The Yellowed Parchment

“You… you… tell me, tell me.”

His voice trembled uncontrollably.

He was both desperate to hear the answer and afraid of hearing unbearable bad news.

Black took a deep breath.

He recounted the snippets of information recorded in the game’s background lore.

“After that incident, they lived very well.”

“Your wife and daughter never knew that you had degenerated into a Dragon-Corrupted.”

“In their eyes, and in everyone’s records, you, Leonard, the lord of this city-state.”

“Were a hero who fought to the last moment to protect his people, fighting against a terrifying demonic dragon, and died a glorious death.”

He looked at Leonard’s suddenly brightened eyes and continued.

“Your daughter Gena inherited your will and became an outstanding adventurer. She spent her life fighting evil dragons and became a very famous dragon-slaying heroine of that era.”

“She was always… proud of you.”

Leonard was silent.

The remnant soul had no physical form, but Black could clearly see specks of starlight-like dust sliding from his eyes.

They were probably the tears of a soul.

He hunched his massive body, his shoulders heaving violently.

He let out a sob that had been suppressed for thousands of years.

After a long, long time, he finally raised his head, a trace of relief in his voice.

“Thank you, thank you for telling me this.”

“I should have dissipated thousands of years ago. The reason I left a remnant soul, my obsession lingering.”

“Was just to know if Del and Gena lived well afterward. I… I was afraid they would hate me, and even more afraid that they would suffer because of me.”

“Now that my last wish is fulfilled, I have no more attachments.”

As his words fell, Black watched as Leonard’s body slowly, like dust, began to dissipate.

He vanished into the air.

Black bowed respectfully to the empty air.

Then, he turned and walked towards Leonard’s dwelling.

This small room, the place where Leonard had lived for thousands of years, had been transformed by him into a shrine.

In the center of the shrine was a huge statue.

The statue was of Leonard’s image.

He wore heavy armor, held a huge longsword, his body was straight, and his eyes were firm.

Like a true, majestic hero.

The walls of the shrine were covered with paintings.

There were scenes of Leonard fighting demonic dragons, scenes of him protecting his people, and scenes of him living happily with his wife and daughter.

Black picked up a broom and swept the shrine.

He swept away all the dust.

Then, he walked to the statue and wiped it clean.

Finally, he lit an incense stick and placed it in front of the statue.

“Rest in peace, Leonard.”

Black said softly.

Then, he left the shrine, left this small room, left this world.

He returned to his own world.

This was a world full of magic and adventure.

Black continued his adventure.

He became a famous adventurer.

Then, Leonard’s massive Dragon-Corrupted body began to gradually become transparent from the edges.

It turned into specks of shimmering dust and began to slowly dissipate.

“As thanks.”

Leonard raised his hand and waved it gently.

Two ancient, yellowed pieces of parchment floated into Black’s hands.

Black looked down.

On one of the yellowed parchments were the steps for brewing a potion, as well as a list of ingredients.

It was his goal for this trip: the formula for Ivoran Holy Water.

As expected, it was exactly as he had anticipated.

In the game, there were two ways to clear this remnant soul’s instance.

One was to fight it head-on and kill the remnant soul.

The other was to tell him about his wife and daughter, fulfilling Leonard Deladi’s last wish.

After all, the instance was called “Deladi’s Last Wish.”

But, Black didn’t understand why there was another piece.

Could it be that a direct kill only yielded the potion formula, while fulfilling the last wish gave two?

He had originally taken the kill route, so he didn’t know what the other one was.

It was written with strange characters that Black couldn’t understand at all.

Leonard’s voice became more and more ethereal.

“One is the formula for Ivoran Holy Water. A Blightbloom Fever once broke out in the city-state I protected. I used my master’s formula to solve that plague.”

“So I’ve always carried it with me. Since the power of the Dragon King of Madness has reappeared, if another Blightbloom Fever occurs, just use this.”

“As for the other one.”

His gaze fell on the second piece of parchment.

“My master entrusted it to me for safekeeping before he disappeared. Even I don’t understand its mysteries. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to return it to my master before I died.”

“I am about to dissipate. I’ll leave this to you. I hope you have the chance to explore its secrets.”

Finally, as if Leonard remembered something, he said to Black.

“Young man, if this girl still degenerates into a Dragon-Corrupted in the end.”

“Remember, the Dragon King of Madness’s greatest strength is her psychic power, but her weakness is also related to the spirit.”

“The Priest Sage who sealed the Dragon King of Madness back then used exactly this point.”

In fact, Black already knew what he was talking about.

Because in the game’s hidden ending route, Jianye also relied on this weakness to help Kristine suppress the Dragon King’s soul.

But he still nodded solemnly.

“I’ll remember.”

Leonard finally showed a relieved smile.

The last part of his remnant soul also began to turn into specks of light and ascend.

“Then, farewell, young man. I wish you both good luck…”

As his words fell, his figure completely dissipated into the air.

As Leonard dissipated, the entire space constructed from his memories began to shake violently.

It gradually shattered.

Black quickly stored the two yellowed parchments close to his body.

Then he strode forward and carefully picked up Kristine.

An intensely strong white light once again enveloped them.

Black felt a strong sense of weightlessness, and his vision went black.

…

When he regained his sight and felt the sensation of his body again.

He found that he had returned to that room.

He was lying on his back on a soft sofa.

And Kristine was lying on his chest, her eyes tightly closed, with tear stains still on her long eyelashes.

On the carpet not far from them.

The ancient book that had caused all of this spontaneously ignited, and ghostly blue flames gradually consumed it.

It turned into a small pile of ashes.

This meant that he had successfully cleared that instance.

Black let out a breath.

Just then, Kristine, who was lying on him, let out a faint whimper.

Her long eyelashes trembled a few times, and she opened her eyes.

Then she realized that she was lying on top of Black in a very intimate position.

She blushed instantly.

She scrambled to sit up and said incoherently.

“Ah?! W-What am I doing?”

Black had already prepared his explanation.

He explained with a smile.

“The book you opened just now had a special hypnosis spell cast on it. That’s why I told you not to open it.”

“But you still… then you fell under the spell and fell asleep.”

“I was just going to put you on the sofa, but you seemed to be having a nightmare and kept holding onto me. I had no choice but to lie down with you.”

He pointed to the pile of nearly burnt-out ashes on the floor.

“To prevent that book from harming anyone else, I’ve already burned it.”

This explanation sounded perfectly reasonable.

Kristine looked at the burning ashes on the floor.

Then she felt her body, which really did feel like it had just woken up from a sleep.

Although there was still a trace of doubt in her heart, she still obediently nodded.

She believed that Black would not lie to her.

However, she did not immediately get off of Black.

Instead, she propped herself up slightly.

And carefully examined Black’s body, her small hand gently probing his neck.

“What’s wrong?”

Black asked.

A look of confusion and fear appeared on Kristine’s face.

“I just had a very terrible, very real nightmare.”

“I dreamt that I turned into a monster and bit your neck. That dream was too real!”