Episode 932
Chapter 231: Resolve (5)

“If I tell the truth, I won’t kill any more powerless people.”

Jin didn’t believe Paelito’s words.

“Truth, huh…”

Jin leveled his sword at Paelito, steadying his breath. His strength was nearly gone, and even the slightest lapse in focus made his blade tremble.

“Fine. But before I answer, I have one question.”

Swish!

Paelito unleashed a slash of sword energy toward the battlefield’s edge. Just like when he obliterated the forest where Dante had been moments ago, that slash surely wiped out more innocent lives hiding there.

“I’m the only one allowed to ask questions. Because of your nonsense just now, another thousand bugs died.”

Tears on Jin’s cheek were drying. Blood, sweat, ash, and tears mixed into a dark stain—an indelible mark of pain he could never forget, nor should.

It was heavy.

His weary body felt heavy, and the guilt of failing to save lives weighed so heavily on his chest that it was suffocating. Jin wasn’t staring at Paelito before him—he was staring at that unbearable weight.

“I’m losing to you right now, Paelito. So no matter what you do, I can’t stop you. But on the flip side, you can’t silence me—unless you kill me or cut out my tongue. But you won’t do that… because then it would all be meaningless.”

His obsession with Sachiel was what kept Paelito from striking him down.

Paelito couldn’t deny it. He still hadn’t accepted Sachiel’s death. He needed to hear something from Jin—anything that made sense. He wanted to hear it.

“We both carry wounds that can never be healed. You lost Sachiel, and I failed to protect those I swore to guard. Maybe, as you said, your friends died too. No matter how this fight ends, neither of us can live like before. What awaits us isn’t the joy of victory, but eternal pain we won’t forget even in death.”

The pain they each endured had long since passed any limit. There was a definite boundary to human sorrow.

So from now on, it didn’t matter who lost more, or who suffered more. Paelito had lost the most important meaning in life the moment he lost Sachiel, and Jin would despair just the same even if everyone else died.

“So don’t be so sensitive just because I ask a few questions. Just as killing me won’t bring Sachiel back, killing you won’t bring back the dead.”

A sudden surge of emotion!

Paelito spat out a mouthful of blackened blood. The violet aura surrounding him darkened further. The Shimba was pulling out the demonic nature buried deep within him.

Paelito himself knew better than anyone—there was no going back. Even if he heard more from Jin about Sachiel’s death, the outcome was already decided. The Shimba, amplified by the emptiness of revenge and lingering loss, would eventually consume him.

Jin could see that future clearly too.

That’s why he wasn’t afraid of what was to come. Even if he died, someone would cut down Paelito, swallowed by the Shimba.

Even if Jin fell, there was still Siron and Luna in Runcandel, brothers and knights, and comrades in Tikan. One of them would surely carry on his will—just as he had inherited the will of Runcandel from a thousand years ago.

But behind Paelito stood only a monstrous abyss craving endless pain. Only unfortunate souls brainwashed by that monster filled his ranks.

“Hundreds of billions who have forgotten what they once were.”

“…What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“You’re one of them too, Paelito. Even you, who reached the pinnacle, don’t know who you really are. You don’t know what you’re fighting for.”

“What I want is clear, Jin Runcandel.”

“To build a new order from pain, and to avenge Sachiel? The latter is true. But the former—is that really your will? That’s Zito’s will, not yours.”

“Zito’s will is the will of the Demon Realm.”

“Unlike you, I’ve met demons who broke free from that brainwashing, even though they’re weaker than you.”

“So Biseps has latched onto you, huh?”

“They had conviction. The belief to protect their families, comrades, and lives from Zito’s grasp. And you once led them. You, the leader of the resistance, have fallen and become Zito’s slaughtering blade.”

“It’s a higher world that lowly beings like you can’t understand. A world where the order of pain is established won’t be as chaotic as this. Everything will be in its place, and everyone will bear the fate meant for them.”

“Do you think Sachiel believed that too?”

Clang! Paelito slammed his sword down. Jin staggered back from the impact but didn’t fall. Paelito had meant to drive him into the ground, yet somehow Jin regained his footing.

Paelito couldn’t understand what made Jin so unyielding. It wasn’t resolve or willpower against death—those had long since been exhausted.

“What if Sachiel never truly wanted Zito’s order, Paelito? Don’t spout nonsense about me insulting her or anything like that. Have you ever looked directly at Sachiel, at yourself, at those who fought alongside you? Have you ever faced your kin sent to the battlefield by Zito’s command, only to die a senseless death?”

“I have always watched everything clearly.”

“No, what you’ve seen is just the truth blurred by brainwashing. You know Dailus Clauphino well, right? He was stabbed by my sword in his final moments, tears streaming down his face—as if he finally realized something too late. What about Sachiel? What do you think she felt at the end?”

A brief silence.

“…Unlike Dailus, I couldn’t see Sachiel’s final moments clearly because of the veil of loss. But our record mage is currently reviewing the battlefield. Soon, we’ll know how Sachiel truly was at the end—what she thought, who she cursed as she died. I have a feeling it was Zito.”

Zito’s desire wasn’t just the pain of Inse.

Since the war with the Demon Realm began, Jin had sensed this. That monster wanted even the demons under its command to drown in pain.

Otherwise, there’d be no reason to treat his subordinates like disposable tools or wage war this way.

If Paelito had been sent to Inse before Grosh’s castle fell, if more cracks had been opened across Inse, if Zito himself had acted sooner—

Inse would never have gained the upper hand. Jin believed Zito’s moves on the battlefield were never meant to secure victory. They were just plays designed to plunge everyone into suffering.

“I’ve also heard from the Biseps that most of them have family or someone precious held hostage by Zito. But are only Biseps’ people captured? If I were Zito, I’d have taken your families hostage too, to use them.”

Heh heh heh… Paelito laughed.

“Your reasoning is clever. Fine, I’ll admit you’re right. But none of that changes the fact that you killed Sachiel. You, a mere human, killed Sachiel Groshie, a demon of exceptional superiority. That’s why I can’t forgive a world without order.”

“So it all comes back to that crazy fatalism. You stopped thinking and became Zito’s slaughtering blade. You’re still trapped in brainwashing, drowning in a cycle of hatred.”

“That’s enough of what I wanted to hear from you. Jin Runcandel, now it’s your turn to answer. Why do you suffer so much over the deaths of other humans? Why do you carry such a heavy burden of responsibility? Speak.”

Paelito began drawing on his energy again.

Now, he truly felt it was time to finish Jin. To kill him and let him sink into the Shimba’s swamp of oblivion.

Paelito hoped Zito wouldn’t pull him out of that swamp this time.

Flames of burning hatred slowly began to envelop Jin once more.

“This is the first time I’ve said this since killing Kidard Hall as a trainee rider… Paelito, the reason I feel responsible for others is simple.”

I am someone who died once and came back through time.

“…What?”

Paelito’s eyes widened.

He’d never heard of such a thing as reincarnation. But now, he could tell Jin was telling the truth.

“I died 24 years ago in the Kingdom of Akin. Back then, I was a very different person. I didn’t have nearly as many responsibilities tied to my hands. I was living a life chasing personal success, thanks to being chosen by Solderet in my final days.”

Jin met Paelito’s gaze.

“My previous life ended in 1808. And now it’s 1804… The 1804 I remember is a completely different world. Back then, Gliek, the Harbinger, and Zito hadn’t appeared in Inse yet.”

“How is that possible…!”

Paelito couldn’t even bring himself to doubt. From Jin now radiated a light unlike anything he’d ever seen from an immortal. There was no way to dismiss Jin’s story as a lie.

“I don’t even know why I was sent back. Why it was possible, why it had to be me, or why so many lives hinged on my return. If I hadn’t gone back, maybe even more people would be living peacefully now. Back then, the world definitely felt less chaotic than it does now—at least, that’s how it seems to me.”

Faelito’s heart pounded as if it might burst.

“But Faelito, if we’re to believe the fatalism you so fiercely cling to, then my return surpasses any fate. If I hadn’t come back, neither you, Sakiel, Zito, nor anyone in the Jinma realm would have ever set foot on the land of the living.”

Faelito’s eyes snapped wide open as he surged toward Jin.

Once again, he swung Vaskala with the intent to kill, but Jin met his attack head-on, eyes blazing, and deflected the blade.

“I will transcend this fate, no matter what. So you, too, must break free from your brainwashing and remember the destiny that was truly meant for you, Faelito Belgassium.”