Chapter 377: The Place Called Sanctuary (2)
2.
-You. Why do you keep forgetting your memories?
Lefanta Aegim turned his head towards the direction the voice came from. A woman was staring intently at him, resting her chin on her hand.
Was her name Ivansia?
-To avoid change.
-To avoid change…?
-Have you ever seen someone who has resolved to live for over a thousand years?
Lefanta Aegim opened his notebook and read the records about the woman. There weren't many lines.
「Originally a maid tending to a garden, she was ennobled above the aristocracy.」 𝘧𝓇𝘦𝘦𝔀ℯ𝘣𝓃𝓸𝓿ℯ𝘭.𝑐𝓸𝓂
「She likes my face.」
「She gave birth to my child.」
His gaze lingered on the last line for a moment. Child.
Even now, the woman had a newborn baby on her lap. The baby reached out its arms saying "Ah," and the woman teased the baby with her finger.
-No. A hero like you is rare.
-To live a thousand years, one needs a special resolve. Everything changes. A portrait painted to remember someone fades, and a sword intended to kill someone rusts. A thousand years is enough time for things you want to preserve or destroy to change.
That was a passage Lefanta Aegim had written in his notebook. Whenever he lost his memories, Lefanta Aegim read this passage. And each time he read it, he nodded slowly in agreement.
-I am weak.
-....
-I don't have the confidence to endure for a thousand years. There's no basis to believe I could endure it. That's why I discard time. Once you discard a thousand years, it's merely a moment. If you fear betrayal, then just eliminate the time when betrayal can occur.
The wind blew. The spring was mixed into the wind.
The spring wind differed from the winter wind as it was a bit more humid, and that humidity felt softly at the tip of the nose. On the woman's lap, the baby waved its hands around, trying to catch the wind.
Time melting away.
-That is my way.
-That's…
-You must think I'm foolish.
The woman opened her mouth to speak. No, she tried to. Lefanta Aegim stood up, thereby pushing away the woman's impending intrusion into his time.
-Change is a human privilege. I wanted to remain human by having a child and leaving a lineage, but at the same time, I discarded my memories to avoid changing forever. I sought to remain human while simultaneously refusing to be one. Truly an oxymoron.
The woman opened her mouth again. But Lefanta Aegim turned his back faster.
-But it doesn't matter.
-....
Though Lefanta Aegim couldn't see because he had turned his back, the woman shivered for a moment. From the tone of his muttering "But it doesn't matter," she felt the presence of something very unfamiliar for the first time.
-After all, everyone deceives themselves into thinking they are human. As long as such people live in this world, I will always be more human than they are.
The woman didn't know, nor could Lefanta Aegim himself know, that this was the last lingering impression left by the being named Kim Yul.
The woman barely opened her lips as she watched Lefanta Aegim's back getting further away.
-Are you leaving? Just like this?
-Yes. Wasn't it the agreement to stay only until the baby could walk?
-Why won't you allow anyone to stay by your side?
-Because it's not necessary.
Lefanta Aegim glanced back slightly.
-Perhaps there was a time when I too needed someone else. If that were the case, I can only answer you like this. It's too late.
-....
-I know that you used me to become a noble. That too doesn't matter. However, as much as possible, use your power for whom it's not too late yet.
That remains as it is, becoming the family motto of the Ivansia dukedom.
There was no way the woman harbored any love or compassion for the citizens of the empire. She merely found a way to satisfy both her taste and her thirst for power. But still, why did Lefanta Aegim's words remain as a family motto?
-I discard all memories of Ivansia.
With those words, Lefanta Aegim walked out of the garden.
-Transfer.
The wind blew.
In the place where spring had arrived, he no longer existed.
3.
"I discard the memories of the past 29 days."
A flash of pure white light suddenly rushed to pierce through my body.
I raised the holy sword to counterattack. While countering, I wondered where the slaughter puppetshad gathered memories worth 29 days. Even if one had fought with the Sword Saint, where had the other 12 been?
They must have been here. In this junkyard. Simply wasting time meant to be discarded.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Black Dragon Master shouted just as the flash emitted by Constellation Killer and my blade were about to collide, her mirrors intervened and blocked the path between us.
"If you want to kill Kim Gong-ja, you have to get my permission first! He's an expensive bastard!"
Pa-chang, clang, chyaaang!
Three mirrors shattered as they intercepted the flash. But starting from the fourth mirror, the flash was slantedly reflected. The fifth, sixth, each reflection caused the flash to bend more sharply—finally, it rushed back towards Constellation Killer.
"...!"
Although the strike was infinitely weaker than when Constellation Killer had launched it, but there was no way to avoid raising a sword to block it. Taking advantage of the moment when Constellation Killer was forced to block his own attack, I plunged towards him without hesitation.
"If it had been a year's worth of memories, we might have been defeated."
The slaughter pupeet couldn't block the combined attack of Anastasia and me. The holy sword sliced across the pupeet's shoulder.
13:9.
The difference in numbers between allies and enemies widened once more.
"But you couldn't bear even a month's time."
Kim Yul and Uburka, leading a separate unit, actively used the numerical advantage. They helped the Crusader who was struggling to endure the fight. When any slaughter pupeet tried to discard time, Kim Yul and Uburka coordinated their efforts to confront it.
"Because if you live longer than a month, that's when life begins."
Bursts of sound erupted all around.
"To face an unknown formidable enemy like me, you needed to gather as much time as possible. But the longer you lived, the more memories you retained, the more anxious you became."
I immediately dashed towards the next slaughter pupeet. The slaughter pupeet did not just let me charge; it unleashed a flash that burst like a meteor shower.
I sought out the tiny gaps and took steps. As I veered left, the meteors skewed to the left side. Koo-woong! The flash exploded, shredding the trash in its path.
A crushed PET bottle soared into the air.
A snack bagwas torn to shreds and scattered into fragments.
Navigating through the trash that could no longer hold or confine anything, I reached right in front of the slaughter pupeet.
"Fearing you might not want to discard anymore."
"I discard the memories…."
"I have a pretty good idea how you ended up being 13 puppets."
The pupeet tried to discard its memories, but this time my sword was slightly faster. The situation was different from yesterday, no, from when I was ambushed tomorrow. There were no puppets clinging to my limbs, and instead, my comrades were plentiful around me.
13:8.
"You are a hunter who has cleared up to the 90th floor. But to climb to the 90th floor, you also have to clear the heaven floors starting from the 80th floor."
I turned to search for the next prey.
"To break through the heavenly floors, you need a judge. You need someone else to become your follower. But you not only refuse to have followers, you initially reject the very idea of others being involved with you."
Flash,
A red beam of light soared up from a distance. The crimson beam, resembling spilt blood, pierced through the graveyard of trash and split the sky at dusk. I glanced over and saw Estelle, breathing heavily while gripping the hilt of her sword.
A slaughter pupeet collapsed in front of Estelle with a thud.
13:7.
"That's why you needed puppets."
Ahahaha!
The laughter of the Heretic Questioner echoed through the junkyard. His laughter, unlike any trash there, was so cheerful it was almost eerie.
The Heretic Questioner manipulated his fingers and formed a mystic sign. A storm brewed as six kinds of divine miracles overlapped. Black Dragon Master, wrapped in these miracles, pierced through the chest of a slaughter pupeet with her right hand.
13:6.
"You must have relied on puppets every time you ascended to heaven. No, you had no choice but to depend on puppets. You not only distrust others, but you also find it dreadful even for others to trust you. Only the existence of puppetscould you barely tolerate."
Uryaaah! Chachacha!
Venomous Snake's Qi surged courageously. One of the Four Demon Lords grabbed a pupeet while Venomous Snake seized the opportunity to thrust. Infused with a pinch of happiness that humans, people, could savor in life, the Master of Chen Mu-mun slashed his sword.
13:5.
"You want to remain human until the end,"
13:4.
"But you never trust people."
13:3.
"You don't believe that any two people are connected. That's why I said it. If I were alone, you would have won."
13:2.
"I don't think you are wrong. It's those damned bastards who are. It's the incessant wandering fools and the brute beasts of this world. But still."
13:1.
"Don't think everyone is just like you."
I pointed my sword.
"Don't think only your blood is blood, Constellation Killer."
The last remaining Constellation Killer knelt, his chin lifted by the tip of my sword.
"I, too, have obtained what I am now by shedding my own blood."
"...."
The plastic PET bottle under Constellation Killer's knee crunched, creating a sound as it deformed. He was gasping for breath, looking up at me. And at my comrades standing behind me.
"...The Constellation."
A thin voice leaked from Constellation Killer's lungs.
"The Constellation merely strengthens those who already have power."
Everyone present could understand.
That Constellation Killer was beginning to leave his last words.
Perhaps it was a warning or maybe even a curse, as fragments of words dripped from his blood-stained lips.
"Only those who have something left to sacrifice borrow power from the Constellation. Whether it be money, secrets, connections, or souls. Those who still have something left, ultimately, are enveloped in the starlight of the Constellation and continue their lives."
Constellation Killer's voice was not desperate. His expression was not earnest. It was merely setting like the sunset that clung to the junkyard.
Gradually losing the color of blood.
"...There are people who don't even have anything left to give. There are those who add day to day in a world where, whether they speak up or hold their breath, no reply comes back. Only you,"
Only you all.
"Being enveloped and living by the constellations."
Why.
"It is an insult to those who can't even enjoy that."
Constellation Killer looked up at me expressionlessly.
"If not everyone can reach heaven, at the very least everyone should start from hell."
"...."
"You must think I am foolish. But it doesn't mat..."
"No."
The person who replied "No" wasn't me.
A man identical to Constellation Killer grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back, then walked up to Constellation Killer.
Kim Yul looked down at Constellation Killer.
"Kim Gong-ja does not think you are foolish. He believes he has no right to think so. It is I who think you are foolish."
"And at the same time, it is you as well."
Constellation Killer twitched his lips.
There was no way to guess what he realized upon seeing Kim Yul right in front of him. Constellation Killer had no way to understand why there was a human who looked exactly like him here, if that human really was exactly like him, and if so, why he was hostile towards him.
Thus, Constellation Killer's retort was more instinctual than logical.
"Aren't you afraid?"
Constellation Killer simply asked.
He looked up at my face and Kim Yul's face alternately, asking in an infinitely small voice.
"What are you trying to do. You."
"What exactly are you trying to do."
It took a while before Kim Yul nodded.
"...I am afraid."
And he lifted his sword.
"But, it doesn't matter."
The sunset was severed.
As the blade traversed the setting sun, it cut a life slightly redder than the sunset.
[Constellation Killer is annihilated.]
That was the finale of the most feared hunter among the Constellations.