Chapter 18

For a moment, my brain froze, and I felt like my head was completely empty.

A moment of silence.

Only after some time passed did I belatedly realize that I had become lost.

"Huh...?"

R-really?

Do I suddenly become lost like this out of nowhere?

I grabbed my confused head and looked around, but there was no trace of Muyeon to be seen.

Even though I wanted to deny the reality, I was already narrating that I was left alone.

No, that's not it.

I just came along fine, maybe Muyeon is the one who got lost?

She was walking quite far behind me, so maybe she got distracted for a moment and lost her way.

As I rationalized this to myself and started to feel a bit better, I finally had the capacity to assess the situation.

Although it was a confusing situation, for some reason, it didn't feel like I was about to panic beyond that confusion.

Maybe it's because the surroundings are a flower garden that calms the mind and body, or because it looks nature-friendly.

Knowing that these are actually corpses might make it a bit creepy, but since visual perception has the biggest impact when recognizing something, it didn't feel shockingly impactful.

Regardless of the truth, I wasn't the type to get scared easily as long as what I could see looked fine.

Right, let's think calmly for now.

I thought based on the premise that I had gotten lost, as I said earlier.

But no matter how I thought about it, this was a bit strange.

First of all, I was leading the way, and if I had gone in a wrong direction, Muyeon would have surely stopped me from behind.

Someone who made such a fuss about me reading the inscription at the main gate wouldn't have stayed quiet.

If that's the case, it means Muyeon is the one who got lost...

Honestly, this was the most likely scenario.

There's also the possibility that she was captured by an Outer God.

Then suddenly, I remembered.

A chicken's mind is best understood by another chicken.

The worst possibility came to mind.

Could it be that she abandoned me and ran away alone?

Even after thinking this, I wanted to dismiss it as impossible, but remembering Muyeon's words on the way here made it impossible to ignore.

My chicken sensor was tingling.

Ah, is this really it?

It's too plausible?

"Sigh..."

No, let's calm down.

I'm too caught up in paranoia right now.

For now, I decided to rationalize that we were separated by an Outer God.

Whatever the case, it didn't make sense to do anything more in the current situation.

How could I, with no actual combat power, face the Gardener alone...

Muyeon would probably aim to get outside if she's alone too, so I should also aim to get outside.

As soon as I turned around to go back, I had this thought.

Wait.

But where was the exit again?

I thought I wasn't particularly bad with directions, but when I tried to go back, I couldn't remember exactly which way I had come from.

It was so easy when Muyeon was guiding the way.

It was a moment when I realized the importance of navigation once again.

Sigh, is there no choice?

Just aimlessly wandering around looking for Muyeon is something only an amateur would do.

But I was different.

A true pro always carries a friend in their pocket to make things not scary.

The so-called portable fear dissolver.

I carefully opened my pocket, and the Lesser Outer God poked its head out.

Perhaps because it was seeing an unfamiliar place, it looked around curiously, then tilted its head to look at me and smiled brightly as if happy to see me.

My troubled heart felt a bit healed.

It's so cute.

"Friend, which way should I go to get out?"

Even if they're of different ranks, they're still Outer Gods, so maybe it could give me a rough sense of the direction to get out.

With that hope, I asked, and the Lesser Outer God, having confirmed that there was no one else around, came out of the pocket and flew into the air.

It flew around here and there, not straying too far from me, and then, as if it had figured something out, it came back with a bright expression and pointed somewhere.

"Did you find it?"

The Lesser Outer God nodded at my words.

I felt much better.

Cute and capable too.

I had brought it along almost as if it was forced on me, but to think it would be this helpful.

This is what you call a cheat key.

"Well done."

When I stroked its head with my finger, it smiled happily.

If Muyeon had run away, there should be no people in here now, so maybe the Lesser Outer God could enjoy a bit of freedom too.

So when I tapped my right shoulder with my finger, indicating it should come up, it couldn't have looked happier.

It gently flew over and sat on my shoulder like when we first met, then melted like a rice cake, looking incredibly cozy.

"Let's go."

With a direction set, going was easy.

I walked quickly in the direction the Lesser Outer God pointed.

As we went, I felt something strange.

Huh?

Doesn't this feel very different from the way we came?

Usually, people don't easily notice changes unless they're focusing, but no matter what, when the most characteristic thing changes, it's impossible not to notice.

Right.

The most characteristic thing had changed.

What I had seen as I passed through was a garden composed of various colorful flowers, exuding beauty.

But the garden where the Lesser Outer God guided me was unified in just one color.

Red.

Moreover, it was made up of only roses, giving off a dark red color that was quite out of place.

I definitely hadn't seen such a flower bed on the way here.

"Are you sure this is the right way?"

I looked at it with a face that said 'Lesser Outer God, are you tricking me?', and the Lesser Outer God flapped its wings and pointed to my left as if to say it's really correct.

As if saying what we're looking for would be over there.

I turned my head in the direction the Lesser Outer God was pointing.

"Uh, huh?"

There was something unexpected there.

Long green glowing hair covering the eyes.

Even more noticeable was a long-horned skull.

A girl wearing it like a mask was sitting with dirt on her hands.

I could tell as soon as I saw the unusual attire that a normal person wouldn't wear and the body of a child in the midst of growth.

This is not a human.

An alien existence that has descended upon this world.

An Outer God.

And the Gardener we were looking for, at that.

Is it right to meet like this already?

I haven't gotten any proper strategy yet.

Damn, I should have looked at the boss strategy in the community!

How regrettable is my foolish past self who only looked at a few spoilers because I didn't like scary things and wanted to figure out the fighting on my own, not looking at the strategy tab.

As I stood frozen with the Lesser Outer God, watching the Gardener, she was speaking to the ground.

"It's okay? You'll be better soon."

A gentle voice.

It's a tone I never would have expected from an Outer God who destroyed the world and turned countless people into corpses, decorating them as flowers.

Glancing carefully, it seemed she hadn't noticed us yet.

Right, it would be better to retreat before being discovered.

I don't know why the Lesser Outer God thought the Gardener was the key to escape, but it was quite dangerous now that I was alone.

So I tried to carefully step back.

"...I already knew you had come in."

The Gardener speaking to me nonchalantly.

Haha.

So when they said this was a place where you could escape, they meant escape by ending your life?

Right, that's one way of escaping too.

I looked at the Lesser Outer God with eyes conveying that meaning, but it shook its head vigorously from side to side as if to say that's not it.

It was about to cry, so I decided to give it a pass for now.

"This one's mind is quite strong. Must be a high-ranking knight?"

Stay calm.

Right, maybe we can communicate.

It could end well like with the Observer.

So I decided to throw the first punch.

"Uh, hello? I'm not a knight, more like a knight candidate? It's not that..."

"You, you came to harm my friend, didn't you?"

I tried to somehow lighten the mood a bit, but the Gardener was already looking at me with deeply furrowed brows.

Haha, to fail before even starting.

This is a big problem.

"N-no! That's not it..."

I tried to refute in panic, but the Gardener's eyes, half-hidden by her hair, grew larger instead.

"You can understand me?"

Then she glanced at the Lesser Outer God on my shoulder and started chewing her lip.

Uh, what's wrong?

"...I see, I wondered why you could understand, but you're that woman's follower."

Follower of that woman?

Who is 'that woman'?

It seemed to have nothing to do with me, but the Gardener had already made up her mind.

"No! I didn't come to harm you, let's talk first..."

"Lies! Do you think I wouldn't know when you're showing it so obviously?"

With those words, the Gardener stood up and took a deep breath as if gathering strength.

It was clear that something not good was about to fly, and I crouched to prepare, but.

"Kyaang!"

The Gardener let out a cry with a cute voice, but what happened around wasn't cute.

Suddenly, everything became static.

No, to be precise, my perceived time slowed down.

I saw stems shooting up from the ground, but my body, lacking physical ability, couldn't react.

In the end, I couldn't help but be hit by the thick stems, and after some time passed, as the speed started to feel normal again, I was flung far away.

"Aaaagh!"

My body, which had been flying for a while, hit the ground and rolled violently for a long time, unable to control the speed.

Finally, when the momentum disappeared, my body stopped, and I felt an excruciating pain all over as if I had been beaten up.

"...No one can touch my friend."

The plant stems seemed to wrap around the Gardener as if holding hands, forming a large circle.

"I didn't come to harm you! Let's talk first...!"

However, the Gardener had completely closed her ears or was ignoring me entirely.

Instead, flowers appeared with smiling emoticons on their faces.

"Damn it."

Looking at their appearance, they seemed utterly insignificant, but one of those flowers raised its stem high.

And I realized that was the stem that had just attacked me.

As soon as I realized this, it struck down towards my body at a speed I couldn't even react to.

Pop!

The sound was like pressing a toy doll, but.

"Urk..."

Pain that felt like it was choking me began to envelop my entire body.

Ah.

Is this how people die?

As my consciousness began to fade away, the last thing I saw was the Lesser Outer God's urgent expression before my consciousness went dark.