Chapter 44: The Undying Have a Story to Tell
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 44: The Undying Have a Story to Tell
The Undying jolted upright, like a man waking from a long slumber. Despite his missing arms and legs, he didn't scream or show any shock. He simply furrowed his thick brows and glanced around. For a man whose body had been torn apart in a tragic accident, his reaction was remarkably unremarkable.
And why wouldn't it be? For the Undying, who don't die even if their limbs are torn off or their heads severed, such wounds were an everyday occurrence.
The only difference between this and their everyday life was that this was the Abyss, a land severed from the world's pulse, where regeneration was impossible.
Having come to his senses, he cried out with a bewildered expression.
“Oh! What happened? I’m sure my limbs were torn off!”
“They still are. Here.”
I held out his severed arms and legs. Instead of recoiling in horror, crying out in pain, or eyeing me with suspicion, he briskly took his limbs and pressed them to his stumps. He even gave me a cheerful thumbs-up with one of the reattached hands.
Just like an Undying. A few missing limbs are no big deal, I suppose.
“Thank you! You’re very kind!”
“Don’t mention it. Just hold them in place for now.”
I’ve kept my audience waiting long enough. Turning my back to the Undying, I spread my arms and shouted to everyone.
“Well, did you see that? Ta-da! The Art of Revival! A grand success! His limbs aren't properly attached yet, but his heart is most certainly beating!”
A miracle that brings the dead back to life. Am I not the second coming of the Saintess? If I started a religion, I could probably swindle a few dozen followers.
Well, to be precise, all I did was forcibly wake an Undying who was in a state of suspended animation. What Saintess? I'm no different from a shoddy Military State alarm clock.
In any case, it was a fact that I had made a stopped heart beat again. I smiled proudly and looked at the Regressor and the Vampire. A magician, after all, is an attention-seeker who can only live with an audience. Their reactions were the very driving force of my existence.
Especially the Regressor. She, with her clues to the past, was the biggest reason I'd woken the Undying in the first place.
‘With that method… he can wake up. So this is how the Undying woke in the past! If that's the case! Is this that moment?!’
What moment? Please, stop thinking in shorthand and spell it out. Don't just gloss over it as ‘that thing’ by referencing a past timeline, actually recall the memory!
Patience. I’ll leave the Regressor for now. I can slowly pry the information out of her later.
Now, for the Vampire.
I read his thoughts with great anticipation.
And the Vampire did not disappoint.
‘He forced the heart to beat?’
A wave of emotion crashed over me.
The weight of his 1,200 years was immense. He stared wide-eyed in astonishment, like someone witnessing a miracle. Comparing his reaction to the others, he was far more shocked than the man who had just woken up.
‘No. It's only possible because he's an Earthener. Because he's one of the Undying who cannot truly die, his stopped heart can be made to beat again. He just needs a spark to get him moving. Yes, that's all it is… a mere spark….’
But then the Vampire recalled another fact.
That a vampire, who moves blood with Bloodcraft, is also a kind of undying.
‘…Could I, perhaps, too?’
If only there was a spark to ignite his withered body.
If only he could hold that spark in his chest.
‘Could my heart… beat again, too?’
Someone's expectations.
A firmly held common sense.
A belief bordering on stubborn dogma.
The fact that a seemingly solid mind is, in truth, nothing, that steadfast beliefs are all illusions, and that they can be shattered to pieces by a single word from another.
It's delightful.
This may be the only way I can live, but that's precisely why I feel such ecstasy. A sense of fulfillment in being alive, a self-esteem that comes from being myself, fills my entire being.
When humans eat, do they feel taste and happiness as an evolutionary result that aids survival? Or does food itself contain taste and happiness from the very beginning?
I suppose there's no need to distinguish between the two.
A sweet taste lingered on my lips.
While I was savoring this fulfillment, the Undying, having finished assembling his limbs, stood up. He had managed to stick his arms and legs back on somehow, but it didn't look much more effective than if he'd used tape.
The Undying held out his right hand to me, which he had attached backward so that the back of his hand faced inward.
“A pleasure! The name's Rasch. And you are?”
Uh, even if it's backward, I should probably shake a right hand with my right hand, right? I firmly grasped the back of his hand and shook it.
“I'm the new warden assigned to this place. I found you in the cafeteria's slop bucket—no, I mean, in a cabinet, and revived you.”
The moment I raised my hand to shake his, his right hand fell off with a thud. As if afraid of being separated from its owner, the detached arm clung tightly to my hand, dangling there. I had suddenly become a man with two elbows.
Silence fell over the room. The Undying looked at his fallen hand, then scratched his head with his remaining left arm and laughed awkwardly.
“Haha. Sorry for the trouble. If we were on the surface, this would've reattached in a second. The Abyss really slows things down!”
“Well, it happens.”
I peeled his fingers off one by one and reattached the arm to his elbow stump. The Undying flexed his recovered right arm creakily and spoke.
“What's this? The Military State sent a living person down for once! Usually, they just send lumps of iron to peek at us! Anyway, what about the others? Did they all escape?”
“If you mean the trainees who were originally here, yes, they all escaped. These are the only ones left.”
As I spoke, I subtly read the Undying's memories to find out how he had ended up dismembered and tossed in a slop bucket.
Rasch the Undying was a prisoner. He had been so impressed by the Military State's advanced laws and systems that he'd sought to learn more, but the State did not return his efforts.
The nature of the Undying was too different from that of ordinary humans. He paid no mind to injuries and always took the lead in manual labor. He rarely tired and would laugh off any wound.
He was, by all accounts, an excellent neighbor. The kind you'd want to have around.
But that didn't mean Rasch was a pushover.
Just as the Undying had no fear of injury or death, they held honor and rules in high regard. They would laugh if someone gutted them with a knife, but they would not tolerate an insult to their honor.
Unfortunately, a certain citizen, having forgotten the old adage that the law is far but the fist is near, provoked him. It seemed the Military State's laws, which were closer than any fist, had twisted his survival instincts.
He solemnly recited a prayer that amounted to a death wish in front of a savage, though it would have been just a bad joke among friends: that savages were uncultured and tireless, making them natural-born slaves. Rasch, being a polite Earthener, showed patience once and tried to reason with him, but a fool's death wish is usually uttered more than once.
So Rasch, being a polite Earthener, humbly accepted the man's wish and tore him to pieces.
Anyone who attacked Rasch to save the man was also considered to be in agreement, and so he tore them to pieces as well.
The Military State tried to execute him, but there was no way to kill a man who stood up after being shot and walked out of fires. When the State's expertise in killing fell short, there was only one way to deal with a prisoner. The high command made its decision.
And so Rasch was dropped into Tantalus, where he lived well until he was swept up in the great Tantalus jailbreak—.
Hmm. Interesting.
Wait. If he witnessed the Tantalus jailbreak firsthand, doesn't that mean he knows how they did it?
I casually broached the subject.
“Trainee Rasch. You asked earlier, didn't you? If they had all escaped.”
“That I did.”
Dead men tell no tales.
Therefore, an undying man makes for an excellent witness.
Just as he was a witness in the Regressor's future, the Undying is a witness for me now. A precious witness who might know how to escape this prison.
“The Military State authorities are extremely curious. This is the Abyss, a land that cannot be entered or exited by ordinary means. So how on earth did they manage to escape?”
Pretending to interrogate him, I pushed my mind-reading to its limit and posed the question. If he just recalled the relevant memory, I too could get my hands on the ‘how to escape the Abyss’ card. The Regressor fell into the Abyss right before the jailbreak, so she doesn't know the details.
I looked at the Undying, full of expectation.
“I don't know!”
I could only watch as he declared it loud and clear.
“Some sorcerer did something on his own and then suggested we all escape together. Said it was better to escape as a group, or something! Well, I had no reason to refuse, so I nodded along!”
“…Really?”
“Yep!”
Dammit. What a useless Undying.
“You must have overheard something, right? Who he was, what method he used.”
“Why would I know? That scrawny sorcerer. He probably used some weird trick to get out.”
“Ugh, just try to remember. Seriously.”
“Sorry, but I don't make it a hobby to remember every little thing some man mutters. Especially not the vain ramblings of a sorcerer.”
Without even trying to search his memory, the Undying answered indifferently. My god. I never imagined there'd be someone who literally erases memories just because they ‘don't have a hobby of remembering.’ Unbelievable.
The Undying picked at his ear and asked again.
“So, what was your question again?”
“So your lack of a hobby for remembering includes my words, too?”
Is there really no one here who can help me? How can there be not a single piece of useful information?
No, no. It must be because I haven't drawn out the memory well enough. I pressed on, clinging to a sliver of hope.
“Alright, second question. While all the other trainees were escaping, why couldn't you? Was there a conflict of opinion?”
“A conflict of opinion? Hmm. There was.”
The Undying recalled the past and spoke.
“That scrawny sorcerer said he was going to break the prisoners out. But maybe his mind went funny after being in prison for so long, because he suddenly tried to kill everyone who wasn't a prisoner.”
“Those who weren't prisoners?”
“The laborers. You know, the ones who cooked and cleaned this place.”
Tantalus was a massive facility, a prison for the most heinous criminals captured from all corners of the world.
It was a place even the Military State couldn't control, leaving its inmates largely to their own devices. It was a realm of hungry ghosts and, at the same time, the State's execution ground. A land where you could send people, and they would be killed for you.
That was why the State would sentence political bigwigs too troublesome to kill outright or thought criminals who caused social unrest to labor in Tantalus. It was another name for a death sentence.
“The other prisoners had killed off most of them, but they were still people we lived alongside. I'd even grown a bit fond of them. We could have all escaped together, but he insisted on killing them. I objected, but that sorcerer was stubborn.”
“Given this is the Abyss, the laborers must have been pretty high-profile criminals themselves. Why did he kill them?”
“I don't know! Like I said, I don't make it a hobby to remember every little thing some man mutters.”
You say that with such pride.
“Anyway, I fought him and lost! I think I got hit pretty hard, because my memory's hazy! Damn, if this wasn't the Abyss, I would've regenerated on the spot and punched him right in his smug face!”
“Is that it?”
“Well, is there anything else to say?”
You're really no help at all.
Ah, whatever. I've squeezed out all the information I can. Time to pass the baton to the Regressor.
“Trainee Rasch. See that person over there?”
The Regressor, who had been leaning forward and watching us with great interest, flinched when I pointed at her.
‘Huh? Me? Why me?’
The Undying looked at the Regressor and said nonchalantly.
“You mean that boy?”
“That's right. That one. I don't know why, but that person is very interested in you… Ahem. In a rather… peculiar way.”
“What? What the hell are you talking about!”
She keeps trying to watch like a bystander, but I won't have it. I don't tolerate anyone having an easier time than me.
Since I couldn't dig up any good information, I'll just have to read your thoughts instead. Go on, find out for yourself.
“Trainee Shei, aren't you interested?”
“Of course I'm not interested!”
“Then is it okay if I let him fall back asleep? Trainee Rasch will probably doze off again soon.”
Right after I finished speaking, the Undying staggered. He looked down at his own body with a surprised expression.
“Oh? Now that you mention it, my body feels strange. I'm awake, but I haven't healed yet! What in the world did you do?”
“I basically ran an electric current through your heart to force you awake.”
“Oho! That's amazing! How did you do it?”
The Undying kept examining his body, fascinated by his precarious state of vitality. Being Undying, he really had no sense of crisis. I asked the Regressor again.
“Trainee Shei, are you really sure? If we leave him be, Trainee Rasch will fall asleep just like that.”
“…So?”
“Trainee Rasch is the only one who knows the Tantalus of before we arrived….”
I caught sight of Azzy yawning at the back of the classroom. Come to think of it, she was here too. Not that she'd be any help.
I corrected myself.
“The only human being, I mean. Trainee Shei. If you have any questions, now is your chance to ask.”
“What's that got to do with me?”
“You don't have any questions? None at all?”
“None at….”
The Regressor, about to shout, suddenly recalled something and fell silent.
‘No. Now that the Undying is awake, there's something I absolutely have to confirm.’
With that thought, the Regressor's memories began to travel back into the past.