Episode 19

Just now…….

What did it say?

Unable to believe the contents of the mission, I read it over and over again.

The moment I realized I hadn’t misread it—that the mission really did say that—I clenched the heel of my shoe tightly.

Not long after, with a snap, the heel broke, and the last thread of reason I had barely been holding on to snapped along with it.

This goddamn mission…….

“Are you…… kidding me?”

It felt as though my vision was turning red.

There were things one could do in this world, and things one absolutely couldn’t.

Slapping someone’s cheek? Telling me to push Catherine down the stairs? Burning down Leden’s room or tearing up the documents he’d spent all night preparing?

If I were to be extremely generous, I could say even those were acceptable. I hate all of them just the same, but fine, let’s say even those were acceptable!

But what? You want me to run into the banquet hall and make everyone die?

It’s absurd enough that this is a sudden mission, and now you’re telling me not just to commit evil deeds, but murder?

“Why are you doing this to me……! To Rene Blair! What did I do wrong!”

I couldn’t hold back the rage boiling up inside me. This mission, which I wanted to chew to pieces until nothing remained—why on earth did it appear?

I had no idea whether it appeared because of someone’s curse, or because it was some grand device of this work.

But there was such a thing as a limit.

There was a limit!

My hands trembling with violent anger, I slammed my finger down on “Decline” without needing to look any further. Then, a warning window I had seen only once before popped up.

‘This is a sudden mission. Are you sure you wish to decline?’

Yes / No

“Ha…….”

Why? Do sudden missions come with penalties if I decline them too?

I glanced at “that” and gritted my teeth. Could I hold “that thing” off until someone strong appeared?

The answer was “no.” If I were Anastasia, perhaps, but I was Rene Blair. I didn’t know swordsmanship, and I couldn’t use magic. In other words, if I received a penalty here, I would simply die.

No, before that, had this incident happened in the original work? Was there ever an incident where one of the nobles turned into something like a monster and harmed people?

Even as I furrowed my brow and tried to recall, the memory only grew blurrier, as though a thick fog were settling over it.

“Done thinking?”

“That thing,” which had said something about not killing me and toying with me instead, asked leisurely. It made my stomach twist, like a predator savoring its ease before devouring its prey.

“You…… what exactly are you?”

“What’s this? Why are you only asking that now? Are you trying to buy time?”

“That thing” ran its tongue over its teeth. Its tongue, too, was not human, but long like a snake’s.

“I don’t think I’m obligated to tell you, so I’ll just finish this, all right?”

It was then. Another window appeared over the warning window.

‘Input time has expired. Mission accepted.’

What?

Until now, there had never been a case where it accepted on its own just because I didn’t press an option. Confused, I blinked several times, then gritted my teeth again.

‘Damn it, do whatever you want! I just won’t carry out the mission anyway!’

Now that I thought about it, accepting was actually better. If I declined right now, I’d get a penalty, but if I accepted, I could buy time.

“That thing” bent at the waist like a beast preparing to charge. Then, in the blink of an eye, it was right in front of me.

I stepped back barefoot and clumsily threw my shoe. Naturally, “that thing” dodged the shoe with ease and swung its sword.

“Ugh!”

The sword sliced across my arm. At the burning pain, as though I had been scalded, I clutched my arm and staggered backward before falling.

If I stayed like this, I would obviously die, so I hurried to get up, but “that thing” stomped hard on my chest.

“What are you doing! Why won’t you kill her at once!”

As I choked, unable to breathe properly, another voice that had been quiet until now burst out from “that thing” standing on me. Each time it did, “that thing’s” expression changed rapidly.

“I let you have your way, and now you keep ordering me around? Shut up and stay quiet.”

“What are you going to do if the Hugo Knights come!”

“The Hugo Knights……?”

“Yes! Those bastards are monsters! Monsters who can even kill dragons! If those bastards sense something and come here, we’ll be stuck with nothing accomplished. So kill her right now. I’ll handle the rest, so just kill her! Kill that damned wom— Argh!”

An unbelievable sight unfolded. “That thing,” which had been muttering to itself as if holding a conversation while its expression changed back and forth, suddenly cut off its own arm with the sword.

Thud. Something fell right beside my face. I couldn’t bring myself to look to the side. Even as a lukewarm liquid flowed and touched my body, I couldn’t move a muscle.

All I could do was stare stupidly at “that thing,” which now had only one arm, with eyes full of disbelief.

“That thing” looked down at its own arm for a moment, then screamed.

“Aaaagh! Ahh! What are you doing! Why, why my arm……!”

“Shut up. I can’t stand listening to you shriek anymore.”

It was truly strange. When it wore the face that screamed to kill me, its features twisted in agony, unable to endure the pain. But when it changed into the face of the beast-like “thing,” it was calm, as though it felt no pain at all.

‘It’s almost as if there are two personalities…….’

The one-armed “thing” stomped brutally on my chest.

“Hah……!”

“Hey, human. Is what this bastard said true? Are the Hugo Knights coming soon?”

“Hah, hah…….”

“Ah, dear. You can’t even breathe from being stepped on? Humans really are weak.”

Spouting nonsense as if it were nothing, “that thing” lifted its foot.

Air rushed harshly into my lungs. Coughing as it caught in my throat, I tried to get up and planted my elbow on the ground, only to see the arm lying on the floor and whip my head away.

“Now, hurry up and tell me. Are the Hugo Knights coming?”

“……If they are, what will you do?”

“Ha, this bastard and this wench both……. The way you talk back…….”

“Agh……!”

“That thing” ground its foot down on my burning arm. The pain I had grown slightly used to swelled again and spread through my entire body. It felt as though my vision was turning white.

“Now, hurry and tell me. I don’t like asking multiple times.”

“Hngh……. Hah, ah…….”

“Tsk. This won’t do. Looks like this wench has no intention of answering, so I’ll have to ask some other bastard.”

“That thing” headed somewhere. I followed where it was going with blurred eyes, and my heart lurched. It was going to the banquet hall.

“No…….”

I barely forced the word through my teeth, then rose shakily and ran toward “that thing.” But I was helplessly grabbed by the hair. And by the left hand that had just been cut off, no less.

‘H-how is its arm……. Did its arm grow back?’

“That thing” yanked my hair hard and muttered.

“Yes, yes. You want to come too? Fine, let’s go ask. Where the Hugo Knights are.”

No. Absolutely anywhere but the banquet hall!

The mission from just now suddenly flashed through my mind, and in order to avoid being dragged away, I grabbed “that thing’s” arm and pulled with all my strength. And then, something miraculous happened.

“That thing,” which had boasted such brute strength, was pulled so easily that it was almost ridiculous, and then, from the recoil, it tumbled comically across the floor.

‘What, what was that? Did I just throw it?’

There was no other way to explain it. The thought suddenly occurred to me that perhaps, because it was a life-or-death situation, I had unleashed superhuman strength.

At that moment, “that thing” sprang to its feet and roared with an extremely vicious face.

“You little bitch, you’re really struggling for your life!”

And charged at me.

Whether because tears from the agony blurred my eyes, or because dust had gotten into them, I saw a black blade through my hazy vision.

I murmured bitterly to myself.

I’m going to die. Again, I’m going to die again.

They said your life flashed before your eyes right before death. When I died before possessing this body, nothing like that had happened, but now it seemed to be happening.

‘Asha! Are you practicing magic again today?’

‘Must be nice, Asha. Being a magical genius and all.’

‘Ah, Lden is so annoying! He called me stupid!’

‘Dad’s friend came over today? I thought Dad didn’t have any friends…….’

‘What is it, Burwords? You want to play with us? Then hand over some money. If you pay us, we’ll play with you.’

The ridiculous thing was, it wasn’t my previous life. It was the life of Rene Blair. For some reason, even things I had never “seen” seemed to be flashing before my eyes.

When the blade, moving as if in slow motion, came right up to my nose, I squeezed my eyes shut.

There was so much I regretted about dying. The fact that I would die without spending a single coin of Rene Blair’s fortune, and that I hadn’t properly apologized to Anastasia or thanked her?

Thinking about it calmly, dying here seemed like the coercive force of the original story. Since I didn’t die to Daiwen Fergus yesterday, wasn’t it making me meet some other death like this?

‘But…….’

Haven’t I been thinking for too long?

Feeling as though more than enough time had passed for me to have been stabbed by the sword already, I snapped my eyes open.

My vision, which had only been blurry until moments ago, was now clear.

Thanks to that, the dazzling sunset stabbed into my eyes without any filter, and though I frowned, I stared blankly at the scene before me.

The sword that had been about to stab me was trembling, blocked by two thin blades.

With shaking eyes, I followed those toy-like swords with my gaze.

The swords stretched straight out. Beyond them, I saw hands with veins bulging, and beyond those…….

“No wonder I smelled that distinctive fishy stink of a lizard.”

“Your body must be a wreck from the side effects. You can go rest in that corner if you’d like.”

“Shut up.”

I saw two men.

One was Daiwen Fergus, his disgust on full display. And beside him.

There stood some man with hair as white as freshly fallen snow and vivid, icy blue eyes.

The moment I saw him, I remembered.

‘You’re not even going to let me hit you…….’

‘Pardon?’

‘So annoying……. You’re not even going to let me hit you……!’

‘……If hitting me will ease your anger, then it’s fine. Hit me, then.’

‘……You really can’t kill me, okay?’

‘Why do you keep saying such strange things…….’

The conversation I had continued while sniffling, and the fact that at the end of it, I had swung my hand. The sound of cheek and palm colliding had been terribly loud…….

And lastly, the man whose head had turned and who had remained still until right before I collapsed. In other words, that man.

“I-I’m sorry I hit you yesterday!”

I knew I was on the brink of death. I also knew this wasn’t the time to say something like that.

But since I might die at any moment, I had to say it.

If I died here, I would never get to apologize to this person, would I?

That was all.