Chapter 202
The song that Luke heard just before he felt his consciousness fade was graceful and, at the same time, sad. The imperturbable tone of the woman who sang this tune was quite familiar to Luke, somehow.
The half-wolf was warned by Alexis that seals could be confusing, and that literally anything could happen inside a white cube, and he thought he was prepared for anything. However, there was no way for Luke to know whether he was ready to face his past or not.
Would Luke and Masink regret the most important decisions of their lives? That was what the white cube would test.
If they both regretted it, they would both be imprisoned until someone was willing to set them free, and if one of the two didn’t regret it, that one could free himself.
In this spiritual and mental prison, there were no ways for Luke to lie to the cube, nor to himself.
Thus, he was forced to revisit his entire life, like a theatrical show, a thousand of times faster than normal, without knowing anything.
Most of the time, accepting our own mistakes is an impossible task, even more so for those who feel guilt.
Luke had to revisit his many years as a homeless person, in which he spent days staggering around the streets of the Lower City, hungry, fearful of crossing the border into the Middle City and being killed by some prejudiced guard.
Most of the time, Luke was completely ignored by the people around him, his own people, because he was stinky and looked terrible. Still, Luke was never angry with them because he understood their reaction, he was covered in fleas, and it must be somewhat inconvenient to be around someone like that. Although the half-wolf thought this way of himself, this belief was always totally destroyed when people who were also poor gave him a portion of what they had, even though they had almost nothing. He never forgot their faces, and he began to feel ashamed that he could not give back.
The years passed, and Luke began to work as a thief. He was no longer afraid to go beyond the border of the Middle City, and he did a lot of stealing there too. Luke was sneaky, fast, and small, and could easily hide in crowds. In this way, when he arrived at the hole he called home, he could give some food to Meredith, who was almost always weak with hunger. Therefore, he didn’t regret stealing at all in order to survive.
After a few months, the half-wolf and the half-fox finally met other street children, whom, for the first time in their lives, they could call friends, their names: Meredith, Shiro, and Matthew.
Luke was sneaky, fast, and small, and could easily hide in crowds. In this way, when he arrived at the hole he called home, he could give some food to Meredith, who was almost always weak with hunger.
Therefore, he didn’t regret stealing at all in order to survive.
After a few months, the half-wolf and the half-fox finally met other street children, whom, for the first time in their lives, they could call friends, their names: Sarah, Shiro, and Matthew.
United, they grew up together in the world of crime, and if it weren’t for the kind opinion of Shiro and Sarah, for sure, Luke, Meredith, and Matthew wouldn’t have stagnated only in petty crime. Of that, the half-wolf didn’t regret either, because even back then, he didn’t want to traffic to live a better life. After all, stealing wasn’t enough to get a reward poster, but trafficking was. And having bounty hunters chasing his gang would be a big problem. However, the day of the shed robbery, the day that two gang members were lost, was a day full of decisions that anyone would regret.
‘What if I had handed over the Tiara? What if I had thrown the Tiara to the adventurers? What if I had surrendered to the Guards? Shiro and Sarah would surely still be alive.’ Luke pondered that thought for years.
Undoubtedly, the half-wolf regretted several decisions he made on that fateful day. Since only his thoughts of the time echoed in his consciousness at that moment, there was no way for him to know that his two friends were actually alive and that he didn’t need to dwell on these past decisions.
Well… that’s the big trap of the white cubes.
Before facing a seal that opens your wounds to the bone, a big desire needs to be wrapped around your heart, enough to bring you out of this torment.
For the demon self-named as Masink, it was no different.
Even though he was a monster, Masink regretted countless decisions he had made since he was thrown into this world in the first irruption. He had seen the demons rise to the top of the world during The Calamity, seen them nearly annihilated, and was seeing a second rise with The First Servant as the leader. The First Servant promised all demons a life full of pleasures, powers, and with humanity at their feet.
However, promises of a future aren’t always enough to sustain the failures of the past.
Because they regret their mistakes, Luke and the demon didn’t revisit their regrets more than once because the white cube was a prison, not a hell.
The demon was placed in a utopian dream, where he was actually a normal human with a typical family, and his wife, Marie, is a completely normal woman. He desired only this after being so envious of humans for hundreds of years.
And the half-wolf? Well… He was fantasizing about a normal life with his friends.
“Luke, have you got the belt for your sword yet? We’re gonna be late…” John questioned, while finishing tying his quiver around his waist.
Sitting on the comfortable couch in his house, Luke opened his left eye, saw his friends getting ready to go to the Dungeon, and closed his eyes again. He was already sick of killing monsters.
Flick~
Someone flicked Luke’s forehead, making him open his eyes, this time irritated. However, the one who did this was Meredith, who was wearing the armor of a classical priestess.
“Ouch!” Luke exclaimed. “Why did you do that?”
Shiro and Sarah, who were packing their armor next to John, giggled at the half-wolf’s reaction.
Meredith didn’t hesitate to give another flick when she realized that Luke faked pain, so her friends laughed.
Flick~
“Now get up, and get your belt from your room. We don’t want to get in trouble with that rigorous guard again. Zack, Ynosuke and Matthew have gone to negotiate with the Horizon Clan, but that’s not why we’re going to stand around…”
Luke obeyed his best friend and went to his room, grumbling a little. He didn’t hate going to the Dungeon, because he always had fun with his friends and also because they were now able to live a good life, but it was always pretty nasty having to endure the smell of those smelly, cramped corridors.
Since all the former gang members were now Class-C and had set up a Clan to get higher missions, Luke hoped to be able to retire soon.
With this goal in mind, Luke opened the door of his room with motivation, but he was surprised when he saw a red-headed woman with horns almost completely naked inside his private room.