episode_0118

When my throat became hoarse and cracked and I could no longer scream, tears began to flow uncontrollably out of helplessness.

I cried for a while.

Even though my tear ducts were dried and swollen.

This was the first time I knew that people could shed dry tears.

─This guy is a master of tricks. Tell me your situation. There might be a clue in there.

The transparent eyes of the root snake look at me without filtering.

······I don’t know anything anymore.

I don’t care about everything.

I laughed.

“···My mother was sick. I couldn’t fix it. After being diagnosed as terminally ill, my mother had to have her stomach pierced to drain bile. The family tried to save money to take him to the hospital, but his mother calmly prepared for the end.”

I couldn’t understand my mother.

even alittle.

“If he just cried, I could have cried with him, but I couldn’t sympathize with why he accepted death so easily. I couldn’t sympathize, so we always fought. Why do you want to die? Why are you so stubborn? I didn’t want to fight, but since I didn’t know why, I didn’t know how to comfort him. I was so frustrated like that. So I took my anger out on my mother.”

─Did he take advantage of that?

“Yes. At first I thought he was a fraud. But then I found out he was the devil. It was so scary… that I naturally declined the contract. But, it’s really ironic. The devil is the devil… but the devil comforted me?”

I didn’t believe him then!

I couldn’t believe it!

“I am normal. It is said that souls have an attractive force that attracts each other, so they can be together in the afterlife. It was so comforting to hear that from the mouth of the devil… I felt like I had met an authority on the afterlife.”

What Root Snake said is right.

The devil was a human-like devil.

“Of course… but it didn’t take long for my mother to realize that she couldn’t accept the end.

I was stupid.

Who can honestly accept death?

If it’s difficult for you, then of course it’s difficult for others…

My mother did not accept death.

I couldn’t accept it and was afraid.

I was scared!

Only alone───!

······I was alone in the bathroom, shaking, covering my mouth, and crying alone. Because I’m scared of dying…!

My mother was as worried about money as she was about death.

Why do people think about money the same way, whether when they are healthy or when they are sick? Money is meant to be used in these situations, right?!”

······I am.

“I couldn’t stand it. With a hose attached to his waist and a pack containing bile in his pocket… he was preparing a meal without showing any signs of it. It looked unbearably sad.”

I spilled all my secrets.

I felt sick to my stomach and couldn’t bear it without throwing up.

Now, everything will be decided by that dragon.

─I finally signed a contract. I need to point this out first. You are not a native of this world, are you?

···I hate everything now.

I want to die. I’m going to die. still. Even so.

On this foolish day, I wish even that dragon would understand.

I caught my breath.

And then, I spoke what would become my last words.

“Yes. That distant blue star. It comes from Earth. Are you going to kill me?”

─······I have no intention of doing that.

······I won’t kill you. You can kill me. I wish you would kill me.

The root snake fluttered about, then fell silent.

And only after a long time has passed does he open his mouth again.

“As Dantalian said, the soul has attractive power. We pull each other.”

···In other words, what I did was crazy.

A sense of shame comes over me. There was laughter at the end.

“···Haha! I think it would have been better for the family to commit suicide together! If that were the case, I would have been able to see my mother again in the afterlife! If that were the case, would you have met your mother again as friends?!”

Crazy bastard.

What were you thinking when you signed a contract you couldn’t even read?!

It’s not like he’s an old man, he just brushes it off because the other person is trustworthy, so it’s like this! You fucking idiot!

─No. Because of that attraction, it is impossible to bring your soul here.

“······.”

What does this mean again?

If you can’t drag me along, why am I here? It’s a contradiction. You live for tens of thousands of years and that’s all your head can do?

“What are you talking about?”

─Nothing can stop the soul’s will, and the soul is not subject to any restrictions.

But I am here.

Seeing the results and denying them, does this mean that this snake also wants to play with me?

─If your soul comes to this world, countless souls will be drawn to this contradictory world due to the attractive force. That number will increase exponentially as time passes.

Souls are being dragged into this world?

─In any world, there is a god like Maal. As souls decrease, soul production decreases. My food is decreasing, and there is no way a god would like that.

Oh, so there was a god on Earth too?

Who is the god on Earth? Buddha? father? Allah? Dangun? Shame? I wonder what would happen to Islamic militant groups if Allah is not the only god. They’re idiots who commit suicide to live with a pretty woman after they die, so it’s quite a sight to see.

······The root snake stares at me intently.

-How do you think Dantalian brought your soul here in the first place?

“I was reincarnated through a contract.”

─Contracts and such are a trick played on the unconscious and are the exclusive property of demi-humans. Dantalian created this to make it easier for him to take control of your mind. Even if you are Maal, you can’t even be involved in the flow of the soul.

“···Yes?”

─Dantalian is a good and generous ‘devil.’ He can see through Ain’s mind and change it to his liking. Dantalian must have copied the memories of the inhabitants of this world. And I put that memory on you.

“No! I made a contract with the devil!”

-Again, the reason the memory is plausible is Dantalian’s design to change your unconscious mind in advance and manipulate it comfortably. It’s an action to push your psychology to the limit.

─The same applies to the time difference. Clay has to harden to become hard. You can stack more things by stacking them on something solid. The original of this world would never have met Dantalian in the first place.

“No! I───!”

─In the first place, it is a challenge to God. The moment he made physical contact with you, he would have been attacked by the god of this world and not even a single speck of dust would have been left behind.

is it.

······I felt deeply when I saw the thirteen servants that God exists.

As long as we cannot believe what the devil says, we cannot deny the possibility that there is a God on Earth. No, I guess there is.

Those bastards who gave my mom liver cancer.

“If that’s the case, why do you need to do such a hassle?”

─Because memory and knowledge are the foundation of the mind. The humans in your memories are merely a basis for Dantalian’s tastes.

No, now I can’t even believe what the root snake says.

The foundation has collapsed. I can’t believe anything. Even if you try to pick it up, it flows down through the broken dishes.

“So, I am a native of this world?”

This person is denying the contents of the contract and even my memories of the past 28 years.

Even if I give up on life, I have no intention of denying life with my family. It’s no different from escaping reality.

-Dantalian appointed you to play with your roots. Think about it carefully.

“What on earth should I think about here?!”

I suddenly remembered what Dantalian wanted from me.

My body, my right to reside. Right of residence…? In the first place, if no one can place restrictions on the soul, there is no way there is such a thing as the right to reside—no. These are all words from the mouth of a root snake.

The root snake snorts.

─I don’t believe it. Let me change my words. How could Amor, who had been unable to die for five centuries, die at your hands?

“Isn’t Amor’s weak point in the heart?”

-Then the Amor I know should have died a hundred times.

I don’t know what’s right.

Why is my heart pounding like this…?

─Dantalian inserted the memories created into you and made you his agent without your knowledge. Like Dantalian, you judged Amor using human right and wrong, human goodness, and human generosity as standards. What favor did Amor not ask you when he died?

When Amor died…?

There was no special request.

“He asked me to think that killing myself was the right thing to do. Don’t be afraid of death… take advantage of it.”

No, this was a will. Amorga, the consolation tea and last words you gave for me and Grace. Amor didn’t ask me for anything in particular.

“······.”

The corner of the root snake’s mouth began to tear violently.

─Do the right thing. Isn’t this the most right feeling for the devil, a good and generous judge, to have? That is the limitation that loosens Dantalian’s shackles. I wonder where Sentai Amor got wind of you being Dantalian’s agent.

griffin···?

“Of course, if your heart is stabbed, you die. As for Shirman, he couldn’t move when he put his own arrow in his heart. Just like when Amor’s heart was pierced, clear water flowed out, as if he was about to die───.”

─It would have gotten better as soon as I picked it. Since there is a hole in the deeply rooted heart, the body is overloaded. That’s Amor’s only weakness, and yet he never dies.

“He’s dead! Isn’t it inherited until now after death!!! Kellogg…!”

A cough broke out.

I raised my voice high and it felt like my throat was going to explode because I was hoarse from crying.

─Amor can only die if he loses his will to live to the point where he can calmly accept death without any hope. Jeondae Amor was only late in reaching that conclusion because he lost his memory by continuing to commit impulsive suicide.

Was it something like that…?

Amor from the previous generation, whose head was cut off by Juul, was reborn because he still had the will to live, but Amor from 800 years ago, who was executed by people, lost the will to live. I was left unable to say anything.

─In the end, memory is something that resides in the brain. Dantalian has imprinted artificial memories into your brain. Lastly, the most striking evidence is your language.

I remember the priest’s words.

‘Everything on Pangea is the servant’s creation, so all things have no choice but to flow according to the servant’s will. It’s as if Shir’s name has disappeared. The only ones who can defy it are those who have received power from another servant or have been given permission to do so.’

This world flows according to the will of the servant.

Did those words mean something this scary? Was it possible to shake a person to their very foundation in this way? It would be better if I didn’t know…

“···What does it have to do with language?”

─What you speak is a servant’s language called Newspeak. However, news language can only communicate, but cannot understand what the other person is saying. A problem arises here.

─Just passing it on does not allow communication and Dantalian’s ‘humane’ solution to the case is impossible. The language you use will be Dantalian’s own personal language, which is an improved form of Newspeak.

Now I understand to some extent.

─I can feel the spy’s surprise when he sees you spitting out new words.

···The black shadow clearly reacted to me.

According to what the root snake said, the spy did not react to the light of the lighter, but looked at me in surprise at the language I spoke.

“I think I understand now.”

I have no idea.

But if we continue the conversation, I feel like everything I have will be denied. If you do that, you might really swear.

-This is my advice for you. If you are a native of this world, your current relationship is also your relationship brought together by the force of attraction. Don’t forget that.

─Dantalian can only engage with the mind. Always write an unfiltered essay and reflect on your actions. Find out what stands out in the essay and correct your behavior.

This is advice that becomes your blood and flesh.

This is my chance to fuck Dantalian, who fucked me, too.

“Yes. I will keep this in mind.”

─Also, you will have to be good at weighing things.

···Weighing?

“What do you weigh?”

─Let me explain salt as an example.

salt…? Do you weigh salt?

What are you trying to say this time? Before I know it, my heart becomes ready.

“···E.”

─Salt is contained in large quantities in the intestines and blood of animals. Southerners who enjoy eating meat do not have a shortage of salt. Even if you don’t have enough, just buy Dragonia’s salt. But what about herbivores that must obtain that salt from nature?

It’s a problem I’ve never thought deeply about.

But this is a problem I have seen before my eyes. Eating meat without bloodletting and making soup from animal bones. The practice of eating seasoned meat as a delicacy, and the act of making sausage, an offal dish.

Hosott was clearly eating salt.

It’s not that plants don’t have salt, but it’s quite lacking.

“···It’s a herbivore, doesn’t it eat rock salt?”

─That’s right. The southern part is densely green and has many animals thanks to the concentration of totems. Herbivores eat some, but rock salt dissolves easily during rainy seasons, so there is always a shortage of rock salt on the southern surface. To solve the salt shortage, the servant borrowed the power of Ouroboros to bring in sea water.

The scale is too big.

“If you pull it in, isn’t it just a salt water lake?”

-When the rainy season comes, Neptune carefully distills sea water and distributes salt throughout the South. So that herbivores can get salt. In addition, it flows into groundwater and supplies salt to the entire southern region.

If something goes extinct, it is right to let it go extinct.

That must be the providence of nature, so why are you artificially adjusting it?

If you are destined to die, you will die somehow.

“Why is it necessary?”

─Life cannot survive without salt. When herbivores do not have salt, they start eating small animals and even the corpses of their own species. There are even some that kill and eat living opponents with their horns.

···Herbivores eat meat?

Of course, I knew that they sometimes eat meat, but I’ve never heard of them eating it by the horns and even killing it.

“···Is there a slightly softer way? I knew that the Twin Goddesses hated forest destruction…”

─It is possible, but it takes too long. Consumption is faster than recovery. Ouroboros was supposed to protect the sea, but at the request of the twin goddesses and Diana, Neptune led the sea god into lava.

─So I tolerated Ouroboros’ actions. If rock salt is created in the future, green forests in the south will prosper even more.

“······.”

There is nothing more foolish than saying they would artificially create a Dead Sea in an area with such high rainfall. The more it rains, the more it floods… No, you shouldn’t judge by my own standards. Neptune will be in charge of maintaining the salt lake.

······What kind of world is this?

To expand on what the root snake said, it could be said that there are no natural natural resources on Pangea. It also means that if the servants go on strike, the world will stop working. At the same time, servants must suffer from labor forever.

Did you read my expression?

The root snake’s eyes became gloomy.

─I don’t know how well the world in your memories was created, but this world is like that. All servants research and help provide what life needs. This world has not been created for less than 50,000 years.

······Aren’t you saying that 50,000 years is too short?

It’s an uncountably long time. However, compared to the time when the first living things were born on Earth… it is short. Schwein once said that Deberg used coal to make steel.

However, coal is a fossil fuel created from the deposition of trees tens of millions of years ago when dinosaurs lived. It can’t happen. To put it another way, they are leading the world with their own hands.

I thought it was because he was just someone who served servants, but when the frame of him as an angel was removed, my thoughts flowed in a different way. The servant is an engineer who repairs the world called Pangea.

but.

“Is that a reason to destroy someone’s life?”

That’s not a reason to destroy Shir’s life.

─Every action has a reaction. Most people are not aware of the reaction because they feel it themselves. Think about it. If you could kill dozens of people and save nearly a billion people, what would you choose? Is the price that high in the first place?

not big.

Just a drop of blood. If we are not greedy, everyone can be happy. However, greed is Ajin’s problem, so it means that you should take care of it.

─Think carefully about the flower blooming in your heart. The illness of your beloved parents can also be cured with just a drop of the Precious Blood. If you desperately needed the Precious Blood, could you conclude that your desperate desire to save your parents was one-dimensional greed?

…It can’t be done.

─So, think from the other person’s perspective, and if you have to judge someone, weigh it carefully.

“Yes.”

─It is a totem created to benefit Ajin. How to use it is up to you, the beneficiary. So don’t complain to the person who made it that it was made wrong in the first place.

“···Yes.”

…Jul was raised by this dragon.

The way he speaks and thinks are similar to Jules. I would say Juul is similar to a root snake. If you were raised by someone like this, could you have a personality like Jules?

─After chatting with Juyul for a short time, I realized that he thought of you as family. ···Please take good care of me.

“We will do our best to assist you. I will listen carefully to your advice.”

─···It’s been a while since I talked a lot and my jaw hurts. I have nothing more to say, so leave now.

A blue membrane covers the eyes of the root snake that waited for my final answer.

My brain is a mess due to the information flooding into my head to the point where I can’t organize it. I feel like my head is clogged…

I can’t even feel sad anymore.

I wanted to scream until I was angry, but if I did that, I wouldn’t have any voice left.

As I walked while trying to clear my head, I was able to head outside the cave without realizing it. Outside the cave, Jules was sitting against the wall in an awkward posture.

“···Are you here?”

“Yes.”

My cracked voice feels embarrassing.

Are the areas around my eyes swollen? Could it be that he smelled something like tears?

“I could hear you screaming up to here. I just came after calming down Shir’s struggle to get to you and taking him to the village.”

The expression Jules looks at me is a mixture of awkwardness.

Either he overheard me talking to the root snake, or he felt a sense of disconnect when I was talking to the root snake.

······It doesn’t matter what happens now.

“I heard it’s been 14 years. Is it okay if you go in and not talk anymore?”

“Root snakes don’t like long conversations about their jaws being pressed against rocks. Thanks to that, I was always chattering to myself. I plan to go again tomorrow.”

Jules carefully pulled my hand.

“Let’s go.”