Memoirs of the Returnee

World’s Demise (3)

Eceline was a promising painter, a woman who captivated the hearts of the Libra Art School with her talent hailed as the genius of her generation.

Jade was a direct descendant of his family, the second son raised in Libra, a symbol of power and prestige.

A common cliché.

The nobleman loved the painter.

The painter was intimidated by the nobleman.

Jade was clumsy in love, and Eceline found his feelings burdensome.

A nobleman who lacked nothing and had never been denied anything sometimes forgets a very obvious fact.

That people cannot be owned.

That they cannot even be the subject of ownership.

Jade was unaware of this fact.

─Ah, really.

In Jade’s memory, there were various landscapes.

Most were monochrome, but occasionally there were brilliant canvases like watercolors.

Precious frames.

─You need to stay still.

Eceline, with her brush in hand, puffed her cheeks.

Jade faced her, struggling to contain a smile that seemed about to escape.

─I am staying still. How much longer must I do this?

─At least six hours.

─Ha. You want to take six hours of my busy day?

Inside, he wanted to extend this time as long as possible, but he wanted to convey that he was investing in her.

─I’ll try to finish it within four hours!

Jade sat in the same spot, watching Eceline. Even her smallest expressions were vivid to him, like buds about to bloom.

─All done.

Soon, Eceline turned the easel around to show him his portrait. However, Jade did not recognize the likeness in the painting.

Eceline, smiling at him, was a more beautiful canvas than anything else…

─It’s Eceline. A renowned painter from the Libra Art School.

Jade remembered the day he took her to the social gathering. He had dressed her in the most beautiful gown and hadn’t even told her where they were going.

─…It’s Eceline.

Introducing herself at that place, to declare her as mine.

To boast of the most beautiful flower.

It was a wrong choice.

─There’s a lot of talk in the council these days. About the election issue too.

─Which family will produce the next chairman… indeed.

After the long and tedious social gathering, where nobles exchanged formal conversations and worried about the future of the country.

─Lord Jade…

On the way back, Eceline called him in a distant voice.

A hint delivered in a tiny voice.

─I am not an object.

That’s when Jade got angry.

I have never treated you as an object. I gave you the seat next to me. You should be grateful instead. The privilege to be with me is yours alone.

That’s how he responded.

From that day on, Eceline quietly drifted away. She lost her vitality whenever he approached, always showing discomfort.

Like a flower wilting away.

─What exactly is the problem!

Jade couldn’t contain it. He couldn’t suppress the rising anger.

The existence of a woman who wouldn’t bend to his will, to his desires,

To refuse to acknowledge that he, of all people in this world, actually loved such a pitiful woman,

He didn’t want to accept it.

─…I’m leaving. Please let me go.

Eceline said she would leave.

Not just from Jade, but also from the Libra Art School, which was as much a part of her career as anything else. She was ready to put down everything she had received from Libra.

─No. You can’t leave.

Jade tried to hold her back. He forcibly grabbed her hand as she turned to leave.

And then…

Her arm was torn off.

Blood splattered over Jade’s entire body, and the shattered bone fragments and torn muscles and blood vessels were violently scattered.

The screams of the woman he loved filled his ears.

Jade still remembers that day.

He could never forget it.

The day he realized that his love, his feelings, his entire heart, had become a wound to her.

“……”

Jade quietly opened his eyes. From inside the car, far from the entrance of the emergency room, he looked at the farthest point of the hospital.

The name ‘Eceline’ appeared on his superhuman retina.

She had been admitted to Petra.

Her right arm was still missing.

Jade had once secretly sent someone to offer her a prosthetic arm, but she refused.

This arm is proof of your folly─ the evidence that you’ve forgotten ‘the most important thing,’ she had said.

Therefore, he cannot approach her.

He must not approach her.

The person who lost everything because of him.

Yet still, Jade cannot let go of the emotion called love.

He still doesn’t understand.

If my love for you was foolishness,

Then you must first realize that you are different from anyone else.

That you are worth hundreds of times more than any homeless person dying on the streets, any commoner living day to day, any of the tens of thousands of rotten nobles who only expect to be treated with disdain…

You must know your worth.

──Knock knock.

Someone knocked on the car window. Jade looked over.

It was Shion Ascal.

“……”

Without a word, he rolled down the window.

Shion spoke.

“She’s alive.”

Jade quietly nodded.

“……How is she doing compared to the other patients?”

“Is she also caught up in this indiscriminate death curse?”

“Yes. It’s almost certain.”

At Shion’s words, Jade silently tilted his head. A murderous intent crept into his silent eyes.

“Where is the sorcerer?”

“We are currently tracking them.”

“Tracking.”

“Yes.”

“Tracking is not enough.”

Jade glared at Shion, his gaze burning with intensity. There was a magical power woven into the mere act of looking.

Shion met his eyes with difficulty and nodded.

“I will find them. Just give me a little time.”

The word ‘wait’ was burdensome to Jade. Even holding back was difficult.

He wanted to find and kill them right now.

“…Can you stake your life on it?”

“Yes. I will definitely find them and report back to Lord Jade.”

Shion answered with certainty.

Jade closed his eyes for a moment.

“…Wait.”

Barely holding onto his rationality, the thought circled in his mind.

If there was someone to trust, it was Shion Ascal.

* * *

The indiscriminate death curse spread across the continent. The Edsilla Council declared a temporary national disaster, and the situation was similar in other countries.

It was a frenzy.

Despite no evidence of an epidemic, those swept up in fear were killing patients suffering from the death curse first, forcibly confining them with their families, or burning them alive…

A chaos that transcended national boundaries ensued.

“From now on, regular broadcasts will be suspended, and only news related to the indiscriminate death curse will be urgently dispatched. We ask for viewers’ understanding.”

In the director’s office of Petra Hospital, where the TV news was playing, Elise stood facing Ken Petra.

“…You dissected the victims on your own accord? What kind of madness is that?”

Ken Petra furrowed his brow. Elise fidgeted with her fingers and said,

“I got consent from the families.”

“Don’t make a bad situation worse. The election is not far off.”

“…But-”

“Just stay put. If you fail by acting rashly, you’ll bear all the responsibility.”

Ken Petra closed the document. He pulled out a checkbook from his pocket and started writing numbers. Elise watched his actions in a daze.

“Tell the families to keep it a secret. This should be enough for consolation.”

At that moment, something in Elise’s mind slightly shook.

Confidentiality.

Consolation money.

She clenched her fist without realizing it. She glared at Ken Petra, her father, with his resolute eyes.

“The families didn’t hand over their loved ones’ bodies to me in exchange for money.”

“…What?”

Ken Petra raised an eyebrow. It was the expression he showed when he was truly angry.

Elise didn’t back down.

“They entrusted their loved ones’ bodies to me because they believe that I might have a way to slow down this death curse, even if just a little.”

“So what are you going to do? You’re just a kid.”

Ken leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand as he peered intently at Elise.

“…I’ve already researched the wave patterns. So I’m going to create a Barrier.”

“And if it doesn’t work?”

“It can’t fail.”

“Think of the worst-case scenario. If it doesn’t work? First off, you didn’t get permission for the dissection, so it’s illegal. However, illegal dissection itself is a mere drop in the bucket.”

Ken discussed the reality of the situation.

“Let’s say you create a narrier in the hospital. The environment of the Barrier could negatively affect all the patients in the hospital. What if other patients, who have nothing to do with the death curse, die because of it? Even if the Barrier isn’t the direct cause, what if you’re sued for it?”

Dozens of reasons why sitting still is better than standing up and making a scene.

“Can you handle that?”

“…”

Elise gritted her teeth and let out a quiet sigh.

Ken’s words were rational.

Thanks to that, she understood.

Why Ken Petra had fallen to such a state.

How the bravest knight had become a puppet of the council.

The world had made it so.

The logic of being ‘realistic’ had turned her own father into a coward.

Elise spoke up.

“You be the one to endure, Father. Try enduring for once. Stop running away like a coward all the time.”

“…”

For a moment, a crease formed between Ken’s brows.

“I’ll create a legacy for you.”

“You’re still-”

“Enough with the ‘still’!”

Bang!

Elise slammed her hands down on her father’s desk. Ken leaned back in his chair, his eyes drooping as he looked up at Elise and asked,

“…A legacy, you said?”

“Yes. I won’t fail. My barrier will meaningfully extend the lives of those afflicted by the death curse, and you will gain their support.”

Elise looked at her father, scanning his large frame from top to bottom.

“Since when did you start backing down at the thought of failure?”

A hint of moisture glistened in her eyes.

“You obtained your position by stepping over dead bodies.”

“…”

Ken frowned.

“So…”

Elise took a deep breath and steeled herself.

“Let’s try to save some lives this time.”

* * *

An empty, ancient house.

The place, filled with darkness, is an artificially created magical space. Therefore, although they can be in the same place, once the magical space is dispelled, they will return to their original locations.

“…It would be nice if there were some furniture.”

Akane looked across at ‘Jude Velot.’

A tea table and two chairs were all there was. It was too plain.

“Anyway, don’t you think you’ve gone too far?”

─Too far?

Jude Velot asked back.

He takes on a human form, ‘on the outside.’

No, even the outside is quite unique. A giant of 2 meters 50 centimeters.

But what’s inside is even more chilling.

For starters, there are no organs. No heart, no viscera; because there are no bodily organs at all, no one knows what he uses for energy to live.

“Yeah, you went too far. There are hundreds of thousands suffering from the death curse now.”

─Akane. Do you know where the ‘death curse’ comes from?

There is no change in Jude Velot’s expression. His voice is the same. Just lifelessly monotonous.

“From curses, from human malice. Isn’t that too basic?”

─Who do you think listens to that malice?

“……”

Akane’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.

─Do you think this world grants those wishes?

It was then that Akane’s face took on a complex expression. Jude Velot continued rigidly.

─It was ‘I’ who granted them.

“You’re saying you are the curse?”

Jude Velot nodded.

─I oversee the curses of malice. It has been so for hundreds of years. But it has reached a tipping point. There is no end to human malice, as I had anticipated.

“…”

Akane let out a hollow laugh.

The idea that Jude Velot was in charge of the ‘concept’ of curses was more astounding than she had thought.

“So, you spread the malice that exceeded the threshold?”

─The malice of humans that seeped into my body returned to them. It’s their karma.

“Oh, so you’re not called ‘Demise’ for nothing.”

For a moment, a faint tremor crossed Jude Velot’s face.

─’Pretense’.

Even Akane felt a twinge of fear at this point.

‘Assuming a title beyond one’s status as one’s own name.’

There’s no way this creature didn’t understand the dictionary meaning of ‘pretense.’

“Right.”

But, as Shion Ascal said.

Putting power into a name only increases fear.

─…Akane. I am Demise. Chaos will spread, and malice will grow. The malice that gathers in my flesh will soon annihilate the continent.

“I know. That’s why there are humans who want to negotiate with you.”

Akane deliberately crossed her legs. She also crossed her arms.

─There can be no negotiation with a phenomenon. Akane, if you become a ‘phenomenon’ and come to me, then I might consider it. You are the only one who can stand against me.

“Do I have to? I’m telling you there are humans who want to negotiate with you.”

─That is human arrogance.

Jude Velot continued bleakly.

─No human can demand negotiation with a phenomenon. A phenomenon simply exists. It merely arrives. Just as I have come to this place.

“…”

In other words, he’s a stubborn one.

Akane sighed.

“But you’ll still make the meeting happen, right? There’s a human who desperately wants to meet the phenomenon.”

─…

Jude Velot was silent. On that chilling visage, strange wrinkles spread like cracks in drought-stricken land.

“I don’t know their purpose. They might want to witness the phenomenon firsthand and bow down to it.”

No movement.

Apparently, he seemed indifferent to the act of bowing.

In that case.

“Or it could be someone who wants to destroy the phenomenon entirely.”

─…Pitiful.

Jude Velot reacted. He looked at Akane and said,

─Humans are still foolish. Akane, you too should quickly free yourself from humanity.

“If you meet with a human first, then I’ll consider it.”

─…

“You need to show me what kind of creature you are, so I can decide whose side to join.”

Again, no response.

Akane was frustrated, but she soon picked up a pen and scrawled on a piece of paper.

“Here. Let’s meet in this old house underground.”

She tossed it to him.

Jude Velot stared quietly at the note that had landed on his thigh. Then, he faintly nodded and released the magic space.

“…Sigh.”

The space transformed.

Inside Jude Velot’s dark castle, they were back in [Selfless Coffin].

[Breaking news. Petra Hospital is constructing a barrier to slow down the progress of the curse…]

TV news. The continent was still in chaos due to indiscriminate killing.