Chapter 301: Child of the Maze (4)
– Puuk!
“Aaah!”
It hurt. It hurt so much. My chest felt like it was on fire and it hurt as if I had been slammed by a hammer.
I staggered from the shock and astonishment. The world suddenly seemed to move five times slower. My eyes rolled down as if they would fall out.
I could see the blade stabbed deep into my chest as well as my bloodied shirt. It was for real this time.
“Ah, ah……”
– Ssss!
“Gasp!”
The man pulled the knife out of my body and raised it up. I felt a cruel and dreadful sound. A trail of blood traced an arc in the air. I could not believe it. I did not want to believe it. It did not seem real that something like this was happening to me.
The man’s crazed eyes looked scary.
“Gasp, ugh-”
‘It hurts. I’m scared. It hurts, it hurts……;
– Swooosh!
The man swung the knife again. I instinctively raised my arm despite the blood pouring out of my body.
– CLANG!
The Holy Staff slammed the dagger. I realized that I had been lucky. I immediately turned around and started running. I couldn’t breathe properly and my body was reacting by crying, making it hard to see. The ground was getting dyed dark red from someone’s blood.
Everything had happened so quickly that I had no time to figure out what was going on. It was even scarier that the man was not saying anything. Fear overwhelmed my pain. I was limping but kept moving, only looking forward.
I could not use ether in this place. I could not open my Holy Domain or my Holy Land. There was only one clear thought on my mind.
‘Protect Percy.’
“Huff, haaa, ugh……”
I focused on wrapping my hand around the chimney bird by my left chest. My gabag around my waist and both hands were already covered in blood. But I should be able to survive as long as I bought myself some time. At least this child should be safe since he was a divine item.
‘The Imperial Crown Prince and Elise will be here soon.’
“Come here…… Come here!” The man behind me shouted at me.
I got chills down my body and started dry heaving in fear. I clutched my bleeding chest and continued to run. The guardian spirit’s voice suddenly echoed in my mind.
– First we get a rat in the maze.
“Huff, huff.”
I then realized it. That ‘rat’ was this person. This chilling thought made it hard to breathe. How, just how did a person like that get this far-
“Don’t you want to be free? Don’t you want to cast aside the shackles binding you down?” His cracking voice, which sounded like screeching metal, was dreadful.
It was highly likely that the maze would not open its door again. The guardian spirit’s test had ended and what it protected was the temple and the divine item, not the humans that entered this place.
I continued to run without stopping. There was at least something in this empty room that could help me.
“Ugh, mm……”
‘The Paten of Wishes.’
– Grab!
I grabbed the paten’s support and quickly turned around.
‘I should be able to buy some time if I put this between us and drag it out-’
“It’s all over.”
“Gasp.”
I felt like I would stop breathing. The mysterious homicidal maniac was looking at me and the paten. The path he had run down was all covered in blood. Seeing the dazzling golden room now covered in blood was quite a grotesque scene. His pale cheeks showed a truly happy smile. My instincts were telling me something. This was not someone I could rationally reason with. Words would not work against this person.
“Ugh.” Blood traveled up my throat.
“I’m sure you want to finish things too.”
“Eek. Cough! What, ugh……”
He looked as if he was dishing out a blessing. His gaze was warm and benevolent. He should be suffering from pain as well but the man showed no signs of hurting. It was hard to think that he was a patient with a hole in his stomach.
He raised his bloodied hand and pulled up his hood. I grabbed my Holy Staff out of reflex and rummaged through the gabag with my other arm. I was trying to pull a dagger out.
At that moment…
“Gasp, cough!”
– Sssssss!
My bleeding lips dropped open in shock. The man underneath the robe was turning invisible. The shock from the anxiety traveled down from my head to my toes.
‘No, no way. Unbelievable. No, no, no……’
“I will make it that way.” That was the last thing he whispered. I couldn’t even see a single hair anymore.
I started flailing in all directions. I swung the Holy Staff in all directions as well as the dagger. There wasn’t much I could do with an extremely injured body while I could not open my circle. Furthermore, I was going up against an invisible man. Other than crazily flailing around-
– Puuk!
“Aaaaaaaaaak!”
I fell forward into the paten. Red blood burst out of my mouth. ‘M, my back……’
“Huff, ugh. Uuuuugh…… W, why……”
Shivers and convulsions filled my body at the same time. The pain and shock came after that. It hurt as if I had been hit by a hammer and I was so scared. Blood and body fluids gathered at the bottom of the paten.
The man behind my back caressed my cheek. It made me feel sick. I wanted to see my brother. I wanted to see Eunseo and my mom.
“I’m sure it was hard for you too.”
I wanted to go back to my family.
“Being looked down upon for being a bastard, getting mocked and mistreated…… I’m sure you’ve never experienced true happiness. I understand that very well.”
“Ugh, mm, cough……”
“I understand that very well. I lived a similar life.”
He truly seemed to be pitying me. My legs gave out. I was pushing on the paten to keep my body, which felt as if it could crumble at any moment, up.
‘Clang!’ The dagger finally fell from my hand. The man came close and pulled off his hood. I was shaking intensely as I turned my head and saw an extremely beautiful face as my eyes became heavy and started to close.
The bloodied light-purple hair……
“My poor poor son.”
His voice sounded angelic. My eyes opened wide for a moment.
– Ssss! As he pulled his dagger out of my back-
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
– Paaaaat……!
An intense golden light burst out of the paten.
“Ugh!” For some reason, the man’s body was flung back. At the same time, a force that felt dozens, no, hundreds of times stronger than gravity pulled me in.
My head slammed onto the plate without any resistance. My eyes felt like they would pop out and all my organs felt like they would burst out.
“Ah, aaaaaaah……!”
No, that was not enough to describe it. It felt extremely painful, as if my soul and body were being separated. It felt like something that should not be pulled apart was being forcibly pulled apart.
‘I’m going to end up dying.’ That certainty filled my brain and ate away at my heart. It clearly felt like the entire world was pushing me away. My eyes felt like they would become blinded by the almost pure white light. I didn’t even have the strength to scream anymore. Shaaaaaa……!
“Save me, please……” I mumbled as more blood poured out of my body.
Christelle and crown prince Cédric’s faces flashed in front of my eyes like a phantasmagoria. I desperately held onto Percy as I closed my eyes. That was the only movement I was permitted to make.
– Ooooooong―!
– Baaaaaaaang……!
Then a giant glow swallowed my body.
*
– Rumble……
– Craaaaaack!
The maze doors quickly opened once the test was over. Cédric stood in place without being able to take a step. A suffocating silence was pushing down on him. The disturbance of ether that had even bothered him had swept through like a disaster. He was certain that his teacher and Christelle Rambouillet would have detected it outside the maze as well.
But he did not feel ‘anything’ on the other side anymore. Something like that could not happen. Something like that should not happen.
“……”
He got scared. This was not a problem of accepting the situation. It was just the unsightly perplexion of a person placed in front of an overwhelming fate.
The man did his best to try to move his head that seemed to be frozen in place. But all of the effort he had been putting in to train his plate was useless right now. He could smell a dense stench of blood. An ominous feeling and anxiety wrapped around him like a mist.
Silence.
– Step, step, step……
Cédric gripped his sword tightly and moved forward. The warm golden glow of the holy room welcomed him. And then……
– Step.
It was a sea of blood.
His orange eyes opened wide. Piiiiiiiiiiiii- An unpleasant noise echoed in his ears.
“……”
His noble gaze quickly tried to assess the situation. There was a vine drenched red on the bloodied ground. It was the power of the divine beast that the prince said he would bring with him.
His breathing became heavier after seeing that. Cédric did his best to calm down. He could feel a single presence in this place right now. The man forced his feet to move to check.
Crack. He heard an unpleasant sound coming from the drying puddle of blood. A memory from his past floated up from the back of his mind and stuck to him. His chin clenched.
– Tap
“……”
He then stopped walking. He could not breathe for a moment. Cédric ran toward his priest who was down on the ground. He gathered the priest’s slumped body and urgently checked his condition. Every spot he touched felt cold.
𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
It felt like a lie. It was less than thirty minutes ago that he had grabbed this guy’s collar and discussed the future.
“Wake up,” He ordered in a growling voice.
“……”
There was no response. The priest’s cheeks were so pale they almost looked blue, and his blonde hair and white hands were all drenched in blood. The area around his lips was bloody as well. The priest’s long eyelashes were tightly closed shut as if they would never open again. Blood was continuing to come out of the injuries to his chest and back.
It took him a while to notice that his own hands were shaking. He stuttered like a stupid idiot and took off his glove. He then placed a finger on the prince’s neck.
There was no heartbeat.
“……Nonsense.”
He tried to say cut the nonsense, but the words would not come out of his mouth. His ears felt dull and his gaze narrowed as well. He felt like he was suffocating under water. He stupidly shook for a long time.
There wasn’t even the smallest bit of pure ether in this room. He knew what that meant, but it was hard to accept it. He then placed the back of his finger against the priest’s nose.
There was no breathing.
“Ha……”
He couldn’t help but scoff. Cédric’s eyes opened wide. His breathing became irregular and his heart started thumping wildly.
His father’s last moments were starting to overlap with the prince’s. The body flailed on the ground… The black hair that had been dyed dark red from blood and his father’s gaze that had been warm until the end…
‘See you next time, Sadie. Okay? Don’t cry.’
‘I wasn’t trying to hurt you like this…… My good little son, ugh.’
He slowly bent down. His body did not want to move as he wanted. The blood in his whole body seemed to go cold as his eyes became warm.
It was exactly the same as that day.
‘I’ll see you on the other side, your Royal Highness.’
That was clearly what he had said.
“Ugh!”
Cédric clenched his teeth to calm his plate that was roaring with regret and rage. His heart felt as if it would boil and then explode. He wanted to pull it out. If it was going to make him feel pain like this, he might as well remove it from his body. It was a hellish reality. He did not want to accept it. He could not accept it.
It was at that moment.
“Hahahaha……”
Flinch. The crown prince raised his head. He could see a man plopped down not too far away. The man’s presence had been clear but it was his first time seeing him.
The face felt unfamiliar, but he oddly seemed familiar. The old robe was covered in blood. Sharp brown eyes stared right at Cédric. The man seemed quite injured as well. There was an injury in his stomach and a blooded dagger in his hand-
– Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
He heard that ominous noise in his ears again. Cédric tried to control the slowly ticking clock in his mind.
The man’s mouth was moving. The voice sounded extremely distant. Tick, tick, tick.
“I freed that poor little thing. You should be thanking me.”
“……”
“He’s sleeping so well. Think about how he is now at peace.”
Tick, tick, tick.
“Ahh, how refreshing……!” He spoke as if he was in a dream. His eyes curled up and his bloodied face was full of satisfaction.
The crown prince’s breathing stopped. Everything seemed to turn red.
– Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
– Baaaaaaaang!
It was a sword aura that looked ready to explode.
“Aaaaaaaaaak! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Werner’s screech echoed through the room. Streams of blood sprayed out like a fountain after the flash of light. The holy room was now a pandemonium that resembled a battlefield. It was already purgatory with a dead man, a grim reaper, and a man who was about to die.
The black Sword of Wisdom created an invisible line of death through the air. Shhhhhhh-!
– Baaaaaaaang!
“Ahhhhh! Stop! Stop!”
One arm and one leg of the Prince Consort brutally flew into the air. But the swordsman did not have the rationality to listen to him and be understanding. He may not have any warmth left either.
– Clang!
At that moment…
“Father! No……! Aaah!”
Elise’s screech sharply pierced through the air. Cédric charged forward without stopping.
*
Flash!
“Percy!”
I shouted at the top of my lungs and jumped up. The blankets flipped over and the bed creaked. The sounds were not fitting for the dreadful situation I had just been in. My eyes automatically opened wide.
‘Wait, hold on…… Blankets? A bed?’
“What the, what the heck……”
I crazily inspected my body first. Forget blood, there wasn’t a single scratch on me. I was drenched in sweat and my tense arms and legs were tingling, but I was fine.
But that was not the problem. I know it sounds unbelievable, but something even more astounding than finding that my body did not have a knife in it was happening. My heart was beating wildly. ‘This, this is-’
“……This is my pajamas.”
This was the clothes I had been wearing at ‘our house’ one year ago. A typical outfit of the 21st century.
“What is this-”
– Knock knock knock knock!
Flinch! I quickly raised my head after hearing the familiar knock. I then gasped in shock. There was no way I would not recognize this door. This was my bedroom door. Not the one in Juliette Palace, but the door to the small room in the apartment where we lived. The only door to that room.
“……”
I quickly looked around. I now saw that it was not just my pajamas and the door that were mine. Wallpaper, bookshelf, desk, chair, backpack, hangers……
“Laptop, cell phone.” I mumbled like a crazy person. The existence of my phone on the desk felt so awkward that it gave me chills. I felt extremely uncomfortable seeing all these things.
‘Why are these things here? Why is my room here? ……Why am I here?’
– Knock knock knock knock!
“Second brother! Are you still sleeping? Are you not going to work?” I heard a shocking voice outside the door. I had the stupidest look I had ever had in my life on my face.
—
Translator’s Comments
Alexa, cue Bohemian Rhapsody!