# Chapter 113
The one who raised Raziel was a young count and member of the imperial family who bore the same name, “Raziel.”
Raziel, who was so far down the imperial family tree that he could barely be counted, had yearned for the throne every day since childhood. Even though others saw it as an impossible dream, he refused to give up, and because of his spirit, people who became his close aides began to appear one by one.
Then one day.
His closest aide, who was in charge of managing the imperial library, said something strange.
A story about a black fragment that could create a shadow human.
Upon hearing this story, Raziel recalled the content about the fragments of a black bead written in the historical records of the former emperor, and soon discovered it in a secret underground storage accessible only to the imperial family.
After bribing the guards of the underground storage with a considerable sum to smuggle out the black fragment, Raziel found the stone chamber where Theodore had awakened. Unaware that the awakened black fragment was sitting on the imperial throne, Raziel created his own shadow in the same way as Theodore had.
“Hooo… It’s really taking shape, isn’t it.”
“Although I’m not sure how much of its ability it can use since it’s not a complete core, being immortal alone makes it quite useful to you.”
“Did you say it won’t have any memories after regenerating because the fragment is small?”
“Yes. It will be like an idiot, so when it opens its eyes, you can train and tame it yourself.”
The black fragment, not yet having opened its eyes, still clearly remembered the conversation between the two humans about it.
Their words were wrong.
No matter how much they expected the content in the historical records about the “black bead” to apply to a mere “fragment,” it would be completely different from what they thought.
Far from obediently submitting to the humans who wanted a docile shadow human close to an idiot, the black fragment unhesitatingly took their lives. Moreover, it damaged the face of the man called Raziel, who looked identical to itself, so severely it was unbearable to look at.
It was instinct.
The human named Raziel who created it valued his own existence highly and always wanted to be unique.
So it killed him.
To become unique.
The black fragment, which left the blood-soaked stone chamber, continued to use the name “Raziel” from that day on. Having no choice but to be identical to the human who created it in both character and temperament, Raziel lived each day according to the desires and plans he had harbored.
Meanwhile, Theodore, who had to guard the throne unwillingly even after sending off the bedridden emperor, also lost Claudia, who had been another pillar of support. As if reflecting how Emperor Theodore was particularly susceptible to loneliness, Theodore also found it difficult to bear being alone.
Raziel, who had embedded his black hand into Theodore’s collarbone as he sat on the throne, cannot forget the moment when Theodore smiled for the last time.
After briefly recounting that story while looking down at his black hand, Raziel thought Levi would surely show no change in expression. For him, such stories would merely be the insignificant past of a tiny fragment that he would eventually absorb.
But contrary to expectations, Levi’s expression resembled that of a human.
“Theodore must have been grateful to Raziel.”
Levi’s face, which had always been expressionless, clearly showed sympathy for the small fragment he had never met.
Moreover, he seemed to empathize with the loneliness Theodore must have experienced alone.
‘Despite not being human.’
Fragments awakened by humans, like Raziel or Theodore, have their personality, character, and even beyond that completely copied.
Therefore, it’s not difficult for them to understand what humans feel and to experience various emotions like them, but Levi would be different.
Because he is clearly a different existence from humans.
‘Despite having a human body, he lives an eternal life…’
The enviably original body.
It was merely amusing that such a Levi was gradually refining his emotions like a human.
“But Raziel, did you lie to me?”
At Levi’s sudden question, Raziel inquired with puzzlement.
“What lie?”
Levi tilted his head to the other side, showing clear doubt.
“You said you were the fourth fragment.”
According to Levi’s guess as he recovered part of his memories by absorbing the third fragment, and according to Raziel’s own claim about himself, there was a major error in the story he had just told.
“The timing doesn’t match. Raziel is the fragment that fell off when I died last.”
Levi’s last turning to ashes was about 15 years ago.
By then, Claudia had died and Ion was 13 years old.
If it was after Claudia left the Caron Empire, Ion wouldn’t even have been born yet and would have been in her womb, so how could Raziel, who was the last fragment, have existed at that time?
At Levi’s sharp question, one corner of Raziel’s mouth lifted slightly.
“I only told you that I am the ‘fourth fragment,’ not that I am the fragment that fell off last.”
“What does that mean?”
Facing Levi’s confused eyes, Raziel extended his black hand. His straight black index finger poked the part of Levi’s collarbone that was covered by clothes.
“It means that you’re not the only one who can use fragments as nourishment.”
Levi’s brow twitched.
“You ate it? My last fragment?”
It was incomprehensible to Levi.
A fragment that had fallen from him absorbing another fragment.
Levi didn’t know that Raziel, who had existed even before the third fragment Claudia had hidden, had been living longer than his original lifespan.
Raziel turned his head, recalling the images of Ion and Levi from 15 years ago that filled his mind. The images of the two were memories held by the last fragment that couldn’t take another form.
“It was to survive.”
Raziel’s thick lowered eyelashes trembled pitifully.
‘You wouldn’t understand, having no lifespan.’
The fear of death.
Without the last fragment, he would have reached the end of his lifespan long ago. Only a hard black fragment would remain in that place filled with black ashes. No matter how deeply it was embedded in the black pond and how much human blood was poured over it, it would never open its eyes again.
Raziel touched his collarbone. Levi’s questioning gaze was still pouring down on him.
He recalled the deep night when he had rushed into the Black Forest, enduring terrible pain.
He didn’t know what state of mind had driven him to burrow through those treacherous thorn trees.
After running and running down the forest path that was so familiar in his memory, he soon reached the black pond.
Seeing his white left hand turning to ashes, Raziel frantically jumped into the pond, and there, he tightly grasped the last fragment that had fallen off in the form of a small piece with his black hand.
Thus, his lifespan was extended as he inherited the most memories held by the last fragment. But now, barely a year remained.
If he could, he would have wanted to devour all the fragments given to Levi and the fragment that was Theodore. But since the fragments that had already reached the end of their lifespan couldn’t give him any “vitality,” it was impossible.
Raziel ruthlessly crumpled the fabric over his collarbone with his black hand.
Levi’s calm voice reached him.
“That’s fine then.”
Raziel’s darkly engulfed eyes looked at Levi.
Though he seemed expressionless, what flowed from his eyes was an emotion that seemed familiar from somewhere.
“If it was for Raziel to survive, that’s fine.”
It didn’t take long to realize what emotion was glimpsed from Levi.
Tenderness.
‘Yes. You were always like that.’
“Death” was not stingy toward those who cried out wanting to live. It gave them opportunities, stepped forward to protect them, and even tenderly stroked them.
It felt as if that familiar tenderness was embracing Raziel with two arms.
But Raziel didn’t welcome that tenderness. The emotion he had unwillingly inherited from the human who had awakened him incited “contempt” toward Levi.
Raziel turned his body as if to block Levi’s tender gaze and walked away.
“We’ve wasted enough time. If we go a little further, we’ll reach the stone chamber where Theodore’s fragment is enshrined.”
“Yes.”
Levi obediently followed Raziel.
Raziel glanced at Levi over his shoulder and pressed his lips tightly.
There was something he had naturally realized while absorbing the last fragment.
That by merely absorbing fragments, he could only extend his lifespan by a few years at most.
And that there were no pure black fragments left to use as nourishment.
There are two ways for a humanized black fragment to extend its lifespan.
One is to devour a pure black fragment that has fallen from the original core and has never been humanized.
Or…
Raziel’s gaze, walking ahead in the gloomy underground passage, sank deeper and deeper.
