Was this the end? His mother had risked everything to help him get away, but was he just going to die here, helplessly on the side of the road? On the other hand, if it would release him from this suffering, then maybe that would be for the best.
With so much regret and frustration weighing down on him, Gibeon’s consciousness started to fade, until...
“Heeey, are you alive?” asked a lax voice.
Gibeon tried to move his mouth to tell the person to just leave him alone, but it came out as gibberish barely above a whisper.
“Le...me...be...”
“Ooh, you are still alive!”
“Leader~! What are you doing here in this backstreet?”
It seemed that someone else had arrived, but it was none of Gibeon’s concern.
“I found one on the ground.”
“Ah, jeez. You had to go and find another one. Yeesh, are they alive?”
“Barely. On death’s door.”
“Well, what’re we going to do about them?”
“We gotta bring ’em back with us.”
“There goes that bad habit of yours again. This after you’ve been taking in nothing but girls as of late too.”
“Give me a break. I can’t just leave ’em once I see ’em.”
Gibeon thought that the back-and-forth happening over his half-dead body was annoying, but he lacked the strength to speak up.
Just then, Gibeon felt water slowly drizzle into his mouth. Despite his heart giving way to the thought of death, his body instinctively started moving his throat to take in the liquid. With each satisfying gulp, the water revitalized the half-dead Gibeon as if new life were coursing through his body.
“Drink slowly,” the man insisted.
Gibeon’s cries telling him to stop never even left his mouth as the man called “leader” saved his life. He then passed out on the spot.
When Gibeon next awoke, he was lying in a soft bed. He was still lacking the strength to move on his own, but he was indeed alive. As he reeled from the shock of still being able to draw breath, a figure approached him.
“Heya, kid. Awake?”
It was a withered, middle-aged man with a full, shaggy beard. To say he looked put together would be a flat-out lie.
Gibeon glared at the man as he started to realize that the man’s voice sounded faintly familiar. It belonged to the same man who’d saved him from nearly dying. Though his body was immobile, his mouth worked well enough to reply back.
“Why did you save me?” Gibeon asked, his tone resentful for the favor he never asked for. “A little longer and I could have finally died.”
The man walked over to Gibeon and flicked his forehead.
“Yowch!” Gibeon cried in pain.
The man chuckled. “Keh heh heh, if it hurts, it means you’re alive.”
“But I wanted to die,” Gibeon argued.
“That so? Coulda sworn I heard you say you wanted to live.”
“I didn’t say that,” Gibeon refuted. Of course he wouldn’t say that. He had already given up the notion of living any longer.
“No, you definitely wanted to live. It’s true because I said so.”
Gibeon had no words. He lay there speechless as the man then came up to him and put a dagger into his hands. Clueless as to what the old man was trying to do, Gibeon let him move his body as he pleased—or rather, Gibeon was not able to resist due to his weakened state. The man held both of Gibeon’s hands so that the dagger was facing Gibeon himself. It was only a dagger, but Gibeon couldn’t even support its weight on his own. The man’s hands around his was the only reason he could hold the dagger firm.
“Well? You want to die, right? Stab this right here and you’ll get your wish,” the man said, bringing the tip of the dagger above Gibeon’s heart.
Gibeon’s heart was pounding like mad.
“You don’t want to suffer, so stab nice and quick,” the man said, stopping the dagger’s point a hair’s breadth away from his chest. “C’mon, all you need to do is put some strength into it. Should be simple.”
As simple as it might be, Gibeon’s hands remained frozen.
“Hurry up. Didn’t you say you wanted to die?”
“Ngh...”
That was right. The man was absolutely right. Gibeon had already lost his homeland and was forced to live life all on his own. He should have died along with his country, just like his mother and father had. He didn’t deserve to live, so life needed to end. Nevertheless, for some reason, he couldn’t push the dagger any farther.
“Kuh... Urgh...” Gibeon grimaced as his hands could do nothing but tremble. He was the one who wanted to die so badly, so why was he being so hesitant now? One stab would make his wish come true.
“If you can’t do it on your own, I’ll help you out,” the man said as he slowly pushed on Gibeon’s hands from above.
The dagger’s tip poked through his skin and dug into the meat, sending pain coursing through his body. It was only a matter of time before the knife would skewer his heart.
Gibeon did indeed have a death wish, but the only thing that coursed through his head at the moment was the vestige of his mother’s face, wearing the same smile she had up until she met her end.
“You must live.”
His mother’s final words echoed in his mind. Before he even noticed it, he was using the last of his power to push the man’s hands away and drop the dagger.
“See? You want to live.”
“Urk... Guh...” Gibeon didn’t know why, but tears started to stream from his face.
“Living isn’t so bad. Try pushing through a little more.” The man rustled Gibeon’s hair as he tried to choke back his tears. “Sure, there’ll be bad times, but there’ll be times so good that you’ll celebrate still being alive.”
“Don’t talk like you know me,” Gibeon croaked.
“True, I don’t. But you don’t know what life has to offer. Don’t give up on living so young.”
The man sat by Gibeon’s side, patting his head, until he eventually stopped crying.