East Road Quest

Chapter 32: The Bound Boy

While Jade conversed with the demon, he listened intently and thought he could hear a stream falling from a cliff into a pool below.

The sound of water striking something wasn’t far off, suggesting the cliff wasn’t too high.

Of course, the depth of the pool couldn’t be determined by sound alone, and there was no way to verify it.

He had no choice but to jump.

As he leaped off the cliff, the light in his hand had already vanished, plunging him into complete darkness.

‘Will my feet touch water or stone? Could I hit a protruding rock halfway down? Even if I land in water, from this height, it might as well be solid ground.’

The fall felt interminably long, and his mind was assaulted by all sorts of wild thoughts. Though it probably wasn’t even five times his height, it felt like falling a mile.

The moment he hit the pool, the impact was so great he couldn’t tell if he had struck water or stone. As he plunged into the water, it felt as though his lower body shattered.

The water was frigid, and he gasped for air. Submerged, he couldn’t tell up from down.

‘Yesterday it was sand, today water. What will I suffocate in tomorrow? Assuming I’m still alive.’

Jade flailed his arms and finally surfaced. Darkness surrounded him. He knew how to swim, but in that moment, all he could do was thrash about.

Swimming in no particular direction, he eventually felt the bottom.

Jade dragged himself out of the water. His bag had been lost somewhere along the way, but fortunately, he still clutched the book.

There was no time to calm his racing heart or ragged breathing. Something else fell into the pool behind him.

Splash!

Splash!

Splosh!

Then came their voices.

“Kkao-ok. Cold.”

“Gguo-ok, cold.”

Jade, without a moment to wipe the water from his face, hurriedly got up.

The demon’s vanishing incantation couldn’t be used without reading it directly. It was useless to recite it from memory or even if he had just read it moments before.

Years of experiments had led to the same conclusion.

The incantation had to be seen and recited internally to produce light.

‘It’s over.’

Losing the light to read by, Jade was now completely disarmed.

“Huh?”

At that moment, Jade realized he could faintly see his surroundings. Not enough to read by, but the outlines of the walls and his glistening, wet hands were somewhat visible.

‘What’s this? Sunlight couldn’t reach this deep.’

Jade ran towards the mysterious light.

His waterlogged clothes felt as heavy as lead, and his breath was short, as if his lungs would burst. He stumbled over rocks, scraped his knees on jutting stones, and tore his palms on sharp fragments. Yet, he didn’t stop.

The splashing and running sounds grew closer.

Soon, he saw light seeping between two large boulders. It was a faint light that wouldn’t be noticeable outside, but in this pitch-black darkness, it was a beacon of salvation.

Squelch-squelch.

Tap-tap-tap.

Jade’s soggy footsteps and the pursuing demons’ echoed in the cave. The sounds from both sides neither approached nor receded.

Strangely, the closer he got to the light, the less he could see around him.

‘I’ve lost too much blood. Haven’t slept since yesterday. Or was it the day before?’

The gap between the rocks, barely wide enough for one person, beckoned.

‘What lies beyond? Could it unexpectedly lead outside? Or is another demon luring me with light, using me as bait?’

Like when he jumped off the cliff, he had no choice now.

Jade squeezed through the gap between the rocks without a moment to inspect the interior. He glanced back at the path he had run.

The dark demon, along with its minions, filled the surroundings with darkness, rapidly approaching. For a moment, the cave’s darkness seemed like an extension of the creature.

Jade pushed through the gap with all his might. The darkness pulled by the demon followed, tearing at his shoulder.

He gritted his teeth and continued inward. The narrow passage stretched about ten paces, and at the end, he could see the faint source of the light.

‘What is that?’

It was obscured by rough rock fragments.

It looked like a person, or perhaps a doll.

Jade bent and twisted his body, pressing forward.

‘The formless one will pass through these rocks easily. I can’t stop.’

As Jade looked back, a dark form surged through the gap.

Startled, he jerked his head back, falling and cutting himself on sharp rocks. In his shock, he dropped the book.

A massive, black horn pushed through the gap, stopping just short of Jade. Then, it retracted smoothly.

Jade quickly picked up the dropped book.

For some reason, the demon didn’t pursue further. It could have turned to smoke and passed through the gap as it had before, but now it just glared with yellow eyes from beyond the rocks.

Suddenly, something bit his ankle. A small demon had followed him.

Jade kicked the creature away and quickly opened the book with one hand. Meanwhile, another small demon bit his shoulder.

Without a moment to scream, Jade reached for the book and quickly found the passage to banish the lower demon of darkness. Extending his hand, the tiny demon gnawing at his shoulder shattered upon contact with the white light. Another fiend that followed burst into the rock crevice, propelled by the same radiant force.

The black demon, unable to enter, continued to send in smaller demons in its stead.

Jade pressed on, his face grazing the rough rock surface, his forearms scraped, yet he advanced relentlessly.

A distance that would have taken but a few steps to cross felt endlessly far as he moved in this manner. Just as he reached out to steady himself against the wall, his hand sliced through thin air, and he tumbled forward. The walls that had hemmed him in were gone.

Jade arrived in a circular chamber where the ceiling soared twice his height, and the diameter spanned about twenty paces. It seemed both naturally eroded and artificially smoothed into existence.

At the center of the room knelt a figure with long red hair cascading down, head bowed.

The hair was so lengthy it resembled a large red furball. Had it not been for the slender limbs of pale skin peeking through, it would have taken longer to discern it was a human form.

‘The wingless Angel Chief, defeated in a wager with a dwarf.’

The shackles on the limbs were just as the stories described, and the iron chains fixed into the ground were no different.

The light that guided Jade was not emanating from the boy but from the chains and shackles themselves. Even in this urgent moment, the golden metal was captivatingly mystical and beautiful.

‘These must be the unbreakable shackles forged by a dwarf craftsman.’

Jade still couldn’t tell if this was Daniel’s angel from the tales, a demon in league with the black smoke lurking beyond the rock crevice, or an entirely different entity.

“Excuse me, are you the Angel Chief?”

Jade asked in an infinitely awkward tone.

He hesitated to approach, suspecting a demon, but there was no time for prolonged thought.

“Can you hear me?”

Jade took another step forward and asked again, finding no other words.

‘Right. I still haven’t thought of what to say upon meeting an angel. It’s not like I can ask if they’re bored and want to go questing for the Holy Grail.’ While Jade was still searching for words, only managing a low groan, the ‘being’ with the red hair lifted its head.

Jade half-expected to see a skeletal corpse, a horrific demon, or something beyond human imagination.

After all, if the stories were true, it had been trapped for five hundred years! But ‘it’ retained the appearance of a boy, just as the stories depicted.

Not a speck of dirt marred him, and his smooth nose and large eyes even seemed endearing.

“Have you come…

The boy finally spoke.

“…to release me?”

His tone was that of a petulant fourteen-year-old.

Behind him, a demon howled, but Jade focused solely on the boy’s voice, not hearing the other. The shock of falling into a water pit had not yet faded, leaving his hearing impaired. His eyes were sticky, blurring his vision, and breathing was laborious.

“Yes, I’ve come to release you.”

Jade managed to say.

“You think you can…

The red-haired boy slightly lifted his hand. The chains followed the movement of his hand, jingling lightly. Unlike ordinary iron chains, they sounded as delicate as a silver necklace.

“To release these, you need to know the magic of the angels. The opposite incantation of the Light’s Shackles is required. It’s a spell humans cannot pronounce. But you think you can do it?”

The boy asked.

“Well, that…

Jade picked up the book but hesitated for a moment.

‘Wait, this won’t be solved with page 144. I need a different passage. I haven’t learned anything like this.’

The boy spoke with a hint of annoyance.

“Can you release it, or can’t you?” Jade stood frozen. Hundreds of memories with Father Daniel and thousands of conversations they had shared flashed through his mind.

“Hey!”

The boy called out.

Jade responded with a voice as if just awakened.

“I can release you.”

“Then why aren’t you doing it quickly?” Jade glanced back. The writhing black smoke with yellow eyes stared mercilessly at him. A few small demons had reached the base of the rock crevice, peering out at Jade like vultures waiting for prey to fall.

Fortunately, they couldn’t enter the circular chamber filled with light from the chains.

“If I release you, will you protect me?” Jade asked.

The boy looked past Jade at the monsters behind him and said,

“Once I’m free, those creatures won’t stand a chance against me. I’ll protect you.”

Jade opened the book to the last chapter. It contained one of the passages that heralded the end of the world. However, read in reverse, it became the means to undo the Light’s Shackles.

This too was a situation he had theoretically known and practiced over the past few years, just like opening the sealed wall at the temple’s end and closing it again. But recalling it precisely for this moment was not easy.

It was like knowing hundreds of fish recipes but feeling clueless about how to cook an unfamiliar fish that lands on the cutting board.

‘Come to think of it, Father Daniel drilled into me how to open walls, but he only briefly mentioned how to release shackles. And there were too many things he taught that way.’

When Jade touched the glowing chains, one of the chains embedded in the ground came out with a thud.

The boy showed his now-free hand.

“Good. One wrist and two ankles left.”

The demon outside screamed. The sound echoed thunderously within the circular chamber, almost deafening.

“You foolish thing! What are you doing? Can’t you stop right now?”

Jade didn’t pause but read the second passage and touched the second chain. It too came out of the stone floor with a thud, scattering small pebbles around.

“Stop! Stop it! What do you think you’re releasing?” The demon continued to scream, but Jade ignored it.

He read the third passage and pulled out the third chain, then the fourth passage and the fourth chain.

“That’s odd. There’s a fifth sentence, but I don’t see a fifth chain…

Jade said.

The boy pointed to his neck with his freed hand. A silver shackle appeared where there had been nothing.

“I made the shackle invisible. It’s humiliating to wear such a thing around the neck.” Jade read the last sentence and pulled the chain from the boy’s neck out of the ground.

Finally, all the chains were removed. At that moment, Jade felt a sudden drain of strength and collapsed on the spot.

After exorcising a demon, the touched area would hurt, and the body would suddenly feel exhausted. But this was the first time he felt such an immediate loss of energy.

The red-haired boy slowly rose to his feet. Despite having been bound for five hundred years, the boy stretched his back as if he had been kneeling for just an hour, his expression one of discomfort.

The boy brushed back his hair that hung forward. The chains that had been attached to the shackles clinked against the floor.

The light from the chains dimmed slightly. But it was still enough for the two to recognize each other’s faces.

The voice of the demon was no longer heard. Looking back, the black smoke demon and the tiny demons beyond the rock crevice had vanished at some point.

The boy, locking eyes with Jade, said proudly,

“Hmm, they ran away. Of course, they must be scared of me.”

The boy continued in a clear, bright tone, looking at Jade,

“Now, it’s time for me to keep my promise.”

Jade nodded, understanding that the boy meant to keep his promise to protect him.

The boy flashed a smile, revealing his pearly whites. That innocent grin suddenly seemed terrifying and cruel.

“I’ve been trapped here for five hundred years, give or take. I can’t be certain because there’s no light to keep track, and I’ve been half-asleep and half-awake the whole time.”

The boy approached Jade, who was sitting dejectedly. The long chains he dragged along the floor clinked ominously.

“For the first hundred years, I thought I’d thank anyone who freed me and repay them for their kindness.”

He came up close to Jade and whispered.

“In the next hundred years, I thought if I got out, I’d apologize to the angels and the dwarves.”

Despite not having brushed his teeth in five hundred years, the boy’s breath was surprisingly fresh, reminiscent of the expensive peaches he once bought in Pompeii.

“For the following hundred years, I thought I’d serve whoever freed me like a lifelong servant. But no one came…”

The boy’s voice grew increasingly angry.

“So, I changed my mind in the next hundred years. If I got out, I’d take revenge on the angels and the dwarves. But still, no one came to save me. So, I changed my mind again. For the last hundred years, that’s all I’ve thought about.”

A red glow began to emanate from the boy’s eyes.

“Once I’m out, the first thing I’ll do is kill the one who freed me! And then I’ll destroy the world. From now on, I’m not an angel but a devil.” He grabbed Jade by the collar and lifted him up.

“From now on, the title of a fallen angel will become my name.”

The boy gasped for air, unable to breathe, and asked Jade.

“What’s your name? At least I’ll remember the name of the first human I kill in my life.”

The boy raised his fist.

At that moment, Jade struggled to speak, uttering something other than his name, and then lost consciousness.

Jade thought he had died at that moment. Beyond his faint consciousness, he could hear the boy’s annoyed voice.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”