#082
Having passed the 9th problem and facing the final question, we stood on a bridge crossing over a frozen stream, just like everything else. This ice bridge and even the frozen stream below it felt ominous.
[Mansion Owner Licht: The final question. I truly desire your sincere answer to this question.]
Unlike the other problems, the preamble was long. The saying that ominous premonitions are never wrong was indeed truth.
[Mansion Owner Licht: Can you return my most precious being, Celia, to me?]
The moment I heard the question, I was dumbfounded, then anger surged.
This bastard! This isn’t even a riddle or anything. The answer was predetermined anyway. Either answer and somehow do what he wants, or just die and figure it out yourself – isn’t that it? You call this a quiz?
I thought the quest to defeat the boss mob with this quiz would end and a hidden dungeon would open, but it felt like a new quest was about to start. Bring Celia back to life? How do you bring an ice statue to life? I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
While I was at a loss for words, unable to bear even that brief moment, a snowstorm began swirling madly. I reflexively clung to the frozen bridge railing. As even the ice fragments that had broken earlier began swirling and flying in again, Carlisle stood close behind me, covering my back. Even so, my health and stamina dropped rapidly. The lifespan of the heating band I had changed before entering the mansion also wore out in an instant.
“Just say yes for now.”
Carlisle whispered quickly in my ear.
“We’ll have to solve it anyway for the strategy to work.”
I wanted to ask ‘But how?’, but there was no time to leisurely discuss the possibilities and methods of bringing Celia back to life. As the snowstorm grew fiercer, even while wrapped in Carlisle’s embrace, my feet began to lift slightly. Even the ice on the floor started cracking with squelching sounds. This entire section was a bridge. The front and back of the bridge were blocked by gates making movement impossible, so if the bridge collapsed, it would be a straight fall to the bottom ending. The problem was, as always, that the frozen stream below couldn’t possibly be just a simple shallow stream.
“I can return her! I’ll return her!”
Despite my urgent answer, the snowstorm didn’t subside. Did he not believe my answer? Carlisle and I were lifted so much we were almost lying sideways. My strength holding onto the railing was nowhere near enough. If not for Carlisle, I would have already been blown away somewhere, quiz or no quiz.
“I said I’d return her, you bastard! I’ll return her! Your Celia! I’ll return her somehow, somehow!”
I screamed frantically so as not to be drowned out by the snowstorm’s scream-like roar. As if finally confirming my sincerity, the snowstorm suddenly disappeared just as suddenly as it had started.
I almost fell to the ground as if thrown down, but fortunately, being embraced almost as one body with Carlisle, I was able to land safely on the ground. However, my arms that had exerted too much force were inevitably trembling.
The snowstorm stopped and the cracks in the ice bridge stopped too. But the final gate that would allow us to leave the bridge and go to the statue hadn’t opened yet.
[Mansion Owner Licht: Good, I’ll entrust my Celia to you. However, I still can’t trust your sincerity 100%. You too must be placed in the same situation as me to fully understand my feelings and truly immerse yourself in this task.]
What are you talking about? You’re forcing a request on us arbitrarily and yet you want so much. Besides, what does being in the same situation mean? Above all, I don’t have a lover I’m dying for like you… ah, no way.
A ridiculous thought briefly crossed my mind. I hurriedly turned to look at Carlisle standing behind me. Our eyes met as he slightly frowned and raised his eyebrows. Like me, he had an expression that said he was hearing all kinds of nonsense.
But the next moment, ice vines that had been creeping from all directions rushed toward Carlisle’s arms and legs. Carlisle, as usual, easily swung his sword and cut down all the attacking vines.
I felt a little relieved. Honestly, no matter how much these things attacked, it would be difficult to subdue Carlisle – maybe me, but not him. Anyway, wasn’t he set as the world’s strongest as the Guardian of the Sacred Tree? If it was Carlisle, he could surely escape this mansion, whether by force or the power of items. The problem was only me.
However, right then the mansion owner said something strange.
[Mansion Owner Licht: I command in the name of the Sacred Tree, Guardian Carlisle shall now sleep.]
“……?”
Command in the name of what? Sacred Tree? Aren’t you a ghost monster?
I was bewildered and confused. Even in the game, I had never heard any monster or NPC invoke the Sacred Tree. Even the Administrator of the Sacred Tree was just an administrator, so they didn’t invoke the Sacred Tree. No, above all, there had never been a scene where anyone commanded something in the name of the Sacred Tree in any situation. But who are you to impersonate the Sacred Tree?
But an even more bewildering and shocking thing happened next.
“Carlisle?”
Like a running machine suddenly losing power, Carlisle abruptly stopped his movement of cutting ice fragments. Without a single groan or confused exclamation, his body went limp as if all strength had left his entire body. The ghost monster’s command had actually worked.
“Carlisle!”
I was shocked. I tried to run to Carlisle, but my feet wouldn’t move. Not because I was surprised, but because somehow my legs had frozen solid as if they had become one with the floor, unable to move at all.
“What are you doing! I said I’d bring Celia back to life! Carlisle isn’t even my lover! No, more than that, without him I can’t save your Celia! Whether it’s brains, strength, or items, he’s much better than me, you idiot!”
The ice vines that had been cut down each time they approached now rushed at Carlisle as if it was their world, instantly wrapping around his body. Thin ice covered his entire body, and in an instant Carlisle’s flesh transformed as if it were made of ice.
“No, what is that! No! Don’t do it, don’t do it, you crazy bastard!”
I screamed as if having a seizure, but nothing changed. I could only helplessly watch that scene while frozen in place as if I had grown roots.
Carlisle’s face with the tension gone… didn’t look like a living person. Not a trace of life could be felt. He looked like a corpse. When the mansion strategy ended and the ice melted… would he come back? Would he come back to life?
No, it didn’t seem likely.
I don’t know why I thought that, but as soon as I thought it, I felt strange. My heart beat frantically. The effect of the Tranquility Potion evaporated instantly. I couldn’t breathe and my head was dizzy. I felt like I might faint immediately. No, like I might die. My hands trembled. I couldn’t think properly.
Why am I like this? Cold sweat suddenly poured down like rain. I was caught in a panic worse than when I was dying. Why isn’t the Tranquility Potion working? This isn’t real. Get a grip, Kang Raon! There’s no way he’d die so easily.
The contamination that had been wrapped around his back suddenly came to mind. Even when I heard about that contamination, I only understood intellectually that it would be dangerous. I guess it didn’t feel real. After all, Carlisle Lightinger was the world’s strongest in this setting. But now, seeing him with his eyes closed and a corpse-like pale face, the thought that he too could die, that he wasn’t an immortal being, newly gripped my heart.
‘This isn’t the first time he’s almost died, is it?’
Someone whispered in my head. What kind of nonsense is this again? When have I ever seen Carlisle almost die? No, far from seeing it, I’ve never even imagined it.
I was definitely not in my right mind from being too panicked. I thought I needed to get a grip and somehow find a way to defeat the boss mob and save Carlisle. But.
Crack crack crack.
The floor cracked again. Not just cracked, but shattered into powder. Having lost my footing, I fell downward, to the bottom.
***
‘Promise… come to get…’
Strange auditory hallucinations visited my head again. I still couldn’t distinguish whose voice it was or what promise they were talking about. All around was darkness. I could feel my existence but couldn’t see my form.
Light appeared from somewhere. The flickering cluster of light gradually approached me. There was a person in the light.
‘Carlisle!’
He was floating through the darkness as if sleeping. His relaxed body hung limply. His face seen up close had no expression. No tension could be felt anywhere, but he didn’t look like he was peacefully asleep either.
He was naked. As I had seen last night, it was a beautifully sculpted and firm body. But that body was covered in stains. They were incomparably darker and more severe stains than what I had seen last night. Dark red and murky green covered his entire body, even invading his face.
With a pitying heart, I reached out to caress his face. But the moment my hand was about to touch, he suddenly opened his eyes. Stains had invaded even the whites of his eyes. With a somehow precarious expression, he grabbed my wrist.
‘Ugh…’
It was strong force. I groaned at the burning pain.
“Promise…”
Carlisle spoke as if grinding his teeth, like a groan.
“You broke the promise.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
