Comedy

Estelle, who had briefly left the room, returned with a bottle I’d never seen before. Inside, something resembling animal entrails pulsed with an unsettling red fluorescent glow.

Reading my wary expression, Estelle gave an innocent smile. The way she stroked the bottle affectionately, revealing her pearly white teeth, almost made it seem like she was full of love for it.

,”Aww~ it’s nothing much. Just the insides of my favorite Volcano Poison Toad.”

Estelle’s nonchalant voice, no different from usual, almost fooled me. Is she really good at acting…? Even though it’s clearly entrails pulled from a body, the way it keeps wriggling as if still alive made me furrow my brow involuntarily.

“…Isn’t that poisonous?”

At my dubious expression, Estelle nodded as if I’d hit the nail on the head and burst into laughter.

“It is poisonous~ but, it’s nothing much, okay? Just your insides and blood vessels twisting, and your blood vessels bursting every time you walk, that level of pain? It won’t kill you, though.”

“Wouldn’t most people choose death over that level of pain?”

At my question, the corners of Estelle’s mouth quirked up. She looked every bit the mischievous rascal.

“If you had acted well, you wouldn’t have had to eat something like this. This is entirely your fault.”

I didn’t respond to that and just stared at the bottle placed on the table.

“…There’s an antidote, right?”

“Of course. It’s still a poison, after all? I’ll mix it with a cool potion and give it to you. Don’t worry~”

I could bet money that if I took off her mask right now, she’d be wearing an eye-smile. With a sigh, I picked up the bottle Estelle handed me.

“How about it, wanna try it now as a test run?”

At her subtle suggestion, I shook my head without hesitation. Experiencing something this horrific once in my life is enough. Not experiencing it at all is the best, though.

“One experience like this is more than enough. Let’s just practice the movements and lines today.”

Thinking I was scared, Estelle said in a disdainful voice.

“Haa~? Do you know that if you actually eat the poison on the day and are in so much pain that you can’t even take a step and just tremble in front of everyone, the plan will fail?”

The question of whether she wanted to feed me such dangerous poison arose, but I didn’t voice it. Expecting a sincere answer from Estelle is on par with Aria promising not to eat chocolate and sweets. In short, ignoring her is the answer.

I answered in a confident voice.

“What I’m most confident in is my mental strength. I don’t need a rehearsal.”

Actually, if it wasn’t that strong of a poison, the Berserker effect might not activate, so I couldn’t complain too much. Feeling a sharp pain for a moment might actually be good for me.

I’ve overcome the pain of my insides twisting countless times with indomitable courage. This time, too, indomitable courage will play a big role. I want to believe that.

“Fine. It’s you who’ll be the laughingstock if things go wrong. Do as you please~!”

Estelle, spouting such irresponsible words, seemed even more detestable today. Weren’t we in this together…?

***

As scheduled, Modest’s meeting began. Participants, minimizing exposure with masks and robes, began to fill their designated seats.

I’m watching the attendees take their seats from behind a special wall. Having been here for a long time, sweat started to form on my forehead. More than nervousness, I just wanted to get it over with quickly.

In my hand, I held the bottle containing the wriggling entrails of the Volcano Poison Toad that Estelle gave me. Several days have passed, but it’s still wriggling, so it must have high vitality, or maybe it’s just wriggling for the sake of it. Either way, it’s not a question I particularly want to know the answer to.

One fortunate thing is that Estelle said I would feel the pain immediately just by swallowing it, without needing to chew the entrails. So, I have to swallow it in one gulp. I absolutely don’t want to remember the texture of these entrails in my head.

“Lily-nim. Are you ready? Don’t be nervous, just do as we practiced.”

Amber’s kind voice came from beyond the wall. I let out a big sigh and answered that I was ready, and soon I heard her say she would send the signal.

I replayed the movements and lines in my head one last time and placed my hand on the bottle’s lid. My palms were damp with sweat from the tension. I desperately hoped Estelle had exaggerated.

Knock-knock- Along with the sound of knocking on the wall, a Modest guild member used illusion magic to create dazzling lights where the dimensional exit would be formed. At the same time, they created an improved giant dimensional exit in the designated space.

The illusion magic made it look like a black hole had appeared, boasting an enormous presence. Even the members who often saw my space magic would mistake this for a different kind of magic. Of course, there’s a reason for that.

Bella, who has seen my space magic before, was among the participants. If Bella found out that Lily was me, things would inevitably become complicated, so I improved my space magic separately to deceive Bella, and with Modest’s help, I also prepared illusion magic.

If Bella is fooled, the other participants won’t be able to harbor any suspicion either.

After creating the dimensional exit, I immediately opened the bottle’s lid. An enormous stench assaulted my nose, as if I had opened a bottle containing rotten meat that had been festering for a long time. It felt like someone had punched me in the nose.

Suppressing the rising nausea, I forced myself to swallow the entrails. As soon as the entrails touched my stomach acid, they seemed to melt away, and a sharp pain, as if the positions of my organs were being switched, immediately struck.

“Kkeueueueueuk…!!!”

Clenching my lips, I desperately repeated in my mind. I have to go to Estelle, who has the antidote. As I repeated that, a familiar message appeared before my eyes.

[ Indomitable Courage is activated. ]

With the feeling that the pain was receding, I took a step towards the other side of the dimensional entrance. My vision shifted, and I saw people wearing masks sitting at a long table. At my sudden appearance, countless gazes at the table focused on me.

I was about to say the lines I had prepared in advance, but suddenly, an enormous pain struck. I even had the illusion of hearing the sound of blood vessels bursting in my ears. I forcibly suppressed the blood that was trying to flow back up my esophagus.

I felt like I would vomit blood as soon as I opened my mouth. The description of the poison wasn’t exaggerated. Rather, it was an understatement. As if resisting the pain, mana began to surge wildly from my entire body.

As I lowered my head involuntarily to endure the pain, I made eye contact with a person wearing a deer mask sitting at a nearby table. I realized that the Berserker effect had activated when I saw their pupils shaking violently and their whole body trembling.

Were they frightened by my madly intense gaze? As I averted my gaze, the deer mask exhaled sharply.

It went according to plan. Now, all I have to do is return to my designated seat. A deep sense of powerlessness, as if all the blood had drained from my body, weighed down on my shoulders. Most of my mana was used to create the giant dimensional exit, so my mana was also running low.

As I released the dimensional passage I had been maintaining, the dimensional exit, which had boasted a grand presence, disappeared without a trace. At the same time, I moved towards the empty seat.

With each step I took, I felt a pain as if my insides were being torn apart. No, I couldn’t help but think they really were being torn apart. It felt like my blood vessels were melting and sticking to my flesh, and my stomach was swelling with regurgitated blood.

Even with Indomitable Courage, it’s this painful. To endure this, Estelle must have something wrong with her head.

Barely managing not to lose consciousness, I sat down next to Estelle. I wondered if I had made any mistakes. I looked around, but except for a few people with gleaming eyes, everyone was busy avoiding my gaze.

“Welcome, Lily. Is this your first meeting?”

Estelle’s voice asking me that was completely different from her usual voice. No, it was someone else’s voice. This must be Estelle’s public voice, I thought.

,’Thank you for inviting me.’

Originally, that was the line I was supposed to say. It was arrogant, but it was a setting where I was showing respect to the Modest’s guild leader. But an unexpected variable occurred. Indomitable Courage had ended right after I arrived at my seat.

That was because my goal wasn’t to get the antidote from Estelle, but simply to sit down.

The pain, which had felt so distant, became vivid in an instant. I couldn’t even breathe from the excruciating pain, as if my insides and throat were melting.

Originally, Estelle was supposed to hand me a drink containing the antidote as a celebration of my first meeting, but I couldn’t endure the pain any longer.

At this rate, I’m really going to die…!

That was all I could think. Barely swallowing the regurgitating blood, I snatched the golden goblet in Estelle’s hand without answering.

I heard gasps from around me at my action, but all that mattered to me now was to quell the pain that felt like it was burning my insides.

I gulped down the potion and antidote in the golden goblet. A refreshing sensation spread throughout my body in an instant, eliminating the pain, and I almost exclaimed in admiration, but fortunately, I was able to come to my senses at the sight of Estelle glaring at me with a terrifying look.

Seeing Estelle’s eyes, which seemed angry that I wasn’t acting according to plan, I opened my mouth as if I didn’t know anything.

Because of Bella, who knows my voice, I had a voice modulation artifact engraved on my mask. Thanks to that, a strange voice, as if many voices were overlapping, flowed out.

“Let’s begin.”

Now, the real acting to deceive everyone begins.