Chapter 65 - Wishes Have Consequences

The sun of the new day came like the spotlight falling over the stage where the curtain had fallen and risen once more for the second act. 

The three who would embark on their journey are now prepared, and only a few individuals see them off amiably. Most gave them a few scowls while the others are merely indifferent and want the travels to end already so they would come to a resolution. 

The people who watched them go include Verise, Lillian, Rothfir, Vicar Garien, and Zenon. The strange doctor was also lurking in the shadows somewhere, but he is irrelevant to all of them.

"Let us go into the woods! The woods! To find the Hermit! The Hermit! And become human to die! To die! Woohoo!"

Vladstin had reverted to his more positive and expressive self..... but the downside is he had completely had gone insane. He rode one of the wolves while singing and led his army of corpses to also 'dance' as he sang. Leron was very upset about this and flinch every time Vladstin say the word 'die'. He often becomes sick from so much disturbance and releases that disturbance every once in a while by retching. Sangfroid could only rub his temples while everything he passes by turns into a more beautiful and abundant version of it, thanks to the magic Amulet he never asked for.

It was a strange sight indeed.

"If you would pass by a band of weird individuals like that in the woods, how would you react?" Zenon elbowed Verise.

"Let us just pray they encounter no one in their travels for their safety." Vicar Garien said.

"You should pray more for the safety of the people who might encounter them." Verise said. "They're bound to cause a heart attack, and they've already caused so much death and carnage that adding to the numbers would be like adding droplets of water to an entire ocean."

"I don't even know who I pity the most among them." Lillian said. "I hate Vladstin as a monster, but there's no denying that he suffered so much that it shattered his psyche. Sangfroid is carrying everyone in his back, there's a possibility that he would also break from such burden. And Prince Leron seems to already be in the verge of breaking, and dying at the same time too."

"In short, they're all bound to be crazy." Zenon summed up. "But who's to say we all haven't lost our minds at this point. Right, Rothfir?"

Rothfir waved his hand dismissively. "The truce has been made, and all we can do is wait for them. Let us now help everyone settle and build new homes in New Ilvedia."

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"I want to die~ I want to die~ I'm already dead so I want to die~"

"Vladstin, please stop saying that. It hurts to hear it." Leron tugged at the mad Vampire Lord's tattered sleeves.

"Hmmm????" Vladstin narrowed his eyes at Leron like he was an old man no longer recognizing his relatives because of poor eyesight and dementia. "Ah, I know you! You're Leron! Leron, my dear! You're the one who killed me! Nice! Please kill me again!"

"No! Never again! I don't want to lose you!" Leron shook his head. He gripped Vladstin's shoulders and shook it. "I love you, Vladstin! Please come back to how you were! That's all I wanted, I never wanted any of this! If only I returned your love earlier.....But now I know how much I love you so please come back!"

Now Sangfroid is the one who is hurt by what he is hearing, but he kept a straight face and lead the path with his one-eyed wolf that he came to like. He secretly named the wolf Sangfron.

"Love?" Vladstin cocked his head to the side. "Ohhhh, I love death! Yes, I came to see death with my own eyes! It was so beautiful that I fell in love at first sight! I want to fall into its fiery arms and go to the hell I was promised to go to when I die!"

He clapped his hands like he had just come upon a huge discovery. "Ah! That gave me an idea for a new song!"

"Death is my muse! My muse!

It came upon me one day! One day!

Given by most beloved friend! Friend!

But it was taken away! Away!

And now I yearn for it once more! Once more!

Because I don't want to exist! Exist!

Death is my love! My love!

So I want to die once more! Once more!"

"Everybody, let's sing and dance!" Vladstin's said to his vampire corpse puppets that followed behind them.

"Grrr....ahhh.... rrrr.... rahhhhh" The corpse tried to speak with their dead vocal cords. They don't have the power of the vampire lord to be able to do things that live humans do besides walking and eating, since they are mindless puppets after all, but they still tried their best to follow their master's lead.

"Sangfroid, please make him stop singing!" Leron begged, covering his ears and coughing up blood. "It's too much..... I don't like it...."

Sangfroid followed Leron obediently. "Vladstin, please stop singing."

"Death! Death! I love death!" Vladstin still sang at the top of his breathless lungs.

"Vladstin." Sangfroid said sternly with his piercing purple eyes. "Stop singing."

He turned his wolf around to face Vladstin's own wolf. Both master and the undead hound looked up at the ones before them curiously. Vladstin stared at Sangfroid's eyes as if in a trance.

Sangfroid has sharp features, and most animals in the wild who have such features are the most deadly. Yet his demeanor is calm, and holds no judgment or bias. His expression is always neutral. And his eyes were the color of twilight, the end of the day. If there would be a personification of death....

He would fit perfectly.

That must have been what was running inside Vladstin's ruined mind. But it is possible that there is no logic behind it after all. He simply thought that the man before him is death, because that's how it is for his insane mind.

"Is it really you? Min Libitino..." He said in Upper Crescentian.

He touched his weakly moving heart, remembering slightly that it was hit by this man's arrow.

This enchanting and beautiful man that is like his Libitino. His death.

Yes, Sangfroid is the one leading him to the Hermit, isn't he? He is his hope for eternal cessation, the one who will save him from the cruel life that is keeping him hostage by making him immortal. 

He immediately took Sangfroid's hand and clasp it with crazed golden eyes as large as two moons. "Min Libitino! Min Libitino! It is you! Only you can cause this much joy in this monster's undying heart!"

"I do not know what you are talking about." Sangfroid took his hand away from Vladstin's grasp, eyebrows creasing. "But could you please stop upsetting His Highness? I understand that all the torture and pain had caused you to be confused... but for the duration of this travel, can you calm yourself and not try to make it harder for Prince Leron?"

"Confused? I'm not confused, Min Libitino, I am happy! Happy to be by your side!"

"My name is Sangfroid." The Huntsman answered coldly. 

He doesn't know what 'Min Libitino' means, but it just makes him twice as uncomfortable as to be called 'Hunter'. 

"Alright, Min Libitino!"

Sangfroid rubbed his forehead again.

How did things change to this? He can still feel a sting from his back because of the hit from the ax. It had been bandaged properly, but some festering may have come because of the rain or the water from the Fountain. He's hoping it does not result in sickness, because everything would collapse without him pulling it together. These are the only worries in his mind that overtook him to notice how Vladstin was acting completely strange.

He didn't notice those unhinged, lovesick eyes. He did not notice the warmth from Vladstin's fingertips, or the slight redness on his cheeks despite being dead. He did not notice how much admiration and affection there was in Vladstin's voice whenever he says 'Min Libitino'.

But Leron did. He knows exactly what is going on.

Vladstin, the one who loved him and whom he betrayed, the one he now came to love and would want to pay back all the care and devotion that was given to him.... was now madly infatuated with Sangfroid.

A strong pang of agony came to his chest and he wanted to cough up blood once more. How did everything change like this so fast? He hoped that now that Vladstin's emotions have returned, so will the love that he had for Leron when he was still alive. But why.....

He recalled his wishes on the Dandelion Archway.

He wished for Vladstin not to die, and so, he really became virtually impossible to kill. But besides that.....

"I wish it had never been me.. If it only it was not me that you loved."