◈ Episode 508. Even So, the Flower Is Without Sin
A flower red as though it had drunk blood.
He had not heard its name. But Argentress’s attitude toward that flower remained vivid in his memory. Argentress had looked at the flower with cold eyes and said,
—“Trample it the moment you see it.”
He had found it strange.
Even if it was a flower that grew on the Arcana Continent.
He had thought flowers were without sin.
Unlike hideous humans.
—“This flower grows by feeding on human blood.”
Even if it had grown from human blood.
He had thought a small life was without sin.
But at Argentress’s next words, Elsidore nodded.
—“Only from the blood of humans who knew not their place until the very end.”
The red flower in his hand.
Argentress had even been displeased that such trash had been brought to Sisley. Argentress glared at the flower with a look of disgust and gestured.
Whoosh.
Burning the flower without a trace, he said,
—“So remember this, Elsidore.”
He added, directing the words at him.
—“You must not even think of approaching this flower, nor of smelling its fragrance. This red flower is the very symbol of ugliness, nothing more than the final struggle of vermin.”
A flower bloomed from a final struggle.
He had not understood what that meant right away.
And without understanding it.
Only now, after long ages had passed, did he come to realize its meaning.
‘A flower leading to Hell…….’
China again.
Elsidore walked the streets with Kinver.
A bleak scene; there were no traces of people on the ruined streets.
Following behind Elsidore, Kinver stamped his feet in a way that did not suit him.
Then he whispered,
“Are you insane, elf? You’re going to follow him to Hell?”
It wasn’t as if we’re anything special.
At best, we’re business partners.
Whether you go to Hell or not might not be any of my business.
But.
“……How exactly are you planning to explain this?”
Glance.
Kinver turned his head back to look at “that person.” And it wasn’t only him. He’d thought the brat looked extraordinary at a glance, but to think it was Lorenzik, an NPC who was named among named NPCs.
‘The pressure is seriously no joke.’
Kinver swallowed his shock and kept walking.
Soon, a familiar building came into view.
“You really……!”
It was the sealed-off branch building of Cheonha Tongil.
The reason this splendid building had been closed.
No, the reason the street itself had turned into a ghost town was simple.
Kinver and Elsidore.
It was the trace of how they had erased from this world
trash that could not even be recycled.
Kinver could be certain.
This pointy-eared elf intended to confess all their secrets.
“……I’ve lived long enough to make a confession of conscience for the first time, damn it.”
Kinver gritted his teeth inwardly.
He had wrapped it up grandly to himself.
Hadn’t he borrowed that person’s words and called it “the pride of trash”?
“Damn it……”
But was it even right for trash to talk about pride?
If, in that person’s eyes, it was not pride.
Then no matter how much I insisted it was pride, it would not be pride.
In the worst case.
‘He might see it as meaningless slaughter.’
If that happened, what would become of me?
The pointy-eared Elsidore had ability.
Whether that ability was overwhelming martial force (武力)
or the ability to tend a flower garden. By contrast, I am incompetent. Forget Elsidore; I don’t even stand out among players.
‘Furthermore.’
Before the Yusra Kingdom was revealed.
I once aimed for your life.
In the process, I met the eyes of the Lionheart Knights’ commander, Harkon.
And quite literally pissed my pants.
“……”
And so Kinver had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.
Step.
Even until the doors of the sealed Cheonha Tongil branch opened.
“There is one truth about that flower.”
Even until Elsidore told that person the flower’s secret.
“The red spider lily that grows from blood does not grow by feeding on a vast amount of blood. Regardless of the quantity of blood, it grows only from blood steeped in deep resentment.”
“Ohh, deep resentment!”
Lorenzik nodded.
“Then that raises a question. If someone died and fell to Hell, there must have been sufficient reason or circumstance for that dead person to do so. And yet such people harbored deep resentment and made flowers bloom? Isn’t that shameless?”
Elsidore answered,
“That is why Argentress hated this flower. He said it was the symbol of humans who did not know their own place and struggled to the very end.”
……
Step.
Then, as if resolved, he moved forward.
At this moment, Elsidore intended to confirm it.
Whether his actions had been right, or wrong.
Elsidore opened his mouth.
“If not a single flower has bloomed, then dispose of me.”
Gulp. Kinver swallowed dryly along with him.
“However, if even one red spider lily has bloomed.”
……
Clack.
“Please grant me the opportunity I spoke of.”
At last, the door opened, and the traces of carnage came into view.
As low as Cheonha Tongil’s status, which had crashed to the floor,
the interior of the Cheonha Tongil branch was a complete mess.
“……!!!”
But there was no need to painstakingly search every inch of that mess.
Yes, because it entered their eyes immediately.
No, because it filled their entire field of vision.
[Red Spider Lily Grown from Blood]
[Red Spider Lily Grown from Blood]
……
Dozens, hundreds, thousands of blooms.
That was right. The red flowers that had drunk blood were as if
cursing Kinver and Elsidore, who had returned to this place,
as if enticing them to Hell,
as they swayed their beautiful petals.
Kinver ground his teeth.
‘It was a useless worry, Kinver, you idiot.’
As expected, they were bastards beyond recycling.
*
So the red spider lily had such a secret.
‘Well, if it’s Argentress’s word, it must be certain.’
He must have seen more blood than anyone, hadn’t he?
If it was Argentress, who had gone through his days as a tyrant, that is.
I looked at the red spider lilies blooming densely and organized my thoughts.
‘The remnants of Cheonha Tongil.’
I had heard that they were making desperate efforts
to clear the rifts appearing throughout China.
How did I know what was happening in China when it wasn’t a member of the AAU?
‘How else? I even voted on it.’
Because I was the general manager of the AAU’s Yusra branch.
After Cheonha Tongil’s collapse,
the Chinese side had formally requested to join the AAU.
Needless to say, I had cast a vote in favor.
‘If we leave China alone……’
I had voted in favor while thinking that the burden I had to shoulder might increase. Of course, even from Granfell’s point of view, rather than Lee Hoyeol’s petty one, voting in favor was justified.
‘If a rift collapses, no one knows what kind of damage might occur.’
However, China’s AAU membership was still on hold.
Unfortunately, it had failed to gain a majority in favor.
My head was too complicated to think about it, but it was obvious.
‘Even in a situation like this, it must be unending.’
The struggle for interests between countries around the world.
‘Whether big or small, they’ve suffered at China’s hands until now.’
In any case, if there were remnants of Cheonha Tongil who had turned over a new leaf after Ryu Ojunchun disappeared, there would also be those who had not. As one cannot know the inside of a person’s heart, I could not know their reasons either.
‘Perhaps they were possessed by devils and manipulated.’
Such people must have met their deaths at Elsidore’s hands.
‘Even as they fell to Hell, they could not let go of their resentment.’
Was it because I had heard the truth about the red spider lilies?
The swaying red flowers looked eerie.
I could understand why Lorenzik had returned from the mouth of Hell.
It seemed Lorenzik had realized something as well.
“So this red spider lily was an invitation from the dead! They were calling the living into Hell in order to resolve their own resentment. Goodness, and I didn’t even know that!”
An explorer was an explorer indeed.
Seeing him rejoice simply because he had learned a fact he had not known.
Of course, far from rejoicing, I was too busy flinching.
‘An invitation to Hell.’
My gaze moved from the red spider lilies.
[Class Quest: Are We Still Demons?]
Akshan, I ask you. We became demons to hunt demons and fell to Hell; even after falling to Hell, we continued to hunt demons. Are we still demons?
—Enter Hell. (In Progress)
Hey, it’s not anyone else.
I don’t want to doubt our seniors……
Seniors, you don’t have any resentment toward me, do you?
You didn’t invite me to Hell for that purpose, did you……?
No matter how distant Akshan was from blood ties, regional ties, and school ties.
‘Still, there should be affection……. No, was there no affection in Akshan either?’
In any case, I had learned to some extent
what kind of flower the red spider lily was,
and what kind of place Hell was.
In that sense, there was something I had to confirm.
I asked Elsidore,
“Does your resolve still stand, Elsidore?”
The red spider lilies blooming in this collapsed Cheonha Tongil branch were likely equal in number to the dead who bore resentment toward Elsidore and were waiting for him in Hell.
That was what I was asking.
‘Lorenzik probably hasn’t committed many sins.’
How much resentment could an explorer have earned?
Thanks to that, he might have nothing to fear even in Hell.
But you are different, aren’t you?
At my question, Elsidore said nothing at all.
He merely looked at the red spider lilies and nodded.
‘Then I won’t stop you.’
In truth, at a time when I could not know what Akshan’s seniors were thinking, I was not exactly in a position to worry about others. By the way, it seemed the cat could not simply pass by the stove.
Rustle.
The red spider lilies swayed in the wind blowing through the broken window.
Even if they were flowers grown from chilling resentment,
Lord Granfell’s lofty aesthetic sense
ignored the author’s intent entirely
and passed judgment by his own standards alone.
I opened my mouth.
“At times, something is beautiful because it is desperate.”
Honestly, really.
It would be enough to simply say
[Red Spider Lily Grown from Blood]
was needed.
“Because that effort is commendable, I shall accept the invitation.”
He really does have a talent for speaking shamelessly, doesn’t he?
*
The time given was only one week.
In one week, they would enter Hell.
Kinver stared at a single red flower.
[Red Spider Lily Grown from Blood]
[Grade: Unknown]
[Restriction: Unknown]
[Effect: Unknown]
[Description: This flower is not of this world.]
“……Damn my fate.”
He found himself scratching his head.
How did I end up getting dragged to Hell, Kinver?
No, to be precise, he had not been dragged there.
He had volunteered himself.
—“I-I’ll take responsibility together with Elsidore!”
Along with settling his karma.
“More than anything, I can’t refuse those bastards’ invitation.”
As recyclable trash.
To ignore the invitation of trash who had fallen to Hell and still felt no remorse?
That would be a proper blow to his pride.
In any case.
“Truly……”
Soon, Kinver’s gaze moved to a grave.
Beneath this grave lay Yong Seong-rak.
That person.
Hoyeol had personally laid Yong Seong-rak’s body
to rest in the land of China, his homeland.
“Even while you carry so many burdens……”
How can you pay attention to something like this as well?
Pure admiration welled up in him.
In that sense, he grew worried.
“……Fuck.”
Would I end up dragging you down?
In reality or on the Arcana Continent, he understood his own place.
So he was confident he would not hold that person back.
“This is the first time I’ve regretted my ugly past.”
But Hell was a place where one would face the resentment and karma one had built up. Kinver could not help agonizing over whether Hoyeol might suffer even the slightest harm because of him.
“……You’re probably not much different from me, pointy-ears.”
That must have been why.
That arrogant and haughty elf was doing something called “preparation.” So now I have to think as well. What can I, the weakest one, do for that person in Hell?
Kinver muttered,
“Even if it means offering up my life.”
However, Kinver had no need to offer up his life.
Even if, by some chance, he did hold him back,
it would not show in the slightest.
That was right.
What kind of trial the possessor of one thousand (一千) Karma would undergo in Hell, where one faced one’s own karma—
at this moment, no one could even imagine it.
Except for one man.
“Hell, you say. Granfell, my younger brother.”
Pride recited.
“Do you not fear the original sin of our family?”
If not,
“Have you truly been bewitched by that ‘single ray of light’ and forgotten everything?”