Chapter 165
Chapter 165
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: The Allure of the Outside
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Kish… What’s the outside like?”
“The outside? It’s a great place. When you wave your hand or flap your clothes like this, the air moves and creates wind that brushes against your face, right?”
But outside, the wind blows even without someone waving their hand or flapping their clothes.
Your body warms in the sunlight without needing to hold hands or embrace.
And there are all sorts of delicious foods that put the stuff carried by the occasional adventurers who fall into this labyrinth to shame.
“Delicious stuff?”
“Yeah, like that time you tried it before. Those small dried fruits that were properly dried so you could just chew them, well-managed with no weird smell.”
Kish grinned as he gazed into those ignorant brown eyes.
Today, as always after a fierce battle, the sole survivor was Kish—and him, the progenitor and lord of all doppelgangers.
For some reason, the labyrinth’s master would herd humans here from time to time, pitting them against each other through mere division and impulse.
The silver lining was that if the doppelganger lord, the baby, was on the verge of death at human hands, a mechanism activated to forcibly eject them.
‘Well, even if we get revived by the lord if we die, who knows what happens if the lord dies…’
Today had been one of those days. The moment when everyone else was dead, and only the two of them remained.
Perhaps that was why he, who never usually brought up the outside first, showed a spark of curiosity.
That rare change excited Kish, and he opened his mouth eagerly.
“There’s the sun, the moon, and stars. During the day, it’s as bright as having your eyes right up to these torches, everywhere.”
And at night, like this.
Kish placed his hand over those gentle brown eyes, covering them.
“It gets dark like this, but not pitch black. The moon and stars give off a faint light.”
Just like torchlight slipping through the gaps if you spread your fingers a bit.
“And unlike this trickle of water that barely quenches your thirst, water flows much wider than these corridors out there.”
They call those rivers, and there are dozens, hundreds of them outside.
“That much water? Then where does it all flow to?”
Here, it only flows into these filthy drains. Are there drains outside too?
Or does the water keep pooling until the whole outside sloshes like water cupped in your palm?
Kish clutched his stomach and burst out laughing at the question.
“You’re so innocent, lord.”
But it’s similar. There’s this thing called the sea—a massive expanse where tons of water gathers.
“There’s so much good stuff outside.”
He didn’t know when it started, but his body—stitched together like a ragged quilt from devouring fragments rather than being a whole human—was fixed with an utterly ordinary face, just like the lord’s kind, frail, and delicate heart. Brown hair and brown eyes.
And now, in those utterly innocent, unknowing eyes, there flickered regret, pity, envy, sorrow.
The moment Kish sensed those bitter, stinging emotions at the tip of his tongue, he could feel them even without proper emotional synchronization.
“It was a joke, actually.”
The lord wasn’t tormented by being trapped here, never having seen the outside even once.
“You don’t know how brutal the outside is, lord. It’s cold, you’re starving, monsters are crawling everywhere. You trick and betray people, but there’s no devouring them like us to gain memories—just killing. The outside is awful.”
He was tormented, feeling sorry for the doppelgangers trapped here like Kish and the others.
If those who’d never been outside even once and those who had experienced it sometime were locked in the same place…
Who would that be because of?
“Outside, you can’t even sleep peacefully. So many places where someone might slit your throat the moment you fall into deep sleep.”
At least here, you can sleep soundly except when humans come. You can drink water without worry.
What’s so great about the outside? This place with just us is better.
As Kish spoke, what had the lord’s face looked like?
‘Baby. Do you know how great the outside is? You don’t even know the sea, huh? Stay put. We’ll get you out.’
Sometime ago, when the labyrinth’s master inscribed on the altar that they’d release one of them if only one survived—or if they sowed mutual suspicion and scattered.
Kish had gone on about how great the outside was, and what had the lord’s face looked like then?
“Long time no see, Kish.”
The sea was great. Swimming was fun—have you tried it a lot, Kish?
It hadn’t been that face, with its ashen-gray hair and green jewel-like eyes, smiling so serenely.
The lord he knew was so gentle, ignorant, frail, and weak that he’d called him intending to shoulder his own burdens himself, letting the lord—Zero—just live happily, oblivious to everything.
‘Who is that guy?’
Kish—no, now the pirate queen Ellis—stared blankly up at the man standing before her eyes.
* * *
That’s how people are. Even with things like robot vacuums or robot dogs that aren’t alive, people tend to fix and keep using them rather than toss them out right away.
Once you grow attached to something inanimate, you feel uneasy treating it carelessly.
No, even videos of people kicking, shoving, or trying to topple moving robots for stability tests make lots of folks feel sorry for them.
‘Even with buoyancy, that’s not all.’
Thanks to the mana barrier, I couldn’t smell it through my nose, but the stench filling the air everywhere and the floor pooled with liquid that had turned black from once-red made me want to cast purification magic right away.
But now that I knew that lump was originally a person, I couldn’t just treat it as contaminated matter and cleanse it with simple purification and clean spells.
‘Well, a proper funeral might be too much.’
I watched Cain, Luna, Leaf, and Rachel scan the space for traces of mana and remnants they’d left behind, then moved my feet.
“Huh? Young master.”
“It’s fine, Luna.”
I began gathering the heads and fragments scattered and rolled into piles, chunks of flesh that had once been residents here.
The others gathered too upon seeing me, soon stacking them waist-high in the center.
I clasped my hands, sticky with blood and crawling bugs, prayed once, then pulled out some wood and oil from my subspatial pocket.
“Trace check done?”
Cain nodded lightly at my words. Glancing over, Rachel nodded silently too.
“Let’s go.”
As Cain wrapped his hand in aura to stroke the pattern away, the glossy wall gradually veiled in smoke. That’s when I spoke, and we exited back through the long, narrow passage to the cliff top.
Only then did I open my codex and douse everything in purification and clean, then looked at my companions’ subtly odd glances.
“What.”
Doesn’t suit me? I’m from the land of propriety and manners, you know.
“No.”
“As expected, young master is so kind.”
“Kh, he has this side too?”
Leaf the golem had a blank, thoughtful expression, but the rest tossed in a comment each.
In this harsh world—where even nobles could erase it with magic—gathering the pus-soaked remains, burning them, and holding a funeral was rare enough to draw such reactions.
“The evil cult bastards didn’t deserve it, but these folks were victims, and we had the time.”
In the game, those were just background objects—click the mouse cursor for drop items or info, then they’d crumble slightly in interaction. But this is reality.
Other places had sacrifices that someone else would clean up even without us, but I bought info on this one, so no one else would come for a while.
If I’d finished my business and left, how much longer would they have lain in that cliff crevice, hard for ordinary folk to descend?
So this is the right thing to do. I glanced at my now-clean hands thanks to magic, then ran them through my hair.
“How about it? Hard to pinpoint after just one go, but got a feel?”
Turning to head back to the ship, I asked. Luna drooped her ears further, Leaf shook his head, and Rachel looked away.
“A bit.”
But as expected, the protagonist’s different.
I smirked at Cain’s words, then replied in a slightly subdued voice.
“Someday, you’ll sense it as naturally as breathing.”
Cain’s brows furrowed faintly at my words.
He’d instantly grasped what I meant—that he’d see it that often.
We slowly descended the narrow path we’d climbed so arduously. Mountain paths are riskier going down than up, but watching Rachel bound down excitedly made me think that’s why they call them aura users, aura masters.
After descending the slope a bit, Luna and Leaf suddenly lifted their heads, peering into the distance, and Cain spoke.
“Anyone else coming to the island besides us?”
“No way.”
“Someone’s here.”
What? On this island?
Well, originally, it wasn’t uninhabited—it had residents.
Of course, if there were people on the island, neighbors or merchants would come for trade, so it wasn’t odd for someone to arrive. But at this exact timing?
‘Kinda suspicious.’
Heading to where we’d told the guide to wait, Rachel stood there with legs spread wide, glaring down at the guide.
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know either…”
“Didn’t you call them?”
“Of course not…”
“Adelrian, you’re here? Check these guys out.”
Rachel pursed her lips like a duck’s beak and approached me, pointing toward the sea.
What’s going on? Scanning lightly, something moved near our distant ship—like someone swimming in the water.
A couple on the guide’s rowboat, and a few unfamiliar figures on our separated beach.
“Mermaids?”
“Yes. Mermaids, but… how did you know right away?”
I just smiled at the guide’s words.
They say continentals have hair like oil paint, while mermaids all have translucent watercolor shades. If you don’t recognize that, you didn’t read the original properly.
“But what business do mermaids have on this island?”
The guide glanced at Rachel with a “beats me,” looking like he’d been grilled before I arrived.
They looked freshly out of water—cloth wrapped low around the waist, hair still damp.
As I turned my gaze to them, one of those whispering while perched on the rowboat’s railing stood and approached me.
Luna, Leaf, and Rachel subtly stepped half a pace ahead of me.
“You the boss?”
“You the boss?”
I grinned at the man towering a head taller than me, nearly Zero’s height.
Wavy pale-green hair, sturdy build. Ears not round and fleshy like humans’, but like ornate tropical fish fins.
He smirked as I threw his words back.
“Fun guy. Noble, huh? So arrogant.”
“You must be mermaid nobility too, huh? Seeing how rude you are.”
Or just poorly raised. I swallowed that part.
No plans to get chummy with scheming mermaids when we’re here to steal their healer anyway, but no need to clash hard right off.
The mermaid man laughed loudly at my mild provocation, and meanwhile I casually scanned his body. Just the cloth around his waist for covering on land—no weapons or jewelry.
So probably physical traits, or mermaid-related spirit or magic traits. Whatever it is, enough to protect himself, standing near-naked before us.
‘Use User’s Eye or not?’
Convenient if I do—see traits, gauge what he’s about.
But in a safe spot, waste float on some outsider instead of my kids?
Everyone else lives without seeing traits anyway.
I put off using it and smiled slowly.
“Introduce yourself.”
Let’s hear what you’re doing here.