I Want To Die One Day Before You - Chapter 142
Clicking his tongue, Rufus peered into the pit. Amidst the charred soil, a faint silvery glint was barely visible.
As expected. It wasn’t called a cursed sword—bordering on demonic—for nothing.
Queen Echinacea, who boasted magic power surpassing even the king during her lifetime, had sealed a fragment of her soul, imbued with her magic, into the sword before her death. In other words, whoever possessed the queen’s cursed sword would gain her magic.
‘The royal family was extremely paranoid about losing their power to the demons.’
Queen Echinacea must have worried that the demons might steal her cursed sword. If she had such concerns, she would naturally have taken measures.
Demons were different from humans.
The simplest way to distinguish between demons and humans was to use silver. Demons could not touch silver, which was considered a sacred material. Just as Rufus had cut down demons with a sword coated in a thin layer of silver, silver was lethal to demons.
The higher the purity of the silver, the more dangerous it was. Demons suffered severe injuries just by being near pure silver.
Queen Echinacea had used this fact to her advantage.
“…She made the sword entirely out of silver to prevent demons from touching it.”
Rufus clicked his tongue.
Iruel widened his eyes.
“What? A silver sword? She made it out of pure silver?”
Iruel finally understood why his hand had turned red. No matter how much of a half-demon he was, a demon was still a demon. The moment he touched pure silver, he was harmed.
“But if the sword is made of silver, it would be too soft to use effectively, right?”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s soft.”
Rufus glanced down at the sword hanging from his waist.
“After all, the queen’s cursed sword is not for combat.”
Unlike his own sword, which was only thinly coated in silver, Queen Echinacea’s cursed sword was made entirely of pure silver.
Strictly speaking, it had no value as a weapon. If the half-demon Iruel couldn’t hold the cursed sword, then Rufus, who was forcibly turned into a half-demon by receiving the Demon King’s heart, wouldn’t be able to hold it either.
Rufus took a deep breath and reached out his arm once more. He could feel the magic flowing through the air.
—It was overwhelming.
Even after trying again, he couldn’t muster the courage to get closer. His heart ached deeply.
The magic was more intense than what he felt when facing the king. It was surprising that no one had discovered it until now.
For a brief moment.
He felt a surge of fear.
He was afraid.
He couldn’t move forward because of the fear.
If he recklessly retrieved this sword, something terrible might happen to him.
But he couldn’t back down. There was only one path before him.
He felt pathetic for being scared.
He couldn’t afford to succumb to fear.
To kill the king, to kill all the members of the royal family.
To eliminate anything that could harm Sarubia and protect her happiness alone.
He had no room for fear.
Rufus steadied his breathing and infused his magic once more.
As he exerted his magic, the Demon King’s heart embedded within him went wild. The pain, erupting from beneath his ribcage, raged like an angry dragon.
He clenched his teeth. The pain was so intense it felt like his gums were about to shatter. It seemed like blood would pour from his bitten lips.
Then Rufus’s magic took effect.
The ground shook ominously. At the same time, a sword slowly rose into the air.
“Oh.”
Looking at the silver-glowing sword, Iruel couldn’t help but let out a gasp of admiration.
“Wow, this is really…”
Queen Echinacea’s cursed sword. The treasure that Crown Prince Viren had longed to recover. With this, now…
“Who dares disturb my eternal slumber?”
At that moment, a brilliant light began to burst from the cursed sword.
Rufus frowned.
What is this?
The light was emanating from the center of the sword’s hilt.
A hazy figure emerged from the jewel embedded in the hilt. Like smoke from a campfire, it scattered and then formed a distinct outline.
It was a woman. With an alluring presence, a dignified demeanor, clothing that looked more like luxury than mere elegance, and a golden crown upon her head.
“…Queen Echinacea.”
The figure that appeared before Rufus was the deceased queen.
“Do not utter my noble name in vain.”
Queen Echinacea—more precisely, the soul of the queen bound to the cursed sword—spoke.
Her voice sent chills down his spine.
It was overwhelming. There was no other way to describe it. Just hearing the queen’s voice made him feel an intense pressure.
The ghost of the queen glared at Rufus.
“Who are you?”
“…”
Rufus couldn’t answer easily. The queen, who had already died, was now appearing before him in full form.
***
What keeps a human alive is the soul. The moment the soul leaves the human body is called ‘death’.
In other words, a human without a soul is already dead.
Queen Echinacea also met her death.
The cause of death was illness. The disease had progressed to a point where neither magic nor medicine could save her.
However, Queen Echinacea would not so easily succumb to death. Determined to protect her son Crown Prince Viren until the end, she decided to preserve her existence in a way that no one had thought of.
“Split my soul.”
The dying Queen Echinacea commanded the palace mages.
The mages were unable to hide their astonishment at the queen’s order.
“What do you mean, Your Majesty?”
“Just as I said. Split my soul and embed it in this sword.”
What the queen held out was her cherished sword.
The queen’s plan was this: Since her body was already doomed to die, she would store part of her soul in the sword while she was still alive. In this way, as long as the sword remained intact, she could ‘exist.’
Theoretically, it was possible. According to what was claimed in magical texts, it was a feasible plan.
However, no one had ever succeeded in such a plan before.
