253. Deception 13.
253. Deception 13.
Edelin opened her book.
The way she watched me, as if determined not to miss a single reaction, made me feel like a specimen under observation.
I laid it all out plainly.
"I am Dantalian's representative."
"What?"
"The Devil of virtue and indulgence. Dantalian's representative."
Lexi tilted her head, staring at me with open disbelief.
"You? Hain's agent—the one who kidnaps people on the final day? Don't talk nonsense."
"It's true."
When Edelin, still writing something down, confirmed it, Lexi froze and turned to look at her.
Then her gaze swung back to me.
"Right. You... were born on Dantalian's day, weren't you?"
Dantalian's day?
No.
"My birthday is the 25th of the Plutonian calendar."
"Wrong. You were born on the 31st. Your parents arranged for your birthday to be a week later."
So that was it.
I thought I had scrubbed away every trace of them, but a remnant of my parents' care still lingered here.
"You were unusual even inside Helia's womb. A fetus that spoke. Abel said you'd mumble strange things from the moment you were born."
I could only feel sorry for my parents.
"They couldn't identify the language, but they said it had rules. A tongue they'd never heard in their lives."
I must have babbled in Korean constantly as an infant.
As she said, my mind was a complete mess back then.
Lexi's eyes narrowed.
"And they said you understood writing no one taught you. As if you could read thoughts. Abel believed a Devil had bewitched you. That's why he took the family deep into the mountains—for your sake."
Which also explained why they falsified my birthday: to hide that I'd been born on an ill-omened day.
"This is a power Dantalian gave me. It lets me speak with any Ain, regardless of language. And the language is..."
... Would she understand if I told her about Earth?
"Not from this world."
The sound of a pen scratching.
Edelin's hand began moving rapidly.
"...I don't understand what you're saying."
"Think about it. December 31st. If Dantalian swapped a person, where did the replacement come from?"
Lexi went still as stone, her eyes rounding wide.
She was afraid.
The greatest terror, true horror, comes from the unknown.
"...What... are you, really?"
Her voice had gone rigid.
How would Lexi react if I told her the truth?
"My mother fell ill. She was hospitalized. The doctors said she didn't have much time left."
"Helia's a healthy woman. There's no way she'd be—"
"You realize, don't you? This is about a different world."
Mother... must have passed by now.
Liver cancer, along with pancreatic cancer, has the lowest survival rate of any disease.
"That's when Dantalian came to me. He offered to cure my mother's illness completely—in exchange, I was to give up my body."
"...What are you talking about?"
"I sold my life to a Devil for my parents' sake."
A violent tremor ran through my jaw.
"My own personality didn't return until I turned thirteen, and every day after that, I felt I'd sinned against the parents who worked themselves to exhaustion day after day."
That's why I'm grateful to Lexi.
She kept me from clinging to them.
"My father is the same age as me. My mother is a year younger. I sold my body, was hurled into Dantalian's world, and like a cuckoo, I stole the place of the child who should have been loved."
"How is any of that your fault?!"
"There's something called Attraction Force. It's a power that draws in the spirits of those close to you in a past life. Since I was dropped into this world, what do you think happened to the one who was supposed to be their child?"
The soul meant to be born as their child was shunted away somewhere else because of me.
Lexi stared at my face, unblinking.
"So I left home."
"You weren't kidnapped? You left on your own two feet?"
"Yes. I deliberately followed the white wolf when she tried to dissuade me."
"...And you never thought to be honest about this?"
"How exactly should I have put it? 'I kicked aside the person meant to be your child and took over this body instead. I grew up receiving your love. I'm actually the same age as you both'?"
"You still should have said it!"
"But I came to care for you both too much to say something so absurd. If I'd seen disappointment or anger on your faces, I wouldn't have been able to bear it. I had no one to tell, and it drove me into a psychological corner."
My mental state back then was pure hell.
Yet I couldn't even cry. Even tears would have been another act that tore at my parents' hearts.
"The greatest sin a child can commit is dying before their parents. I committed an unforgivable sin against my former parents, and when I came to my senses, there were new parents beside me. I committed brood parasitism. That too was an unforgivable sin."
At the time, the stress crossed a threshold, and my mind suffered a full meltdown.
"I didn't want to sin anymore. The only thought in my head was that I had to settle this original sin."
A shaky breath escaped me.
I wanted to hear an objective answer about my decisions.
Were the things I'd done actually right?
"Do you think it was a foolish thing to do?"
"Why are you so rigid?!"
...Lexi was angry at me.
Was I? Was I too rigid?
"Dantalian took my selfishness away. Then, insisting I ought to be human, he hammered these lines into my head."
"What...?"
The sheer absurdity of it made Lexi's face waver.
"I can't feel strong selfish desires."
Speechless, Lexi stared at me blankly.
Her mouth opened only after several beats had passed.
"...Fine. Let's assume that's true. Then why did you try to find your parents again?"
"What I eventually learned was that I hadn't come from that world at all. Dantalian had copied the memories of a person from another world and inscribed them into my flesh. The Root Snake told me. Said I wasn't the only one."
Changeling.
The word came easily now.
The Root Snake said there were others who'd been overwritten like me.
Though to be precise, it's likely Ain memories that get overwritten.
"I was their child after all. When I found out and went looking for them, they'd already moved their dwelling beyond the Great Barrier Wall. With nowhere left to go, I wandered the wilds of the South with my master to survive Yunaira and earn recognition."
Recounting my life like this, it sounds shabby.
"That's how the Fake Death everyone despises came to be. And then you appeared, smashed apart the nest I'd barely managed to build, and made it so I couldn't even say a final goodbye to my family."
"Even if you'd explained your circumstances, don't even think about going to see them. A pitiful life doesn't erase your sins."
Her unchanging stubbornness was almost endearing by now.
It drew a small smile from me.
"Right. I won't."
"So after everything's finished, you're saying you have nothing to do? Because you have nowhere to go?"
"Yes. Once everything I can do is done..."
I still don't know what I should do.
I just can't shake the feeling that I want to tear into some fried chicken and read webtoons.
"I think suicide and a fresh start might be for the best."
If possible, I want to start over from the very beginning.
If something like regression existed, how wonderful would that be?
"I'd like my body donated to the Magic Tower."
...Edelin?
I was rambling aimlessly, lost in despair, but Edelin seemed genuinely serious. She already knew I had nothing on my mind, but now she was driving the point home.
"When I'm dead, help yourself."
Edelin looked at me intently.
Soon a sheet of paper slid out of her book, and writing began to form on it.
"...So, what you're saying is, I've joined you on your final journey."
Lexi was watching me with a complicated expression.
"Correct. When it's over, I plan to go into seclusion somewhere. If there's truly nothing to do, I'll just kill myself."
"...Running away? Without paying for your sins?"
Paying for sins. Justice differs from person to person.
Both Lexi and I simply lived our lives faithfully. It might be rationalization, but that's what I believe.
"Still. You may see me as a murderer, but every Drekkar soldier who came to Yunaira killed the innocent. They raped, they drank blood, they severed heads, skinned people alive, threatened my family."
"Your side did the same."
"But they aimed their blades at the innocent. I never once pointed my sword at innocents."
She still thought I was in the wrong.
Was that why?
A sense of hurt took hold, followed by a petty thought.
"I thought, as Sii said, that we were in the same position. But it seems I was the only one who thought that."
I glanced at Lexi; she was watching me with that complicated face.
"I thought you, of all people, would understand..."
What am I even saying right now?
I know Lexi likes me, but isn't this too childish?
Edelin held out a contract to me.
...She really meant it.
"Wait...!"
When I signed the contract, it split into two copies, and Edelin handed one to me.
"I mean...!"
Flustered, Lexi couldn't finish her sentence.
It was embarrassing, but also strangely pleasant. Then Lexi's mouth opened again.
"Let's get married."
"Sorry?"
"Get married and live with me."
It took a moment for my stalled thoughts to start moving again.
...What?
What possible train of thought could have led to marriage?
Had she lost her mind?
Maybe maguni had infested her head and she couldn't make a sane judgment.
Edelin scribbled something down and looked at me.
As if asking what I was going to do about it.
"...Have you gone insane?"
"I'm serious. I've been wanting to say this to you."
Lexi grabbed my shoulders and pushed her face close.
Edelin kept darting her eyes between me and the book, shorthand-writing something at speed.
"I gave up everything just for you."
Lexi's face was on the verge of tears.
She was serious...!
If I said it was a joke now, she'd definitely hit me.
She'd beat me half to death.
...What was I supposed to say?
"When this is over, come to Horus with me. Or we could settle down in the Central or North-Central region. We could walk across the Central region, visit the Karijav Maritime Kingdom..."
Lexi babbled incoherently, spouting every tourist destination she could think of.
Her voice gradually grew quieter until, finally, she shut her mouth.
And then she stared at me hard.
"Give me an answer...!"
...Tears were welling in her eyes.
It gave me chills. Mental Alteration was a power that should never have existed.
A person's innocence shouldn't be kneaded like this.
I couldn't even accept the situation in the first place.
Why was I suddenly, and so uncomfortably, forced to discuss marriage and honeymoon destinations with someone I'd only known for months?
I had to refuse... but how do I refuse?
"Um...?"
Lexi looked as though she might die on the spot.
"I'll think about it."
I shut the matter down and pushed Lexi away.
Here I was, being confessed to by the person who'd ruined my life—and actually considering it. Life is truly spectacular.
"Edelin, I have a favor to ask."
"What is it?"
"Could you make Lexi your honored guest?"
The horse was dead.
That also meant there was no way to carry the burdens the horse had borne.
It'd be more efficient if Lexi used District Four as a base too.
"I'd urge you to reconsider. If you cease to be my honored guest, my scope of action on your behalf narrows considerably."
"It's fine."
"How about asking Seths?"
If I did that, he'd undoubtedly play pranks on me from above again.
When I shook my head, Edelin extended her hand toward me.
I felt something slithering up from inside my armor.
The badge that slipped out between the plates landed in Edelin's hand, and she personally pinned it to Lexi's clothing.
Lexi stared blankly at Edelin, then turned to me.
"What about you?"
"I have another one. Thank you, Edelin."
"It was nothing."
Edelin answered quietly and folded her book shut.
Her manner seemed to say we should stop talking and get moving, making it hard to speak further.
And so, a journey that had grown a little lighter began.