Chapter 424: A Dark Fate (2)

Chapter 424: A Dark Fate (2)

"What’s with those faces? You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

It was Danzo himself who spoke first, with a faint smile and dark shadows under his sunken eyes.

Fully conscious now, he looked at us from his bed, unable to move his body.

Everyone rushed to his side immediately.

"It’s good to see you awake, Danzo," Snow spoke first, with the others quickly following his lead. Even Ghost, who was usually quiet, offered a few words of encouragement.

But among them all, I found myself sitting at the back, silently staring at him in a daze.

All the way to the end, Danzo kept speaking with a smile, his voice calm—so different from the sharp tone he used to have.

Barely able to lift the upper half of his body, paralyzed as he was, he looked weak.

Too weak.

He wasn’t the same lively Danzo I knew.

The explosive aura that used to surround him was gone, replaced by the stillness of a sick man who could collapse at any moment.

I was sure the others felt the same as me, but they did their best to speak to him as if nothing had changed. After all, Danzo himself was suffering the most from his condition.

That smile he showed us hid so much. Perhaps regret... sadness... anger...

In just one night, he had gone from a proud warrior to a cripple who couldn’t even stand.

Thanks to the Affection System, I could clearly sense the emotions swirling inside him.

And that only made me respect him more. To face all of us with a smile, despite the pain gnawing at his heart .. what kind of iron will did it take to endure that?

The Affection System allowed me to share in his pain.

And those feelings were suffocating. They weighed heavily on my chest.

So, I couldn’t bring myself to say a single word. I just sat there, staring at him from afar.

After some time, Uriel gently urged everyone not to stay too long, mindful of Danzo’s condition.

She placed her hands on him one last time, flooding him with holy power, healing his internal injuries completely.

Her power was indeed effective. After she used it, Danzo’s pale face regained some color, and his body looked healthier than before.

Then, when the visit was over, everyone got up to leave.

But I found myself unable to move.

I asked them to go ahead.

"I’ll catch up later, guys."

I said it briefly, and they understood immediately that I wanted some time alone with him.

They were considerate, leaving without hesitation.

And once the room was empty, I stood again and walked over to Danzo, sitting in the chair beside his bed.

"It’s been a while."

"Yeah... I guess it’s been about fifteen days? Maybe more..."

Danzo kept speaking with his faint smile, unlike the others who had spent most of their time together.

I had been away from them for a long while during our time in the Ultras Continent, making this reunion feel like it happened after a lifetime.

"Don’t look at me like that, Frey. I’m still here."

Now that we were alone, Danzo finally spoke the words he’d been holding in his heart.

Maybe everyone tried to act normal around him, but sometimes, the look in your eyes could say more than words.

That look of pity and sorrow .. it cut deeper than anything else.

"I know, my friend. Even in your state, you’re still stronger than me."

I spoke with a sincere smile, acknowledging the strength he held despite the suffocating darkness clawing at his mind.

From that alone, I was reassured.

Danzo wasn’t the type to succumb to something like suicide.

"This is my fate. I have no choice but to accept it... but it hurts, Frey."

"Stop."

I cut him off before he could continue down that path.

"Sorry, but I don’t want to hear that."

I didn’t want to hear his pain, his regrets, his sorrow.

Maybe that made me a terrible friend. But I wanted to preserve his strong image, and I didn’t want to dive too deep into the weakness he was showing now.

I figured that would be easier for both of us. If he needed to vent, his father, Adam Smasher, was probably a better listener.

"You really are selfish, Frey."

Danzo sighed tiredly, and I gave him a half-hearted smile.

"Sorry, but I’ve always been that kind of scum. You shouldn’t have gotten close to me in the first place if you didn’t like it."

Danzo shook his head with a frown, sitting a little straighter as if to argue back.

"You were right about one thing, though. You are scum. I still remember how they used to beat you up in the Moonlight family."

"But I beat them in the end, didn’t I?"

"With my help, of course."

Without even realizing it, we slipped into reminiscing about the past, letting it distract us from the harshness of the present reality.

It was refreshing .. for both of us.

Whether it was me, weighed down by countless burdens, Or Danzo, who quietly mourned his own fate in his heart.

From the start, I didn’t need to hear him complain. I already felt his pain through the Affection System.

I didn’t want to sound arrogant and say I understood his suffering, but at least I had tasted a fragment of the darkness eating away at him.

Even though Uriel had warned me not to bother the patient, I ended up sitting there with Danzo for a long time.

Since I came to this world, he was probably the only one who ever made me talk this much.

Then, after what felt like an hour, we both fell silent.

Realizing it was time to wrap up this aimless but comforting conversation—a brief escape from reality.

In that long stretch of silence, I made up my mind, staring at him seriously.

"Danzo... have you felt anything strange in your body since you woke up?"

It was a strange question.

Danzo didn’t answer right away. He just stared at me quietly for a few seconds before finally breaking the silence.

Raising his hands, unable to move his body properly, he gave me a weak smile.

"Nothing at all. I can’t even feel my legs. Guess I’m just half a man now."

Danzo chuckled softly, but I couldn’t bring myself to laugh at a joke like that.

He kept that smile for a moment, then turned his gaze to the ceiling.

"Honestly, I think the only thing that’s changed in me... is this darkness that’s grown inside my heart."

The moment he said that, I found myself listening more closely, without meaning to.

"What do you mean?"

In response, Danzo finally shared what was truly on his mind.

"When I think about that battle against him... all I can do is curse reality. Curse my luck, my fate, for putting me against someone like that."

He could have fought anyone else. But Beatrice made him face Gvardiol—the most mysterious one of them all.

And that sealed his fate.

"I know this is the excuse of the weak. I only lost because I wasn’t strong enough.

But no matter how much I try to reason with it, those thoughts keep creeping in...

This darkness... it’s eating me alive."

That sadness in his eyes was undeniable.

And me... I could only remain silent.

I didn’t know whether this darkness he spoke of came from the demonic seed. But I was sure Danzo himself still didn’t realize it was there.

Seeing him like this...

I wanted to save him, no matter the cost.

No matter what it took.

I wanted to keep him alive. Because someone like him was the anchor that kept a part of my humanity intact. A part I couldn’t afford to lose.

I had never truly realized how much Danzo meant to me.

But now, without even meaning to, I started to understand.

Unaware that these feelings could one day become unbearable pain.

After we talked a little longer, I finally stood from my chair, giving him a quiet farewell as I left the room.

Leaving him behind.

I left the Silver Dragon Guild that day with my mind in turmoil, unable to figure out what I should do next.

I didn’t feel the passage of time at all. I only regained my sense of reality when I found myself back home .. returning to the Starlight Estate.

After exchanging a few hollow words with those around me, including Ada and Carmen,

I often withdrew to my room alone, where the light faded as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon.

Sitting on my bed, I waged a war within my fevered mind, searching desperately for some kind of salvation.

Then, after a few more minutes...

I stared at the dark corner of the room with a faint smile and spoke softly:

"I know you’re here. Come out already."

It might have looked like I was talking to the wall, but within seconds, the darkness thickened, and a pair of black horns emerged from the shadows, followed by Sansa herself, stepping out of the darkness wearing a black dress that perfectly matched her dark eyes and long horns.

"Well done noticing me,"

Sansa said with a smile, but I shook my head.

"I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t let me."

And that was the truth.

Her ability to conceal herself within the shadows was absurdly powerful—spotting her without permission was nearly impossible.

The demonic princess had changed into something entirely different in such a short time...

But my feelings toward her hadn’t changed at all, which was probably why she hovered around me so often.

And like that, the two of us sat side by side on the giant bed in that vast, familiar room where I always found myself returning.