Chapter 112: The Price of Resurrection (1)

[112] 17. The Price of Resurrection (1)

(Rosalia, holding Rem’s head, sobs.

Dorn silently watches them.

Feya, having woken up, stares at Rem’s corpse with despair.)

(Everyone mourns.)

(Narrator enters)

Narrator: Thus ends the life of an unfortunate man. A rather fitting end, in a way.

As his name suggests, he was the sacrificial *ram* (Lamb) of this story.

And as everyone knows, sacrificial lambs are for rituals. We offer their bodies to the gods to receive something in return.

Things like prosperity, fertility, or perhaps eternal power.

And so, a question remains.

What was Rem sacrificed for?

(Narrator exits)

(Dorn carefully approaches Rosalia.)

Dorn: Rosalia, I know you’re grieving, but… We need to leave this place, right now.

(Rosalia does not answer.)

Dorn: (Sighs) If what Adolf said is true, Louis will be coming for us soon.

Rosalia: Let him come.

Dorn: Rosalia…

Rosalia: I’m not moving a single step from here.

(Dorn is silent.

Rosalia, with empty eyes, sheds tears.)

Rosalia: It’s all my fault. I killed Rem. I…

(Rosalia pulls out the Dragon King’s Essence from her clothes.)

Rosalia: Because of this stupid stone…

(Rosalia’s tears fall onto the Dragon King’s Essence.)

(And then, something strange happens.)

(The Dragon King’s Essence, touched by her tears, begins to glow. At the same time, Rem’s heart, which Feya had been holding, scatters.)

Feya: (Screams) No! No!!

(The scattered pieces of Rem’s heart are absorbed into the Dragon King’s Essence.)

(The Dragon King’s Essence, shining like a star, returns to its original form.)

Dorn: It’s… fixed…? (His expression hardens.) But what good is it now? There’s nothing left to prove, nothing left to reclaim…

Rosalia: A wish.

(Rosalia’s eyes gleam with fervor.)

Rosalia: The, the Dragon King’s Essence grants wi-wishes…! It said it would grant any one wish you desire…!

Feya: (With a hopeful expression) Is that true?

Rosalia: That’s what the ancient texts said! Maybe, just maybe…

(A fairy appears.

Everyone present prostrates themselves on the ground.)

Fairy:

Morning has come! The sun after 200 years!

Who has awakened me from my slumber?

Who has offered a heart to me, wishing for a miracle?

Rosalia: It, it was me!

Fairy:

Ah! It is the descendant of the one who killed me!

How ironic fate can be!

The descendant of my murderer has become my savior.

Did the missing Goddess

foresee even this and make me swear that oath?

How frustrating!

To face the descendant of my enemy,

And be unable to do anything!

Rosalia: (Trembling) Y-You can kill me… Bu-But please grant my wish.

Fairy:

Ah, woe is me! I resent it!

Though I wish to turn away, an ancient oath binds me!

An oath has been considered sacred,

Since the birth of heaven and earth.

How could I, the Goddess’s most devout servant,

Not keep it!

You, descendant of my enemy,

Speak your wish!

I can grant you gold enough to fill the oceans,

A body that will not wither even after a thousand years.

Even eternal power is within my grasp!

So speak!

Rosalia: I do not wish for wealth, youth, or power.

What I want is the resurrection of this man.

He was my everything. Please, return him to my arms once more.

(The fairy is silent.

Then, suddenly, bursts into laughter. The laughter shakes heaven and earth.)

Rosalia: Wh-Why…?

Fairy:

Can you grasp

The wind that has passed?

Can you gather

The rain that has fallen and return it to the clouds?

The grown tree

Cannot return to being a sapling,

And the caterpillar that has become a butterfly

Can no longer eat leaves.

You hold out a lump of flesh to me,

And ask me to turn it into a man!

Rosalia: But…!

Fairy:

O soul that hast gone far away!

How can I hold thee?

How can I find thee?

You have already left the Goddess’s embrace,

The pains of this world shall torment thee no more.

Rest, O soul! Rest!

(Rosalia is enraged.)

Rosalia: This is a sham! Didn’t you say you would grant my wish! You promised to give me what I desired!

Fairy:

O insolent one!

How can you ask me for what you have lost!

How dost thou ask of me that which is impossible!

The cycle of life and death,

Is something even the yearning Goddess cannot easily touch.

I, too, am but a creation of the Goddess,

How can I interfere with such things?

O you, death is not an enemy,

But the final gate of life.

Rosalia: No…! No…! It’s a lie! It’s all lies!!

Fairy:

Abandon your futile dreams

And tell me your true wish!

Rosalia: Shut up! Shut the fuck up!! Just die! All of you just die!!

***

“And Rosalia cried for three days and three nights.”

The all-knowing witch, Skuld, closed the book she had been reading. Not because it was the end of the story. She had already memorized the ending.

Memorizing the ending was, in many ways, more convenient.

*The Porter’s Tale*, the elegant letters on the book’s cover.

“Meanwhile, Dorn, having completed his revenge, returned to his mercenary group. Feya, with a dead heart, returned to the Great Divide to find a way to resurrect Rem.”

Skuld placed the worn-out book back on the shelf. Her voice was laced with fatigue as she continued.

“But even alone, Rosalia continued to cry. Even when her tears ran out and blood flowed, she did not stop crying.”

“And when she finally collapsed on the floor, her strength exhausted. Only then did Rosalia make a wish.”

Skuld closed her eyes.

“Revenge. Revenge on everyone who had taken her love away from her.”

“And the fairy granted her wish.”

“Rosalia killed everyone who stood in her way and became Emperor. And then, she found everyone who had harmed her love and made them pay.”

“But there was an end to revenge. When she had taken revenge on everyone. When she had even impaled Feya’s neck on a spear and hung it. Rosalia realized that she had nothing left.”

“That she no longer had a reason to live.”

“That night, Rosalia’s white toes dangled in the air, tracing small circles clockwise.”

“And so died the last of the Imperial bloodline.”

Skuld let out a deep sigh and took a sip of her tea. But the bitterness lingering in her mouth didn’t disappear.

It wasn’t surprising.

She had just sealed Rosalia’s miserable fate.

Skuld’s gaze turned to the window.

Of course, from her cabin, she couldn’t see Rosalia, let alone the Essier Mountains.

But even so, Skuld could clearly picture Rosalia.

By now, Rosalia would be holding Rem’s head and weeping.

In an hour, the Dragon King’s Essence would be fixed.

And with that, Rosalia would begin her tragic journey.

“But it was necessary.”

Skuld muttered as if making excuses.

Rosalia would go on to kill more than ten thousand people. And among them were Charles, Shafiq, and Adelia.

Charles, the Grand Mage who ushered in the era of magical engineering.

Shafiq, the monster who burned down the World Tree.

And Adelia, the new Saint of the Church.

The three figures who would truly lead this world a hundred years from now.

To deal with those three in the safest way possible, and to minimize the backlash of fate, she had no choice but to use Rosalia’s hand.

That’s why Skuld made Adolf crown prince. She gave him the earring of illusion, and shot Rem with an arrow from the Memory Tree. She guided Adolf and Sheila.

She had designed this entire tragedy with her own hands.

All to protect this world.

Skuld leaned back in her chair, breathing in and out.

Probably, her mother, her grandmother, even her great-grandmother, they must have also done things like this.

After all, her family was created for this very purpose. By the hero Alain.

Prophets who, through a book where fate was written, prevented the world from flowing towards destruction.

It couldn’t be a more terrible destiny.

Skuld looked at her rotting hands and smiled bitterly, the price she had to pay for this.

Then, suddenly, remembering a man who had also lost his hand, she smiled slightly.

Rem.

A character who had suddenly appeared in the book where this world’s fate was written, 20 years ago.

Brought to this world for an unknown reason, he had completely rewritten this story.

The one who had somewhat softened what was originally a more cruel story,

by taking all the misfortune upon himself.

True to his name, he had played the role of the sacrificial lamb perfectly.

If it hadn’t been for him…

*Knock, knock, knock.*

At the sound of knocking, Skuld straightens her posture. Her eyes were full of questions.

There was nothing in the ‘book’ about a visitor coming at this time.

Skuld hesitated for a moment before getting up.

Because the ‘book’ wasn’t a perfect prophecy. There were many things, especially trivial matters, that weren’t written in the ‘book.’

“Coming…!”

Skuld let her guard down and walked towards the front door.

*Creaak-*

And then, one world split in two.

—

“Hello…?”

There was no one outside the front door.

Skuld looked around with questioning eyes. But all she could see was the violet forest.

Not even a shadow of a person was in sight.

“…Did I mishear?”

Skuld scratched her head and went back inside.

Then she walked toward the bookshelf and pulled out a new book.

Her fate, after all, would not end until this world came to an end.

—

“…Hello?”

The first thing that caught her eye were the tattoos covering both arms.

Then, a stiff smile and an unnecessarily flashy men’s tailcoat come into view.

Skuld felt her wariness coming alive as she opened her mouth.

“Who are…”

A primitive form of pistol was pointed at her forehead.

*BANG-*

Skuld’s body fell to the ground. Blood flowed from the hole in her forehead, staining the floor.

“Eek…!”

Betty Ailleyde let out a terrified sound and dropped the pistol. She turned her body as if about to run away at any moment.

However, just as she was about to flee, her body suddenly stiffens.

As if someone had stopped her.

“Ye-Yes…! I understand… Goddess…”

Betty mumbled in a trembling voice. Then, she carefully stepped over Skuld’s corpse.

“So, sorry… I’m sorry…!”

Betty stepped over Skuld’s body while sobbing. Her footsteps stopped in front of the bookshelf.

Betty pulled out a subspace pocket and then began sweeping all the books on the shelves into it.

All the books where this world’s fate was written were swallowed into the black pouch.

It didn’t take long to empty the entire bookshelf. After putting the subspace pocket, now full of books, into her clothes, Betty let out a deep sigh.

And then, she looked in the direction of the Essier Mountains.

“Now the last thing left is…”

***

“Shut up! Shut the fuck up!! Just die! All of you just die!!”

Rosalia screamed at the fairy before her. Tears streamed down her face as she shouted in a broken voice.

“Bring him back! Bring him back right now…!”

“Uhm… The timing seems a bit off again, but…”

An unfamiliar voice.

Everyone present turns their gaze to one place.

Betty, who instantly drew everyone’s attention.

She scratched her cheek awkwardly and opened her mouth.

“Actually, I know a way to bring someone back to life…”