Pr/editor: Helen, Raven
Rayan felt the moment fade, slowly but quickly. Erich turned his head away from him, as if he had given up on everything.
“…Erich.”
The sight of a gun muzzle directed at him became increasingly alarming. Rayan knew what that was. It had been pointed at him while Erich was in Arhen, and it had also splattered blood on Erich’s shoulder moments earlier. He hoped desperately that he would not have to see Erich’s death again, feeling helpless and powerless.
He didn’t know who he was praying to, and it didn’t matter if the answer came in the form of death or eternal torment. He never wanted to see him die again. He was feeling as helpless as he had been three years ago.
“Please… please.”
As if his desperate prayer had been answered, the scales he had always carried on his chest rose from thin air and sparkled. Alle had forced it on him. Something he had forgotten, unable to recognise as belonging to anyone, responded. The luminous scales stretched into an elongated form.
A silver trident.
“Why is this…”
It was the king’s trident. A spear meant only for Mer, and granted to no one but the king. If this appeared before him it meant that…
“…”
There was no time to hesitate. Rayan grabbed it with a thin, trembling hand. The trident did not resist his touch. The spear, its whole body trembling with awareness, wielded itself as if it had a mind of its own, without Rayan being able to move it.
The barrier Asha had placed around him shattered, crumbling to pieces. Asha’s body staggered and swayed as the barrier he had built with his magic was broken. He turned around and his expression grew strange for a moment as he saw the broken barrier and the trident in Rayan’s hand.
“Why this…”
Asha didn’t even finish his sentence and as he lowered his gaze, he felt the twitch of the spear that pierced Asha’s heart, to be precise. Rayan’s gaze followed his trajectory. The sensation in his palm could not have been stronger. It was not his intention, but he had no regrets.
Indeed, he had no room for regret.
Behind Asha, he could see Karel’s finger on the trigger. Rayan pushed past Asha. He staggered down the stairs, getting weaker but closer to Erich with each step.
Just a little, just a little away.
“Erich…”
The ground shook and sparks flew. For a moment, he couldn’t hear anything. It felt like as if his back was on fire. It did not feel like his body, and the sensation was unfamiliar. The bowl shattered, letting his tightly restrained soul escape through the holes. Even the groan that escaped his throat was short-lived.
Instead, a foul, fishy stench permeated the air.
Rayan swallowed instead of spitting out what pooled in his mouth, and with that, the world tilted. No, that wasn’t it. The world wasn’t tilting, but his body was crashing down.
He closed his eyes, bracing for impact, but a warmth washed over him. When he finally lifted his eyes, he saw Erich, unharmed. He was not hurt in the slightest, and was looking at Rayan. His blue eyes were damp, and were shaking constantly.
“…Rayan?”
He didn’t want to look like this. He wanted his death to be so quiet, to leave no ripples in anyone’s mind. He didn’t want to give him any haunting memories. He tried to smile, but it was hard to swallow the blood that rushed to the corners of his mouth every time he tried to lift it.
“Wh- why…”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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This must not be reality, but a nightmare from which he could not escape, otherwise this terrible hell could not be real.
Biiii- Tinnitus rings loudly.
‘It looks like the sun.’
All the sounds of the world were gone. The memories of being swallowed by the waves and shipwrecked were resurfacing, one by one, until they were as clear as yesterday. A blue light enveloped them, hovering around them and then seeping into Rayan. There was no questioning it, a young beauty flashed through him like a vision. Reality seemed to be overtaken by a flood of memories.
‘Have you ever seen the sun? Does the sun resemble your hair? Does it shine? Is it that bright? Blinding?’
His blond hair glistened with curiosity as he swayed his green tail,
‘Erich.’
The faintly lingering boundaries disappear completely, and so did the face that welcomed him into his world,
‘I’ll show you my world, too.’
Their first kiss,
‘Even a mermaid kisses their beloved.’
A confession that was a little bit startling,
“I…”
How could he have forgotten the time he spent with him? How could he have dared to forget that glorious time? He closed his eyes, feeling terrible that he hadn’t seen his smiling face at the last moment, and that he hadn’t told him that he loved him.
“How could I? Uh, how could I… Rayan.”
His hands shook. Nothing came to his mind. All that remained was despair and heartbreak, a remnant in the place where the memory had been swept away. Even the brief euphoria he experienced when he learned he was ‘El’ was horrifying and disgusting.
The realization that the life he had been living had actually been mortgaged with Rayan’s life made it even more unbearable for Erhart.
“Er… ich…”
Rayan called Erhart’s name under his breath. Sadness stained his face.
“I… I did not want you to remember anything…”
A feeble hand reached out and stroked Erhart’s cheek. His heart sank at the feathery touch.
“…There was something I wanted to ask you when I met you.”
“…”
“What… What do you think, after I matured?”
His words got stuck in his throat. He wanted to ask if that was the right thing to say, but it felt like he had a gag in his mouth. Every sentence shattered into pieces. Erhart clenched his fists. His nail-crushed palms were a jumbled mess.
“I will… I will save you.”
He stammered and hugged Rayan’s withering body tightly. And Erhart knew exactly how to save him; to trade his life for his. Without hesitation, Erhart channeled his magic. It was enough to blow up his body.
Seeing this, Rayan grabbed Erhart’s arm with a weak, trembling hand and shook his head. He coughed up black, lifeless blood. Still, he wouldn’t let go, lest Erhart do something ridiculous.
“Erich. El… remember.”
They made a promise. Erhart could not quickly recall what the promise was, a stuttering, whitish whisper.
“…At the lake. Hm?”
The sound of grasshoppers, leaves rustling in the breeze, moonlight falling softly, and the promise he had inwardly scoffed at for putting his pinky on the line when he wasn’t even a child.
And the cruel words he was about to say to him.
“Don’t be sad, be happy for a long time, always smile.”
“Enough.”
“You promised me you would think about it once in a while.”
“Please. Rayan.”
“…Right?”
Rayan stroked the back of Erich’s hand and swallowed his apology.
He couldn’t help but feel sorry. He knows how it feels to be left behind, and he knows better than anyone else. It’s so vivid to think of how chaotic and lonely the wait was. He was pushing him into that hell right now.
“You… said so.”
But he still wanted Erich to live.
He was even delighted he could save him this time.
“…”
Fluttering lashes obscured eyes that once shone like newborns. Rayan’s hand slowly and helplessly dropped.
“…Rayan?”
He didn’t even flinch at the sound of his call.
“Ah, ah…”
Erhart stuttered like a man who had lost his language. He fumbled for Rayan’s hand, which had dropped to the floor, and repeated his name. If the world were to fall apart, it would still not be worse than this.
“Ha- haa.”
A laugh tore through the terrible void, pulling Erhart back to reality from his denial of the situation.
Erhart gently placed Rayan down, kissed his forehead politely and slowly made his way up the stairs, his face expressionless. The spear of light in his hand flashed and blazed.
Tap, tap. His monotonous steps stopped in front of Asha, a spear already embedded in his chest. Asha let out a bloody cough, but he smiled languidly, as if he didn’t care about the spear that pierced his chest, and looked down at the ground, at someone else.
“…Is my death still an equivalent exchange?”
“It has found its master, but there is a time for everything.”
Asha looked at his heart and smiled strangely.
“That’s what you said. You said I should have remembered.”
Asha was smiling, but there was clear malice and a faint sense of emptiness.
“Then I see no reason why I shouldn’t kill you.”
Erhart spread his hands lightly. A spear of light flashed and shone.
“A mere mortal. Arrogant?”
The malice in his voice thickened, and the turbid energy that surrounding him became sharper, threatening to stab Erhart. A vortex formed around him. Staring at the growing tornado that threatened to swallow him whole, Erhart covered it with his magic, attempting to neutralize it.
“How arrogant of you.”
With him subdued, Erhart did not hesitate to raise his spear high and then bring it down.
“Didn’t you touch what was mine.”
The sensation of bone cracking and flesh tearing was clear across his palm. Hot blood clung to his eyelids. When he blinked, it slid down his cheeks like a tear.
“It’s too bad.”
Looking at Erhart, Asha reached out and tugged at his collar. He could feel his faint breathing, as if it could be extinguished at any moment.
“I can’t watch your despair, your eternal longing for the one you love, for so long.”
He sneered, sensing Erhart’s emotions. Erhart stared at him in silence as he heard the whispered words. Asha’s body gradually faded and dissipated.
“May you suffer long and hard.”
He closed his eyes as if to wipe away the blood, and when he opened them, violet remnants floated through the air like dust. The silver spear fell to the floor with a clatter. The ending seemed empty and hollow.
There was nothing left. Nothing.
Nothing…
“…”
Erhart shook his head and fell to his knees. A tear ran down his cheek and onto the immaculate white pearl on the floor.
Oh my- How will this situation be fixed, huh? 🫠
Thanks for the update 🌹
this chap hurts so much… they both didn’t deserve any of this at all.
Okay, I still don’t understand Asha.
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و