「The Nightmare of Kalypso」
I pursued forbidden power for the empire’s victory.
Serving Bel-Terza, the Monarch of the dead, I commanded specters and led the empire to victory in war.
It was indeed so.
I killed many enemies and raised the dead to kill more enemies.
My enemies, the empire’s enemies.
With each war, I gained fame, honor, and wealth.
To the empire, I was a hero; to its enemies, I was a demon.
But no matter how many enemies I killed or how many victories I brought to the empire.
No amount of honor or wealth could bring back my wife, my son, or my neighbors who died during the war.
The reason I never hesitated to kill enemies,
The reason I felt no guilt in wielding Lord Bel-Terza’s power to command specters.
Was perhaps because sorrow, emptiness, and hollowness had taken root in my heart.
As I killed enemies and raised them, repeating the cycle, I recalled old memories and dwelled on the past.
One day, unable to endure the piercing loneliness any longer, I called upon Monarch Bel-Terza’s power to resurrect my family, even if belatedly, and dug up their graves. What remained were only the bones of my wife and son. Unlike the piles of bones one often sees on battlefields, the sight of theirs filled me with an unbearable wave of nausea.
What was I even trying to do?
The desire to resurrect them vanished like a lie.
After my wife and son died, the honor and wealth that had been mere secondary goals felt meaningless. I lost my purpose and strayed off. I stopped going to the battlefield.
The empire did not force me to participate in the war.
Instead, they acknowledged my hardships and granted me many conveniences. Just days ago, I was on a battlefield filled with shouts and anguished screams, but now I sat alone, listening to the quiet sound of the breeze.
I spent my time drinking and lost in thought.
I spent every day meaninglessly. It might have seemed pointless to others, but for me, it was an important time to reflect.
But then, disaster struck.
The specters I had enslaved with Monarch Bel-Terza’s power pierced my mental barriers and began to consume my mind. At first, they only muttered scattered words, barely slipping through the cracks in my defenses. But over time, they came to enter as if it were their own home, expressing clear and distinct intentions.
They came at all times, regardless of day or night.
In reality and in dreams, they whispered ceaselessly.
Things started to spiral beyond my control.
I had certainly been the one commanding the specters with Monarch Bel-Terza’s power, but now, I wasn’t sure.
If I was controlling the spectors or if they were controlling me.
The worst situations came daily, each time teetering on the edge like a tightrope walk.
In the end, I lost consciousness and killed everyone in my mansion.
When I came to my senses, I was wandering alone through the blood-soaked corridors of the mansion.
Unfortunately, no one had survived.
I hired people to clean the mansion again.
No one dared to confront me about it, nor did anyone have the courage to. But this was dangerous.
Just as I had controlled the specters, I couldn’t know when they might control me.
Although I had no lingering attachment to this word having lost my purpose and meanings in life… Life…
But I couldn’t let the land I had sworn to protect in the face of my wife and son’s deaths,
The land I had defended while bringing victory to the empire,
Be destroyed by my own hands.
After slowly putting everything in order, I left the empire and headed to Kalypso, where Langrissa’s Tower stood.
Though I was a dark mage pursuing forbidden power, the members of the tower didn’t dare touch me who was a count and hero of the empire. I purchased a remote piece of land from them and moved there.
I did not want to be seen by others. The land I bought included a small mountain, so I hired artisans to build a structure halfway up the mountain, dug a cave, and created tunnels and rooms. There, I served Monarch Bel-Terza like a priest serving a god.
But since when did it start.
My existence had been tainted by the specters, and without realizing it, I was doing bizarre things.
I was taking corpses from an unknown village’s cemetery to resurrect specters, luring adventurers with a kind face, killing them, and resurrecting them repeatedly.
What made me do this?
Did these actions have any meaning?
Right or wrong, it didn’t matter, the specters whispered.
-This is preparation to resurrect your wife and son, buried deep in your heart. If they are successfully brought back, you’ll surely regain the purpose and meaning you lost. Absolutely.
Was that really true? The specters kept tempting me, saying my dead wife and son were waiting for me to resurrect them. Like a fool, I went along with their whispers. But how could I resurrect my wife and son, whose bodies had rotted away until even their bones were hard to find? Killing adventurers and tampering with their corpses was meaningless. Even if I created new bones and flesh to resurrect them, would that truly be my wife and son?
Wouldn’t they just be new beings mimicking their appearance?
Was this truly a meaningful act?
As if reading my conflicted emotions, the specters come whispering again.
-Yes, this does seem pointless. Then how about summoning our eternal Monarch Bel-Terza to this land? Wouldn’t that be possible somehow?
Monarch Bel-Terza? Surely, if it were him, it might be possible… but summoning him to this land would require too much blood and too many souls. Whether it’s even possible is uncertain.
To gather them in a remote place like this, far from a battlefield…
-There’s an abundance of them around here.
They are innocent.
-Oh, come now. Since when did you distinguish between the guilty and the innocent before killing? When you killed the soldiers of the Byron Empire, didn’t you kill them simply because they were born in Byron’s land and became its soldiers? They must feel wronged. Oh, and come to think of it, some of us were from Byron too, weren’t we?
The specters cackled mockingly. Even if I covered my ears, their voices rang clearly in my mind, as if spoken directly inside my head.
-It’s the same with the people here. The ones living in nearby villages, castles, and towers are no different. Unfortunately, it’s because they live here. But at least they’re better than the Byron Empire’s lot. Why? Because they’ll become noble sacrifices to summon him.
……
-What’s the problem? If he comes to this land, he’ll resurrect the dead. Your wife, your son, all of them. Our Monarch will open the path we desire. Don’t overthink it. He’ll give you and us the answers we want. He will. Absolutely. Just trust us.
…….
Swayed by the specters’ whispers, I, in this unfamiliar land,
Was becoming a silent nightmare in the remote land of Kalypso.
+++
“Sorry, Yuda.”
Inside the rattling carriage, Jeanne apologized. With her head slightly bowed and her eyes lowered, it was clear she knew she was in the wrong. Yuda stared out the window, pretending not to hear her. Leaving behind the people heading to the capital, Aslan, Yuda and Jeanne were now on their way to Kalypso. Watching the people and scenery flash by, Yuda let out a long sigh. Pretending to be angry like this would only come off as sulking. Looking at her with her head bowed, Yuda spoke.
“Do you know what you did wrong?”
“Yes…”
He quietly observed her dejected demeanor. The carriage rattled roughly but soon quieted down. It wasn’t wrong that she accepted the quest. He had intended to help anyway. But at the very least, Yuda had wanted to discuss it with her and decide together whether to help them or not. Of course, if she had refused, he would have persuaded her to accept it. The problem was that she accepted it on her own without consulting him. That’s why Yuda was pretending to be angry, putting on an act. Surprisingly, it was quite effective. She genuinely thought he was upset and had been apologizing repeatedly.
“Sigh- Jeanne, we’re not in a superior-subordinate relationship, but we’re in the same party. Even if you felt sympathy for them, you should’ve discussed it with me and gotten my agreement before accepting. If you were the party leader, I wouldn’t even bring this up. But even as a leader, you wouldn’t act so recklessly. You’d ask the party members’ opinions, coordinate, and then decide whether to take the quest. If this had been an official quest, we’d be in big trouble.”
“…….”
“What if I knew how to make the medicine but the ingredients were impossible to get? What if they could only be found in, say, the Dragon’s Valley at the southeastern edge? Or if the ingredients were astronomically expensive? If this was an official quest, we might’ve had to pay a penalty for backing out.”
“I’m truly sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.”
Seeing Jeanne’s repentant demeanor, Yuda nodded. That was enough.
“Jeanne, lift your head.”
“Are you forgiving me?”
She cautiously raised her head, gauging Yuda’s expression. His face was still stern, but not as cold as before, which seemed to reassure her slightly.
“…I’m a bit angry, but what can I do? We’re comrades. Just be more careful next time.”
“Yes. Don’t worry, I won’t act so recklessly again. By the way, do we really have to go to Kalypso to get that mana herb?”
“It’s a hassle, but we have no choice if we want to get Chercerian. It’s extremely difficult to preserve. The moment it leaves its natural habitat, it crumbles unless you continuously infuse it with mana. It’s rare and tricky to store, so buying it from the magic tower would be expensive, and they might not even have it. It’s faster and cheaper to go to Kalypso, gather it ourselves, and process it.”
In truth, getting Cercerian wasn’t such a difficult thing if you just had enough money. But Yuda was heading to Kalypso, on purpose/
Making a cure for Mana Deficiency Syndrome was the main objective of this quest, but that wasn’t the important part. Edsen’s son went to Kalypso to find the mana herb and then went missing, and near the place where he disappeared was a dungeon called The Nightmare of Kalypso〉
This dungeon was the real purpose of pursuing this quest. To conquer it, Yuda was heading to Kalypso under the pretext of gathering the mana herb and finding Edsen’s son.
Of course, the existence of the dungeon meant that Edsen’s son was likely already dead. Since the quest followed the game’s storyline, there was no need to dwell on it. But Yuda couldn’t tell Edsen, who had thanked him with tears in his eyes, that his son was dead. He wouldn’t believe it anyway.
All I can do is try to find his belongings.
Hoping he could find them in the dungeon, Yuda sighed and, after a slight delay, continued speaking to Jeanne.
“And we promised to find out what happened to Edsen’s son, didn’t we? We have no choice but to go.”
“I see…”
“By the way, just so you know, we’re going to have a tough time once we get to Kalypso. Prepare yourself.”
At his ominous words, Jeanne tilted her head in confusion. But Yuda said no more. She would understand naturally once they arrived. He slowly raised his head to look at the distant mountains outside the window. As if foreshadowing the challenges ahead, dark clouds were gathering in the distance.
