Seongju – 3

In the castle, there was, of course, a room reserved for me. When I opened my eyes, I was lying there.

“…I somehow slept.” I couldn’t believe it myself. I had gone for more than a year without sleeping. At first, I felt it pointless lying in this bed in an attempt to sleep. But I slept so well that I felt silly. I underwent numerous level-ups and evolution and could even regenerate, so I had no physical need to sleep. My high level of tolerance meant I had no mental need for it either.

But now that I had woken up, the world around me looked and felt much different from before. Even though I knew nothing actually changed in the world around me, perhaps it was my heart that had changed, but I thought that could be a good thing. I decided to get up and change back into my regular equipment. Fumbling about as I stood up, I noticed a pretty black ribbon on my bedside table.

“…” I shared a drink in memoriam with Rain and then headed straight off to bed. In other words, despite knowing that L was waiting for me, I went to sleep. A chill ran through my body as I continued to look down at the ribbon. This was her way of protesting, a sign that if I continued to be late, there was no telling what she might do. The ribbon felt so sinister to me.

I let out a sigh and grabbed the ribbon before I left. If I kept delaying, it wouldn’t only get worse. Better to deal with it now before that happened. I already knew where she was, the top floor of that spire that she helped me place herself. My movements were quick as I glided through the structure; I knew the path to take by heart since I built it. My ability to leap with Ubiquitous had increased considerably too, despite becoming Lv1 again. It felt more natural now, and it was faster and stealthier than before. It really just confirmed to me that I had somehow become a being in this higher-level system.

I arrived quickly at the room L was staying in, entering through the open door. I thought she would be furious with me, but she was currently sitting in a chair and facing away from me.

“Did you see him off?”

“Yes.” She was the one who led me in the game to build this case. She had known who was in the basement of this place better than I did.

“I heard from Rain, your memorial service.”

“It went on longer than I had been planning. I thought my current body could withstand alcohol, but it was pretty strong.”

“Don’t underestimate Rain’s brewing skills.” She laughed lightly, and I let out a sigh of relief that she wasn’t upset as I had thought.

“I think I have more space here.”

“…I’m glad it worked out that way.”

“Yeah.” Silence filled the room, sitting heavy over both of us.

“Fate.” She was the first one to break through it.

“Go ahead and say it.”

“How much did you recover?”

“What?” She still didn’t show her face, but I could see her arms and legs shivering slightly.

“I don’t know. How much you thought of me, what you came to think of me… if you didn’t come to me first… I don’t know.”

“…”

“How long can I wait? How much can I endure? I don’t know any of this… if you don’t speak first… or do you need me anymore? Am I not part of what you’re trying to recover?” It would appear that, after all this time, I was going about things in the wrong order. I thought it would be fine, decades had already passed after all, and there hadn’t been much change in the time since we met again, but that was wrong. Maybe she had finally reached her limit. I had messed up. I should’ve put off the memorial last night, even for a bit, to come to talk to her.

“L.”

“…” She kept quiet. I wondered if she was blaming herself for making a mistake by saying those things now. I closed the distance between us, stopping right behind her. She flinched as she could feel my presence approaching her. Even though we were so close together now, I didn’t feel the intense pressure that I had when I faced off against her in the Garden of Nak. I suppose it made sense; she now had her soul contained in a body. It was easier to face off against that than confront her very power of existence.

“I don’t know either. What I did before, why I’m like this now, or what I should do from now on. Or about you, L…”

“Okay…” Her answer was bitter. Hearing that, I couldn’t help myself but move around to face her head-on. She stood up, her expression one of amazement at my audacity. She was beautiful, just as she had been in the garden. I had reached a point where my body and soul were almost one and the same, but she was beyond that. A beauty that I thought couldn’t exist in the world, her body and soul one and the same.

“You have no manners.” She tried to hurriedly cover her face, but I could still see the marks where the tears ran down her face. She hadn’t changed at all since when I first met her. I couldn’t understand her feelings then and had been trying to block out my own. So far, that was working fine, but not now. I didn’t want to do that anymore. I took a step closer to her and drew her into my arms. It didn’t matter how much control she had over his power; direct contact with her would be undoubtedly dangerous. I raised my defenses and prepared for it, trying my best to maintain hold of my sense of reason.

“I’m sure now that I’m the person that you remember, though I’m still working through my old memories.”

“…”

“But I’ll get it all back. You’re not the only one who wants that.”

“…” I felt like I was successful in saying what I truly felt, and I felt glad that I could say it out loud before it was too late. I tried to pull back, but she shook her head and wrapped her arms around my chest.

“Twelve more hours.”

“That’s too long!”

“Then, twenty-four more hours.”

“…”

I was barely able to get her to release me, but finally, she let me go. Leaving the spire, I found Rain outside watering the garden. He laughed heartily as soon as he saw me.

“Have a hard time?”

“I told you it’d be fine yesterday.”

“I thought it would be good for you to see her. Her heart is open to you, although I wonder if you were able to see your own heart.”

“Yeah…” I laughed a bit bitterly at his words.

“Many people fall for her appearance or her strength, but you, Fate, are the only one for her.”

“It’s a heavy burden to bear.”“Do you not need it?”

“No, I’m going to take everything.” My smile was bloody. I already decided to do this when I evolved into a Belkena. Maybe there was a way I could live without a care for the past, but that’s not what I wanted. I wanted to take everything I didn’t know about myself back. If I wanted to abandon the past, that was something I could consider after I regained it in the first place. There was no point in throwing away something I knew little about.

“What clear eyes. I have no need to worry about your future.” He muttered this as he pulled something out of his pockets—a dark red muffler.

“Instead of Pure Blood’s Loyalty, I think a better name would be Fighting Spirit.”

“It’s a completely different item now.” I accepted it, the notification window immediately popping up in front of me.

[Jinma’s Fighting Spirit (1,070/1,070) – Defense 380. Legendary Rarity. It allows you to use your abilities beyond your limits, at the cost of the power of life.]

It was the first legendary item I had seen, aside from maybe that black sword currently slumbering in my inventory. It was at least the first one I could handle by myself. An artifact that would allow me to use my abilities beyond my limits. The more I grew, the more useful it would become. The fact that it also could never truly deplete my life force either meant that this artifact was a true treasure.

The thought of fighting with it still sickened me, however.

“I have erased all traces of the elves in this item, so don’t worry.”

“Thank you. Oh, one more thing.” I wrapped the muffler around my neck and pulled one more item from my inventory—the crystal artifact I acquired from the chest on the 7th floor, the Goddess’ Touch. From the moment I showed it to him, Rain had an expression of surprise plastered on his face.

“This may be difficult to analyze with my abilities.”

“Something even you can’t check out?”

“Haha, I’m by no means a god. There are many things that are impossible for me.” With those slightly bitter words, he accepted the crystal to examine.

“It doesn’t appear to be harmful, and it will accept mana that you inject into it. Would you like to try it?” I attempted it right away, the crystal greedily sucking up my mana. A pause, nothing happened. Then, as if it were waiting for it, the crystal gradually blackened as more mana poured into it. I could feel it hitting a limit, not much mana at all before it stopped. The crystal shimmered into the air, vanishing. I could still feel it in my hand, but as far as my eyes and my detection skill were concerned, it wasn’t there. It recognized its owner through blood and then activated by devouring mana.

“It doesn’t appear to have fully activated.”

Only

“That just means I’ll have to grow stronger.” I let out a sigh and shrugged.

“Time for another drink?”

“Yes, but perhaps not after you just met with L.”

“That would be stupid, I suppose.”

“You’re a good man, Fate.” We laughed briefly, bantering with each other.

“What are you planning from now on? This castle was built for a purpose, and I would like to tell you more about it and the world. But it isn’t urgent.”

“I would be grateful if you did, but maybe another time.” I took in a deep breath, readying myself.

“Now, it’s time for me to go back out into society.”