Novel Lived
Chapter 486.
Chapter 486.
Chapter 486. Heading to the Peak: The Descent. (1/3)
Regret.
I deeply regretted my words.
Why did I trust her?
Why did I trust my girlfriend who’s clearly got a few loose screws in that head of hers?
“Rosa, no.”
“What do you mean no?”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious though.”
We’d spent some time recovering after monkeying about and Rosa was able to get back on her feet albeit a bit unsteady.
Right now I was blankly staring at what she pulled out of the bag she’d been carrying and I wanted to cry.
What was inside the bag that made me despair?
It was... another backpack.
But calling it a backpack was incorrect. It was a parachute container and she even had the straps to tie us together.
I trembled in fear at the implications as I looked down over the steep ledge she’d led me to right before she’d slapped her bag down on the ground and revealed her dreadful surprise to me.
“Rosa…”
“What is it?”
“We’re going to die, aren’t we?”
“Jeez, would you stop freaking out? We’re not going to die. I’ve practiced tandem skydiving and base jumping a lot with my father growing up.”
“You have?”
“Yeah. It’s a lot of fun.”
“I don’t think plummeting to your death or crashing into a mountainside can be considered… fun.”
Rosa stuffed the bag she borrowed from Dawn into our bag before she strapped the parachute container to her back and forcibly had me wear the bag in front of my chest.
“None of those things you’re worrying about will happen. Consider this a trust test.”
“This is impossible. There’s no way the parachute’s going to deploy safely. If your plan is for both of us to run while strapped to each other we’re definitely going to trip and fall.” Rosa strapped herself to my back while I complained.
“Yeah, we would.”
“Then why are you doing exactly that?”
“I’m not.”
“You clearly are.”
“It’s true if we both ran while strapped to each other we’d stumble… BUT we’re not both going to be running...”
When she wrapped her arms around my neck and raised her legs off the ground squeezing my sides between her thighs the blood drained from my face.
“No. This isn’t going to work.”
“It’ll be fine. All you need to do is run as fast as you can and jump with all your strength. You can leave the rest to me.”
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“Don’t be a big baby, it’s just a little trust fall.”
“This isn’t a trust fall, Rosa! This is a ‘go jump off a mountain and die’ fall! A double suicide fall!”
“Jeez, I trust you with my life, are you saying you don’t trust me with yours despite us selling our souls to each other and being bound together in both body and mind?”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you.”
“Then, are you scared of dying?”
“No.”
“If you’re not scared of dying, what are you so scared of?”
“That… I’ll mess up... and you’ll die because of me.”
Rosa softly whispered directly into my ear in a sweet tone, “You don’t need to worry about any of that. If you die I’ll die together with you. If you’re going to hell, take me with you. This way neither of us will ever be alone.”
Her words were the tempting whispers of the devil. What the hell, wasn’t she a better fit for being a devil than I was?
“Are you a devil?”
“The only devil here is the one I happily sold my soul to~ so… jump. Take the leap of fate and trust me the same way I trust you. I’m trusting you’ll be able to run fast enough while carrying me and jump a safe distance away with me on your back for the parachute to deploy. You trust that I’ll pull the parachute with the right timing so we don’t die. It’s that simple.”
“Haaaaaah. You’re the embodiment of evil, the devil’s incarnate, aren’t you?”
“Why thank you~ Coming from a real devil I can only take that as a compliment.” Rosa kissed my neck from behind.
“It wasn't a compliment.”
“Did you want me to hold up a flashlight for you so you can see the ground when running?”
“No, I can see it just fine as long as you’re here.”
“I see. That’s pretty convenient.”
“It is.”
“Then start running.”
“So quick? Just like that without any build-up or suspense?”
“Yeah. What, did you expect some epic music to start playing?”
“I mean… it’d be kind of cool if it did. An inspirational speech might be interesting.”
“An inspirational speech? Are you an old man? No one’s got time for that crap. Just pick a song. Do you have a song in mind? We don’t have reception up here but maybe I have it saved to my phone.”
“Hmm… have you heard Rise before?”
“Rise? Who’s the artist?”
“Uh… I can’t remember. It was from League of Legends I think.” For me, it was pretty far back. I personally never played the game so I knew little to nothing about it, but I did hear the songs every now and then and saw the videos. I couldn’t help but think of it since I remembered one of the characters climbing a mountain in the music video.
“Mmmm. Don’t think I’ve heard it before.”
“I see.” I didn’t have it on my phone either. Actually, now that I think about it, has it even been released yet?
“Whatever, let's just go with this.” Rosa picked a random song on her phone and let it play through the speakers.
“What the hell’s with this song? It’s so mellow. Why’d you pick this?”
“I dunno, I just picked it because the title stuck out.”
“What’s the title?”
“Leap of Faith.”
“Pfft. Hah! It’s fitting I guess. Who’s it by?”
“Uh, let’s see. RyAL?”
“Never heard of them before.”
“Me neither. It’s probably some song Alicia recommended that I saved but never got around to listening to yet.”
“You download them before even listening to them?”
“Of course! If it’s something my precious Alicia recommended I’ll definitely at least save it. If it was someone other than her, forget it.”
“The lyrics don’t even fit the situation. It’s totally off. Pick something bet-”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly. Across the mountains through the sky.”
I shut up mid-sentence when those lyrics suddenly came up out of nowhere.
“Heheheh. You were saying? It sounds pretty on point to me.”
“Ah! Whatever, I’m just going to jump. Don’t blame me if we die because of your terrible song selection.”
“Hahaha! Go! Do it! If we die at least we die together!” Rosa pumped her fist up in the ear energetically without a care in the world.
“Don’t move around so much back there, I’ll lose my balance.”
“Yeah, yeah, just go.”
As soon as she said that I gripped under her thighs and lunged forward with my right foot toward the mountain cliffside. Rosa glued her body to me.
“Cross my heart-”
My left foot moved forward. It was heavy, and difficult to keep my balance, but it was manageable.
“-and hope to fly.”
My right foot raised up off the ground and crossed forward past my left and landed on the ground. I carefully gauged the distance to the edge.
Eight more full strides.
That was the distance between me and death. That could very well be how much time I have left. The time it takes to traverse this gap.
The thought sent shivers down my spine and got my heart pounding.
The first stride.
The song stopped.
The second.
I couldn’t hear it.
The third.
I couldn’t hesitate to jump.
And the fourth.
If I hesitated at the last second and tried to stop it would only end in disaster.
Five.
Trying to instantaneously kill my momentum with another person on my back and a bag in front of me wasn’t possible.
Six.
I was two steps away from life and death.
Seven.
Time seemed to momentarily slow down as the endless darkness beyond the edge of the cliff came into view.
My right leg raised up and inched forward.
I had to... jump into that abyss.
Without fear.
And trust Rosa.
It was far too late for second thoughts.
I’d already crossed the point of no return.
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