697 – 8. Last Words (71)
Have you ever faced the pain of loss?
So far, I have taken countless lives. It was a life that I continued by cutting off the life line of the person who was my teacher one day, and the person who was my friend the other day.
I thought it was a belief.
How long did it take to take blood-soaked steps and drag your injured body forward?
I collapsed on the side of a long road.
Because it was painful and difficult. Isn’t it natural, I lost two precious people.
For the first time, I realized my limitations.
It was not a stubbornness that was allowed to me in the first place. After receiving a love letter from the future, I borrowed my strength by peeking into the memories of ‘me’ from the future. How can I say this is my own ability?
Stolen technology, misplaced self-confidence.
It was a belief that was supported from its inception on a false foundation. I had no right to laugh at the ‘me’ who came from the future, and since it was wrong from the beginning, it was probably an obstinate thing that deserved to collapse someday.
So I chose to collapse alone.
Because I didn’t want to act like a child anymore. Because I no longer wanted to sacrifice precious people for my unreasonable reasons.
There is no fool who deliberately chooses a painful path. Don’t I have the right not to be foolish?
Yes, I thought so.
“As you live, there will come a moment when you want to run away. Everyone does that. Sometimes I don’t know why I have to be like this, why I have to insist on this path when there is an easier way… “But.”
Amid the foam of light, a middle-aged wizard parted his lips.
Life was already at risk. The explosion that started from the heart tore the blood vessels throughout the body, and unless the blood could deliver oxygen, death was inevitable.
It would be more appropriate to say that he should have already died.
While scraping away the shriveled life, he was speaking to the man in front of him.
“Don’t run away.”
The young man sitting in front of the middle-aged man said nothing.
I just held back my tears, bowed my head, and engraved the final advice in my heart.
Standing a few steps behind him.
I sat there in a daze. Slowly, so as not to make any sound.
“Don’t be a coward.”
The young man’s eyes are intense as he silently clenches his fist in front of her chest.
Why does the flame not lose its color at all even among particles of pure white light?
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I thought it was dazzling.
It’s definitely a spark that I once had.
“One, two… “If you give up like that, you won’t be able to choose any path anymore.”
Suddenly a question occurred to me.
Why are the words left behind by the dead so heavy?
“Please take care of me.”
Isn’t it painful?
I wanted to close my eyes right now. Of course, the blood vessels all over my body would have burst. The pain must also be significant. Although there is no human being who does not wish for rest.
The middle-aged man was somehow continuing to breathe with difficulty and emitting a low tone.
I just can’t understand that fact.
“Elsie, and… …..”
“No, no.”
The voice I spat out before I knew it was soaked with moisture and was trembling.
There is no longer a man with burning golden pupils. In his place, there was only a wounded and shriveled coward sitting there.
The sound of speech stops for a moment. Meanwhile, I was holding my head down and crying came out like a whimper.
“I can’t…” Mr. Reynolds. It’s so hard. “I feel like I’m going crazy!”
The structure of the conversation has completely changed. Those who are about to die listen, and those who have life left behind speak.
“Ji, Jim…” Isn’t the luggage too heavy? What do you mean ‘world’? “How can anyone shoulder such a great responsibility?”
“Nephew son-in-law.”
“I lost Leto!”
It was unknown how much Mr. Reynolds knew about Leto. Nevertheless, my screams continue.
“I wanted to protect Celine! Because I didn’t want to give up… Because I didn’t want to lose anything! A friend who was so stubborn in my life died instead of me. Yes?!”
Slamming the ground with his fist.
I sobbed. It wets the ground like dripping rainwater.
“It’s scary, this is happening…” I’m afraid I’ll lose Elsie if I keep going like this. I don’t want to be stubborn anymore… Well, what if you lose someone precious to you? “Isn’t that more cowardly?!”
Struggling.
Perhaps if I were to give a name to my howling, such a word would be the right word. Before I knew it, I was following the logic of the man I had seen in the scroll.
“Because my heart hurts right now, I can’t bear the momentary sympathy… So it’s not more irresponsible to do something reckless…… !”
“Look here.”
The tone of the mage who broke the silence was extremely calm. It’s hard to believe that the last remaining flames are burning.
“Are you lost?”
I press my lips, but no sound comes out.
Because his point was right.
The middle-aged man sighed slowly and closed his eyes. His expression looked so peaceful that for a moment I was afraid that he might leave.
It was a vain worry. He just wanted to reflect on his life for a moment.
“I was like that too… After losing my companion and the woman I loved, I returned to my family as if running away. “I lived like poison in a poison bag, blaming myself for not being able to save anything.”
Wasn’t it difficult?
I am in so much pain right now that I am suffocating, so why can you speak in such a calm tone?
There was no need to ask. Because the answer came back before that.
“It was difficult. To the point of death… So I made the same choice as you.”
And the blue eyes slowly reveal themselves between the eyelids.
Because death was imminent, the focus was blurry, but it was clear that its gaze was directed at me.
“It is impossible not to lose anything…” “There was nothing I could do about the nightmare of that day, so I lived my whole life running away from that memory.”
“That’s… ….”
As they say, there is nothing we can do about it.
Just as I was about to say that.
“Isn’t that cowardly?”
Mr. Reynolds ended up helping himself.
“I was so scared of not being able to protect myself that I tried to look away… I can’t help it, this is the best option. “The wound of loss was so great that I was scared.”
And one more message is played.
“Don’t run away.”
One more thing.
“Don’t be a coward.”
“Oh, me!”
It was difficult for me to bear the weight, so I had to ask back urgently.
“Can I do it?” … ?”
It was a weak question.
Even I wasn’t sure, so I ended my sentence trembling.
Nevertheless, the answer that came back was firm.
“Yes.”
With a faint smile on his face, the old man spoke in a voice without a trace of doubt.
“If not you, who will do it?”
“But… ….”
“I saw it that day. A man named ‘Ian Perkus’ is different from me… “He is someone who has the courage to choose the right path.”
‘That day’.
I wondered what the story was about again, but there were no more opportunities left for me.
“That stick.”
He didn’t make any eye contact or point a finger, but as soon as I heard those words, I quickly came to my senses and looked down at my clenched hands.
The jet black stick was still held there.
“It is a keepsake of my lover. And, in the end, it was a responsibility that I was unable to face.”
I knew. Because I’ve already heard it.
Nevertheless, why does this secret feel so profound?
“Take it. If you open your ‘boundaries’, you will see the path you need to take… “The path of Ian Perkus, set by Ian Perkus.”
“A road? I’ve been lost for a long time…….”
“Wasn’t it decided a long time ago?”
I could not bear to respond to those words filled with strange confidence. I just had a relieved expression on my face and felt my breathing slowly ease.
“Leave quickly. There’s still a little way to go…….”
“…… Mr. Reynolds?”
“Please take care of me.”
That is the end of the will.
“Elsie, and this world… ….”
Just like that, I stood up carrying another will.
Are you taking care of the world?
Huh, I burst out laughing. Me who can’t do anything without borrowed power, me who lost my way, stumbled and collapsed.
How can you say this with such confidence?
“…… “Don’t run away?”
Beginning with the sound of the wind, empty laughter bursts out.
Heh, heh. Ha ha ha.
It is questionable.
“Don’t be a coward?”
And confidence.
I burst out laughing for a while, then brushed off the dew from the corners of my eyes with my finger.
I gritted my teeth and lowered the stick.
A bell cut with all its might leaves a long cut in the air. The veins stood out and my vision became blurry, but there was no hesitation in my sprint.
Yes, you were right.
I didn’t want to run away.
Every time the air is torn open, a tearing noise is heard. Is it the scream of space, or is it the howl of the air that cannot withstand the speed at which it is running?
I couldn’t even figure it out. Just thought.
I didn’t want to be a coward.
Hook, hook, countless memories and landscapes draw a long line and stretch like a trajectory.
It wasn’t just my memory. The memories of the man from the future were jumbled together, and sometimes an unidentified enemy blocked my path.
Corpse, monster, shadow.
It didn’t matter. I ran like crazy, swinging my sword or throwing my axe, punching or kicking.
The end of the road I was running on like that.
I was finally able to face another gateway.
A priest collapses and is breathing heavily. With black mud smeared all over his body, he vomited out his voice with difficulty.
“Lord… ….”
It was a tone I had heard before.
My hands, which had stopped with a gasp, brushed away the dirt on my clothes. I hung the sword and hatchet back on my waist and took a step.
The priest was crying.
“Lord, you… “You have taken everything from me.”
A man stuttering, a tear rolling down his cheek.
I knew his name.
“Leoric… ….”
“Uh, uh… “Why?”
He was dying.
This was not the ‘Leoric’ who was contaminated by the mud of the evil god and wielded strength that surpassed that of humans. It’s just a military chief covered in burns, crying over the loss of the girl he used to live with as his daughter.
“Is it because I was not faithful? If not, is it because I turned a blind eye to the pain of the elves and collaborated with them? Well, if not… Why on earth…….”
I wanted to offer some comfort, but I couldn’t think of a suitable answer.
Why did the Lord take everything away?
I wanted to know too.
You take away my strength, take away my life, and not only that, you take away Celine.
Even that wasn’t enough, so they took Leto away!
Why on earth were you so anxious because you couldn’t take so much from me?
Aren’t I your child? Why are you putting your sons and daughters, whom you love so much, into the abyss of suffering and doing nothing?
I didn’t have the answer yet. On the contrary, I also desperately wanted to know.
Hence silence.
“What the hell…” Why on earth…… !”
The priest’s appearance, struggling with what little life was left and yearning for answers, was incredibly pitiful to watch.
Isn’t it better to die than to do that?
My hand was about to reach for the handle of the sword, thinking that it would be better than suffering while waiting for the voice of God that would not return.
“Ecce, universa, quae habet, in manu tua sunt.”
I heard such a phrase somewhere.
I heard it once. Yes, that was what Eindel said to me mockingly.
But the tone in which the words were recited did not belong to the old man. On the contrary, it was just the refreshing voice of a young woman.
The moment I looked back and asked who it was.
The brilliance of silver embraces the sight.
“Meaning is, ‘Don’t leave everything he has to you.'”
Next, light pink pupils, and the sound of the hem of the robes grazing the ground.
I froze in place for an instant. Until the woman took her steps and carefully knelt down by Leoric’s bedside.
My heart stops pounding at that sad yet kind smile.
“It’s a cruel story… ….”
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He uttered the same phrase and same sentiment as Eindel, but the impression was completely opposite.
I had a hunch from her eyes that were full of compassion and kindness.
This woman is the true daughter of the Heavenly God.
There was no halo or stigmata. Nevertheless, it is a sacred presence that makes you realize the existence of God by its very existence.
Yes. She was a woman who was both very familiar and unfamiliar to me.
‘Eunseongnyeo’.
A nameless saint who had only been seen in the memories of a man from the future, has descended upon this place.