Chapter 60
Silence descended. The world had fallen quiet.
More precisely, the two channels connecting me to the sounds of the world had burst at the same time. But since the sounds were gone, there wasn’t much difference.
Ah, though there was one thing I could still hear.
It was the parasite’s voice.
An echo ringing inside my head.
That echo comforted me when I could no longer hear anything else.
It reassured me, telling me to calm down, that I could heal completely, and that I only had to trust it.
We weren’t usually on the best of terms, but at that moment, I was incredibly grateful.
Thanks to it, I could keep playing the role of a mother in front of the monster without losing my composure.
“Hehe, this is rather sudden……”
I stopped speaking midway.
My voice was too loud, ringing painfully in my ears.
It sounded distorted, almost mechanical, and frightened me for a moment.
Then I saw the monster below, looking up at me with flushed eyes.
It seemed excited by the way I flinched.
‘Crazy psycho bitch.’
I only now understood what this girl was like.
It wanted to see me broken.
And yet, the way it gently handled me like some precious object was so creepy it made my skin crawl.
What kind of upbringing had this woman had? She was a complete lunatic.
As though it had read my thoughts, the parasite spoke to me.
[I’m sorry.]
The story began suddenly with an apology.
What followed was predictable.
It explained how it had raised that monster, how it had abandoned it, and how long it had left it alone.
In short, it had rescued the monster and raised it with love at first, but lost interest partway through and grew indifferent. In the end, it had promised to come back, then never visited for over a hundred years.
All it had done was leave the Black Knight by its side as a final gesture of affection, so he could at least look after it.
And that, in the end, was the cause of this chilling obsession.
“……”
Of course, I didn’t feel any sympathy.
I wasn’t some saint, and I wasn’t compassionate enough to comfort my abuser.
The Snow Woman had been one of my favorite characters, too, but now she disgusted me whenever I looked at her. What a revolting bitch.
[Perhaps she couldn’t endure the tedium of life, and her mind gradually wore away. A hundred years is no short time. Unless you’re obsessed with something, it’s impossible to survive…… I can say that with certainty, for the same is true of me.]
I see.
By then, I was listening to the story as shaved ice was fed into my mouth.
It was mealtime.
Ah, for the record, I was in no shape to eat by myself.
One of my arms had just been blown off.
The left one. My dominant hand.
With no hand to eat with, I just kept swallowing the food the monster put into my mouth. My mouth was numb.
‘It’s okay. I can still hold out.’
I wasn’t just saying that to fool myself.
My body might have been wrecked, but my mind was clearer than ever.
Knowing I could heal all of this someday made it seem like nothing.
‘Anyway, is the Hero coming?’
In the end, I had no choice but to put my trust in the Hero.
My body wasn’t in any condition to fight.
The parasite had already guaranteed that we couldn’t win, so there was no point in lamenting it.
I’d just enjoy the shaved ice.
Krrr-crack!
“!!!”
I was so startled I couldn’t even breathe.
It was because I’d suddenly sensed a vicious aura.
The source was obvious.
Sukja stood up.
With an uncomfortable expression.
***
My original world? Go back?
Those ominous words had come from the man’s mouth.
As a Hero summoned to this world, I couldn’t help but listen closely.
However.
“Nonsense. Is this some ploy to get yourself out of trouble right now?”
Considering he’d brought it up at a time like this, his intentions were far too obvious.
I had to get to Yubel as soon as possible. Listening to him would only waste time.
“Don’t misunderstand. I’m in the same situation as you, so I was only hoping to talk in earnest.”
“The same situation?”
“That’s right. I’m a Hero, too. You could say I’m the Hero who was summoned before you.”
“Stop spouting nonsense!!”
Prea, who was standing beside me, shouted.
“Lord Se-on, you mustn’t listen to that man! I was deceived by him, and Lady Yubel……. Urgh, anyway, you mustn’t believe him. Everyone knows the previous Hero died long ago, so there’s no point in listening to anything he says.”
She was right.
Even if he really had survived as a Hero, he was from two hundred years ago. If he were human, his lifespan would have run out by now.
So he had to be lying.
“Yes, I know it sounds like a lie. But it’s the truth. I can’t prove it right now, but you could easily confirm it by asking the Holy Sword stuck inside that ice palace over there. For the record, my name is ‘Eugene Han.’ Ask the Holy Sword later if that’s really my name. It’s the only one I ever told in this world.”
The Masked Cat, who had introduced himself as Eugene Han, looked so serious he seemed cold.
His demeanor was completely different from how he’d acted before, and even Prea fell silent, seeming confused.
“Now, let’s get to the point. Baek Se-on, are you willing to return to your original world with me? I’m not forcing you; I’m asking. With the power you’ve shown, you could leave this world with me right now.”
“……”
“Yes, I suppose I haven’t been very considerate. Hearing something so sudden must be bewildering. I understand that. But we don’t have much time. I have to watch myself right now, with people listening in, so I hope you’ll understand why I need to say everything here.”
In other words, was he saying he could kill the Demon King right now?
Or perhaps there was some other way.
“……I understand what you’re saying. But what will happen to Yubel?”
“That mage has to die here, of course. I know it’s hard for you to understand. But please, trust me just this once. It’s absolutely necessary for us to return to our original world.”
So this guy was telling me to let my companion die.
And not just any companion—Yubel, who had saved my life time and time again?
Wariness rose across my face.
Eugene Han must have noticed my expression, because he continued, trying to persuade me.
“Don’t think of this place as reality. It’s all an illusion, an illusion. Think about it. Does it really make sense that magic exists? That divine power, demonic energy, elves, beastkin, and goddesses are all real? That’s ridiculous. This whole place is full of lies. It doesn’t feel real at all.”
“……”
“And the most alien beings here are us. The more lives you kill, the stronger you get? Does that make any sense? Gaining that kind of destructive power out of nowhere without any training—I wondered if I’d been given some kind of hallucinogen. And on top of that, you even had an absurd ability called a Skill Window. It must have made this place feel even less real.”
“……”
I couldn’t utter a single word.
Because what he’d said was the truth I’d been ignoring all along.
The more I thought about it, the more confused I got, so I’d kept that red-pill truth buried deep inside me.
Hearing it from someone else felt incredibly strange.
“I was trapped here for over two hundred years. Of course it was hard. But whenever it got to me, I thought of my family back home—especially my son, whose eyes always lit up whenever he saw me—and I managed to endure. You’re incredibly lucky. You haven’t even been here for a year, have you? If you go home, probably only a few minutes will have passed. Time flows differently in this world and your original one.”
One after another, his words poured out, digging into my heart.
Because of them, the faintest trace of anxiety began to grow.
What if I, too, ended up trapped here forever?
I had my own very real reasons for needing to return to my original world.
One of them was a memory that had recently resurfaced.
The memory of setting fire to the house of a childhood friend I’d been close to.
Because of me, that friend had lost their mother.
After that, I wanted to see my friend, but they disappeared somewhere during the school break. My parents also asked me not to get close to them anymore.
No, it had been more like an order.
An order not to look for that friend.
“……”
The shock of it had driven me to drop out of school.
It was hard for me to make new friends.
Time passed, and I became a college student. Then both my parents died in a sudden car accident.
At their funeral, I thought about a lot of things.
Had my friend suffered the same heart-wrenching pain I was feeling now?
Did they resent me for what I’d done? Those kinds of thoughts……
So, as soon as the funeral was over, I went straight to look for my friend.
I wanted to meet and apologize for what happened that day. Maybe it was selfish of me. Maybe it was a cruel thing to do, dredging up painful memories.
Even so, I went looking.
Even if my friend beat me to death, I wanted to meet and apologize.
But that never came to pass.
‘Because I was summoned here along the way.’
When I opened my eyes, I was here. My memories had been wiped clean, too. Thanks to that, I’d been free for a little while. I’d even thought I wanted to meet Yubel and live in this world forever.
A world full of joy and sorrow.
A world that gave an ordinary person like me something special.
A world filled with incredibly beautiful fantasies.
But the memories that surfaced became shackles, binding me in place.
It was time for me to return to reality.
“It looks like you’ve made up your mind. Well? Shall we return to your original world together?”
“……That’s right. I have to go back right now. There’s a story I still need to finish.”
But……
“Now isn’t the time.”
Now wasn’t the time.
There were still plenty of stories I had to finish here, too.
There were people suffering because of me, and a girl I couldn’t afford to abandon.
And I still hadn’t heard or seen it.
I still hadn’t heard her say my name or seen a happy smile on her face.
So it wasn’t time yet.
Besides, if returning to my original world meant she had to die……
I’d pass on that kind of method.
I would decide my own fate.
A fate that led to a future where everyone could be happy.
In a world this full of fantasy, surely it was all right to hope for a dream this absurd.
“So I refuse.”
Eugene Han’s expression changed from moment to moment.
Anger, dejection, and regret covered his face.
“……I see. I had high hopes when I heard you’d severed your contract, but I suppose I misjudged you. Then I can’t exactly step aside—”
KWAANG—!!!
Just then, with a tremendous roar, snow burst up like an explosion from where Eugene Han had been standing.
Tap.
“What the…… Had the mage already been dealt with?”
No. I could still sense Yubel alive up there.
What I’d been afraid of hadn’t happened.
“Still, things have gotten complicated.”
Eugene Han moved aside, shifting over toward where we were.
But we had no time to pay attention to him.
A human silhouette was walking toward us through the blizzard.
“Intruder, don’t get in my way.”
The uninvited guest slowly came into view.
Pure white hair, half-lidded blue eyes, and a snow-white dress made of ice.
I recognized her at once.
That was the witch.
The mysterious witch who had snatched Yubel away.
“I’ll kill you all.”
At those words, the world froze.
It was the signal that the battle had begun.
……Damn it.