Purgatory (7)

My legs hurt as if they might snap.

Limping towards the castle gate, I fixed my broken bones with a potion. Perhaps due to dulled senses, I couldn't smell anything.

"Foolish creature."

Entering the castle, a voice echoed. A red carpet was laid out from the gate to the central throne. An old man with white hair knelt just below the throne.

"Blind human, did you truly wish to die by coming here?"

His voice carried a tone of lamentation. He clicked his tongue several times as if he found me pitiable.

"Desiring to escape the fate of being a root of the old tree. The threads of fate are annoyingly tangled."

"…I don't understand what you're saying."

"You will never escape the trickery of the old tree in your lifetime."

The old man raised his voice in a fit of rage.

"I don't get it."

"Why do you choose to be a dog of the old tree!"

-Rumble!

The high castle vibrated with the sound, cracks forming in the pillars, and pieces of the ceiling fell.

Without continuing, I scrutinized his face.

"I don't know what you want to say."

Could I win in a fight?

My body was completely exhausted.

"The World Tree and all that crap is none of my business."

But my mind was still clear despite having little of it left.

"I don't know who you are. I don't like the World Tree. If I had received any grace from the king, I wouldn't be here like this."

"I just… want to live a normal life, damn it."

My daughter Shiba. And my teacher and master.

Jin Dallae, Sansuyu. Byeol.

I looked at the old man with unfocused eyes. His face, filled with contempt, seemed to hate me. For a brief moment, I saw the look in Alpha's and Beta's eyes in the old man's face.

I really hated that gaze.

Being hated by reality. Not understanding the situation due to ignorance.

Frustrating. It was driving me mad.

"I don't care about being a lackey. I'm done."

I let out a defeated sigh.

"Just save my master. If you save them, I'll give up and leave."

A dungeon that offered trials.

But what I encountered was not a trial but the truth of the dungeon.

The castle once served a king and was now a purgatory maintained by a single servant waiting for the king.

I wasn't curious who that king was.

Nor did I want to know why the truth of the dungeon was revealed.

"It's impossible. I see no need to listen to you."

A smirk crept across my lips. The tip of the old man's staff slowly pointed toward me.

The flickering blue magic felt familiar, similar to when I faced the tree demon.

"Half-human who lost even yourself, close your eyes in this place."

Straightening my bent back, I gathered all my remaining energy.

More, deeper.

Dark magic flickered like a mirage between my body and shoulders.

At the same time, the old man's magic resonated.

[ Purifying Hell ]

Giant branches spread out from behind the old man in dozens of directions.

Wrapping around the entire castle and flying towards me, they were shadowy and deep, giving an ominous feeling of being sucked in.

But I had no way to escape.

"He said I lost myself."

I reached out to the purifying hell. The long, torn black shadows wrapped around my arm.

Strange scenes unfolded before my dizzy eyes.

Recalling Cheondo's words from yesterday morning, I smirked.

"Maybe this phenomenon is because of me."

Chewing on dried jerky, I looked at Cheondo.

"What do you mean?"

"Perhaps the constraint I placed was too strong."

I had restrained the existence known as the Celestial Demon, so the dungeon couldn't handle it. It seemed like it couldn't provide a trial appropriate for the constraint.

"That makes sense, considering you're the master."

"It's just a guess. But there's something more important to discuss."

"What is it?"

"You must be aware of the 'Shinma'."

Shinma (心魔).

Having heard the term a few times, I nodded, and Cheondo, holding a bag of sweet-tasting jerky, took a bite and spoke.

"You haven't mastered the power of the Celestial Demon yet, have you?"

"That's right."

Mastering the power of the Celestial Demon was difficult. The quality of the power emitted was so different that even imitating it was impossible.

Reaching its essence was like catching stars in the sky.

No matter how much I trained, I couldn't get the hang of it.

Of course, that wasn't strange.

I hadn't grown up tuning my Dantian to the power of the Celestial Demon from a young age like Cheondo. I was learning to use the power of the Celestial Demon at this age.

So when I first started training, Cheondo emphasized several times.

It wasn't something I could learn in a day or two.

I already knew that.

"There must be a reason for that."

"Are you talking about Shinma?"

"Yes."

Cheondo swallowed the jerky she was eating.

"It may be hard to understand, but listen carefully. Your soul is a little… no, quite chaotic."

"What do you mean by chaotic?"

"Well, it means that you might not be yourself right now."

Not myself?

"Is there something you can pinpoint? Like a sudden change in personality…"

A change in personality.

I thought about the division director and the lewd demon traits that I encountered when I first came to this world.

"There is something."

"Tell me about that incident."

"You want me to talk about that?"

"Why? Can't you talk about it?"

I hesitated to speak about it, fearing it was too long and worrying about receiving weird looks. Should I really bring up the fact that I was not from this world?

I remained silent, looking straight at Cheondo. She seemed worried.

"It must have been a big deal."

Hearing that, my mouth dropped open. I felt relieved by her sincere concern.

Why hide anything more in this situation?

She was a woman who risked her life for me. What more could I want?

If there was something she wanted to know, it was only right to bring it up, even if I had to cross hell.

"The truth is… I'm not from this world."

I slowly began to tell my story earnestly.

Cheondo's eyes widened in shock at the most shocking truth, but she didn't interrupt. She just quietly fixed her gaze on me, smiling warmly as she listened to my story.

"I somehow incurred the World Tree's wrath and ended up here because of it."

"You already know I'm exploiting the husband candidate thing, right? Yes, I had to use just a status window in a world without magic or anything. When I first arrived, I could choose traits or qualities… I added other qualities to buy bigger traits."

All the facts I knew. The unfair and embarrassing incidents I experienced on my way here.

"Lustful demon or anger management issues. Those were the characters I attached then."

"I see. For those, you don't seem to lose control or act particularly that way."

"… It's because my mental strength has grown since then."

Cheondo crossed her arms under her chest, pondering, and then snorted as if dissatisfied.

"It's a bit different from what I wanted."

"Yes?"

"Why don't you tell me about your past?"

"Where should I start?"

"From your earliest memory to the end… Tell me everything about you."

It was strange, but if it was going to help me, there was no reason to refuse. I started my story, taking long pauses between details, unfolding it like unwrapping a bundle.

Reflecting on life. Revealing one's past and present to others was quite embarrassing, and I couldn't help but get serious as I spoke.

Even when I brought up shameful or blameworthy incidents, Cheondo's attitude remained unchanged. She just seemed satisfied with learning more about me, showing only a pleasant smile.

"So that's how it is."

After my story ended, Cheondo looked clearer as she pulled out a pipe from her bosom and put it in her mouth.

-Flick.

A wisp of smoke rose from it.

"When you came to this world, you said a lot of knowledge was instilled in you."

"Yes, I think that was what the World Tree was doing to support me."

"And you manipulated something called a status window to even change your personality."

Cheondo paused and exhaled smoke again.

"So, the World Tree might also alter your current personality."

"Yes?"

"The power of the Celestial Demon requires the body and mind to be fully unified. The notion that you, influenced by the World Tree in every aspect, could use the power of the Celestial Demon is absurd."

It felt like my head was ringing.

My current personality not being my original one?

Cheondo's almost certain tone left me bewildered.

Surely, her words had merit.

Knowledge. They could even tamper with memories. Changing my personality would be easy for them.

But then, what was I now? Could I define myself? Confusion surged, and my head spun.

Cheondo, seeing my state, reassured me.

"It's unlikely they completely changed your personality. If that were possible, you wouldn't have made it this far. That's why I used the word' influence.' Maybe they amplified or diminished some aspects of your personality."

"Why do you think that?"

"Were you a man capable of raping someone?"

My first encounter with Lee Seyeong. I shook my head repeatedly.

Unless someone was a determined criminal, who could do such a thing?

But there were unavoidable circumstances then.

"That was a situation I couldn't help."

"Of course. You want to say it was the result of combining the division director, the lustful demon, and the condition of having to rape the opponent, right?"

I was speechless. Cheondo had taken the words right out of my mouth.

"I told you, didn't I?"

She shrugged her shoulders and tapped my forehead with her pipe.

"My judgment is precise. And from my perspective, you're not the kind of person who would do such things without hesitation."

I rubbed my forehead, now red from the tap.

"Because you're a coward and call yourself a loser."

Every word hit me like a dagger to the heart.

"I shouldn't have told you my story."

"Ho ho ho. Even without that, you're one of the few good people. If you ever become twisted, the world would probably have made you that way."

The Celestial Demon stood up, closing the distance to sit beside me.

"There's something I need to tell you, as the one who will inherit the Celestial Demon."

"Yes?"

She spoke.

"It's time to find the real you."

Cheondo revealed her plan, and I was wide-eyed at her words.

The plan was extremely dangerous. It seemed like it might kill us both if it went wrong.

"Can I really do it?"

Cheondo replied.

"Have confidence. You are my disciple. And this place is purgatory. The ability of the person who created this dungeon… is precisely what you need to find yourself."

"How do you know that?"

"I've challenged this place before, so I know."

I sighed briefly and nodded at Cheondo's earnest words. Indeed, nothing could be better if such a thing was possible in this desperate situation.

It wouldn't hurt to try everything.

"Well, sure-"

If I was going to die anyway, it was less regrettable to try and then die.

With these words, my master smiled at me.

Faded memories from the past, a study lamp I had seen once before. Underneath it, a young boy hunched over a desk, his face bearing dark circles, was intently reading a book.

I tilted my head to look at the book the boy was reading.

There were no words written in it. However, the boy seemed to see something in it, muttering something incessantly as if lost in thought.

A name tag pinned to the boy's chest caught my eye.

[Lee Shiheon]

As the memories returned, I slowly became aware of the dream.

"Purgatory."

The worst kind of mental manipulation magic that broke people down, it trapped them in their past and eventually led to their demise.

Even if it wasn't a trial, if the dungeon was created by the king's servant, I was confident it would have similar abilities to a trial.

It was a half gamble, but in the end, it was successful.

It went as intended.