Hero's Coffin Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Isaph looked at him with disgruntled eyes, as if he had seen all sorts of strange situations. Generally, he showed little change in expression, and the only things that could be read were fatigue and an uncomfortable sense of distance. Even now, he seemed very uncomfortable with his hand being held and tried to pull his arm away.

How long had he been holding it anyway? Though neither of them welcomed the contact, Harenir found it strangely irritating. Was it because the other person disliked it so much, or because he always saw him trying to distance himself?

...Judging these reasons to be not very valid, he let go of the hand with a thud. It seemed the aftereffects of the nightmare were still lingering. Harenir pressed his brow firmly and sat up.

"It's fine. I'm awake now, so you can go back..."

"No, you need to sleep. What did you hear me say? I told you to focus on recovery."

But Isaph quickly blocked his way. His threatening tone sounded almost like intimidation. As Harenir remained silent out of bewilderment, Isaph let out a deep sigh.

"Haah, alright. If you're worried about having nightmares again, I'll stay until I make sure you're in a deep sleep..."

Harenir let out a dry laugh at Isaph's behavior, speaking as if bestowing a favor by saying he would wake him if he had a nightmare. It was absurd enough that he had inferred the reason for his silence that way, but...

"You want me to sleep while you watch?"

"I don't want to either. If only there weren't factors turning my body into trash."

"..."

"You've never lived in a body like this, so you don't understand, but this is a very serious matter for me. You might be fine after staying up all night, but I'm not."

Is that something to say so gravely...

He knew that Isaph was usually quiet, and only occasionally spouted nonsense when greatly surprised. So now, was he feeling extreme irritation at being forcibly woken from sleep? He might have endured and endured before finally coming here to wake him up.

Moreover, since Isaph had always tried to keep his distance from him after 'that day' on the sky island, for him to approach first like this...

"The less exhausted I am, the faster I can remove the curse. Cooperate a bit."

At Isaph's repeated insistence, Harenir reluctantly sat back down on the bed. He could ignore him and drive him out, but since the pain from the curse had truly disappeared right after their souls were connected, he decided to cooperate a little. However, he had no intention of sleeping in front of Isaph, so he thought if he stayed quiet for a while, Isaph would leave on his own.

He was still puzzled about how Isaph could remove the curse.

He knew that necromancy was the ability to subjugate the souls of the dead, but he didn't know it could connect to the souls of the living too. Well, Isaph could even forcibly detach the souls of the living. He seemed to excel in handling souls beyond just necromancy.

Still, it should be difficult to remove a Dium's curse just by connecting souls, was Isaph's ability much stronger than he thought? ...With that body.

Suddenly, Harenir asked,

"You say you're affected by my condition, so why am I not affected by yours?"

"It's not like I've suffered external injuries right now."

"Ah, so your existing physical condition doesn't affect me."

"That's right... Wait, why is your question phrased like that?"

Isaph tilted his head as if he had heard something very strange. By now, he had retreated far away again and was sitting in a chair on the other side. In the dark space with no lights on, it was very like him to sit in the shadiest position. Only the purple of his eyes was occasionally visible.

For a moment, his eyes wandered as if searching for something in the air, then he spoke slowly.

"There's also the reason of the difference in soul quality. Your soul is much purer, so you can assume my condition won't affect you much. Unless it's something like being hit by a serious curse."

It meant that an ordinary human couldn't harm a soul blessed by God. Unless he was injured to the point of life-threatening danger, there would be no effect, and even that probably wouldn't be fatal.

Harenir's lips moved at this series of explanations. He still couldn't believe that Isaph was unilaterally enduring pain to help him.

"Well, if you concentrate really hard, you might be able to feel my condition..."

"How should I concentrate?"

"What's with the curiosity? Why, do you want to feel for yourself how trash-like my body is and laugh?"

Isaph chuckled.

"You don't know necromancy, so you can't. How could the noble hero use such a power?"

It was close to sarcasm, but Harenir remained silent. Surprised by Isaph's momentary laugh, he just stared at his face. But even with eyes accustomed to the darkness, Isaph's face was only faintly visible, and the smile had already disappeared without a trace.

"Anyway, how long does it usually take for wounds like this to heal?"

"...Normally it would be a week, but this time I used a lot of energy with both Grace and Arux, so it will take longer. Probably about two weeks."

"That's still amazing recovery..."

Isaph nodded slowly. He said that the body would steadily recover during those two weeks, so the quest could progress together, and if no additional problems arose, he thought he could break the connection within a month.

Then Isaph slightly furrowed his brow. Noticing that Harenir wasn't lying down on the bed even though their brief conversation had ended, indicating he had no intention of sleeping, he sighed.

After a strange silence, Isaph awkwardly asked a question.

"...I've been curious, when you use Grace, you recite divine language. What's the content?"

His attitude was very strange. Did he think the reason Harenir wasn't going back to sleep was because of nightmares, so he was going to wait until drowsiness came while talking about a completely different topic? Whatever it was, it was behavior Harenir found difficult to understand. It almost seemed like Isaph was being considerate.

Harenir slowly opened his mouth.

"...'I beseech Solnium who opened this land, bestow grace upon your first sword. Grant the power to drive out the unrighteous things of the earth and sprout life. To purify this place, inheriting your will...' Well, something like that."

"That's really grand..."

"Why were you curious about this?"

"Well, just... The word 'purification' sounded familiar."

"Did you learn divine language? While using abilities that deceive God's will."

"You don't seem particularly devout either, so why the criticism?"

Isaph retorted irritably, covering his mouth with his hand. He stiffened as if the words had come out impulsively, and Harenir looked him over with subtle eyes.

"Why did you think that?"

"...It was a mistake."

"Tell me."

Urged on, Isaph moved his lips for a while before answering.

"...Well, just, on the sky island, you were the only one who didn't pray to God. All the other knights were moved, but you didn't seem particularly pleased...?"

"..."

"It was the same when fighting the Dium this time, um... But in the end, you recited that grand divine language and used grace and even the small sun, so you must be very devout. It was a mistake after all."

Isaph shook his head. Harenir stared at him for a while, then leaned against the wall and tilted his head slightly. He repeatedly clenched and unclenched his hand slowly, as if trying to grasp the moonlight falling on his palm.

After a long silence, Harenir impulsively opened his mouth.

"...Sometimes I think that if God really existed, the world wouldn't have become like this."

This was truly something that could only be explained as an impulse. Words too close to a great sin for the First Sword of the Holy Empire, the Holy Knight Commander, to utter. Was he still confused from just waking up? Or was it just... because he was surprised by the first being to read disbelief in him?

"The numerous tragedies caused by the catasthrope, and the fact that one person had to embrace it all and disappear... Despite that, all the misfortunes that still exist today, it's all strange."

To doubt God's existence despite using so much holy power, and even receiving grace. Even as he voiced his disbelief, Harenir self-deprecatingly called it the complaints of the well-fed, and unconsciously thought that God couldn't look after everything in the world and that expecting that was wrong in itself.

But Isaph didn't say anything. The purple eyes looking at him were just calm, neither rejoicing that his guess was correct nor mocking him.

"Aren't you going to criticize me for being a hero yet a skeptic?"

"That's a strange question. As you said, don't I use abilities that deceive God?"

"..."

"I don't know why you're acting like you want to be scolded after revealing it yourself... What's the problem? It's not like you can't use holy power because you don't believe, you use it just fine, so there's no problem at all."

Isaph answered indifferently, taking a results-oriented approach. He even reacted as if that level of cynicism was natural to have, which in turn made Harenir fall silent this time.