Chapter 44: School Trips, Part 2

[Sunset today. Meet me at our usual spot.]

A simple message, written on a small piece of paper.

Rex folded the note and tucked it into his pocket, a sly smile playing on his lips.

A tavern employee had delivered the message, explaining that a suspicious-looking woman in a short cloak had left it for him.

He was finally about to get everything he’d ever wanted.

While he hadn’t yet gained full control of the exploration team, acquiring the merchant “Kayleen,” who seemed to deal in all sorts of goods, would grant him access to anything he desired. He could use those items to manipulate the team members.

The Hermia Exploration Team, and their reputation, would finally be his.

The insults, the whispers about him being a talentless leech riding on his family’s coattails, would vanish, replaced by tales of the great adventurer Rex.

Everyone would admire him, those condescending tavern employees and adventurers would grovel at his feet.

The thought brought a wide grin to his face.

This merchant… she was just the beginning.

He would acquire everything he desired.

Yes. Take it all. Everything. Foolishly, ignorantly, greedily. Take it all.

Yes… everything.

Yes, everything!

“Everything…!”

Yes. Indeed…

“Greedily.”

His previously muddled thoughts sharpened, his mind focused.

Unlike his past, drifting aimlessly, fueled by alcohol, Rex now had a purpose, driven by his own desires.

All thanks to her message.

But who was she…? Where was she…?

A nagging feeling of having forgotten something tugged at his mind, but Rex shrugged it off and headed towards the meeting place.

Creak.

“Ah… hngh… you came.”

“Yes, Rin. Did you wait long?”

“No… haah… not too long…”

Kayleen sat behind the counter in her shop, her breathing ragged.

Unlike her usual calm, unsettling smile, her current expression was one of exhaustion, her hand pressed against her forehead.

Her sweat-drenched hair clung to her face, and her white shirt, plastered to her body, revealed its curves. Even her unsettling gaze now seemed… alluring.

Almost… seductive.

“So… why did you call me…?”

Rex put on his most charming smile.

Kayleen, seemingly struggling to speak, simply gestured for him to approach.

A warmth spread through Rex’s lower body.

He took a step closer, then another, drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

He reached out to touch her exposed, sweat-slicked collarbone—

Crunch.

“Huh…?”

Thud.

A strange, burning sensation in his outstretched right hand.

Not quite a burn, but warmer than his own body temperature. Rex looked down and saw his arm, dripping blood.

His hand, everything below the elbow, was gone. Not cleanly severed, but… mangled, as if gnawed off by a beast.

And before him stood Kayleen, holding a sword, its edge stained with… something that looked disturbingly like chewed flesh.

What remained of Rex’s arm, still clinging to the sword tip, twitched and contorted as the blade, seemingly moving on its own, devoured it completely.

“Aaaaagh…!! Why…!”

Thud.

Rex writhed in agony, clutching his mangled arm, his body rolling across the shop floor.

Kayleen watched him, her expression one of disgust as his blood splattered the floor.

“Disgusting… so disgusting… why did I even bother sparing you? You’re… worthless…”

Crunch.

“Aaaaagh…!!!”

“A worthless… insignificant human… filled with nothing but sin…”

Crackle.

With every stomp of Kayleen’s boot on his mangled arm, Rex screamed, desperately trying to escape.

This wasn’t how he’d imagined it. Not at all.

But the pain was too overwhelming, his mind fading into darkness.

And as he looked up at Kayleen, her eyes slowly opened.

He saw those unsettling red eyes, and he finally understood.

Why Hermia had been so terrified. Why this shop was always empty.

Those red eyes…

They were…

“Who… who are you…?”

His consciousness fading, his breath coming in ragged gasps, Rex mustered his remaining strength to ask.

“…Well… who… or rather, what… am I…?”

Ah… he’d seen it.

The something within her eyes.

The something that was consuming his mind, his very soul…

“‘What’ is a more appropriate question… than ‘who’… for a being like me…”

“Ah…”

Crunch.

Kayleen swung her sword again, the now-oversized dagger obliterating Rex completely.

The sound of bones shattering, flesh tearing…

No blood, no body, the only trace of the murder now residing within Kayleen’s memory. She stumbled as she tried to stand.

“Haah… haah…”

The unsettling feeling of dissociation persisted, her mind and body still disconnected.

She’d killed Rex out of pure instinct, driven by her own will and desire.

After the incident with the two men who’d attacked her shop, she’d adopted a simple rule: “Eliminate any villain who threatens me, any villain who is worthless.”

But her actions just now had lacked… restraint.

While she’d never hesitated to kill the wicked before, this time, it felt… different. As if she wasn’t entirely in control of her own body.

Her final words, spoken in a moment of clarity, of sudden understanding, now seemed… meaningless.

She couldn’t comprehend their meaning.

This… had been happening more frequently lately.

Punishing the wicked, aiding the righteous… it felt like her purpose, her mission.

If she failed to fulfill this duty, her mind would cloud, the dissociation would intensify.

A constant urge to kill, to fulfill her role. Relentless, unending.

“Haah… Lucia…”

She suddenly longed to see the blonde girl.

Perhaps this… this condition… was a combination of her own issues and the world’s corrective force.

Then Lucia, who was different from the original protagonist, who could see those strange windows…

Perhaps she could help.

But beyond that, she simply… missed her.

When cornered, people often sought solace in the presence of those they cherished.

While this world’s Lucia was different from the one in the game, she was still Kayleen’s favorite character.

Kayleen didn’t realize she was projecting someone from her past onto Lucia, someone she’d lost.

“Ugh…”

Thud.

A searing pain shot through her head, and Kayleen collapsed, losing consciousness.

“Smile. Smile! Smile, damn it!”

Slap!

“Stop making that disgusting face and smile!”

Slap!

I forced a smile, the same smile he’d taught me, the same smile I’d practiced in the mirror.

“Stop looking so miserable and smile! Don’t make that face… the face your mother used to make…!”

Slap!

The man whipped me with a leather belt, the rusty buckle digging into my skin.

Each blow to my head made my vision blur, my thoughts scatter.

Ah… right. I was being beaten.

It hurt… it hurt so much… but I had to smile.

“Even when things are tough, if you keep smiling, it will eventually get better.”

“Smile. At least smile so I don’t feel worse.”

The words of her deceased sibling.

The words of her surviving sibling.

A promise… she had to keep.

I fought back the tears, forcing a smile, and the man, his face contorted in rage, whipped me again.

Slap!

I closed my eyes, bracing for the pain, expecting to lose consciousness. Might as well close my eyes now, since I’d be unconscious soon anyway.

But the pain didn’t come. I opened my eyes, confused.

A small girl stood before me, her arms outstretched, shielding me.

Younger than me, her face contorted in pain, yet she smiled.

A smile? Was that a smile…? Mine wasn’t like that…

“Who the hell are you?!”

“S-stop… please…! Don’t… don’t hurt him anymore…! You… you evil person… you have no right…!”

Evil.

The word echoed in my mind, a word from a cartoon the girl had shown me.

Those who harmed others, those who were a burden to society…

…they were “evil.”

Was he… evil?

The man who had once been kind, who had shared his food with me…?

I… I wasn’t sure.

“Get out of here, you brat!”

“Kyaa!”

Slap.

Thud.

The belt whipped out again, striking the girl, silencing her impassioned plea. She stumbled and fell.

I couldn’t let her hit the broken glass on the floor. I caught her and held her close.

Blood seeped from a wound on her head.

“Huh…? Blood…”

I tried to wipe it away with my sleeve, but it flowed like a broken faucet, staining my clothes crimson.

“Brother…”

The girl, her smile unwavering, reached out to me, her hand falling just short of my cheek.

A familiar sight.

It reminded me of… my sibling…

Did that mean… she was…?

The man stared at me, his face flushed with rage, an empty soju bottle clutched in one hand, the blood-stained belt in the other.

My blood, her blood, our mother’s blood…

…Yes.

He… was evil.

Pure, unadulterated evil. A worthless waste of space.

Mother had always defended him, claiming he was a good person deep down, that he would change.

But evil… without redemption, without value… did it deserve to exist?

“…What are you…?”

I didn’t remember what happened next.

Only the sound of someone crying…

And the distant wail of sirens…

Ah… right.

That was… me…