Chapter 91
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Ameris's Night
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Voices of men coming from outside.
"They've chased us all the way here!"
I turned my head toward Baek A-rin.
She was in a combat stance, but it was clear at a glance that she was exhausted.
Erina was fundamentally a tank whose role was to draw enemy aggro. She had no effect on enemies that weren't interested in us.
"Damn it."
In our current state, I couldn't think of any way to hold them off.
Damn it, what the hell are we supposed to do?
At that moment, Seluna dragged her weary body toward the door.
"We... we have to block the door. We need to buy some time...."
Seluna looked around to close the door.
A suitably sized log caught her eye.
The door had a latch to place a log in, preventing it from being opened from outside.
If they put that log in place, they could buy some time.
With that thought, she approached to lift the log.
"Hup!"
Damn it, what the hell?
It wouldn't budge at all. It wasn't even a log too heavy for my strength.
As I strained to lift it, Seluna saw the log and came over.
"Seluna? I'll get this."
"It's fine."
She looked at me with what seemed like a forced smile, then hoisted the log onto her small, battered body.
With a strained expression, she approached the door and placed the log to keep it from opening.
What kind of girl has that kind of strength... Is that one of Seluna's abilities too?
No.
I wanted to think so, but I knew it wasn't.
Seluna looked exhausted at a glance, and there was no way she could use that mysterious power anymore.
Above all, her once-red glowing eyes had dulled, faded of color.
This was nothing more than a sign that we could no longer interfere in this dungeon's storyline.
"Yeah, block it somehow. We'll sneak away. You can do it."
As I forced a smile and spoke, Seluna shook her head.
"This temple has long since collapsed everywhere except the main entrance."
I bit my lip.
Was there really no way out?
As I pondered, a sound like they were trying to break down the door came from outside.
-Almost there!
-Break this and that bitch is ours!
Damn it, we have to prepare for battle!
"Erina! Baek A-rin's exhausted right now, so it's just you and me."
"Don't worry. I'm already ready!"
At that moment, Seluna, watching us, smiled and spoke.
"I'm glad. So many people trying to protect Cellus."
I looked at the delirious Seluna and said,
"Cut the nonsense. Saving you included is part of the deal."
Sounds of them breaking the door came from outside.
-It's almost open!
-Come out, pureblood! Gonna paint ourselves with that blood!
The door cracked as if it were shattering.
It was slowly crumbling from the top down.
The light leaking through illuminated Seluna.
No, it wasn't sunlight.
A flickering red light. It was definitely torchlight.
'No way. Has that much time already passed?'
Physical interference like not being able to lift a single log, beyond blocking attacks or protecting someone, was becoming impossible.
Even my sense of time wasn't working properly anymore.
That meant...
I could clearly tell the intent to exclude us from this storyline was growing stronger.
All that was left was conveying things through 'words'.
"Seluna, get away from there!"
Her position was dangerous. Thinking she'd be jumped the moment the enemies entered, I shouted.
But whether she heard me or not, she was murmuring while looking at Cellus.
"Truth is, stalling for time was just greed. I wanted to see Cellus's face a little longer. I thought maybe a bit more wouldn't hurt."
"I told you I'd make sure you can keep seeing him."
This girl is so dense.
I'm saying I'll protect you.
Seluna looked at me with eyes different from before.
"What's already been written can't be changed again."
"What do you mean, 'what's written can't be changed'!"
Seluna smiled and continued.
"But even if it's already planned... if it hasn't been written yet... what 'will be written' can be changed."
"What do you...!"
Seluna's incomprehensible words.
Seluna reached her hand toward Cellus's head.
A slender arm, broken in places, but an elegant gesture.
She made a small motion and murmured.
"Sorry, Cellus. I'm going to make you recall bad memories."
"Seluna, it's dangerous there...!"
Seluna looked into my eyes and said,
"Take good care of Cellus. Like now. From here on out too."
With Seluna's words, the door shattered.
And four men lunged at Seluna.
I couldn't even react.
No, precisely, my body wouldn't move.
As if what was supposed to happen was happening.
The men gnawed at Seluna voraciously.
Blood splattered across the cathedral.
Smearing her blood all over their bodies.
Drinking her blood.
They already looked no different from ghouls.
'No, they've already become ghouls.'
It was the scene I'd seen in the dream.
That girl was Seluna.
At that moment, Cellus in Erina's arms began convulsing.
Her closed eyes opened.
[Cellus bravely charged at the ghouls, shouting.]
"Si-woo, Cellus!"
To Erina's words, I just quietly murmured low.
"It's okay. This is the end."
[In the end, Cellus was caught by the ghouls and fell. But at Seluna's call, begging him to stay with her because she was scared, to die together... Even as the ghouls tore into his body and his life ebbed away, Cellus held Seluna's hand and closed his eyes.]
Erina cried out at the sight of Cellus and Seluna being devoured by the ghouls.
"Si-woo, why...!"
"Why what?"
It was an overwhelmingly dissonant scene.
More absurd than any other time.
Because this scene alone was fake.
I brushed past the ghouls lusting after Cellus and Seluna and stepped outside the door.
"Si-woo! What are you doing? We have to stop those bastards right now. Damn it, why won't my legs move!"
"Kim Si-woo, what the hell are you doing?"
Baek A-rin and Erina's shouts.
It seemed they couldn't move either.
Of course. They were seeing an illusion.
The ending Cellus regretted. That's why he was fantasizing it again in his head, rewriting it.
The climax of this shitty village drama he absolutely didn't want interrupted.
'A fantasy he wants to replay once more.'
I reached my hand toward the broken door's outside.
Then Baek A-rin and Erina looked in the direction my fingertips pointed.
"That's the truth."
Cellus running desperately down a rugged path, breath ragged.
Running with his whole body trembling in fear, tears welling in his eyes, as if he'd seen something he never wanted to recall.
-Ha... have to run. Dad, why Dad? He turned into a ghoul. Have to run! I told you to run! Run... have to run...!
Maybe because it was night. Cellus, running madly down a path where he could barely see ahead, soon tripped.
-A-Aaah! Seluna...?
He seemed to snap out of it, regain his senses, but still terrified, he crawled forward.
-Dad? No, Seluna? I'm scared. Too scared to go back. Sob, I have to go back, have to help Seluna, but I'm too scared. It's weirdly, terrifyingly scary.
His face was covered in tears, snot, and dirt.
His mouth hung open, trembling, unable to close.
His shabby pants had been soaked for a while.
Baek A-rin said in astonishment.
"Th-then, the Cellus here...?"
To her words, I pointed at Seluna.
There, just as in the original past, Seluna alone was dying at the hands of the four ghouls.
Yet Seluna's expression was smiling.
No, she was crying while smiling.
-Sorry... Cellus. For... making... bad... memories.
This was the source of the dissonance I'd felt.
Seluna, who cared for Cellus that much.
She wouldn't wish for him to die with her.
Looking at the dying Seluna, I said,
"Don't worry. I've already broken one, but I'll properly keep the contract with Cellus. Because what will be written can be changed."
To my words, Seluna seemed to smile.
Seluna gestured for me to come closer, squeezing out her last strength.
As I approached Seluna, she whispered to me in a voice no one else could hear.
-Cellus... don't be sad... My name is..... I am...
With those words, Seluna clasped her torn-up arms together in prayer. Her voice no longer came.
With her words, the absurd clear condition [Chase the Girl..].
I understood its meaning now.
Erina and Baek A-rin, shocked.
Seeing the storyline's truth, Erina could move again and furiously charged at the ghouls surrounding Seluna.
"Get out of the way!"
"E-Erina. Hey!"
"A-rin! Don't stop me! We have to save her now!"
Erina charging despite Baek A-rin's attempts to stop her.
Erina slammed her shield into the ghouls several times. But nothing changed.
Because it was already written.
"Why won't it work! You fucking zombies!"
Looking at such Erina, I said,
"We have to go now."
"They're dying! Dying!"
Erina ignoring my words and continuing to attack the ghouls.
I grabbed her arm to stop her and said,
"The dungeon's clear condition...."
"What the hell is it! Cellus and Seluna...!"
Erina in tears.
Selfish but overflowing with a sense of justice, she was someone kids loved despite her sharp demeanor. This must have hit her hard.
Still, we had to do it now.
No time to grieve over what was already written.
What's written can't be changed.
But what will be written can be.
I had to clear this dungeon.
Unlike Lee Seong-hyeon, I didn't have a one-coin.
The condition [Chase the Girl..].
Chase the fleeing Cellus.
Chase and...
Kill the Cellus who should have died.
No, kill Ameris.
That's the clear condition for this dungeon 'Ameris's Night'.