
[The boy clung to Ernst’s neck. That slick liquid continued to drip onto him.]
—
“You said you would come back.”
—
[But Ernst did not return. Was that the seed of the tragedy? No. It was not. The tragedy began the moment this window came into existence.]
[This was merely a deeply ‘personal’ tragedy.]
—
“I’m sorry I came too late.”
—
[Black dust continued to scatter.]
—
“I’m sorry I stayed only for such a short time.”
—
[The boy’s body oxidized.]
[The boy was turning into vapor, and Ernst was turning into dust.]
—
“When next summer comes, I will return. Then… we can go play in the water, as you like.”
—
[They hung unkept promises around each other’s necks and swore them over and over.]
[It only hurt the boy more. This entire farce required someone’s sacrifice, and this brief reunion returned once more to nothingness.]
[The boy’s tear-filled eyes reflected not Ernst, but someone else.]
[A thief. An intruder. A robber.]
—
“Please tell your friend I’m sorry for being rough with him, □□□□□. Next time… next time I will visit again.”
“……Erns…t. We….”
—
[That they would meet again, as Ernst said.]
[That they would meet again at the cost of someone else’s life.]
[That we would continue repeating the one thing Ernst… the hero of the nation, the perfect knight, would hate the most.]
[The boy could not say it.]
—
“Please don’t cry, □□□□□.”
—
[When even the weight of the neck he was holding disappeared completely, the last thing to return was the yellow of his eyes… before he finally turned to dust and vanished.]
[The boy, crying, looked at the slowly disappearing body.]
[And then looked at the one lying there in a near-death state.]
[Even knowing it would ultimately become another farce.]
[Even knowing it would become just another mechanism.]
—
“I’m sorry….”
—
[The boy finally spoke.]
—
“Thank you.”
—
[But don’t do that next time. There’s no one in this world worthy of pity anyway. The sentences the boy could not say oxidized away. His vocal cords had oxidized before his mouth could speak them.]
—
Click.
—
[The boy disappeared. As if he had never existed, he vanished from that place. And they too disappeared.]
[For those who are kind, there is always a kind reward.]
—
—
[The grudge of ‘Bernhardt’s Mansion’ has been resolved!]
[‘The Brat of Eternal Recurrence and the Closed Nightmare’ gladly invites the narrator into its embrace.]
[For those who are kind, there is always a kind reward! What a sweet phrase, isn’t it!]
—
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