‘That’s why I told you to leave.’
The inability to cut off attachments as sharply as a blade was the same for him.
Amidst all of this, Larry looked down at Irene, thinking countless thoughts.
He secretly imagined hypotheses and accurately predicted the outcomes. That was why he had no choice but to resign himself.
"To be honest, I was planning to steal this body and run away with you — regardless of whether the world ended or not. That’s why I came all this way."
Larry laid bare the impulse that had haunted him, a bitter smile twisting his lips.
“I want you to believe I died because of you. So that every time you think of me, your heart aches — forever.”
Irene's mouth fell open at those words, and she unknowingly muttered to herself.
“You damn devil...”
"Now do you get it?"
After receiving such a cursed farewell, the devil drew a satisfied smile at the corner of his mouth.
It was as if he was determined to make her forever regret the words she spoke with her own mouth — that she would never forget.
"Looking back, it feels like I’ve been living all this time just to die, Irene."
“...”
“Just as you said.”
No matter how much one regretted it, once words were spoken, they could never be taken back.
They said a star shone the brightest and most beautifully just before it vanished — perhaps that was what she meant when she told him to live and die that way.
He knew Irene didn’t say those words thoughtlessly.
She would have been fully aware of how cruel the position of being loved could become — how deeply a single word could slash and trample someone's heart.
She knew it, and still, she said it.
So that he would hurt.
So that he would destroy himself.
“I’ll burn myself for you — so please, walk over the shattered remains of me, broken like stardust. Let them pierce your skin and sting, just enough to make you feel it.”
So this was what it felt like to get it back in return.
Larry said he would shine like a star soon to vanish, just so she could feel the pain.
Her heart, which held nothing but grudging affection for him, stung at how full of malice his words were.
Surely, this way, she’d never be able to forget.
She gave an ounce, and he returned it by the pound.
"Ha..."
Irene’s face twisted as if she were about to cry, but she clenched her teeth and held it back.
Larry was giving her only two extreme choices and telling her to decide: either he dies, or Felix dies.
If she didn’t abandon him, he’d take her for himself. Beyond that, it seemed like no other words would get through.
“It's all because you're too kind.”
Larry said this as he drew back an invisible bowstring in the air and released an arrow.
Instantly, the smoke that had been thickening like a spreading fire cleared away all at once.
Larry lightly but firmly pushed Irene’s shoulder.
She wobbled for a moment, struggling to keep her balance, then turned and ran off.
Unfortunately, he didn’t even have the luxury of watching her escape safely.
・・・・・
“Well, well...”
There was no room to intervene. Benjamin muttered to himself as he followed behind Nivas at a leisurely pace.
"To willingly sacrifice oneself and be remembered forever... I really don’t understand what that even means."
Having completed his deal with the devil, he used his illusion ability to roughly eavesdrop on the conversation between Larry and Irene.
Watching it was interesting, but at the same time, it was utterly ridiculous beyond words.
"With that overflowing spirit of sacrifice, for a moment I thought it was the young Lord Chamberlain. But there’s no way that guy would act like that toward Irene."
Benjamin had seen Larry use demonic powers. So, there was no doubt — Larry had to be a devil.
“You must be a fragment of Leraze. Come to think of it, Leraze is a devil who also governs love.”
He had long recognised Irene Amber’s extraordinary nature, but never imagined she could even lure a devil.
A devil ruling over love?
Maybe it was because the one inside Felix Chamberlain’s body was only a fragment.
Somehow, it felt more human than his own emotions, giving him a strange feeling.
Benjamin, who had always thought devils were all like himself, now wore the expression of shattered illusions.
They used to say that in the land of the one-eyed, those with two eyes were seen as monsters.
Having spent his whole life treated like one by those fools, Benjamin had believed that hell, at the very least, would be filled with others like him — rational, normal people with two eyes.
Honestly, he was disappointed. His childhood fantasy had been utterly crushed.
"What’s wrong? Did your childhood innocence just get shattered?"
When Larry sneered and asked a question, Benjamin threw the cigarette he had been holding to the ground.
"Of course."
He slowly ground it underfoot as he replied.
“How on earth do you plan to repay this?”
"Like I care."
"If you want, I’ll give you the chance — why not go ahead and devour the original owner of that body right now?"
“Is this one a devil or a human?”
The contracted devil himself stayed still, yet it was the human who tested him like a devil.
Larry wore a bewildered look, thinking he'd seen everything life had to offer — yet this was something else entirely.
He couldn’t begin to fathom how a contract had been made with Nivas; it was truly baffling.
"Guess you didn’t hear the conversation from the beginning, huh? I’m just a shattered fragment — a failure. Hell’s overflowing with beings like you, so rest easy."
He might call himself a failure, but a devil was still a devil.
Even as Larry said this, he kept a close eye on Nivas, trying to size up his strength.
But the distorted energy from the hallucination made it nearly impossible to get a proper read.
“It’s been a while. You’ve grown a lot, huh?”
He said it with a crooked smile tugging at his lips.
[...]
Larry thought the jester would burst out laughing and mock him as soon as they met again, but oddly, the jester’s reaction was quieter than he expected.
[Indeed, that's right.]
After a brief silence, Nivas responded.
・・・・・
‘Do you think anyone would just let you die?’
The saying, "Even if the sky falls, there’s always a way out," came to mind.
But no matter what, the sky just kept collapsing, and I couldn’t see any hole to escape through.
Still, I kept running, coughing harshly.
Slowly, a thick white mist started to rise around me, blocking my vision.
‘What the heck is this...?’
Nivas was clearly facing off against Larry. But was his power really reaching all the way here while fighting Larry at the same time?
I froze in shock for a moment.
Spinning around quickly, I saw nothing. I reached toward the wall just in case, but there was nothing to feel either.
It was like I was trapped in an endless fog where I couldn’t see even a single step ahead.
"Ah, damn it."
I fixed my gaze straight ahead to keep my sense of direction.
With nothing visible but fog, I started doubting whether I was facing forward or backward.
After gritting my teeth for a moment, I just kept moving forward blindly, not knowing where I was heading.
If this had been a physical attack, at least I could dodge or take the hit and be done with it.
But hallucinations? They were far more vicious.
Wandering without knowing where this path led — or even if it had an end — felt like a torture of hope itself.
Still, I ran with all my strength, not even knowing what I was running toward. Because that was all I had left to do.
No matter how hard one tried, there was always a moment when one faced a wall that effort alone couldn’t overcome.
If this world were one where everything could be solved by trying harder, then words like unfairness and inequality wouldn’t even exist.
For the first time in a long while, I recalled the ‘original novel.’
I had long dismissed it, thinking it no longer mattered since the story had already ended.
But maybe <The Flowers Blooming on Withered Branches> was the absolute law that governed this world.
Perhaps now I was paying the price for twisting it recklessly, without rhyme or reason.
No matter how much I struggled, maybe I was never truly able to escape the confines of the original story.
A book was just a book.
If its beginning and end were fixed and unchangeable, no matter the path it took, then perhaps, in the end, it had always been inevitable for everyone to end up unhappy — just the cruel design of the 'dark fiction' genre.
Unanswerable worries, invisible and endless, trailed one after another in an unbroken chain.
"Got you."
It was then.
An arm suddenly reached out from behind and yanked me back by the waist as I stumbled forward.
I trembled, lifting my head with half-closed eyes.
As I had been warned countless times, air corrupted by deceit was deadly to living beings.
My breath rose to my throat, and the lack of oxygen left dark patches flickering before my eyes.
Dizziness made my head reel, and I thought the blinking blackness looked like insects crawling across my vision.
And sure enough, through a narrow slit of sight, I saw Benjamin’s face.
"Bug..."
"There’s a bug in front of my eyes," I mumbled, my eyes half-open.
"...You seem a bit out of it, so I’ll let it slide this time."
Now that he had me completely in his grasp, Benjamin muttered something as he dragged me roughly through the gaps in the smoke.
The part of my body touching Benjamin felt more repulsive than the demon-contaminated air.
It was so disgusting that I nearly gagged.
I was gasping for breath as if I was about to faint, but I struggled desperately.
When he easily subdued me with one hand, I bit down hard on his forearm.
At the same time, he slapped me across the cheek.
“I enjoy the thrill of the hunt, but I’m merciless with captured prey. There’s only so much mercy I can show, even if it’s cute.”
With a sharp crack, my head snapped around.
Maybe it was the pain, but my mind suddenly sharpened.
It was probably temporary, but the blurry, almost fainting vision cleared in an instant.
"Once we reach the mansion, I'll break your legs. There will be no mercy, but I can at least give you some medicine."
Benjamin spoke as if he were doing me a favour, then suddenly hoisted me up despite my struggling.
I clung desperately to a fragile hope of escape, but the world only seemed to sneer at me, throwing even harsher trials in my path.
It kept pushing me deeper and deeper into an endless pit of despair.
More suffocating than the breath catching in my throat was the tightness in my chest.
It was utterly stifling — like I was a lost child again, completely directionless.
I hadn’t felt this way since I was little.
However.
‘...It’s not like nothing has changed.’
The process was different, so there was no way the outcome could be the same.
Even if everything ended in disaster, it would still be different.
Because now, each of us carried a light that shone so brilliantly. Even if it was trampled down, that light would never go out.
No matter how much the original story or the God of misfortune tried, they never could snuff it out — just like Benjamin couldn’t break any of us.
And even if we failed, as long as we tried, there would be no regrets left behind.
I stared hard, beyond Benjamin’s back.
Through the fog, I saw it — a shimmering, oval-shaped hole flickering in the mist.
‘I was lamenting that there was no way out and then an actual way out appeared…’
Benjamin moved ahead, and somehow it just trailed right behind him.
He didn’t seem to notice at all.
Watching it closely, I poked my finger into a hole that looked like it was filled with thick, black ink.
My finger slipped through easily — no pain, no strange feeling — but when I pulled it back, it was stained pitch black.
I couldn’t see anything beyond the hole or guess what was inside.
‘The devil led me here from the start.’
So, could the other side lead to the demon realm?
Or maybe it was the abyss — the devil’s tomb?
Maybe it was a clever trap, set to force me into fulfilling its contract with Benjamin.
I couldn’t tell if this was a helping hand or a snare, but one thing was clear.
‘If it wanted to kill me, I’d be dead by now. It definitely has something it wants to tell me.’
Having come this far, I had no choice but to risk everything to trust this suspicious devil.
If we were to meet again in the afterlife, could I honestly smile and say, “Sorry for hurting you… you ended up dying,” and just laugh it off?
After a brief hesitation, I pushed Benjamin aside and jumped in, resolved to burn my soul so completely that not even ashes would remain.
Translator's Corner:
Thanks for your patience, everyone!! I'm going to try and focus on finishing translating this novel this month, so stay tuned~
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