Traumas Unveiled
Agartha spoke, and a few minutes of silence followed. The first thought that hit me when I heard her was, …What?
I couldn't say anything—not because I didn't know what to say, but because her shocking, out-of-nowhere story had left me utterly speechless. It was on the level of something like, "I'm your dad." Agartha tilted her head with a question mark practically floating above it and said in a bored tone,
"Why aren't you saying anything?"
"What… did you just say?"
I tried a bit of playful joking, half-hoping to rewind the conversation, but Agartha just repeated herself with a straight face.
"So, my mother…"
"I heard you the first time, so don't brag about it."
The Hunter looked just as baffled, frowning as she cut Agartha off. I thought our reactions were perfectly natural, but Agartha burst into her usual carefree laugh for some reason.
"If you heard me, then react or something."
Then she suddenly looked refreshed, shivering as she stretched her arms wide.
"Seriously, you two were so quiet I thought I was gonna die of boredom."
"No! Even so, you can't just… drop something like that…"
Who in the world blurts out their trauma like it's no big deal just because they're bored? I made a face like I'd seen a mutant, and Agartha just looked annoyed.
"Eh, I don't really care about it. She died after the Outer Gods showed up anyway. Better off that way. Honestly, my mom wasn't that great of a person."
Hmm. Technically true, but… she said it so casually that I wondered if she was even talking about someone she knew.
Agartha flashed me a wistful smile as she bantered on.
"So, I don't really care about your charges either, Tantun. Attempted is lucky, at least. You didn't actually do it. Trying to intimidate an Outer God sounds pretty righteous to me, right? Hehe."
Ah. Was she trying to lighten the mood because she thought my silence was due to that crime from earlier? …It was extreme, sure, but it was so Agartha.
Thinking back, we'd traded a few jokes with the Hunter here and there before, but on the way here, we hadn't said a word. Not even now, with just the three of us left.
…Her intentions were good, but since she kept saying things I couldn't respond to, I stayed silent. The Hunter just listened quietly, looking like she was lost in memories.
"Mm. If I had to pick a crime, it was being born wrong. Stealing was the only way I knew to survive. Who knows? Maybe there were other ways to get by. But a frog's kid is still a frog, right? With parents like that, stealing was the only way I knew to make it."
It sounded like she was blaming others at first glance, but in the Snow Castle world, it made sense. Orphans in this world had no options. Everyone was too busy with their own misery to help others. That was the dark fantasy reality of Snow Castle.
So you had to survive on your own. By stealing, becoming a killer in the shadows, or whatever lurked in the darker corners…
"That's how I survived until I got caught and ended up here. Looking back, if I'd run alone back then, I might've died solo. That Outer God was no joke. I'm grateful for that, really. Thanks to you guys, I'm alive."
She had surprisingly sharp self-awareness. Or rather, that's why she'd survived as a thief this long.
After spilling her guts, Agartha zoned out with an uncharacteristically blank expression, like she was lost in thought. Then she snapped back to her grinning self and pointed at the Hunter.
"Hey, pay attention! When I'm done talking, you gotta jump in with a bang!"
The Hunter just blinked slowly, staring. Did Agartha really think she'd open up that easily? Even in the original game, she was shrouded in mystery…
"A family of four, including me. My father hunted for a living, so we lived ordinarily."
…She actually said it. Well, the Hunter was human too; maybe she cracked under the mood. Her calm voice started gaining emotion, then rage scraped at her throat.
"Dad caught a moose and was thrilled we'd have food to spare. That night, the man who'd been so happy was slaughtered by a raiding Outer God without even a scream. I could only watch."
Realizing her emotions had surged, the Hunter took a breath and resumed in her flat tone.
"…That's it. After that, I just killed Outer Gods. Over and over. Today, I came to this underground prison smelling an Outer God to smash it."
Agartha, listening, spat in awe.
"W-wow, you're really nuts, huh?"
Right in her face.
"That's rich coming from you."
The Hunter's eyes turned to me. That gaze made her reason clear: she was sharing to gauge me. She was still curious about me. I figured she'd cut me off immediately for the "attempted Outer God assault" charge—it painted me as sympathetic to them. Maybe this was her way of finalizing her view of me.
Lucky for me, but… the problem was I knew nothing about Leydan Tantun. He didn't appear in the original game; he was like a custom character slotted into this prison cell just for me. I didn't recall any character with an "attempted Outer God rape" charge. If there was, it'd have been community fodder with that wild setup.
Bottom line: zero knowledge. I had to explain myself.
Stumbling over words, I spoke slowly.
"Just… I'm not me, I guess? For starters, I'm not Leydan Tantun."
It'd been less than a day in this world. I'd pushed it aside to handle immediate crises, but everything was chaos.
"I don't even know how this happened. I opened my eyes and I was in a prison cell."
One bewildering thing after another. Why me? Indignation crept into my voice.
"I didn't commit any crime."
Without Super Coward Mode, I'd have collapsed long ago.
"I was just a coward who loved games, and now my head's a total mess."
I could laugh it off lightly, but for someone who'd lost everything in an instant, only despair remained. An inevitable process. As I rambled, Agartha chimed in.
"Split personality? Schizophrenia? Amnesia? Something like that? Not feeling like yourself."
She tapped her chin, humming thoughtfully like she was puzzling it out with me. If you were in my shoes, you'd get it instantly.
Then the Hunter stood and approached me. Not just coming closer—she shoved her face right up to mine. I backed away a bit.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
Not my thing to get manhandled… While I panicked internally, she sniffed my neck. She snuffled a few times, and I recoiled in shock.
"Hey, what the hell?!"
Ignoring me, she focused intently, then nodded.
"No smell of lies this time."
"…Huh?"
"I'll believe you. You've got your reasons."
I knew her sense of smell was sharp, but discerning truth from lies by scent? Was that even possible? Then I remembered how she'd bought my bullshit without hesitation before. The Hunter didn't trust easily. She needed solid proof to act or think.
"Everything until now smelled ambiguous—truth mixed with lies. But we survived anyway."
Recalling the prison events gave me chills. She'd seen through all my shallow tricks from the start.
"So I'll fall for it again this time."
She pointed at my coat pocket.
"Even that thing you're hiding in there."
The Lesser Outer God trembled, sensing it'd been made. Ah. It'd have been weirder if she hadn't noticed.
"Can't do much alone, so I don't care if it's disgusting. It helped take down that eye-thing. Handle it however you want."
She whispered in my ear, then suddenly grabbed my shoulders and shook them—violently.
"Urp."
…Huh. Why does this feel familiar?
"But remember, I can hunt you anytime."
I stared at her blankly, and she snorted, heading back to her spot. That's when it hit me.
…Is she getting revenge for when I shook her shoulders on the way out of the prison? No way—the Hunter pulling a prank?
It was like biting into meat and tasting candy; I couldn't hide my bewilderment. What shift in her mood caused this? And overlooking the Lesser Outer God despite knowing? The woman who wanted to smash every Outer God she saw—why?
Her actions clashed so much with what I knew that my spinning brain threatened to freeze. …Screw it. Thinking more would just give me a headache. Easier to chalk it up to budding camaraderie making her softer.
Looking back, she probably never bought the knights' story. She sensed the Lesser Outer God on me and felt disgust—that fit. She acted on her own judgment alone. That's what made her a superhuman Outer God hunter. The protagonist of this world. Damn, that's cool.
"Tantun, what's in your pocket? Lemme see, lemmese—kya! Are you insane? Why are you carrying this around?!"
Agartha reached out cluelessly, felt the Lesser Outer God, and freaked. Wrapped in the slightly improved mood, the first day in Snow Castle came to an end.