Chapter 377: The Place Called a Sanctuary (2)
-Why do you keep erasing your memories?
Leafanta Aegim turned his head toward the source of the voice. A woman was looking at him intently, her chin propped on her hand.
Her name was Ivansia, wasn’t it?
-To prevent change.
-To prevent change…?
-Have you ever seen someone who resolved to live for over a thousand years?
Leafanta Aegim flipped through his notebook to read about the woman. There wasn’t much written.
「Originally a maid tending to a garden, she was elevated above the nobility.」
「She likes my face.」
「She bore my child.」
Leafanta Aegim’s gaze lingered on the last line for a moment. A child.
Even now, the woman had a newborn baby on her lap. The baby reached out with a “Ah,” and the woman teased it with a finger.
-No. A hero like you is rare.
-Special determination is needed to live a thousand years. Everything changes. Portraits drawn to remember someone fade, and swords forged to kill someone rust. A thousand years is enough time for everything you wished to preserve or destroy to change.
That was a passage Leafanta Aegim had written in his notebook. Every time he lost his memories, he would read this passage. And each time, he would slowly nod and accept it.
-I am weak.
-……
-I don’t have the confidence to endure a thousand years. There’s no basis for me to believe I could. So, I discard time. Even a thousand years become merely a moment once discarded. If the fear of betrayal looms, simply eliminate the very time in which betrayal could occur.
The wind blew, carrying the scent of spring.
Spring wind differed from winter’s, being slightly more humid, and that moisture wrapped softly around the tip of the nose. On the woman’s lap, the baby waved its hands, trying to catch the wind.
Time dissolved away.
-That’s my way.
-That’s…
-You must think of me as a fool.
The woman opened her mouth. No, she attempted to. By standing up, Leafanta Aegim brushed aside the woman’s attempt to intrude on his time.
-Change is the privilege of humans. While I desired to remain human by having a child and leaving a lineage, I also wanted to never change by discarding memories. I sought to be human yet refused to be human. A contradiction indeed.
The woman opened her mouth again, but Leafanta Aegim turned his back even quicker.
-But it doesn’t matter.
-……
Leafanta Aegim couldn’t see it as he had turned away, but at that moment, the woman trembled slightly for an instant. From the tone in which he muttered, ‘But it doesn’t matter,’ the woman felt something entirely unfamiliar for the first time.
-After all, everyone lies about being 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 Leafanta Aegim himself know, that this was akin to the last vestige left by an entity named Kim Yul.
Watching Leafanta Aegim’s receding back, the woman barely managed to open her lips.
-Are you leaving like this?
-Yes. Wasn’t the promise to stay until the baby could walk?
-Why won’t you allow anyone to stay by your side?
-Because I don’t need them.
Leafanta Aegim glanced back briefly.
-Maybe there was a time when I needed someone else. If that were the case, I can only say this to you— it’s too late.
-……
-I know you used me to become a noble. That doesn’t matter either. Just make sure you use your power for those who are still not too late.
That became the lasting motto of the Ivansia Duchy.
It was unthinkable for the woman to have any love or compassion for the empire’s citizens. She merely found a way to satisfy both her tastes and her lust for power. Yet, why did Leafanta Aegim’s words remain as a motto?
-I will erase all memories of Ivansia.
With those words, Leafanta Aegim walked out of the garden.
-Transfer.
The wind blew.
Where spring had arrived, he was no longer there.
“I abandon the memories of the past 29 days.”
A flash of pure white light attempted to pierce through me in an instant.
I countered with my holy sword. While countering, I wondered where the puppet bodies had gathered 29 days’ worth of memories. One might have fought with the Sword Saint, but where were the other 12?
They must have been here. In this junkyard. Wasting time meant only for discarding.
“Over here!”
The Black Dragon Witch shouted. Just before the flash emitted by the Constellation Killer and my sword were about to collide, the Black Dragon Witch’s mirrors intervened, blocking between us.
“If you want to kill Kim Gong-Ja, you need my permission first! He’s a pricey one!”
Crash, clang, shatter!
Three mirrors shattered upon receiving the flash. However, from the fourth mirror onwards, the flash was obliquely reflected. By the fifth, sixth, the flash was increasingly deflected with each reflection— finally, it turned back towards the Constellation Killer.
“….!”
The strike, though immensely weakened compared to when the Constellation Killer had launched it, was still not something to ignore with a sword. Seizing the moment when the Constellation Killer had to block his own attack, I plunged towards him without hesitation.
“If you had gathered memories for a year instead of a month, we might have been defeated.”
The puppet couldn’t withstand the combined attack of Anastasia and me. The holy sword slashed across the puppet’s shoulder.
13:9.
The difference in numbers between us and the enemy widened again.
“But you couldn’t bear to spend even a month, could you?”
Kim Yul and Uburka, leading a separate unit, actively utilized the advantage in numbers. They aided the Paladin who was struggling in battle. Whenever any of the puppets attempted to discard time, Kim Yul and Uburka jointly confronted them.
“Because life starts after more than a month.”
Explosions sounded from all directions.
“The longer you live, the more you need to gather as much time as possible to face an unknown formidable enemy like me. But the longer you live, the more the time you don’t erase accumulates, and the more anxious you become.”
I rushed towards the next puppet. The puppet didn’t just stand there as I charged. Boom! The puppet’s flash exploded like a meteor shower.
I stepped into a small gap that opened. As I veered left, the meteor shower skewed leftward.
Boom!
Where the flashes landed, trash was torn apart.
A PET bottle with its waist crushed soared into the air.
Snack bags were ripped into fragments, fluttering around.
Piercing through the trash, which could no longer hold or confine anything, I reached right in front of the puppet.
“Because you didn’t want to risk not wanting to discard.”
“The memories of the past 29 days….”
“I have a rough idea why you ended up as 13 puppets.”
The puppet attempted to erase its memories, but this time my sword was slightly faster. Unlike when I was ambushed yesterday, or rather, tomorrow, there were no puppets clinging to my limbs; instead, my companions stood all around.
13:8.
“You are a hunter who cleared up to the 90th floor, but to ascend to the 90th floor, you had to break through the heavens starting from the 80th.”
I turned to search for my next prey.
“To break through the heavens, you need a judge. You need others to become your followers. But not only do you refuse to have followers, but you also outright reject the notion of others being connected to you.”
Flash…
A red beam surged a short distance away. The crimson beam, resembling a spurt of blood, pierced through the mounds of trash and split the setting sky. Glancing over for a moment, I saw Ester breathing heavily, gripping the sword hilt tightly.
In front of Ester, a puppet fell limp.
13:7.
“That’s why you needed puppets.”
Ahahahat!
The Heretic Inquisitor’s laughter echoed through the junkyard. His laughter, unlike any trash, was so cheerful that it seemed rather eerie.
The Heretic Inquisitor formed signs with his fingers, and six types of divine miracles combined into a storm. Wrapped in miracles, the Black Dragon Witch pierced the heart of a puppet with her right hand.
13:6.
“You must have relied on puppets every time you ascended through the heavens. No, you had no choice but to rely on puppets. Not only do you not trust others, but you also dread the thought of others trusting you. Only the existence of puppets was something you could barely tolerate.”
Oohraaaa! Chachachach!
Viper’s spirited shout filled the air. The Four Demon Lords caught a puppet, and Viper dove into the gap. Carrying a small bit of happiness that humans, as people, could enjoy in their daily lives, the master of Celestial Martial Clan struck down with his sword.
13:5.
“You always want to remain human until the end,”
13:4.
“But you never trust anyone.”
13:3.
“You don’t believe in the connection between any two people. That’s why I said it. If I had been alone, you would have won.”
13:2.
“I don’t think you’re wrong. The ones at fault would be those damn bastards. The aimless wanderers and beasts that incessantly roam this world. But…”
13:1.
“Don’t think everyone is just like you.”
I aimed my sword.
“Don’t think only your blood is blood, Constellation Killer.”
The last remaining Constellation Killer knelt, his chin raised by the tip of my sword.
“I, too, have earned my current self through shedding my own blood.”
“…….”
The plastic bottle crushed under the Constellation Killer’s knee made a wheezing sound as they crumpled. He gasped for breath, looking up at me. Then, my companions standing behind me.
“……Constellations.”
A thin voice leaked from the Constellation Killer’s lungs.
“They already empower the strong, making them stronger.”
Everyone present knew.
The Constellation Killer was starting to leave his last words.
Perhaps it was a warning, or maybe a curse, fragments of words spilled from his bloodstained lips.
“Only those who have something left to offer turn to Constellations for power. Be it money, secrets, connections, or souls. Those who still have something, in the end, continue their lives enveloped in the starlight of Constellations.”
There was no desperation in the Constellation Killer’s voice. His expression was not earnest. It was merely fading away, like the sunset lingering in the junkyard.
Losing its blood-red color bit by bit.
“……There are those who have nothing left to give. Those who add day to day in a world where no response comes, whether they raise their voices or hold their breath. For them alone…”
Only for them.
“It’s an insult to live enveloped by Constellations.”
Why?
The Constellation Killer looked up at me expressionlessly.
“If everyone can not reach heaven, then at least everyone should start from hell.”
“…….”
“You must think I’m foolish. But it doesn’t matt……”
“No.”
It wasn’t me who answered “No.”
A man, identical to the Constellation Killer, pushed me back by the shoulder and stepped forward to face the Constellation Killer.
Kim Yul looked down at the Constellation Killer.
“Kim Gong-Ja doesn’t consider you foolish. He thinks he has no right to do so. I’m the one who considers you foolish.”
“And at the same time, it’s also you.”
The Constellation Killer’s lips twitched.
What he realized from seeing Kim Yul, identical to himself was beyond conjecture. The Constellation Killer had no way of knowing why a human identical to him was here, whether he truly was the same person, and if so, why he was hostile.
Therefore, the Constellation Killer’s counter-question was more instinctual than logical.
“Aren’t you afraid?”
The Constellation Killer simply asked.
He looked up alternately at my face and Kim Yul’s, asking in an infinitely small voice.
“What are you trying to do? You…”
“What exactly?”
It was only after a long while that Kim Yul nodded.
“……I’m scared.”
And he raised his sword.
“But… it doesn’t matter.”
The sunset was cut.
The sword sliced across the sunset, severing a life slightly redder than the evening glow.
[The Constellation Killer has been extinguished.]
That marked the end of the hunter once most feared among the stars.
