47. End of Summer (3)
How often, in the course of an ordinary person’s life, would they ever come face to face with a mythical being like the Twelve Divine Months?
And even if they did,
would they be able to believe in such a being?
For Zeliel, a capitalist who had lived by assigning monetary value to every single thing in the world, even if some legendary existence from old tales suddenly appeared before her, it would not have shaken her in the slightest.
Gold absolutism.
If she could not see it with her own eyes and put a price tag on it, she could not trust it.
It was an extremely realistic and rational way of thinking, and because her way had never once been wrong until now, she had lived without doubt.
People often said, “You can’t buy happiness with money.”
Zeliel had never believed those words.
The more money she had, the more certainly she felt happiness.
But……
today, Zeliel, indisputably the richest person in the world and someone who controlled everything with money, belatedly came to realize that there were things money could not buy.
‘Walk along that path.’
The old man’s voice rang inside her head.
His identity was unquestionably one of the Twelve Divine Months.
Even after meeting the very existence every mage in the world longed for, it did not move her all that deeply.
She had only caught the scent of hope from him……
and quietly followed.
“Hey, Henry. Doing all right these days?”
“Don’t even ask. This summer’s ruined business. Hey, pour me some makgeolli.”
“Tsk, tsk. My friend, that’s why I told you to quit trading early and come do business instead.”
Southern Hawol Plains, Myoho Tribe Lake.
Located at the center of the southern plains trade route, Myoho Tribe Lake had grown into a village of considerable size, and beastfolk with tiger-striped cat ears stood out everywhere.
Swaaaaaa—!
Seated in a tavern on the street, wearing a gat and covering her face, Zeliel quietly sipped water. She had no desire to eat, but if she failed to at least supply herself with minimum nourishment, she would not be able to walk, so it was an unavoidable act of resupply.
She ate quietly while eavesdropping on the surrounding merchants’ conversation.
“Ugh……. Exactly. I should’ve gone into business with you too.”
“So what, did the shower ruin your trade?”
“Well, the shower comes down like this every year, so that’s not really the reason.”
The young merchant knocked back a strong drink. The bamboo cup was striking.
“Khuu……. Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with my business sense.”
“All failures say that.”
“No, seriously. This time the Wind Merchants’ Union launched coated umbrellas on a large scale, right? And the response was incredible—it was a total hit.”
“And then?”
The young man glanced around and whispered in a low voice.
“……The Starcloud Merchant Company completely overturned the board.”
“What? Them again?”
“Yeah. Since it overlapped with the item Starcloud released this time, they completely wrecked things so nobody else could do business at all.”
“Tsk, selfish bastards.”
“They’re always like that. The moment it looks like they’ll lose even a little, they just flip the whole board over. But they’re so powerful that there’s nothing we can do. What choice do we have?”
Clatter!
“Wh-what was that?”
The merchants who had been quietly badmouthing Starcloud jumped in fright at the sound of a cup tipping over from the side.
“……My apologies.”
Zeliel quietly apologized, set the water cup upright again, and wiped the table with a napkin.
Her fingertips trembled.
She knew that conversation well.
How could she not?
Because that……
had happened under Zeliel’s orders.
Her father had always led business with spotless integrity, so he never did such filthy things.
But once she had reached the point where she could think like a merchant, there had been a time when Starcloud wavered greatly because of that stubbornness of his, and unable to stand it any longer, Zeliel had begun getting her hands dirty behind the scenes.
‘If there’s money in it, I’ll do anything.’
She had killed people with her own hands before, and she had brought down entire companies. Because guilt had never existed within Zeliel, there had been no hesitation in her actions.
“Whew, anyway, it’s serious. My wife and kids are waiting at home, but at this rate we’ll run out of food by winter. Forget heating—we’ll have to worry about our next meal first.”
“Tsk, tsk. Don’t worry. I’ll help you. If nothing else, how about working with me until your ruined business recovers?”
“……Thank you. Truly.”
“What’s there to thank me for? You saved me back then, so I’m only helping you now. In a way, that means you saved yourself. Heh heh, wasn’t that line kind of cool just now? I should write it in my autobiography later.”
“It would’ve been perfect if not for that last part.”
“Hahahah!”
That conversation ended on a rather warm note, but would it really be like that for everyone else?
Even at this very moment, somewhere out of sight, countless people were suffering in poverty and dying.
That might be because of Zeliel.
Or it might not be……
But why was it that rough white waves kept crashing over and over inside her mind?
‘……I could help them.’
If she stood up right now and placed a few gold bars into that young merchant’s hands, she could save him. With her capital, it was more than possible.
“Oh dear, this business is finished…….”
“Ugh. With the economy like this these days…….”
“What happened to that old butcher who left to make a living?”
“I heard he failed completely.”
It wasn’t only the young merchant. All around her, people let out groans of suffering.
And that story was not limited to Myoho Tribe Lake.
For the sake of the journey to bring back Baek Yuseol, Zeliel had crossed the Hawol Plains, passing through countless tribes, villages, and cities, and every one of them had been burdened by the same concern.
And… the most representative reason for their suffering was none other than her own reckless business policy.
Something steadily piled up inside her heart.
Then suddenly, a certainty came to her.
‘……I can change it.’
It was not true that money could buy absolutely anything. She had realized that fact recently. Even so, the world still turned on gold.
If she could change the world with her overwhelming wealth……
wouldn’t that boy surely be pleased?
Because he was the kind of person who would sacrifice himself for others before looking after himself.
Zeliel walked and walked across the Hawol Plains for a very long time. On rainy mornings, on foggy dawns, and on clear late nights when the Bridge of the Milky Way spread across the sky.
A completely natural land, untouched by magic trains or warp halls.
And at the very end of that place—
“You’ve come.”
At last, Zeliel reached her destination.
A cliff rising through the clouds.
And atop it, inside a pure white temple, stood the old man she had seen before, hands clasped behind his back, waiting for Zeliel.
He gestured with his head as though telling her to follow, pointing straight ahead.
There……
a staircase stretched out before her.
A staircase leading into the sky.
“Some people see this and call it the stairway to heaven. What ridiculous nonsense. Heaven is the land of the dead, you foolish humans.”
The old man’s joke was not funny, but Zeliel laughed.
“This is the road to the past. You will go there yourself and bring Baek Yuseol back.”
The staircase rose high into the sky, and its end could not be seen.
“However, there is one thing you must remember.”
Facing Zeliel, who stood before the stairs, he said with a bitter expression,
“I may be a drunkard and a gambler, but I am still, in my own way, a sacred being connected to the constellations. Those who have piled up sins and karma cannot step onto these stairs.”
“Why?”
“Because if they do, it hurts more than dying. And looking at your face, you have piled up more karma in your life than can be counted.”
It was the truth, so she could not refute it.
“You… really may die. This is not the kind of karma a high elf who hasn’t even lived half a century can endure.”
“I can do it.”
“Very well. If you have the courage, then atone through this pain. It contains, just as it is, all the despair and sorrow that they suffered.”
“No.”
Shaking her head, she answered with a resolute expression.
“I will accept this pain because it was caused by me, but I will not atone in this way.”
“……Then?”
“I will atone in my own way.”
She could never return everything she had stolen from them exactly as it once was.
She would have to live her entire life carrying that karma.
So she would cast off her mask,
and devote herself to the world in the only way she could.
“This pain… is a punishment I rightfully deserve.”
Zeliel kicked off her shoes and, without the slightest hesitation, placed her foot on the stairs.
And in that instant.
A horrifying pain, as if her entire body were being hacked apart with a saw, swept through her soul.
Her eyes bloodshot and wide open, she took another step.
No scream escaped her.
One step.
Then another.
With her eyes tightly shut, she climbed the stairs,
enduring and accepting every bit of pain.
At this point, she had no intention of running away.
If she was going to flee, then she would rather fall and die.
But she could not die here.
If she died here, Baek Yuseol might never be able to return to this world again.
With every step she climbed, hell unfolded.
With every step she climbed, she wanted to scream and collapse.
But she endured.
‘I have no right to collapse.’
Because of her, many people had felt this kind of pain. The blade called emotion that seeped through the cracks in her dried-up heart sliced her soul to pieces, yet ironically, the very reason she was able to endure was emotion as well.
An earnest heart directed toward someone.
How far had she climbed?
She did not look toward the destination.
Or rather, perhaps it would be more accurate to say she had no chance to do so.
Her soul had been torn to shreds, and the fact that she was still alive at all was close to a miracle. Barely holding on was the most she could manage.
Her breathing grew ragged, her feet had lost all sensation, and more sorrow and despair burrowed through the wounds in her heart, whispering to her again and again to give up—but now she could not stop.
Could this even still be called willpower? No, now she was truly… moving on instinct alone.
Then, at the final moment,
she no longer had the strength to lift her foot and caught her ankle on the stair.
‘Ah…….’
She knew.
If she fell like this, she would never get up again.
‘No……’
If I collapse here, no one will be able to save him.
But she no longer had even the strength to right her tilting body, so she surrendered herself to the order of nature.
Thud!
……And yet, strangely enough,
though she thought she had fallen, it did not hurt at all.
Was it because she had suffered so much already that something like this felt like nothing?
“…They said someone was coming to meet me, so I waited. Was that someone you?”
At the sound of that voice, Zeliel slowly opened her eyes.
At a distance close enough for his breath to touch her……
was the face of that boy.
‘Ah.’
She had succeeded.
She had climbed and climbed those endless stairs, and at last she had reached him.
Cradled weakly in Baek Yuseol’s arms, Zeliel gave a foolish smile. The sight was so astonishing and so strange that Baek Yuseol was genuinely startled.
“What’s with you? You look like someone who just ate a vegetable steamed bun with no vegetables in it.”
She had wanted so desperately to see him, and yet the first thing he said after their reunion was a joke so plain, so lacking in style, and so unfunny.
And even that part of him,
was so very Baek Yuseol, so completely Baek Yuseol, so unmistakably Baek Yuseol—
that Zeliel laughed through her tears.
[Read only on MugenCodex.]
