North x Northwest
Chapter 137

Previous

Even after his senses were cut off, Ed was conscious every few seconds, although feebly. His body appeared to be shaking in response to the prolonged shock.

– Tung, tung –

The floor rang.

‘…Footsteps… and… some voices… fading away… maybe, finally…’

His consciousness was numb as if submerged in water.

Ed could vaguely hear words and shouts in the distance. He wasn’t sure, but it seemed like his eardrums had been raptured by the multiple blows he received to his head, thus making it hard for him to make out anything they were saying.

Suddenly, someone lifted his head and his body moved without will. That person examined his face, grabbed his shoulder and shook it. But that was about it. Ed’s muscles didn’t have the strength to respond and none of his senses could get any sharper than this.

Nonetheless, Ed tried to examine his condition. Slowly. His awareness didn’t seem to follow, so there was no point in doing it in a hurry.

‘Judging from my ability to breathe without much difficulty, my pleura and pericardium seem to be still intact… I have some worries about the momentum in which my consciousness wavers, but it can’t be helped…’

Ed struggled to draw out his physical state in his hazy mind.

‘Though, the fact that I can think like this proves that my brain is still working well. However, a person’s consciousness can easily flee if not caught at the right moment. I need to pull myself together as soon as possible…’

Someone roughly yanked his arm. A sense of crisis fell over Ed when his body was dragged somewhere. He belatedly realised that his shackles had been removed, but even so and despite his efforts, he couldn’t move his arms.

‘My body isn’t experiencing a sense of panic, I’m literally feeling… nothing…’

Ed didn’t feel his feet being dragged over the floor, the pulling on his shoulders or the weightlessness that came with falling…

‘…Like I’m being sucked into a world of oblivion…’

– Splash! –

Water flooded the nape of his neck, then his sleeves, and lastly the inside of his boots. A chill that engulfed his entire body jolted him awake. A series of bubbles rose up his cheeks and a steady flow of frothy sea water flowed passed his ears with a bubbly sound. The body that had defied buoyancy submerged. Surprisingly, his vitality returned the moment he came in contact with the cold energy.

When he finally opened his eyes, he saw a light.

The light sank with him. Its brightness spread in all directions and left shimmering shadows on the pieces of wood floating on the surface of the sea.

A strong current passed through his dwindling fingers. Ed opened and closed his hands weakly. When he extended his arms, they appeared before him, intact and unsevered. All ten of his fingers were still attached. A silly snort was released from his chest.

‘Apparently, the thought of remaining a dignified corpse is so comforting, that it actually makes me laugh a little.’

As if possessed, Ed stared at the palms of his hands. It was then that he noticed the blood pouring from his sleeves.

The dark liquid rose like ink dissolved in water. In fact, the blood wasn’t just oozing from his sleeves, but from all over his arms. Like smoke, it emitted from his arms, torso, and legs. The bleeding seemed to have sped up because he was underwater.

The blood that left from all over his body, covered Ed in red. He knew that his blood loss was significant, but witnessing it in person left quite the impression. The sparse stream continued steadfastly, it appeared to only stop when all the blood was drained from his body. Ed thought as he looked up at the blood welling up like a haze.

‘But… wouldn’t Liloa have seen me like this? Given her character, there’s no way she wasn’t present at the execution. Even so, the execution didn’t stop… That’s how I ended up here, hanging onto the last thread of life deep down in the sea. It doesn’t take a lot of medical knowledge to realise that the act of dumping a body, sustaining massive blood loss and an impaired consciousness, into the sea is tantamount to death. Leaving someone unattended in that state will be enough to kill them. So, by throwing me into the sea, did that mean she wanted me to die as quickly as possible? Did the verdict change from isolation to the death penalty while I was unconscious? But can this even be considered the death penalty? Since when is letting one suffer till their last moments and having them die in utter pain, part of the death penalty?

If that’s true, then I need to drastically correct my impression of Liloa… She’s a much crueller and vicious person than I took her for… And I have been thoroughly fooled. I feel embarrassed that I even called for her when I was on the brink of losing my mind… Now I know. The way she drew a line between us wasn’t a denial of her feelings. From the beginning till the end, she insisted I was no different from her crew. There was simply nothing more than that to it. Thinking back about it, she never gave any indication that suggested otherwise either… I was the only foolish one there…

But still, isn’t it too harsh for Liloa to do this? …Maybe… Maybe something else happened when I lost consciousness…’

As if he was scoffed for having such a silly thought, Ed’s throat tightened and he began having shortness of breath. An acrid stream of asphyxiation flowed into his lungs and the heat of death flared up in the centre of his heart. It was like his body was scolding his stupid mind for entertaining such ideas.

Ed was getting tired of himself. In normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be crazy enough to wallow in fantasy while being in a situation where he was running out of breath. It seemed that the blows to his head really did a number on him. He felt so pathetic that he couldn’t help but tear up at the thought of being beaten like that even though he was truly innocent. He was sure that everyone who heard his story would give their sympathy.

‘Why would you even try to defend her when you’re stuck in this situation, you idiot? Everyone has the right to be outraged when they’re treated like garbage. She shouldn’t have done that. This was degrading in every single way. It’s only right for me to long for punishment and revenge… By doing so it will be better to kill those unfamiliar and clumsy feelings like love. From the very beginning, it was never meant to be anyway. I stupidly put myself in this situation, so I’ll get myself out of it too.’

The hands that had been trembling with embarrassment clenched into fists.

‘I need light if I want to survive.’

His phalanges spread and his hand soared through the water as if clawing at the light. His lungs, desperate for air, burned intensely. No longer were there shadows seen above the light that was close enough to touch. It was dark all around. Ed realised he had descended much deeper then he initially thought in the time he was stuck in his stupid delusions. Possibly to the depths holding no chance of survival…

He had swung his hand in vain. Only the foam caused by his movement eventually reached the light. Ed knew it all too well, not long from now would his body gasp for air and thereby draw in water. Instincts would tempt a person to do that, and he felt that the tendency to do so wasn’t far off.

‘Once I lose consciousness, it’s over… damn it.’

Fixating over a normally insignificant gesture, Ed threw his hands over his head again and again. The small current made by his movements drew him and the balsam closer again. His desperate eyes were fixed on the glow that seemed to descend from the heavens. It was then that Ed noticed sleek fins and streamlined body. Scales of a fish reflecting the white rays glistened brilliantly.

‘Is that… a mukkali?’

If Ed had been in the position to actually speak, he would probably have muttered about it a lot in astonishment. The fish has been hovering around the balsam since a while ago. The slippery greyish-white creature was a mukkali fish species that was only seen around the Mondovi Peninsula.

‘Is this part of some kind of dying wish to have my life ended at the coast of Mondovi, or is this a hallucination caused by my dying brain? If it’s the latter, why would I be seeing something so simple as a fish? And if not, how could that species be seen in the South where only warm currents flow…’

Ed’s eyelids sank as if he suddenly realised he couldn’t afford to devote himself to such nonsense.

‘But… There’s no way that that particular kind of species, normally living in cold waters, could end up here…’

The light that illuminated his view faded when a voice mingled through it.

{ “…and cold currents meet…” }

The voice took on a familiar shape…

It was a flashback. A confident Lil turned to a suspicious and confused Ed. As her obscured face emerged from the fading torch, hatred flooded Ed’s dying body like the shadow of a flickering fire. The bitter resentment he felt, reached deep inside his bones.

{ “The Vigare Deaire lives in mild temperatures like this where warm and cold currents meet.” }

‘Why did she tell me that in such detail? I never asked or questioned it… As if… she had foreseen all this…’

– – – – –