Misaligned Bonds, The Truth (5)
Meanwhile, before Enut discovered Adel.
The warehouse I returned to, trusting Professor Enut.
Haha. I was truly sick of this.
From the fact that I was growing used to this very moment, all the way to the horribly familiar sight of the warehouse itself—the fact that every last bit of it was becoming familiar.
How many retries was this now…?
Even counting the numbers was starting to feel exhausting.
Professor Enu was handling things well, right?
All I could do was believe and keep repeating.
At first I had tried every means I could think of—scrolls and more—to beat the hitman, but I failed. Eight attempts where I charged in, buoyed by the confidence of raised stats, certain I could win.
"Your combat sense is lacking. No experience, is it?"
No matter what I threw at him, I couldn't even scratch the man, let alone graze his clothes. That reality forced me to accept the truth.
…Yeah.
I couldn't beat that hitman.
That was reality. That was fact.
An ordinary modern person like me didn't become a veteran warrior just because I was holding a gun and a few bombs.
So I would try to endure, at least.
I threw up barriers, hurled bombs to buy time, laid traps to lure him, sprayed pistol fire. I tried everything I could to run from the fear of death and pain.
Ah.
…In the end, that too had been the wrong call.
Even in the loop where I lasted the longest against the hitman, how many minutes had it been? No matter how many times I screamed Professor Enu! inside my head, reinforcements never came.
Instead, the more loops I ran, the more chances I got to learn just how cruel that man was.
Dying with blood pouring from bullet wounds was ordinary. Having my limbs or neck severed by his blade wasn't once or twice either.
As those deaths made clear, the hitman was a cruelly strong man.
Ah.
Only then did I understand.
I was powerless after all. There was nothing I could do.
At least the debuff was gone, so I no longer had to thrash about going mad from pain. That was a mercy. If the old, mind-breaking agony had returned, I might really have given up everything and lost my mind.
Well…
That didn't mean death was easy. The mental strain was still brutal. Watching this world shatter into kaleidoscope fragments, I sometimes wondered if I had already gone completely insane.
Novena, Hino, Adel…
Ah—was Adel my name?
Professor Enut too.
I wanted to see everyone again.
In terms of time, roughly a month had passed, hadn't it? Letting this drag on any longer wouldn't do me any good.
Then maybe…
I should try something I hadn't attempted at all?
With that thought, on the third try—though it was a little disgusting—I decided to use my body to seduce him. The moment he actually tried to lay hands on me, I could just load the save in the worst case.
"P-please save me!"
"…How did you notice?"
Thirty-sixth attempt.
The instant I reached the warehouse I tore a defense scroll and launched into negotiations at the top of my voice.
"If you just spare me, I'll do anything. Please…"
"Anything?"
"E-even if you want my body…!"
Haha. Looking back, it really was the worst move imaginable.
"…Ha. Vulgar."
At first the hitman revealed himself and looked me over, so I thought, Did it finally work?
But…
"Did you actually think I'd want that scrawny little body of yours? You damn female brat."
"…F-female?!"
"Shut up! I like breasts so huge they spill over when I cup them with both hands!"
Hmm. The hitman's tastes were rock-solid. Solid enough that he almost seemed mentally unhinged.
Maybe that was why.
Unlike the emotionless, duty-bound killings of before, he now showed real anger and chose far crueler methods. That time I had to watch my own collapsing torso while my severed head dangled from his grip by the hair.
In the fading haze of consciousness, I wondered if the old saying was true—that hearing is the last sense to die. I had to die listening to his skin-crawling words: Judge your own body for yourself.
As expected of me. As expected.
Even then, no reinforcements arrived.
…It hurt.
But my body was still beautiful.
Ah, how convenient would it have been if the heroines were all just lesbians and fell for me at first sight? My chest is a bit small, sure, but honestly my figure is slim without an ounce of fat, and these soft lines are something even other women would envy. Then I wouldn't have to suffer like this, and everyone would join forces for my sake so the world wouldn't have to end. Was possessing this body really something to get this screwed over for? Aha—maybe even the gods are jealous of me.
"Stop…!"
"It can't be helped."
"Please, just—stop it already…!!!"
"You should have been more careful with your actions."
—Slash, bang, bang, slash, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
I was still alive. Why did the gunshots and the sound of my flesh splitting keep coming without end?
Maybe I had fallen into hell.
As much as my body hurt, my heart and my mind hurt too.
My will drained little by little through a tiny hole of despair, like sand in an hourglass. That will was light, sticky, and red.
"Professor, I really like you."
"…Miss Adel? What's this all of a sudden?"
—Bang!
As if that auditory hallucination, that illusion, wanted me dead, I once listlessly drew the pistol and blew my own head off.
Amusingly, it wasn't all that painful. Just noisy from the ringing in my brain. Unlike the hitman's bullets that tore through organs and spread, this one went straight through in a clean line.
That clean death…
Was, rather, truly comfortable.
Professor Enut screaming and rushing toward me. Even the students who had been nothing but hostile couldn't hide their shock. It looked almost like a comedy.
"Adel!!!"
Ah. Only then did I understand.
This was it. This was the answer.
Why had I been treating each death as a single isolated attempt? I really was an idiot. If I linked the deaths together, I could build one complete answer, right?
From then on I tried a different method.
"Before I die, let me ask just one thing."
The hitman always spoke a few words before killing me. He seemed to enjoy spilling whatever was inside him like a chatterbox, certain I was about to die for good.
My guess wasn't wrong.
"What's your name?"
"Where are you from?"
"Who sent you?"
"What's the goal?"
One death, one piece of knowledge.
It was a fair trade.
Fragments of information I never could have learned otherwise. I gathered them one by one until I assembled a single perfect picture.
Unlike the earlier futile deaths, the hundred-odd attempts up to this point had been successful.
"Want to make a deal?"
"You had good instincts, but you're going to die here—"
"I'll be more useful to you than Burgeng."
"…."
The man who had coldly rejected every previous attempt at conversation finally showed he was willing to talk.
"Three minutes. Exactly three. Try to persuade me."
"Piret Yuntoa. Hunting dog of the Yuntoa family."
"…Say that name one more time."
Uh-oh.
Was "hunting dog" something I wasn't supposed to say?
At the sharp question that came back, I reflexively drew my legs in.
Ugh.
It felt humiliating, like I'd turned into a coward, but the deaths carved into my soul weren't easy to forget.
Fortunately he seemed uninterested in that reaction. He simply kept fixing me with a sharp gaze, as if telling me to answer properly.
"Piret Yuntoa. That's your name, right?"
Just in case, I left out the hunting-dog part this time.
A strangely uncomfortable reaction came back. From the moment he heard his own name, he looked at me the way one might look at a curious animal, plus an expression so subtle I couldn't put it into words.
Was he surprised that I knew his name?
"…Piret. Piret. Right. That's my nickname."
But for someone supposedly surprised, he stayed calm. He wasn't wary or afraid of me—if anything, his eyes were sparkling with interest.
Had he given me a fake name?
At this rate I should just rewind and get the real one again…
"There's enough value in talking. Since you found my name, you must already know what kind of situation I'm in."
"Of course. That's why I asked for a deal."
Phew.
Fortunately it seemed the information wasn't wrong. His odd reaction still bothered me, but the desire to end this nightmare as fast as possible was stronger.
I never wanted to see this warehouse again—the one that had been soaked thick with my blood, flesh, and organs, and Professor Enut's too.
I really wanted everything finished now.
So, drawing on everything I had learned from him, I offered the kind of reward he might actually want.
"You're bound to the Yuntoa family, playing hunting dog. Don't you want freedom?"
"I do. But you don't have the power to beat the Yuntoa family. A commoner who can't even beat me."
Wow. Seriously.
This world was packed with everything from red communists to fascists, so why did every single person I met look down on me for being a commoner?
A sudden urge for revolution flared up, but I didn't feel like dying again, so I kept talking as if I were perfectly calm.
"Once you hear the information I have, that attitude will change. You came on Burgeng's orders, didn't you? If it gets out that you tampered with the launcher, not only Burgeng but you as well will have to answer for this."
"If I kill you, it won't get out."
A thought typical of a hitman who only ever thought about murder. And he wasn't wrong. As a mere commoner without any backing, the influence I could wield in this world had hard limits. At best I could show up as a witness at his trial.
But.
If it meant escaping this cycle right now, I was ready to make any reckless promise he wanted.
"So I'm offering a way for only Burgeng to die while you live and walk free. Simple. Save me—a 'student'—and help with the cleanup operation. In return, come over to the Academy. If you become a witness to the incident, the other factions will gladly help you."
"Are you planning to topple the Bellaros Kingdom or something?"
At least until a few more episodes passed, the Academy wasn't going to fall. In the middle of that delicate power balance, if Piret appeared holding the weakness of the Yuntoa family—one of the kingdom's major houses—
"Wouldn't that depend on your choice?"
—a massive upheaval would follow. Depending on what Piret did, the kingdom could be publicly cornered and collapse, a prestigious house could vanish, or nothing at all might happen.
"What I can give you is that 'opportunity.' Everything after that is up to you."
"What I get seems too little."
"Of course that's not all! I can also give you the right 'advice' when you need it. For example…"
Now was the moment to finish this drawn-out negotiation.
"A way to save your 'little sister,' maybe?"
—Bang!
The instant the word "little sister" left my mouth, Piret fired a shot into the ceiling. His face twisted into an expression of rage I had never seen before, as if the god of death itself had descended.
"Witch."
He poured a low warning at me.
"I accept this proposal because I was told that meeting you is a set 'fate.' So… if you fail to save my sister, if you break the promise, don't even think about dying cleanly. I'll make sure you die feeling every pain this world has to offer."
Oh my.
Not a crazy beast-man—just a beast, plain and simple.
The killing intent—or mana, or whatever it was—he poured toward me made my trembling legs finally give out. I collapsed right where I stood.
But even sitting there looking pathetic and shaking, I couldn't hide the joy.
It was finally over.
This horrible cycle.
"I promise. My life is expensive, you know."
I didn't understand the talk about witches and fate, but I could ask later—once we were closer, or when the situation favored me.
"So, when does that support you mentioned arrive?"
"Ah."
Come to think of it, I hadn't planned for that…
I had intended to stage a convincing fight and then wait, but if Professor Enut didn't show up the way I expected, the whole plan would fall apart.
"F-for now, please injure me moderately first."
"Understood."
—Slash!
Without a second's hesitation, Piret swung his blade and cut my skin. He didn't seem interested in seriously wounding me either; even though the cut was real, blood didn't gush the way it had in earlier loops.
But…
"Aagh! Th-that hurts!!"
"You got cut by a sword. Of course it hurts."
"Be a little gentler!"
"Does cutting gently hurt less? New knowledge."
Every time the blade parted skin I clenched my teeth so hard my gums tore and blood welled up. Ugh—I felt like I was going to throw up.
I had thought a hundred deaths would have made me used to pain. Instead my stomach churned, tears and snot poured out, and I finally realized this level of agony wasn't normal.
Belatedly I came to my senses and checked the status window.
At some point a full hour had passed since the last painkiller. The withdrawal symptoms had returned.
No wonder it hurt enough to make me swear.
Haa.
If he still hadn't come after a whole hour, Professor Enut must have failed to find the insider. Something had gone wrong.
F-for now I needed to kill the pain. Hurting this badly while bleeding made my sharp thoughts turn foggy.
"Th-that barrel over there—can you open underneath it a little?"
"Understood."
Using Piret, I retrieved the unidentified drugs I had found earlier. The same heavy, thick powder.
"Is it sugar?"
"No. You stay away from this."
Just remembering the ecstasy I'd felt when I first tasted it made my skin tremble all over.
"Haa…"
An excited breath slipped out on its own.
At least, because I kept rewinding the save, I didn't seem to suffer the mental side of withdrawal. Ordinary people like Piret who touched drugs only had bad endings waiting. And remembering that the heroines had drug endings of their own, I absolutely, absolutely, absolutely could not let them discover this stuff existed.
Hmph. Things that can't even turn back time, trying to mess with drugs?
Anyway! Right now nothing else came close. It stopped the withdrawal, killed the pain, tasted good, and felt good—an item with literally nothing to throw away.
So I took a little of the drug and waited with no guarantee that Professor Enut would ever appear, trading shallow, meaningless conversation with Piret.
"…No one is coming. Was it a lie?"
And just like that, heavily high on the drug, my head was pierced by Piret's bullet—
and I was killed again.
Haa…
How many more rewinds would it take this time to succeed?
Professor Enu… when are you coming?