Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Purgatory (7)
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My legs hurt like they were about to give out.
I limped toward the castle gate, mending my broken bones with a potion. My sense of smell had dulled so much that I couldn't detect any odors.
"Foolish wretch."
As I entered the castle, a voice echoed through the interior.
A red carpet stretched from the gate all the way to the central throne. An elderly man with snow-white hair knelt just below the throne on it.
"Human who cannot even see your own fate, have you truly come here seeking death?"
His voice dripped with lamentation.
He clicked his tongue repeatedly, as if he pitied me deeply.
"Did you wish so desperately to become the husband of an ancient tree, twisting your own destiny into knots?"
"......I have no idea what you're talking about."
"It means you will never escape the petty schemes of that ancient tree in your lifetime."
The old man raised his voice in fury.
"No matter how I think about it, I can't understand."
"Why on earth would you volunteer to be a lackey for an ancient tree!"
💥 COMBAT ALERT 💥 -Rumbling-
The castle trembled at his sky-piercing shout. Cracks formed in the surrounding pillars. Chunks of stone fell from the shaking ceiling.
I stopped speaking and examined the man's face.
"I don't know what you're trying to say."
Can I win if we fight?
My body was already melting away.
"I don't give a damn about World Trees or whatever."
But even if I had nothing left, my mind was still sharp.
"I don't even know who you people are. I hate World Trees. If I'd really received the king's grace or whatever bullshit that is, I wouldn't be here putting up with this."
"I just......want to live a normal life, for fuck's sake."
My daughter, Shiba. And Teacher, Master.
Azalea, Cornus. Star.
I looked at the old man through my unfocused eyes.
His face, reflected in my pupils, was filled with contempt. He despised me so much that I wanted to ask why.
For a brief moment, I saw the gazes of Alpha and Beta from before overlapping with the old man's face.
I hated that look.
The reality of being hated. I couldn't understand the situation at all because I knew nothing.
It was suffocating. I felt like I was going insane.
"I don't care about your lackey talk. Just forget it."
I let out a hollow breath.
"Just save my master. If you do that, I'll drop everything and leave."
A dungeon that imposes trials.
But what I encountered was not a trial, but the truth of the dungeon.
A castle that once served the king in the past, now maintained by a single retainer awaiting the king's return—Purgatory.
I wasn't curious who that king was.
I didn't even want to know why the dungeon's truth had suddenly been revealed.
"Impossible. I see no need to heed your words."
A sneer curled at the corners of his mouth. The tip of the old man's staff slowly turned toward me.
The rippling blue mana felt familiar, like what I'd sensed before the Wood Ghost right in front of me.
"Half a man who has lost even himself, close your eyes here."
I straightened my bowed waist and scraped together every last bit of remaining mana.
More, denser.
Black, rippling mana rose like heat haze between my body and shoulders.
At the same time, the old man's mana resonated.
⚙ SKILL ACTIVATION ⚙ 【 Purgatory 】 Dozens of massive stems burst from behind the old man.
They wrapped around the entire castle as they flew toward me—black as shadows, deep as an abyss. The moment they touched, I had a bad premonition that my body would be sucked in.
But I couldn't escape this place.
'He called me someone who has lost even himself.'
I reached out and met the Purgatory. A long, torn black shadow coiled around my arm.
Strange scenes unfolded before my dizzying vision.
Recalling Cheondo's words from yesterday dawn, I curled my lips into a sneer.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Perhaps this phenomenon right now is because of me."
I looked at Cheondo while chewing on dried jerky.
"What do you mean?"
"The constraint I placed might have been too powerful."
Since I'd set the Heavenly Demon as the constraint, the dungeon couldn't handle it. Thus, it couldn't provide a trial matching that constraint—something like that.
"Well, since it's Master, that could be possible."
"It's just speculation. But there's something even more important than that."
"What is it?"
"You know about heart demons."
Heart Demon.
I'd heard the term a few times, so I nodded. Cheondo took a piece of sweet jerky from the bag in her hand and bit into it as she spoke.
"You haven't grasped even a shred of the Heavenly Demon's power so far, have you?"
"That's right."
Handling the Heavenly Demon's power is difficult. The quality of the mana it emits, even filtered, is so different that imitating it is impossible.
Approaching its essence is like reaching for the stars.
No matter how much I trained, I couldn't get a feel for it.
Of course, that wasn't strange at all.
I wasn't like Cheondo, who had cultivated her dantian to match the Heavenly Demon's power from childhood.
I'm learning and using the Heavenly Demon's power at this age, no less.
So when we first started training, Cheondo had emphasized it several times.
It's not something you learn in a day or two.
I already knew that.
"There's probably a reason for it in that place."
"You mean the heart demon?"
"Yes."
Cheondo swallowed her jerky.
"You might not understand, but listen carefully. Right now, your soul is a bit... no, quite chaotic."
"What do you mean by chaotic?"
"Well, the clear point is that you might not be yourself right now."
I might not be myself?
"Doesn't anything come to mind? Like your personality suddenly flipping..."
Personality flipping.
As I rested my chin on my hand and pondered, I recalled the Anger Management Disorder and Lewd Demon implanted when I first came to this world.
"There is something."
"Tell me the details of that time."
"You're asking about that?"
"Why? Is it something you can't say?"
It was a past I'd held back on sharing because it was too long and might earn strange looks.
Do I really have to voice out loud that I'm not from this world?
I closed my mouth and stared at Cheondo. She looked worried.
"It must have been quite a big deal."
Hearing that, my mouth naturally gaped open. Her genuine concern melted away my hesitation.
With all this mess, what more was there to hide?
She was a woman who'd risked her life for me. What more could I ask for?
If she wanted to know, it was only right to drag it out from the depths of hell.
"The truth is...... I'm not from this world."
I slowly opened my mouth and poured out my story sincerely.
Cheondo's eyes widened at the most shocking truth, but she didn't interrupt.
She simply fixed her gaze on me, smiling warmly as she listened.
"Somehow, I incurred the wrath of a World Tree, and that's how I ended up here."
"You already know they exploit the 'husband candidate' thing. Yes, because of that, I rolled around in a world without mana or anything, with just a status window. When I first arrived, I could choose traits and qualities... and to get a bigger trait, I added some other qualities."
Everything I knew. All the unfair and embarrassing events I'd gone through to reach this point.
"Lewd Demon and Anger Management Disorder. Those are the personality traits I added back then."
"I see. For those, you don't seem to lose control of your anger or anything like that."
"......My mental strength has grown that much now."
Cheondo crossed her arms below her chest and pondered, then snorted in dissatisfaction.
"It's a bit different from what I wanted."
"Pardon?"
"How about recounting your old stories once?"
"From where?"
"From your oldest memory to the end....... Tell me everything about you."
It was strange, but if it would help me, there was no reason to refuse.
I began unpacking my past like a bundle, sometimes pausing for long moments.
Reflecting on my life. Sharing my past and present with someone else was deeply embarrassing, so I couldn't help turning serious midway.
Even when I brought up shameful deeds or things deserving scorn, Cheondo's attitude remained the same.
She simply showed me a pleasant smile, satisfied with knowing more about me.
"I see."
Once my story ended, Cheondo looked enlightened as she pulled a pipe from her bosom and put it in her mouth.
-Flick. A scant wisp of smoke rose from it.
"The moment you crossed into this other world, a lot of knowledge was injected into you."
"Yes, I think that was the World Tree's way of protecting me."
"And you said it manipulated the status window, even changing your personality."
Cheondo paused and exhaled smoke again.
"Then, it's possible your current personality has also been altered by the World Tree."
"Pardon?"
"The Heavenly Demon's power requires complete unity of body and mind. For you, whose personality and judgment are under the World Tree's influence, to wield it would be absurd."
My head rang like a bell being struck.
My current personality wasn't my original one?
Cheondo spoke with such conviction that I was stunned and flustered.
Her words certainly made sense.
Knowledge. They could even tamper with memories. Changing my personality would be a piece of cake for them.
But if so...... what am I now? Can I even define myself as me? Confusion hit, making my head spin.
Cheondo looked at me and said not to worry.
"They probably couldn't completely change your personality. If they could, you wouldn't have made it this far. That's why I said 'influence.' They might have amplified or diminished parts of your inherent personality."
"What makes you think that?"
"Were you the type of man who could just rape someone?"
My first meeting with Lee Se-young. I shook my head repeatedly.
Unless someone was a premeditated lunatic criminal, who could do that?
But that incident had unavoidable circumstances that I had to accept.
"The situation left me no choice."
"Obviously. You're saying it's the result of Anger Management Disorder, Lewd Demon, and the condition that you had to rape her, all combined."
I was at a loss for words. She'd taken the exact words from my mouth.
"I told you."
She shrugged and tapped my forehead with her pipe.
"My eyes are accurate. And through these eyes, you're not the type to commit such acts without hesitation."
I rubbed my forehead, red from the hit.
"Because you're a petty small-timer who calls himself a loser."
Each word stabbed into my chest like a dagger.
"I shouldn't have told you my story."
"Hahaha. Even without that, you're one of the rare good souls. If you ever go astray, it would be the world that made you that way."
The Heavenly Demon rose from her seat and closed the distance, sitting beside me.
"So, I have something to say to you, my successor."
"Yes?"
She said,
"Don't you think it's time to find the real you?"
Cheondo explained her proposed method, and I widened my eyes at her words.
The plan was far too dangerous. One mistake, and we might both die.
"Can I even do it?"
Cheondo said,
"Have confidence. You're my disciple. And this is Purgatory. The ability of the one who created this dungeon...... is perfect for reclaiming yourself."
"How do you know?"
"I've challenged this place too, so I know."
I let out a short sigh and nodded to my pleading master. It made sense. In this desperate situation, if that worked, nothing could be better.
It wouldn't hurt to try anything.
"Alright, whatever—"
If I'm going to die anyway, better to try and die without regrets.
At that, Master smiled.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Faded memories from the past. A desk lamp used for studying, something I'd seen once before.
A boy huddled under the desk at its light, reading a book with dark circles under his eyes.
I tilt my head to look at the book the boy is reading.
No letters are written on it.
But as if he sees something with his eyes, the boy mutters continuously, entranced by something.
A name tag pinned to the boy's chest catches my eye.
[ Lee Si-heon ] As memories returned, I gradually became aware that I was dreaming.
"Purgatory."
The worst mental manipulation magic that breaks a person, trapping them in the past to flail until death.
No matter how much I denied it was a trial, if the dungeon was made by the king's retainer, I was convinced it would use abilities similar to trials.
It was half a gamble, but it succeeded in the end.
Just as I intended.