Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 199

199

“Huff!”

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the dimly lit ceiling. I seemed to be in a fairly large hall, lying on the bare floor. Where am I? And why am I in this state? It took a while for my senses to return. I felt like I’d had a vivid dream, but I couldn’t quite grasp the situation.

“If you’re awake, get up. Unless you want to fall back asleep in that state.”

“……!”

I was blinking blankly when I heard a familiar voice in my ear. Surprised, I turned my head and met a pair of light greenish-blue eyes looking down at me. The owner of the gaze, staring at me as if I were pathetic, was Ellyuen.

“……Huh? Ellyuen?”

The moment I saw him, the dream from just now vividly resurfaced. Ah, right. I had a dream about being back in Korea. I was so immersed in it that I forgot about reality, but Ellyuen appeared and seemed to bring me back to my senses. But even now that I’ve woken up from the dream, he’s still in front of me, which is bewildering. Does that mean it wasn’t just a dream after all?

“What, what? You’re awake? Are you awake?”

Just then, someone peeked out from beside Ellyuen. It was a strange man I had never seen before. He was a little taller than Ellyuen, perhaps. His pupils were as black as ink, and his hair, which fell slightly past his shoulders, was as dark as the night sky. In contrast, his skin was as white as snow, making every exposed part seem to glow. He didn’t have the flamboyant aura of Ellyuen or Lapis, but he seemed quite handsome.

The reason I’m being so speculative is that I couldn’t quite make out his appearance. His face was swollen as if he had been beaten, and he was covered in colorful bruises. Looking like he was in a lot of pain, he grinned at me when our eyes met.

“Wow, you’re finally awake! Hello, El. Nyahaha~ Lovely night, isn’t it?”

“Shut up.”

Before I could come up with an appropriate response, an icy voice cut in. It was Ellyuen. As his cold gaze landed on him, the black-haired man lowered his head like a tragic heroine and shrugged his shoulders.

“Hic! That’s too much, Ellyuen. I was just greeting my friend’s son.”

“That’s the most disgusting nonsense I’ve ever heard. Who the hell is your friend? Is that what friends do, drive someone’s son to the brink of a cliff?”

“Ehet! I didn’t think you’d be so shocked by that. Aww, don’t get so angry, honey. Are you going to hit me again? That’s too mean~.”

“Shut up!”

……What on earth is going on?

I blinked blankly, unable to understand the situation. If I remember correctly, I was definitely inside the dungeon. I think I lost consciousness while talking to El, but I can’t remember what happened after that. Ellyuen being in front of me, a stranger I’ve never seen before talking to me so familiarly—none of it makes any sense. I think I heard in the dream that I was under a spell, so maybe I’m still in that state? My head is throbbing, and my senses are dull, which is suspicious.

It seemed better than just staying still, so I slowly got up. I didn’t feel refreshed, as if I had woken up from being drunk. But what I saw next snapped me out of my daze. Isana and the others were all collapsed near me.

“Wh-what is this!”

I shouted in surprise, and the two people who had been bickering stopped talking and turned around. I first checked on Isana, who was closest to me. She wasn’t injured, but her complexion was terrible. Moreover, she was crying endlessly, as if she was having a nightmare.

“Isana! Isana, wake up! Isana?”

I shook her shoulder, but Isana didn’t come to her senses, even as she sobbed.

“Hic, hngh. I’ll……kill. I’ll kill them all…….”

Incomprehensible words flowed from her trembling lips. Her eyes were swollen and red from how much she had cried. I was at a loss, but I felt a presence next to me. Ellyuen, who had approached unnoticed, was bending down.

I forgot about the urgent situation for a moment and stared blankly at him. His platinum blonde hair, like golden threads, falling below his shoulders, and his sculpted, handsome face were definitely Ellyuen. But even with his face right in front of me, it still didn’t feel real. Ellyuen didn’t pay any attention to my gaze and grabbed Isana’s chin, examining her closely. I was surprised again by what he said next.

“Her emotional state isn’t normal. She’s already been consumed by the dream.”

“C-consumed by the dream? What does that mean?”

“I told you, you’re all under a spell. Have you already forgotten?”

I hadn’t forgotten. But that was what I heard in the dream. Seeing Ellyuen in front of me knowing that, it seemed that it wasn’t all a dream after all. Or maybe this moment is also a dream. Somehow, the latter seemed more plausible.

“Get a grip. This is reality.”

As if reading my thoughts, Ellyuen flicked my forehead. I grabbed my throbbing forehead and tried to resist weakly.

“But that’s what you said in the dream, right?”

“Yes. You wouldn’t wake up, so I directly intervened in your consciousness and dragged you out.”

“Is that possible?”

“It’s possible, that’s why you’re awake like this. Do you even know how much trouble I had because you kept trying to run away? If you had pushed me away again there, you would have ended up like this.”

As he said that, he pointed to my companions who were collapsed, and I swallowed hard.

“Yeah, El. You wouldn’t wake up, so Ellyuen was so worried. I’ve never seen Ellyuen so anxious before, you know?”

“I told you to shut up.”

Again, the strange man chimed in with a friendly tone, and Ellyuen snarled at him. Still, it was amazing that he was responding instead of ignoring him, which was out of character for him. It was a confusing relationship, whether they were on good terms or not.

I took my eyes off the two people who were starting to argue again (although Ellyuen was the only one getting angry) and looked at my companions. It seemed that Ellyuen was real and that he had saved me, but when I tried to ask about the details, the situation of my companions right in front of me was too serious. Isana looked the worst, but the others were in a similar state. No matter how much I shook them, they wouldn’t wake up, and they were all muttering painful groans or nonsense.

“S-say. What exactly does that spell do? Why aren’t they waking up?”

At my question, Ellyuen stopped rebuking the black-haired man and turned his gaze back to me. He looked a little more tired than usual.

“You’ve already experienced it. It’s a spell that invades your consciousness and evokes painful emotions. Whether it makes you relive a past you don’t want to remember, or makes you experience something you’re usually afraid of. In any case, it stimulates guilt, despair, pain, anger, and drives you into a corner. In your case, your mental strength held up, so good memories coexisted as well.”

“Good memories? ……Are you talking about Taejin?”

“Yes. The memories with that friend acted as a defense mechanism to protect your mind. But usually, only nightmares continue endlessly, so you can’t last long.”

“I, I see.”

Come to think of it, Taejin seemed to appear whenever I became extremely anxious in the dream. I felt a sense of incongruity with his appearance, but I never thought that was the reason. As I understood, a touching feeling spread through me. Taejin was a friend who had supported me several times in my past life. I had been forcibly forgetting him because I thought I would never see him again, but to have his presence reaffirmed in this way. It felt like he was still protecting me.

However, Ellyuen showed an unwelcome reaction. It was fortunate that I had defended myself, but he was more troubled because I was only clinging to the memories with him and not thinking about returning to reality. It seemed that Taejin appearing every time he met Ellyuen was inwardly shocking to him. I smiled awkwardly and turned the topic back to the main point.

“More importantly, what do I have to do to break the spell? Can I enter the dream too?”

“If you know the method, there’s nothing you can’t do. But now, all I can do is break the spell.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I told you, they’ve been consumed by the dream. The stage where others can intervene has already passed. If this continues, they won’t be in their right minds even if they wake up.”

Not in their right minds? Does that mean they’re crazy? A shocking fact made my heart sink. I looked anxiously at my companions. Come to think of it, it was abnormal for them to keep muttering nonsense. Isana, in particular, looked like a madwoman as she sobbed.

“Mental strength varies from person to person, so there will be differences in the degree. But your contractor seems to be definitely broken.”

“That can’t be……. C-can I heal them with healing magic?”

“Mental illnesses are also a type of wound, so it’s not impossible. But even if you heal them, the memories will remain. Memories through hallucinations like now are strongly imprinted, so they will suffer greatly from the aftereffects. It’s better to use other methods together.”

“Other methods?”

“Heal them first. I’ll explain after that.”

“Ah, okay!”

I hurriedly poured the power of healing over the heads of my companions. Fortunately, the effect appeared immediately. Before long, the groaning stopped and the abnormal symptoms disappeared. Seeing their complexions improve and their breathing become more comfortable, it seemed that they were all getting better.

Ellyuen, who confirmed that, spread out one hand. Then, a faint blue light swirled from his hand and began to spread out slowly, gathering like smoke. The blue light that had been hovering in the air soon seeped into the heads of my companions one by one. That was all; there were no other outwardly visible phenomena. What on earth did he do? As I watched with a doubtful heart, Ellyuen said in a calm tone.

“I erased the memories from the moment they were put under the spell.”

“Huh? The memories?”

“It’s the most reliable way to leave no afterimages. Whatever dream they had, this will make it as if they never experienced it at all, so they won’t have to suffer any unnecessary repercussions later.”

“Really? That’s a relief. It was solved more easily than I thought.”

“It would have been different if it were you.”

“Huh? Me?”

When I turned around at the unexpected words, Ellyuen said with a bitter face.

“It’s not easy for a Spirit King to have their mind broken, but once it’s broken, it’s not easy to restore it either. Quick healing like now is difficult, and forcibly erasing memories is even more impossible. If you had been dragged into the dream, it would have been difficult to do anything like this.”

“I, I see. So I was in great danger?”

“To think you’re only realizing that now, you’re quite something. Did you think I came here for nothing? I suddenly felt something was wrong and looked into it, and you were getting caught up in something like this. Tsk.”

“Ahaha, I, I’m sorry.”

“You should say thank you at times like this.”

A warm feeling filled my heart at the touch of his hand stroking my head. The affection he had for me to come all the way here was definitely not a lie. Nevertheless, the reason why I felt a little sad was probably because he was projecting someone else onto me. Come to think of it, did he see El? What expression did he make when he found him?

At the sudden thought, I looked around at my companions. But El’s figure was not visible among the people lying down. I wondered if I had seen wrong, so I rubbed my eyes a few times and looked again carefully. But I still couldn’t find him. What, where is he? The sense of relief disappeared and my mind turned cold in an instant. As I quickly looked around, Ellyuen stroked my head again.

“There’s no need to worry about your companions. I gave them a stimulus while erasing their memories, so they will regain consciousness soon. The spell will be broken automatically when they come to their senses.”

“O-oh, no. That’s not it…… One person is missing.”

“What?”

“El is not here. Th-that El that Ellyuen used to know. He was with me until right before I lost consciousness. Wh-what should I do? Maybe he fell somewhere else alone.”

But there was no reaction from Ellyuen. As I looked at him anxiously, he stared at me with a strange expression and then sighed.

“Yes, come to think of it, there was that problem.”

Seeing him muttering monotonously without being surprised, it seemed that he already knew about El’s existence. Come to think of it, he had a fairly calm reaction even in the dream. He frowned at the words that he didn’t like being someone else’s substitute, but he didn’t ask what that meant. ……And he didn’t deny it either.

Even though I had been prepared for this moment for a long time, my heart wasn’t at ease when it actually came. I forced myself to act calm and said.

“We have to find El first. It was Ellyuen who brought us here, right? Can you find out where El is too? We have to go find him quickly…….”

“No, there’s no need to do that.”

“Huh? What do you…….”

I was startled by the cold, resolute answer and turned to look at him. Ellyuen was staring at something other than me. I saw the figure of a man where his cold gaze landed. It was the black-haired man who I didn’t even know was there until now. His skin, which had been a mess, was clean, as if his wounds had healed. His neat face was quite handsome, as I had guessed. The black-haired man, who had been desperately avoiding eye contact, approached with a gloomy face when Ellyuen snapped his fingers.

“Looking at this situation, you must have something to say?”

“I was wrong.”

The answer followed as soon as he finished speaking. It seemed that he had been preparing this line for a long time. The man smiled awkwardly, and Ellyuen chuckled softly. At the same time, the black-haired man groaned and bent over, clutching his stomach. Ellyuen had kneed him in the gut.

“Let me introduce you. The culprit of this incident.”

In a situation where I was sweating while watching, Ellyuen said with a calm face. Judging by his expression alone, it was as if nothing had happened. Of course, if you look at the black-haired man sitting down and trembling, you’ll know that’s definitely not the case.

“C-culprit? What culprit?”

“Hit him once too. No, one hit won’t be enough. You can beat him with the strongest power you can muster for ten days without rest. I, the god of punishment, allow it.”

Even as I listened, I couldn’t figure out what he was saying. Instead of me, the black-haired man, clutching his stomach and groaning, reacted to his words.

“E, Ellyuen. Even if it’s me, I’ll die if you hit me like that, you know?”

“That’s what I’m telling you to do. Take this opportunity to disappear cleanly.”

“Hwaa, that’s too much.”

The man whined, but Ellyuen didn’t care at all. Rather, he urged me, who was standing there in astonishment.

“What are you doing? Hit him as much as you want. Don’t worry about the aftermath.”

“……I’m the one who wants to ask. What on earth are you doing from earlier?”

“What else? I’m giving you a chance to pay him back.”

“Pay back, for what?”

“Ah, it seems like the main players are about to gather.”

It was when Ellyuen finished saying something I still couldn’t understand. A groan was heard from among the lying companions. Their consciousness was beginning to return.