Chapter 398

Chapter 398

"Who are you, really?"

"..."

"If you can't define that clearly, there's no reason to bother leaving this place and going outside. Your own purpose, your definition, your wishes, they'll all crumble like a mirage."

Salome shrugged her shoulders and spun around.

"Even if you struggle to the surface, all you'll find outside is suffering."

"..."

"Instead, come to me. At least I can give you a happy dream."

Salome laughed merrily as she walked away.

"Falling to the bottom together, perhaps plummeting to the very end... might not be such a bad conclusion, don't you think?"

"..."

"I'll be waiting. Forever and always..."

Leaving behind a faint laugh, Salome disappeared.

I glared in that direction and snorted. Salome's offer was nothing but nonsense, not worth listening to.

...However.

It was true that she had read my memories. She knew exactly what I was pondering.

I was afraid.

Of the long path ahead of me. The heavy burden I had to carry.

The remaining battles would be numerous and brutal, and I would have to continue carrying the deaths of my comrades and subordinates, just like I had been doing, or perhaps even more so.

"...Ugh."

When I was on the path, burdened, I could somehow keep going out of inertia. But now, pushed off the path and fallen, I couldn't muster the courage to stand up again.

Can I do it again?

Can I make it to the end?

- Is this really 'your' wish?

Was what I was trying to accomplish at the end of this long path truly what I desired?

Just maybe, just maybe.

If Salome was right and that wish was different from what I now desire.

If I give up on that wish...

Maybe I don't need to fight so hard?

- Breaking the flag is very hard at first, but after the first time, it becomes too easy. Because it's already broken.

That's when it happened.

The words of the Fairy Queen Skuld echoed softly in my mind.

- Once you start compromising, you'll keep bending endlessly. In the end, you'll live lying down. Just like me.

"..."

Clenching my teeth, I picked up another stone from the ground and threw it again towards the sewer.

Thwack!

The wildly misaimed stone didn't even enter the sewer but bounced off outside. Damn it, I cursed under my breath.

***

Zone 10, 'The Farm'.

"I need it..."

Walking through his territory, the Plague Legion Commander Raven growled in a boiling voice.

"A stronger poison, a more lethal plague, I need it..."

Just half a day ago, this place, once lushly nurtured by its master's hands, had turned into a living hell.

Fruit trees bearing fruit, grain drooping ears, young livestock growing in the barns...

All were dying and rotting away.

The poison and plague unleashed by Raven devoured his farm like a swarm of locusts. But even as his farm disappeared without even leaving ruins, Raven did not stop.

"It's not enough, this isn't enough. This won't do...!"

Raven halted in front of the 'field' where he had sown the seeds of the plague.

The formidable warriors of various races he had captured were rotting alive, each becoming a different breeding ground for plagues.

Sssss!

Raven extended his hand and absorbed all the plagues.

But.

"I need more, more, more...!"

It wasn't enough.

Nowhere near enough.

This wasn't enough. A stronger curse, a more potent insult was needed.

Raven screamed in agony.

"To kill him, I need more...!"

The Plague Legion is incredibly powerful when facing many opponents.

The actual plague spewed by Raven's body, and the illusions created by his clones.

"..."

I locked eyes with one of the residents of this bottom-dweller village.

A scruffy little kid. Like most people in this village, with disheveled, dirty long hair and worn-out clothes.

The kid was staring intently at the fruit in my hand.

"Umm..."

Ignoring and just eating it seemed too shameless even for me. I waved the fruit.

"Want some?"

Nod.

The kid nodded. I split the soft fruit into halves and tossed one to the kid.

"Eat."

Thump!

The kid caught the thrown fruit and swallowed it in one bite. Hey... chew it, will you? You might choke.

"Got more?"

The kid brazenly asked. I laughed, somewhat taken aback.

"I do, but... I can't just give it away for free."

"There's nothing of value to pay with in this village."

"...It does seem that way."

It looked like a village that could be used in a promotional campaign for some international famine relief organization, utterly impoverished.

Giving up on receiving anything in return, I just tore the fruit into smaller pieces and tossed them one by one. The kid skillfully caught and ate them, surprisingly agile despite being so skinny.

After feeding the kid a few more pieces of fruit, I decided to ask some questions.

"How do you survive in a place like this?"

"Don't eat."

"What?"

"Don't need to eat to live."

Baffled by the kid's response, I blinked in confusion, and the kid elaborated.

"Everyone in our village is cursed with 'eternal life.'"

"Ah..."

"Don't die if we don't eat, don't die if we don't sleep, don't die if we don't breathe. Just, exist."

"Then, you mean, you've been living here since the Lake Kingdom... became like this?"

"Yeah."

The kid smirked.

"I might look like this, but I'm much older than you. You can call me 'older brother.'"

Good grief.

Stunned by this revelation, I stared blankly at the kid... no, the 'older brother' kid, and then asked.

"If you're cursed with eternal life, are you all citizens of the Lake Kingdom?"

"No. We're not citizens."

The kid brother shrugged.

"We're slaves."

"..."

"The Lake Kingdom was structured in a three-tiered class system. Royals. Citizens. And, slaves."

A bitter smile crossed the kid brother's lips.

"Slaves aren't considered people. Since we're not people, we can't be citizens. We were called 'non-citizens.'"

"..."

"Non-citizens have no names, and without a name, you can't leave anything behind."

The Lake Kingdom, a once-great magical nation that perished 500 years ago.

What kind of distorted structure did this place have? I swallowed hard.

"We lived outside the residential areas for citizens, doing menial tasks. All the dirty work that the noble citizens couldn't handle was ours."

"..."

"Anyway, the inside of the Lake Kingdom was a nice place to live. People in our village also worked hard to get inside. To become human. To get a name."

The kid brother said this, shrugging his shoulders.

"To get 'citizenship.'"

"Citizenship...?"

"It was the dream of non-citizens like us. There was talk that if you offered a huge amount of gold, they would elevate your status. So, we all worked hard together to save up money."

With a dry laugh, the kid brother looked up.

"Now that we're here, it all seems so pointless..."

"..."

"Still, the adults in the village are collecting money. Even after falling to this bottom, they clutch their gold coins dearly, stacking them carefully in the village treasury, believing that becoming human will let us escape this hell."

Chewing on the last piece of fruit I handed him, the kid brother smirked.

"Meanwhile, those 'humans' are all above, suffering in their nightmares."