‘Ask Hu about that,’ the black figure replied. ‘To be precise, I don’t know much about Hu either. Probably no one knows except himself.’
‘No one ans… the darkness?’
‘And Russell.’
The black figure ntioned Russell and stood up.
Why ntion Teacher?
‘Well, it’s ti. I hope you’ll co again soon,’ the black figure said, waving his hand.
* * *
Pitter-patter.
Rain poured down.
Was this when he was Lee Haram?
Thud!
Sothing struck his head, and the items in his open crossbody bag tumbled out.
Not knowing where the umbrella he was holding had gone, he saw more of his blood dripping as the surroundings spun.
As his body soaked in the rain, he shivered.
“Lucion? Lucion…!”
No, that’s not right.
Right now, he is Lee Haram.
“Y-you idiot! Why couldn’t you dodge that? You should have! I taught you swordsmanship!”
The upset voice was very familiar.
Ah.
It’s the teacher
It’s really him.
But when did he teach ?
“Wait a second. Just wait for a mont.”
Russell hurriedly walked over, picked up the fallen umbrella, and held it over Lucion.
The rain that fell on his head stopped, but Lucion’s trembling body didn’t look good.
“What is this?”
What do you an?
“I thought we could at least talk.”
That’s true.
“Is this how you were dead? This… lonely way of dying?”
I guess so.
“You fool… How can you not change at all? Why doesn’t your foolishness change?”
It was rather hurtful to hear, but strangely, he felt like laughing right away.
“Look at , Lucion.”
Russell squatted down, reaching out a hand to himself in the rain.
“I am Russell. Russell Paul.”
Russell introduced himself again.
But Lucion already knows.
“I have been your teacher all this ti.”
He already knows that.
“I have been the person who saved you several tis, dozens of tis.”
What is he saying right now?
Lucion wanted to speak, but his voice wouldn’t co out.
“And I am the one who will save you in the future.”
Russell smiled brightly.
Previously, his appearance had been blurry, but now Lucion recognized the strange patterns etched on his face.
Those were curses.
His whole body was covered in curses.
Teacher.
What on earth…?
What have you done?
* * *
Lucion slowly opened his eyes.
This wasn’t just a dream.
He had t Russell in the past.
He had heard those words from him.
Lucion carefully got up, making sure not to wake Ratta.
“I am Russell. Russell Paul. I have been your teacher all this ti. The person who saved you several tis, dozens of tis.”
‘Saved several tis, dozens of tis? Teacher?’
Lucion knew that Russell wouldn’t say sothing aningless.
But he couldn’t believe it.
“And I am the one who will save you in the future.”
Russell’s last words echoed in his ears.
Though he had seen him often, he suddenly missed Russell.
“Young master…?”
A servant walking down the corridor was surprised to see him.
Soon, smiling warmly, the servant asked, “Are you feeling alright? Should I call Hu?”
“No, I’m fine. If you see Hu, please tell him I’m heading back to my room soon.”
“Understood. Your clothes are thin. Wouldn’t it be better to wear sothing thicker?”
“Isn’t it sumr right now?”
“It seems you have a fever. Your face is red.”
“I’m fine.”
Lucion smiled lightly as he moved on.
He had noticed it was warm inside the mansion and felt a little dizzy, probably from the heat.
Taking a breath, Lucion strolled down the corridor and climbed the stairs.
Every servant he passed inquired about his well-being and greeted him.
‘Guess I don’t look so good right now.’
Lucion thought casually as he headed towards the roof of the mansion, a place Russell liked.
By now, Bethel would likely have gone to see the waterfall near the mansion.
She liked this place too, but she adored the waterfall even more.
She had once expressed her love for the unchanged scene over ti.
However, he disliked that place.
For one, it was in the mountains, and there were too many insects.
These days, he especially hates the buzzing of mosquitoes near his ears.
However, he had promised Bethel that they would go to the waterfall around autumn.
Perhaps due to still being half-asleep, various thoughts flooded Lucion’s mind, causing him to chuckle to himself.
[Lucion?]
Russell, gazing skyward, shifted his focus to Lucion, who seed as though he hadn’t even washed his face yet.
[Have you had any water? Did you wash your face?]
“I haven’t eaten my Ratcho yet.”
At the ntion of not eating his Ratcho, Russell looked at Lucion with concern.
[Did you have a nightmare or sothing? You could have called for . I would have rushed over imdiately.]
“Is it such a big deal that I haven’t eaten my Ratcho?”
Lucion giggled.
[You’re the type who would eat Ratcho even if the sky fell.]
At that comnt, Lucion laughed hard, clutching his stomach, but gradually let the smile fade with the breeze.
“Teacher.”
[Yes?]
“I ca here on my own because I wanted to see you, Teacher.”
[Are you… still half-asleep?]
“Co to think of it, it’s always you who cos to . Can’t I go to you first sotis?”
[Lucion. What did that black figure say to you that made you act like this?]
Russell frowned at Lucion’s reaction.
“A lot was revealed to . Among them, there are things I shouldn’t speak of.”
Lucion slowly lowered himself to et Russell’s gaze.
“There’s so much I want to say. But I’m not sure if I should say this.”
He felt like there were too many threads tangled around him.
[As you said, you don’t have to force yourself to speak, Lucion.]
Russell comforted Lucion gently.
“I… I feel like I’m deceiving you, and I’m afraid you might be disappointed in . That frightens .”
[I have never been disappointed in you, not even once. You don’t need to think like that. Perhaps you really did have a nightmare.]
Russell’s voice was warm, like a blanket just draped over him.
This made Lucion want to pour out everything.
Didn’t he want to lay it all out?
“If I say this… If I bring it up, I’m not sure what will happen to you. That scares .”
Observing the pained expression on Lucion’s face, Russell placed a reassuring hand on his head.
[Lucion.]
“Yes.
[I am already dead.]
“…”
[What you see is simply a ghost; you know that. There’s nowhere I can go from here.]
“I know. But even knowing that, I want to hold on to you. Can’t you… until I’m dead?”
After all, he was a warlock.
Even if he were to face death, wasn’t it possible to cling on until the very end?
If he couldn’t do that, why was he given the ability to see ghosts in the first place?
[Lucion.]
Russell’s voice trembled, a stark contrast to before.
“Teacher.”
But Lucion spoke first.
“I had a dream.”
He began cautiously.
“In that dream, you appeared.”
He spoke as if it were a natural occurrence, like a casual encounter on the street.
“You…”
Sizzle.
The unpleasant sound that used to co from a malfunctioning television echoed in his mind.
{This is the end.}
The words appeared before his eyes.
This ti, the world didn’t stop.
Instead, sothing unwelco surfaced.
‘Please.’
Lucion felt as if the blood in his body was draining away.
The black thread he had seen from Veronia pierced through the ground, wrapping around Russell and entangling him as well.
‘Please, don’t do this.’
He felt like the ground was collapsing beneath him, and he was on the verge of falling apart.
The thread ultimately ensnared Russell, as if it was a natural course of events.
As if to mock him, challenging him to escape a predetermined death.
The black thread.
Just looking at it made Lucion feel nauseous and horrified.
[Lucion?]
Russell caught onto Lucion’s strange behavior.
[What’s wrong? Is it because of the black orb?]
“No, it’s just that I’m feeling dizzy.”
Lucion pressed down the queasy sensation in his throat and forced a smile.
[Let’s go back to the room. I’ll call Hu right away.]
“No, I’ll be fine if I sit for a mont.”
Lucion shook his head and sat down on the swing chair.
Despite a mont of trembling legs, he didn’t show any signs of distress.
It wasn’t the first or second ti he had seen a thread.
But the black thread was different.
Veronia, Russell, and himself.
As if indicating that it was a stage created for three of them, didn’t the word ‘end’ appear?
Lucion clenched the ropes attached to the swing chair tightly.
What Russell had said in the dream was real.
It was impossible to save soone over and over again, no matter how many tis.
‘The world is repeating itself.’
Lucion unwrapped the truth he did not want to know.
Ha.
Lucion took a deep, deep breath.
Russell had previously said he died first. But this ti, he vowed to save Lucion.
This wasn’t a fictional world in the first place; what he had thought was the ‘The Grasp of Darkness’ was, if he counted correctly, a remnant of a previous world. Ŗ₳NΟＢËȘ
“That’s right. All I know is that the world is currently shrouded in sothing, and that sothing was created by Veronia.”
The black figure had spoken of sothing being covered. Whatever that was, the world was under the Grasp of Darkness, just as the na of the novel suggested: the grip of Veronia.
Was it Russell who had given him this power, wrapped in the guise of a book?
“Teacher.”
[You’re still feeling off, aren’t you? I’ll call Hu.]
Russell worried about him once more.
“Thank you.”
[…]
“Thank you, Teacher.”
Lucion smiled brightly, his expression sparkling.
Russell had never abandoned him, neither in the past nor now.
He had beco his teacher, and for that, Lucion was incredibly grateful.
How difficult it must have been.
Russell’s loss of mory was due to Lucion.
It was a price he willingly bore in order to save him.
[You… rember?]
Russell stamred, looking at Lucion’s silent tears.
Lucion nodded.
[You… you…]
“I died.”
Lucion spoke deliberately in short sentences.
Russell’s face imdiately contorted with pain.
[I’m sorry. …I’m sorry, Lucion.]
At the tremor in Russell’s voice, Lucion shook his head.
He kicked his feet, making the swing chair sway as he gazed up at the sky.
“You don’t have to apologize. Please, don’t say you’re sorry for this.”
Lucion inhaled deeply and wiped away his fallen tears.
“I don’t know everything. But I have heard. ”
[Who…? The darkness?]
Lucion pressed his lips together and looked at Russell in silence at his question.
[?]
Russell’s eyes wavered.
[Did I say that? I… I didn’t an to…]
Russell’s words trailed off.
The pieces of mories aligned this ti, regardless of how many Lucions there were, were mories shared with him.
Just recalling them was enough to make his heart ache with a sharp, painful sting.
Among the mories he had revisited, there was only one that stood out, where he had spoken sothing that seed very important to soone.
[On that rainy day. The man I saw in that unfamiliar world… was that man you?]
“Yes. That’s correct.”
Lucion’s eyes filled with tears again.
“It was… .”
Russell didn’t rember what he had said to that man. That uncertainty weighed heavily on him.
“Teacher.”
Lucian smiled, though his lips trembled.
[Yes, Lucion.]
“I won’t die again. No matter what happens, I won’t let myself die.”
Lucion’s gaze, as he looked at Russell, was unwavering.
It was so steadfast that Russell felt anxious, worried that it might shatter at any mont.
Once again, Lucion looked at him with those clear eyes.
“So, please don’t die in my place.”
Lucion had made that cruel request: to not die for him.
Russell knew all too well how those resolute eyes could beco cloudy, lose their vitality, and fade away.
He wished he wouldn’t have to see it.
He wanted to beg for it to stop, as Lucion had often died for him, sotis unexpectedly.
[Ah…]
Russell understood.
Lucion knew about his past self in the previous world.
About him who had taken his place and vanished.
[Lucion. I’m already dead. I have already died.]
“So, please…!”
Lucion stood up and grabbed the hem of Russell’s clothes.
Of course, he knew Russell was dead, yet as a warlock, he possessed the ability to see and converse with him.
If Russell were to disappear…
If he vanished, wouldn’t that an it was forever?
“Just think of it as my childish whim and accept it. Please!”
Lucion’s head drooped as he spoke.
“In my happiness… you must be there, Teacher. You have to be. Absolutely.”
Lucion’s voice rose, almost like a child throwing a tantrum.
His whole body trembled as he spoke, and Russell couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
Because he had been so deeply wounded by living people, he had beco attached to him, a dead man.
And so deeply.
[Is this what you truly wish for, Lucion?]
A simple happiness.
It was the wish and desire that Lucion had held close to his heart all along.
“Yes. It is the happiness I wish for.”
Lucion’s tears fell to the ground.
“The family that scattered because of gathered again, living seemingly ordinary, sowhat special with those I can trust, like that.”
Lucion’s hand, gripping the hem of Russell’s clothing, trembled slightly.
“You know this, don’t you?”
With tears streaming down, Lucion spoke earnestly.
“It was you who helped reach this long-desired wish. You’re the one who allowed … to live as a person. So why should you be absent from my happiness?”
Russell had pulled him out of the abyss, allowing him to escape that room.
“I can’t accept that. I just… can’t do it.”
[Lucion.]
Russell chuckled softly.
Lucion slowly lifted his head.
With his face full of tears, he looked just like a child.
[Your childish whims have always been too great, both then and now.]
Russell reached out to gently pat Lucion’s head.
No matter how many tis it happened, Lucion remained the sa.
He kept asking for things that made those who cared for him anxiously worried.
[You told to live happily when you were dying. How can a useless person like , who couldn’t even protect his only disciple, possibly do that?]
Despite the casual tone, his voice was filled with deep guilt.
[I absolutely can’t do that.]
“Teacher…!”
[Live, Lucion.]
Russell smiled widely, his teeth visible.
[It’s strange to say ‘living’ when I’m already dead, right? So you live. I’ll just stay as I am for now. Is that okay?]
Lucion nodded, slowly releasing his grip and covered his face with his hands.
Why was it so comforting to hear the words ‘live’?
“Yes.”
Lucion’s shoulders shook as tears fell endlessly between his fingers.
“Yes. That’s enough. That’s all I need.”
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