Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 33

Chapter 33:

A Letter from Fate 

ROXY’S POINT OF VIEW 

T HE UNBELIEVABLE BATTLE finally came to an end with the fight against the Heavenly Calamity, the Divine Dragon. 

It had begun with a death parade. The sirens of the sentinel city of Babylon spurred us to action, and the kingdom’s army marched toward our border with Galia. 

Just before that, I had sparred with a certain skull-masked adventurer known as Corpse. I was certain he was the man Aaron Barbatos had told me of, a mysterious adventurer who carried a black sword. When I looked at Corpse, I saw the young man whose future Aaron was so concerned for. 

Corpse struggled with a power he couldn’t control, a power so great that it threatened to consume him. When I journeyed to the great canyon of Galia, I first noticed it when Corpse coincidentally came to travel with us. It made itself clear in our battle with the chimeras. 

However, outside battle, Corpse was gentle and sincere. He reminded me of someone I knew—so much so that I once murmured his name without realizing. 

Fay… 

But Fate didn’t carry such power. He was a servant at the Hart family estate, safely back in Seifort. With those two beliefs in mind, I refused to conclude that Corpse and Fate were linked. Later, I realized that was only because I had seen them in the way I wanted to see them. 

If I had only realized sooner…then events might not have unfolded as direly as they did. 

As my troops and I fought against the death parade, the Divine Dragon appeared. In the face of its overwhelming power, I was ready to join my father in honorable death. The roar of the monster sent an energy beam across the lands, disintegrating the creatures in its deadly path as it cut toward my army. Just as all hope was lost, Corpse arrived as if from nowhere. He placed himself between my troops and the Divine Dragon. 

Corpse carried with him a black shield, which he used to hold off the roar of the beast. His actions awed the entire army, myself included. Not a single one of us had believed it possible to defend against an attack from such a monster, and none of us ever imagined someone could do it alone. 

I hurried toward Corpse as if drawn to him. Then his mask, damaged in the battle, fell from his face. When I saw his face, I knew. I finally confirmed the suspicion I’d pushed down for too long. 

The adventurer Corpse was indeed Fate Graphite. 

In his red-stained eyes, I saw fear. I knew by his expression—and how he looked at me—why he had used his mask to hide who he really was. He was afraid that no one could ever accept him for what he had become. 

I wanted to tell him that it wasn’t true. Trapped in the gaze of his red eyes, however, my body refused to move, and I couldn’t even squeeze out a whisper. I despised my inability to take action. It was like I was seeing Fate leave for someplace far, far away, and I was powerless to do anything more than watch as tears streamed down my face. 

Even after he turned his back and released me, I couldn’t follow him as he moved toward the Divine Dragon. I reached out because I wanted to say, Please, wait for me, Fate . 

In the distance, I saw the Divine Dragon. Fate stood before it and fought without hesitation. But I couldn’t bring myself to take a single step forward. I could only retreat to preserve the lives of my soldiers. 

In that moment, I became painfully aware of my own powerlessness. The world in which Fate fought his battles was somewhere further than I could ever reach. 

Right there, I made up my mind. I would focus on doing what was still within my control. I would start with Fate’s suggestion and evacuate the kingdom’s army. I searched for the commanders scattered across the battlefield and gave them their orders: retreat to Babylon, and give Fate room to fight his battle. 

When the troops made it through the gates of Babylon, we watched in awe as the Divine Dragon plummeted from the sky. We witnessed the end of the Heavenly Calamity, a beast we had long thought invincible, an act of the gods that we could only ever flee. 

That joy only lasted a moment. I felt a worrying pang in my heart as the dragon stilled, and I rushed back to find Fate. I was shocked and saddened by what I found, though I knew Fate must have his reasons for seeking death. 

Yet I wanted to know what those reasons were. I wanted to share his burden, to let him know that he wasn’t alone. 

After the battle with the Divine Dragon, I brought Fate to the medical facilities of the Military Sector to have his wounds tended. He slept in a bed there. Once a full week had passed, he still showed no sign of waking. He had lost his arm in that battle. Looking at his wounded side filled me once more with a feeling of helplessness. 

*** 

Once my duties for the day were done, I walked through the medical facilities to check on Fate. As I did, I noticed something different about the soldiers there. They were all looking toward the ceiling, as if their souls were elsewhere. Even when I called to them, they replied as if lost in a daze. 

“What in the world is going on here?” I asked. 

I opened the door to Fate’s room with worry in my heart. 

Fate’s bed lay empty. 

“No… Why…?” 

I frantically checked the rest of the facilities, but Fate was nowhere to be found. All I could find was a letter, addressed to me, that sat on the small table by Fate’s bed. 

My hands shook as I picked it up. I was afraid of what it would say. If it contained parting words, I didn’t know what I would do. But I knew I had to face the words, whatever they said, so I took a deep breath and steadied myself. 

I opened the neatly folded letter and let my eyes scan the words inside. 

The contents of Fate’s letter shared all that had happened before he arrived in Galia, and all that had happened after. He told me that he had lied to me, and that he was the one at the center of the chaos at the northern canyon on the Hart family estate. He had damaged the valley to kill the raiding kobolds. He also said he had killed the holy knight Hado Vlerick, who was buying trafficked “forsaken” children so he could torture them to death. That was likely not the only foul deed Hado had committed, as the Vlericks were behind my assignment to Galia. 

As I read Fate’s letter, I sensed that each lie he’d told pained him. Although he said that it hid his identity, I felt that the skull mask Fate wore was also a way for him to run from what he thought of himself. 

Fate also wrote in detail of his Skill of Mortal Sin, Gluttony, and how it differed from other skills because of its dangers. It had awakened back when bandits attempted to sneak into the castle, all that time ago, which meant I had been present. 

I’d never realized a thing. 

Gluttony hungered for the souls of the living, and its bearer had to feed it periodically in order to live. Fate wrote that, if his Gluttony broke free, he would end up as he had been at the end of the battle with the Divine Dragon—ravenous and uncontrolled. Because his Gluttony was still unstable, he said it was impossible for us to meet again anytime soon. It made me worry that he would forever be wandering, with no place to call home, all because he had been born with this skill. 

Finally, Fate wrote that, when his skull mask was no longer necessary, he would find me and apologize in person. 

“Fay, it’s okay. Y-you can’t carry something so heavy all on your own. I just want to say thank you. That’s all I want to do… Why do you have to be so far away…?” 

My feelings overwhelmed me, and I scrunched the letter in my hand. 

Still, if Fate said he would one day come to find me, then I would wait for that day to arrive. 

The Fate Graphite I knew was not a man who broke his word. I chose to believe him. I uncreased the letter, folded it, and placed it in my breast pocket. 

For now, I would do what I could as the governor of Babylon. The city was in chaos with the death of the Divine Dragon, and I needed to settle that ruckus. 

“Until we meet again, Fay,” I said to the stillness. 

We would meet again. I knew it. 

I opened the door, and I left the empty room.