After My Dead Ending - Chapter 3

However, no matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t see anywhere to escape. It was a secure room with solid walls and bars.

I didn’t even know how long it had been before I opened my eyes again after being kidnapped. The number of guards on the outside was also unknown.

Yes. I was once the owner of the McFoy family, known for their swordsmanship, but that was all a thing of the past. I had no talent for swordsmanship. Aino, my dead brother, and Sif, my sister, both had a bit of that.

Swordsmanship and magic powers were nearly impossible to find, and you weren’t born with sharp senses like animals. Your steps aren’t clear, and you don’t know how to read the movements of others.

In other words, I was a historical figure who rebuilt the family in a very noble position, but on this side, I was very incompetent.

Swordsmen and magicians were uncommon, of course. Even within the handful of people who possessed swordsmanship and magic abilities, their abilities differed greatly. Naturally, it was even more difficult to find a person born with both.

The things I was good at were counting and memorizing, quickly grasping the situation and driving force, and so on. My grandparents and my parents thought my unexpected talent was amazing, but they didn’t value it. This is because these were virtues needed only by merchants and low-ranking officials in the Empire.

The McFoys, and further aristocrats, still considered buying and selling things as humble. An aristocrat doing business? I knew it was beneath them.

Recently, trade has become active little by little, and such perception has gradually improved… Anyway, I couldn’t seem to get out of this prison right now.

I forced my upper body to rise. The chains made of iron restraining me made a creaking sound from the ankles and wrists.

Then, holding my breath, I quickly looked around the hallway. Fortunately, no one seems to have heard anything. The place was quiet.

Looking at the restraints on my ankles and wrists, they didn’t seem like holy objects. It meant that Nyx knew that I was incompetent, someone without swordsmanship or magic abilities.

In the meantime, wearing a fancy dress was not comfortable.

‘It’s nothing else, to kidnap a great nobleman and the McFoy family in front of the Emperor during the founding ceremony.’

To those unfamiliar, it would have looked like Nyx’s minions were declaring war on the Empire. However, for Nyx, emperors and empires were uninteresting opponents. The madman was only interested in Ophelia.

This shameful kidnapping was what Nyx had done purely for Ophelia. I have kidnapped your dear sister, come find me! I could see it was a message like this.

As I recalled the situation just before my kidnapping, I felt dizzy again. My fists were brimming with power.

‘Crazy guy, I’m going to get out of here. You bastard like a dog.’

I was motivated again and began to think.

‘Shall we bring the guards?’

I immediately shook her head. It wasn’t a good option. If they knew I was awake, they’d cut off one of my fingers right away. The followers who regarded Nyx as a god with overwhelming power were like cultists.

Nyx was originally a senior priest during the Great War, and he had to be strong to rise to that position. He was a man born with a tremendous talent that only appeared once in hundreds of years, and he was a well-known religiously followed person because of that.

Many believers followed him. He probably would have naturally become a high priest if he had been quiet.

‘That bastard might be the high priest right now.’

To his followers, Nyx was an absolute leader, and those trapped in Nyx’s castle and prison, Tantaros, were ugly demons.

Nyx is the bastard who betrayed God and lost all his powers and is using dark magic instead, but according to their beliefs, it doesn’t matter. There was a high probability that even a greeting would not work, let alone negotiation through dialogue.

I was afraid that there would be a creaking sound, so I couldn’t even move, and so I only chewed my lips.

There was such a description in <Ophelia and the Night>.

Tantaros is an unbreakable fortress in itself, and it is difficult to enter and go out freely. So far, none of Tantaros’ prisoners has ever escaped alive.

It was a description that felt like this.

This desolate prison I’m locked up in right now would be the Tantaros. If I remember correctly, the place where I was trapped was not underground, but on the highest floor, a cell for VIPs.

Since this fortress-like prison was built firmly with the strength of each brick by brick, there is no way for ordinary people without swordsmanship or magic powers to escape on their own.

‘Damn it.’

When I thought about it that far, my motivation was shattered again. My head also fell forward helplessly.

I was silent for a moment like a dead man. Then I raised her head suddenly. Because I remembered the contents after that.

‘Wait, you know, the one who survived.’

I almost screamed at that moment.

“Crazy…! There is, there’s a way.”

Having managed to calm my excitement, I muttered only my lips softly.

No one left Tantaros alive. But soon, there will be someone who will live for the first time.

If I remember correctly, there’s someone who’s been stuck here for 10 years. He’s gonna get out of here alive.

Ophelia, who stormed into Tantaros to save me, came across. Diazi’s long lost successor.

‘Norma Diazi, the male lead’s older brother.’

In <Ophelia and the Night>, Aisa McFoy dies and leaves Tantaros, but Norma Diazi leaves alive.

With hope in mind, I began to wrack my head again. There are not many options to choose from, and there is not much time to think. I don’t know what’s going to happen if Nyx comes back right away.

It’s either sitting here still and testing my luck or believing in,<Ophelia and Night>.

Both sides were gambling. And I’m uniquely unlucky. If so…

I’d rather trust my memory.

Let’s do it. It would be better to try something than to sit still.

Let’s move on to the assumption that the world is <Ophelia and Night>. Let’s use all the information in the novel.

I swallowed my saliva and began to organize my tangled memories step by step. I had to find useful information somehow.

First, Norma Diazi. If you think about it for a moment, he was very useful.

Norma was born with both sword and magic powers. As the male lead’s older brother, he was a person who easily destroyed the balance of the world.

In <Ophelia and the Night>, Norma is portrayed as a character with a handful of abilities, just like the male protagonist. Of course, I’m not as good as Ophelia, who is the strongest character in the novel.

It was hard to say that Norma, who was scheduled to become the new Knight Commander of the Holy Order at the time, was caught by Tantaros. It was close to choosing to be captured by desperation due to some kind of incident.

Even though it could have been avoided, Norma has fallen asleep at the bottom of Tantaros for a little over a decade under a curse. He can be seen as a princess in Sleeping Beauty.

The Diaz family searched everywhere for the whereabouts of the missing heir but failed to find them. It was a matter of course. No one can find Tantaros which Nyx hid.

I can’t get out of this Tantaros by myself. But Norma can.

Norma’s power will be stronger than or equal to that of Nyx. Otherwise, the pretentious description of Norma being caught on his own was unnecessary.

Above all, wasn’t he the person who was going to become the commander of the Holy Knights soon? Norma, I need Norma.

Then how do we get to Norma? How do I wake up the curse-ridden Norma?

I glanced down at my wrist.

“Damn it…”

I can’t even release the chains. A sigh came out automatically. Why don’t we just give up on our fingers and ask the guards to move to the dungeon?

“…”

However, no matter how cleverly she found Norma, the curse on him was another problem. First, the curse could only be lifted by the person who cast the curse or someone with more power than that.

In this case, the story was a bit complicated. Norma fell into a long sleep because of the curse of an extra character who was jealous of him, and Nyx used that curse to seal him in the dungeon. Norma was a very eventful man.

So, to break his curse, someone had to be stronger than Extra or Nyx or whatever. In the game, it is possible to wake up Norma only when Norma himself, the male protagonist, or Ophelia, who has regained her powers, appears.

So, there is no way I can wake up Norma when my power is at 0… Wait a moment.

Wait, Ophelia “regained her powers”? Ophelia’s power?

I slowly raised my hands and opened my palms.

“…”

If I’m alive with Ophelia’s power… Isn’t my existence itself the power of Ophelia?

… Then can I use my voice?

I looked down seriously at both palms for a moment like a palm reader.

Thump thump-.

My heart was beating faster and faster. I felt my blood heating up.

If I can use my powers like Ophelia, I could get out of here by myself right now, right? I don’t need support, I could kill Nyx with these hands right now.

It’s a shame, but I admired Aino, Sif, and Ophelia quite a bit throughout my childhood. Not to mention that, except for me, everyone had at least a little bit of magic or swordsmanship, so I couldn’t help but be envious.

I envied the three because one even had a legendary personality and stole everyone’s attention. It’s a little embarrassing, but there was a time when I secretly read a book and practiced magic…quite often.

Then, I thought that there might be a chance that I might have a magic ability that I didn’t have.

And again, I’m good at memorizing. I roughly remember the contents of the book I read several times a decade ago. The basic theory of magic power.

‘I can’t believe my shameful past, which I thought was useless, will help me.’

Thump thump-.

With tension, expectation, and strange anxiety, my heart and head were about to burst.

‘Try it.’

Someone whispered in my ear and encouraged me.

‘Do it. You have to live. Archie is eleven.’

There was no time to hesitate. I had to try as long as a possibility existed.

I closed my trembling eyelids. Let’s focus. At first, you feel like you’re following the bloodstream. I’m sure something is flowing. We need to find the flow.

Ophelia’s power. Think about what Ophelia’s magic power feels like. I was the closest to her. I can find it. I clearly remember.

I thought of Ophelia with all my might.

‘Ophelia, Ophelia.’

I called Ophelia more desperately than ever. I don’t know how long I had been doing that. Sweat dripped down my back.

And at some point, I could tell as if I had realized something.

A feeling that cannot be described in words, that there is no way to describe it. Or something like intuition ran deep inside the guts.

“Aisa.”

It feels like Ophelia is calling me. It felt like when she answered my call. I felt the same way.

Ophelia’s voice was like that. It was her.

It’s gentle, bright, and lovely.

It was all far from me.