Chapter 673: [Bonus - 2/9] The Debt

Chapter 673: [Bonus Chapter 2/9] The Debt

"Thoren Starfall. Dead, ready to be added."

The Tallykeeper’s hollow voice echoed through the chamber, its long, thin finger resting on a line in the ledger.

It paused briefly before moving to another entry, turning a page with a slow, deliberate motion that made the vertebrae binding the book creak softly.

"Thoren Starfall. Alive."

Thoren’s expression changed instantly.

For a moment, he wondered whether he had misheard the creature. He stared at the Tallykeeper, his eyes widening as he tried to process the words that had just left its mouth.

The figure remained completely indifferent, its featureless face lowered toward the ledger as though it had merely read two ordinary entries from an endless list of names.

However, the meaning of those words struck Thoren with terrifying force.

His name had appeared twice.

One entry declared him dead, ready to be added, while the other recorded him as alive.

Thoren felt his blood run cold.

His breathing became uneven as he stared at the Tallykeeper in disbelief.

’How could my name be on his list!’

He cried out in his heart, unable to conceal the horror spreading through his mind. A shiver ran down his spine, and the hairs on his arms stood on end.

His gaze shifted toward the pillar of skulls behind the Tallykeeper. A terrible possibility began forming in his thoughts.

’Has my death already been predicted?’

The thought made his chest tighten. He had never believed that his fate was something another creature could simply write down in a ledger.

Yet, the Tallykeeper had spoken his name with the same certainty it had used when reading the other entries.

’Are they waiting for me to die? Don’t tell me they intend to add my skull to that pillar!’

Thoren swallowed hard, his eyes involuntarily returning to the dense collection of human skulls.

He could still remember the young boy from his trance, the desperate screams that had accompanied his fall into the darkness, and the sorrowful expression on his face.

What if the same fate awaited him?

The more he thought about it, the more fearful and nervous he became. He had no intention of allowing himself to end up as another skull on the pillar of skulls.

But the two entries in the Tallykeeper’s ledger had shaken his confidence in ways he did not like.

He stared at the figure for far longer than he intended, his mind racing as he tried to find a reasonable explanation.

The Tallykeeper had not attacked him, nor had it shown any interest in his presence.

It had simply opened its ledger and read his name twice, assigning him two contradictory states.

Thoren’s expression gradually darkened as he forced himself to think more carefully.

Could the Ossuary truly predict the future?

The possibility seemed terrifying at first, but the longer he considered it, the less convinced he became.

He had encountered many strange phenomena since entering the ruin, including the words that appeared inside his mind whenever he discovered something significant.

However, none of those experiences proved that the place possessed the ability to foresee events that had yet to happen.

Therefore, there was no reason to immediately accept the Tallykeeper’s words as an unavoidable truth.

His death had not occurred.

He was still alive, still capable of moving, and still in control of his actions.

Whatever the ledger recorded, it did not change the fact that he was standing before the Tallykeeper at that very moment.

Thoren slowly took a deep breath, trying to steady his racing thoughts.

Although he could not entirely suppress his uneasiness, he began searching his memory for something that might explain why his name had appeared in the ledger.

Then, his thoughts returned to the entrance of the Ossuary.

’It must be that gate...’

The conclusion emerged in his mind as he recalled the unusual entrance framed by enormous ribs that had fused with the surrounding rock.

From the moment he had crossed that threshold, strange events had followed one after another.

He had never encountered anything like that gate before.

Thoren’s gaze narrowed as he considered the possibility that crossing the entrance had somehow caused his name to appear in the Tallykeeper’s ledger.

Still, one question continued to trouble him.

If the Tallykeeper had recorded him as both dead and alive, which entry was it expecting to become true?

Just as Thoren was wrapping his head around the bizarre situation, he heard the voice of the Tallykeeper.

"Pay your debt."

The words were neither loud nor particularly threatening, yet they echoed through the underground chamber with a chilling clarity, as though the entire Well of Grief had been waiting for those words to be spoken.

Thoren froze for a moment, his gaze fixed on the tall, thin figure standing beside the pillar of human skulls.

The Tallykeeper had not raised its head from the ledger in its hands, nor had it made any noticeable movement.

Its long fingers continued turning the pages, and the faint sound of dry parchment rubbing against parchment was the only thing that followed its demand.

Hmm?

Thoren blinked, wondering whether he had heard correctly.

He glanced around the chamber, but there was no one else present who could have been the target of those words.

The pillar of skulls stood silently behind the Tallykeeper, their hollow eye sockets staring into the darkness, while the cold air brushed against his face.

Slowly, his eyes returned to the Tallykeeper

"Pay your debt?" he repeated under his breath, his brows drawing together in confusion.

What debt was it talking about?

He had only recently entered this accursed ruin, and aside from the strange experiences he had endured since crossing the entrance, he could not think of anything that would make him indebted to the place.

He had not borrowed anything from the Tallykeeper, nor had he made any agreement with the strange figure.

’Which debt?!’

Thoren stared at the figure, hoping that it would offer some explanation, but the Tallykeeper continued reading its ledger as though it had not heard his unspoken question.

’Is it crazy or what?’

His confusion quickly gave way to irritation, and with each passing second, his annoyance continued to grow.

He had already encountered enough bizarre things inside the Weeping Ossuary to make him question everything he previously understood.

From the mourners that could dissolve his undead legion with a single touch to the strange visions forced into his mind by the human skulls.

Every new discovery seemed more disturbing than the last. Now, this damned thing was asking him to pay a debt he knew nothing about.

Just the thought of his name being added to the death ledger had already irked him.

What exactly was he supposed to pay with?

Gold coins?

Beast cores?

His life?

The last possibility caused his expression to darken.

If the Tallykeeper intended to claim his life as payment for some imaginary debt, then it had chosen the wrong person to threaten.

He took a slow breath, forcing himself to remain calm despite the anger rising within him.

Just as Thoren opened his mouth to speak, an unexpected change occurred. A sudden inflow of information rushed into his mind.

His pupils contracted as the unfamiliar information flooded his consciousness, arriving so abruptly that he could not even prepare himself for it.

For an instant, it felt as though someone had forced open a sealed door inside his head, allowing a stream of knowledge that did not belong to him to pour through.