TEOCH 98

‘I feel like I’ve seen that expression on Mr. Rohan’s face a very long time ago.’

Damian thought that throughout the exploration. Of course, he didn’t let it show on the outside, though even if he had, it was unlikely anyone would have noticed. It was because everyone was preoccupied with catching the deep-sea eel. In truth, Damian couldn’t even guess why that demonic beast was named a deep-sea eel. The electric eel his master had procured for experiments when he was young certainly didn’t look that bizarre.

Its body was well over seven meters long, its grotesquely shaped jaw opened wide enough to easily swallow two or three people, and its movements were abnormally fast, so much so that His Majesty the King had trouble even properly inflicting a wound. Even when Damian tried to lure it with light, it was impossible because the demonic beast was already blind. Despite being blind, it reacted instantly to the surrounding movements, making it a truly tricky opponent.

Sir Rikiel used ‘Taunt’ to make himself bait, and in that opening, His Majesty the King drove a dagger into the demonic beast’s head. To save Sir Rikiel, who was on the verge of being swallowed and digested by the demonic beast, Rohan desperately cut off the creature’s neck.

Fortunately, since deep-sea demonic beasts were a species with slow digestion, Sir Rikiel was safely rescued before he could be melted in the beast’s stomach. Of course, Rohan was furious. It was because Sir Rikiel’s act of putting his own body into the demonic beast’s throat had been his own arbitrary decision. Although, in the end, they were able to catch the demonic beast thanks to that action.

Still, the struggle with the eel for over thirty minutes was worthwhile, as His Majesty the King and Rohan were finally able to obtain the materials to make swords. Furthermore, since they carved out a considerable amount of meat from the eel’s flesh, they wouldn’t have to wander in search of food for the time being.

The party, including Damian, returned to the cave, delighted with their day’s harvest, and by inserting parasites into the eel bones they had brought back with great effort, they created swords for a whopping three people. Although Rohan had been so angry with Sir Rikiel earlier, he did not forget to make his sword first.

‘Fundamentally, he’s just worried.’

He himself acts recklessly, yet he cannot stand it when others do the same. All the companions, including Damian, knew that this was just the kind of person that hero was, so it was nothing particularly strange. However, watching that scene, Damian felt strange for some reason. It felt like something like this had definitely happened a very long time ago.

‘When was it? I think it was a very, very long time ago.’

Rohan, kneeling before Rikiel’s corpse, crying and raging like a madman. The image that suddenly flashed through his mind was too vivid to be a hallucination, but Damian could not understand why he had suddenly thought of such a thing. Could it be that he had developed some strange mental illness from wandering around the pitch-black sea for too long?

“Damian?”

“Ah, Mr. Rehas.”

“Why have you been so spaced out for a while now?”

“I think it’s because I’m tired. Ah, that’s right. Please give me a lap pillow!”

“My, how brazen.”

The good-natured hunter grumbled but still offered Damian his lap, though he continued to look concerned, as if he had noticed that something was off with Damian’s condition. Damian tried to guess since when exactly he had been in this strange state. It seemed unlikely it had only been for the last hour or two.

‘Could it have been going on for quite a while now? Since Mr. Rohan kept checking on my condition.’

In reality, Damian had no way of knowing that Rohan had been glancing at him for a different reason. After pondering for a long time, Damian’s thoughts eventually reached the coral reef cluster. Ah, that’s right. Come to think of it, the coral reef seemed to have been the problem. Ever since seeing the coral reef cluster, strange thoughts kept popping into his head…….

“Get some sleep, Damian. We won’t be going out for any more exploration today anyway.”

“Okay. I don’t think I’m in very good condition today……. I’ll rest first.”

His head ached. Damian groaned and closed his eyes, and a blanket, presumably placed over him by Rehas, wrapped his body warmly. It didn’t feel like he would have a good dream, but right now, there was no other way but to sleep.

In the dream, there were only four people in the party. Rohan and Damian, Rikiel, and a filthy thief whose name he couldn’t even remember. Damian did not wonder for a single moment why His Majesty the King was not there.

The king is not someone who should be in a place like this in the first place. Since he is an important person who carries the fate of a nation on his shoulders, it is enough for him to diligently look after the ravaged country until the hero’s party brings back the queen.

Anyway, about that thief who only appears in the dream, honestly, Damian didn’t like him very much. It was because he always treated Damian like a girl and tried to do strange things. It was a good thing Rohan and Sir Rikiel got angry for him every time; if they hadn’t, that thief might have used the excuse that it couldn’t be helped since it was the demon world and done something terrible to Damian.

Of course, if he had actually tried such a thing, Damian would have burned his limbs and the space between his legs all at once, turned him into a limbless pig-like thing, and kicked him off the bottom of the island.

In any case, the fortunate thing was that the thief was dead. On the ‘Sky Island,’ around the time they had defeated three of the Harpies and only the black-haired and silver-haired Harpies remained, that thief had mocked the remaining Harpies for looking weak and rushed to slit their throats. Even though Rohan had repeatedly warned him beforehand never to do that. Even though he had warned again and again that it was those two Harpies who could truly end the party’s lives in an instant.

In the end, the thief who did not listen to Rohan’s words was hit by an instant-death skill and came to regret his actions. No, he may not have actually regretted it. Since his life was snuffed out before he even knew what had happened to him.

But the real problem was that Sir Rikiel had died along with him while trying to save that thief’s life. Shouting that he couldn’t just stand by and watch someone lose their life before his eyes, no matter how much he disliked them, that he couldn’t just watch with his hands tied, he rushed out of Damian’s barrier, but in the end, his attempt ended in a futile sacrifice. Sir Rikiel was hit by the instant-death skill while failing to bring the thief inside the barrier and collapsed along with him.

In the end, after defeating the Harpies, Rohan became incredibly angry, screamed, and spewed curses that were unspeakable, breaking down in front of Rikiel. At first, he even tried to kick Rikiel’s corpse, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “This is why you always die,” “This is why I hate you the most even after thousands of playthroughs,” Rohan screamed and cried, but Damian did not understand Rohan’s words at all. No, in fact, he did not try to understand.

At the time, Damian thought that Rohan’s words were interspersed with something that ‘should not be understood.’ They were words that should never come out of a ‘hero’s’ mouth, and the companions must never understand those words in order not to break the ‘rules.’ Damian, sensing that fact instinctively, pretended to half-not hear Rohan’s words. He acted as if he had heard some alien language. Fortunately, even Rohan himself did not seem to expect Damian to understand those words.

In any case, they had to move forward. The passage Rohan had created led into the sea, and Rohan and Damian had to catch their breath like defeated soldiers, hiding in a small cave devoid of demonic beasts. Damian’s magic was completely depleted, so he had no energy to go on an exploration, but Rohan resolutely declared that he would go out and scout even if he had to go alone.

‘If we waste time like this, we could suffocate to death. We don’t even know exactly where the oxygen supply is……. You stay here, Damian. I’ll go alone.’

‘Will you be okay?’

‘I’ll come back if I think I’m not. Don’t worry and just meditate here or something.’

At that time, Rohan spoke to Damian in a casual tone, and Damian did not question that fact at all. It was because Rohan was, in fact, much older than Damian. He didn’t know his exact age, but in Damian’s eyes, he seemed to be about ten years older.

Damian was quite fond of Rohan as a companion. For one, although he spoke casually, Rohan was always kind to Damian, both then and now. He could be quite foul-mouthed usually, but at least he never spewed curses at Damian.

‘I won’t let you die alone. I’ll be back.’

Whispering so, Rohan gave Damian a light hug, and Damian, reassured by those words, saw Rohan off. That affectionate yet somehow lonely gaze was very impressive, and Damian thought he would probably keep remembering it in the future.

But the moment Rohan went outside, Damian decided not to think about his life or death. Damian was originally not one to worry about useless things. If Rohan said he would come back alive, then he would come back alive, and if he died, well, that couldn’t be helped either. Once he reached that conclusion, there was not a single thing to be uncomfortable about. Of course, it would be a little sad if he really died.

After that, he entered a state of meditation, so he couldn’t even gauge how time had passed. In truth, once one enters meditation, outside events can hardly interfere with the inner mind. Even when the quiet cave was suddenly filled with someone’s panting breaths, even when the unpleasant smell of the sea and the sweetish smell of gas stimulated the tip of his nose, Damian did not perceive the events outside.

Damian barely noticed the seriousness of the situation when rough, violent hands pressed his body down to the floor. When he opened his eyes, the eyes of a demonic beast, the whites of its eyes dyed pitch black, were glaring at him fiercely. As Damian, flustered, tried to twist his body, his head was smashed right into the cave wall.

The world turned upside down several times as he gasped from the concussion-like impact, and finally, the tongue of someone else wearing human skin entangled with Damian’s tongue and stabbed into his throat. It was the act of a beast that didn’t even recognize what it was doing.

Of course, Damian was also in the same boat, not understanding what this situation was.

A pure sense of bewilderment, not fear or terror, washed over him.

Damian panted and leaned his back against the cave wall. The disgusting smell of burning flesh filled the cave, but there was no way to ventilate it, making it impossible to even get rid of the smell. He tried his best not to look in the direction of the source of the smell, that is, where Rohan was.

Rohan’s state right now was not normal. His horribly contorted face even while unconscious, his arms that had been burned away without a trace, and the wound area from which pus was oozing. It was not something one could look at with a sane mind.

The smell of his limbs burning was so disgusting that Damian dry-heaved several times. The wounds on his neck from being roughly bitten, and his head that was dizzy from being hit against the wall several times whenever he tried to resist, were hindering his normal thinking. Damian blankly looked down at his throbbing arms. Bruises in the shape of handprints were vivid.

Rohan was not normal. It was not that difficult to realize that fact. The panting that didn’t answer when called, the whites of his eyes burned pitch black and his irises dyed yellow, combined with the madness of him charging without a care even after his arms were burned, the answer was pretty much there.

Something had definitely happened to this person. The kind of madness that makes one unable to recognize their own companion and crave only the release of their instincts is not something that can be formed so easily. But.

‘So what.’

Damian curled up his body with difficulty and covered himself with a blanket. The coldness of the blanket against his skin was so chilling that Damian simply shrouded his own body in fire. It was a little better, but still not particularly warm.

When it didn’t get warm no matter how much he raised the temperature, Damian measured the amount of magic power flowing from his body instead of his sense of touch, and admitted the fact that if he raised the temperature any further, his own flesh might cook like a piece of meat. He lowered the temperature of the fire slightly and stared blankly at the fireball moving about on the blanket.

Inside his pocket, the last two remaining parasites were squirming. The parasites, excited by the smell of blood, wanted to burrow into Rohan’s wounds right away, but Damian did not want that. He wanted to hear an apology at the very least. The apology that a person who had been subjected to such a terrible act by their one and only remaining companion deserved to receive.

‘Because that’s what’s rational.’

It was a judgment that came from a calculation of profit and loss, not from a sense of injustice. In any case, Damian did not have the right to not forgive Rohan. It was because the hero’s existence was absolutely necessary for him to breathe and live in this world. As a companion, as the only human holding his lifeline, Rohan was an indispensable existence to Damian.

But at the same time, Damian understood that if he forgave Rohan now without any form of retaliation, he would come to hate Rohan someday. He himself knew better than anyone that it was a ‘forgiveness given out of necessity.’ He was certain that he would feel a sense of injustice about his own situation every time he remembered this incident.

If injustice is not resolved in a timely manner, it builds up inside the stomach, corrodes, and at some point, melts the internal organs and gives off a rotten smell. Resolving the emotion before injustice turns into hatred would be good for maintaining their relationship. When Rohan wakes up, he would pour out the suffering he had experienced, and threaten that he would not put the parasites in his arms unless he apologized. Then the emotions piled up in his stomach would be relieved a little.

Damian used his reason in that way to make an emotional decision. A rather satisfactory result came out. Of course, a stiff tension still permeated his limbs, and the coldness that surrounded him had not disappeared, but Damian decided not to pay much attention to that fact.

If it’s okay, then it’s okay. A conclusion has been reached on what to do, so there is nothing more to worry about. Nothing more, nothing more……. nothing more to be afraid of.

‘……ry.’

But, it was at that very moment. Rohan’s hoarse voice brushed past his ear.

‘……orry, I’m sorry…….’

‘Mr. Rohan, are you awake?’

‘I was wrong. I, because of me, everyone died, and got hurt……. Because I’m incompetent. I, my fault……. I, can’t do it. I’m nothing. I have no confidence…….’

Damian placed the parasite pouch on the floor and carefully approached Rohan, but no matter how many times he shook his shoulders and called his name, Rohan could not wake up. Perhaps it was sleep-talking, Damian thought, and sat down next to Rohan. He was in such a messy state that it was hard to look at him with open eyes, so Damian first covered him with his own blanket. But that alone did not solve the problem.

‘Mr. Rohan, are you okay? Huh?’

‘……ant to. Go……. Now, now…….’

‘Mr. Rohan.’

‘I want to go back. I want to go back to my home, to my world…….’

It was because a single teardrop flowed down Rohan’s filth-stained cheek.

‘…….’

‘I hate it all……. Go back……. No, just die…….’

Damian blankly raised his hand and wiped away his tear. Of course, Damian’s blood-stained hand was just as dirty, but at least with each wipe of a tear, Rohan’s cheek became a little cleaner. Damian took comfort in that. Even though it was a trivial act that would offer no comfort at all, just that was enough to slowly loosen the knot that had formed in his heart.

‘It’s okay, for now……. No, it’s not okay. I can’t do anything. Now, I’m going to stop now…….’

How did we end up like this. Damian whispered that to Rohan, who could not hear. The sleep-talking was too quiet and faint for most of it to be audible, but at least Damian knew that Rohan was afraid of something. He also knew that he was sorrowful, and feeling wronged.

‘I’m going to stop, Tristan. I’m going to stop now…….’

Listening to that sobbing voice, Damian blankly hugged Rohan. The arms that had been seared by fire would have hurt quite a bit when they touched, but Rohan remained held by Damian without the slightest movement. He just sniffled occasionally. He sobbed like a child, calling for someone with a name strangely similar to his own king, muttering only that he wanted to stop now.

Damian quietly closed his eyes.

The coldness, the suffering, were all the same, but knowing that the person in front of him was also the same, he felt a little relieved.

Having woken up from the dream, Damian caught his breath for a long time with his eyes wide open.

It was a very strange dream, a story so vivid and tangible as if he had actually experienced it. But it was a story he did not want to admit he had actually experienced, so Damian decided to believe that it was a dream.

If that whole event was a dream, then there is nothing to be afraid of. Because it becomes something that didn’t actually happen. It is just a combination of illogical stories pieced together in a delusion, so there is not the slightest reason to be afraid, or to hate, or to be perplexed.

Staring at the faces of his sleeping companions for a long time, Damian was lost in thought.