Hero's Coffin Chapter 83

Chapter 83

He also just realized he was in Haren's arms and quickly got up. It was shocking that he had relaxed for even a moment, finding his embrace cozy.

He moved far away from him as if fleeing from the discomfort and embarrassment. Moving quickly while dizzy made his vertigo worse, so he leaned against a tree and took deep breaths.

Meanwhile, Mela had broken the prison to let the mercenaries out, and Kalterik pretended to hurry them while secretly hitting the holy knights' backs hard. The holy knights left for the outside, tilting their heads in bewilderment as if this situation was completely confusing.

"What on earth happened...?"

"Did Solnium's grace really save us..."

Having no countermeasures for variables and only being cautious of the swamp, they hadn't been able to observe their surroundings from the moment the demons appeared. Moreover, they themselves had been struggling in the swamp. Though he had once clicked his tongue at their inadequacy, now it was truly fortunate.

Haah, he had sincerely not wanted to participate in the monster subjugation, and he sighed at his complicated feelings in many ways. Well, it had been resolved well anyway.

By the way, it felt like he kept forgetting something...

[It was you.]

Just then, something ground out in a shocked tone nearby. The moment he heard that high voice, the back of his neck went cold and he got goosebumps.

Ah, the incubus was still here.

[The purple energy I saw in dreams, it was you. It was definitely you! You're the one who killed Lily!]

It happened in an instant. The incubus who had been hiding somewhere in the swamp flew at him immediately. Though both its hands were crushed, it didn't seem to be a problem for it. As it reached out its blackened rotting hands towards his face, it shouted.

With eyes bulging as if about to pop out, filled with terrifying hatred.

[I've been creating a curse for revenge since that day. To tear you apart horribly...!]

Bang! Mela, who had shot over, kicked the incubus away. Then Kalterik hit it with his sword as if to smash its head in, and after that, trees rose from the swamp to bind the incubus tightly and pull it back. They acted boldly even though they hadn't finished evacuating all the subjugation team members yet.

Though it was surprising that the three who had been busy with other things had rushed to save him...

"..."

He blankly touched his forehead. Just now, his forehead had definitely touched the incubus's. Though it was just a tiny collision, the moment he recalled it, thump! His heart beat loudly. Though his unconscious warned that he should push it away, he had already used up all his body's energy and had none left.

A terrible pain came that felt like his head was being split and his breath was being choked off. Huk, as he clutched his chest and inhaled, he heard a strange sound from behind.

"Ah."

It was Haren's sigh. A somewhat startled breath. As if chased by an ominous premonition, he turned to look at him and saw that he too was clutching his chest. Their eyes met directly in the air.

A conversation they had shared one dawn struck his mind like lightning.

'You can assume my condition won't affect you much since your soul is much purer. Unless it's something like being hit by a serious curse.'

Shit.

Was that the flag he should have been careful of?

With that curse as his last words, his consciousness flew away.

***

He kept wandering in pitch darkness.

In a space where he couldn't distinguish front from back or up from down, he was endlessly chased by something. Whether he was looking for an exit, or just fleeing pressed down by fear. Following an eerie premonition that he would die if caught, he ran without even knowing what was coming from where.

But taking one step, he fell off a cliff. With the next step he plunged into a boiling volcano, then into a freezing polar sea, and even felt the sensation of being trapped in a space full of venomous snakes. Various forms of death crawled over his body.

It felt like dying in dozens, hundreds of ways.

There was nothing he could do against this terrible pain. He could only flee in fear of something even more painful chasing him. Though he ran until he was out of breath, contradictorily his whole body gradually grew cold, and finally, just as even his breath was freezing and about to shatter.

"You need to wake up, Isaph."

At the voice falling by his ear, his eyes flew open. That clear voice pulled him up from the dark abyss in an instant. It was such a shocking sensation that he stiffened while gasping "huk", and someone beside him raised him up. He recognized who it was from the firm touch.

Haren.

However, before he could properly look at him, Haren fed him something. He received and ate what came to his mouth without being able to resist. Whether it was because he was too surprised, or because he unconsciously thought Haren wouldn't feed him anything strange. Only after swallowing it all did he realize he had eaten a healing potion.

"You seemed to be having nightmares, and your energy kept dropping, so I had to wake you."

Ah, so the darkness he had wandered in was a nightmare. It had felt so real that he still had goosebumps. He looked around while completely exhausted, covered in cold sweat. It was a large, splendid room. The room given to the mercenary group hadn't been this big and luxurious.

"Where is this...?"

"It's a reward given to the mercenary group that distinguished itself in this subjugation. Many mercenaries saw you dealing with the incubus at the end. You acted too grandly for even Beatrice's magic to cover it up."

The following explanation was simple. The lord had expected to need several subjugation attempts to eliminate the monsters, but they had cleared them all in the first attempt, and even dealt with demons, so he was very pleased. Therefore, he would hold a party tomorrow and give a big reward to the mercenary group that had achieved the greatest merit, and this room was part of that.

Seeing that the other companions weren't around, perhaps they had stepped out to let him rest comfortably. Just then, there was a knock from outside and Haren moved. He seemed to have requested warm water and towels from the annex's servant beforehand, as he received a tray while exchanging some words.

The room was so large that the distance from the bed to the door was quite far. Looking at his back, he moved as quickly as possible. However, having rushed too much with a body that had just woken up, he fell with a crash! Returning, Haren made a very subtle expression looking at him.

"...Why are you tying yourself up?"

"D-don't come closer and leave."

Right now, he was facing the corner of the room, tying his ankles to a table leg, and had even summoned undead to bind his wrists. Only here did he confirm that he could now summon them one at a time. Though the undead soon disappeared as he didn't have the energy to maintain the summon for long, and he knew this would look quite ridiculous, he had no choice.

Red alerts kept ringing endlessly in his head. His body had been feverish since he woke up, and damn it, this heat was similar to 'that day' on the sky island. Even if he tried to treat that day as if it never happened, it was a memory he absolutely couldn't forget.

Why did the dream demon twins have to be identical even in this?

But he was chased by an even stranger sensation than back then, and that was... the shocking intuition that he might pounce on Haren with one wrong move. Was he being instinctively drawn to a being full of holy power in this space, or what?

As even his consciousness started to blur while he struggled to hold on, Haren asked,

"Do you have a fever?"

"D-don't ask, just leave!"

"If so, that's rather fortunate."

Though he shouted fiercely, somehow the answer that came back was strange. What's fortunate about this? He was in danger of losing his humanity right now! When he glared at Haren, he approached with a quiet sigh, bringing the cloth that had been on the side table and spreading it out in front of him.

The cloth that must have been pure white was completely stained with dark red blotches. Only when he smelled the sharp metallic scent at his nose did he recognize it as blood.

"This is the blood you vomited earlier."

"What?"

"Your body kept getting colder from the moment you collapsed in the forest. The curse you were hit with this time is different from what you suffered from the succubus on the sky island. It seems to be a curse that kills by trapping you in nightmares and draining your energy..."

Though he hadn't been completely trapped in the nightmare since he was hit when the incubus's hands were useless, he said the curse was fatal because his body was weak. He blinked blankly. Come to think of it, Haren had said something similar when he woke him up too.

"If you fall asleep again, you might be trapped in nightmares forever. So if your body is feverish now, that's your final survival instinct. Because a dream demon's curse can be eliminated by resolving sexual desire."

Haren's explanation continued very calmly. Though he said it was the body instinctively burning up trying to live while on the brink of death, it wasn't entirely welcome news.

In dreams he suffered from the fear that nightmares would devour him, and in reality he was in danger of devouring others.

However, even in this absurd situation, there was one thing he was curious about.

"You... aren't you in pain?"

He had definitely seen Haren clutch his chest when he was hit by the curse in the forest. Moreover, given how serious the curse's content seemed, there was a high probability it had been shared, yet he looked quite fine now.