Chapter 114: A Mysterious Vegetable
No, I’m not joking – I really laughed myself to exhaustion and passed out.
When I opened my eyes again, it was midday. The first things I greeted were the distinctive wooden smell and the finely grained wooden ceiling of a wooden building.
I mumbled instinctively, “… This ceiling is unfamiliar.”
Looks like even this overused line eventually came out. If I survive a little longer in this alternative world, I’ll probably check off most of the famous one-liners bucket list.
While entertaining such thoughts in my head, I turned my head to look around—and found plenty of familiar faces.
“Are these my acquaintances from the alternative world?”
Seop Baek. Ruci. Gena and Zenon. Adrang. And… Seseona. They’d dragged chairs over and formed a circle around me. Their sharp gazes pierced me as if trying to see through to my soul.
All this attention is embarrassing. I forced a smile as I glanced around the room.
“Where are we…?”
“The Promised Haven. You’ve eventually ended up here for the night, it seems. Tsk.”
Luci replied before I even finished speaking.
Luci’s expression as she looked at me was complex, but not entirely negative. If I had to describe it, it was tinged with pride—something like it.
“You freaky guardian. How did kissing me 88 times make you feel so good that you had to die and do it?”
“… Hah. Consider yourself lucky that that’s all that happened.”
“Well, regardless, you somehow didn’t go insane and survived. Hard work, adventurer.”
“What’s gotten into you? You saying things like that?”
I chuckled lightly at Luci’s teasing remarks.
She chuckled softly for a moment along with me, but then quickly turned her head away, adopting a nonchalant voice.
“Anyway! Er… I’ve decided to forget everything that happened last night. So you should too!”
“Last night?”
I tilted my head in confusion. Did anything happen last night between me and Luci?
Surely, it wasn’t just the kiss that made her act this awkward. The only meaningful thing that occurred between us, as far as I remember, was our conversation right before my death in the previous life…
Could it be that my line, ‘Struggle till the end; I’ll watch over you until the end,’ has embarrassed her now?
‘Ah. Well, anyone can understand how that might feel.’
Everyone has moments in their history they’d rather hide from. I understand this well, having experienced my own stormy years. Of course, in my case, I was cured quickly when I got beaten up like a dog at my father’s hand.
Humility embraced, I nodded agreeably.
“Alright… Even though I don’t know exactly what you mean… I’ll forget it too.”
“Y-yeah… that’s fine.”
Luci nodded confidently and averted her gaze.
She hesitated for a moment, as if there was something else to say but she couldn’t bring herself to utter the words.
“Hm? Is there something more?”
“No… it’s just… um…”
It was rare to see Luci filtering her words. My attention focused on her.
After hesitating and looking at me for a moment, Luci suddenly blushed.
“Well… u-um… honestly, it was a bit… forceful, but it wasn’t too bad.”
“…”
“What? Y-you know, it was the first time for me… and I felt something new. It was kind of interesting.”
“What? What are you saying?”
“Ahhh, forget it! Forget it!”
Luci, stammering as she talked, waved her hands wildly before she abruptly opened the door and left.
Bang! The door slammed shut. Silence descended for a brief moment, but it didn’t last long.
“… Jung Yong?”
“Can you elaborate on what just happened?”
“Big brother… what exactly were you doing?”
“Did this guy stop the Resurrection Sect by doing something improper?”
Seop Baek, Seseona, Gena, and Zenon each chimed in with their suspicions.
Wait a moment. Why are you all looking at me like that? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
It’s a misunderstanding. It’s a smear campaign. A conspiracy! It’s Ruci’s attempt at framing me! She’s taking revenge while I’m at my weakest? That’s underhanded.
I scanned the room with an aggrieved expression.
“No, I really don’t know! I have no idea what nonsense she’s spouting but… I didn’t do anything to her! In fact, I was the one who was taken advantage of!”
“Enough with the rapist excuses. Tell us exactly what happened.”
Seseona slowly leaned towards me with an expressionless face that was highly unusual for her.
Click-click, wiiing. Her right hand skillfully transformed into a sleek electrical saw.
Ah. An electric saw. An excellent medium for dialogue. I swallowed dryly.
“It was just a little… kiss.”
“Kiss?”
“Eh… No affection involved. Just business. It’s essential to the ritual… necessary and unavoidable.”
“Hn.”
I muttered some things despite no one prompting me.
I had a gut feeling that Seseona would want to hear such statements. My Hero Sense detected a potential crisis to my life (?) and activated.
Seseona, who was quietly snorting, transformed her electric saw again.
“A bigger electric saw might be necessary. Something ridiculously large.”
“Not fair! I told the truth…”
“We’re ready to interrogate Jung Yong about an act he only vaguely remembers, which ‘was a bit forceful, but not unpleasant.'”
“Unjust! I didn’t do anything! How could I remember if it’s gone?!”
“That’s what drunk criminals usually say.”
As I looked around, hoping for help, despair immediately set in.
Seop Baek and Gena are both suspicious. Zenon already despises me. I could feel my treatment deteriorating to the bone within moments.
I begged for aid from Adrang lastly, but unsurprisingly, it failed. He was feigning ignorance with a troubled expression.
So easy to be condemned. Grief heavy, I mumbled.
“The universe… is unjust…”
The reality that ‘Ruci frequently forgets that memories are erased upon reincarnation’ and ‘I have forgotten a countless number of deaths’ hit me.
I rationally speculated, ‘Could something have happened in one of my lives that I can’t remember now?’
“Hm.”
“Name.”
“Clear.”
It’s already beyond my control. And Ruci has left, leaving me unable to refute her story.
In total resignation, I merely chuckled.
– Hah, turns out you’re a deceiver. I wish I could’ve had a youth like yours.
The low vibration of Older Brother Sooho’s voice was giving me a terrible headache.
Go get lost, Older Brother.
*
It took several hours of explanation and excuses for me to clear up the misunderstanding.
Exhausted, I went outside to cool off. Thanks to Seop Baek’s thorough treatment, my body had almost fully recovered, though I still felt lingering effects.
And beside me…
“Suffered quite a bit, huh? Hard work, there.”
A faint smile on Adrang’s face followed me.
If only you’d helped when you knew, right?
“What would I have helped with in such an intense domestic drama filled with danger? That’s all your burden.”
“An intense domestic drama?”
Don’t scare me like that.
To be exact, the domestic drama should be about women fighting over me. But just now? It was simply a courtroom trying to clear my suspected crimes—lacking both morning soap opera and romantic comedy elements.
With a bitter smile, I left the residential area and entered the city. Adrang, who was quietly trailing behind, asked at some point:
“How does it feel to be the hero who saved Kern from the Resurrection Sect’s grasp?”
“Hero my foot… I’m some notorious murderer, aren’t I. If it weren’t for you, Mr. Adrang, I might have ended up in jail.”
“Hm….”
I shivered recalling the previous situation.
In fact, the reason the hearing about my atrocities was quietly settled was due to a somewhat coercive factor. Officers stormed into our inn room and were about to restrain me.
“A brutal murderer is here!”
“Seize him!”
Right, it’s almost always been like that in my past lives. The moment I start killing members of the Resurrection Sect, people naturally misunderstand me.
And this misunderstanding persists unresolved until the incident is over.
It was no small feat convincing the guards, through a well-organized explanation from Adrang (honestly, they were half-intimidated by his strength), and sending them back.
So actually, I’m quite indebted to Adrang.
Recalling that moment, Adrang briefly smiled bitterly but then shook his head and posed another question.
“Then, tell me this: How does it feel to have survived?”
“What’s there to talk about? Surely it’s damn—”
Casually speaking, I arrived at the town center—only to snap my mouth shut.
“Rachel… h-how could this happen… sniffff…”
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”
“Dad… Please open your eyes… Daddy…”
Around us, cries of sorrow and wails of grief reverberated through the air.
A man embracing the severed head of a woman, choking back sobs.
A boy crying endlessly over a corpse lying in a pool of blood.
A girl, wide-eyed, addressing a man whose chest was ripped open like a ragged cloth.
These people I failed to protect.
People who, to someone, could have been lovers, family, or even heroes. Now, they were corpses, instruments of an orchestra performed by the bereaved.
“…”
I once thought, “If only less than 300 people died, there’s still hope.” That was amidst running wildly to stop the Resurrection Sect.
But witnessing this scene now, I realized 300 deaths can’t be so easily dismissed.
“Damn. This makes me feel damn miserable.”
I cursed loudly before spilling my words. The irony hit me, a testament to the versatility of swearing.
I chuckled softly. What’s the point of dragging this out? If I did well, that is.
“If you want to continue living as a human… Don’t ever forget this sense of despair.”
As a human? That word choice made me look at Adrang abruptly. He returned my gaze calmly, his expression implying he understood everything.
After tapping my shoulder lightly, Adrang continued in a solemn voice.
“The time you’re in right now is the most dangerous. If you let the monster within consume you, you’ll turn into a demon. But if you overcome it, the choice is in your hands.”
– The monster within? Hahah, the black dragon that hides within my sword, is it talking about that?
Not sensing the mood, Older Brother Sooho was cracking unrelated jokes and laughing to himself.
Please go somewhere else, Older Brother.
