I stared blankly at the back of Kiss’s head as he excitedly dragged me along. The head butler had clearly said not to go outside in the evening. I couldn’t understand at all the mental state of Kiss, who was taking me to show that monster in the middle of the night. I asked in a sour voice.
“Is it okay to go see him at just any time like this?”
“Normally it’s not. But you’re going to see him often from now on anyway, so it’s better to at least exchange names.”
Exchange names—the other party isn’t something like a blind date partner. He’s an existence like a mutant creature of the Han River born from illegally dumped formaldehyde.
However, if I said I didn’t want to in this atmosphere, he’d surely say ‘You’re ignoring my favor again? This time you’ll have to eat a human meat BLT sandwich,’ so I moved my feet while eating mustard through my tears. My eyes went to Kiss’s scarred hands that held mine as if enveloping them. They were rough and large hands that didn’t match his appearance.
‘I can’t figure him out at all. In the original work, he had more of a personality that kept distance from others.’
The reason Kiss could always make clever choices was because he wasn’t led by affection. When he had to choose between his own benefit and an ally’s life, Kiss was a ruthless bastard who always chose his own benefit.
And so that hesitation wouldn’t arise in that choice, Kiss didn’t give his side to others to an excessive degree. Even to his mentor who had taken care of him in place of his parents since he was young.
‘But since we’re childhood friends of sorts, does he treat Ash a bit differently?’
Because Ash in the original work was almost the only one who liked Kiss without any ulterior motive. Just as I was spinning the wheel of hope hard, Kiss, who had been walking ahead, suddenly stopped.
“It’s here. You just have to go down these stairs.”
The place we arrived at after walking for quite a while was stairs leading underground installed out of nowhere in the center of the garden, not inside the detached palace. As soon as I saw the pitch-black stairs like a passage to the underworld, cold sweat flowed.
“Is he really in a place like this?”
“Of course. Now, go in first.”
“…If I may be so bold, as I mentioned before, I’m reluctant to enter enclosed spaces.”
“Ah, right. That’s true.”
Kiss, who seemed to be pondering something, suddenly grabbed my collar.
“Don’t do that and try to overcome it this time.”
He seems like the type who’d tell someone with depression to just try harder with their brain. Kiss, who very easily threw me inside the iron door, locked the door from outside. I got goosebumps at the cool wind blowing from inside.
“Sorry, Ash.”
“……”
“I know your circumstances, but there are quite thick forces in the imperial family who don’t trust you. I’d appreciate it if you think of it as a kind of rite of passage.”
It was a development that made me embarrassed about talking about childhood friends just 5 minutes ago. Kiss, who tossed a single dagger through the bars, waved his hand as if seeing me off. I silently picked up the dagger and threw out a question.
“Besides me, is there another person who went down these stairs?”
“It’s not at the level of existing—there are quite many.”
“What happened to all those people?”
Kiss, who paused for a moment, answered casually.
“Deus, you see.”
“……”
“He’s getting fatter and fatter as the days go by.”
Fuck!
In a surge of emotion, I kicked the iron door with my foot. Then with a bang! sound, even the bars where light had been leaking in were blocked by a screen. After standing in the darkness for some time, torches installed on the wall lit up in sequence. As if they knew a guest was coming.
‘This is serious. I think I’m going to faint.’
A terrible memory suddenly came to mind. A hot, sticky summer day. My childhood when I was locked in an enclosed room and waited endlessly for someone to discover me. I overlapped my trembling hands with my other hand and forcibly regained composure. I forced a smile and muttered self-deprecating words.
“If you were going to make me suffer like this, you should have at least given me food……”
After taking a deep breath, I picked up one of the torches hanging on the wall. Cold sweat dripped due to fear, but I couldn’t stop here. I had to somehow endure with my will to live.
“I can do this. I’m not scared. Not scared at all.”
I muttered as if brainwashing myself and slowly went down the stairs. As I descended the endless stairs holding a lamp and sword, a similar Greek myth suddenly came to mind.
You know, holding a lamp and sword. The story of Psyche who checked the face of her husband who might be a monster. Psyche’s husband turned out to be handsome when she checked, but in this case it’s a given fact that he’s a monster. Am I an unlucky Psyche?
“Even so… a sane person would go crazy if locked up in a place like this.”
After going down the endless stairs for who knows how long, I finally stepped on ground instead of stairs. I carefully looked around, illuminating my surroundings relying on the torch. Judging from the visible environment alone, this place seemed to be an underground cave. At least when I came out to a somewhat open area, I felt like I could live.
‘Somewhere in this cave, there’s Deus in beast form?’
I slowly moved forward, feeling along the wall. It was scarier because I couldn’t hear any sound except the sound of water drops falling regularly from stalactites on the ceiling. Just as I stopped for a moment to catch my breath, the hair all over my body stood on end at the cool wind I felt from behind.
‘Don’t tell me……’
I suppressed the feeling that I shouldn’t turn around and slowly turned my head. The hand holding the torch trembled.
What revealed itself from the darkness was a black tiger as if cloaked in void itself.
Golden eyes shining brightly even in the darkness and a muzzle where drooling fangs were visible. His huge body, as if it would touch the cave ceiling, gave off an intimidating presence just by existing. My face, terrified to the fullest, was reflected in the vertically elongated pupils. Excitement and fear simultaneously stimulated my nervous system.
‘Don’t make eye contact, and don’t show my back.’
As I took a step back with my gaze fixed on the ground, Death also approached one step forward. It was a large front paw where you could feel he ate and grew well as Kiss said. The problem was that the front paw was soaked in blood and left red footprints with every step. I pulled myself together from my dazed mind and recalled a proverb.
‘Our ancestors said, even if you’re dragged into a tiger’s den, if you just keep your wits about you……’
Before I could keep my wits, a roar that seemed to shake the earth paralyzed my eardrums. Deus, who confirmed I was an uninvited intruder, rushed at me at high speed. I swallowed my breath after barely rolling to the side before my body was torn in half. Before I could make a judgment, my feet jumped out first.
‘So I can feel the terrible feeling of my body being torn more vividly!’
* * *
The survival instinct was amazing. To make lazy me, who hadn’t run since the fitness test in high school, run without looking back. As soon as I confirmed I’d reached a dead end, I quickly turned direction to the side. Rocks tumbled down onto Death, who couldn’t slow down in time and crashed into the wall.
Crash!
‘A hiding place, I need to find a hiding place.’
At first I thought maybe I could somehow fight with the dagger. But as soon as I saw that house-sized bulk, I intuited. Even if Dagger Grandpa came, it would be impossible to catch that monster. I felt Death, who quickly got up and dusted himself off, running toward me. I stopped looking around and cheered inwardly.
‘There!’
What entered my eyes as I ran like crazy was a narrow gap in the wall just wide enough for my body to fit through. After throwing away the torch I was holding, I slid into the narrow gap in the wall.
Death, who missed me by a hair’s breadth, banged his head against the wall with a thud. Just as I was catching my breath and pressing my back against the wall as much as possible, sharp claws caked with bits of flesh slipped in through the gap in the wall.
‘Please, please.’
I prayed while muttering all the gods whose names I knew. Please let that four-legged beast give up on me, exhausted on his own. Death, who was thoroughly enraged, kept baring his fangs. The claws swung here and there, creating scratch marks on the wall. At the same time came pain that turned my vision white.
“Aaah!”
I screamed while clutching my left shin. It seemed one leg that I couldn’t quite fold got scratched by the claws and was torn. Death, more excited by the smell of blood, growled and glared at me, visible through the gap in the wall. The golden eyes filled only with murderous intent froze my heart.
‘Am I going to die here?’
Ominous thoughts consumed my mind. No matter how much I tried to regain composure, my head gradually became faint from the endlessly flowing blood. I bit my lower lip in the stunned situation.
‘I can’t. I can’t die here.’
I used the dagger at my waist to rip the hood I was wearing. Then as a quick measure, I wound the cloth round and round on my savagely torn shin. I’d rather die bitten by Death if anything, but I decline dying from excessive blood loss after coming this far. After barely finishing the hemostasis, I caught my breath and met Deus’s gaze.
“Shall we start by exchanging names? My name is Ash Serpent. And you?”
Toward me forcing a smile, Deus roared once more. It was a murderous cry that seemed to tingle to the bones. But I raised one corner of my mouth with a face not at all discouraged.
“A Crown Prince with a foul mouth. I’ll have to make you relearn etiquette.”
Death and survival.
Only one choice between the two was waiting for me.
