Chapter 139: Isabel’s Question

Time flows differently inside the Demonic Palace compared to the outside world.
This is something I’ve mentioned once before.
Time within the Demonic Palace changes drastically depending on the floor.
Because of that, not much time passes outside compared to the time spent descending through the palace.
The reason time differs on each floor of the Demonic Palace is simple.
It’s to extend the maturation period of the Apostles who reach the lower levels.
Three days on the 2nd floor, seven days on the 3rd, fifteen on the 4th, and thirty on the 5th.
Up to the 5th floor, time can be roughly measured.
But starting from the 6th floor, the variation becomes much greater.
45 days on the 6th floor.
100 days on the 7th.
180 days on the 8th.
365 days on the 9th.
We’re currently on the 8th floor.
One day outside equals 180 days in here.
The flow of time between us and the surface is completely different, with a gap of 180 days.
Thankfully, physical aging doesn’t occur in the Demonic Palace.
This feature might be meant for the Apostles, but it also applies to people.
It’s been one month and one week since Isabel and I were caught in the palace transfer and isolated.
Compared to how we cleared the 9th floor in just a week, it’s already been a month and we’ve barely made it halfway through this one.
The 8th floor is a place where strangely shaped buildings, unlike anything in the real world, are bizarrely interconnected.
Beneath the towering buildings that seem to touch the sky flows a purple river.
Strangely, the purple river regularly shoots up into the sky in a dragon-like surge.
Because it has strong acidity, even slight contact can melt skin.
You absolutely have to avoid it when the river surges.
8th floor, the Skyscraper of the Apostles.
The most dangerous floor in the Demonic Palace, structured as a never-ending maze-like fortress.
We’ve faced life-threatening danger five times here.
The closest call was just a moment ago.
The 8th floor’s named Apostle, the Elixir of Life.
The Elixir of Life has the ability to absorb life the moment it touches you.
Since its body is made of liquid, physical attacks are useless.
Which means that both Isabel’s and my attacks are essentially ineffective against it.
In the end, I barely managed to escape by using Lightning Catcher.
Isabel and I both gasped for breath at the same time.
It was the aftermath of barely escaping a fierce battle with the Elixir of Life.
“Haah, huu, sorry, it’s because of me.”
Isabel said, barely catching her breath.
During the battle, Isabel took a desperate gamble to escape.
But she had already spent a month and a week constantly exhausting her stamina.
That lack of stamina ended up becoming a trap and put her in danger.
I can tell she’s grown thinner than before.
We’ve had no rest, and I can’t even remember the last time we properly slept.
Despite that, we kept pushing forward, and as a result, both fat and muscle burned away.
The human body consumes its stored nutrients to survive.
No matter how rigorously Isabel and I trained, we’re still human.
At least men have more muscle mass, so they hold up better, but women don’t have the same muscle composition.
If both are subjected to the same level of exertion and fatigue, it’s only natural that the woman would weaken first.
“Isabel, eat this.”
I rummaged through the bag and handed her jerky and biscuits with my right hand.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re really not. If you lose any more energy, you’ll collapse and won’t be able to get up.”
“I said I’m fine. And besides, it’s the same for you, isn’t it?”
Isabel said this as she tried to hand the jerky and biscuits back to me.

But both of us were drained of strength.
Our hands bumped into each other, and the jerky fell to the floor.
We barely managed to keep the biscuits from falling.
If they had dropped, they would’ve been crushed.
When Isabel saw this, she bit her lip and apologized.
“Sorry.”
It was a situation that came from trying to be considerate of each other while in a sensitive state.
I pushed the biscuit into Isabel’s mouth.
In the end, Isabel had no choice but to accept and eat it.
“Make sure to drink some water too.”
I said that as I reached for the fallen jerky with my left hand.
But I froze in place, just leaning my body forward.
Then, quickly, I stretched out my right hand to pick up the jerky.
Isabel, who was chewing the biscuit, silently watched the scene.
Her eyes gradually widened, and then she rushed over to me.
“You—!”
“What? Did you want the jerky that badly?”
“That’s not it at all!”
Isabel wrapped her arms around my left shoulder and arm.
Then she pulled up the clothes that had been covering it.
What was revealed in that moment was a left arm that had turned pitch black.
As if it had lost all vitality, my arm didn’t move at all.
Just as I thought, that movement earlier gave it away.
Isabel’s face turned completely pale.
Her eyes trembled violently as she looked at me.
“…You touched the Elixir of Life when you were saving me, didn’t you.”
Right before Isabel made contact with the Elixir of Life—
I summoned Lightning Catcher and rushed toward her.
In that process, I grabbed her and pulled her in close, and a fragment of the Elixir splashed onto my left arm.
Even I didn’t expect that just a small fragment would cause this.
Because of that, I can’t lift my left shoulder at all now.
It’s just completely blackened, without any reaction.
The price of having the life drained from my left arm by that thing.
“It’s fine. The Elixir’s effect only works within the same floor. Once we move on to the 7th floor, it’ll resolve itself.”
My power has weakened, but it won’t stop me from moving forward.
When I told Isabel this, her body began to tremble.
“If we use the Goddess’s Wings—”
“That’s not an option.”
I immediately rejected her suggestion to use the Goddess’s Wings.
“Your Goddess’s Wings are the final trump card.”
The 7th floor that lies beyond the 8th.
There is a gatekeeper stationed there.
A gatekeeper who always guards that spot, allowing no one to enter or leave.
To defeat him, we’ll need a power as strong as Isabel’s Goddess’s Wings.
Isabel’s stamina had noticeably declined.
If she used the Goddess’s Wings in this condition, we’d have no way of advancing through the 7th floor.
“Until then, Isabel, you absolutely have to preserve your Goddess’s Wings. If we can just make it to the 7th floor, we’ll find a way to regroup with the advance team.”
At the current level of the students from Zeryon Academy, I’m sure they can reach the 7th floor.
I believe in them.
That’s why I’m determined to make it to the 7th floor no matter what.
I stretched out my right hand, chewing and swallowing the jerky.
The sweetness of the jerky spread through my mouth, and I felt energy returning.
I originally meant to give it to Isabel, but now I have to show her that I’m definitely going to survive.

So I made my determination clear in front of her.
“Isabel, in this situation, getting hurt is inevitable. But one thing’s certain—we will make it out of the Palace alive.”
Our food supply is depleting quickly.
We can’t afford to waste strength by lingering here.
I reaffirmed my resolve once more.
“Let’s go.”
“……”
Isabel looked like she had a lot to say, but she held it in.
Questions can wait until we’re out.
What we need now is strong mutual trust.
So Isabel and I moved forward.

* * *

At the point where one-third of the path to the 7th floor remained, our food was nearly gone.
Usually, the rearguard—located in the safest position—holds the supplies.
As the vanguard, the two of us naturally carried less.
But we had somewhat anticipated this.
Luckily, I knew about the ecosystem of the 8th floor.
Since the Palace has an ecosystem to some degree, there are things that can be eaten.
Though most of those things do have some side effects on the body, it’s still better than starving.
But finding food while avoiding the eyes of the Apostles was trickier than expected.
Around us, beasts released by the Apostles roamed constantly.
If they spotted us, battle was inevitable.
If we failed to eliminate them quickly, it was certain they’d summon an Apostle.
So we couldn’t afford to let our guard down.
I roasted the mushrooms we managed to gather using flames from the magic inscription on my fingertip, and chewed them.
These mushrooms had a downside—numbing toxins that dulled taste—but we couldn’t be picky.
As long as it filled our stomachs, we had to eat it.
Whatever problems that caused, we could fix after escaping.
Isabel also chewed on the mushrooms along with me.
No matter what I brought back, she ate it without a trace of doubt.
What she knew about the 8th floor only went as far as the named Apostle.
So she completely trusted me in these matters.
She never once asked how I knew all this in such detail.
During breaks, she simply kept staring at my left arm—the one injured by the Elixir of Life.
It had already been nearly two months since we were transported here.
Isabel and I had helped each other this far.
That’s why this injury was entirely due to my own carelessness.
If I had assessed the situation more thoroughly before acting, I wouldn’t have been hurt.
“Isabel, let’s rest here for today.”
A spot where the Apostles’ paths didn’t overlap due to the way they patrolled.
We decided to rest there, backs to the wall.
In about a week, we’d reach the entrance to the 7th floor.
We had come this far.
Just a little longer and we’d make it.
“You.”
Isabel sat beside me.
We were seated as close as possible, almost touching.
It was so that the moment one of us sensed something, we could both react immediately.
Her shoulder was touching my right one.
She pulled her knees to her chest and opened her dry lips.
“Can I ask you a few things?”
Isabel, who had never asked me a single thing until now.
She could’ve waited until we were out to ask what she was curious about.

With that thought, she had swallowed all her questions until now.
But as time passed and our food ran out, and my left arm remained motionless for a long time, Isabel also reached her physical limit.
Her frail body could be clearly felt.
Maybe that’s why she decided she couldn’t postpone her questions to the future anymore.
If she didn’t ask now, she might never get the chance again.
That’s what she was thinking.
I could sense just how uneasy Isabel truly was.
But I didn’t point it out right now.
“I’m a man with a lot of secrets, you know.”
“You’re still joking at a time like this… That’s so like you.”
Isabel’s head gently bumped against my shoulder.
“But right now, I want you to answer me seriously.”
What is it that she wants to ask?
Isabel had always carried countless questions about me.
Our relationship was one centered around the figure named Lucas.
A relationship that started with me insulting Lucas.
“The first day you came to the Academy…”
Though I had kept up the act all this time, eventually, the truth comes out.
Isabel had looked at me more directly than anyone.
“That day you insulted Lucas—did you do that for my sake?”
“……”
I had known for a while that she held this question.
Those perceptive people around her had realized it long ago.
Even if she herself had looked away, there’s no way she didn’t notice.
It was just that she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
And now, she had finally brought that question to me.
But I couldn’t get the words out.
As I said before, the relationship between Isabel and me is extremely complicated.
It’s a relationship built on countless layered emotions—so tangled that the thread seems impossible to unravel.
I’ve played Blazing Butterfly more times than I can count.
But even I couldn’t predict how answering this would change my relationship with Isabel.
Beyond this point lies the unknown.
A world I know nothing about.
“It wasn’t for you. It was for me.”
Hearing my answer, Isabel looked up at me.
“…Really?”
“……”
She asked me not to lie—only to tell her the truth.
And what I said wasn’t a lie.
But it wasn’t the whole truth either.
Because yes, it was partly for her too.
“You know, I’ve been watching you more carefully than you think.”
Isabel, who would often stare at me.
Her gaze was sometimes so intense, it felt overwhelming.
“And every time, I kept wondering. Why would someone like you say those things that day? And for what reason would you go that far for someone like me, who meant nothing to you?”
She must’ve agonized over it in her own way.
But I doubt she ever came to a clear answer.
Because I am Hanon Airei.
And she had never had any prior connection to Hanon.
But—
“Your ability to freely change your appearance.”
She had seen it twice.
Once as Vikarmern, once as Hania.
“Every time I saw that power, I kept thinking—maybe you’re not actually Hanon after all.”
On top of that, she had once faced the real Hanon.
Things the real Hanon said to her—things I don’t know.
So of course, her suspicions grew.
“I’ve definitely met you before.”
At some point, her hand gripped the collar of my shirt tightly.
Her sun-like eyes trembled violently.
That gaze was so intense, even I couldn’t look away.
“Who are you, really?”
Her voice trembled with longing.
“Who are you, that you brought me back—and stood me up again?”
It was the question she had carried with her ever since the end of our second year.
And now, she had finally thrown that question at me, head-on.