No Dark Secrets In This Book

Episode 100

By the way, the footsteps I thought might be Ryuseong’s were not his. By sacrificing one breath, I succeeded in taking the rear of the approaching figure. That means…

“…Lieutenant Colonel?!”

It means I was able to overpower Ivan Karpin, who was approaching me, and hold his lifeline in my hands at my mercy. Oho, it feels quite good to have the upper hand against a named-grade strategist. Honestly, I thought catching someone like this who’s not even a healer would be useless, but at least I was able to suppress the approaching threat, so it seems like a gain.

With that thought, I pressed the chainsaw made of blood that I had been holding against his neck even closer.

“Ivan Karpin. Long time no see. By the way, since I can’t tell if you’re a monster or a human, would you please die?”

“…!”

This is the shadow world. Moreover, it’s a terrible dungeon that gives birth to monsters based on the trauma of the intruders. In the end, what you have to ultimately fight against in this dungeon is the strategist himself. Therefore, what I’m trying to say is that no matter how lifelike the Ivan Karpin in front of my eyes is, you shouldn’t be a fool and believe he’s real.

In short, the shadow world is a damn place that makes you unable to trust your own cognition, so to put it another way, it didn’t matter whether Ivan Karpin was real or fake. What I had to do in this situation was simply calculate whether it was more advantageous to keep him alive or kill him.

‘Since he’s a commander, it might be better to keep him alive.’

But right now, I’m in the mood to vent my anger.

As I was silently contemplating, Ivan Karpin suddenly gave a hollow laugh. I was dumbfounded. The bastard, he can’t even realize that he’s in a life-threatening situation after escaping. If you’re not laughing because I’m handsome, know that you’ll get points deducted.

“Do you have a hole in your lungs?”

“You seem to have gone through a terrible ordeal yourself, Lieutenant Colonel.”

When I asked if he went crazy to grade life and death, he replied that my state was just as bad.

I tried to deduct points right away for his annoying words, but when I thought about it carefully, while Ivan Karpin had the lively and fluffy appearance unique to someone who had just entered the dungeon, I was currently… With this, I couldn’t help but be treated like a fragile weakling.

Feeling disgruntled, I swung the chainsaw I had aimed at his neck to the rear in order to change the subject a bit. Kieeeegh! Ivan Karpin was startled and looked back. He would see a group of monsters that had been quietly sneaking up on us until a moment ago being annihilated in one go. A swarm of electric centipedes wriggling and sparking is a really terrifyingly disgusting sight. Ivan Karpin also seems to dislike disgusting things as he’s shivering as if trembling.

Of course, since this is a system that produces the real enemies based on the trauma of these intruders, no matter how much you cut down small fries, it’s meaningless.

“As expected of Demillang… No, this is beyond that…”

The bound Ivan Karpin seems to be lost in thought.

‘The commander is out of it despite his position.’

Perhaps it would be great for him to die gloriously to help vent my anger. Hmm. That seems certain. As I was pondering what BGM would be good to play as a farewell when ending the life story of a cold-blooded elite soldier…

Since we have to congratulate him on quickly reincarnating and living a new life, would it be good to play “Happy Birthday to You”?

That was when I was having such warm thoughts with a dizzy head, even though I was bleeding and couldn’t even stop the bleeding to bind this guy.

“I understand your doubts about whether I’m real or fake. But at this rate, you’ll die from blood loss first. Let’s do this. You put a spell on my neck. And I’ll treat your wounds. Then you can trust me too. I don’t know who put you in this state, but…”

Although the latter part sounded like a subtle hint, I was intrigued by the mention of treatment. There’s no way an elite soldier, not a vessel, would say something foolish like pouring a potion first without a doctor, so this means he has some countermeasures to some extent…

“Do you have medical equipment?”

“Some are included in the military kit. More than that, it would be better for you to tell me who did this.”

Sensing that I was interested, Ivan Karpin gestured with his eyes as if asking me to untie him. I had wrapped a lethal spell around his neck, thinking it would be nice to let this guy live if he knew how to keep his mouth shut, and started looking to see if he had surgical thread and needles for medical use. Not knowing what was in my mind, Ivan Karpin didn’t run away from me and took something out of his bag and laid it out while shaking his numb hands.

“…This is a dungeon, isn’t it? If someone could be a threat to you, they would be dangerous even inside the dungeon, so it would be troublesome if I brought an enemy due to a misjudgment…”

“There’s no need to worry about that.”

“Why?”

As I quietly closed my eyes, thinking that if medical tools didn’t come out of Ivan Karpin’s huge military bag, it would have been difficult for him to be in this world.

“Because I killed him.”

Yes. Dick Baskerville is dead. Ryuseong killed him, not me. So there will be no new character added to my nightmare… Ah, the calmly subsiding feeling was bitter. However, Ivan Karpin, who looked like a well-cut stone, didn’t let me sink sentimentally.

“Don’t clench your teeth.”

“What, ugh!”

“I told you not to clench.”

After that, a treatment process followed that made me think, ‘How can you do that!’ The Guan Yu incident that I had endured with evil and guts suddenly felt absurd. At that time, I was so full of malice that I didn’t even feel the pain, but now, as if I had become a person, my limbs hurt so much that I was going crazy.

Ryuseong molded me with love, and I became a person. That’s why I know pain. I finally learned to feel pain. Then, can a person only be a person if they feel pain? If a person could be a person without pain, I wouldn’t have been ruined.

I wouldn’t have thought to myself that even though I’m wearing the outer shell of a person, I’m not a person but a rag doll.

“If I say it hurts, please listen a little!”

“I’m doing this to treat you, so please bear with it for a bit… Don’t strangle my neck. If I stitch it wrong, it’ll be your loss…”

In Greek mythology, Prometheus and his brother created humans out of clay by the order of Zeus. If you mix in the contents of the Bible, you could say that those clay dolls were all washed away during Noah’s Ark.

After that? It is said that when the surviving prophet threw a stone behind his back, that stone became a human.

I know I messed it up by mixing and matching it arbitrarily, but that’s how all myths are. Humans are beings created by gods, and if so, there can be one or two failures among them. That’s me. I failed. I was defeated as a human. I couldn’t maintain dignity. I just flutter like a rag doll made by stitching together rags. It’s the same now.

“I stitched it all up. I aligned the bones too. …But who on earth turned you into such a rag?”

Ivan Karpin persistently asks. Did he want to gather information that badly?

I was too lazy to respond further, so I roughly told him.

“Dick Baskerville.”

“…Why did that bastard do this to you?”

“I guess he didn’t like being called Yodo. Focus more than that.”

I glanced at him with amusement as he opened his eyes as if in shock, then tapped my thigh to get his attention and pointed to the winding path across from us. Because very small footsteps were starting to be heard from that direction.

I don’t know what’s coming, but based on the information grasped by my hearing, it seems to be the body of a young child. The form it possesses is small and light in nuance. Light like the wind, yet at the same time, sharp. It’s strange? It’s a step that subtly feels the nimbleness and undisguised aggressiveness of someone trained as an assassin.

I don’t know what kind of guy it is, but it looks like we’ll have to properly fight again.

‘I just got stitched up, but I’ll get torn again.’

Not killing Ivan Karpin seems to have been a success. If it weren’t for this bastard, I would have died from excessive bleeding. I decided to be proud of myself for picking up an excellent healer – he seems to be a soldier, not a vessel, but I don’t care.

Anyway, the footsteps are gradually getting faster. Did it sense our presence? Where the hell is that bastard Ryuseong and what is he doing? What the hell is he doing, not protecting me even though he’s my cheat key! Suddenly, resentment surges up, but I have to prepare for battle. Ivan Karpin is also gripping his weapon and swallowing saliva.

“…Be careful. I may not have the leisure to protect you…”

Ivan Karpin seems to have said some nonsense, but I willingly ignored him and focused on the opponent. The approaching force feels strangely intense. It’s not strange because the weak is pretending to be strong, but because it’s too blatant. If their strength is 100, it’s like a child stepping on the accelerator with the force of 100. When fighting, you’re supposed to hide your strength moderately and explode it in an instant, and control the strength to manage your stamina.

‘As if they’ve never learned such a thing before…’

And, thud!

The light and lively footsteps finally rush into the vacant lot where we are, making my eyes widen just by their presence, and before I, who had woven a lethal spell on my fingertips, could even react, it pulled out a blue light and tore me apart.

Slash!

[system] A new wound (s) has been updated!

Should I display a status window like this?

But it’s too painful to escape reality with funny thoughts right now because the ‘enemy’ in front of my eyes is tormenting me so much.

“Get it together! Cassice Demillang!”

I see the ‘enemy’. Short in height, with small hands, small feet, and big round eyes, a tiny young child is our ‘enemy’.

I knew that ‘enemy’.

“…Mr. Ryuseong?”

The trauma of Ryuseong’s childhood… created by the shadow world was standing in front of me like a person.

―Even though I can’t kill him.