CH 266

After hearing Melvis’s story, I thought on ways to go through the barrier. Well, I came up with one.

“It might be possible to make it look like you have died, in order to fool the barrier.”

When I said this, the severity in Melvis’s eyes grew. He was likely telling me to hurry up and spit it out.

If he stared at me too much, I might get paralyzed again.

I wished that he would ease up a little.

Well, the problem was how I should explain it.

And so I organized my thoughts and started to talk slowly.

“Let’s say that King Yamato wanted to leave the Human World. And he knew that his soul would go to the Under World if he died.”

“Even still, he would not die so easily.”

“Yes. I believe that even in the Human World, death has the same definition. The question is how much of that did Zeus understand at the time. I could be wrong, but I think his definition of death might have been broader.”

A dead soul could go to the Under World because Zeus had adjusted the barrier to be that way.

Otherwise, the dead souls would just get stuck in the Human World.

If you were too strict with the definition of death, there might be a lot of lost souls wandering around.

So if the barrier was like a net, I thought that he had created one with rather large gaps.

My reasoning for this was near-death experiences.

Let’s say that you were badly injured in a car accident and floated at the border of life and death.

People who recovered from that state often said that they saw the world of the dead.

Things like tunnels of light, walking on clouds, heaven’s door.

Some have even talked of seeing their dead grandfather waving to them on the other side of a river.

If dead souls go to the Under World, then perhaps souls near death were able to make it partway.

If you made it too secure, then there might be cases where truly dead souls don’t make it through, which would be much worse.

“Hmm. A broader definition of death… But what state would that be?”

“Let’s say King Yamato was in a state of suspended animation. He is not truly dead. But is at a level close enough to looking like death that his soul can go to the Under World.”

Here, I talked about what death was to ancient people.

To them, ‘death’ was vague.

The heart stops moving, no breathing, the pupils don’t widen, no pulse. These were obvious signs to modern people, but there were cases where such knowledge was not known to people of the past.

In medieval Europe, there were even incidents where someone was buried after succumbing to the black plague, only to revive in their coffins and try to get out.

It was suspended animation.

Back then, people were terrified of the possibility of being buried alive.

And so there were cases where a string was tied to the fingers of the buried dead, and the other end attached to a bell on the surface.

As the bell would ring if they came back to life, others would be alerted.

There were still several patents for coffins with these kinds of safety devices.

As for what the low class citizens did, they chose to leave their dead in mortuaries.

They believed that complete death occurred when the body started to rot, and so they did not bury it until that happened.

So what had things been like during the age that Zeus made the barrier?

It was a very long time ago, so it was likely a time when the definition of death was not completely established.

Because of that, surely it was possible for the souls of people who were in suspended animation to get through?

“Suspended animation… So it would be possible to go to the Under World as a soul that isn’t dead.”

“I think that it’s possible.”

And since the soul would not have been purified, it would keep its memories.

Perhaps someone as powerful as Yamato would then be able to go to the Demon World from there.

Right now, my theory was the person I had met as a child was someone who had temporarily become flesh in this world.

Considering what they were doing with souls in the Celestial World, surely it was possible? That’s how I felt.

For instance, what about Zeus’s body that Hera had prepared?

“I see. It’s an interesting idea. …Then I order you. In that same way, think of a method for going to the Human World from the Demon World.”

“What!?”

What did he mean?

“Do you understand?”

He asked with such an intimidating glare, that I stupidly stuttered a ‘yes.’

Think of a way? Me? Why?

“This has been quite a fruitful discussion.”

Seemingly satisfied and in a good mood now, Melvis made his exit.

It was odd. As for where we were, it apparently really was inside of our Orb of Control.

He had come into the orb in the same way that he had gone to the Under World.

He really was on a different level.

“…He’s gone.”

The other me finally opened his mouth.

“Yeah. What the hell was that? We’ve been serving a real monster.”

Even if I became stronger, I could not think of a scenario where I could fight him and win.

And if Lesser High King Yamato was even stronger than that, he was a king of monsters.

“It’s amazing that the surrounding Lesser Demon Kings ever attacked us.”

It wasn’t luck that had kept this country untouched for so long.

Now, I finally had a taste of what Melvis was like before going to sleep.

I understood.

People who knew him would not have just thought, ‘Melvis is asleep? Then let’s attack his country while we can.’

It was the younger generation of Lesser Demon Kings who didn’t know him at all.

“He was a Great Demon King, but that was a long time ago. It hardly matters now.”

They thought. And they would end up paying a high price for their mistakes.

We didn’t even have weapons to fight him here.

We would have had no chance.

I suppose the other me was a weapon in a way, but I had no idea how effective he would be against Melvis.

Perhaps if I swung him around I could deal some damage.

“Still, that was dangerous. I was thinking of using you in a suicide attack as a last resort.”

This guy… He was thinking of the same thing.

“I see. Well, that’s too bad. I was going to use you as a blunt weapon.”

“Really… You are a funny one.”

“We both are.”

“Bahahahaha!”

“Ahahahaha!”

“…I can’t believe you were going to use me as a weapon!”

“But you were going to do the same!”

“I’ll kill you! Arggh!”

“Give it your best shot! Grraah!”

To return from the digression…

“Well, uh… I think we better stop fighting.”

“Yes. This is pointless.”

It really was.

Besides, we were just playing.

“We have more important things to be doing. Let’s get out of here before he comes back.”

The other me said with a shiver. He must be feeling the pressure from Melvis.

“Yeah. Let’s look for the exit.

I did not want to be here when he returned.

And so we walked around and searched for an exit, eventually finding something promising.

“We should wake up if we go into this hole. Well, goodbye then.”

“Aye. I hope we get another chance to talk to each other like this.”

We shook hands firmly and then jumped into the hole.