Chapter 79: What I Lost, What You Lost. (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79: What I Lost, What You Lost. (2)
Cathy’s mind remained a hazy blur as she continued to think.
“Is it good?”
The more she looked at the child, the more he resembled her younger brother.
Even the way he grumbled about the carrots while eating his omurice was a perfect match.
“You won’t grow up to be a strong hero if you’re a picky eater. Is that okay?”
He was still just a child, so she didn’t really want to force him, but her brother was the type to become endlessly picky if she indulged him too much.
She felt like this child, who looked so much like her brother, would be the same.
But that boy wasn’t like that.
Kang OO.
She couldn’t quite recall the name yet, but that boy—who seemed to resemble her brother yet was somehow different—tried strangely hard not to leave any food behind.
It had been adorable to watch him diligently chew through even the side dishes served at restaurants, saying it would be a waste to leave them.
The unpleasant, crackling noise in her head made it difficult to remember, but it wasn’t impossible if she really tried.
A kind boy, but one who always stuck his nose into dangerous business, making her worry.
She wanted to help him, but he always pushed others away, trying to handle everything on his own. It was heartbreaking to watch.
Sometimes he seemed completely different from other kids his age, but then he’d fail to hide his curiosity and cast a sexual glance her way. Seeing that side of him made her feel relieved, reminding her that he was still just a boy.
Didn’t I make some kind of promise to him? No, I can’t remember.
Seeing how she was flickering on such important things, she must have been very tired lately.
Once she found this child’s parents, she’d take a nap and make sure to remember.
“Nu-Noona! This omurice is delicious!”
The child, looking somewhat flustered, hurriedly smiled and ate the omurice.
“Ah, I’m glad to hear that.”
She really needed to find his parents soon.
Ah, one more thing came to mind. Kang O-hyun.
Should she ask him for help?
“Noona! Noona! I want a little more!”
* * *
“…Strange. It wasn’t an illusion after all. Normally, once you manifest someone’s greatest lingering regret, they shouldn’t be able to shake it off this easily.”
This was a brainwashing spell cast using her own talent, supplemented by a Hero-grade artifact provided by the ‘Helper.’
Yet, contrary to her investigation, it was as if there was another massive presence inside Cathy besides her brother, and she was constantly resisting the brainwashing.
According to the data, Cathy should have lacked resistance to this type of mental manipulation. This was highly abnormal.
“No, that’s not it. If there really were a presence greater than her brother, the brainwashing wouldn’t have taken hold at all. It must just be something that’s bothering her a bit, which is why the spell worked.”
The plan to corrupt her into a Villain was still on track.
It had to be on track.
She felt her last given chance twisting out of shape, but she desperately tried to deny it.
If she failed even this, she might truly have to crawl under someone else’s thumb.
There were no factors for failure.
There must not be.
However, as if mocking her wishes, intruders intervened.
The screen monitoring Cathy showed three guests who had never been invited.
* * *
First, I texted the Chairperson all the suspicious areas I could think of.
Since I was heading to the most suspicious one myself, things should be fine as long as there weren’t any major setting changes.
They had to be fine.
As I forcibly suppressed the rising anxiety, my mind felt a bit more at ease.
“Is it here?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
An abandoned factory in a slum far from the Academy.
Though the area had been stabilized, the factory in this dead village—which no longer functioned due to its proximity to a field region—was thick with a chilling atmosphere.
And this was the place where Professor Cathy was presumed to be.
Well, she would be here if things hadn’t changed from the original story, but honestly, I couldn’t be certain, and it was making me incredibly anxious.
By the way, never mind the Chairperson, aren’t these guys curious about how I know all this?
“Doesn’t look like there are any traps, right?”
“Yeah, looks okay to go in.”
Apparently, they didn’t even have a hint of doubt, let alone a question.
Then again, now wasn’t the time for such questions.
This episode was dark overall.
The episodes so far hadn’t exactly been sunshine and rainbows, but I had managed to reduce the casualties and twist the story myself. This would likely be the first time the protagonists truly witnessed the dark side of this world.
The iron door of the factory opened with an unpleasant, screeching metallic sound.
There, sitting on a filthy sofa, was Professor Cathy.
“Haha, is it good? I’m glad. Should we go get more once you finish this?”
Skritch.
Her hand moved.
Her spoon scraped the air as if trying to scoop something out of an empty bowl.
The faces of Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak, which had brightened upon finding her, turned cold at the bizarre sight.
Watching her mutter to herself with hollow eyes wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience.
Honestly, it had been unsettling enough when I read it as text, but seeing it in reality without any mental preparation was far worse.
No, strictly speaking, she wasn’t alone.
Beside her was the ‘object’ she was so tenderly talking to.
“Seriously.”
Watching that scene made my blood boil.
A wave of disgust washed over me.
How long had it been since I felt this angry?
“What a godforsaken world.”
As she held out a spoon to a cute-looking doll as if playing house, Lilac instinctively took a step back, and Cheon Yu-hak grimaced, drawing his spear.
“I see. I don’t know who the culprit is, but they certainly have poor taste.”
“The Professor… she’s going to be okay, right…?”
She’ll be fine.
In the original story, she halfway overcomes the brainwashing on her own.
Only after falling into the brainwashing, fighting her comrades, and being pushed to her limits does she realize something is wrong with her.
She rejects the Villains who try to win her over, and when they try to take her life instead, she willingly throws it away, deceived by them.
She dies in vain, never realizing that the stuffed doll she was so desperately protecting wasn’t a real person.
The phantom that projected her most precious person and her greatest trauma was a trap she couldn’t deny or escape on her own, even if it was a lie.
It would probably be the same this time.
“Let’s go find your parents once you finish this. Noona has a student she cherishes; he’ll help us look, too.”
…Huh? That line wasn’t in the original.
And did the light just return to her eyes for a second…?
“I feel like I should remember, but I can’t quite get it. But he’s a good boy, so he’ll definitely help. He’s kind and considerate of others… he always has a grumpy face, but he’s the type who can never ignore someone in need.”
Wait…?
Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak turned their heads to look at me.
What, damn it. What. I don’t know either.
“He’s such a good boy that he even cares for the people who used to bully him. Yes, he’ll definitely help.”
“…Are you sure she’s brainwashed?”
“So-hyun, I think she’s talking about you.”
I think so too…? What on earth is happening?
For a moment, I wondered what was going on, but it didn’t matter much.
Though light had briefly returned to her eyes, she eventually lost it again and resumed her conversation with the doll.
“Ah, sorry. Right. You were hungry? Let’s finish eating. Yes, it’s okay to talk after you’re done.”
“It seems she is indeed brainwashed for now.”
“But since there’s no one else here, can’t we just take the Professor and go?”
If only it were that simple.
“Lilac, what do you mean there’s no one? There’s one person right there.”
She might not be in the future, but right now, there’s someone in front of us who is stronger than both Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak. What do you mean there’s no one, you brat?
As if she heard the noise we were making, her hollow eyes turned toward us.
“…Who are you people?”
Tucking the doll protectively behind her, the pressure she exuded as she released her fighting spirit was no joke.
The sensation of having the person who always reliably watched our backs now standing in front of us as an enemy was not pleasant at all.
She looked at Lilac, then Cheon Yu-hak, and finally, her gaze landed on me…
“Eh?”
She let out a sound filled with confusion.
* * *
Actually, it was strange.
She had been looking for so long, yet there wasn’t a single trace of this child’s parents.
She had begun to think they might have been caught up in some kind of incident.
As if confirming those suspicions, three ruffians suddenly burst into the restaurant at the perfect time.
The first ruffian had a somewhat familiar aura, but no matter how much she searched her memories, she had no acquaintance who looked like that.
The second ruffian had a fierce attitude and looked ready to pounce at any moment; it seemed a fight was unavoidable.
And the third ruffian was… wait?
He wasn’t a ruffian.
Worry and annoyance were etched into those red eyes that seemed somewhat uncomfortable.
Black hair that wasn’t commonly seen and a slender body.
Wait, it’s So-hyun?
Ah, I remember now.
Yes, Kang So-hyun.
As the name she had been frustratedly forgetting came back to her, many other things began to resurface.
She had made many promises to him—not to overdo it, not to get hurt, and to return safely.
But what had she been doing until just a moment ago?
And why were Lilac and Yu-hak looking at her with such worried expressions?
[The Author has intervened.]
— No, you don’t.
[You cannot resist the brainwashing due to the Author’s Intervention.]
Eh…?
The crackling noise in her once-clear head became much worse.
“Kuh… Aaaah…! Ugh…!?”
She felt dizzy and nauseous.
There were things she didn’t want to forget, but they wouldn’t come to mind because her head was in a jumble.
Her vision turned red.
— You’re a character born to die here, after all.
“Ugh…!”
— I designed you for that purpose. If you can’t die here, what meaning do you have?
It was an irresistible voice.
A voice that sounded somewhat like a child throwing a tantrum.
— The world is a dark, unstable place full of misery. Stories that are bright, always successful, and full of happiness are nothing but pretension and false deception.
At the same time, it was a voice filled with resentment, as if cursing the world.
She didn’t know what it was talking about.
But she had a vague idea of what she had to do.
— Don’t resist.
She clenched her fists.
She had to knock down the three ruffians in front of her and find this child’s parents.
I don’t want to.
For some reason she couldn’t explain, she really didn’t want to fight.
* * *
“Hey, what the hell is that?”
Lilac was furious.
“How hideous.”
Cheon Yu-hak also showed his disgust.
A writhing black mass enveloped Professor Cathy as she tried to break free from the brainwashing on her own.
[The Creator has detected an entity that has deviated from the Laws of the World.]
You fucking bitch.
And the Professor, who had been resisting it, let out a scream and shed tears.
The area around her eyes was stained black.
No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t normal. Nothing like that had ever appeared in the original story.
[The Authority of the Creator intervenes in the event. The grade of the used artifact is upgraded from Hero-grade to Legend-grade. Cathy’s resistance stats are temporarily lowered.]
I wondered why things were going so well for a change.
With black, mud-like liquid dripping from her eyes, she took a stance.
A twisted stance that was neither clean nor perfect like her usual self.
“Hey.”
Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak momentarily looked back at me, but they soon realized I wasn’t calling them.
“You’ve really crossed the line this time. You fucking piece of shit.”
The Professor lunged and swung her fist.
It was a punch thrown from an unstable posture.
Because the stance was unstable, the power didn’t transfer correctly, and because it was swung from a twisted position, the point of impact was naturally uncertain.
— Even if you lack strength, it’s important to swing accurately with the correct posture first.
It was a filthy strike, unthinkable for her martial arts, which I had always thought were beautiful and clean.
The character named Cathy, whom he and I had spent days agonizing over to create, was being completely ruined at this moment by his one-sided betrayal.
I didn’t know he would cross the line this far.
“You are so fucking dead.”
Even if it was a twisted strike, its power couldn’t be ignored, but there was no way I’d be hit by such an attack.
I didn’t know how I did it, but my body moved naturally.
Transplanting Flowers.
As I caught the punch by clumsily imitating the essence of the martial arts Sun Wukong used, every muscle in my body screamed, but I was able to knock her off balance.
“I’m going to kill you when this is over. You bastard.”
Reinforcement.
An all-purpose supernatural power that transcended rank dwelled in my body.
My creaking body temporarily surpassed its limits, overflowing with vitality.
“So-hyun…!”
“Be careful…!”
Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak stepped in as if to protect me from something.
Cathy’s fist, roaring as it swung black energy, was blocked by Lilac’s shield, but the following kick targeted Cheon Yu-hak.
There was no technique, nothing.
But because of that black energy, which seemed to compensate for the power she lost by forgetting her original techniques, the two boys were pushed back.
Don’t give me that shit.
That isn’t her way of fighting.
My head was hot, and I couldn’t think straight.
My heart wouldn’t calm down, to a degree that I found strange myself.
— The Will of the Saint is…!
— Calm down…! You’re currently too…!
I thought I heard the artifacts saying something, but I didn’t want to listen right now.
“Ruyi.”
A blunt, bladeless knife fit perfectly into my hand.
The two boys, who had been pushed away, tried to rejoin me immediately, but two ruffians blocked their path as if to stop them.
“Who the hell are you guys now…!”
Lilac charged in frustration, but the opponent in front of him wasn’t easy enough to be suppressed in an instant; they blocked his sword even while being pushed back.
“Who the hell are you! How did you know about this place! Why are you interfering…!”
Aha, I see who it is. It must be the piece-of-shit Villain of this episode.
I thought they wouldn’t be able to act, but seeing as they’ve already gotten their hands on an artifact, my guess seems to be correct.
Then I can roughly guess who the masked person facing Cheon Yu-hak is, too.
“Simple and clean. One for each of us, then.”
Lilac and Cheon Yu-hak grimaced.
I suppose so. Normally, I wouldn’t even dream of thinking I could beat Cathy.
But right now, it’s not Cathy I’m fighting.
“I’ll save you soon, Professor.”
I have no intention of losing to this broken thing wearing her face.