I Just Wanted to Avoid Death - Chapter 177
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Yeshion blinked.
When Yeshion opened his eyes, he stared blankly at the ceiling.
As he quietly sorted through the information in his head, Eldis reached out and gently brushed his cheek.
“Are you awake?”
It was a gentle voice.
When he turned his eyes to look, Eldis was watching him with an expression full of tension and concern. Perhaps worried that regaining the real Yeshion’s memories might have jumbled his emotions, or that feelings toward him might have gotten mixed up.
What should he say first?
Yeshion studied Eldis’s face for a long while before finally speaking.
“……That man, I don’t think he ever hated you, Archpriest.”
“……”
“I saw some of his memories after dying and coming back this time… In that memory, he definitely wanted to protect you. It really felt like he wanted to protect you… But he didn’t show me the end of that memory.”
Yeshion spoke with a faint smile.
Even when he tried to pull every memory from this body using divine power, there were still some things he couldn’t see.
As if the real ‘Yeshion’s’ soul had deliberately hidden them, not wanting to be discovered.
He showed him nearly everything in the end, and yet, anything related to Eldis, he kept to himself.
How he had resisted when they ordered him to kill the Archpriest and the Saintess. What he had truly felt during that time, none of it was revealed.
It was as if all Yeshion needed to know now was that they had grown apart and lived like strangers.
“……Is that so.”
Eldis gave a gentle smile, as if to say there was no need to explain, and held Yeshion’s hand.
As Yeshion blinked and looked around, he saw the others sleeping peacefully, breathing evenly, nestled close around him.
Suddenly, a surge of emotion rose in his chest.
‘I’m not alone…’
Yeshion closed his eyes lightly and tried to collect his thoughts.
The memories weren’t confused, but the feeling the real Yeshion had when he was left alone in the world… that feeling had seeped into him too.
The loneliness of screaming for salvation, begging for it to stop, and having no one listen. The piercing sensation of being abandoned by the world. It was something he never wanted to feel again.
“Archpriest.”
“Yes, Yeshion.”
“……Could you hold me? Just for a little while?”
The moment he finished speaking, Adelio, who had been gripping his hand tightly, shifted as if he had been waiting. He pulled Yeshion into a strong embrace, wrapping his arms around his waist.
Startled, Yeshion turned his head and met tired crimson eyes.
The moment their gazes met, a warm hand tilted Yeshion’s chin upward.
Eldis, bending at the waist, kissed him lightly and then pulled away.
‘Yes, I…’
I’m not alone.
* * *
After regaining all the real ‘Yeshion’s’ memories, Yeshion began gathering evidence.
Though he had cursed the real Yeshion inwardly for making reckless choices, the man had, in his own way, been searching for an escape route. He had kept every mission order without burning a single one, all stored in the room he used to stay in.
When he pushed the bed aside and lifted a slightly raised plank in the floor, he found a stack of paper stuffed haphazardly inside. Some edges were singed, as if he had meant to burn them but changed his mind at the last moment.
“……But will this really count as evidence?”
Yeshion asked, face filled with worry.
The papers contained either the names of people to be killed or methods for doing so.
Sometimes there were specific orders, but more often than not, there were just names and signatures.
That alone wasn’t enough to prove that the Empress had ordered it.
“You mentioned a maid with red hair, didn’t you? If we can capture her, then all of this will become evidence.”
“……How?”
“Do you know why people fear priests?”
A completely unrelated question was offered in return.
Yeshion tilted his head, unsure, and Eldis simply smiled and said vaguely, “You’ll find out soon.”
After that, the capital was bustling with festival preparations.
But since that day, Yeshion was far too preoccupied with quieting the noise in his own head.
