[V12C46] The Sinner's Wish

Isaac was falling through a never-ending darkness. Or rather, it might be more accurate to say that he was sinking.

He could not feel the wind resistance normally experienced by someone falling. This sensation was more akin to the feeling of slowly sinking into a bottomless swamp.

Isaac did sense any difficulty breathing, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he was breathing in the first place. Was he even still alive? He forcefully pushed these doubts out of his mind and began observing the surroundings.

The shadows entangling his body had already peeled away, freeing his limbs. However, everything around them was pitch-black, with no light source in sight.

Yet for some reason, Isaac could clearly see Theodore slightly below him, also sinking into the darkness.

Theodore was falling back-first, so his face was visible. For some reason, the black dragon looked satisfied from the bottom of his heart.

(…Ah, I see how it is now.)

Earlier, Cyril had called Theodore foolish and grieved for him. In other words, he must have realized Theodore’s true goal.

Cyril had investigated the Forbidden Archives on behalf of the Library Society and proposed the following hypothesis:

Gluttonous Zoe has the power to summon the Spirit King of Darkness. This summoning gate shares the same nature as the gate to the underworld, so it is connected to the realm of the dead…

…Up until this point, his hypothesis had been accurate.

(No one can blame Cyril for that mistake. He didn’t know that Theodore was a dragon until just a short while ago.)

Cyril had assumed that Theodore was a human, so he only considered Theodore’s goal from a human perspective.

If a human wanted to open the gates of the underworld, then it was only natural to assume they intended to revive a lost loved one.

(In all likelihood, Gluttonous Zoe never had the power to bring back the dead. All it can do is open the gate…)

But for the black dragon Theodore, that was enough.

“Was your goal to pass through the gate and enter the underworld?” Isaac asked.

“Yeah.”

Theodore nodded at Isaac with a smile, as if it was only natural.

If a human wanted to reunite with a dead friend, they could simply wait for their life to end. It was that easy to visit the underworld.

——But dragons were different.

“A long time ago, I asked Theodore, ‘Where do dragons go when they die?’ He told me that dragons probably have their own dragon god, who watches over the dead dragons.”

“…And you couldn’t accept that?”

“Right. I didn’t want to go to the dragon god. I wanted to go where Theodore was.”

“And Gluttonous Zoe shared that wish of yours?”

“Uh-huh. So I promised to take Zoe with me, no matter what.”

Meanwhile, from Isaac’s hands, Gluttonous Zoe was cheering in a playful and innocent voice. As if it was a child finally brought to a place he wanted to visit for so long.

——”YAY! YAY…!”

Isaac did not know why this ancient artifact desired the same death as a human, but he could think of some hypotheses.

(Perhaps the artifact had a former contractor that it wanted to meet again. Or maybe it simply wanted to die…)

Regardless, Isaac thought it was foolish… and pitiable.

Despite causing such a huge national commotion, the black dragon and ancient artifact had only one simple goal from the very beginning: Death.

However, just dying was not good enough. They wanted to go to the same underworld as humans.

Hence, they needed to summon the Spirit King of Darkness, whose gate shared the same properties as the gate to the underworld, then pass through it.

Theodore’s childish innocence was depressing, but also infuriating.

“…Theodore Maxwell was precious to you, wasn’t he?” Isaac asked.

“Yeah.”

“…Time with him was like a treasure, right?”

“Yeah.”

Theodore’s body was already more shadow than flesh.

That said, a portion of his mouth was still visible, and it displayed a tranquil and lonely smile.

Isaac could not help but clench his fists in anger.

This fury was directed not only at the naive young dragon, but also simultaneously at his past self.

“Then why…?!” Isaac shouted. “Why didn’t you treasure everything precious to him and everyone else!?”

＊　＊　＊

(…Oh, I see.)

Those words reached the heart of the young dragon.

Only Theodore was precious to the dragon, but there were a lot of things that other people considered precious.

These included other humans, shiny stones, beautiful leaves, or even invisible concepts. Humans often valued intangible things like status, honor, and duty.

Either way, there should have been many, many precious things around Theodore.

(And I ruined all of that…)

If the dragon wanted to stay with Theodore, then he needed to consider Theodore’s world, such as his family, his friends, and his position.

But the dragon never thought about any of those. He was only thinking about his goal: how to be with Theodore forever.

“I’m sorry, Theodore… I’m so sorry.”

The young dragon finally understood.

He had trampled so many things that might have been precious to Theodore.

The prime example was Theodore’s younger sister Carla. Theodore must have cherished his sister. And what did the dragon do to Carla?

“Forgive me… Please, forgive me…”

——”You’ve always been stupid like that.”

Were they still sinking? Or had they already reached the bottom of the abyss?

Either way, the dragon heard a voice. It sounded exasperated and troubled, but it also reflected a gentle side that was sure to forgive him in the end.

“Theodore! Theodore! Theodore…!”

The dragon felt someone propping up his tattered body by the shoulder. The warm hand of a human grabbed onto his distorted hand of shadows.

——”But I was stupid too. I was the one who made the first mistake.”

The dragon looked up to see a man wearing a troubled smile. It was the friend he had wanted to see for a long, long time.

——”We have to apologize to the Queen of the Underworld. Let’s go get scolded together.”

“Yeah… Together…”

A gentle darkness enveloped the two as they laughed and cried together.

＊　＊　＊

The dragon had vanished from sight before Isaac knew it, as if swallowed up by the surrounding darkness.

Once he realized this, Isaac found his eyelids growing heavier.

The sensation at his fingers seemed dull, and he could feel his consciousness receding. It’s as if his body was gradually dying, starting from the fingertips.

Nevertheless, Isaac mustered all his strength and clutched Gluttonous Zoe.

(Not yet.)

Isaac Walker had yet to give up on anything.

(I’ll make it back. I must.)

The sinking sensation had ceased at some point, and Isaac found himself lying face down. Perhaps he hadn’t been sinking from the beginning. Everything felt vague in this world of pure darkness.

Isaac stood up while holding the artifact to his chest, but Gluttonous Zoe remained quiet. Even after bringing the box to his ear, he heard nothing.

Only then did he notice a discomfort on his face.

(…I don’t have my eyepatch. Did I drop it somewhere?)

Isaac opened and closed his eyes a few times, but there was no pain in his right eye. Perhaps the complete darkness prevented him from feeling any sensitivity to light.

(How can I see my hands and the tips of my shoes so clearly when there’s not a hint of light?)

Isaac tried kicking the ground with the soles of his shoes. The sound didn’t echo at all. In fact, his footsteps made no sound to begin with.

The texture of the ground also felt strange. It was not a soft mud, nor was it a firm earth.

Isaac squatted down and touched the ground with his fingers, but it wasn’t hot or cold either. Everything felt vague, perhaps because his sense of touch was so dull.

He punched the ground with his fist a few times, but it was still impossible to determine if it was hard or soft. There was no sound, and his hands didn’t hurt either.

As an experiment, Isaac tried measuring the pulse at his wrist. This didn’t work because he couldn’t tell if his heart was beating in the first place. His senses were too hazy.

(Don’t stop thinking.)

Isaac listened intently, but there were no sounds to pick up.

The temperature? Neither hot nor cold.

The flow of the wind? He couldn’t feel anything at all.

(And do your best.)

Isaac took a deep breath, then exhaled. This worked, meaning his body was still breathing.

And so, Isaac began walking forward with a steady stride, and counting his steps.

＊　＊　＊

He walked for 68,576 steps, but the black world showed no visible changes.

(Time elapsed, approximately ten hours.)

Despite walking through the darkness for so long, Isaac did not feel the slightest hint of fatigue.

At the very least, his legs did not hurt, and he felt neither thirst nor hunger.

(Rather than not being tired, perhaps my senses are so dull that I can’t recognize fatigue.)

Even if walking through the empty void did not tire his body, Isaac felt his mind wearing down. The anxiety, fear, and despair were slowly eroding his brain.

Perhaps this was the punishment given to him by the Goddess of the Underworld. Maybe his struggles were pointless, and there was no exit to begin with. Such doubts flickered through his mind.

“So what.”

Isaac gritted his teeth.

Ever since discarding his face, he had lived every day going through the motions, wearing himself down, cutting off the unnecessary, and sacrificing one thing after another. This lasted for almost ten full years.

Here, there was no need to pretend, and it had only been ten hours.

(I won’t give up that easily.)

He eventually reached 70,000 steps and still, nothing had changed.

Even so, Isaac Walker continued to walk. He exerted his senses, searching for any sounds, light, smells, and wind.

And while counting his steps, he contemplated his predicament.

(Is this really the underworld? In the first place, most legends about the underworld lack credibility. That said, all of them depict the gates of the underworld and the guardian of the gate. The spiral staircase leading to the mortal realm appears rather frequently as well. Many tales describe how humans lost in the underworld climb the staircase to return to life, but there are several patterns…)

In the meantime, Isaac reached 100,000 steps.

His head grew heavier, and he could hardly feel anything below his knees.

Even so, Isaac refused to stop moving his legs.

Whether it took ten years or twenty, he was determined to keep walking for as long as he could.

Ever since recovering the name “Isaac Walker”, he swore to struggle until the bitter end, no matter how pathetic it might be.

“Ike.”

The voice came suddenly, without any warning. Isaac initially assumed it was a hallucination since he saw no apparent source.

“Ike.”

Only after the second instance did Isaac pause his legs. He rubbed his eyes with the hands that he could barely feel.

There was someone calling out to him from the darkness.

It was a short and slender boy with golden hair. His turquoise eyes were staring right at Isaac.

Isaac let out a strained gasp.

“Ah… ah…”

Immediately, Isaac ran forward, flailing his dulled limbs incoherently.

The only sounds leaving his throat were the gasps for air of someone who forgot how to breathe.

“Ah… ah…! Ah, ah…!!”

Isaac stopped and fell to his knees once the boy was three paces away. He tried to reach out a hand, before dropping it limp at his side.

(I am not allowed to cling to him.)

On that fateful day, when he set fire to the corpse, this was exactly what he had wished for.

——If we meet again in the depths of the underworld…

“Arc…”

——…Please do not forgive me.

The name of the boy standing in front of him was Felix Arc Ridill.

He was the frail and kind prince who died before reaching adulthood.

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