The Fraudulent Protagonist Became an Object of Fear (2)
The next morning.
"Morning, supporting character! Time to wake up~"
Joyeon slowly came to his senses at the voice calling him awake so early. When he saw that the one waking him wasn't May or Tiasia but Arti, he tugged at his cheeks, wondering if he was still dreaming.
"I said get up. You're already awake, aren't you?"
"This isn't a dream? There's no way Arti would wake up before me."
"What's with that look? I can wake up early too! Well, not so much waking up early as not sleeping at all."
"What? You didn't sleep?"
"Yeah. When I'm working on a piece, I barely sleep. I was just taking a short break when I realized it was already morning, so I came to wake you. Aren't I nice?"
"......"
****
Thanks to Arti, Joyeon woke up earlier than usual. After a quick wash, he headed to the emergency room with her.
"I think I figured out why you're such a heavy sleeper."
"Don't say something stupid. It's not like sleep can be saved up. I just don't feel the fatigue when I'm focused on my work. Once this is done, I might sleep for several days straight."
"How long will it take?"
"Hmm~ Probably more than a month?"
"So you're saying you'll go without sleep for a month and then sleep through the entire next month?"
"I told you, sleep doesn't accumulate like that. And there's no way I could stay awake for a whole month anyway."
Still a little drowsy, Joyeon was exchanging silly remarks with Arti when he noticed an unfamiliar black object in her hand.
"What's that you're holding?"
"Hm? This? It's yours. Your Nuclear Mana Reactor."
"That? It looks completely different."
"It is yours, I just shaved it down a bit."
"That's more than a bit."
Joyeon's once fist-sized mana reactor was now riddled with holes, its original shape barely recognizable.
"I only decided on the overall frame. I haven't touched the details yet. Still don't trust my skills?"
"You call this 'touching it appropriately'? There's almost nothing left of what I remember."
"It's fine, it's fine~ You're really lucky, Joyeon. My works are never something ordinary people can obta— Ah..! Don't worry, I won't use the command authority!"
"From the way you talk, it sounds like something command authority couldn't even begin to repay."
"It's really not that big a deal!...... Th-though if you still want to repay me somehow, for the r-rest of your life—"
"What on earth are you saying?!"
A sudden shout echoed from inside the emergency room. Startled, Joyeon and Arti recognized the voice as Sosia's and rushed inside.
An odd atmosphere filled the emergency room. Until moments ago, everyone had been receiving treatment as usual, but at Sosia's voice, they all stopped and stared at her.
In front of Sosia stood a man who looked like a modern human, sweating nervously with a flustered expression.
"N-Nurse. I was just telling you the facts. So please calm down."
"Do I look like I can calm down right now?! Where on earth did you hear that nonsense?!"
"It's not from anywhere specific. It's already spreading widely among the people."
"Then who started it!"
Sosia glared at the man, her usual composure completely gone as if she were truly furious. Of course, it wasn't an act.
"Is there a problem?"
When Joyeon approached and spoke, Sosia finally noticed him and looked momentarily flustered before insisting it was nothing and trying to leave the emergency room with the man she'd been talking to.
"Wait a second, Mom. What happened?"
"Stay inside. It's really nothing, so listen to your mother."
Sosia gave Joyeon an order without any intention of listening to him and walked out of the emergency room.
Joyeon watched her leave for a moment, then pouted as he obediently followed her words and headed toward his usual corner seat in the emergency room.
"Her expression really looked like the one she makes when talking about Joyeon, didn't it?"
"I knew it."
However, Arti's sharp intuition and Joyeon's thoughtless remark instantly blew away his intention to obey Sosia.
"If it's about me, I should obviously hear it myself, right? Should I follow them secretly?"
"Secretly? Is that okay? You'll get scolded later."
"Hmm~ I don't really like that idea either."
While Joyeon was pondering what to do, Tiasia approached him from inside the emergency room.
"Welcome, Master. You're up earlier than usual. I was planning to go wake you."
"Oh, it just turned out that way. Lara, did anything happen here before I arrived? Mom left with a pretty serious look on her face."
"I heard Madam raising her voice as well, but I don't know the details of the conversation... Why don't you ask House?"
"Ah, right. That would work. House, are you there?"
Click.
At Joyeon's call, a baby roach jumped out from Tiasia's shoulder as if it had been waiting.
"Do you know what Mom was talking about?"
- Affirmative.
"Oh, really? What was she talking about?"
- Reporting. Explaining the situation from ten minutes ago.
****
Emergency room corridor.
Having calmed down somewhat after moving locations, Sosia looked at the man and asked again.
"Tell me one more time. What exactly did you say happened to Joyeon?"
"It's not that something happened to him... P-People are afraid of your son, Nurse."
"So I'm asking why on earth people are afraid of Joyeon."
"Don't you already know? What happened at the cafeteria that day. Quite a few people nearly died because of that man there."
Sosia found the man's words absurd.
"Nearly died? We didn't just nearly die back then — our lives were about to end for real. You were about to be killed by a warg troll, and your daughter was about to be dragged away by bandits and raped. My son is the one who saved you from that fate. And now you're calling him a monster or a grim reaper? That's complete nonsense!"
"W-Well, it can't be helped, Nurse. We know a warg troll attacked the hospital, but almost no one actually saw it. What we saw was your son knocking everyone down with strange words and brutally killing people, and controlling that monster as he pleased."
The man's words weren't wrong. Very few people had witnessed the entire incident that day. The only ones who saw Joyeon annihilate over three hundred warg trolls were the small number of watchmen at the Neutral Saint's hospital and a few combat-capable adventurers who had been forcibly dragged out, along with those who had been taken along.
Of course, even fewer people had directly suffered from Joyeon's forbidden book recitation at the cafeteria, and everyone else had only heard about the dangerous situation through rumors.
However, the unbelievable rumors from those who claimed to have seen one person annihilate over three hundred monsters, combined with the fear-filled accounts from people who had seen the notification saying they would truly die if they heard Joyeon's words, spread at completely different speeds and with different levels of credibility.
Sosia could understand why they were saying such things, but understanding was all she could do.
She spoke in defense of her son.
"It couldn't be helped. That was the only thing Joyeon could do at the time. The bandits holding us hostage were about to make their move — how could he have taken the time to explain things to you? And even after everything was sorted out, Joyeon was quite busy."
"Then it's inevitable that people would think this way. Most people don't even know there were bandits in the cafeteria to begin with. The rumors have become extremely distorted. No one knows what the truth is. Some people don't even believe monsters attacked the hospital, and others think he killed people simply because they were annoying and wouldn't listen to him."
"Those idiots...!"
"And... there are also people who say they saw your son kill a man who couldn't resist at all, right in front of everyone."
"...What? What are you talking about now?"
"You didn't know? After the battle with the warg trolls ended that day, he killed a man who was still alive in the cafeteria."
"......"
At the man's words, Sosia couldn't close her mouth, her face filled with shock.
...He had put on that act.
'He definitely went back to the cafeteria to clean up the bandits who had left Arti and me alone and died. Was there someone who hadn't died back then? If so, killing him was a reasonable decision. Considering Joyeon's abilities and what might happen later, there was no reason to leave people like that alive... The Joyeon from back then probably thought the same as me. But it's not good. That's not something an ordinary person would do.'
Joyeon's act of openly killing Delpiari in front of everyone was something even the non-acting Sosia might have done. Joyeon, who had single-handedly protected the lives of powerless civilians and patients, was being called not a hero who saved the hospital, but a mad murderer who killed people on a whim.
****
'Don't make me laugh. Worthless trash...! I went to the trouble of saving them, and this is what they say? Saying such nonsense about my Joyeon...!'
The more she thought about it, the more her calmed emotions began to boil again. It was absurd no matter how she looked at it.
'Instead of thanking him, they're whispering behind his back and slandering him when he's not even there.'
Sosia had never cared about others, but today, it wasn't indifference but extreme disgust that rose within her.
...However, that didn't mean there was anything special she could do. She was someone playing the role of the hospital's saint. She couldn't openly express what she was thinking.
Feeling irritated that the only thing she could do for her son was get angry, Sosia nevertheless came up with her own solution.
"Gather everyone. I absolutely won't let this matter slide. Joyeon clearly saved everyone in this hospital. At the very least, I'll correct these wrong ideas and rumors—"
"Perfect timing. I was planning to leave anyway."
Sosia stopped speaking at the familiar voice coming from behind. When she turned around, she saw Joyeon walking toward her with Arti and Tiasia in tow.
Sosia bit her lip as she looked at her poor son, who was being called a murderer.
"...I told you to stay inside."
"It's my story. How can you talk about it without the person involved?"
"It's not something you need to know. And what did you just say? You're leaving?"
"Exactly what I said. I'm going to leave the hospital. I never planned to stay here forever anyway."
"...What?"
Sosia couldn't close her mouth again, this time at words she had never even imagined.