Chapter 8
Chapter 8
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Lord First
>Chapter: 8
>Chapter Title: Residents of a Gag World Are Fine Even When Hurt
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
***
In a typical gag world, getting body-slammed by a large dog or person and collapsing while coughing up blood was perfectly normal. That was why I wasn’t particularly flustered. I simply wiped my mouth and spoke nonchalantly.
“Strong… aren’t you… Must be the meat in the soup, huh? Haha…”
“Is this really the time for jokes?!”
“B-Big brother… d-don’t die… Waaaah!”
Noah, who had approached at some point, wiped my mouth with her sleeve. Nero clung to my waist, tears in his eyes. I waved a hand dismissively.
“It’s fine, this is nothing to worry about—”
“How is this nothing?!”
Noah shouted, her expression firm. I flinched and trembled at her demeanor.
“Uhm… I’ll be fine in a moment. Really, I’m okay.”
“You…”
Noah bit her lip and glared at me. What? What is it? Did I do something terribly wrong?
“Sob, waaaaah…”
“Hey, hey. Your big brother isn’t going to die. I’m really fine!”
Soothing the crying child, I pulled out a cookie wrapped in paper that I had planned to eat on my way up the stairs.
“Here, have something sweet and calm down—”
Whoosh, crunch.
For a moment, I thought it was just the wind, but the cookie in my hand had vanished.
“Huh…?”
When I turned my head, the red-haired girl was munching on the cookie, staring at me.
“Yummy.”
“Uh… that was mine…?”
“Very yummy.”
“Uhm… thank you?”
The girl, half my size, flew toward me and threw her arms around my head. No… she was clinging to it.
“Oof! H-Hey, wait!”
“Person who gives yummy things! My masta!”
“W-What? What monster?”
“My masta!”
Cookie crumbs fell on my head every time the girl spoke. I tried to pull her off, grabbing her by the waist, but she wouldn’t budge. Nero and Noah, who were beside me, also tried to help, but the girl bared her teeth and growled, stopping them in their tracks.
“If you don’t let go, it’ll be hard to prepare lunch later—”
Swoosh!
Before I could even finish my sentence, she let go in an instant.
“Stay here quietly. If you do, I’ll bring you more soup with meat in it later.”
The girl nodded furiously. Animal ears had suddenly popped up on her head. From beneath her long, knee-length skirt, a red tail emerged and began sweeping the floor erratically.
‘She seemed to like the soup last time, but… she’s much more dramatic today.’
A strange sense of pride made me chuckle as I left the prison.
Clank.
I locked the door and spoke to the children inside.
“You never know what might happen, so don’t leave this prison under any circumstances. If you hear a loud noise, hide in a corner, got it? I’ll try to hold them off as best I can…”
My voice trailed off at the end as I remembered Rania, who had been knocked out cold. She’d collapsed after being hit by the celestial body that had been floating near the ceiling, but she had to be awake by now.
The children’s faces hardened as they saw his clouded expression, worried about Rania, but Rian didn’t notice.
‘Maybe she’ll calm down if I bake her more cookies? No, she’d probably pounce on me before I could even start.’
With that thought, I headed up the stairs.
Creeak.
I carefully opened the door leading out of the underground prison and peered outside. Thankfully, Rania was nowhere in sight.
“Did she go back?”
“Did who go back?”
“Gah!”
A voice whispered right next to my ear. I kicked the door and rolled forward.
“You’re a good little escape artist, aren’t you?”
“W-Well…”
“Hmph, you ran from me only to come here? Why? Got something good hidden away?”
Rania said, peering down the stairs that led to the basement. Odil’s place wasn’t very large, so the staircase was quite short. If you craned your neck just right, you could even see the underground prison. I scrambled to my feet and pushed Rania away.
“There’s nothing, nothing at all!”
“You were so scared you ran for your life just a moment ago. Is there something down there you want to protect that badly?”
I didn’t answer her, instead slamming the open door shut.
“The only things in the basement are Master Odil’s test subjects. Since Master Odil is away, a riot could break out at any moment, so I’m just being cautious!”
I spun a plausible excuse, trying my best to keep her from getting interested in the children.
“Even with me here?”
“Are you planning on staying here forever?”
“No.”
Rania shrugged. I replied as if to say, ‘See?’
“I don’t know when Master Odil will be back, but until he returns, it’s best not to provoke the test subjects, right?”
“You have test subjects interesting enough to warrant such caution?”
“No, it’s not that, but…”
I rubbed the back of my neck.
“Even if they’re just ordinary test subjects… there aren’t many I can handle on my own.”
“Hmm, true.”
She looked me up and down and nodded. Although the only ones in the prison were young children, test subjects typically ranged from adults to kids. So, she easily believed that someone who looked to be about thirteen, like me, couldn’t possibly stop them.
“But… I don’t think that Odil fellow is coming back…”
“What? Why do you say that?”
“I can tell because we’re both black mages. None of the things a black mage would normally keep in their lab are here.”
“D-Does that mean…”
“It means you’ve all been abandoned here! Haha! You’ll all be dragged away by slave traders soon enough!”
She laughed, “Kyahahaha!” as if it were the most amusing spectacle, even wiping away a tear. I clutched my head, fell to my knees, and slammed my forehead against the floor.
“N-No way!”
As I lay there, limp with despair, a shadow fell over me. I looked up with teary eyes to see Rania squatting in front of me, twirling a lock of my hair that had fallen beside my ear.
“If you’re scared, want to come with me? I’ll treat you well.”
“Eek!”
It would have been one thing if I didn’t know who she was, but this was Rania—the one among the Four Heavenly Kings who could only be described as a complete lunatic. She was acting this way now because she was interested in me, but if I displeased her in the slightest, my limbs would be torn to shreds.
‘And putting it all back together is such a pain!’
If my shattered body were to squirm back together and reappear perfectly fine with a ‘Ta-da!’, she would surely find it even more fascinating and use me as her personal punching bag. The mere thought made my stomach churn.
“N-No, thank you. I am Master Odil’s faithful servant, so…”
“The way you say that makes you even more interesting.”
A dark shadow fell over her face.
Thump! She grabbed my shoulders and brought her face close.
“What, exactly, does, Odil, have, that I, don’t?”
“Hic?!”
Just as I flinched and froze, rigid with fear…
Knock, knock.
A heavy knock echoed from the main door. I burst into a waterfall of tears, my face lighting up with a hopeful smile. I was saved.
Creeak.
The door, which should have been sealed shut by Odil’s magic, opened with ease. As I watched, tears streaming down my face, I thought to myself…
‘He really did run away… Odil… And after I fed him all that delicious food…’
As I stewed in my sense of betrayal, a woman with a navy-blue bob cut stepped inside. The first thing I noticed was the corset cinching her waist just below her bust.
It didn’t look like the tightly laced corsets of noble ladies from the movies, but rather a piece of clothing designed to accentuate her waistline. My gaze wasn’t exactly on the corset itself, but on the magnificent chest it emphasized.
‘Wow…’
“Wow…”
I was so captivated by the beautiful and shocking sight that I completely spaced out. My eyes then traveled down to her lower half. The pants connected to the corset made her long legs look even longer and more slender. While I was busy murmuring in awe, Rania wore a sullen expression, as if she had just run into something annoying.
“Ugh.”
As Rania stood up, she let go of me, and I fell to the floor with a thud. She walked past me and stood before the newcomer.
“Mia, what are you doing here?”
“Haaah… Isn’t that what I should be asking you, Master?”
Mia pushed up her large, round glasses, which covered half her face, with the tip of her index finger and frowned. The thin, silver frames glinted in the light.
“Master, you are one of the Four Heavenly Kings. If you abandon your post so carelessly—”
“Ah, I don’t care, I don’t care! I only listen to the Demon King!”
“Haaah…”
She sighed and tapped the floor with the wooden staff she held in one hand. The staff was easily as tall as me, shaped like fiercely grown branches cradling a round orb. The orb pulsed with a dark red light, humming ominously. It looked sinister, to say the least.
“When do you intend to return?”
“Mmm, well, the guy I was supposed to meet today ran away, so—”
“Then you can simply return now.”
“But that’s where things get tricky, you see?”
Rania pointed at me with her thumb.
“This one has nowhere to go.”
“…?”
The thought ‘What on earth is the problem?’ floated plainly across Mia’s face. A moment later, she let out a short “Ah” of understanding and raised her staff.
“You mean I should take care of him, right?”
A sinister, dark red flame ignited at the tip of her staff.