I Just Wanted to Avoid Death - Chapter 108
Even now, Eldis’s only concern was Yeshion’s well-being.
“Forget about me for now, your own body is more urgent…!”
Yeshion was about to yell at him to treat the poison first but stopped abruptly, recalling something Eldis had once taught him.
“Remember, Priest Yeshion. No matter how powerful a priest is, he cannot heal himself with his own divine power.”
Eldis couldn’t heal himself.
Which meant…
‘Eldis…’
It means you might die.
While saving him.
Hands trembling, Yeshion pressed against Eldis’s bleeding wound. Eldis’s agonized expression, his quiet groans of pain—they didn’t match the strong, steadfast Eldis he knew.
“Why…why did you do it…?”
Yeshion was someone who could die at any moment, anyway.
Eldis would’ve known that too.
The only difference was whether he’d die now or live a few more months at most.
It wasn’t a life worth risking Eldis’s own existence for, since Yeshion wasn’t going to live much longer anyway.
“Well…”
As if even he couldn’t quite understand why he acted that way, Eldis laughed softly. Even as blood bubbled out, he still smiled, happy merely because Yeshion had awakened.
“When the Crown Prince…returns…take the medicine…he brings you…without fail.”
“…..”
“It’s…effective…so perhaps…it can heal you…”
Yeshion shook his head. Eldis’s words felt too much like final farewells; he didn’t want to listen to any more.
“I-I’ll go fetch…the Saintess. The Saintess can drive out…the poison… Where is the Saint now?”
Eldis gave no response. His lips trembled weakly, his breathing growing increasingly shallow.
“In my room…there’s money I’ve saved… Use the coachman you tried to hire…the temple knows about him…so go elsewhere…”
“…I won’t do it.”
Yeshion forced the words out bitterly.
Although Eldis was urging him to escape, he simply couldn’t accept such an offer.
True, he’d wanted to escape from the original storyline, but not like this. He didn’t want to leave alone, abandoning someone who’d somehow become precious without him even realizing when.
“Yeshion. You…need to go… That man…once he tells the Imperial Army about my death…they’ll storm the temple…”
“I won’t go.”
“Yeshion…”
“I can’t leave behind someone who’s become precious to me.”
Eldis’s eyes widened at Yeshion’s words. Seeing Eldis openly shocked, Yeshion tried to hide his own desire to cry behind a forced smile.
“You know, Archpriest. Honestly, I thought you were a really terrible person.”
“…..”
“When I almost died cleaning the underground dungeon, I even thought, ‘He’s found yet another way to kill me off.’”
But as time passed, many things had changed.
Even Yeshion, who used to casually think, ‘I’ll just die and start again if things go wrong,’ found joy in this life.
“I wish…I’d trusted you a little sooner.”
If he had, maybe they could have made more memories.
That was his only regret.
“I wanted to know more about you.”
“…..”
“The past between us that I don’t remember…what happened, how we first met…”
He wanted to learn even the things not written in the original story. And even if those things were recorded somewhere, he wanted to hear them from Eldis’s point of view, in Eldis’s voice.
“So, if we get another chance to meet again…”
“…..”
“Next time, let’s find a way for all of us to live.”
Before he got dragged into unnecessary trouble, before he became someone who might die at any moment—before everything fell apart due to the crimes committed by the real ‘Yeshion.’
If he could start over once more, this time he’d truly change the future, change the ending. He wouldn’t miss the right timing again; he’d search for a path that led to happiness for everyone.
“So…”
Yeshion drew a deep breath.
As he slowly guided his divine power in the manner Eldis had taught him, Eldis’s eyes widened in shock.
“No…don’t do it. Using divine power in your current condition…!”
Yeshion smiled softly.
“Let’s meet again.”
Transferring one’s life force to someone who was dying.
It was deemed taboo by the temple, something one must never do. Yet, in this world, it was more right that Eldis lived instead of him.
Just like the priest who attacked Eldis said, if the villain ‘Yeshion’ died, all this chaos would quiet down.
As in the original story, everything would resolve neatly once they pointed at him and said, ‘It was all the fault of the dead Yeshion.’
“Yeshion!”
As the strength drained from his body, pure white light burst forth from his fingertips, enveloping Yeshion and Eldis completely.
An intense agony ripped through his body, sapping every ounce of his strength. Soon, numbness took over, and his vision went completely dark.
Of all his eighteen deaths, this was the only one without regret.
