CHAPTER 166: THEN... A.C.C.E.P.T. M.E.!!!

Leo’s POV

"Aw... Leo!" She cried then, her voice breaking, hugging me tighter and tighter, as if her arms alone could stop me from drowning in the emptiness that had opened inside. And... and...

..... That was the last time I saw her crying... The very next day, I stared at the ground as the funeral went on for my mother.

"..." I blankly stared at the casket, my small hands hanging uselessly at my sides. My friends cried beside me, but even through their cries, my ears echoed with the voices of the other caretakers.

"It seems she had a heart attack yesterday!"

"She was old after all."

"No, I don’t know if you haven’t heard this, but yesterday she tried to force a couple to take another child with them, which led to them complaining to the head office. The father shouted at her... I think that might have stressed her too much."

"Oh? Really... man, that nasty father sometimes really annoys everyone. Even we have a pain in the ass dealing with him, much less her."

"Yeah..."

"But still, why did she do that?"

"The thing is that... you see that boy not crying? Yeah, him. He was running around yesterday, telling everyone he was getting adopted. Especially Mother—she already had the documents ready for him with a big smile. She even told him to pack his things.

But in reality, the couple took another child instead. That caused so much confusion and problems on both sides... Mother tried to force them since she couldn’t bear to tell the truth to the boy. And that’s it..."

"So sad... she must have felt guilty."

"Yeah... pity."

Those were the whispers that floated from the other caretakers. Whisper after whisper, they reached my ears again and again as I stood frozen, wanting only for the sand to be poured faster, for the casket to close at last... to end the torment of listening.

A week passed since then. I hadn’t seen my friend, waiting at the gate, hoping for him to at least come... but... no!

With Mother’s death, everything changed around us in a single snap.

The others barely looked after us anymore, and the food... the food grew worse. We had always eaten so little, but now what we got was half-cooked, tasteless, and sometimes made us gag as if it wasn’t even food at all.

There were a few old people, like Mother, who still helped us. They shared their own meals, even saved their tiny coins for us. To us, they were like grandmothers—gentle, fragile, yet fighting for us with what little they had. But they too were poor, barely able to earn enough for themselves.

I overheard someone say the donations for our orphanage had suddenly decreased, and everything started to collapse. My friends grew weaker, their bodies thin and frail.

One day... a girl, already so thin her bones pressed against her skin, suddenly fell down.

Everyone gasped, panicked. They immediately rushed her to the hospital.

I stayed behind, clutching her toy against my chest, waiting... waiting for her to come back, waiting for her smile to return, waiting for the sound of her laugh.

But the doctor only shook his head.

"..."

I... I just clenched the toy tighter against my chest, and salty water slid across my lips as I tasted my own tears.

"That would be enough, I think?"

Suddenly, a strange voice slipped into my ears. My body jolted, every muscle tightening. My vision flickered, blurred, and then changed...

Darkness.

I stood in a void, endless and hollow, and before me floated a weird mist, reddish-black, swirling like smoke and alive, almost the same size as me. It twisted and writhed, pulling at the space around it.

"W-Where am I?" I muttered, my voice breaking.

My eyes darted around, searching for anything familiar, but there was nothing. Just emptiness. A moment ago, I was reliving my past, clutching that toy, drowning in grief. Now... now this.

This mist. It felt... familiar. But at the same time, it was utterly strange, terrifying in a way I couldn’t name.

"You stand adrift... not among the living, nor welcomed by the dead."

The voice came again. I couldn’t tell if it belonged to a man or a woman. It was distorted, as if the mist itself spoke.

But... I’d heard it before.

Wait. I had heard it before!

That time—the strange letter that appeared during the ritual... the voice that whispered from nowhere.

It was the same.

"Oh? So you still remember... good."

My eyes narrowed warily at the mist. "W-What are you?"

"Does it matter what I am? Worry not of names, boy. Worry of the precipice you now walk."

Its words made me flinch. My breath stuttered, and I blinked rapidly, shaking my head.

"What do you mean by life and death? I... I died. My head was cut off... right?"

"Indeed. But... due to the deal you made with the devil,

Your soul is stuck here, unable to move on. The current you... is stepping on the thin edge between life and death. If you do not make the choice... You will be forever swallowed by the darkness... Nor death or Life... It’s worse than anything!"

Its voice carried a grim tone, and the sound of it made me shudder.

My chest tightened, my legs trembled. The thought of being lost, consumed forever in this void....

Wait.

"Devil? What do you mean—" My words froze as memories surged.

I blinked rapidly.... A woman. Yes... a woman. Her lips pressed against mine. A kiss that burned into me.

A deal sealed in silence.

"Have you remembered now?

" The mist quivered with amusement, its tone curling like smoke. "Making a deal with a devil... that never ends well."

It sounded almost entertained, mocking my realisation.

"B-But I... I didn’t have a choice!" My voice cracked as my shoulders shook. "I mean... I died, there was nothing left! What do you mean I have a choice here?"

"You do have a choice, though."

The tone shifted suddenly... sly.

I frowned, confusion and dread twisting in my gut. "What do you mean?"

"I will heal you perfectly, as if nothing ever happened to your neck. Not a scar, not a wound left behind... You will return whole."

The mist trembled violently, as if the promise itself gave it power.

"But in exchange... accept me."

Something was wrong. I could feel it. If I accepted, something terrible would happen to me. An intuition screamed at me to run.

But there was nowhere to run.

Nowhere at all.

"Are you sure? The next thing that your beloved champion will be killing off other pests who get in her way..."

My face turned grim. "V-Valra, Ophis, and Essa? N-No, it cannot be..."

"Are you going to lose them, too? Because of your selfishness?"

I flinched at its words.

"You are always selfish... never caring for others. You just do what you want. Did you ever once think of what happens to them?"

"N-No, I would—"

"But I saw it now... didn’t I? Your selfishness brought the disaster upon the place you lived. Last time I helped because I thought it was your unyielding soul. But now... I realise you are just a selfish human."

My eyes wavered before lowering my head. "I... I am not selfish." I clenched my fist.

What happened was... an accident.

It would have been avoided... right?

"Then... accept me."

"..."

"You can stay all you want... being selfish and waiting for the deaths of those who believed in you."

It shrugged, as if none of it mattered.

"It’s you who searched for the one who was danger.

It’s you who dragged your only family through this hell.

It’s you who brought others close because they loved you..."

Its voice echoed through the void, hammering into my chest like a curse that could never be lifted.

"And it’s you who... will be the reason for their deaths. Just like how you lost your so-called Mother."

My face turned utterly pale. "N-No... please..." My eyes trembled, my legs weakened, my hands shook violently as if they no longer belonged to me.

Its tone turned grim, deep, commanding—

"SPEAK THE WORDS... A.C.C.E.P.T. M.E.!!!"

Do... do I ever have a choice in my life?

... Hah... ha... No!

The thought twisted out of me with a grim smile.

"I... I accept you."

That was it... The reddish-black mist surged forward, wrapping around me, swallowing me whole.

And the last thing I heard was...

Crack—

The sound of glass breaking.