Ch.137Chapter 137. The Beginning of Tragedy

Ravin felt as if her heart was being torn apart.

The images shown by Elixir Lin had deeply shocked the thief.

She had witnessed some of these events firsthand.

They were things she had seen while tracking Lin’s movements after settling in Valtercrois.

Others were reports she had received through investigations by members of the Thieves’ Guild.

Even with just that, Ravin had been furious.

She wanted to bring him back immediately.

Her nails dug into her palms as she crumpled the report, but Ravin endured.

Lin, who had always been accommodating and considerate of them, had for the first time firmly insisted that he had something he needed to do.

He had been so resolute that he rejected her offer to go together, so she thought there must be a way.

If it was Lin, he would have a plan.

After all, he was the same Lin who had made that idiot Rinasien his rival in the alleyway and completed his mission.

Because it was Lin, she believed it would surely be possible.

But the method was damned.

He had simply been enduring like a rock in the midst of pain.

But that pain was like venom dripping from a viper’s fangs.

That poison, falling drop by drop onto the rock, had seeped into the cracks and was rotting it from within.

‘What exactly happened all this time? What pain made you so numb?’

She shouldn’t have said those words when they finally reunited in Valtercrois.

Those words she had uttered out of disappointment and concern at his empty, hollow gaze, despite his face, body, and voice remaining the same as Lin’s.

‘You’re like a doll now.’

She felt like tears would pour out.

Ravin gathered strength around her eyes.

The thief knew better than anyone that tears solved nothing.

Whether from anger or sadness, crying changes nothing.

It only makes you stand still in place.

It’s nothing more than pleading for others to recognize you through your sobs, having given up on everything.

She took one step forward.

Elixir noticed Ravin’s movement and looked at her.

With such a sorrowful expression.

She took another step forward.

She applied more pressure around her eyes.

Her vision was already becoming blurry.

Don’t cry, Ravin.

It doesn’t help at all.

She took another step forward.

Even through her blurred vision, she could feel Lin’s desolation.

It was so sad that a single tear rolled down Ravin’s cheek.

There was so much she wanted to say.

Even knowing that Elixir Lin couldn’t answer, she wanted to convey her feelings.

Why hadn’t he told her until now?

Why did he have to hide it even from her?

No, I’m sorry.

I’m sorry for not recognizing it sooner.

I’m sorry for making you endure alone.

Maybe I should have forcibly taken you away back then.

Even if the world was ending soon, I should have stayed with you until the very end.

Truly, there was so much she wanted to say.

She barely managed to take another step forward.

There was too much—too many words rising to her throat—that Ravin couldn’t choose what to say.

She barely opened her lips that had been pressed together, but…

“Ugh…!”

What finally escaped was a sigh mixed with tears.

Ravin stopped in her tracks.

Just one step.

With just one step remaining between her and Elixir Lin, Ravin couldn’t go any further.

The thief covered her face.

Her shoulders heaved greatly.

Tears and sobs seeped through the fingers covering her face.

Airand and Garin could only silently watch her from behind.

Luci and Arsil clutched their dried and painful cheeks and hearts.

“Ravin…”

A miracle happened.

That one step between him and her.

Elixir Lin himself moved forward to close that one step.

He embraced her as she sobbed.

Ravin also hugged his back.

Her shoulders and body still trembling.

More eloquently than a thousand words, this small trembling coming through her fragile form conveyed Ravin’s love and sorrow.

“Don’t cry, Ravin.”

Very slightly,

A small but happy smile formed on Elixir’s contorted lips.

Luci saw that smile clearly.

A smile not directed at her.

A smile he could genuinely make because of that.

She reached out her hand.

She clenched her fist.

Nothing was caught.

How many steps remained between her and Lin?

But these thoughts were drowned out by a scream from behind.

“Naidrian-!!”

It was Tigria.

She rushed forward, calling the archer’s name at the top of her lungs, but she fell.

Luci had never seen Naidrian run with genuine effort before.

Naidrian, a botanist and called the strongest of the Elf race.

Second only to Luci in one-on-one combat, her speed surpassed even the dragon knight’s spear wielder.

In an instant, Naidrian passed by Luci and charged straight toward the space between Elixir Lin and Ravin.

With a scroll of judgment in her hand.

—

Tigria immediately recognized the scroll in Naidrian’s hand.

It was the skill scroll she had lost before coming here.

[Judgment: End of Selfishness]

Skill Description: Shatters the mental state of an unforgivable party member. Reduces magic power or energy or divine power to 0 and prevents recovery forever. Mental breakdown included.

She knew its effect from analyzing the magical symbols written on the scroll.

It was the worst, most terrible skill she had never heard of or seen.

It made even annihilation skills that destroy everything they touch seem cute in comparison.

The skill scroll she had lost for the laughable reason of “dropping it in the wind” was now in Naidrian’s hand.

“Where did you find it?”

“Let go of my hand.”

“Do you know what kind of skill this is?”

“I know. That’s why there’s no other way.”

The mage grabbed the archer’s shoulder to see her face and was startled.

Blood tears were flowing from Naidrian’s eyes.

The thick, sticky blood was staining even the whites of her eyes in places.

“Give it to me, that skill scroll has another use.”

Tigria gripped Naidrian firmly.

“No, this is right.”

“Who are you trying to use it on!”

Tigria tensed at the strangely calm tone.

She immediately cast a binding spell to connect her arm with Naidrian’s shoulder and tried to persuade her.

“Let’s not give up and look for another way. Then we’ll find a clue.”

“I’ve already seen it. I never gave up. I saw not a clue but the future, and this is the answer.”

“Give it to me.”

Tigria wouldn’t back down.

“Lin entrusted that to me directly.”

“Then you should have guarded it better.”

“This isn’t the time to argue…”

[Damn it! You doll! What the hell are you doing? What’s happening with the chains!]

‘The chains are still not even one…’

[We’re at our limit here! With all those people who went in, they should have been on their knees or bowing their heads by now, what have you been doing all this time!]

Denaruah’s sudden telepathic message.

His voice sounded extremely urgent.

The dual swordsman, who rarely tired even on the demon army front, was even panting.

Something serious was happening outside as well.

She never thought those dragon knights would be struggling against mere shield knights.

[That shield knight is trying to destroy Lin’s mental world! Already Salamei and Adora…]

The telepathic message cut off.

Both inside and outside were urgent situations.

Tigria anxiously turned her head toward Elixir.

And that’s when she saw it.

Ravin who had stopped approaching Elixir.

Him moving toward her instead, embracing her as she covered her face and sobbed.

“Ah…”

An unfathomable, heavy emotion surged through Tigria’s heart.

Why…?

I want to be by your side too.

Why…?

I didn’t know.

I simply didn’t know.

Until I learned love from you, I didn’t know…

She acknowledged the depth of her sin.

But compared to the others…?

I want to see your smile too.

A smile directed at me.

Why not me?

I held back in front of Luci, held back in front of you, bowed lower than anyone else, and tried so hard to be helpful… so why not me…?

Jealousy swirled and shook the usually calm Tigria to her core.

A doll harboring jealousy she had no right to feel.

The doll, desperate for affection in her newly learned love, was ultimately consumed by that emotion.

As the 2nd Mage had warned her, she was consumed by the greed called love.

That greed broke Tigria’s concentration.

At the same time, the binding spell connecting her to Naidrian dissolved.

This led to an irreversible mistake.

Naidrian darted out like the wind.

“Naidrian-!!”

The belated call was useless as the archer, already at point-blank range, pushed Ravin away from Elixir.

And then the skill scroll tearing toward him.

[Judgment: End of Selfishness]

Very briefly and intensely, light flashed.

That was all.

Elixir Lin, who hadn’t even realized what was happening, gradually became aware of the change coming over him and said with an expression of disbelief:

“You fool, what have you done?”

Kugugung-

The chains wrapping around his heart began to rust red.

“Can you handle this?”

“…I’ve already decided.”

Shedding blood tears, Naidrian twisted her lips pitifully.

Looking at her with sorrowful eyes, Elixir’s body slowly began to disintegrate.