I... am hungry.
I want to eat.
Should I eat? I’m hungry. I’m really hungry.
"....."
I blankly stared at the ceiling above me.
Pain was all that I could feel.
Looking down, I stared at my hands. Not one finger remained. The wounds had all closed up, but my clothes were still stained with all the blood that leaked.
The surroundings were crude and worn, the walls lined with cracks and thick spiderwebs as a cold draft drifted through the air.
My stomach grumbled as it protested against my mind.
I wanted to eat, but I couldn’t eat.
That was the latest thing that I had sacrificed.
In order not to lose myself, this was something that I had to sacrifice.
"..."
Suddenly, a soft breeze drifted through the room, carrying a warm and pleasant scent that filled my nostrils.
My stomach churned.
"Seth, you look hungry. Why don’t you eat?"
A warm voice that I was all too familiar with entered my ears.
At the same time, a plate of food entered my vision. For a brief moment, the surroundings seemed to shift into the familiar luxurious environment, the meal glistening under the bright lights above.
"...It’s been months since you last ate. You can’t keep going like this. Why must you torture yourself like this? Just have something to eat."
Months...?
Ah, maybe it had been that long.
"I... won’t die."
Since I was already dead, there was no need for me to eat.
But—
The smell of the food hit me, and my stomach churned furiously. A sharp wave of hunger clawed at my mind as my body began to tremble.
’Hungry! Hungry! Hungry!’
’Eat it! Eat it...! Eat the food! It looks so good!’
’Eat! Eat!’
"You should listen to the voice inside your mind. You’re clearly hungry. Just have something to eat. It won’t do too much to you."
"I—"
Clenching my teeth, I closed my lips.
No!
"Ha, you’re really stubborn."
The figure set the plate on the ground and sat down.
He started to talk.
"You’re rather intriguing. It’s the first time I’ve met someone like you in my tenure in the 9th layer."
For the first time since I had known him, the man stopped trying to tempt me and instead brought up an entirely different topic.
He smiled.
"There’s no point in hiding where we are since you’re already aware of what is happening. However, just know that I don’t force anyone. Just like Leon, you may leave whenever you want. All you need to do is find the exit."
What bullshit.
I tried...
It was what I had been trying to do for the past several months.
A warm laugh followed.
"If you can’t find the exit, then it just means that you don’t want to leave."
Bullshit!
"Is it...?"
Bringing his face closer to mine, he began speaking again. But this time, something about his tone and voice seemed different. It no longer felt the same as before. It felt distant, as though it came from a being beyond my comprehension.
"I have no reason to weave falsehoods for one such as you. From the moment our paths crossed, my tongue has known only the weight of truth. My mind holds the secrets of the stars and the crushing depths of the earth. Knowledge far beyond your fragile comprehension."
My body twitched as its voice whispered inside my mind.
"It is for this brilliance that The Fallen One appointed me as the steward of this threshold. My charge... is simple. I am the guardian of the abandoned; I keep those whom the ones above have cast out, yet whose souls lack the true malice required by the pits below. You’re nothing but a lost soul looking for Guidance."
"....."
"I have woven no lies in our conversation. The exit remains as open as the day you arrived. I am not the architect of your imprisonment, nor am I the hand that bars the way. It is you who anchors yourself to this place. You... simply don’t want to leave this place."
I don’t...?
"But that’s what’s intriguing."
Casually standing up, he began to move away from me, his hands interlocked behind his back as his voice drifted back in a quiet whisper.
"Even the depths of your own heart are a shadowed mirror to you, it seems. You know not why you remain... and because the secret is hidden from your own sight, it remains veiled from mine. Intruiging."
My eye struggled to keep up with its figure.
Staring at his fading back, all I could do was watch blankly as my body refused to move.
"Tell me, child. Why do you wish to remain here? Has the sweet, heavy air of this Limbo already tasted like a temptation you cannot quit? Or is there a deeper rot, or perhaps a deeper light, holding you here? Curious. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so curious about something."
The words lightly wove in the air before fading completely.
By the time I found myself able to open my lips again, he was long gone.
But despite this, his words continued to echo inside my mind. They whispered from all directions, consuming my thoughts as I struggled to keep focused. But of all the things he mentioned, one stood out in particular to me.
’I... can’t find the exit because I want to stay? That’s not...’
It was bullshit. Perhaps this was a trick that it was trying to play in order to fuck with my mind.
Yes, it had to be that.
He was playing games with me to confuse me about the truth.
’I want to leave this place. There’s no doubt about it. I can’t let myself fall for his tricks.’
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried to fight the hunger gnawing at my stomach with growing ferocity. The surroundings shifted back to the old, worn-down room. Remaining where I was, I slowly lowered my head and opened my breast pocket with my teeth, gripping my phone between them before carefully placing it on the ground.
I stared at the numerous saved recordings before starting a new one.
"Observation Diary, day 89. It’s as I previously predicted. The subject comes to visit me every single day without fail. The hunger is eating at me, but I can resist it. I will most likely forgo sleep in the coming days."
I took a deep breath, taking a moment to collect my words as I struggled to speak due to exhaustion.
"...Today, he’s mentioned something about me not wanting to leave this place. However.. I believe that to be a trick. Above all, he cannot read what I don’t know. That appears to be the only way to escape his control. The less I think, the less he can read."
I hadn’t spent the days for nothing.
Every day, I’d create a new log. The goal was simple.
To slowly and carefully learn more about the host.
He was the key to everything.
"Another thing to note is that I’m now closer to understanding their identity."
From the way he spoke. The words he said.
Several pieces had started to fall in place.
"He’s a demon."
Yes, this much I understood from the start.
But he was not just a regular demon.
"He’s likely a King."
One of the 9 Kings of Hell.