Chapter ss-36: Side Story 36
SS36
He said while taking a step closer to me.
‘You came after me…. to kill me?’
I took a step backward with instinctive repulsion.
Well, he’s never been this way in the past that I remember.
In this regard, I could confirm that he really lost memory and became a different person.
“You don’t even remember me, why?”
“Because I don’t remember. I hate the unpleasant feeling when I see you.”
“……unpleasant feeling?”
“It’s annoying. I can’t believe I’m running here.…”
He raised his arm, blurring the end of his speech.
“It’s unpleasant.”
He said, with a pat on my chest by the end of the dagger that was handed over from me.
I couldn’t tell why my heart was beating when he looked at me.
‘Is it a physiological repulsion or a remnant of the unconscious’s memory?’
One thing was certain, there were no emotions in the shiny eyes that has been looking at me for a while.
“…Why are you saying that all of a sudden?”
“I’ve been wondering about it all the time. Why do I feel that way when I see you?”
He took another step.
I tried to step back, but I had no place to do so because I had already reached the rock wall.
Closer to me, Eclise shined with an expressionless face.
“There is no way to get the memory back. That’s why I’m following you. I thought I’d know something if I saw you….”
“……..”
“I can’t believe it was just because I was your enemy. You know? it’s a little boring compared to what I had thought.”
He scowled at me with his eyes open as if he were floating.
‘Then what do you want me to say, not enemies?’
That I used you, and you knew that, but since I couldn’t give you my love you went crazy? That when you look at me, my beating heart is because of our past?
But aren’t his words and attitude too contradictory to say so?
Eclise lost the memory that I wanted to kill because I was annoyed. (?)
But it was him who handled the mana from behind so that I can be safe.
His eyes with a castrated feeling, the act of hovering around me for three years and helping me…
My head was spinning.
I opened my mouth with the flowers pressing against my body so as not to stumble.
“…..three years, you’d have plenty of chances to kill me.”
“It was enough.”
He readily agreed. And denied again.
“But it was more interesting than I thought to see you desperately pretending not to know me.”
Did he really decide everything based on fun and interest as a yardstick?
He gave a series of incomprehensible answers.
But little by little, I could read the true meaning behind his words.
His eyes staring straight at me, shining with curiosity and amusement, were lifeless at the same time.
Once, he felt like he was sinking slowly into the heights without knowing, but now he was literally like a doll that had fallen off.
There’s no purpose in his life or any will to live, he just likes the fun that’s right in front of him.
Which unfortunately, happend to be me again.
He’d love to kill me because it bothers him, but then he’ll lose his fun forever.
In a way, a naive childish idea was the gist of what he said.
I couldn’t tell whether I was lucky or unlucky that he had completely lost his memory and no longer loved me.
Maybe this was the true image of Eclise, which was hidden in the game.
“Don’t stare at me like that.”
I don’t know what kind of unexpected behavior he’s going to do, he’s been watching with such a stiff face.
Suddenly, like when he first reached out to me, he stepped back with a very polite attitude.
“Anyway, now that I know why, that’s all. It’s funny to play revenge now because of a past I don’t even remember.”
“……..”
“I’ll just remain a guardian angel.”
To me who was frozen, his smiling face was unfamilliar.
“Just as you say, I’ll stop chasing you and hunting demos. You said you’re going to quit, too.”
-…..If I finish this expedition, I’m going to quit, Marienne.
This morning, I had a conversation with Marianne at the entrance of the village ahead of the dead bodies.
‘…you heard me.’
“But until I quit completely, if it’s serious, can take a peek sometimes? Your work I mean.”
I was awakened by his intention of keeping an eye on me.
“No.”
I shook my head in a hurry. If you keep following me to the palace because you can’t lose interest in me, there won’t be anything more difficult than that.
The anguish was not long before I spat out another humorous thing.
“If you’re so bored, go to Northeast.”
“Northeast…?”
“If you go there…. there may be a place where you can settle and live.”
Five years after Callisto’s reign, the situation in the empire has changed quite a bit.
The neighboring countries were subjugated one by one to the lower regions of the empire, and as the number of people increased, slavery slowly disappeared.
But the Delmans (The people from where Eclise originally lived) who were involved in the rebellion were never freed from slavery.
But it wasn’t so bad.
All the main agents of the rebellion were executed, and the rest of the people were classified as dangerous people, and were sent to their barren homeland.
“What’s there in Northeast Land?”
Eclipse asked with a subtle expression as if my sudden words were surprising.
Under the imapct of being brainwashed, he committed an indelible sin against his fellow countrymen.
But that’s already been five years.
All those who knew about him were dead, and no one remembered the last prince of Delman who had revolted.
“You’ll find out when you go there.”
Because you can’t live with this fun in front of your eyes forever.
“I don’t know the details either. That’s all I can say.”
I didn’t know whether he would go or not after hearing me.
If he’s with people who are similar to him, I think he will be given a chance to live his life properly.
“Keep what I said to you. I hope I won’t see you again.”
“………”
“Take care wherever you are.”
Bye, Eclise.
I was finally able to say a proper goodbye to him, not death or ruin.
It made my feelings out of control.
After looking at him for a while, I turned my back.
It was then.
“Wait.”
He held me back without hesitation.
I frowned.
“I thought you said you had nothing more to say.”
“I fully understand what you mean by stop talking to me. But do you have any scroll left?”
“Scroll?”
There were some shield scrolls left.
‘But why scroll all of a sudden? Are you… trying to rip me off now that you saved me?’
The magic scroll was quite expensive. I asked again with a suspicious look.
“….there’s some left. Why?”
“I’m afraid you won’t make it well today.”
Eclise tucked under a distant canyon.
It was then. Currrrrrr-.
A slight tremor was felt under my feet. I had an ominous premonition.
“What….”
I turned my head in the direction that Ecliss was looking at.
A strange cloud of dust was rising under a distant canyon that was barely visible.
I opened my eyes slightly because I couldn’t see well due to my dark vision.
I could barely see a rock rolling through the dust cloud.
‘It’s like a landslide.’
But it couldn’t have been.
No matter how crazy this world is, I’ve never heard of landslides burning upside down.
Kugung-!
“Uh, ah…!”
In the meantime, the amplitude became shorter and stronger.
By the time Eclise was quickly holding the body that seemed to be falling, knew the identity of the landslide burning the canyon upside down.
“Crazy….”
A pack of stoned snakes.
“Th, that…. What is that?!”
“The smell of that snake’s blood must’ve woken up the family.”
Eclise responded calmly, while looking at the astonished me with my mouth wide open.
I could see why he asked me for scrolls.
Ashamed of my doubts about him earlier, I hurriedly pulled out the remaining clumps of scrolls from my arms and checked them.
‘Five attack magic, three defensive magic…”
The rolled paper was roughly unpacked and checked, there were only eight in total.
I’ve already used them once, and none of them were really practical.
“No moving magic? You’ve only brought some useless stuff.”
As if to speak for me, Eclise who was beside me, talked like he was watching over the river. (?)
“How could I have known that attack magic wouldn’t work!”
“That’s a shame.”
With a look of no regret, he continued to smile and lift his head.
“Good luck, then.”
“….what?”
I was a bit dazed at the sight of Eclise preparing to go with the dagger he had taken out in his arms.
Of course he has no reason to help me here… I couldn’t focus.
“Hey, you’re gonna go just like that?”
‘”Didn’t you just say that I should stop hunting mana?”
“Ha, but….”
“Like you said, there’s a lot of things in Northeast compared to here.”
As I groped and asked, he shrugged and answered.
“Ha.”
Of course, I told him to quit and leave, but I didn’t know that my situation would change so quickly, so I burst out laughing.
“You’re also doing well. I hope you don’t die right away after three years of trouble.”
The guy who said goodbye jumped up a rock quite far away without giving me a chance to catch up.
“Hey! Now, wait.”
But he began to leave without looking back.
“Hey!”
In the middle of the canyon, where a flock of stone snakes are coming, he left me alone.
I could see the silhouette of the man who climbed to the edge of the cliff in a blink of an eye, with a full moon hanging, looking down at me.
But it was also fleeting.
‘Fuck.’
Well, the shadow of the man now was gone.
“Shh, shh, shh.”
“Caaaaaaaa-!”
“Cuwe-e-e-e-e-!”
Horrible stonemakers were just a step ahead of me.
“Come on, let’s think.”
With tears in my eyes, I calmly dug the line. (?)
Once you’ve put all the shields on your belly and attacked the one at the forefront, you step on the head of one of the guys who’s putting the muzzle on the wall to swallow you and leap up.
Then repeat until you climb the cliff.
‘If I go into the woods, I can somehow hide or buy time.’
But the plan, which could only be succeeded by a miracle, failed from the very beginning because of another snake who jumped right through the wall of the next corner.
“Qua-a-ang-ang!”
“Caaaaaaaa-!”
“Aahhhhh!”
I lost my composure and screamed at the head of a wriggling snake right beside me.
It was then.
“Bow down, princess!”
Between the dreary rock-colored mana that wriggling, golden light poured down like a lie.