Chapter 136: Most of These Are Just Bugs

Act 4, Scene 4 – Autumn Demonic Palace Battle.

Originally, this scenario was meant to take place before Scene 5, but somehow the order got switched.
To be honest, that still bothers me a bit.
‘Act 4 is the groundwork for Act 5.’
It’s the setup for Lucas to get involved with the reincarnators in Act 5.
In a way, this is an episode I could’ve skipped.
After all, I already know all the reincarnators except for Wolfram.
Still, I can’t help but worry about how the change in the scenario might affect things.
The fewer variables in a scenario, the better.
‘If only this damn scenario had more variables to begin with.’
The most noticeable change right now is that the Demonic Palace opened a little earlier than expected.
I don’t think the palace itself would change just because it opened a few days sooner.
Still, it can’t hurt to stay cautious.

“This time, the team feels familiar.”
Right then, Seron chattered beside me.
Just like she said, this team was made up of familiar members.
But for some reason, I couldn’t shake a feeling of unease.
It was because I’d unintentionally made Sharin aware of her own feelings of love yesterday.

“You.”
At that moment, I glanced behind me without thinking.
There stood Isabel, looking at me with a puzzled expression.
“What’s wrong? You don’t look too good. Did you overdo something?”
“No, it’s not that. Isabel, why are you here?”
“I just came to talk to Sharin for a bit.”
She glanced around.
Because Sharin was nowhere in sight.
“Where is she?”
“She hasn’t come over yet from the Department of Magic.”
“I see.”
Her lips opened and closed briefly.
Did she have something she wanted to say?

“Isabel?”
Eventually, Isabel cautiously stepped closer to me.
“…Hey. Did you maybe do something to Sharin?”
Don’t whisper in my ear with that kind of voice.
More than that, this is a topic I feel very guilty about.
Unable to come up with anything to say, I stayed silent, and Isabel narrowed her eyes.
“Wait… is Sharin acting weird or something?”
In the end, I asked her a question instead.
“That girl—she’s usually always got that sullen face, but yesterday she came back to the room smiling ear to ear all day.”
“Maybe she had some kind of magical breakthrough.”
“I’ve known Sharin for long enough. She doesn’t make that kind of face over magic.”
Isabel’s suspicious eyes kept boring into me.
My cheeks were starting to burn.
“Be honest. You did something, didn’t you?”
“What is it, what is it?”
Now even Seron joined in, clearly curious.
As the two of them pressed me, I couldn’t take it anymore and began backing away.

“Husband.”
From a distance, that familiar drowsy voice called out.
Sharin was strolling toward us at a leisurely pace.
Her navy-blue hair fluttered in the wind.
That signature sleepy smile of hers had a charm that naturally drew attention.
Without hesitation, she walked straight up to me and stretched her arms around my back.

Soon, she wrapped her arms around my neck.
A soft sensation pressed against my back, and a wave of cinnamon-like scent hit my nose.
It all happened in an instant.
Isabel and Seron were staring at us wide-eyed.
It was the kind of bold action no one would’ve expected from Sharin until now.

“…Sharin?”
Even I froze and called her name.
Sharin tilted her head.
“What?”
What, my ass.
Sharin turned her calm gaze toward Isabel and Seron.
Then she greeted them nonchalantly.
“Hi, Isabel. Hi, Seron.”

“Sharin, you…”
Isabel looked at her with a face full of things she wanted to say.
But Sharin showed no intention of letting go of me.

“L-Let go of him!”
This time, it was Seron who lunged forward.
If she was going to lunge, she should’ve gone for Sharin—
But instead, she rammed her whole body into my stomach.
This damn headbutting maniac.

“Guhhak!”
Even for me, getting a forehead to the solar plexus hurts.
Sharin quickly stepped aside the moment she sensed I was about to fall over.
Meanwhile, Seron put her hands on her hips and glared up at Sharin.

“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Hm?”
Sharin tilted her head again, looking genuinely puzzled by Seron’s reaction.

“Why are you hugging Sweet Potato Prince like that?!”
“He’s my husband.”
Sharin acted like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“T-That’s…”
The thing is, she and I are engaged.
A bit of affection like this isn’t exactly weird.
But everyone knows our engagement came from unavoidable circumstances.
Anyone who’s seen how Sharin and I usually are would think so.

Seron looked back and forth between us with a bewildered expression.
Like a completely unexpected rival had suddenly appeared.

“I–I won’t accept this!!”
Her shout echoed through the air.
But Sharin remained totally unfazed.

“Sharin.”
Just then, Isabel called Sharin’s name.
Her gaze was calm and steady as she looked at her.

My relationship with Isabel is complicated.
While things have smoothed out over time and we’re on decent terms now, I was the guy who used to badmouth Lucas.
For Isabel, being close with someone like that must’ve stirred up a lot of thoughts.

“…So that’s how it is. That’s what you decided.”
But Isabel didn’t say much more than that.
She just looked at me for a moment, then turned around.

“I’m not planning to lose to you, even in the Demonic Palace.”
With that declaration of rivalry, she headed back to her team.

As I got up and brushed myself off, Seron was still glaring daggers at Sharin.
Like a cat with its fur standing on end, wary of an intruder.
Sharin, on the other hand, didn’t pay Seron the slightest attention—
Her eyes were fixed on me, and me alone.

Now I finally understood what Sharin meant by ‘greed’.
She truly intended to drive away everyone around me.
Born to live a life where she seizes whatever she wants.
There was no doubt that becoming the daughter of the Blue Tower Master wasn’t due to talent alone.

“Senpai!”
“We’re back—uh, whoa.”
“Pffft, something crazy already happened, huh?”
Right on cue, Aisha, Poara, and Grantoni returned.

I walked over to Seron and tapped her on the shoulder.
It’d be our turn to enter the Demonic Palace soon.
We couldn’t keep standing around like this forever.

Seron shot me a glare, then stuck out her lower lip.
“Bet you’re loving this—two beauties fighting over you!”
“…Two beauties?”
I quickly stepped back before her fist could fly.

“Even in a situation like this, Senpai, I really admire your calm.”
Aisha looked at me with this oddly respectful expression.
Not exactly something I wanted to be admired for…

“Team Airei.”
At that moment, our team was finally called.
The teams ahead of us had all entered.
I gently nudged the still-gritting-her-teeth Seron forward, and we made our way to the entrance of the Demonic Palace.

This time, instead of the usual five, our team had six members.
It was to use more firepower and break through the floors faster.
We wouldn’t be able to enter the Evil Lord’s chamber, which had a strict five-person limit, but that wasn’t our goal anyway, so it was fine.

Beganon, standing at the gate, glanced briefly at me.
Then he swept his eyes across Sharin and Seron and said.
“You won’t make it out alive if you keep that up inside.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.”
Neither Seron nor Sharin were fools.
They might be like this out here, but they’d pull it together once we were inside.

“Team Airei, enter.”
I took a step into the Demonic Palace.
The entrance pulled at my body as the scenery around me began to shift.

Today’s goal: the 6th floor.
Get there as quickly as possible.
Just as I made that resolution—

Tap—
Suddenly, everything went pitch black.

KUGUGUGUGUGU!
With a twisted sensation in my mind, I felt my stomach churn violently.
What the hell—
There wasn’t even time to react.

I bit the inside of my mouth, trying to shock myself awake from the dizzying disorientation.
A jolt of pain in my mouth snapped my eyes wide open.

FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!
A powerful wind tore through the air, sending my hair flying.
And in front of me—was a cliff.
I was falling. Off a cliff.

“…Oh.”
Then—bam—my body slammed into the cliff face, sending a shockwave through me.
That actually helped clear my mind a bit faster.

“What the hell?!”
Just a moment ago, I had definitely entered the Demonic Palace.

But why was I suddenly falling off a cliff?

I reached out instinctively before I could even process the thought.
Then, without hesitation, I slammed the edge of my hand into the cliff wall with full force.
CRACK! KRAKAKAKAKAKAK!
A shock like my arm was about to be torn off made my whole body tremble.
But I hadn’t trained my body to the level of steel for nothing.
Determined to stop my fall no matter what, I drove my other hand into the rock as well.
Starting from where my arms were embedded, the cliff face cracked and crumbled downwards.
After withstanding what felt like my arms being shredded for what seemed like forever, my descent finally came to a stop.

My arms felt crushed.
But more important than the pain was figuring out what was going on.

‘What the hell is this situation?’
My head was a mess.
But something had definitely happened, and I was now here.
I quickly scanned my surroundings.

Across from me was a wall, just like the one I’d crashed into.
Judging by the layout, I seemed to be inside a massive cylindrical chamber.
And I was alone here.

A small sigh of relief escaped my lips.
No one else had fallen with me.
That alone was enough to be thankful for.

And it helped me piece things together.

‘This is… the Demonic Palace.’

During the Blazing Butterfly storyline, this was the worst-case scenario.
A bug that triggered only when your luck was really bad—
The kind that randomly threw a character into a completely different place.

I never imagined I’d be hit with that same bug in real life.

“…Unbelievable.”
Back when I played the game, I only ever encountered this bug once.
Never thought it would actually happen to me now that this is all real.

My head was spinning, but for now, I decided to descend.
Climbing back up from here wasn’t possible anyway.
It made more sense to go down and find another way.

‘How far did I even fall?’
I couldn’t tell.
I pulled my hand out from the cliff face and slowly began to lower myself down.
Whenever my arms went numb, I carved a small ledge into the wall to rest.
Using a magical engraving explosion to create footholds wasn’t too difficult.

Chewing on the jerky I’d packed in my bag helped me recover a bit.
Let’s get down as quickly as possible.
With that resolution, I tossed the last of the jerky into my mouth and began descending again—

FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!
Suddenly, I heard something falling above me.

I quickly looked up.
Someone was falling.

By the time I reacted with a startled ‘oh’, my feet had already pushed off the cliff.
I caught the falling figure squarely in my arms midair.

I never imagined someone else would fall the same way I had.
And when I saw her face—I froze completely in midair.

She, too, opened her eyes—and widened them in shock.

“…You?”

Isabel Luna.
Another poor soul who had just as much rotten luck as I did.
She, too, had been warped away by the Demonic Palace.