Chapter 3. Rebirth
Their stopping posture was extremely intimate. Unlike before, when Juwel had pinned Corvos down, now it was the opposite. Even both of their cloaks were flung open, though neither of them felt anything obscene.
Corvos's fingers squeezed Juwel's neck while locking the other parts of his body, preventing Juwel from suddenly attacking again.
"Calmer now? Can we talk properly?" Corvos asked.
Because of that small interruption, the fire of hatred in Juwel's eyes faded completely. Juwel tilted his head slightly, signaling that Corvos could let him go. Corvos only released Juwel after ensuring he would not attack suddenly again.
Juwel elbowed Corvos, making him step back, but it was not enough to provoke another fight. Juwel adjusted his cloak again.
The bedroom could not be called ruined, but to say it was intact would be blind.
The best opportunity to completely kill Corvos had passed. Juwel had no choice but to wait for another chance, not knowing if such a chance would come again. Juwel knew he was already dead. This strange world was proof.
He obviously could not easily forget the scene before his death.
He fell.
His back hit the ground. Eyes wide open, slowly fading. Nothing remained. Only a deep darkness was approaching, swallowing pieces of his consciousness.
At the last moment of his life, Juwel did not want to remember those hateful people. Compared to those bastards, there were deeper memories that Juwel wanted to recall.
"I will not see them again…"
Family.
Old days appeared in his mind like shattered mirror fragments - fragile, broken, yet painfully bright.
He wanted to reach where they were.
But he knew it was impossible.
A hand stained with blood cannot reach heaven.
But Juwel did not regret it.
It was just…
A little bit of regret.
Juwel looked at his palm, then slowly clenched it.
He closed his eyes.
And… they would definitely not forgive him for what he had done.
Corvos watched Juwel's back and the long legs beneath the cloak. In truth, he felt no need to remind Juwel, so he could enjoy this beauty longer, but…
"Juwel"
Juwel ignored Corvos's call. He did not care what Corvos wanted to say.
Corvos saw that Juwel had fallen into thought, conflicted, irritated by something he could not define. Corvos picked up a set of clothes from the wardrobe and spoke.
"Clothes for--- "
"Silent!!"
Before he could finish, the rustling of him taking the clothes had triggered Juwel's violent nerve reflex. The moment Corvos's voice sounded, that nerve snapped.
Corvos barely had time to lift his eyes to see an object flying straight at his face. He dodged just in time, but he saw Juwel's face full of killing intent. It looked like a tense fight between two men was about to happen, but Juwel only wanted to threaten, not to cause real injury.
And finally, Corvos obediently fell silent.
A silence stretched between them.
Juwel continued to struggle with the tangle of thoughts in his head about the current events.
"Dead is dead, let's see first,"
Looking at the clear blue sky through the window, Juwel finally made that decision.
He saw the set of clothes beside him and conveniently put them on.
Corvos quietly sat at the head of the bed, doing what he liked most, reading something, to keep silent. But Juwel did not hesitate to break that peaceful space. Corvos was slightly distracted when seeing Juwel change, and Juwel, fully aware of Corvos's gaze, acted as if nothing mattered.
Juwel threw the cloak aside and looked straight at Corvos.
"If you die before me, then you must have been here longer. Let's talk about the information you know?"
A flicker of surprise crossed Corvos's eyes, but he quickly masked it with a faint smile. Juwel refused to answer him, yet still expected that he would respond.
Not very surprising. Juwel's personality had been like this since the first time they met.
Corvos shrugged slightly. "Depends on what you want to know. There are countless things here that you do not know."
Juwel was not satisfied with that answer.
"How does this world work?"
His voice lowered slightly when asking, carrying a hint of caution. Corvos, as always, remained calm, observing the person in front of him with a steady gaze. He did not answer immediately and tilted his head slightly, as if considering how to express himself properly.
"That's a broad question," he replied. "Is there something more specific that you want to know?"
Juwel frowned. He knew his question was too vague, but he truly did not know where to start. If this was the world after death, it must have its own rules.
"What does death mean here?"
"It means no longer existing."
Juwel frowned at the answer, simple to the point of suspicion. He was not satisfied. "I am not talking about the universal definition of death. I mean… after death, what happens?"
Corvos tilted his head. "I suppose each person will have a different outcome."
His curt answer irritated Juwel. He did not believe everything was that simple.
"I will disappear at some point, right?"
"Nothing exists forever."
"Will my consciousness scatter? Is there an end point where I will remember nothing anymore?"
"Um… if you get old, you might not remember anything at all."
It was an obvious answer, though a few elderly people remained lucid. But after death, does the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death continue? Strange. Although there were hypotheses that the world after death resembled the world before death.
Juwel did not stop. "Alright, what about time? How does it run here? How long will I stay here? Is there a limit?"
Anyone could notice Juwel's impatience through these rapid-fire questions. Corvos chose to remain silent, waiting for Juwel to calm down. A common manipulation trick, but Juwel did not care about his silence. He continued to ask, emphasizing his tone, forcing Corvos to answer this question.
"What about reincarnation?" He seemed to be grasping at some possibility. "Can I leave this place and start another life?"
Juwel knew a little about Western culture from the wandering books that had reached him by sea. Though he trusted them less than the things he had been exposed to since childhood, it was worth asking for certainty.
Juwel's sharp gaze forced Corvos to speak.
"I do not know. Maybe this is your next life, perhaps."
Juwel stiffened. His breath grew heavier. Corvos remained calm, as if this were just a normal conversation.
"So when will I completely vanish?"
Corvos did not answer. Juwel assumed the answer was still indefinite as before.
He felt as if he were trapped in an endless loop, in a place where no rules matched anything he had ever believed. So this is the afterlife, and humans are stuck forever in an infinite world.
Juwel's heart raced. His hands grew icy cold.
"Who guides the way after death?" Juwel asked. He recalled an Eastern hypothesis about this. He knew Corvos probably did not know, after all, he had only recently died. It was better to find someone who knew.
"No one," Corvos replied.
No pathway to other souls, no trace of the deceased besides him and Corvos.
That… made no sense.
"Then what exactly is this place? I do not mean the official name of it, but…" Juwel clenched his fist. "Why do I still have a body? What purpose does this body serve in this world?"
It was indeed puzzling. The fact that his heart still beat in his chest was not an illusion, so it was really strange.
"Alright," Juwel took a deep breath, calming himself. "You just need to answer this one. What is the punishment for my sins?"
Corvos remained silent, watching him. Then he looked out the window, his gaze flickering with a trace of thought. He did not answer immediately. When Juwel could no longer be patient, he turned back to him and spoke evenly:
"Juwel… Actually, you have been reborn into a body in another world. This is not hell or anything you are thinking of."
"What?"
At Corvos's straightforward and sudden answer, Juwel could not react immediately.
"How do you know? You have only just died for the first time too."
Juwel obviously did not trust him from the start.
"Because I have the memories of this body." Corvos did not hide it. He even pointed to his head to indicate it.
He could not understand this difference. Why did Corvos have memories while he did not? The injustice irritated him, but he did not let emotion overwhelm his reason.
Juwel could not pry him open to verify. Probing Corvos would really be a stupid idea. That cunning Corvos was not someone he could easily get an answer from. Juwel decided not to care about his existence anymore.
Zounds!
Yes, he did not need to trust what Corvos said. It was strange that he suddenly asked him as if they were very close. He just wanted to stir Juwel's mind for some hidden purpose.
Impossible.
But, confound it.
As soon as that thought began to plant itself in his head, all his senses tried to prove it right.
Juwel forced himself to breathe steadily, but the air felt trapped in his throat. What he was facing was too absurd, too illogical. Yet his body reacted in unmistakable ways: goosebumps rose along his arms, his heart raced, his breath came in sharp, pressed bursts as if cornered.
He stared at the mirror in front of him. The reflection in it was not him not the person he still knew.
The hair was longer, strangely silky, falling down the back instead of just touching the shoulders as before. The face had few differences, or maybe he just did not remember his own appearance clearly.
But Corvos's face had really changed, and surely this body had changed too. The Juwel from his previous life had always been stuck at the height of a boy who had just hit puberty.
The sensation of this body was also different. When he moved, there was an indescribable strangeness, as if his own body did not recognize itself.
But this could not serve as proof. Juwel thought that after death, one might transform into another state, like a "soul" or a "star." Having minor changes in the body could not be reliable evidence.
Yet he suddenly recalled the moment he had just awakened, and how Corvos reacted as if he had already been lying there instead of suddenly appearing from nowhere and accidentally falling onto him. But maybe Corvos was teasing him by acting that way.
Juwel dismissed that argument.
Still, the unease in his chest grew stronger.
He raised his hand to his neck, his cold hand touching a strange necklace. He did not remember ever owning it. His fingers traced along the pendant, a shiver running down his spine as he realized it was engraved with a name on the back a name he would never have carved onto his own objects. The name of Corvos.
His stomach twisted. As an involuntary reaction, Juwel yanked the necklace off and threw it aside.
He turned decisively, beginning to search the room. His eyes scanned every corner, every object, searching for any sign that could confirm or deny this hypothesis.
If this was his dwelling… no, this person's dwelling, there must be something to verify it. His eyes stopped at a stack of documents on the desk.
The papers were neatly arranged, but when he pulled out a file, his hand clenched reflexively.
The name on the documents completely matched his own.
Juwel traced the old marks on the paper, proof that someone had used it regularly.
Not only that, the file contained a signature… no, the signature of this body. It was not his handwriting, not the style of signature he had used. But it was still familiar to anyone who had known this person.
He set the paper down, feeling his hands tremble slightly. His fingers unconsciously gripped the edge of the desk, as if he needed something solid to hold onto to prevent himself from toppling amidst the storm raging in his mind.
This was not an illusion. Not a dream.
He had truly been reborn in this body.
But why?
What meaning did revival have when everything of himself no longer existed?
No, this was definitely hell, a place where he and Corvos should be. Corvos had only just arrived here, so he probably did not fully know the nature of this world.
Everything around him seemed to warp, as if reality were gradually breaking into fragments before his eyes. The scenery blurred, lines became indefinite, as if they were only part of an illusory dream.
Corvos's face struck his eyes; it was perhaps the clearest thing at the moment.
His eyes remained as calm as a still lake. No judgment, no provocation, no pity or mockery. Only observation. Eyes of someone who seemed to have seen everything yet revealed nothing. As if he were a cold god standing above, looking down at a human staggering before him.
Juwel felt wrong. His breathing was chaotic, his chest squeezed as if by an invisible hand. This feeling… was not ordinary fatigue, nor anger, nor fear. It was more than that.
A kind of latent chaos erupted, almost stealing his ability to think clearly.
A movement from Corvos caught Juwel's attention. He reached out, seemingly to help.
In that moment, Juwel snapped awake. He instinctively stepped back, then quickly shoved Corvos aside, putting distance between them. The uncomfortable sensation inside him urged him to leave immediately.
His eyes quickly scanned the room, finally resting on a door that seemed to lead to the bathroom.
Without hesitation, Juwel dashed forward, opened the door, and stepped inside, slamming it shut in front of Corvos.
"Bang!"
The bathroom's soundproofing was not great; Juwel's retching could still be heard outside.