Chapter 68
“……Hey! Hey……! W-Wake up!”
Poke, poke, poke, poke.
“Mm, mmm……?”
A faint sound reached my ears, along with something prodding the crown of my head, and I slowly opened my eyes.
My vision was blurry.
Apparently, I’d fallen asleep with my arm under my head.
When you sleep with pressure on your eyes, your vision gets blurry like this.
“Mmm……. Huh? Cherry blossoms…….”
Turning to my left, I saw cherry blossom petals drifting outside the window like snowflakes. After a brief thought that spring had come, I looked around a little more.
Well, first of all, there was a desk in front of me. I was sitting in a chair, and a blackboard stood beyond it. Something was written on the blackboard. My vision was still blurry, but strangely, I could make out the writing clearly.
〈April 1〉
〈Class 3-6〉
〈Class motto: Love yourself〉
The class motto, huh.
Like last time, it seemed the setting was a school.
It was also the same as last time in that it was an elementary school third-grade, sixth-class classroom.
If there was anything different from last time, it was that I could see the view outside. Last time, I couldn’t because of that mysterious white light.
Oh, and I almost missed it, but there was one more major difference. Namely, this classroom was overflowing with children. I could see kids sitting at their desks, turning around to chat with those in front of and behind them.
Of course, there was also a kid talking to me.
“Hey, why aren’t you saying anything after calling me!”
“Huh? Ah, sorry. I got distracted for a second.”
“Really? Anyway, let’s keep talking about the Unbreakable Hero today! I couldn’t sleep last night because I was playing that game! Isn’t the Hero character super cool? I’m gonna be an awesome hero when I grow up! Oh, and—”
Chatter, chatter.
I was just sitting there listening, but he sure could talk all by himself.
Was this the energy of elementary school kids?
It was a liveliness I’d already lost.
‘But what’s going on here?’
It was definitely the Hero’s mental world. Only the Hero could imagine a modern elementary school like this in a fantasy world.
But then where was the Hero, the owner of this world, and why was it full of elementary school kids……?
“Ah, I can finally see a little. ……Huh?”
As my blurry vision cleared, I immediately checked my body. More precisely, I looked over my hands.
“W-What!? These are tiny kid hands!”
My hands had gotten smaller.
No, now that I looked, my whole body was smaller.
I’d turned into an elementary school kid. Still in the Demon King’s body.
“Whoa! Why’d you suddenly yell? You’re acting weird today.”
“Could you be quiet, kid? I’m a little confused right now…… Huh?”
I lifted my head at the voice coming from in front of me and saw the face of the boy who’d been talking to me nonstop.
“H-Hero……?”
“Oooh! You finally called me a Hero? Hehehe, that’s right! I’m the Unbreakable Hero, Baek Se-on! I’m gonna kill you, you evil Demon King!”
Hero Baek Se-on? Evil Demon King?
Urgh.
My head hurts.
Why was the Hero, as an elementary school kid, chatting with me like we were friends? I couldn’t make sense of the situation at all.
That didn’t mean I stopped thinking, though.
With the reasonable suspicion that maybe I’d fallen into the Hero’s past, I stared into those sparkling eyes.
“Hey, don’t I look kind of weird?”
“You just noticed? Normally you’d get annoyed and say, ‘I’m the Hero!’ but you’re not doing that today.”
“No, not that…… Can’t you see the horns on my head?”
“Huh? Horns? What horns? ……You’re really acting weird today.”
Judging by that reaction, he seemed to see me as an ordinary student. And I was apparently his friend, too. No wonder he’d been chatting so casually.
“Oh, I know! It’s because your dad’s coming today!”
“My dad?”
“Yeah! You told me, remember? Your dad’s coming today to talk about his job. Is that why you’re acting weird?”
An elementary school career day, huh.
But, my dad?
Since I was in the position of the Hero’s friend, was the father of the elementary school kid who originally belonged here coming? Hmm, I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t properly grasp the situation, so unanswered questions just kept piling up.
More importantly, this wasn’t the time to be worrying about stuff like that.
I had to find the real Hero quickly and figure out what he was up to.
“Haa, I don’t have time for this. I’ll just go find—”
Rrrumble!
At that moment, the sliding door opened, and the noisy classroom fell silent in an instant.
And then.
Two figures appeared amid the silence.
One seemed to be our homeroom teacher, and the other was…….
“Now, Class 3-6! You’ve been waiting quietly without making a fuss, right? A police officer is visiting today, so if you cause trouble, you might get arrested!”
“Heehee! We know they won’t arrest us because he’s ■■’s dad!”
“Ahem! Well then, let me introduce our guest! Please welcome Sergeant ‘Yoo Jin-han’ from the nearby ○○ Police Station! Everyone, give him a big round of applause!”
Clap, clap, clap!
“Thank you for your hard work, Teacher. Hello, everyone. I’m Yoo Jin-han, a brave police officer who protects ○○ Elementary School, and—keugh!”
Lunge!
“Daaaaad!!!!!”
That man was my dad.
The dad who’d gone missing overnight.
The dad I’d thought had been missing ever since that day was right there before my eyes.
A gentle warmth seeped into me.
“H-Hic, sob……”
I didn’t know why my dad had appeared here.
This was definitely the Hero’s mental world, but maybe some of my memories had gotten mixed in. Honestly, I didn’t care either way.
Right now, I was so happy.
“Why……? Why did you suddenly disappear! Uuugh……. Do you know how much, how much I missed you……? How long I waited for you!”
“……Oh, my little pup. You missed Daddy that much? Heh heh, I thought you’d grown up, but I guess not.”
Little pup.
That was the ‘nickname’ Dad always called me.
He said it was because I used to trot after him everywhere, like a little mutt back in the countryside.
That made it certain.
This man was my dad.
The dad I’d missed so much, whom I’d only been able to see in my dreams since he disappeared. The dad I loved more than anyone in the world.
“Hehe, that’s right…… I missed you, Dad……”
Zzzt, zzzzzzt!
“H-Huh? D-Dad! You look weird!”
His appearance was covered in static.
That was what had happened to Dad.
And it wasn’t only Dad. This entire space began to be consumed by the static.
The desks, chairs, blackboard, even the children.
The static gnawed away at everything.
As if it were trying to end this happy dream.
“N-Nooo!! I don’t want to be separated from Dad!! Daaaaad!!!”
I hugged him with all my strength, trying not to let go.
I squeezed my eyes shut and strained myself as hard as I could.
But.
Zzzzzzzzt—!!
“Aah!”
Along with the sensation of hugging empty air, my body pitched forward.
Dad had already vanished without a trace.
In his place, the same desk as before greeted me.
I was still sitting in a chair.
“Whoa! What are you doing, moving all of a sudden!”
“Uh, eh?”
“Haa, so did you even hear what I said?”
“W-What did you say?”
“I asked if I could go to your house and play.”
“W-What do you mean……”
Just then, my wildly shaking vision caught the blackboard.
More precisely, it caught the writing on the blackboard.
〈July 22〉
It was written crookedly, but that was what it said.
Thanks to that, I realized.
The date had skipped ahead,
“Your safety is the most important thing during summer vacation! Got it, Class 3-6?”
““““Yes!!””””
And summer vacation had arrived.
***
Strangely, the intense emotions I’d felt when I met Dad had already melted away like cotton candy. It gave me the chills a little. I wondered if this place was controlling even my emotions.
‘I need to find the Hero and get out of here as soon as possible.’
Once I accomplished my goal and returned, I’d never set foot in this place again. After making that resolution, I was walking home from school with the elementary-school Hero.
“By the way, where are we going?”
“Huh? Obviously, your house! We said we’d play there after summer vacation started!”
I didn’t know where this ‘friend’s’ house was, though.
I’d only been put in the position of the Hero’s friend. I didn’t have any other information. So instead of finding the house, I was stupidly wandering around in circles in the same place.
But every time that happened, without fail—
Zzzzzzzzt—!
The static appeared.
Whenever I tried to go in a slightly strange direction—for example, into the nearby playground or construction site—the static always appeared and rewound time.
Apparently, if I did something too far removed from the Hero’s memories, it replayed things to force me to play the role of ‘friend.’
Thanks to that, I understood the situation a little better.
That must have been why the static had resisted so strongly when I hugged my dad, too. This ‘friend’ wouldn’t suddenly hug my dad.
“……Tch.”
This had gotten pretty troublesome.
Because of the variable that was the static, I had no choice but to follow this flow after all. First, I needed to find this ‘friend’s’ house.
“Haa…… Hey. Do you know where my house is?”
“Mmm, more or less?”
“Then you take the lead.”
“Huh? Why are you asking me when it’s your house……”
The elementary-school Hero grumbled like that, but still started leading the way.
Maybe it was because he was a kid, but all I had to do was glare at him and he listened obediently. If only the real Hero were like that. The thought of being able to control the Hero however I wanted made the corners of my mouth lift slightly.
As I walked behind the Hero, I felt something strange. A faint sense of familiarity? Or déjà vu? It was a peculiar feeling, as if I’d visited this place before.
Cigarette butts littering the asphalt road, neighborhood walls covered in children’s graffiti, utility poles plastered with missing-person flyers, and so on. The farther we walked, the more familiar the scenery seemed.
Why?
This was definitely the Hero’s memory, so why did I feel this way? I had the illusion that I already knew this entire place. Was it just my imagination?
No, this wasn’t my imagination.
Before I knew it, I was walking ahead of the Hero.
I was turning down a familiar corner.
Now, if I turned left at this utility pole and went straight…….
“……”
“Are we there?”
“……Yeah.”
A semi-basement appeared.
A flight of stairs leading down greeted me.
Why?
This was definitely the ‘friend’s’ house, but it didn’t feel unfamiliar to me. Yeah, I felt like this semi-basement was ‘my home.’
My head was spinning.
Could this be because I was becoming absorbed in the role of the friend? Yeah, that had to be it. There was no way I’d known the Hero before. I was seeing his face for the first time, after all. So this sense of déjà vu was all…… fake.
Thinking that made me feel a little relieved.
My racing heartbeat gradually settled.
“Hey, hurry down! It’s got a passcode lock!”
Bang, bang!
The elementary-school Hero was banging on the door and shouting from the bottom of the stairs. The homeowner was going to be furious.
“O-Okay……! I’m coming—”
[Stop right there!!!!]
“Aah!”
The parasite’s urgent shout stopped me in my tracks.
[Phew……. At last, it seems you can hear my voice. Get away from there right now. This is no place for you to be.]
“H-Huh? But if I get away from here, the static will—”
[Yes, it will. I’ve already thought of something for that.]
Kill the Hero right now.
“W-What? That little kid? Me?”
[It is the only way. Otherwise, you will be in danger. So just this once, trust me and do as I say, Yubel.]
I could hear a deep anxiety in the parasite’s voice.
Even so, it was hard to trust it completely. Why couldn’t I go in there? And what exactly did it mean that I’d be in danger? Why did I have to take the Hero’s life to avoid that threat?
Honestly, it made me uneasy.
Still.
“Okay…… I’ll trust you……”
I decided to trust it.
It had done a lot for me, after all.
Even if it could be a little too mischievous, it had always done its best for me.
So I decided to trust it.
[……Thank you.]
Hmm, thank you……
After my brief conversation with the parasite, I reached out toward the Hero. My hand was shaped like a gun. The moment I twitched my finger, the Hero’s head would be pierced through and he’d die. By my mana.
“What are you doing over there?”
“……”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
It was hard to look those innocent eyes straight in the face.
It was hard to see what happened after I pulled the trigger.
I was hesitating now.
Even knowing that was a fake Hero, something inside me fiercely rejected doing this.
My tongue began to dry out.
[Just hang in there a little longer…….]
“……Yeah.”
Even so, I had to do it.
They said I might be in danger. What else could I do?
I was that selfish a person.
A person who would abandon others whenever I had to, as long as I could survive.
I’d been acting brave all this time, but my nature hadn’t changed. I wanted to live.
So.
“Die for me, He—”
Creak—
The creepy sound of a hinge.
The tightly shut front door opened.
The Hero and I looked toward it at the same time.
And then.
Shhk—!
“Keugh!”
A kitchen knife thrust out from inside,
“H-Huh?”
stabbed the Hero in the nape.