Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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>Translator: Vine
>Chapter: 29
>Chapter Title: A Sibling Reunion
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Have the separated siblings finally met?
I was on my way to the kids' room to give them a doll when I ran into Pia. Happy to see her, I held out the doll and cautiously started to speak, but she shoved me.
My body was sucked somewhere, and my vision swam violently. The moment I flailed and shouted, "What's going on?!", I was spat out of thin air and landed on a pile of trash.
They say you can't speak properly when you're too flustered, and that was exactly my state.
"Khahaha! Success! I did it!"
I heard the laughter of a caveman-like man dancing around. I pushed myself up from the trash heap and looked at the man who appeared to be homeless.
*What's this? Where am I?*
In a gag world, sudden shifts in time and space are fairly common, so I was able to quickly regain my senses.
"With this one, my greatest masterpiece...!"
The man approached me, grinning with his mouth wide open. A few missing teeth made him look even more frightening. Tapping a broken staff, he clearly looked like a madman.
*Huh? This person... I feel like I've seen him somewhere before.*
The moment I tried to get a closer look at him.
*CRASH!*
Something fell on the man's head. I was blown back along with the trash. I landed on a bed with springs sticking out everywhere, so I wasn't hurt, but my head was spinning.
"It was a good idea to wait, after all."
A thuggish-looking man wearing a thin, floral-patterned shirt and pointed shoes had his hands in his pockets as he stomped on the homeless man.
"Guh..."
The stomped-on man foamed at the mouth and his body trembled violently. He looked like a stunned frog. I slowly got up and started to back away.
"You brought some pretty good stuff."
The man in front of me vanished in an instant, and then I heard his voice from behind. Startled, I whipped around to see the slit-eyed man grinning as he grabbed the scruff of my neck and lifted me up.
"It'd be perfect to put this up for sale with that other item I took before, right?"
>"Yes, it certainly seems so."
A beautiful woman with her hair tied up high appeared beside the man. Seeing the thuggish, slit-eyed man and the haughty, cat-like woman, I instantly realized who they were.
*It's Jiso, one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and his right hand, Baek-ru!*
A thunderclap echoed in my head. My body instinctively shrank.
"Well, it seems we've harvested everything we came for, so let's head back."
>"What should we do about that one?"
The cat-like beauty, Baek-ru, pointed at the man twitching in the trash pile.
"We'll capture him and use him as a slave or as material."
>"Then I shall do so."
Baek-ru vanished with a *swoosh* and reappeared beside the homeless man in an instant.
*Squelch.*
An unpleasant sound came from Baek-ru's shadow, and dozens of black hands began to rise from it.
*Shluuurp!*
Dozens of black hands wrapped around the homeless man's body and dragged him into the shadow in a flash.
"Should I store 'that' as well?"
My body flinched as Baek-ru's gaze turned toward me.
*Whoa, whoa, whoa, better stay still.*
Even with the Gag Filter, I had no desire to be dismembered or end up in a monster's belly, so I feigned harmlessness and looked at Baek-ru pitifully.
An expression just like an abandoned kitten!
Baek-ru, who had been looking at Jiso, glanced at my face and froze solid.
*I look so pathetic, are you really going to put me in such a terrible place? Really?*
That was the meaning packed into my gaze.
"He might go crazy if you put him in there. Let's just carry him like this."
>"...I will put him in a safe place."
>"Is that even possible?"
My kitten-eyes strategy failed spectacularly. Tears welled up at the thought of being swallowed by the shadow.
"Yes, I will transport this cu—ahem. This slave safely."
>"Well, if you insist."
Jiso tossed me away lightly, as if it were no big deal.
"Waaah!"
I flew through the air and landed on Baek-ru's shadow.
*Squelch.*
With an ominous sound, I was sucked into the shadow.
"Huh?"
*Squish.*
The first thing I felt was an ecstatically soft and squishy sensation. I reflexively opened my tightly shut eyes to see a pale pink sky.
"Wh-what is this place?"
I immediately started looking around.
"*Neigh.*"
A unicorn with pure white wings was walking around, and squishy-looking animals were rolling about. The ground was as white and soft as a child's imagined clouds.
*B-but I thought Baek-ru's shadow was supposed to be no different from a terrible hell?*
The scenery, which shattered my knowledge of the original story, left me dazed. I staggered to my feet and began to wander through the sparkling pink world.
***
"*Neigh, that's right. This is Baek-ru's world, where she keeps the things she likes.*"
>"I thought it was supposed to be a place like hell..."
>"*Hell? Do you mean the Demon Realm? Well, it's not that such a place doesn't exist. There are two worlds within Baek-ru's shadow. You're probably talking about the other one.*"
The pure white-winged unicorn kindly explained various things.
"*By the way, you're the first human to ever come here.*"
>"The first?"
>"*Yes, Baek-ru loves cute things, but she's not very fond of humans.*"
The unicorn looked at me with its large eyes, as if fascinated. It soon neighed with a laugh and said.
"*I like you because you're pure.*"
>"...What's that supposed to mean?"
>"*Ah, I suppose a young human wouldn't know. We unicorns can—*"
>"No, no, no! Don't say it!"
*Sob.* I clutched my chest and fell to my knees. As much as I appreciated the unicorn's help, my heart ached, and tears streamed down my face.
"*You're very soft-hearted, aren't you?*"
>"Yeah... let's just go with that."
Sniffling, I hugged a round, squishy puppy. It wagged its tail furiously and licked my chin.
At first, I wondered if Baek-ru, that animal abuser, had forcibly fattened these animals up, but I was told this creature was just naturally like this.
While I was healing my soul by sniffing the puppy's savory scent, the pale pink sky cracked open. A pitch-black hand descended from above and snatched my body.
The puppy in my arms fell and rolled over and over until it bumped into the unicorn's leg and stopped. The unicorn looked up at me and said.
"*Farewell, human! Keep your purity safe!*"
>"Gyaah! I didn't want to hear that!"
It would be one thing to laugh it off, thinking, *Of course, I'm in a child's body!* but I was pure in my past life and the one before that, too. I didn't want to be pure; purity was forced upon me.
*Sob...*
While I was crying tears of blood internally, I was pulled out of the shadow. Even outside, the black hand didn't release its grip on me.
As a result, I was left suspended in midair, held by the black hand. It was supporting me from under my bottom, so it wasn't uncomfortable.
*Woooooah!*
>*Gyaaaah!*
>*Kieeeeeeek!*
The moment I was out, I was met with loud cheers, screams, and the cries of monsters. My surroundings were dark, as if it were night. Torches on the walls provided enough light to let me figure out where I was.
*A prison?*
My vision filled with rows upon rows of prison cells. It was too dark to see clearly what was behind the bars, but I could faintly make out human shapes.
*Clang, creeak.*
Following the unpleasant metallic sound, I turned to see a man with a chubby, roly-poly body and a round face opening a nearby cell with an unsettlingly servile smile.
"I've prepared it right here!"
The roly-poly man shoved a lantern inside, revealing a tattered cloth on the cold stone floor. In one corner sat a chamber pot, likely for a toilet, and in another, a chipped sword lay on the ground.
"Hah...!"
I gasped, staring at the person inside the cell. Hair that looked gray as if it had rolled in a dust pit, golden eyes that seemed to lack focus, and a beautiful appearance that couldn't be hidden even in such a filthy environment.
"Iris!"
The original story's protagonist, Iris, was there.
"What? You really know each other?"
Jiso let out a light whistle and grinned. He looked back and forth between me and Iris, then nodded and said.
"Have the separated siblings finally met? How touching."
Jiso muttered, "The product value just went up," and hummed a little tune.
"Put them in together. I'll use them for an event later."
>"Yes! Understood!"
>"Ah, and move their room to a lower floor, not this one. That'll be more fun."
Jiso chuckled, then turned to Baek-ru and said.
"What are you doing? Put him in."
>"...Yes."
Baek-ru was silent for a moment before placing me inside the cell. Then, the roly-poly man waddled over. He brought an iron collar and fastened it around my neck. It was quite heavy, making me stagger.
"Don't close the door. Move them immediately."
>"Yes! Understood!"
The roly-poly man answered with a spirited voice. Jiso stuck his hands in his pockets and strode away. Baek-ru stared at me intently for a moment before following after Jiso.
"Hey, you two. Follow me."