The Hero Who Returned From Death Quits

EP7. At the End of Darkness

Beatrice stared blankly at the white space surrounding her.

All white. Her vision was filled with the buildings of the holy land, which preserved their innocence and purity without even the slightest speck of dust.

I didn’t usually think about anything, but somehow I didn’t like that emptiness.

Beatrice looked around, her eyes wandering for an escape route that would take her out of this infinitely empty whiteness.

The vivid whiteness was so vain that it felt like I was going to turn into an idiot.

She lay down on her bed, which was, of course, white.

White. White. White. In a landscape filled with nothing but white, she has lived her entire life.

There was a time when I lived only seeing the white color that resembled light, and I thought I lived in the light. There was a time when I thought I could find the light by living trapped in the ‘white color’ of faith, charity, and all kinds of things.

But all that was left for her was the emptiness that white brought. Sometimes, she felt burdened by that white and wanted to throw it away, but in the end, she realized that white was the color that suited her best, and so she never even thought about escaping from the sea of ​​white.

But I knew that white was not light.

Living and laughing in the countryside with Ainzel, the past of one’s self that one cannot remember shines brightly in the distance.

After seeing that light, all that was left for her was emptiness.

She, Beatrice, was good.

I found joy in helping others.

But does that mean that it is the pinnacle of happiness that a human can feel? Can it become the light that she has been searching for her entire life?

Before she knew it, the joy of helping people had disappeared, and instead, chains began to slowly form around her neck.

Duty. Faith. Other people’s expectations. Before she knew it, she had slowly forgotten why she had started helping others, why she had started believing in God.

Only white remained, dyeing her hair pure white.

That’s why I was obsessed with that white color. I didn’t want to dismiss the things I had believed in and built up until now as useless.

But at some point, the chains that had begun to tighten around her neck were so painful that it was becoming difficult for her to even cling to the chains that bound her. So, she decided to choose death.

But another chain, the people who believed in her, did not even allow her to die.

So, I had no choice but to endure it.

He tried to become stronger by silencing his own senses so that he would not feel the pain of the chains that bound him.

… I think it went well. Beatrice had become strong enough to bear her chains, and she had defeated the Demon King, so she thought everything was resolved.

But the moment I saw myself laughing with him.

The moment she saw her free-spirited self that she couldn’t remember, she became aware of the chains that were placed on her.

It is said that white makes a space look wider. This holy place, where the only space allowed to her was white, seemed infinitely wide.

And now the whiteness felt so narrow that it felt like it was going to burst open.

“Huh, breath.”

She felt a word come out of her mouth without her knowing it.

“I can’t breathe…”

She feels suffocated. Countless chains tighten around her neck as soon as she becomes aware of their existence.

It was only then that she realized that she had not become stronger. She had simply become accustomed to being weak and chained.

And as soon as she saw herself free from her chains, she became aware of her situation.

“I can’t breathe… I feel like I’m going to die…”

She began to scratch her neck frantically, as if she believed that she could free herself from the chains that were tied around her neck.

So suffocated that she scratched her white neck to free herself of what was suffocating her.

The pure white neck turned red.

When she closed her eyes, he had suddenly come closer. Instead of the back of him leaving the empire, she was looking at him with his black hair and black eyes, smiling brightly.

Ainzel looked at her with the key in his hand.

She tried to reach out to him, but the chains held her back. She couldn’t get close.

Ainzel, he looked at himself.

He just watched himself floundering in chains.

“Why… are you just watching… .”

As she let out a small word of resentment, Ainzel looked at her with sad eyes.

“Save me… .”

She mouthed the words she had said in the video.

Just like that past self who had smiled freely, he wished that he could free himself from this pain.

“…Sorry, it’s impossible.”

But even though the words he gave to her did not change, his answer was different.

Beatrice felt pain as she saw Ainzel looking at her with a sad smile.

She scratched her neck.

“Why… why, why…?”

While holding the key, having already freed his past self, his voice was stern and firm.

The only one who can save him is Ainzel.

“I want to reach out to you and save you. But…”

Ainzel looked at her with his black eyes.

“You’re pushing me away. I can’t get to you.”

The background began to change. Before she knew it, she and Ainzel were standing on a cliff.

“Look, like this-”

Her hands began to reach out towards him, drawn by the chains. Her hands, which were getting closer and closer to Ainzel, seemed as if they would send him over the cliff the moment they touched his body.

“No! Please! Don’t do it!”

Beatrice struggled to free her arms, but the chains that bound her arms did not move at all, and she moved her arms to push Ainzel away.

“no!”

Beatrice’s hand pushed Ainzel away.

Boom, Ainzel began to fall over the cliff with such ease.

“You’re dropping me.”

His cruel voice pronounced the sentence, and Ainzel’s appearance changed to that of falling down the cliff while holding the key.

His black hair turned white. His eyes were red. What appeared on his skin was a tattoo of an ominous pattern.

Ainzel shed tears of blood from one eye, looked at Beatrice with sad eyes until the very end, and then fell down with a light that was so beautiful it was sad.

Beatrice tried to grab him, but all that remained was an emptiness where he could not be seen.

The color of that emptiness was so white that it was almost indescribable-

She looked at her hands, which were holding nothing.

I felt my wrists shaking, and the chains clanked along with them.

She scratched her neck.

And finally she opened her eyes again.

White. So white. I think I’m going to turn stupid.

I saw light. All my life I only knew that the color of light was white, but the light I actually saw was so vivid that it hurt my eyes. It was red, blue, yellow, and various colors.

Because the black light that was all mixed together was so beautiful.

The white left on my hand looks too dark.

It’s too dark. I can’t see anything. Please. Someone help me.

She shed tears.

My body was trembling.

I scratched my neck because it was so sore.

Why didn’t I know?

The light he had been searching for his entire life, that brilliant black color, was his eyes that had been by his side from the beginning.

Because the deep black light was blinding, and because he realized that the light could not reach him now.

It’s painful

Sad

I’m sick

I was lonely.

She felt pain in the pure white darkness that surrounded her.

My neck hurts. Every time my fingernails scratch my skin, a tingling pain surges through my body.

I don’t want to be sick. I don’t want to get hurt. I don’t want to bleed.

But the white chains were more painful than the pain, squeezing her chest so tightly that she scratched her neck.

I hurt myself.

Suddenly, something ran down her neck.

Her white quilt, her white bedroom, her white world, were invaded by a red so dark it was almost black.

Thump, once again, red drops formed, flowed, and fell.

The fallen crimson burst on its own as soon as it touched the white world, dyeing the world.

She squeezed out her voice, feeling as if her throat was being choked.

“Come back… .”

She continued, with a foolish and painful heart, hoping that the light she had pushed away would return.

“sorry….”

I pushed you away. I don’t even dare ask for forgiveness. I know you’re in a lot more pain than I am.

If you have a wish, even if it’s just that kind of ugly self. Just like you used to smile at yourself in the past.

“Hug me… .”

Hold me, hold me. Let me escape from the chains and be locked inside you. Let this body crumble. With that scarred body, tightly.