Chapter 120: Four Idiots (1) Part 2

[120] 19. Four Idiots (1) Part 2

I didn’t hold back. I told them everything.

The existence of parallel worlds,

The women who kidnapped me,

The people who tried to send me back,

And Irene’s betrayal.

Whether due to the alcohol or how shaken I was, my tone occasionally became heated. I even slammed my hand on the table five or six times without realizing it.

But Clevens and Shafiq didn’t interrupt me or cut me off. Strangely, they mainly listened to my story in silence.

“Idiot.”

“What an idiot.”

…Though they did give me those cold comments as soon as I finished.

They weren’t exactly wrong, so I didn’t bother to argue. Instead, I just pulled out another bottle of wine and said.

“So, what about you two? What kind of mess happened while I was gone that caused such ridiculous rumors to spread?”

Clevens and Shafiq exchanged glances. It was clear they were trying to pass the buck to the other.

But that standoff didn’t last long.

After all, as Clevens knew very well, Shafiq was an idiot.

Clevens rubbed his temples as he began to speak.

“First off, do you even know how long it’s been since you disappeared?”

I thought back.

“Well, probably less than 3 weeks, I think.”

Since I’ve spent about two weeks in the parallel world. I didn’t think it could have been more than a month at most.

“Three months.”

I doubted my ears for a moment. Then, realizing my hearing wasn’t wrong, I was left speechless.

“The day you disappeared, your ‘women’ half lost their minds. And that includes our Captain, and Feya, who was already half-crazy to begin with.

It’s only natural. You were right there next to them until yesterday, and then you vanished like a puff of smoke.”

It felt like there was a lump in my throat. With effort, I pushed past it and forced out words.

“And then?”

“Your women, and us, searched the entire continent for you, turning every stone. Our Pope issued a search order to the entire Church, and the new Tower Master contacted every mage on the continent.

And this idiot even brought in elves from the World Tree.”

Clevens pointed at Shafiq with his thumb. Shafiq glanced back and forth between me and Clevens before gruffly saying.

“I told you I didn’t call them.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what you say, but anyway. Back to the story,”

Clevens continued, interlacing his fingers.

“But we couldn’t find you. You really vanished without a trace, as if you’ve evaporated one day.

The longer the fruitless search continued, the more exhausted we became, and your women… well, you can imagine what they were like without me saying it.”

I remained silent.

“Then… yes, two months ago. Irene, that woman who disappeared with you, returned.”

“…!”

Clevens’ eyes darkened. It was that sharp look he sometimes showed when he wasn’t drunk.

“That woman said you were kidnapped by the Demon King.”

“You believed that bullshit?”

I cut in without thinking. Frowning, I snapped.

“What could I possibly have that would make someone who died 200 years ago kidnap me?”

“Amy, that hero was with her too.”

My words caught in my throat.

Taking advantage of this opening, Clevens quickly continued.

“And, listen to the story till the end. Cool your head a bit too while you’re at it.”

I involuntarily opened my mouth, then forced myself to close it.

Because Clevens, when sober, was infuriatingly logical.

“She said that the Demon King was after the Dragon King’s Essence, the thing replacing your heart. And as proof, she brought out your prosthetics and also a bunch of prophecy books. Musty old books about the Demon King’s resurrection and stuff.”

“So it was hard not to believe her?”

“…Besides, you were closer to that woman than anyone else.”

Those words pierced deep into my heart.

Feeling my breathing quicken, I barely managed to open my mouth.

“…And so?”

“From what we heard, Amy, that hero was originally on a journey with that woman named Betty to find the Demon King. She even had a holy sword that could supposedly kill the Demon King. So…”

“Everyone left to kill the Demon King…?”

The silence was as good as confirmation.

I rubbed my face with a groan. Irritation, confusion, and self-loathing all mixed together, churning in my gut.

“Well, isn’t it all resolved now anyway?”

Clevens and I both looked at Shafiq at the same time. He shrugged his shoulders as he continued.

“Your females thought you’d been kidnapped by the Demon King, so they went to stab him. And Irene, that gloomy woman, is probably up to something too. Did I understand that correctly?”

“…Surprisingly, yes.”

“Then wouldn’t everything be solved if you just showed up in front of your females again?”

It was a surprisingly insightful observation for Shafiq.

For Shafiq, that is.

“It won’t be that simple.”

“What nonsense is that? Just send them a letter and it’s done…”

“Pointy-ears, shut up.”

“Baldy, my name is…”

“Shut the fuck up, Shafiq.”

“…”

I looked at Clevens. From his irritated expression, I could tell that he was thinking the same thing as me.

“She probably has contingencies in place already.”

“If she doesn’t, I’ll grill my own guts.”

Just 2 weeks.

That was how long I stayed in the parallel world with Irene.

In that short time, Irene deceived me and murdered the Emperor of the Empire and the ruler of the Great Divide.

And as soon as she came back, she tricked everyone and led them down a path to kill the Demon King.

Now that my affection for her has disappeared, I could finally see clearly.

Irene wasn’t just a reincarnator, or like my little sister. She was nothing but a ruthlessly cunning and meticulous woman.

So much so that I couldn’t even fathom when she had started plotting all of this.

I don’t think a woman like that would have failed to anticipate my escape.

Going to meet them right now would be a bad move. A better plan would be…

“Wait.”

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind, and I turned to look at Clevens and Shafiq.

“Why didn’t you two go with them?”

Given the Captain’s personality, there’s no way she wouldn’t have taken them along for something like this. And given these guys’ personalities, they wouldn’t have stayed behind either.

“What, isn’t it obvious?”

It was Shafiq who answered first. He held his nose high with a smug look on his face and spoke in that same annoying tone.

“Of course it’s because I saw through Irene, that snake of a woman’s true nature. Our Mother World Tree bestows insight upon her children, you see, so…”

“This bastard got drunk and tried climbing the magic tower wall, then fell from the seventh floor. His legs haven’t fully healed yet, so he couldn’t go.”

“Baldy!! I’ll rip your tongue out!!”

I knew it.

I rolled my eyes as I watched the pointy-ears lunge at the baldy.

“Then, Clevens, what about you? Did you become a booze barrel or something?”

“…I wish I had.”

*WHAM-!*

Clevens sighed as he brought his mace down on Shafiq’s head. Pushing the unconscious Shafiq aside with his foot, he continued.

“Vice-captain, during that transport mission last fall, you told me that something seemed off about the request, didn’t you? You said there must have been a spy among us.”

The transport mission from last fall.

It was the very mission where I was reunited with the hero party.

During that mission, we were attacked by cultists. They not only seemed to know our travel plans and blocked our path, but they even surrounded us.

So, concluding that there was a spy among us, we decided to split our forces. But it was pointless – as soon as we split up, the cultists vanished without a trace.

Then those cultists suddenly reappeared near the city and attacked the supply convoy heading west.

It had only been a year, but it felt like ancient history.

I narrowed my eyes and nodded.

“That’s right, but you gave up on the investigation back then.”

Clevens giving up on the investigation, I could still vividly recall that scene.

“I did. There was too little evidence at the time. But…”

Clevens pulled out a piece of paper from inside his clothes.

“In the west, inside that monstrous moving fortress, we found this. Well, technically it’s a drawing of what I found.”

As soon as I took it and looked, I frowned. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant image to look at.

It was a drawing of a burned pigeon.

The details were so meticulously depicted that I could distinguish each charred, shriveled internal organ.

“…What’s the point of this?”

“Doesn’t the bird look familiar?”

“Familiar?”

I looked at the drawing again.

Gradually, just as Clevens said, a sense of déjà vu began to creep in. That sense of déjà vu soon turned into suspicion, and the suspicion turned to shock.

“Wait, are you serious?”

“Yeah, it’s the carrier pigeon Irene always kept around.”

“Are you sure? It could be just be the same breed.”

“I’m sure. I looked into it, and apparently this pigeon is an extremely rare species. There are only three in this entire continent, and the other two are too old to even fly anymore.”

Clevens let out a coughing fit, probably from talking too much. When he instinctively reached for the wine bottle, I forcefully placed a glass of water in his hand.

Clevens gave me a resentful look, but right now, I needed sober Clevens.

“So you’re saying Irene was the spy colluding with the cultist?”

“Nothing’s confirmed. But the possibility is high.”

Clevens tapped the pigeon drawing with his finger.

“This pigeon supposedly had invisibility abilities. So it couldn’t be detected by the naked eye, magic, or dark arts… In that situation, do you really think there would have been any other way to contact the outside?”

Back then, the spy had been double surrounded.

By the cultists who had encircled the entire village.

And by us, who were pissed beyond words.

In that situation, would there have been any other way to contact the outside besides such a special pigeon?

My thoughts, which had seemed somewhat organized, became jumbled again.

Then was Irene planning all of this from the very beginning we met? If that’s true, what was the purpose of her plan? And were the hero party and I even part of her plan in the first place?

“Anyway, knowing this at the time, I chose not to go with them. I conveniently had an excuse to stay behind too.”

Clevens kicked the unconscious Shafiq.

“…Why didn’t you tell the Captain or Feya about this?”

“I told you, they were all out of their minds back then. Even if I told them, they probably wouldn’t have listened. And… I’m not in this mercenary group because I trust those two.”

I bit my lower lip.

Both my head and heart were aching irritatingly.

Trying to shake it off, I forced myself to ask the next question.

“So you stayed at the Magic Tower looking for me? And found me today?”

“No, someone else found you.”

My eyebrows shot up at the unexpected answer. But the answer I was waiting for came from behind, not from the front.

“What, was that place another dead end too?”

Familiarity doesn’t always mean comfort.

Some familiarity brings caution.

I grabbed my sword and turned around.

Red hair and blue eyes.

And a cold face that resembled Parsley, yet lacked Parsley’s tenderness.

“Sage, how are you still alive?”

The former Tower Master and Parsley’s mother.

I pointed my sword at Sage’s throat as I glared at her.

“I saw you, you were sacrificed for Parsley’s magic…”

“Huuuuugh…”

A sigh so deep it seemed to make the earth tremble. A sound that also sounded somewhat stupid. I stared in bewilderment at Sage rolling her eyes.

The Sage I knew wasn’t someone who would act this improper…?

“Hey, don’t you recognize me?”

Even her manner of speaking was completely different from Sage’s.

I stumbled over my words in confusion.

“Uh, w-well…”

“Huuuuugh…”

An irritated sigh.

Sage, or rather the woman who looked like Sage, brushed up her hair.

“After ten years, we finally reunite, and the first thing you do is point a sword… Just wait until Parsley gets back, I’ll tell her you shoved me into this body…”

The more she spoke, the more confused I became.

Judging from how she was calling Parsley’s name, she was clearly close to Parsley. But Parsley didn’t have any friends besides me.

No, there was one, but that girl…

“Hey, look at me.”

When I looked up, she was holding her hair in two bunches, one in each hand. The hairstyle commonly known as pigtails.

“Do you recognize me now?”

Not at all.

I answered inwardly.

Seeing Sage, now in her thirties, acting like that just made me think that she was being utterly undignified.

Completely unbefitting her age…

“Wait.”

I thought, ‘It can’t be.’

I thought it was impossible.

I thought it was ridiculous.

But all the clues pointed to one thing.

I looked at her with disbelief.

“Marianne? Marianne Drubis?”

The only girl who was friends with both me and Parsley at the magic tower.

Parsley’s best friend who always rushed to help her, no matter the situation.

And the girl who was killed because of my sin.

Only then did Marianne Drubis give me a bright smile.

“Long time no see, Rem.”