Chapter 21
Yasamin tapped his chest lightly.
In fact, when it came to being skeptical, biting, and negative, he was no less than anyone else. Therefore, Yasamin did not allow himself to have unreasonable expectations.
Prophecies about Aquafuran had existed in the past. This was not the first time.
But he had never once found one. Prophecies are always ambiguous and unclear. It is not easy to understand their true meaning.
The interpretation skills of the priest who conveys the prophecy are also important.
“It’s said that once every hundred years, it’s reborn. So this should be the ninth time, or maybe the tenth. I can’t even count anymore.”
In Yasamin’s murmured voice, a deep weariness lingered.
His pain was something no one fully understood. He had never tried to explain it.
A life where he couldn’t sleep at night and had to stay awake during the day. A fate where he had to wander with his eyes wide open, filled with regret for the things he couldn’t protect—this was terrible, but what was most hateful was the fact that no one could understand it.
Everyone who is alive sleeps. Because they can escape into dreams.
“Now that I think about it… I think I may have dozed off for a moment.”
“Pardon?”
“Really. If that was ‘sleep,’ then, maybe.”
At Yasamin’s words, Jin blinked his eyes rapidly. He was also shocked.
“Were you just lying down, thinking about something else, not thinking at all, or zoning out? Something like that?”
“My consciousness faded. Just like that, I can’t remember.”
“Pardon…?”
You wouldn’t believe it. He himself still couldn’t comprehend it.
Shrugging, Yasamin slid his gaze toward the room where a faint breath could be heard.
Something even weaker than a fragile animal. Even in the desert, even a rat knows how to find its own way. But the Siren was different.
If left alone, it would just wither and die. So fragile that it drew his attention.
Perhaps because it was the most delicate thing he had ever seen, he wanted to keep it caged in his hands and adore it.
It was hard to say he wanted to torment it.
“Well, it could be a different being, not that one. Don’t get your hopes up too much…”
“Yeah, I know. Something like a spirit, or one of those with such bloodlines. There’s a lot of possibilities.”
“Yes. But what’s interesting is that it’s true.”
Both he and Jin had grown too old to entertain faint hopes.
Time, after all, was fleeting.
One hundred years, two hundred years, three hundred years… up to that age, he was still young. Was it around five hundred years old? There was a time he spent with the elves who lived in distant lands.
But in the end, even they, who had longer lifespans than humans, died earlier than that.
People around him die. Elves, or whatever they are, they die in the end.
The only ones who do not die are the gods, or those who are divine in nature. Only spirits who belong to nature remain. By the time he was over seven hundred years old, emotions had vanished.
They had dulled to the point of scattering, and by the time he turned eight hundred, he could no longer feel anything.
Thus, another year, two years…
Eternal time was like a curse, and living and dying were the same. Youth and old age were no different, wealth and poverty were equal, so in the end, everything in the world is one single circle.
In that realization, he withered away. Like a dried-up corpse left in the desert, little by little, little by little.
His soul itself had weathered away.
If he had not met Jin and Pamilla, he probably would have lost himself even faster.
“No matter what that person is… Even if they are not the one we’ve been looking for, I hope that it will give you another enjoyment in life, Master.”
Jin spoke seriously.
Yasamin chuckled lightly at that.
It was fine either way, whether it was that person or not. Since the feeling of ‘expectation’ had long since disappeared. He no longer wished for anything.
No matter how much he looked, it wouldn’t be fulfilled, and no matter how much he longed, he would die in the blink of an eye. Once dead, that existence would disappear.
Even if he desperately protected himself from death, he could not fight against aging.
Once that was over, he would be left behind again…
“Well. It’s not something to think deeply about.”
He no longer even found thinking worth the effort.
That’s true.
Something in his inner self was chuckling. A deep, thick laugh, tinged with madness.
When he woke, a faint sunlight was shining on his face.
It was not the kind of feeling that pierced as if it would kill someone, but very soft and warm, and for a moment, the Siren forgot that she was in the desert.
‘My body feels light.’
Then, the awareness of reality slowly settled in.
She heard someone’s low laugh, like the sound of a throat humming. There was also the sound of a book being closed..
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