The Skeleton Soldier Failed to Defend the Dungeon

I paused. How much should I say? He’d notice instantly if I hid the truth, and the same went for lying. He’d been so shaken by my sudden appearance because he possessed that much insight. No one knew better than Isaac just how impossible this situation was.

I couldn’t demand honesty from him while deceiving him. This time, I chose to trust. I had resistance against mental interference, and after experiencing Biblio, I trusted Isaac a little more than before.

”I can see the holes in the heavens.”

”...”

Isaac froze. His gaze struck me with suffocating intensity. To hear me speak so casually of the very concept that had once driven him to madness had to be agonizing. I didn’t even fully understand what I was saying. Still, no bait could hook him more tightly.

”I can read myself. So? Isn’t that worth extending your honesty by another three years?”

”Fine...”

”Then let’s seize the power Ashton left behind, together.”

His reaction was as fierce as expected. That much, we had already discussed. It was time to take one step further.

”And, as you’ve probably guessed, I’ve shared several lives with you already.”

Isaac flinched, stepping back. I calmly recounted everything I had endured since my first life. The status window, the Hero Points, the temple of Yemera, Wadluth and his riddles, Marquis Leandro, and Biblio. I concealed nothing.

He didn’t show a hint of doubt. For someone like Isaac, proof was unnecessary. When I finished speaking, the crow effigy was utterly motionless.

”Isaac?”

Only when I stepped closer did he stir, as if waking from a dream.

”I truly despise this...”

”What do you mean?”

Isaac had accepted Ashton’s division of the world into residents and guests. The blue windows appeared only to the guests. And Isaac, with his own interpretation, called them protagonists.

”Whatever the case, I don’t doubt that you’re telling the truth. Everything you’ve described matches exactly how I would have acted.”

That reminded me of something.

”Do you mean... even sacrificing yourself to save me from the tower lords?” I asked the question as casually as I could, albeit it felt awkward.

I remembered him, drilling through the skulls of the two lords as they slaughtered tens of thousands together.

Isaac gave a dry laugh. ”I lost the gamble.”

”The gamble?”

”In that life, I betrayed you, lied to you, and toyed with you like a plaything.”

So he admitted it himself.

”But near the end, I must’ve realized you had been regressing.”

It would be better to start over.

Just those words had been enough for him to catch on. Even now, he amazed me.

After a moment’s hesitation, he said. ”It was a problem, you see. I couldn’t know how you’d retaliate in the next life. To restore trust, I had to do anything, and I mean anything. I needed to make sure you came back to me. That wasn’t a sacrifice.”

”Then, wasn’t it a successful gamble?”

In his final act, Isaac had left me with a debt of gratitude. Though I skipped one lifetime, I came back to him in the end. He was keeping his final vow—to be honest next time—here and now.

The crow shook its head, bitterness glinting in its gaze. ”No. You’d certainly come to me. Whether you skipped one life or two, in the end you’d be battered and driven back here.”

There was a faint trace of mockery in his tone. But I couldn’t deny it. Here I was, after all. I had skipped only once and returned to ask for his aid.

”...”

”The gamble was something else.”

”What was it?”

”The sorcerer who sacrificed himself for you probably thought at the very least I’d fall into an illusion.”

”An illusion?”

”That a replica with memories would believe it had been resurrected. But no matter what lives I may have shared with you, I have no memory of them. I feel nothing when I look at you. So...” Isaac’s eyes dimmed with quiet bitterness. ”In the end, that past me only did something that benefited the present me.”

Memory and emotion. With Rubia and Rena, such things endured. Even without altering the past through Lurium or finishing the scenario, their memories were preserved. Had I been especially determined to bring them back, their feelings would linger as well.

Isaac was different. No memories. No emotions. Even the altered skills were gone. There was no link between the Isaac who died in my last life and the Isaac before me now.

Only I remembered the Isaac of the past—the deceiver and sacrificer. I gazed silently at the one who bore none of it.

”...”

I had already veered far off the ordinary path, and I would only stray further. Could my mind withstand the weight of these ever-growing dissonances? A dull ache of bitterness and loneliness pressed into the hollow spaces of my heart.

”That aside, what is your goal?” he asked.

I answered with no hesitation. ”I want to save Rubia.”

”And once you do, what then?”

”I will make her Lord of Erast. I want to finish the scenario. I want to protect her.”

”Finish the scenario, and then what? Will you set a human puppet on a throne and play the ruler behind the veil?”

”...”

In truth, I had never thought much about what came after. Quests and scenario clears. I had only ever thrashed forward toward the goal set before my eyes.

”Thirteen lives, and you are still dancing to the heavens? What is it you truly want?”

What did he want to hear? His questioning pressed on. I had no answer prepared.

”I... want to know this world.”

The words slipped out before I knew it. I said it thinking it would satisfy Isaac, but the more I considered it, the more I realized I wanted to understand the world that had bound me to these repeated lives.

What was Lurium? What was the Assimilation Rate? Why did I receive Hero Points? What was the scenario? The questions dug deeper.

Why was I purged? Who was Kevin Ashton? And Lady Succubus...? Since when had humans...?

I hung precariously from questions planted everywhere. The uncertainty was suffocating. A savage darkness smeared across every direction. There were no answers, only the rising blue messages. The status window kept trying to herd me toward some direction. Was it guiding me beyond some veil, or blocking me from seeing beyond it?

One thing was certain: I wanted to leap. Isaac had paradoxically driven himself into bondage in search of freedom. I was beginning to understand that heart, little by little.

Isaac tittered, circling once around the egg-shaped statue. ”Ke-ke-ke...”

He, too, had said he wanted to soar above the world astride Demon King Malphas. Perhaps we had found a point of contact.

”Good. If our intentions align, we should charge straight ahead, shouldn’t we?”

”Straight ahead?”

”First, place yourself under Biblio. Use the Blessing of Concealment, and by any means necessary, kill Naneow.”

”What are you...”

”If Biblio refuses you now that you’ve developed resistance to corruption, then come to me. Demand a sacrifice. Let me descend temporarily, kill Naneow, and absorb her blood.”

I understood what he meant. From my experience so far... Every time I obtained Lurium—an Apostle’s blood—I grew exponentially stronger, granted absurd benefits as my Assimilation Rate fell. But...

”No. I refuse.”

The founder of T&T, Naneow Tropin, had saved me. If I absorbed all of her Lurium, she could vanish entirely in my next life. And it wouldn’t end with her alone. I had no way of knowing how that act would ripple out to Rena.

When I explained the situation in brief, Isaac chuckled. ”I figured as much. That’s why, with all that power, you’ve only come this far. Well, I suppose I’ll have to tailor things to your temperament.”

He didn’t seem particularly displeased either.

I steered us back to the beginning. ”First, I have to save Rubia. Time is passing even now.”

In just two weeks, the judgment would fall. If I did nothing, Biblio would come. Unless I begged him as I did in the last life, he would make Necron’s Kirk Ray the lord. If he developed an interest in Rubia, the result would be far worse. She would be remodeled, just like before.

The crow watched me for a moment, then asked, ”What do you think?”

”My thoughts...?”

I had intended to leave everything to Isaac, but he threw the question back at me.

”You refused my proposal, didn’t you? Then you must have an alternative. You’ve died more than ten times, living through everything you just described. Think for yourself. You’ll come up with something better than what I just said.”

”That...”

When it came to reading others, Isaac was anything but ordinary. He could be right. Let me list the pieces I could move. Hadn’t I reviewed this once already? Drawing on the vividness of those experiences, I slowly began sorting them again.

”The easiest mark to leverage right now is Marquis Leandro.”

”Good. And then?”

”If I tell him where the Relic of Light is, and where the abandoned sewers lead to Biblio’s secret hideout, that should check him to some extent.”

The Relic of Light. With Ilien’s Tear, all of Botis’s Blessings in the vicinity would be nullified. Assassination through the Blessing of Concealment wouldn’t work, greatly affecting our direct combat strength against Biblio.

”Go on. Then what?”

”The imperial court has long had a thorn in its side, the marquis. They’ll likely send him here in place of Biblio. The two are obviously in league.”

Whether the marquis ultimately defeated Botis’s emissary or whether the imperial court stopped him, the result would line up with what I wanted.

”As expected, excellent. But there’s a snag.” Isaac cut in. ”You’ve never actually met the real emperor, have you? The one who would send the marquis here. You’ve never even seen the tip of his tail.”

I had told Isaac about the assassination in Gith-Za-Rai. He was certain the emperor I met was a fake. The emperor commanded four swordmasters beneath him, including Marquis Leandro. Even the Tower Lords of Azure, who walked the heavens, respected his authority, and sent wizards at his command. He made equal contracts with the Demon King’s emissaries and granted titles.

It was strange indeed. A man like that wouldn’t die so easily, without resistance. Then who was the real emperor?

I looked at Isaac. ”Do you know anything about the emperor?”

”No. I’ve been sharing Lord Grassmere’s vision, but even I have only ever seen a straw puppet. Go back farther, it’s the same.”

”You mean even his predecessors?”

”My memories are patchy thanks to the strength of the seal, but yes. Every outward-facing emperor was a nonentity. Yet for at least four hundred years, the imperial throne has never wavered. No one even dared to challenge it.”

***

The emperor’s identity loomed over the empire like a chilling shadow. What was the source of his power? His aim? I couldn’t parse that here. For now... we moved.

Swoosh!

Sand-laden wind swept the road heading north. The immediate objective was contact with the marquis. Of course, neither I nor Isaac would meet him directly. He was far too human-centric for that. The most reliable intermediary, the one who sprang to mind at once...

”Daliac is close. We’re almost there.” I called back to the crow, who was lagging.

”I know! Who do you think has visited Daliac more?! Me, or you, little...”

The crow, forcing his wings, suddenly plunged. I lunged and caught him against my chest. His wings were cold. His beak hung slack, and the light had gone out of his eyes.

”Isaac?”

Had flying strained him too far? Maybe if I recharged his mana...

Lightning Wave. Dual Cast...

Bzzt...

I pressed my hand to him and poured a steady surge of lightning through. His body only jolted from the shock; there was no sign of life. I tried again. Mana flowed in, yet nothing.

A high priest and arch-sorcerer who had maintained consciousness for four hundred years under a seal, gone, just like this? How could that be? He didn’t move. He didn’t speak. Even though I’d decided to walk with him from the very start!

”Isaac? Isaac!!”