Off It Comes
Off It Comes
...Someplace underground, dark and damp.
There, more than ten people sat gathered around a round table.
"...Ugh, look how dark it is. No, seriously—nobody turned a light on until this many people showed up? Are you people out of your minds?"
Click—
Correction.
Someplace underground, enormously bright and slightly damp.
There, more than ten people sat gathered.
"Gyaaah! My eyes!"
"The problem in the first place is that someone bought a luminous stone with an excessively strong output. Even if I wanted to turn it on, the light's too intense to use—tch..."
"The real mistake was making a base underground anyway! Goddamn, what're you gonna do about this humidity? A light this strong is the bare minimum to at least get rid of the musty smell!"
"Do not make excuses, Livia. Were you not the one who bought that defective luminous stone because you like shiny things? You stupid firebug..."
"Yeah, yeah~ Still better than useless Sepir, who could not even bring back one Manifestor~"
"...What did you say?"
On the surface they might've looked a bit shabby, but they were figures you absolutely couldn't dismiss.
Because they were all executives of the Lemegeton Cult.
On top of that, most of them were high-ranking individuals at the Branch Leader level or higher. Normally so busy they had no free time, today they had gathered for a meeting.
And so, as Sepir and the one called Livia were butting heads, another figure stepped in and reined them in. This one was addressed as the Fourth Branch Leader.
"Enough squabbling; let's just start the meeting. So, was the individual you met in the forest the one we'd expected?"
"Indeed. When I explained things from the front, he readily admitted it. Though his personality was a little unexpected..."
Sepir briefly recalled the time she had met him.
Exceedingly striking looks and, in total contrast, a manner of speech so rough there was no equal.
The mere fact that he was a man was remarkable in itself, and combined with his peculiar air, it had left quite the impression.
"Fascinating. I'd anticipated he might not be in the city, but to think he was living in that dangerous forest."
"Exactly. That alone already proves his ability. He'll surely be of help."
"Then why didn't you recruit him?"
"Well, because he refused so adamantly..."
Sepir trailed off.
She couldn't quite bring herself to say the reason was "I didn't want to get devoured by Seere." That was far too crass.
And that's when it happened.
Livia, who'd been quietly listening the entire time, piped up with a great big grin.
"That's because Sepir is terminally no-fun~ Who's gonna follow a cold fish of a woman's recruitment pitch?"
"Shut your mouth, Livia...!"
It was a fairly common occurrence. There were a great many executives with especially strong personalities.
When strong personalities gather, they're bound to clash.
Still, the meeting did proceed.
The topic, naturally, was the recruitment of Yor.
He had already refused once, of course, but that didn't mean they could simply give up.
To them, Manifestors were precious, and a Manifestor who'd grown all the way to adulthood was rarer still.
On top of that, he was supposedly even highly capable, so recruiting him was unquestionably the right play.
Truly a great many opinions came out during the meeting.
The moderate faction, like Sepir, advocated coaxing him into voluntarily joining.
The hardline faction argued they should force him into the order and let him adjust gradually afterward.
And among them was even an ultra-hardline faction who declared they should just use him as a sacrifice if he wouldn't listen.
The discussion had been running on parallel tracks when it was brought to a close, at least for the moment, by one woman's assertion.
"Then, I'll go see him next time."
The woman's position was a mere "Team Leader."
Considering that most of the figures here held considerably high offices, her speaking so casually was absurd.
Yet nobody present took issue with it.
"If someone who's another of his kind goes to see him, he'll be a bit more trusting, won't he."
Because she was a Manifestor, treated as a person of great importance even within the cult.
Those closest to the demons they worshipped, so few in number because of the world's persecution.
And perhaps because of that, no one really raised an objection to her words.
"Certainly... if you're a fellow Manifestor, persuasion would indeed be easier."
"Mm, acknowledged. Acknowledged."
And so the person who would visit next was confirmed to be her.
*
A few days passed after that weird fucking branch-leader woman had come calling.
During that time, surprisingly enough... I didn't do much of anything special.
Didn't move my hideout, didn't hardcore prep to leave.
I did burn down one more goblin house to beef up the alert perimeter, but that was about it.
I didn't raise all kinds of hell like back when Im Ha-neul caught me.
Because the situation was a little different from back then.
Back then, it'd been a situation where it wouldn't have been strange for the Knight Order to come charging in at any moment. If Ha-neul had opened her mouth, the Order would've been mustered.
But now, even though a few more people knew about me, there was no worry of the Order charging in.
Since that branch leader woman had said what Lemegeton wanted wasn't subjugation but recruitment.
Of course, I couldn't take the words of cult nutjobs like that at face value...
'I'll have to watch and see at least once.'
She'd said they'd come again next week, so for now I intended to wait and see until then.
And to be honest... I didn't want to go into the Deep Layer.
All the infrastructure I'd built up over years was right here, so why would I go and start all over from zero?
Whether a cave as large and deep as this one even existed in there was uncertain, and whether I could keep my life intact in there was just as uncertain.
In the first place, the goddamn Mountain Lord roams around in there.
'As long as the Knight Order doesn't come charging in, I hold out.'
Thus, that was my current thinking.
Unless my actual life becomes a candle flickering in the wind, I hold out like a stubborn fool.
If it isn't the Empire's knights and priests, honestly, the bastards inside the Deep Layer seemed more dangerous.
Time passed like that.
To say I wasn't anxious would be a lie. It was a quietly nerve-wracking week.
And so on the day of the appointment, a cultist finally came searching through the forest.
"Hey, where are you! Get over here, now!!!"
In a fairly aggressive manner. A woman's voice resounded, booming throughout the entire forest.
"This fucking lunatic..."
I muttered a curse and hurried toward where the sound had come from.
At that rate, she was going to draw in not just people but monsters too.
When I arrived at the spot where she'd hollered, I could see one woman standing there.
A blonde woman with something of a fierce air about her.
Just as the branch leader called Sepir had mentioned, a different person had come this time, it seemed.
"Oh."
The moment we met, a short sound of admiration escaped her lips.
"Just as well, there's a reason Sepir was impressed. I'd only known you were a man, hadn't expected this degree."
"No, I said I'm not joining, so why the hell did you come again."
"Because I can't find those words acceptable."
Was she rejecting my rejection?
"First, allow me to introduce myself. I'm called Nikki Tanesia."
Hearing that, my eyes widened briefly. Because she'd tacked a family name onto her given name.
And in this world, a name with a family name tacked on generally meant nobility.
So a question surfaced in my head.
'Then what, exactly?'
Did this mean she was a noble?
And that despite being a noble, she had deliberately joined a criminal outfit called Lemegeton?
For a moment, I wondered why she had thrown away even her status to make that choice.
"And..."
Fortunately, that curiosity didn't last very long.
Because the bastard suddenly stripped off her top right in front of me.
"!"
At that audacious act, I could only stare at her with wide eyes.
Flump.
The instant the thin short-sleeved shirt was pulled off, her curvaceous lines were revealed.
A cute white brassiere entered my field of view.
...A little sadly, her chest was on the small side.
You'd think stripping your top off in front of someone would be at least a little embarrassing, but her face was utterly serene.
Come to think of it, this is the reversed world, so baring your upper body—if you had the guts, it wasn't really that weird.
After I'd been staring at her for a moment, she pointed at her right flank and spoke.
"Here, you see the sigil? I'm a Manifestor, same as you."
Only then could I be sure of what was on her flank. Unlike mine, it was a tattoo of five dark-red claw marks.
Seeing that, I could understand why she had joined Lemegeton.
'I see...'
She'd been driven out. Because people like us, Manifestors, there's nowhere we can go.
The only place that takes us in is Lemegeton, so that's where she went—that's all.
Thinking that, I felt a fleeting pang of pity for her.
"I don't know what you think of this place, but it's not as bad as you'd imagine. Here, being a Manifestor is actually an asset. Everyone looks up to me, treats me like royalty."
"..."
It was true. It wouldn't be a bad choice.
In the end, I was a human who couldn't live normally, and I always yearned for someone to talk to.
Granted, they served a demon, but for Manifestors already ostracized from civilization, it was a perfectly rational decision.
But, why. I wonder why.
"...Sorry, but I'll pass."
A sense of aversion welled up inside me.
"...Why?"
At my answer, she cocked her head. As if put off by the refusal, her expression abruptly contorted into a scowl.
"I truly cannot comprehend this. What's so good about this forest that you'd stay? Is there something nice here? Or do you have some lingering attachment?"
I couldn't help but be taken aback for a second. I hadn't expected her to fly off the handle just from one refusal.
How should I explain this... I spent a moment choosing my words to explain to her the reason for my refusal.
And that's when it happened.
Rustle—
Along with that sound, a human form burst out from the underbrush to the side.
And that bastard was, astonishingly, a human being I knew.
One person who, of late, had been visiting my forest with peculiar frequency.
"Uh... Yor?"
In other words, it was Yoo Chae-rin.