The Immortal Had a Guardian Spirit Chapter 4

“…It’s absurd that you still don’t know your guardian spirit’s name. As for the deadline… half a year should be enough.”

“…Ah….”

“Of course, obtaining the answer directly from the guardian spirit is invalid. As for hints… I’ll allow up to one. Given the time you’ve spent together, I’m sure you won’t need many hints now.”

Raven glanced up.

[Guardian Spirit ??? glares at Death.]

“…My guardian spirit seems to really hate this.”

Seeing as it sent a message even while barely managing to lend him its eyes, crushed under Death’s aura.

It was a being that had refused to tell him its name from their very first meeting. Claiming merely to be an ancestor, it had told him to call it hyung. Whenever he asked for its name, it would evade, saying calling it by a title was sufficient.

So it wouldn’t be too pleased about this wager, but…

“Now that I’ve already accepted, that shouldn’t matter at all.”

“That is true….”

Since he had already ‘accepted’ the wager. Now that things had come to this, he had no choice but to win.

Raven quietly looked down at the cold touch tapping against his chest, where his index and middle fingers had flicked, and let out a hollow laugh.

Green eyes, vividly glowing yet reflecting not a trace of life, sank low, carrying self-mockery.

“I’ve long since forgotten even my own name, and yet I’m told to find out another’s name.”

“Another, you say. The guardian spirit would be hurt. And it won’t be a losing wager. Honestly, aren’t you curious? About the reason why, even after spending such a long time together, the guardian spirit still won’t tell you its name.”

“….”

“Why it looks after you so much, what its identity is, what purpose it holds—you must have thought about it at least once…”

“Enough with the instigation.”

Certainly, all of those were things he had wondered about at least once and still held doubts about. But not to the point of openly showing himself being swayed by Death’s words. More than the guardian spirit who had helped him so much until now, Death was the one to be more wary of.

And above all, that wasn’t what he needed to focus on right now. Closing his eyes slowly, he gave a roughly affirmative answer.

“Half a year from now. Understood.”

Time to prepare to go out into the world again.

Raven raised his hand and pressed firmly against his throbbing eyes. The faint trembling of his hand traveled over the sensitive skin around his eyes.

“Any remaining business?”

“Hm?”

“Is that all?”

…I’ve been in the gate too long.

His eyes felt like they were burning away. No, his entire body felt like it was burning away. At the searing pain covering his whole body, he unconsciously stroked his arm to assess the condition of his flesh.

The events of a certain day long past, which should have been forgotten by now, crept steadily into his memory.

“Why no answer.”

“…I wonder.”

As he quietly clenched his fist against the phantom pain growing in presence, Death, as if having noticed the situation, chuckled and assumed a leisurely posture.

“It seems like there might have been more, and also like there wasn’t. I think I need a moment to think.”

“….”

…So the mischief from earlier is being returned like this.

The stress that had been steadily accumulating surged up all at once in the form of irritation, but only for a moment. Raven slowly opened his closed eyes and suppressed his emotions.

At least in this place, he mustn’t get agitated carelessly.

“Is that so? But I can’t afford to waste meaningless time here either… so shall we make other conversation in the meantime?”

There was a topic he had been meaning to address at least once before parting anyway.

“I’ve been thinking about this ever since you mentioned the wager, but even so, wasn’t pinning ‘eternal and immortal life’ on me going too far?”

When he heard those words, he had been completely dumbfounded.

“And that’s from the one who attached all sorts of conditions fearing I might come to yearn for life.”

The dream he had today suddenly came to mind.

Though the dream had ended shortly, Raven knew well how things had unfolded after that.

Contrary to the expectation that Death would lightly dismiss it as just one of the countless common wishes that mere humans make, Death had shown a positive response. Apart from that, the contract itself had not proceeded smoothly.

“‘I want to extend my lifespan until I complete my revenge’? What exactly is the standard for ‘completing revenge’?”

“Ah, yes. I understand. Even if you find the target of your revenge, it’s all the same as long as you don’t kill them, so in other words, you mean you wish to extend your lifespan indefinitely. And the price is your soul after death… then until you choose death, I wouldn’t be able to lay hands on you, would I? Cunning and shameless—a fox has nothing on you.”

“I shall set conditions. So that you’ll want to finish the job as quickly as possible and die. I’ll have to attach conditions that prevent you from harboring any greed for life at all.”

“Later on, you’ll be the one to come begging first, pleading to be allowed to die.”

Having said all that.

“Even nonsense should have its limits.”

Even if it was only a hypothetical, the very premise of idly wasting time being included in that hypothetical was no different. Snorting at the renewed absurdity, Raven flicked his dagger.

“Shall I make myself clear while we’re at it? I should say this much so you won’t bother me on the same topic for a while.”

“….”

“You see, I—.”

Crunch.

His words cut off.

Death, who had been looking down at the headless body with apathetic eyes, raised his gaze and took in the monster that had bitten the head off.

Grrrr.

A monster that had approached unnoticed was cheerfully chewing up Raven’s head.

The quiet stillness lasted only a moment.

“—I hate monsters.”

Thud.

Raven’s body moved, driving the dagger deep into the creature’s eye.

The head the monster had swallowed had already passed leisurely through its body in the form of powder and reassembled back in its proper place. As if asking when he had died, now perfectly intact again, he climbed atop the monster writhing in pain and drew another dagger, striking the hilt of the embedded blade so it would reach the brain.

“Kraaaaaa!!”

A terrible shriek and struggling akin to a death throe followed. In the process, sharp claws narrowly grazed Raven’s body, but he paid it no mind.

A dry voice continued.

“I hate gates even more.”

More than the monster that had just bitten his head off, he hated the gates that released such creatures, however restrictively, onto the surface. If he added the personal grudge of having lost his sight and part of his soul and having nearly been killed, that hatred would double.

Dangling precariously by one hand from the hilt of the dagger embedded in the creature, he groped his waist with the other hand and drew yet another new dagger.

“But what I hate most of all… is me.”

Stab, crunch! Thud!

“That’s why I feel disgusted with myself for having opened the gate.”

In the end, circling around and around, the destination of all grudges was himself. Life can only be yearned for by those who love themselves. Raven had long since lost that qualification.

And the one who had driven the wedge into that was none other than Death.

“So—.”

After several more slashes, before the monster corpse that had been tidied up once more, he aimed his dagger at Death. Whether from pain or emotion, the tremor traveling through his hand faintly shook the tip of the dagger.

“There will never come a time when I yearn for life, so don’t probe me unnecessarily. It feels really damn awful.”

“…Well, all right.”

Death nodded.

He had been slightly suspicious because humans are beings easily swayed and shaken.

“It’s fortunate that your mind hasn’t changed.”

The world, having already been overturned greatly once and barely regained stability after a long time of a thousand years, did not welcome further change.

Therefore, Raven must maintain that mindset. The moment he sincerely yearns for life, the world would be overturned once more.

As the one who had extended his lifespan, Death had a duty to watch over him.

‘But seeing this, it seems I won’t have to worry about it for the time being.’

A faint, barely perceptible smile rose upon Death’s face.

It was the kind of smile not easily taken well. Raven, frowning as if looking at something unpleasant, stroked the neck that had been torn off and cracked his head side to side. The pain from when his head had been ripped off was still vivid.

Thanks to that, he had been freed from the burning pain and memories of the past, so it was fortunate, if anything.

He sighed and waved his hand.

“I even died because of you, so why don’t you leave now.”

Death’s aura was originally so strong that he hadn’t noticed the monster approaching. If he had missed it, the natural course would have been for the guardian spirit to protect him, but it too had been crushed under Death’s aura and couldn’t respond properly.

On the surface, full of living creatures who feared death because they were alive, Death was an overwhelmingly mighty existence.

‘I need to close the gate, too.’

Believing Death must have a reason for choosing to converse in this place, he had waited without destroying the core, but now that had reached its limit too.

The situation where the gate couldn’t be left open indefinitely, and his own desire to leave this place even one second sooner, urged him to close the gate and depart. Raven lowered his gaze, heavy with exhaustion.

Fortunately, Death also seemed to have no intention of detaining him any further, nodding and speaking.

“Then shall I say just this one more thing.”

“What now…”

“That thing on your neck.”

Tap tap.

He tapped his own neck a couple of times, then pointed at Raven’s neck.

“That is not a ‘dog collar’ but has an elegant name: ‘choker.’ I believe it was said to be indispensable for binding your soul to your physical body.”

Death’s fingertip precisely indicated the small gem attached to the center of the choker.

Raven wordlessly raised his hand and fiddled with the red gem.

…Truthfully, he knew. It had been said that, both symbolically and practically, this needed to be attached to the neck—the bridge and midpoint connecting the brain and heart—to bind the soul to the two most vital parts of the human body. While searching for an appropriate form to prevent the catastrophe of it accidentally being removed, it had naturally ended up in this shape.

The dog collar remark and the sarcasm were simply spite.

“How petty.”

Raven clicked his tongue lowly and grabbed the gate’s core.

Just as he was applying force to destroy it, Death’s voice followed at his back once more.

“Ah, right.”

A perfectly light attitude, as if having just remembered.

“Now that it seems you’ve properly started being active again, I suppose I should start sending you on ‘errands’ again.”

“….”

“I’ll inform you of the location of the soul you need to collect.”

…Having heard all of his words, Raven crushed the gate’s core without answering.

And it was only after emerging back onto the surface that he understood why Death had chosen to follow him into the abyss to converse.

“…Ha, what is this.”

Because if they had tried to talk after exiting the gate, they would have had to wait a long while.

Or, even if they had, they would have been interrupted midway.

“Why are there people here….”

The first thing that met his eyes upon emerging was a young man—no, a ‘child’—being chased by monsters.

∞ ∞ ∞

“Altair, I’m asking just out of curiosity.”

“…?”

“What exactly is your reason for wanting to kill Master?”

Ah.

The hand that had been stroking the diary resting on his knees stopped.

Only briefly. Soon stroking the surface of the diary again, Raven’s first disciple pulled up the corners of his lips.

“Because he opened the era of gates.”

“…!”

The worst arch-sinner in human history, who caused the Gate Incident and opened the era of gates.

That was precisely their master.

“The me of the past is also me. How much of a pushover must I have been to follow such a person, calling him Master?”

I lost everything because of the gates.

And yet the contents of this diary were filled entirely with affection for Master, so Altair cooled his eyes and lowered his gaze, suppressing the curiosity about his master that kept welling up.

A phrase written at the back of the diary surfaced in his mind.

[I warn the future me who has lost their memories.]

A familiar handwriting, surely his own. Yet unfamiliar content, with no memory of having written it.

[Do not torment Master.]

Just why.

[You will surely regret it.]

Why had his past self forgiven their enemy?

He cannot understand. Eyes filled with irritation and anger gleamed with killing intent.

∞ ∞ ∞

—In this world trod upon by humanity, there exists a reverse side called the ‘Abyss,’ where no sun exists and three moons rise.

The number of passages is extremely few, and they exist only in specific locations, preventing free travel—which makes it a place that is fortunate, rather. All manner of dangerous monsters in various forms exist there, and humanity had to struggle simply to block and deal with the monsters crossing over through the passages.

The only part that could be viewed positively, perhaps, was that the ‘magic stones’ obtained from monsters had a wide range of uses.

As offerings for sorcery, as high-priced ornaments, as beautiful accessories, and utilizing the energy contained within them, as ‘portals’ for convenient travel.

The problem erupted with these ‘portals.’

Some mad human used a portal to connect the surface and the Abyss.

As if lying in wait, monsters surged onto the surface, staining the defenseless human world with chaos. The surface was painted red with blood, and innocent homes were left with only their remnants, without survivors.

Worse still, since portals were originally made of materials from the Abyss, the energy from the portal seemed to resonate with the Abyss’s energy, gathering on the surface and repeatedly creating yet more portals connected to the Abyss. Humanity called these ‘gates,’ distinguishing them from ‘ordinary portals.’

And that ‘mad human’ who opened the very first gate.

‘I must save him.’

Because of that incident, he had come to place a single shackle upon himself.