Ep.2 - Two Women (4)
Ep.2 - Two Women (4)
The door closed.
With a Save locked in to deal with my ankle, only Philmark and I remained.
"E-excuse me."
Blood kept leaking from Philmark's mouth.
The rest of her body, aside from her mouth, had been crushed by Neva's fists, swelling puffy.
"Oh my god, oh my god... this is too..."
It was too much.
Even though she was a bitch, this was too much.
"Ugh..."
I narrowed my eyes, assessing Philmark's condition. She looked like she could have died at any moment...
"Cough... hack..."
Yet her breath still clung to her. Remarkable vitality.
"A-are you okay...?"
"Ah... Delin..."
She looked up at me, a faint smile on her lips.
Her eyes, unable to focus properly, pooled with red blood.
"It's okay... I won't die from something like this... I'll heal quickly..."
Contrary to her words, she spat out sticky blood. The blood that splattered cheolsseok onto the floor gave off a fishy scent of death.
'No. Don't let that stir up sympathy...!'
'This person is a criminal, and Neva-ssi, who was trying to help me, just punished her. Yeah. That's it...'
"F-forget it. You're going to die anyway. I'll just get to the point. Fix my ankle, quickly...!"
'For now, let's be forceful. Push forward.'
'Since I've jammed a Save anyway, I'll try every method, get my ankle fixed fast, and get the hell out...!'
"...Delin."
Huh?
'Did it work right away?'
Her voice became very gentle.
"If you help me undo this now... everything will work out fine. As long as you untie it for me..."
'As if it would work.'
Philmark let out an utterly infuriating remark.
"Untie you? You tried to kill me...! And now you ask me to untie you!? If you were in my position, would you untie me!?"
"Delin... I'm telling you for the last time... help me. Then... let's run far away together and live quietly... huh?"
Her appearance, smiling bashfully with her split lips, was utterly absurd—and a little scary.
'Why the hell is she like that...?'
"No. I have no intention of living with you. In the first place, we're not in any kind of relationship..."
"No...! We have a special relationship! We love each other... right?..."
"Eek...!"
Seeing her squirm with her body on the verge of death, I flinched and stepped back without thinking.
"Ah, aah... come closer. Huh?... quickly... I'm not trying to scare you. Quickly..."
"J-just forget it and fix my ankle! I'm in a hurry!"
'I have to fix my ankle fast so I can wander around, gather information, and find allies!'
"Why should I fix it? Hmm...? If you stay by my side, it's nothing... it's just that when you get a bit far away, it hurts..."
"Ha, seriously...! Look here! I'm already annoyed, so please cut it out! You kidnapped me and...! raped me like a beast, and what? Love? Are you insane!? Why should I have to stick by your side!"
I couldn't hold back and shouted. Since I had a Save anyway, there was nothing to be particularly afraid of.
'I might as well curse her out and get it off my chest. She was a bit pitiful after being beaten, but her nonsense made my insides seethe!'
"Sseup... Delin... I smell you... mmm... sseup... haa..."
Fuck...!
'What the hell is she doing...?'
"S-stop that and fix my ankle! If you're going to die anyway, don't be a nuisance until then, just fix it and die!"
"Okay, fine. Fine... I can hear everything... but I really can't hold back anymore... let's do it just once. Now..."
"You crazy...! you crazy bastard!"
'Are you really insane?'
I thought she wouldn't fix it easily, but she kept spouting insane nonsense as if a screw had come loose, making my head spin in turn.
"Forget it. Crazy bitch... I'll just live as if I don't have one ankle!"
"Okay. Okay... if you live using only one leg, you'll always think of me... when you go up stairs, when you go down... when you can't even take a proper walk around the neighborhood... every single day..."
Philmark laughed. That laughter, as if she were incredibly happy and delighted, echoed inside the prison.
"Then I'm satisfied... I love you. Really..."
"You... you're crazy. You're just crazy."
'She's completely messed up.'
'From the beginning again.'
"Load!"
Conciliation.
"If you just fix my ankle, I'll try to persuade Neva-ssi not to hit you anymore. You can't live getting beaten until you die...! Just fix my ankle...!"
"I love you. You know my heart, right...?"
"Haa... Load."
Threat.
"If you don't fix my ankle right now, just like Neva-ssi came and beat you today...! just like today! She'll come every day and beat you! Can you endure that!?"
"As long as I think of you, I can endure anything. Yeah... when we escape later, let's run far away together..."
"Ah, I said no...! Load!"
Despite trying conciliation and threats about fifty times each, desperately changing my approach and words, Philmark didn't budge an inch.
I couldn't understand what the hell this bastard was thinking.
Yeah. From the moment she pulled this shit on my ankle, this bastard was a lost cause.
No. Even before that. From the moment she captured me and raped me, she was a completely hopeless bitch.
There was no way to fix my ankle with these kinds of words.
So.
Anger.
"Hurry up and fix it! Don't be a total dick the whole way through and fix it!"
"I love you. Yeah. Me too... really..."
"Ha, fuuuck...! Load!"
I got angry at her dozens more times, full of frustration, fury, and irritation.
Towards the end, I was so furious that I even hit her,
but she just took my punches and kicks as if they didn't even tickle, and even grinned.
'She even said she liked it.'
Son of a bitch.
So finally...
A request.
"Can't you please fix it...? I'm really desperate... please... I want to go back quickly..."
"You know, when that bastard hit me, I protected my stomach as much as I could... because later, once we get out, I'll have to carry our baby..."
"Ahh... please..."
Facing this insane bitch hundreds of times left me absolutely drained of strength.
Even lying in bed rerolling to pull S-rank characters was too tedious for me, and using the Save or Load ability felt no different.
Still, I had to do it. Because this wasn't a game; it was [reality] with my life on the line...
Huh?
But come to think of it...
Did I pick the wrong Save point...?
I should have just slammed Load first. Fuck.
Sseup... no.
The most recent Save point I had jammed was inside the carriage,
by then the poison had already spread in my ankle. Yeah...
If I had known, I would have just jammed another Save at Neva-ssi's house. Idiot...
'Is it more advantageous to set a Save at the very beginning like that? So I can explore as much as possible?'
But the problem with that is, I'd have to give up all the relationships I've built and go back, turning everything that resolved decently into nothing.
But would that be more advantageous?
"Haa..."
Anyway, I needed to use it more carefully. If I spammed Saves out of sheer fear, I could end up in a hopeless situation.
Now I felt that fact bone-deep. As expected, humans seem to learn only by experiencing things firsthand.
In any case, since I had a Save locked in, I had to resolve the ankle problem somehow.
"What do I have to do for you to fix it? Huh? At least say something. Whew..."
"Mmm... say you love me..."
"Fine. I love you. I love you too."
"Okay, I love you too... we, we... were destiny. Yeah... that's right..."
'Destiny, she says.'
I couldn't accept her incomprehensible change at all.
The image of her kneeing me in the stomach was still vivid in my eyes, then suddenly she seemed to protect me from the other thieves, then she tried to kill me...
And now, locked in prison waiting for her death day, she was babbling about destiny and love...
"If you love me, don't do this shit to my ankle and quickly undo it. What is this..."
"I'm doing this because I love you... Delin... you still don't know my heart...?"
"Ha, really...!"
In the end, tears burst out.
Even though I tried talking to her using every method, I couldn't persuade Philmark.
'This idiot. Dumbass.'
'A fool who can't even use a single ability properly.'
I clutched my head, tearing at my hair, and sobbed. There was no answer. It seemed better to just leave it like this and look forward to the next opportunity.
'Let's not cry. It's still okay...'
'It's not all over, and my ankle isn't permanently ruined. There's still plenty of time.'
'Originally, it takes days to persuade someone... Even though I Loaded so many times, from Philmark's perspective, this is the first time this situation has come up...'
"Forget it. I'll just go today. But, if you really love me, you shouldn't be causing this kind of nuisance; you should do good things for me. Cherish me, care for me, be considerate. This isn't love."
"Delin..."
Philmark looked up at me.
"Yeah. I might have opened my heart to you towards the end. But, in the end, you were the one who ruined it. I hate that kind of love. I'm going now."
When I honestly and candidly poured out my feelings, her attitude felt somehow quite different.
'Did some sincerity get through?'
"...Live kindly in your next life."
"...Okay. Fine. I'll fix your ankle. In return... until I'm executed, will you come see me...?"
A sob started to creep into Philmark's words.
Was it the talk about love I uttered after hundreds of Loads, and my resigned attitude of leaving, that changed her?
"...I can do that much for you."
"Then, come closer..."
In her considerably softened mood, my own feelings softened a little.
I carefully stepped closer to her, one step at a time.
"I'll fix it... so... just let me kiss you one, really really last time... I'm begging you..."
"...Really?"
"I promise. I'll stake everything I have... just let me feel your lips one last time..."
Philmark, with her one remaining eye, ended up shedding tears.
That single teardrop streaming down her bloodstained face was so vivid that it made her seem pitiful and unfortunate again.
Was it that she simply didn't know what love was?
Even if so, we had already come too far.
Still, I could at least give her a last kiss, couldn't I?
"Make sure you keep your promise."
I lifted her drooping head, looked into her eyes for a moment, and slowly pressed my lips onto hers.
Her lips felt quite cold and sticky against my own.
For a moment, her tongue tried to enter my mouth, but it paused before my tightly closed lips, and eventually returned to her own mouth.
However, even though it wasn't a kiss with tongues touching, that kiss was so achingly tender.
Unlike the long, deep kiss we had shared in the hideout, it was just a kiss where our lips pressed together for a moment...
Even though it was a lighter kiss, it felt heavier than the kiss we'd shared before.
...In the end, at that faint kiss, my heart unknowingly opened.
I opened my tightly closed lips and accepted her.
A rather long kiss followed.
In the sloppy tangle of our tongues meeting, the two of us shared a last kiss.
Knowing this was the last, I gave my tongue as she wished.
A desperate kiss,
so long and passionate that it felt like the strength was gradually draining from my tongue...
A kiss that felt like it was paralyzing...
...Huh?
"Hoo..."
She withdrew her tongue and was the first to separate our lips.
Our lips were connected by stretching strands of blood and a purple liquid.
"Ah woo.. uwoou?"
Sound leaked from my mouth.
My pronunciation came out slurred.
My tongue stopped functioning.
"Eh-eu...! Eh-euu!"
The one eye left right in front of my face, perhaps because I had stabbed it, was stained bright red,
but it seemed she could see me perfectly well with that eye, a very thick and profound gaze...
"Now you can't... Load. Right...? Pull the wedge stuck in your body right now. If you don't want to live forever without Load..."