Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 32

Chapter 32:

The End of the Journey 

MYNE WALKED UP TO ME as I knelt on the ground, drowned in waves of Gluttony. I couldn’t even bring myself to stand. Her eyes were the same deep, fearsome red I remembered, but besides her piercing wrath, there was something lonely in her expression. She raised her axe up high as I knelt before her. 

“I told you…” she said. “I told you not to meddle with the Divine Dragon.” 

“I didn’t have a choice.” 

It was true; Myne had warned me this could happen. But I had come this far because I wanted to protect Lady Roxy, and now that I had, I could leave without regret. I felt refreshed and free, somehow. My heart no longer feared death. 

“Please…” I said. 

If I was going to die, I wanted to die while I was still me. My eyes poured hot blood, spattering the ground in front of me, and my vision was scarlet. Any moment now, I knew I could lose myself to Gluttony. 

Even so, for what felt like a long time, Myne didn’t move. Finally, she spoke. Her voice was quiet. “As you wish.” 

With the last shreds of my energy, I looked up at her. Whatever doubt had been in Myne’s eyes before, it was all but gone now. I felt guilty asking her to do the dirty work for me, but there was nobody else I could entrust it to. 

I closed my eyes. 

I ran through my memories in my mind—where I had come from, and each step I had taken to arrive here. I saw where my journey had started, the time when Lady Roxy saved me from the Vlericks. I saw the tavern where I was just another local, and the barkeep who greeted me on each visit. Then, when I began my chase after Lady Roxy on her expedition for Galia, I saw the ruins of the village I had once called home. 

I also saw the Blessed Blade, Aaron. I had promised him I would visit upon my return, but that had become a promise I could no longer keep. I felt saddened at the thought that I would not be able to see the city of Hausen returned to its former glory. 

Then I saw my experiences in Galia, where I once again encountered Lady Roxy in the sentinel city of Babylon. 

I had no regrets. 

Now, I could tell that my journey had reached its end. I felt my consciousness begin to slip away. 

“Myne, hurry!” I said, my voice breaking. 

I felt the killing intent of Myne’s axe. The time had come. If I could ask for only one thing, I thought, it would be to hear Lady Roxy’s voice…to see her face…just one last time. 

“You can’t!” 

As a sudden new voice rang in my ears, I felt myself tumble toward the earth and roll across the ground. 

I knew that voice! 

When I opened my eyes, I saw her: Lady Roxy. She held me tight, the two of us covered in dirt, blood, and dust. 

“What are you…what are you doing?!” Lady Roxy cried. 

“Lady Roxy…” I rasped. “I…” 

I had never imagined she’d run back onto the battlefield, ready to face the Divine Dragon to find me, but that was really just a lack of imagination on my part. Of course Lady Roxy Hart was the kind of person who would never let me fight on my own. Once she’d seen her troops to safety, she had returned. 

And once again, her timing was horrible. 

Now she saw me how I had never wanted her to see me: at my worst. Starving, broken. It was the one thing I had wanted to avoid. 

“I…I could never hate you, Fay! You are who you are, with scarlet eyes or without! You don’t have to do this!” 

Lady Roxy’s tears fell upon my cheek. With their heat, I felt a warmth and peace that I had, for a time, forgotten. I’d been so, so scared—so terrified all this time that, because of my Gluttony, she would grow to hate me. But she had seen my power, my frenzy, and the true depths of my skill, and despite everything, she accepted me. To her, I was still the person she had always known. Fate Graphite. 

I didn’t know whether it was because of Lady Roxy’s acceptance or my peace of mind, but the frenzy of Gluttony began to calm. I’d surpassed its limits, and it was at a point where I could no longer stop or control it, yet Gluttony and its hunger fell suddenly, frighteningly quiet. 

“What…is this…?” I whispered. 

As I tried to puzzle through the extraordinary silence, Lady Roxy reached her hand out to me. 

“Come on, Fay,” she said. “Let’s head back to Babylon, shall we?” 

Her kind face brought to mind a memory I couldn’t forget. It felt like a lifetime ago, when I’d been a mere gatekeeper at the walls of Seifort. After she saved me from Rafale Vlerick’s abuse, Lady Roxy had reached out a hand and looked at me in the same caring way she did now. 

In that moment, I realized. This whole way, every step of my journey, I had claimed that I wanted to save Lady Roxy, to protect her—but the truth was that I wanted her to protect me , just like she had on that day that felt so long ago. I’d wanted her to save me, this contemptible human made wretched by his Gluttonous Skill of Mortal Sin. How had I made it so far ignoring this hope, now so clear and simple? 

I could no longer hide my feelings for Lady Roxy. 

I fell into her arms as my consciousness faded. 

*** 

From somewhere distant, I heard Luna’s voice echo. 

“So, you found your true bastion…” 

When I tried to ask her what she meant, I found myself staring at the ceiling from a bed. I realized I had been asleep. I was in a room I knew well—my room at the inn I’d called home since I first arrived in Babylon. 

I tried to get up, but I crumpled to my left. Then I remembered. In the battle with Northern—Envy’s puppet—I’d lost my left arm. I looked down at my side to find it was neatly bandaged. By the looks of things, Lady Roxy had seen to my injuries after everything was over. 

I looked around, but the room was empty. I stared at the clock hanging on the wall. 

“It’s eleven in the morning…” 

Judging by the time, more than a day had passed. Then I realized something was missing. Greed wasn’t anywhere in the room. Where was he? Where had he gone? Where was the ever-boastful, mighty Greed?! 

I pushed myself out of bed and turned the entire room upside down, but the sword was nowhere to be found. I grew pale at the thought that the black sword might be rolling around somewhere, lost in the depths of Galia… 

There was a knock at the door. It opened, and in walked the blue-haired Eris and the white-haired Myne. With two bearers of Skills of Mortal Sin standing before me, I felt immense power fill the small room. 

“Ah, so he finally wakes,” said Eris. 

“After one whole week,” Myne said. “You sleep too much.” 

A whole week?! Then again, by the time that battle was over, I had been pretty much at death’s doorstep, so the timeline did make some sense. 

Then I saw the black stave held casually in Eris’s hand. 

“Greed?!” I cried. 

“Yes, we finally got him back from Galia. Myne forgot to fetch him after your battle.” Eris cast a sidelong glance at Myne, who pointedly ignored her. Eris sighed and went on. “Not only that, but apparently some monster got hold of Greed and carried him off somewhere. A harrowing experience that took him all the way to the heart of Galia.” 

Eris cast another glance in Myne’s direction, but Myne was intent on ignoring her completely. It was very much in character for Myne, yet I got the feeling that these two just didn’t get along very well. I hoped they wouldn’t come to blows. In my current state, between these two, I’d probably end up asleep for another whole week. 

I took Greed from Eris with a shaky, nervous hand. He was in his Fourth Level form, and the stave felt different from any of the other weapon types—almost delicate. It was detailed in a way that seemed decorative, so I didn’t think it would work at all like a club. As I turned it over in my hand, Greed came through loud and clear to make his feelings known. 

“FATE! You idiot! You absolute moron! How could you do something so reckless?!” 

“Don’t be mad,” I said. “All’s well that ends well, eh?” 

Greed was infuriated, despite my apologies. He lectured and he shouted, and at one point I thought he would deafen me with his howling. 

When he was finally done, he added, “I was carried in the jaws of that monster forever! That journey was so harrowing that I thought I’d never make it back!” 

“So it seems.” 

“In any case…there’s something important you have to know. You should ask Eris about it.” Greed’s voice was suddenly serious, and I felt him urge me to turn toward Eris. 

When I did, she looked at me with a bright smile. “So, you killed the Divine Dragon. In doing so, you showed me proof. I didn’t think you were ready yet, but since Roxy is alive, and the crowned-human experiment is over, we need your power. Actually, we need your help.” 

“Help with what?” I asked hesitantly. 

“Well, you probably won’t have a choice in the matter. As another bearer of a Skill of Mortal Sin, it’s unavoidable. But before that, we have to return your arm to what it was. Without it, things will only be harder for you.” 

Huh?! You can do that?! Recovery magic isn’t that powerful, is it? Is it even possible to heal what isn’t there anymore? 

Eris’s words defied the logic of everything I knew, but she went on. 

“Yes, it’s possible to restore your arm,” she said. “But we have to leave before Roxy gets back. It’s much too dangerous for you to see her as you are.” 

For some reason, the mere mention of Lady Roxy’s name made my Gluttony growl in a way that it hadn’t before. I had a very bad feeling about that. 

Myne, who had been silent through Greed’s lecture and Eris’s request, held something out for me to take. “Here…” she said. “It’s your trademark.” 

She handed me the crumbling remains of my old skull mask. Trademark, huh? 

All the same, I put it on and got ready to leave. However, I made sure to write a letter before I did. 

The letter contained all the things I wanted to tell Lady Roxy. It was composed of words I wanted to say myself, but… 

I believed Eris when she said it was better for us not to meet. Not yet.