SIWALL Ch 47

Left behind with the corpse, Theseus let out an “aha” laugh and swept his side hair back. He muttered in a damp voice.

“Things have gotten difficult, Generwin.”

He glanced once around the inside of the barn, spat on the corpse, and snapped his fingers to set the barn on fire. Then, snapping his fingers one more time, he vanished from the spot.

That night, a massive fire broke out at the edge of Saltus Forest, burning down numerous plants and animals to ashes. Within it, the existence of the dead masked man was buried beneath the flames, unknown to man or mouse.

∞ ∞ ∞

Elliot had a dream. In his dream, he saw himself—that is, Lim Seongsik.

Lim Seongsik was sleeping face down on his bed. He was clutching his phone in his hand, and no matter how much the phone rang, he showed no signs of waking up.

There’s no way I’d do that…

To catch alarms or contact from his part-time jobs, he always kept his phone’s vibration intensity set to maximum and fell asleep holding it in his hand. Even though he was a light sleeper and tended to wake up quickly, because his body was exhausted every day and he kept crashing hard, out of sheer anxiety he had developed that kind of habit.

Lim Seongsik was sleeping as if he were dead. Yes, truly as if he were dead.

For a moment, even in his dream, Elliot felt a chill that penetrated down to his very bones.

I’m dead. That’s what happened after I came to this world. I died.

A moment later, the door of the studio apartment opened, and paramedics entered. They carefully checked Lim Seongsik’s body and busily transferred him onto a stretcher. Even amidst all that, the phone did not drop from Lim Seongsik’s hand.

Then the scene shifted. It was a family restaurant before business hours had begun, and the managers and fellow part-time workers were gathered in the hall. A gloomy atmosphere hung heavily among them.

“They said it was death from overwork. What are we gonna do, Mr. Seongsik…”

So it was death from overwork.

Elliot dazedly echoed those words.

“They said he doesn’t even have any family. The police are trying to find next of kin, apparently…”

“If that fails, the district office will take care of it, I suppose. But isn’t his dad still alive?”

The manager asked with a worried expression.

“Alive, so what? Sounds like he dumped all his debts on Seongsik and ran off. Seriously, some people are absolute monsters.”

Suji said, her voice on the verge of tears.

Yet in Elliot’s—or rather, Lim Seongsik’s—memories, he had never once talked about his family to them. He had always been the one listening, never the one talking. Then how did they know?

“Well, we won’t have to watch loan sharks coming in day in and day out, ordering pre-meal bread, and acting like mobsters anymore.”

“Hey, how can you say something like that? Right now Seongsik… Seongsik is…”

At the words of the male part-time worker who usually didn’t care much for him, Elliot nodded. Sure enough, the loan sharks had been running their mouths. He had thought he’d dealt with it without anyone else knowing, but everyone had known all along.

Elliot blankly watched Suji, who had finally burst into tears. Tears were welling up even in the eyes of the manager who had always fond of him.

He was grateful that they were crying for him. Yet the end of this life didn’t feel all that sad. It was a bit surprising, but a thought came to mind that what was bound to happen had finally come.

Elliot, no, Lim Seongsik had known it deep down in his heart. That if he kept working like this, he was going to die. That he was running frantically toward death.

Still, what could he do? He needed money. So he had simply done whatever work was available at the time. He didn’t regret that.

Still, ending up handled as someone with no next of kin and becoming a mountain of paperwork for public officials was a bit much, though.

Elliot smiled bitterly.

And the scene shifted once more. This time, it showed the house where Elliot had first opened his eyes upon possessing this body. Elliot was sitting in front of a desk.

It’s El Black.

The original work’s Elliot Brown, whose real name was El Black. He was drinking alcohol with severely trembling hands. He didn’t seem able to control the shakes, and since Elliot himself had suffered for a week after possession because of those hand tremors, just looking at it made his teeth chatter in dread.

“Meow?”

Camembert hopped up onto the lap of El Black, who was drinking, and rubbed his head against his belly. Elliot felt a shock greater than when he had learned the fact that he had died of overwork.

Camembert… You… showing that kind of affection…!

Just as Elliot was feeling a sense of betrayal.

“Camembert, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. For leaving you behind.”

El Black sniffled, drunk on alcohol.

Looking closer, an empty medicine bottle was rolling in front of the desk. Written on a small note left behind like a suicide note were the words, ‘Please take good care of Camembert.’

These were all things Elliot had seen right when he had first possessed the body. At the time, thinking the cat’s name was cute, he had swept away all the trash on the desk, including the note. Because the desk was far too dirty. If he had known those were the traces of El Black’s death, he wouldn’t have done that.

Soon, El Black convulsed for a moment with a sound like something boiling and bubbling near his neck, then collapsed to the floor. The scene ended with Camembert weeping mournfully beside him and frantically rubbing his face against him.

Elliot watched that scene in agony. Darkness descended, but it felt as though El Black’s final moments kept playing right before his eyes. He took off his glasses and vigorously wiped his tears with his sleeve. Even then, the tears wouldn’t stop, so later on he stood pressing his eyes against his arm.

Just as he was doing that, a familiar voice echoed and spread from somewhere.

“…liot.”

Who is it?

Elliot sniffled and raised his head.

“Elli…”

“…Your Grace?”

“Why… Please… Look at me… Luor.”

The voice, crackling like a misaligned radio frequency, was drawing closer and closer. Elliot felt it instinctively. The time to wake up from the dream was approaching.

“Your Grace! Your Grace!”

Elliot shouted toward the empty air with all his might.

“…liot.”

“Your Grace! I’m right here! Wake me up!”

“…”

“Grand Duke Elliot Teron!”

“…”

“Hey! Elliot!”

“…”

“Elliot, you pain-in-the-ass bastard―!”

Snap. His eyes flew open. And the moment he opened his eyes, Elliot knew. That he had woken up by blurting out those very final words.

Elliot, Generwin, Henderson, and Madam Megan were all standing around the bed with wide-open eyes, staring at Elliot. Soon, Generwin burst into a loud laugh and slumped down, Henderson furrowed his brow, and Madam Megan pursed her lips, trying hard to hold back the laughter bubbling up.

Elliot was just looking down at Elliot with a completely expressionless face. That was somehow even more terrifying.

“Elliot Brown.”

“Y-yes, yes? It’s just… I didn’t mean to curse at Your Grace or anything…”

“Are you alright?”

“Eh… Pardon?”

“I asked if you are alright.”

“Yes, I’m fin…”

Elliot, who had been giving that reflexive answer, paused mid-sentence. The situation right before he fainted had belatedly come back to him. Elliot’s gaze instantly sank into the deepest corners of darkness. And Elliot acutely noticed that change.

“Everyone out.”

Elliot commanded.

“Aw, I wanna stay more with the ghostwriter. We couldn’t talk for three whole days, right, ghostwriter?”

“Get out.”

Elliot said once more in a serious, calm tone. There was an undeniable power in that voice.

“Let’s come back later, Lord Generwin.”

Henderson stepped up first and led Generwin out. Madam Megan also bowed to Elliot and followed them out.

Once everyone had left the room, Elliot sat down beside Elliot’s bed. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Elliot. It was the exact same handkerchief Elliot had gifted him.

“Wipe up.”

“Yes…?”

“You’ve been crying since a while ago. Even before you regained consciousness.”

Elliot dazedly accepted the handkerchief and wiped his tears. Even though he was performing the act of wiping his own tears, he felt no sensation that he was actually moving his hands. He just felt blank.

Why had he forgotten that? That horrific event.

Right before his eyes, a person’s head had fallen off. Someone who was moving and talking a second ago was dead a second later. A death where blood splattered, breath stopped, and the light faded from the eyes. Lim Seongsik had died, too. El Black had died, too.

Then what am I? Am I really alive?

A tangled mess of thoughts swirled in Elliot’s head.

“Don’t think about anything.”

“…Pardon?”

“People die eventually, one way or another. It’s just that the methods are all different.”

Elliot had likely said that with the masked man’s death in mind, but to Elliot, those words sounded entirely different. The people who had died right before Elliot’s eyes—including himself—had flashed through his mind.

“You won’t be able to shake it off all at once. But you, too… will come to accept it soon.”

“Me, too…”

Had Elliot been like that, too?

Focus returned to Elliot’s eyes. He looked up at Elliot.

“So don’t think about anything. Understood?”

“…Your Grace.”

Elliot said.

“Sometimes, I like Your Grace.”

“…What are―”

“I’m going to sleep just a little longer.”

“…What, what, why…?”

Regardless of whether Elliot was stammering or not, Elliot closed his eyes right back. It was practically equivalent to detonating a bomb in Elliot’s heart, yet Elliot’s mind felt far more peaceful than it had moments before.