Hero's Coffin Chapter 57

Chapter 57

He now understood why Harenir carried so many holy relics. He had thought it was just to strengthen holy power, but in fact, it was to reduce the wounds of someone always at the forefront, and this was also why he had stocked up on healing potions at the temple.

He wasn't sorry... for only seeing Harenir as perfectly fine all this time. Well, wasn't that the gaze he wanted? It also meant he had acted well, hmm. Perhaps because this situation was embarrassing, his thoughts were jumping around wildly.

Feeling awkward, he surveyed the desk. Spotting a healing potion, he picked it up and said,

"Just drinking it won't heal everything, right?"

"...When consumed, it spreads throughout the body, so it can't focus on healing specific areas. It's better to apply it directly to treat specific wounds."

"Hmm, since the whole body is a mess, maybe just drinking it would be better."

"..."

"...I'm talking to myself."

Harenir looked at him with cold eyes, and he awkwardly fiddled with his nape. He had no talent for easing the atmosphere through conversation. Thinking it would be better to treat him quickly and leave, he urged Harenir to sit in the chair, and Harenir let out a small sigh.

Then, surprisingly, he really walked over and sat down. In fact, he had thought Harenir might ignore him, so this compliant response rather flustered him, and Harenir spoke in a resigned tone.

"...I'll go along with this absurd thing, so don't tell anyone about it."

Harenir seemed to have taken his sudden offer to treat him as half a threat. It made sense that he would think that way since he had learned the truth that Harenir considered his 'weakness'. It was unexpected that he would comply with something he perceived as a threat, but that truth must be that important to him.

However, what Harenir was worried about was quite amusing.

"Even if I said anything, who would believe me? I'd just be accused of slandering the hero."

"...Mela seems to trust you quite a bit."

"Well, some distrust can look like trust."

Mela had made that request to him because she was certain that Isaph had no humanity. He answered indifferently, and Harenir looked at him with strange eyes.

"That necklace was a gift from me. She's been wearing it ever since..."

Surprisingly, he knew that fact directly from Mela. As soon as the battle ended, Mela had come to him to retrieve the necklace, and after carefully examining it for any damage, she had said it was a gift from the Commander. She seemed to be in a good mood, relieved to have safely returned to human form, and had shared an old story with him.

Over 20 years ago, Mela had been captured as an experimental subject at a young age. Though the experiment was ostensibly conducted to stop the Dium, it continued even after Dedium was sealed, under the pretext that another calamity might come. From the start, it had been a horrific experiment perpetrated by those interested in misguided power.

Then, when Mela's power went berserk, the Holy Knight Order arrived. Everyone tried to kill Mela as she was about to sweep through the village, but Harenir stopped them. Then, even as he was wounded by the swirling demonic energy, he approached and calmed Mela.

Telling Mela that she had no mission to eliminate the Dium, that she wasn't such a weapon...

'Don't lose yourself because of those terrible humans.'

The hand that came through the storm of demonic energy saved Mela, and from then on, she dreamed of becoming a holy knight.

Through great effort, she even manifested holy power and succeeded in joining the order, but everyone shunned her as a half-human, half-demon. But then Harenir came to Mela. Though years had passed, he remembered her and welcomed her, taking off the necklace he was wearing and giving it to her.

At that time, Harenir was already slated to be the next commander, so when he acknowledged Mela as a comrade, the other knights could no longer dare to ignore her.

'I will be loyal to him for life.'

Recalling the look in Mela's eyes as she told that story, he began to understand a little why Harenir couldn't reveal his condition even to his closest knights.

As he mulled this over, Harenir was still staring at him intently, and he felt he should respond to Harenir's request. If it was an appropriate response for Isaph to give, then...

"Alright. If you obediently follow what I say now."

"..."

Since Harenir had taken his offer to treat him as half a threat earlier, he decided to push forward with the threat. Harenir's face showed a complex expression before he just sighed and moved his hands.

Pop, pop, he unbuttoned his shirt and took it off. He hesitated at the sight of the exposed upper body. He could infer from past experiences of being held that the body beneath that elegantly beautiful face was full of firm muscles, but facing his nakedness made him feel awkward.

However, after the impression that not only his face but also his body was like a sculpture, he almost let out a shocked exclamation. Wounds began to appear on the body that had seemed fine. It was covered with traces of cuts and stabs everywhere. What he had said earlier about being able to "appear fine" seemed to be a kind of mask concept. Perhaps it should be described as a state of wearing a covering of an unwounded appearance.

Somehow, even that seemed very much like Harenir. As he remained quietly silent, Harenir sneered.

"What? Didn't you offer to treat me so you could see with your own eyes how much of a wreck I am and laugh?"

That mouth of his.

The sentimental mood he had briefly tried to entertain cooled off instantly. Still, he hadn't been this openly sarcastic before; now that he had revealed his wounds, had he shed a layer of his personality too?

He swallowed a sigh and picked up a cloth from the desk. First, he wiped away the blood, then carefully pressed a new cloth soaked in potion onto the wounds.

It was his first time treating someone else, so it felt very unfamiliar, but he put in his best effort. Even though it should hurt when the wounds were touched, Harenir remained quiet. He only flinched slightly when his hand first made contact.

After that, he didn't move at all, and there was no particular conversation during the treatment. Feeling awkward in this silence, he focused more on the treatment.

"...Should I wrap bandages too?"

"...Do as you please."

It was frustrating to receive such a resigned response when he was offering to help, but if he said he wouldn't do it, he would only look foolish, so he busily searched for bandages.

Time passed quietly, and the treatment was finally complete.

Letting out a short breath, "Whew," he stepped back, and Harenir got up from his seat and put on his shirt. Just looking at those smooth movements, he seemed like someone not in pain at all, but...

He stared at Harenir's back and said,

"Don't get hurt. When you're in pain, I'm in pain too."

"...?"

Swish, Harenir turned to look at him. His eyes, doubting what he had just heard, were deeply tinged with a bitter energy. He knew his statement could come across as extremely creepy, but damn it, it was.

"It's not that my heart hurts, my body literally hurts. Damn it, connecting souls means I share your condition too, so my whole body aches."

"Ah."

"Huff, I thought I was going to die just standing there."

He collapsed into the chair, panting heavily. Now he sat where Harenir had been just moments ago, groaning like a patient. Throughout the treatment, his legs had been trembling so much he had barely managed not to fall face-first onto the floor.

The pain wasn't fully shared, but it felt like at least 50%. Ah, Harenir might endure it habitually with his solid body, but it was too much for his body. His hand trembled as if he had been pierced by arrows, and his shoulder hurt too.

Strangely, he could cover up the pain from the Dium's curse, but Harenir's physical wounds transmitted the pain to him intact. Damn, was it because this wasn't about the soul? Cold sweat broke out, and as he groaned, "Urgh," clutching his abdomen, Harenir asked,

"...Do you want to drink a potion?"

"Would my wounds disappear if I drank it?"

The cause of the pain is still in your body. He glared at him as if asking if he was mocking him, and Harenir's lips moved slightly before he finally pressed them shut and fell silent. He seemed a little, no, quite bewildered.

At first, when he had said he was helping by connecting souls to get his sentence reduced, Harenir still had his guard up. He seemed to suspect there was another purpose, but he looked surprised to hear that even the pain was shared. It meant that he was really stepping up to help him while enduring pain. Confusion filled his eyes as he confirmed the cold sweat on his forehead.

Hah, in truth, he hadn't known it would be this bad either... Was this why the status window hadn't informed him in advance? Anyway, it was weak. Clutching his throbbing head, he painfully urged,

"Take better care of your body from now on..."

"...I never thought I'd hear such words from you."

"Focus on recovery for a while..."

Harenir looked at him with a face of great confusion. He seemed to think that was also the reason he had treated him earlier, and ultimately, that might be correct. He staggered to his feet.

"I'm leaving now... I'm tired...?"

He stumbled past Harenir towards the door. Harenir still seemed unsure how to react to his behavior of leaving abruptly as soon as business was finished, but he no longer wanted to care about anything. He just wanted to leave this place quickly. He wanted to lie down right away.

Ah, somehow he hadn't suffered much in this Encroachment Zone, but in the end, he ended up sharing the fatigue of the person who had suffered the most in this way. Terrible game. F***ing terrible game.

Freedom was urgently needed.