NOVEL NEXT Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Despair Seeping Into the Bones
Damn it. Damn it all. Damn damn damn.
I’m angry. So angry, I feel like I’m about to lose my mind.
“Why… Why the hell…!”
I growled fiercely, glaring daggers at Leira. It wasn’t really a question to her though – it was directed at myself, once again rendered powerless in defeat.
Was it because I didn’t level up enough?
Was my training insufficient?
Or was my Aether usage too amateurish?
And what in the world is wrong with that maid being so strong?
Isn’t this unfair?
Where’s the balance team?
What kind of fantasy story has the final boss showing up from the prologue?
Countless questions bombarded my mind only to dissipate into nothing. When the questions faded, all that was left was a quiet rage.
And that rage quickly turned toward Leira.
“Why, you ask?”
Leira had been looking down on me with an indifferent gaze but soon crouched down, speaking with composure.
“Rather, I’d like to ask why you’re looking at me like that.”
“What…?”
“Don’t misunderstand. I never betrayed you.”
“……”
“I’ve never trusted you even once.”
With that, she drew her blade.
Swoosh. A sense of foreignness accompanied by searing pain surged through my chest. It felt like my lungs were being dragged out of my body.
Clang. The emblem I had been keeping in my coat rolled across the floor, stopping in front of my eyes.
“Ka-HAAA!”
“That attempt to deceive me was admirable, junior. Farewell.”
Speaking coldly, she raised her sword with swift precision. Her robotic movements registered slowly in my tumultuous mind.
I emitted the sound of air escaping my lungs.
“Hhh.”
Well, I suppose I should be grateful.
For coming out to show your face to such a suspicious guy who doesn’t trust you. I mean, how many times did I die and come back to life just to see your face?
Just once, I wanted to confirm your appearance. I repeated this process twenty times.
“Crr… Ugh…”
I stared intensely at her face through the faint light of the emblem. My bloodshot eyes glared at her before slowly uttering venomous words.
“You. I’ll remember your face.”
I spat the words bitterly. Leira flinched for a moment but soon countered with a cold smile.
“And what will you do with that memory? It’ll be useless once you’re dead.”
“Will it?”
I laughed provocatively. Each chuckle caused more blood to gush out from my internal injuries. It hurt. It felt like my heart was on fire.
“Disgusting. Showing off before death is futile.”
Leira gripped her broom in reverse.
Keeeng! The elongated blade that emerged grazed the corner of my eye. Memories of that familiar light flaring up countless times from the darkness came flooding back.
It even felt nostalgic.
“…Hah!”
I gave her a challenging smirk, making this life’s version of Leira as uncomfortable as possible.
I laughed maniacally, forcing myself to do so. It was my own kind of curse directed at her.
“Try and kill me once. See what happens.”
“I was going to anyway.”
“My next life’s you is going to regret this moment. Of course, you won’t have any memory of now…”
“Nonsense.”
Leira’s icy verdict cut me off.
Immediately after, the blade came rushing in. I don’t know exactly where it pierced.
Consciousness escaped me before I could find out.
“Kuhk!”
Right after passing through the gate in a white space, I snapped my eyes open as if having a seizure.
It felt like my breath was caught in my throat. Desperately following my instincts, I rapidly scanned my surroundings. The scenery of the damp sewer came into view, its stench assaulting my nose without mercy.
“Hmm… This is strange. Was it this hard to pass through the gate before?”
I was preoccupied for a while trying to shake off the inexplicable oppression weighing down on my entire body. I wiped away the cold sweat drenching me and tried to steady my harsh breathing. With all my strength, I strove to clear my muddled mind.
“Feels a bit better now. So…”
Having calmed myself, I used the skill “The Eye of Mimir” to check my condition or examined my items. Everything seemed fine overall. The special items I had been informed about were all intact.
There were, however, a couple of peculiar points. First, my level started at 9, not 1. The other thing was…
“What is this? It keeps flickering.”
The Box of the Dead among the special items kept flashing an ominous purple light. As I stared at it, a panel immediately popped up.
[Notice: Item Update – Items stored in the Box of the Dead from the previous life have been updated.]
I instinctively caught my breath, realizing what this meant.
Despite my unease, I opened the box. There was a scrap of cloth written in blood.
―Do not move rashly. Focus on the residual memory first. You are already dead.
“I’m already… dead.”
It must have been the message I wanted to leave in my previous life. A testament of sorts.
The excitement I had felt just moments ago vanished, replaced by a sinking feeling in my chest. Seeing that someone had gone so far as to write in blood, I could roughly imagine how dire my situation was in my previous life.
“Well… Better safe than sorry, huh?”
Deciding to follow the note’s instructions, I focused on the residual memory. I lifted the Izanami’s Heart hanging from my waist.
Uooong. As if waiting for this moment, the lantern emitted a gloomy light and began to activate. A defeated sigh escaped my lips without realizing it.
“Wow… it looks like I really died. Damn.”
Though I could hardly believe this was happening immediately after waking up, with all these pieces of evidence appearing one by one, what else could I do but accept it? It’s my only advantage after all – adapting quickly to even dog-like situations.
“Is this the way?”
I turned immediately toward where the light shone the strongest. Not long after, I came across the corpse lying sprawled on the ground.
Of course, I was shocked. Very shocked.
“What the hell! Damn it all! What is this?”
Faced with the unexpected horror, curse words and regional dialects I rarely used – except when talking to my father – poured out. I must have been in a state of panic.
The condition of the corpse surpassed my imagination in its brutality. One eye was completely mashed after being pierced, and there was a severe puncture wound carved into the back by something sharp.
Apparently, the puncture wound was the cause of death, judging from the diagnostic information, probably from being stabbed while fleeing.
“What… what the hell happened to me?!”
Excitement at the unknown quickly turned to fear. The damp air of the sewer felt like it was clinging particularly tightly to my lungs, making it hard to breathe.
Despite my misgivings, I held the lamp to the glowing magical circle under the body. Immediately, the corpse crumbled like sand, sending constant signals to my mind.
[Item Activation – Izanami’s Heart]
[Residual memory from the previous life acquired.]
[Recovered 5 points of Strength, 9 points of Agility, 0 points of Intelligence.]
[Reclaimed Lost Skill – Rear Smash LV.3.]
[Reclaimed Lost Skill – Stealth LV.4.]
[Reclaimed Lost Skill – Mimir’s Eye LV.3.]
[Reclaimed Lost Skill – First Step LV.1.]
[All memories from the previous life have been recovered.]
“Aaaaahhhh!”
I let out a primal scream, feeling like my soul was being torn apart.
A tidal wave of memories violently overturned my mind. For a while, I writhed and wriggled at that spot, completely losing my sanity. Only when the excruciating pain of my brain being squeezed ceased did it end.
And then…
“Kwaaahhh! I remember everything, you bitch!”
The first words I screamed after regaining my senses were exactly those, having been truly reborn in the twenty-first reincarnation.
“Revenge! Bloody revenge! Revenge! Re-veeenge!”
Moments after the start of my twenty-first reincarnation in this sewer, I went wild with insane fury.
Still confused, my mind raced with various schemes on how to tear that maid limb from limb. Gradually, however, my mind cooled down, and my reasoning returned.
“Huh… Hah, hah…”
I let out a huge derisive laugh upon regaining reason.
This laughter was directed at my state just moments ago.
“Revenge? That’s a damn joke… Begging on our knees might not be enough.”
Realistically, that’s how it is. The skill gap between her and me is that wide.
No matter how much I leveled up and recharged my Aether to take her on, I couldn’t even flee properly. Fighting her head-on would lead to an obvious result.
“A strategy. I need a strategy to survive her!”
Preferably one that’s peaceful. That’s the conclusion I came to.
As Sun Tzu’s Art of War says: The best victory is achieved without fighting, diplomacy is the second best, and direct confrontation is the worst.
“Then…”
I thought deeply, a sly smile creeping onto my face.
The perfect method to resolve the current situation had just occurred to me.
The thought of ‘What if it fails?’ was immediately crushed.
“If it fails, what else can I do but die?”
I’ve reincarnated after dying twenty times already.
Let’s see who wins, you wretched sewer maid.