Episode 124: The King of the Dead (3)
“… Oh, oh.”
The undead’s exclamation continued. He kept touching his chin as if he couldn’t believe it.
I restored as much muscle and tissue as possible with [Protection of Regeneration] and [Protection of Transfer]. I had also tried to piece together Leon’s bones before.
However, I wondered if it was possible to revive the flabby flesh. The effect of the protection was ‘proliferation’, but that was something that needed ‘revival’.
However, the result was a great success. It was no different from reviving a fish that had completely lost its fins.
Abel and Shail’s eyes widened at the same time. It seems that this method of using protection has surprised many people.
This time, I was also very embarrassed. It was an amazing feat that would hit even a good surgeon in the face.
‘If I do well in this life, won’t I be able to get a job as a teacher in the future?’
Of course, complete recovery was impossible because the cell damage was so severe.
Still, a clearer voice came out of his mouth than before, when he had been on edge.
I motioned for the two of them to postpone the explanation. They swallowed and nodded. It seemed like they understood for now.
That wasn’t the priority right now. I looked ahead again. The undead was gaping like a carp.
I looked at the sight and asked.
“…What are you?”
It was a question raised for verification. By using two guards together, the completely destroyed jaw was reduced to half-destructed.
Whether it was really possible to converse, and whether it had enough intelligence left, the former was the most important.
The undead, who had been in awe for a while, suddenly bowed to me.
He expressed his gratitude loudly in that state.
“Thank you, Your Majesty… …!”
His pronunciation was slurred, perhaps because of his damaged jaw. However, his sincerity was clearly evident.
After a while, he got up from his knees and bowed politely.
“Greetings, living beings. My name is Michelan.”
Amidst the dangling limbs, there was elegance in his gestures. Abel and Shail flinched and took a few steps back.
“…Why are you like that? Is there a problem?”
“… … .”
Michelangelo, on the other hand, tilted his head as if he didn’t understand the reaction. His eyes rolled around in their sockets like ping-pong balls.
Her expression was innocent, but her appearance was really… … .
Even I, a person who is indifferent to things like this, feel a sense of rejection.
However, I felt no malice at all from Michelan. Instead, he looked at me with sparkling eyes that had lost their vitality.
Michelan’s eyes were filled with gratitude and awe. He moistened his lips with his long-dried tongue and spoke again.
“I have seen the living come to visit me from time to time for about 700 years. But usually they would scream and run away, or they would try to thrust their swords at me. But I never thought this day would come! I have to live long to see this.”
“… 700 years?”
I asked again, thinking I had misheard. Michelangelo blinked once and then nodded.
“Yes. Actually, I counted up to 689, but I forgot because I missed exactly one year. I guess I just forget because I’m old, hahaha!”
That undead, talking about hundreds of years so casually.
“I don’t know how you did it, but you even made it possible for me to speak like this. It’s literally a miracle of God. After living as a corpse for 700 years… This and that.”
And he was incredibly talkative. He moved his mouth nonstop, as if he was pouring out words he had been holding back. Every time he did, his jawbone would creak.
‘… I just fixed it, but isn’t it going to break again soon if I keep doing this?’
I interrupted Michelan and said:
“If you keep playing with that chin, it might become loose and fall off. Then it’s uncertain whether you can reattach it or not.”
“Huh.”
Michelangelo covered his mouth with his hand.
“Michelan, I understand that your circumstances are difficult, and that you have been imprisoned here for nearly 700 years. But I tend to be a bit impatient, don’t I? I would like you to answer only the questions I have for you.”
“… … .”
“If you don’t like it, I can restore it to its original state. It’s up to you.”
“… … !”
I tapped my shoulder with sashimi. Michelangelo turned pale and looked dead.
Suddenly Abel whispered in my ear.
“… But isn’t that too harsh?”
“If I had just left it alone, it would have been chattering all day. We already have limited time, so I can’t waste it on useless things. Well, Abel, if you plan on continuing to chat with that undead, I won’t stop you.”
Abel flinched at those words. She glanced at Michelan and was about to back away.
A sound leaked out from between Michelan’s fingers covering his mouth.
“Wait a minute! The lady over there, with those golden eyes… Are you, are you a descendant of the Black Swordsman Aaron Nibelung?!”
Abel shrugged his shoulders. Shail and I were equally surprised, though to a lesser degree.
Abel answered with a look of bewilderment on his face.
“Do you know the first owner?”
Michelangelo nodded immediately. He immediately unsealed his mouth.
“Of course! I am the closest associate of the Sword Master… …! I am a friend of his cousin!”
Isn’t that completely different from others?
“Oh my, what a coincidence this is happening again. God hasn’t abandoned me yet! Ah, thank you.”
Michelan muttered as if sobbing. However, Abel thought back on the words he had said and asked again.
“You just clearly said, ‘one more time.’”
“Ah, yes yes. If I remember correctly, a descendant of the Sword Master came by about 10 years ago. He was with someone who seemed to be his wife, I think. In my 700 years of life, it was the first time I’ve seen such a handsome and beautiful couple―”
“that.”
Michelangelo paused at the firm call.
Step by step, Abel stepped forward, holding the hilt of his sword tightly in one hand.
Michelangelo took a deep breath. Abel stood right in front of him.
… There was silence for a moment. It was such a silence that even the sound of breathing seemed to be dead.
Then Abel spoke softly.
“Tell me more about them.”
* * *
“… That’s all I remember from what I’ve told you so far.”
Michelan finished his explanation carefully. He looked around, observing the faces.
“… … .”
“… … .”
The atmosphere was heavy. His salivary glands had long since dried up, but Michelan pretended to swallow dry saliva for no reason.
‘… Did I say something wrong?’
He had lived with his mouth sealed for countless eons.
The vast majority of undead lose their intelligence before their bodies even begin to decay. Of all the organs and parts of the body, the one that decays the fastest is the ‘brain’.
That’s why it was standard for the undead to only utter primitive groans like ‘Eoreoreoreoreoreoreok’.
First, Michelangelo maintained his ability to think clearly for 700 years.
For hundreds of years, his bones and flesh had decayed and seeped into the soil, and he lived with a dead body and a living spirit.
Of course, because I had been brushing my tongue a lot in my lifetime, the area around my jaw became a mess more quickly.
‘But that nobleman cured it right away.’
Michelan’s gaze shifted to the side. A boy with black hair and black makeup was standing still with his arms crossed.
His name was ‘Ganggeomma’. Makellan vowed that he would engrave those three characters into his heart even after he died.
‘…already dead!’
But as I continued to look, I felt like I had seen that appearance, that black hair and those black eyes, somewhere before.
Michelan looked at Kang Geum-ma with renewed eyes. Memories were slipping away like grains of sand he had grabbed in a handful.
He had lived for over 7 centuries, so it would be difficult to find him even if you searched for a long time. But Michelangelo did not want to miss this sense of dissonance.
While he was rubbing his temples and casting his gaze like that, Abel, who had been quiet, opened his mouth.
“… Wait, it took me a while to gather my thoughts. Sorry, Mr. Michelan.”
“Oh, no. You deserve to be shocked, Your Highness the Sword Saint.”
Michelangelo shook his head violently.
Michelangelo was a man who lived through the First World War.
Of course, there are more than a few people like that in the undead dungeon, but their thought processes have long since stopped.
Therefore, he must have been the only one among humanity who vividly remembered that hell.
And the ancestor of the girl in front of me. The first swordsman was a great person, and he was still vivid in my mind.
A dance that seems to be loved, or rather favored, by the sword.
He was the human who took the lead in the subjugation of the demon race together with the hero of the first poem, and was the hope of humanity.
But for such a descendant of the Black Sword to apologize to himself? It was impossible and should not have happened.
Michelangelo was already clearly able to distinguish between dead bodies and relics.
But despite his reaction, Abel politely responded.
“No. Thanks to Uncle Michelan, I was able to confirm once again that my parents had stopped by here. In fact, even after arriving at the Undead Dungeon, I wondered if my parents had really disappeared from here.”
“… I feel sorry for having to tell you some unfortunate news.”
Michelan expresses regret and Abel keeps bowing his head. A formal conversation takes place between the two.
Kang Geum-ma, who had been quietly watching the scene, suddenly blurted out.
“… So, do you know anything about the whereabouts of Abel’s parents?”
Michelangelo nodded at that.
“… Yes, unfortunately I don’t know exactly where you two went because you were hiding behind a pillar far away.”
“Why did you have to hide it?”
“Until then, heroes would frequent this place. As soon as they entered, they would slaughter the undead indiscriminately. Other undead would have rushed out, but I couldn’t approach them easily.”
“… … .”
At those words, Abel lowered his head with a dark expression. Michelan quickly added.
“However, unlike other heroes, the descendants of the Sword Saints did not recklessly subdue the undead. On the contrary, the two of you opposed it. You tried your best to avoid harm, and even if you did, you were polite. Just like the descendants.”
“… … !”
Abel’s eyes widened. She raised her head.
As if to ease her worries, Michelangelo lifted his blue lips. His pupils were cloudy, but the light remained.
Michelangelo said.
“Maybe that’s why, earlier, when I saw the descendant of the Black Sword bowing while cutting down the dead, my legs moved unconsciously. It was courage that I, a coward by nature, would never have been able to muster, but I think it was because of the sense of foreboding from 10 years ago.”
“I see… … .”
Abel licked his lips and continued speaking.
“Mr. Michelan, is there anything else you remember? If you could tell me even something small, I would be grateful. Even something really small, anything is fine.”
“… Hehe, I told you everything that was on my mind… … I’m sorry I couldn’t be of any help⎯”
At that moment, Michelangelo suddenly spoke as if he had remembered something.
“Now that I think about it, I remember the conversation you two were having. I think you clearly said, ‘We must break the spell of the messenger of death.’ The expression on your face as you said that was very dark.”
“…the messenger of death’s arrest.”
In fact, the reason my parents entered this dungeon was unclear. Why did they come to a D-class undead dungeon?
They were the most famous pair at the time, and were top-notch heroes, aside from Chilseong.
But one day, I went out to conquer the lowest level dungeon. I guessed there was some reason for it. But I couldn’t figure out what it was.
That’s why I researched and studied the undead dungeons, hoping to find out what their purpose might be.
“I have to stop parking… … .”
Abel just kept repeating those words over and over again.
The clue may be hidden in that one word that seems so odd.
“…Why does it always happen.”
In the midst of a brief silence, Kang Geum-ma sighed deeply and muttered. A dark shadow fell over his face.
Kang Geum-ma asked Michelangelo.
“Sir, have you ever seen a hole deep in this dungeon that could fit one person? It’s probably locked with a few padlocks.”
Michelangelo blinked and answered absentmindedly.
“Yes, I think there was something like that about 20 minutes away from here. But how did you know about it…? I also knew about it after 500 years.”
“I saw it in a book.”
“… … .”
“Please guide me there first.”
“… Ah, yes.”
“Okay, just a moment.”
Shail joined the conversation, startled.
“I feel like there’s a lot missing from the explanation, Master Geomma?”
“It’s my imagination.”
“… Ah, no.”
Her words stopped in her throat at the short reply that came back. Both of us were dumbfounded by the rapid development of the situation.
Of course, the person who said that, Kang Geum-ma, had a completely different expression. With his eyebrows furrowed, he seemed to be feeling complicated.
‘I don’t really know what ‘breaking the spell’ means, but if you’re talking about the God of Death, that’s the only thing there is.’
Kang Geum-ma was certain of Abel’s parents’ whereabouts. How could their paths overlap like this?
Kanggeomma looked around. His expression was so heavy that it made even those who looked at him tense.
“Abel.”
Kanggeomma called Abel in a low voice.
“uh?”
“It seems like your parents got involved with something they shouldn’t have.”
Abel’s face hardened like ice. He didn’t understand Kang Geum-ma’s words at all.
But I could tell just by listening to the tone of voice. Those words were the truth, without any lies. That expression said it all.
“still.”
Kanggeomma took a deep breath after holding the sashimi tightly again. Then he opened his mouth as if making a declaration.
