Chapter 90 : Alcatraz

I grabbed Alcatraz and hurled him straight into the Demon King’s castle.

Boom! Bang! Crash!

After smashing through multiple layers of the fortress, we finally arrived in a vast open space.

Alcatraz, who had been in my grasp, tumbled across the floor, covered in dirt.

Grand structures, an expansive hall, a ceiling that stretched impossibly high, and a majestic throne—this was the Demon King’s audience chamber.

“Don’t you think you’re handling me a little too roughly? I’m a person too, you know,” Alcatraz said.

Somehow, he had already gotten back on his feet, looking perfectly clean, as if he had never been covered in dirt in the first place.

“You’re especially cruel to me,” he added.

“Why should I be nice to you?” I shot back.

“We’ve met a few times now. Wouldn’t it be fine to at least pretend we’re close?”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

He raised his hand to his forehead and looked up at the hole we had just blasted through.

“This place is fortified with every defensive spell imaginable to protect against external attacks… and yet, you broke through it all with sheer brute force. Impressive.”

“I’ll break through your body just as easily.”

“Hmm… I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. I do feel pain, you know. I’m just an ordinary person.”

“What part of you looks like a person?”

“Hahaha, if you put it that way, then what does that make you? You’ve long surpassed the limits of humanity yourself.”

Alcatraz laughed and clapped his hands.

Then, from behind his back, he pulled out a large cloth, waved it a few times in the air, and then swiftly swept it away.

In an instant, a table, a teapot, and teacups appeared out of nowhere.

“Now that it’s just the two of us, why don’t we sit down for some coffee?”

“I want to kill you right now.”

“Come now, don’t be so hasty. You must have some questions for me, don’t you? Besides, I have no intention of fighting you—I know I can’t win.”

He casually sat down at the table, poured coffee into two cups, and took a deep breath, savoring the aroma as if he were just out on a pleasant afternoon stroll.

“Instead of settling everything with violence, why don’t we try talking? You and I might get along surprisingly well. Who knows? Maybe we could even form an alliance.”

“You’re just spouting nonsense.”

“I’m serious. If we joined forces, this war could end in an instant. Don’t you think so?”

That… was true.

He was nearly as strong as me.

On top of that, he was the mastermind orchestrating everything from behind the scenes.

If we teamed up, we could probably do anything we wanted in this world.

But of course, I had no intention of forming an alliance.

The only thing on my mind was, How can I kill him before Kalian and Victoria arrive?

To safely execute my final plan—the one Kalian still didn’t know about—I had to eliminate Alcatraz first.

“Why are you just standing there? We still have plenty of time, so why don’t you come and—”

CRACK.

Alcatraz’s head flew off.

A pillar had shot up from beneath him, shattering his skull.

The glass cup he had been holding slipped from his hand and shattered on the ground.

His headless body slumped back into the chair.

“You’re being quite sudden. Now my coffee is spilled,” a voice said.

From behind the pillar, another Alcatraz emerged.

He strolled past his own ruined corpse and picked up the remaining cup from the table.

Not regeneration… A clone?

CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.

From all directions—front, back, left, and right—dozens of razor-sharp pillars surged from the ground, piercing Alcatraz’s body from every angle.

He didn’t resist.

His form was completely destroyed, his head and torso mangled beyond recognition.

The only thing left untouched was his outstretched right hand, still gripping the coffee cup.

Once again, Alcatraz appeared from behind his own corpse and received the coffee cup that his dead body had been holding.

“This is just too much… Can’t I at least enjoy a cup of coffee in peace? Spare me that much time.”

“If you’re going to drink coffee, you should’ve prepared cake too.”

“Aha! So you like cake?”

“Not really.”

I quickly closed the distance and drove my fist straight through his chest.

He coughed up blood and grabbed my arm, but before he could do anything, I ignited flames in my hand.

The fire, capable of consuming everything, turned Alcatraz into black charcoal.

“Whoa, that’s hot.”

The bastard who had just been reduced to ashes was now sitting on the throne, casually fanning himself.

Something was off.

I had felt the sensation of piercing through his body.

It wasn’t an illusion, that much was certain.

Was it a clone? No, that didn’t seem right either.

Alcatraz grinned mischievously.

“Just like you have your own special powers, I have an interesting ability as well.”

“What exactly is this power of yours?”

“Telling you would ruin the fun, wouldn’t it? The real charm of relationships is gradually figuring things out.”

“Don’t think this trick of yours will keep working. That power of yours… you’d better not use it too often. Because I’m really good at mimicking things.”

“Huh?”

I appeared behind him.

Even though I was still standing in front of the table, another version of me had emerged from behind the throne and blasted Alcatraz’s upper body away.

A different Alcatraz appeared elsewhere, clapping in admiration.

“Wow, that’s amazing. It’s not perfect yet, but you’re imitating my ability pretty closely. So this is how it feels to be on the receiving end.”

“You shouldn’t be admiring me when you’re about to die.”

I killed him again.

And again.

And again.

At first, it was simple—one Alcatraz died, and another took his place.

But soon, two of him appeared.

Then four.

Then ten.

Then dozens.

In response, I multiplied myself as well, slaughtering him over and over.

The situation wasn’t looking good.

To anyone watching, it would seem like I was winning effortlessly.

But in reality, Alcatraz hadn’t taken a single meaningful hit.

I had a rough idea of what kind of trick he was pulling, but…

By now, quite some time had passed.

Kalian and Victoria were probably about to arrive.

“I just don’t understand,” Alcatraz said.

Even after being killed hundreds of times, he calmly straightened his clothes, looking exactly as he had when we first entered this place.

“Why are you going this far?”

“To kill you.”

“Yes, I’m sure if it’s you, you’ll find a way to kill me eventually. But that’s not what I’m really curious about.”

He furrowed his brows.

“This is all just a story, isn’t it? Just a game. So what is it that you’re so desperate to protect?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“A story. A tale. What was the title again…? Ah, The Knight’s Harem Success Story.”

“…What?”

For a moment, I doubted my own ears.

That was the title of the original novel.

A name I never expected to hear from anyone in this world.

How did those words just come out of his mouth?

As I hesitated in shock, he smiled knowingly, as if he’d found exactly what he was looking for.

“Judging by your reaction, I was right. You’re from ‘outside,’ aren’t you? Somewhere beyond this world… You entered this story from the outside.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“Now you’re finally taking me seriously. Should I be happy about that? Or should I be annoyed?”

“Tch.”

“Hmm, should I tell you or not~?”

He crossed his arms and pretended to ponder.

I needed to kill him immediately, but I was too preoccupied with his true identity.

He glanced at me, observing my expression, then spoke as if he were doing me a great favor.

“Alright, I’ll tell you. The reason I know about that story… is because I, too, came from ‘outside.’”

“Are you saying you came from Earth? That you read the story there and entered it?”

“Earth? Oh… Ah! Right. That was the name. Yes, that’s correct.”

So he was the same kind of existence as me.

The reason he wasn’t in the original work—was it because he came from outside?

I had once searched for others like me, people who had come into this world, but I never found a single one.

And yet, the first one I finally meet… is him?

Even though he had given me answers, my questions only multiplied.

“When did you arrive here? If you had knowledge of the original story, you could have changed history long ago. Why didn’t you do anything? What’s your ultimate goal?”

“Haha, bombarding me with questions all of a sudden is a bit much. Still, I must say, it’s nice that you’re finally taking an interest in me. Hmm… where should I start?”

Alcatraz looked into the air, lost in recollection.

“When I first regained consciousness, I was a newborn baby. I assume it was the same for you—my mind was still that of an adult. But the interesting thing was… the time period I found myself in.”

“…”

“A long time ago. A very, very, very, very… extremely long time ago. So far back that the protagonists of the story hadn’t even been born yet. There were no nations like the ones in the background of the story, and there wasn’t even the concept of magic… I was born in ancient times.”

“Ancient times…?”

That meant tens of thousands of years ago.

At first, Alcatraz thought he had arrived in the afterlife.

But he soon realized that this was an entirely new world.

He saw primitive magic and mana, unrefined but undoubtedly present, and understood that the rules of this world were different from those of reality.

Yet, he chose to live an ordinary life.

Ignoring the strange laws of this world, he played like any child, grew up, made friends, met a wife, and built a family.

But one day, he stumbled upon a mysterious magic stone.

Sensing something unusual about it, he tried to take it to the village chief.

However, as soon as it touched his skin, the stone melted and disappeared.

At first, he had no idea what had happened, so he simply returned to his normal life.

But later, he came to realize the problem.

He didn’t die.

Or rather, he couldn’t die.

He didn’t age, never fell ill, and even if a monster trampled him to death, he would regenerate completely.

His wife, the woman he had promised to spend his life with, grew old and passed away.

His beloved children decayed into dust before his eyes.

Tormented by the agony of being left alone, he desperately sought a way to die.

But all his efforts were in vain.

So he decided to take on a new purpose.

He would try to make the world a better place.

It wouldn’t be easy, but if he endured with a smile, surely it would all be worth it in the end.

He systemized magic, saved those in dire situations, and helped nations develop.

He believed that a better world was within reach.

But that hope was shattered.

The people who learned magic used it to kill each other.

The nations he helped build fell into chaos.

The world was engulfed in war.

Despair consumed him, and he gave up on everything, distancing himself from the world.

And so, centuries—perhaps millennia—passed as he did nothing.

He lay buried underground until one day, the commotion above woke him.

Treasure hunters, miners, or whoever they were, dug up the ground and found him.

Without resisting, he was dragged back into society.

The world had changed dramatically. It was thriving.

The centuries-long wars had ended, and an era of peace had arrived.

Watching a small magician perform on a street stage, he recalled many things.

The struggles he had endured in the past.

The world he had originally come from.

And… a story he had read long, long ago.

That was when he finally noticed.

The names of the nations.

The names of the continents.

They were all familiar.

It was then that he realized—he was inside the story.

At first, he was fascinated.

But as he walked the streets, as he listened to the world’s political affairs and the names of key figures… he came to a shocking realization.