591 – 7. Jealousy is my strength (91)
The endless wilderness was covered with corpses and bloodstains.
It was the day before the final battle. After thinking about it, I went to Emma and asked for an anesthetic, and she passed out again. And when I came to my senses, it was here.
Border between conscious and unconscious.
I couldn’t believe that such a vast space existed within the mere human mind. I have been to and from this place several times, but I have never seen the end of this wilderness.
How long to stare at the sunset horizon in awe.
A tone as dry as the soil of the wilderness pierced my ears.
“Don’t be too curious.”
When I heard that, I turned around in amazement. There, as always, a man with tired eyes was holding a sword.
Tattered armor and tattered cloak. It was a weapon that was not strange even compared to ‘scrap metal’, but the light of its birth could not be hidden.
Perhaps it was smelted by a skilled artisan.
There was no need to ask why the costumes were different. After all, there weren’t many things that I could understand about what was happening here.
Instead, I just spat out a dumb question.
“…… What?”
“Beyond.”
As the man took a step, a rustling sound resounded. His golden eyes suddenly added depth.
“At the end of this space lies the unconscious. It’s still too early for you to see.”
“You sound like you know the other side.”
“You can see it too. Someday, if you become a Master… Everything you wanted to hide.”
I was about to ask a few more questions, but I just shook my head.
There was no time to waste on useless Seon dialogues. Because the time I could exist here was also limited.
I made up my mind and let my mouth go straight to the point.
“Can you help me?”
Then a golden pupil glanced at me.
He looked at me silently for a while, then let out a shallow snort.
“What nonsense… ….”
“Help me.”
Was my reaction surprising?
The man’s mouth fell shut after bursting into dry laughter. He did not hide the look of doubt in his eyes.
Even so, I didn’t stop talking.
“There is no chance of winning with all my strength right now. Somehow, I have to bring out a trump card that the opponent won’t expect.”
“I have already shown myself, kid… And didn’t you tell me?”
Suddenly avoiding my earnest eyes, the man muttered that.
“It is impossible to intervene in your world indefinitely. The causal rate hasn’t been built up properly, so do you know what happens if you twist a big event?”
“It wasn’t like last time.”
Again silence.
The man probably guessed what I was talking about, but she deliberately avoided answering. Even so, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
“During the confrontation with the saint, you were deliberately reluctant to intervene, right? In order to fight the saint at the end… The causal rate saved at that time must remain.”
“The saint did not intend to kill you in the first place. Also, there is no fear of weakening or strengthening human power just because I am victorious over the saint.”
Perhaps it was difficult for me to listen to my argument any longer, the man finally started to present a proper counterargument.
Perhaps he was frustrated too.
In this case, none other than her man’s ‘sister’ and ‘teacher’ were intertwined. If there was more interest than the case he had seen so far, he would go further, and the opposite would not be established.
But the man did not willingly extend his hand to me.
Of course, there must be a reason for that.
The reason is now being revealed.
“But your opponent is the Seven Sins of the Dark Church. Do you know how many lives were lost at the hands of vampires when the war began? But if I kill her…….”
“Even if it’s ‘boundary’?”
However, the long story of her man could not be fully revealed.
My words, which came out of nowhere, forced the silence of her man. For the third time today, golden eyes stared at me without a word.
“You said it. This is the boundary of time… But at the same time, it is also the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness. Entering the vampire’s barrier, do you know what I saw?”
The man just listened to me in silence.
It was a face that still couldn’t feel even a piece of emotion. His eyes were like dried-up wells, and his face was like a calm lake that forgot the waves.
“Burning Great Forest… Memories were floating between the broken spaces. Just like here.”
“…… Is that the end of the basis?”
“Above all, there is no way I am ignorant of the ‘boundary’.”
Facing the eyes of the man staring at me silently, I said with confidence.
“Because I am also a ‘high expert’ now.”
Then the man burst out laughing as if he was dumbfounded.
In fact, the similarity between the vampire’s barrier and ‘boundary’ has already been explained. When I fought a vampire in the barrier, the Archwitch had personally explained it to me.
That doesn’t mean I lied.
I was a ‘high expert’, and there was a time when I crossed the ‘boundary’. How can we forget that unprecedented power?
It was impossible even for the dullest human being. It was such an overwhelming experience.
But the man seemed to be laughing at my words.
“Now, on the topic of ‘High Expert’… yes, you are right baby.”
It was such a refreshing admission that I couldn’t understand the silence until now.
I had no choice but to ask involuntarily.
“Then…… !”
“Still, it’s hard.”
However, the words that followed were plain and clear, so now it was my turn to shut up.
The man let out a low voice in front of me, who had lost his senses.
“You still don’t know how much is involved in this case? It’s not just ‘vampire’. Even the life of the ‘great witch’ depends on it. Like you said, even if you exhaust all the causality you’ve been saving and dig into the inside of the ‘boundary’, there is a limit.”
“…… Absolutely impossible?”
“It is possible.”
The sound of footsteps stepping across the wilderness.
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The man spoke a flat tone with his back to me.
“Instead, you will regret it.”
On the contrary, it was even more frightening because it was plain.
I noticed that her man’s warning was sincere. No matter how emotionless a human being was, the opponent was ‘me’. Of course, there was some level of attention.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t give up my lingering feelings.
It was a situation where there was no given number right away. I had no choice but to be desperate.
“It’s okay to regret, so somehow…… !”
“Baby.”
It was a voice that even made me feel exhausted.
I was speechless at the empty tone because I had no emotion. Looking back, the man’s gaze slanted.
Down, down.
Towards the corpses strewn about in his image.
“Do you think there is power without price? With every choice comes responsibility.”
“…… Like when I didn’t follow your will?”
“Yes. Even on the day I dealt with the corpse giant, I must have warned you.”
The man’s gaze turned back again. Those golden eyes that glanced at me were deeply sunken, so I couldn’t understand what was inside.
It was a warning I had heard many times.
I’ve forgotten about it for a while, but why does that word sound so cold today?
“You can’t throw anything away, kid. You may not know right now, but there will come a moment when you have to. Should I still borrow my power?”
I didn’t get an answer back for a while.
I opened my lips, then closed them.
I suffered many times. Can I really not regret this choice?
Actually, there was nothing wrong with what the man said. It was impossible to rely on the man’s power forever, and like the man said, the day I will pay the price will come someday.
But nonetheless.
“…… Help me.”
In the end, my decision did not change.
The man looked at me for a while, then she turned her gaze toward the vast wilderness.
“Do you want to protect that much?”
“Because you look like that.”
The man’s body froze as he stared at the wilderness without a word.
He looked back at me with his first look of bewilderment. So I had to sigh and explain again.
“You can protect it now.”
“I… ….”
“Then watch.”
The man who was trying to refute something, eventually quietly looked away from her.
“I, too, will go find the person I need to save.”
That’s when I finished talking.
“…… Again, there are limits.”
He never looked back at me. However, as always, he conveyed a cautionary note in a low-key voice.
“You have to do it in the end.”
“I know, me too… ….”
I let out a sigh, and then smiled bitterly.
“…… There is someone I need to meet again.”
That’s the end.
The man and I decided to go our separate ways.
Of course, it was not a simple task.
In order for a man to show his full potential, he had to meet absurd conditions.
But I did it.
I was convinced as I watched the body rise up on its own, with the mind drifting away.
A very brief moment might be enough.
The man spoke without even warming up properly.
“Come on. Because there is no time.”
As if that was the only mercy he would bestow you today.