Chapter 919 - A Lethal Temptation
Rem spoke to Enkrid, who lay still on the bed.
Though he was unconscious, Rem hoped his words would somehow reach him.
"You know I can't even use my shamanism if you go like this, right? So you'd better wake up."
Regardless of whether the words reached him or not, it was also something Rem repeated to himself.
Infusing life force into someone dying from a hole in their stomach wouldn't bring them back to life.
'At best, he'd turn into an evil spirit.'
In that case, it was better to let him die.
Rem knew that, so he didn't intervene.
That bastard Ragna was also laid out, near death.
Rem's gaze lingered on Ragna for a moment before dropping.
That bastard also had sword marks all over his body, but not enough to die immediately.
Well, a normal person might have died, but he was a guy with life force overflowing in a knight's body.
The wound on his stomach wasn't healing to a strange degree, but it meant he could endure with sheer willpower.
So that Ragna bastard was fine.
Only the Captain was on the verge of death.
"Still the same?"
Krang entered the tent and asked.
"Why ask."
Rem answered without even turning his head.
His attitude towards the King of a nation was a mess, but no one here would fault him for it.
"You've come, King Brother."
Audin was the same.
He was wiping blood and changing bandages while examining the Captain's condition.
The bandages were red.
Even though he applied pressure to stop the blood gushing out, sometimes blood surged up.
When Ragna first came carrying Enkrid while bleeding everywhere, everyone used all the means they had to save him.
Krang poured the royal family's secret medicine onto the wound, wasting that precious medicine on the field bed.
Rem tried casting a few spells then gave up, and the entire priesthood including Audin and Theresa poured out divinity, but all of it was useless.
"It wasn't inflicted by a monster."
If he had been attacked by a demon or monster, treatment would have been possible even if there was a rejection reaction to divinity.
His stomach was pierced purely by a sword strike, and whatever trick was used, the wound only worsened as time passed.
Watching this entire situation, Rem thought time was insufficient.
If given a month, they might find a solution, but by then, Enkrid would already be dead and his flesh rotting.
'Don't bullshit me. Dying like this?'
Irritation soared in Rem.
Audin's inner thoughts were no different from Rem's.
'Just have to find the principle of why it's rejecting divinity and dig into it.'
Time is insufficient.
Both reached the same conclusion but didn't voice it.
Saying useless words in the current situation was meaningless.
The strange thing was that anyone could have blamed Ragna, but everyone including Rem kept their mouths shut.
Everyone knew.
That Enkrid wasn't a person to fight while receiving someone's protection, and that Ragna wasn't a guy to just take a beating passively.
They also knew that words or feelings of resentment weren't needed here.
"They fought while someone was blocking the noise with magic. Since it was near the Demonic Realm, it wasn't a patrol route for soldiers either."
Ingis took the role of grasping the situation, and the rest became spectators.
Shinar sat at Enkrid's bedside looking at him.
Already the second day keeping her seat without sleeping.
"My dear, I am waiting."
Shinar muttered.
"There is no way you die here."
Luagarne also spoke from the foot of the bed.
Themares was calmer than all of them, but that didn't mean he enjoyed the current situation.
'Dying here?'
Throughout his entire life, the most interesting person.
Probably a great figure hard to meet again.
Five days passed just like that.
Everyone knew.
Enkrid would die.
Breathing shallowly on the bed unsuitably, he would close his eyes.
His end would be on a field bed, not a battlefield.
Except for Krang among those present, everyone was skilled at killing people.
If they couldn't do anything about that wound right now, he dies.
That fact didn't change.
Surviving five days was a miracle.
They had a premonition of Enkrid's end.
"Dying."
Cypress recited.
No one argued with those words.
Instead, only revealed their resolve.
"I will find who it is. Definitely."
Rem said.
"I will send him to the Lord's side too so you can compete against him in heaven."
Audin also opened his mouth.
It was self-evident who the person to be sent to the Lord's side mentioned here was.
Fire lit in Fel and Roford's eyes too.
A blazing fire.
Embers that wouldn't extinguish before dying.
The knight order that would have shaken as soon as Enkrid disappeared in the past, now united with a single will.
"Right, we must find the one. Fiancé, go ahead first. Since we will meet again soon."
Shinar quietly stroked Enkrid's hair.
On the fifth day, Enkrid closed and opened his eyes three or four times.
Each time, he only cast a blurry gaze.
Then, opening his eyes again now, he spoke with a clearer voice than before.
"...Not yet."
What?
Rem blinked his eyes.
What is he saying?
This crazy Captain bastard.
"...Indeed."
Cypress admired.
Clearly his breath is about to be cut off any second.
Even so, what is he meaning by saying not yet.
He was revealing the will not to give up, saying he would not die.
"Right, not yet. Enki, the world we wish for hasn't come."
Krang said.
"It is not your time to die."
The Dragonkin also muttered.
"Fight. Enki, fight to the end."
Luagarne revealed a vain hope unlike a Frog.
"Rejecting God's touch?"
Audin also asked with hope.
Leaning once again on the miracles he had shown so far.
But there was no miracle.
Enkrid breathed his last breath on the bed.
Theresa shed tears.
Dunbakel repeated words like 'He is faking right? Not right?' with eyes having lost focus, and Shinar, instead of crying, grasped her blade with bare hands bleeding and said.
"I will take an oath."
Enkrid heard such words in his last breath.
He didn't yet know if he was just delaying yet again or if he was already dead while meeting the Ferryman around the boundary of life and death.
So he asked.
"Am I dead?"
Ask if curious.
Truly a simple way of thinking.
"A mental state hard to tell if dull or bold."
The Ferryman lamented and said.
"Yes, you died. On the fifth day after getting stabbed."
The worst result the Ferryman thought.
Dying while lying in bed means only repeating death endlessly embracing that wound.
If there is something more painful than dying stabbed by a sword or burning to death, it would be a death like now.
Dying while writhing in continued pain.
Dying without time or energy to resist.
So it is said it was the worst, but is that a statement applicable to everyone?
Usually yes, but not for Enkrid.
"Ah."
A short lament was all the sentiment Enkrid showed.
Then talking to himself.
"Did they not understand me because I was half out of my mind."
As soon as he heard he died, he looked for a way.
Started by grasping the situation ruminating alone.
If the end is a cliff, walk by building a bridge.
That was the human named Enkrid.
"Indeed."
The Ferryman burst into laughter at those words.
Since it was clear he was a human drawing admiration naturally.
"You died because the gaping wound didn't heal."
For some reason, the Ferryman leisurely gave the answer Enkrid wanted.
"Will you struggle?"
Then asked.
Enkrid looked at him with eyes asking why was he even asking.
The Ferryman answered.
"Right, try it."
Becoming a spectator now?
Couldn't tell.
The time regaining consciousness briefly between pain and death.
That short moment, which couldn't be called a long time let alone a day, was the time given to Enkrid.
He struggled even in that time.
Opens eyes.
Pain strikes the whole body, and Rem, Shinar, and others entered his eyes.
'Why do I die?'
The start was identifying the problem.
Due to the Ferryman, time to think was sufficient.
Like that, after the second death.
"Give up."
At the words spoken by the Ferryman who barely even tried to convince him, Enkrid waved his hand.
A gesture telling him not to talk and just stay still.
"...A bastard I want to beat to death."
Part of the Ferryman's personality muttered.
Enkrid ignored that too.
'What can I do?'
Do hands and feet move?
No, they don't.
Right.
Can't move hands and feet right now, and must do something in an extremely short time while lying in bed.
'Can't see anything.'
Felt like being trapped in a dark coffin with whole body bound.
Felt like falling down a distant cliff, not a wall.
Feet floating bung and back felt empty.
Simultaneously feeling stifled.
Contradictory suffering ate away at the mind.
"Give up."
Occasionally the Ferryman came out and spoke.
Enkrid ignored those words perfectly.
Didn't even perceive them.
Not letting it in one ear and out the other, but not listening at all.
"Is this bastard not even listening to me?"
Even when the Ferryman asked, he was engrossed in thought.
He can barely open his eyes for a very short moment.
That was all he had done so far.
If not for the dream shared with the Ferryman, wouldn't have had leisure to think.
'So is it the end?'
No.
Since the brain rolls even when awake not in a dream, I can think.
Senses are maintained even if hands and feet don't move.
Escaping from haziness is the first thing to be done.
Without properly perceiving one's state, there is no solution either.
Eliminate ambiguity and grasp clearly.
To perceive the body's state in reality, not a dream.
'Must accept pain.'
Haziness is the mind's escape to forget the load on the body.
A reflexive and unconscious defense mechanism.
His experience of repeating countless todays and dying again and again shone this time too.
'Death.'
Face the gradually approaching death and perceive pain.
"Wek."
Because he couldn't count properly, Enkrid gave up counting the days.
He used all that attention and concentration solely to perceive and accept pain.
Struggled to maintain even a slightly clear mind.
Enkrid vomited blood and accepted the despair starting from his stomach.
Pain rushes through the whole body.
Along with pain, strength drains from the whole body.
The exhaustion felt when using up all Will seemed cute.
Compared to the helplessness felt now.
'Helpless.'
Can do nothing.
Death is something to accept.
Not something to overcome.
'No.'
Not dead yet.
Even if there is no thread-like hope.
Even if a wall with no end in sight blocks the front.
Even if knowing reached the edge of a cliff.
Moved forward somehow.
Same this time.
"What can you do in a situation where you can't move a finger?"
An illusion appeared and asked.
The illusion's appearance resembled him.
The himself who eventually gave up and collapsed.
A guy with dark circles under eyes, lost luster, rough skin, and wearing a worn-out coat likely to smell bad.
A guy rolling around drunk on cheap joy and alcohol in a gambling house all night, then waking up and sprawling in the shade avoiding sunlight.
To him, sunlight is not warmth nor comfort.
Just something stinging eyes and causing dizziness.
An appearance collapsed staying in the past, yesterday not today, today not tomorrow.
"Accept helplessness."
The Ferryman appeared in the spot where the illusion scattered and spoke.
Was it a trick he played because Enkrid ignored him again?
Or an illusion seen because helplessness was perceived.
"A proposal made in a truly long time."
The Ferryman spoke consecutively.
This time, a proposal impossible to ignore.
"I will return the start of your life. To just before meeting that guy."
Not human if not tempted.
"But you won't be able to escape that today."
Will you continue to struggle in the painful today?
Or return to the peaceful day.
Most humans would sell even their souls if they could return.
The Ferryman's proposal was, as always, a lethal temptation.
***
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