“ARGHHHHHHH!!!”

I bellowed out in excruciating pain. The Blood Moon hung silently over the sky, ignoring the immense agony I was going through. I had no idea why, but the moment the celestial body turned red, my body went through some sort of metamorphosis.

No, it wasn’t a physical change like when a Werewolf turns during the glow of a full moon or anything. But I felt like my entire being was being ripped from the inside out.

I tried my best to call for the nurse, but there was no one heeding my pleas. Seemingly to mock me, the pain I’d experienced increased exponentially each time I pressed the button for help.

This pain… It wasn’t like anything I’d experienced before.

My hands refused to obey my commands as they automatically dug deeper into the bed linings. Veins popped out from every inch of my finite skin as my muscles tensed up like an agonising cramp that would never go away. My face was flushed, and my teeth began to chatter.

In desperation, I attempted to turn my back in the hopes of falling onto the floor and hopefully creating a big enough commotion for the nurses to hear me. But it was all for nought…

The moment I turned my body, a searing heat enveloped my entire body and every muscle I had seemingly failed. The pain, which I’d thought was the worst thing a human could ever experience, somehow multiplied.

Now, on top of the intense feeling of my body breaking apart, I felt like my entire being was being burnt on molten lava. I was instantly drenched from head to toe, and I’d lost what seemed to be half of my body’s water weight. No, it might be at an even higher ratio…

And as if to mock me, a chilling cold permeated through my veins and crept up my spine like a serpent coiling towards its prey. One moment I was in the Burning Hells of Muspelheim, the next, I was experiencing the sub-zero glaciers of Niflheim.

All this pain… All this suffering…-.

And yet, oddly enough, there wasn’t any blood or physical alterations that could explain this agony.

“Fucking…!”

I screamed out mentally.

It was my final prayer. I hoped my scream would notify a nurse or a doctor… Just anyone.

Alas… The world was a cruel place. No matter how much my body attempted to scream, no words would come out of my mouth. Just a soundless groan that was muted by the winter winds that howled on my window pane.

Why was I going through all of this?

All my life, I had been dealing with this mysterious disease. An ailment that could never be resolved even when all of the world’s best doctors had worked together to find a cure. Scratch that, they couldn’t even diagnose me, let alone begin their treatment.

I’ve wasted so much of my finite life fighting this disease.

While others were training to be Hunters or deepening their knowledge as an Arcane Scholars, I was holed in the hospital, unable to clean my own underpants.

And yet… Even with this cruel reality… I’ve learned to overcome it… To live with it… To make use of what little things I had.

I’d studied my way to the top. I’d learnt more magic theory than anyone of my peers. I’d devoted my life to research to hopefully make something out of myself. I could have been so much more… I could have been so much better…

So why?

Dear World…

Why are you killing me?

…

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…

NO!!! FUCK YOU!!!

You want to take my life?! So be it!!! You want to rob my future away?! Come at me!!! But I won’t let you win on your terms! You want my life, come take it!!!

Perhaps it was due to my dying consciousness; my mind had gained clarity that allowed me to ignore the suffering I was put under. I wasn’t going to die like a headless dog with no free will.

The world has taken everything away from me… But there’s no way in hell it would take away my pride. I will not die in misery. I will not die in vain. I will not die… without any control of my life.

If I was going to die…

I’m going to die with a smile on my face.

‘Ah… It’s hopeless…’

I tried my best to keep smiling, but it proved too hard to manage. My eyelids were gradually turning heavier. The senses that perceived the pain and agony I was in had turned off. Slowly but surely… The life in my soul was being drained out.

It was almost time.

‘Mom… Dad… I’ll be leaving first…’

Hehe, will my body still be smiling after death? I really hope it will. At least the world will remember that I got the last laugh. I fought against it… I fought against death!

Well, I lost that battle, but… I still fought against it nonetheless.

History will not remember Jin Valter as a miser that suffered in his death.

History will remember Jin Valter… As a brave warrior that dared to defy the Grim Reaper…

With a smile on his face.

“Dear brother… I’m sorry… Leave the rest to me…”

Just as the last sliver of my consciousness was about to disappear, a sweet, sonorous sound rung by my ears. It was soft and ever so gentle, like a mother’s caress that cradled in the Autumn breeze.

And oddly enough… That voice brought some semblance of peace to my damned soul.

I struggled with whether I was hallucinating or not. Perhaps it was my mind playing tricks on me, seeing that I would die anyway. It sought out some sort of human comfort before my soul returned to the River Styx. Logically speaking, there shouldn’t be anyone in the room. Even if there were one, there was no one who would call me Lord Brother.

I didn’t even have a sister, for Christ’s sake!

But on the off chance that I was wrong…

In one final middle finger to the Lord of Death, I willed myself to consciousness. I used what remaining strength I had left to open my heavy eyelids and did what best I could to clear my clouded mind. It took me many tries to finally fight off Death’s grip on my conscious mind, and well…

With what little vision I had, I was treated to the image of a breathtaking, ethereal woman. She had beautiful, white-flowing hair that seemed to never end. Her decanter-like waist and tight-fitting clothes were just as lustful as it was enthralling. The young lady appeared to be the epitome of womanhood, with an ample bosom that would make an infant drool.

But there was one oddity…

Her pale skin that bordered on sickly camouflaged itself well with the trickling snow that fell from the heavens above.

Noticing my gaze, the pristine beauty looked stunned for a moment. However, it didn’t take long for her to recover her wits. Replacing those rounded lips was a captivating smile that would melt even the most hardened hearts.

“My beloved brother… Have a nice little nap… Do not worry about a thing… When you awake, we can finally be together again.”

“…”

I didn’t know how to react. No, I couldn’t respond. I was already on the verge of death, and I couldn’t compute a single thing the young woman had just said. But as I watched the exquisite woman’s eyes turn the same colour as the Blood Moon that hung beyond her shoulders…

“How beautiful…”

And with that…

The consciousness that I had hung so desperately to…

Faded away.