Chapter 143
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: Eternal Rest
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What am I, some lovesick kid fresh off his first crush?
With my age—Labyrinthos time included—it's hard to believe I pulled an all-nighter, tossed around by these strange feelings.
But there she was, lying beside me, dead to the world like she couldn't care less, and it just made my blood boil for no reason.
"You stir up all this turmoil in me and then sleep like a baby."
I grumbled like a whiny child, but of course, she didn't wake.
Not that I could just shake her awake, so I stretched a bit and headed up to the deck.
I tried to shake off my troubled thoughts and recalled the events of the previous night.
After some petty squabbles that had us diving into the sea, we'd gotten a magic refill from the mermaids and plunged back into the deep.
And there, we finally hunted the monster lurking in the darkness and met the new king—an octopus-whale abomination.
Unlike the tentacle-spewing beast we'd seen first, this whale-like monster didn't show any hostility. It just stayed silent.
Thanks to that, we were able to search through the dawn.
My face felt flushed, my body burning, but the cold deep-sea water cooled the heat right down.
"You two searched alone at dawn yesterday, right?"
Melissa was already on deck, waiting for us.
"Yeah."
"Did you find anything?"
"Nah. We turned the place upside down—nothing."
And thanks to that dawn search, we learned one thing.
Arsha's body wasn't there.
That tentacle monster devours human flesh but leaves the rest intact.
So if Arsha had been eaten, her belongings should still be around.
But even scouring the bleached bones and debris, we found no trace of her possessions.
Maybe she's still alive?
Maybe she got caught in the Kraken's storm, drifted, and washed up somewhere?
Honestly, the odds were slim.
Someone could have rescued her from the floating wreckage, or she might have been swept to another sea.
Either way, finding her would be next to impossible.
That realization made my heart race with urgency.
My little sister, alone and abandoned somewhere in this vast, endless ocean...
—Big Brother! Hehehe. A present!
I could still vividly picture it: years ago, on my birthday, my innocent little maknae sister beaming as she handed me a gift.
Melissa and I didn't get along because we were just a year apart, but our baby sister? We both adored her.
She was the treasure who brought laughter to our house,
a four-leaf clover delivering happiness.
The fact that such a child was gone—even now—tore at my gut like nothing else.
That's why I had to find her.
What wrong had that small, kind girl done to deserve such an end?
Of course, rationally, I knew Arsha's body held no soul.
Her spirit had long left its flesh and entered the cycle of reincarnation.
Someone who's reached Death Road like me wouldn't miss that.
Still, pushing on like this was, in a way, pure self-satisfaction.
Atonement from the incompetent big brother who couldn't save her back then.
"Heading out again?"
"Have to. Today, I'm scouting the entire Forbidden Zone."
If she wasn't in that time-frozen graveyard of corpses, we'd have to check everywhere else.
"Don't push yourself too hard. Even with the divine relic's power, holding out in the Forbidden Zone for long isn't easy..."
Navel looked a bit bitter but silently channeled the relic's power once more.
We resumed the search, and the planned two days passed.
In that time, we learned two things.
Arsha's body and her belongings weren't anywhere in the deeps of the Forbidden Zone.
And even with the divine relic's power, the Forbidden Zone imposed an unimaginable burden.
On the second day after the first, Melissa tapped out after just three hours, hit with nausea and dizziness. That said it all.
If an Expert-level fighter couldn't endure, no ordinary person could last half a day, let alone a full one.
Further searches seemed pointless.
It was time to accept it.
Finding Mother and Father's bodies intact was a stroke of heaven's luck to begin with.
No— we should have concluded that a month after the accident.
Dragging it out this long was just clinging to faint hope.
Hoping against hope for another miracle, that she might be alive by some fluke.
But with the verdict in—no more miracles to find—there was nothing left to say.
It was right then, as we turned the ship's bow,
"Wha—what's that?!"
Navel's startled cry made me whip around. Beyond the boundary line, a massive shadow emerged in the dark sea.
At the same time, a huge current surged on the surface, revealing the head of an enormous whale.
"I—I'll ready for battle!"
The paladin drew his sword in shock, and Navel prepared her holy magic.
This thing dwarfed the one we'd seen entering the Forbidden Zone—its sheer presence was on another level.
Even the mermaids paled and froze solid.
"It's fine. Can you bring the ship closer over there?"
At my request, the mermaids' eyes went wide.
"Handsome big bro? Wh-what do you mean...?"
"It's okay. That's no enemy."
True to my word, the creature just stared at us, making no move.
The mermaids, faces drained of color, slowly maneuvered the ship toward the Forbidden Zone's edge.
As if waiting, the octopus-whale hauled a massive arm from the water.
BOOOOM!!!!!
"Eek!"
"What the—?!"
The mermaids screamed, the paladin braced again, but we all ended up slack-jawed.
The octopus-whale had plopped a bizarre, glowing deep-sea fish onto our deck and vanished.
"Oh my god! A Rainbow Fluke?!"
The mermaids gawked and made a huge fuss.
"You know it?"
"Of course! It's a super rare species from the ocean floor. Tastes amazing, and its belly's packed with priceless pearls. A live Rainbow Fluke fetches top dollar as a pet."
"But... why would something that huge give us this...?"
"Payment, probably."
"Payment?"
When we'd fought in that time-stopped Forbidden Zone, we'd buffed and healed the octopus-whale.
This must be its way of repaying the favor.
Those out of the loop looked puzzled, but I didn't elaborate.
It had watched us leave in silence before slipping back into the Forbidden Zone's depths.
The mermaids bought the Rainbow Fluke—the octopus-whale's parting gift—for a tidy sum.
Apparently, among mermaids, it was a delicacy of delicacies.
Back at the port village in a flash, we prepared two coffins, laid Mother and Father's bodies inside, and returned to the territory.
Navel had fulfilled her purpose, so she had no reason to stay, but she insisted on praying over the burial and stuck around.
The bustling mansion fell deathly silent the moment word spread that we'd recovered Mother and Father's remains.
Especially the knights and soldiers loyal to Father who hadn't deployed to the Demon Realm—they dropped everything, vacations be damned, and gathered at the estate.
Since funerals had already been held, we skipped extras.
Instead, in solemn quiet, we cleaned their bodies, dressed them in fine shrouds, and laid them to rest in the family plot.
Even as Melissa—composing herself but still shedding tears—stood by, I emptied one of the spare coffins and silently placed the remains and belongings inside.
Then, I carefully laid my letter atop the bodies.
Reunited, only to part again in the blink of an eye.
"Holy Lord of the Heavens, Your servant prays for the peace of these two souls."
Holy energy poured from Navel as she knelt in prayer, heedless of her white holy robes staining with dirt. It settled over the tombstones.
I knew full well those prayers meant little.
Their souls had reincarnated; blessings on flesh changed nothing.
Still, who wouldn't be grateful for a saintess's prayer?
We couldn't do right by them in life, but this much in death was a blessing.
Though Arsha's body still nagged at me.
With the rites complete in heavy silence, an odd fatigue hit me. I retreated to my room and crashed without a thought.
Might be a first.
First time since Labyrinthos I'd fallen asleep without Luna's help or aura depletion.
Though in my doze, I vaguely felt soft fingers brushing my cheek, lips, and between my fingers.
I'd shed all the tears I had for Mother and Father's deaths.
Cried all the sobs I could.
Now it was time to shake it off and get back to normal.
Melissa silently stroked the tombstone for a long while before swallowing her last sobs and heading off to prepare for school and territory duties.
Saintess Navel, weary but urgent, left with her paladin escort, saying the divine relic needed returning ASAP to avoid issues.
And under the starlit night sky, Luna tugged me out to my room's terrace.
"A sight I never saw back then."
"Hm? What're you talking about?"
She turned from gazing at the starry heavens, hands clasped behind her back.
"No stars before. Not one of those twinkling lights, nor those massive planets hanging there."
Wait—stars are billions of years old, right?
"Got a question."
"Shoot."
"How old are you, exactly...?"
I never finished.
Her grip on my collar was instant, and a faint madness gleamed in her eyes.