episode_0029

After finishing talking about the past, Leon looked somewhat anxious.

“Shall I give you another stabilizer?”

“…No, it’s okay.”

I can’t believe I’m having this much trouble even though I’ve already taken a tranquilizer. It seems like quite a trauma.

Anyway, Roddy was crazier than I thought. Should I roughly say that it is a similar family to Kuen?

Both are psychopaths who cannot empathize with the emotions or pain of others and are trapped in their own logic.

“So, what happened after that?”

“…Rody treated me like a pet. Put him on a leash and locked him in a room… after… sorry. Can we move on? I don’t really want to think about it.”

“Yes. I’ve already heard enough about what happened with Roddy.”

They probably locked them in a room and literally raised them. Treating Leon as his own property.

How would you feel if your younger brother treated you like that? My sister… I can’t imagine. That kind Sohee locked me up and raised me.

There was only one time when he told me I was having a hard time and didn’t let me out of the room so he could do housework instead.

However, comparing such an extraordinary act to Roddy’s atrocities is a great disrespect.

“Okay, now tell me about the experiment. How did I become a test subject, what kind of people were the experimenters, things like that.”

“Experiment… ”

Leon clenched his hands. I guess I’ll be okay because I took tranquilizers, right? It was okay last time, right?

“One day, when I woke up, I was already locked in the laboratory. With so many children… Roddy was moving freely without being restrained. and… A man who appeared to be in charge of the experiment was called uncle… ”

“Are you the guy who told me how to gain strength?”

“…Probably so.”

Leon drank the water he poured into his cup in one go. I put it down on the table roughly, and it cracked slightly with a clanking sound.

‘That thing is so fucking hard.’

It’s that expensive. Tanya’s sigh can be heard up to here.

“Rodi is… sold me out No, it would be ridiculous to say that I sold it. Because he truly wanted me to gain strength.”

Even in past stories, Roddy seemed to care about Leon in many ways. It’s just that the method is terrible.

I’ve often received that kind of twisted affection, so I know how shitty it is.

“Rhody said he was giving opportunities to countless other orphans as well. They say it’s giving children who would otherwise die on the streets a new chance at life.”

Well, the logic itself makes sense. The problem is that the consent of the parties concerned is given to nothing.

“That’s how the experiment was conducted, and only 5 people survived, right?”

“Yes. That guy… It’s been so long that I don’t remember much. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you.”

“Well, it’s okay. Because the people involved in the experiment have their own clues.”

I summarized what I heard in my notes.

“This is a question that doesn’t necessarily need to be answered, but what does killing Roddy mean? Is this just revenge?”

“……It is about taking responsibility. My younger brother has gone down the wrong path, so I need to correct him. Because I’m his older sister.”

Are you saying that you will take responsibility for killing your crazy monster brother? It seems far from such a noble sacrifice.

“Is that really the end?”

Leon seemed uncomfortable with me digging in, so he tapped the table. But I didn’t back down and kept looking at her.

Finally, Leon seemed to give up and opened his mouth.

“…Liquidation. To get rid of the past that continues to haunt me… ”

“That’s right.”

In short, in order to overcome trauma, I will destroy the person responsible for that trauma. It’s such a simple solution.

“I’ll ask you one last question.”

Leon’s expression softened somewhat when he heard the last question. I don’t know if it was due to weakness or a mental issue, but he looked quite tired.

“Number 28… What was your relationship with Lily?”

“…We weren’t very close friends.”

Leon slightly avoided my gaze and smiled bitterly.

“I heard from Lily that you are close with Roddy… ”

“Wait.”

The moment I was about to relay what I heard to Lily, Leon cut me off.

“I heard it from number 28..?”

“Yes.”

“That… Then number 28… Is he alive?”

“Yes.”

Oh, I guess I didn’t tell you about Lily in this route.

But is that really that surprising?

Or are you surprised when they say you’re alive after trying to kill them?

“You were alive… thank god… I’m so glad… ”

Leon muttered softly. At the same time, tears welled up in my eyes.

‘Do you really feel fortunate? Didn’t you try to kill me? Or do you regret trying to kill me?’

I don’t even know the motive for trying to kill Lily in the first place. At first, I thought it was just jealousy, but there can be no such thing as jealousy when you hate Roddy.

“Ah… I’m sorry.”

Leon wiped away the tears from his eyes.

If I hadn’t taken tranquilizers, I would have cried.

“Anyway, Lily said you stopped her from becoming friends with Roddy. Is it true?”

“Yes. Being tormented by that guy… Because just me is enough.”

“Then why did you try to kill Lily?”

When I asked questions as if I was interrogating them, Leon opened his eyes wide and answered.

“What does that mean?”

“On the day he escaped from the lab, he told Lily to wait in the collapsing rubble.”

“…I said that?”

It’s not like he’s denying the charges, but he looks like he really doesn’t know what’s going on.

“I have never done that. The day the lab collapsed… To my shame, I thought it was an opportunity to escape Roddy, so I ran away without looking back.”

Lily and Leon’s words conflict with each other.

However, when it comes to reliability, Leon is higher than Lily.

Leon’s memories are consistent and quite specific, and there are quite a few circumstantial coincidences. On the other hand, Lily’s memories are incoherent and vague, and are all personal to her.

Moreover, although they are the same test subjects, Leon and Rody’s minds are relatively stable, while Lily’s problems are serious.

‘Rhodi’s psychotic tendencies have been like that from the beginning.’

Rather than saying that Lily lied, it is more likely that her memory was distorted. However, distortion is different from fabrication, which creates something that does not exist.

It may be true that someone told Lily to wait in the rubble. Lily was in a panic and must have mistaken that person for Leon.

So who on earth was that person who mistook him for Leon?

‘Well, 99.99% roadie.’

Leon and Rody look quite similar in appearance. If they were this similar as adults, they would have been even more similar when they were children.

‘More than anything, it was Rody who told me that Leon tried to kill Lily.’

Lily said. He became aware of Rion’s malicious intent when Roddy informed him. But no matter how young and naive Lily was, wouldn’t she have been able to distinguish between bullying?

I don’t think so.

In the first place, Rion never bullied Lily, but Roddy must have been gaslighting her. In addition, they also charged Leon with attempted murder.

‘Then why did Roddy try to kill Lily? If you really wanted to kill me, you wouldn’t have to go rescue me again.’

Roddy tried to forcefully awaken the weak children. Lily was not awakened at the time of the experiment. Roddy liked Lily.

Combining these three facts,

‘Rhodi didn’t try to kill Lily, but rather created a crisis to awaken her.’

I’m not sure why he let Lily live while the other children were left to die during the experiment, but the crazy guy probably tried to force Lily to wake up anyway.

The reason he put the blame on Leon was probably to make Lily dependent on him.

‘Then why did you leave Lily in the orphanage? Ah-oh… ‘My head hurts.’

My bones hurt as I try to fit together a puzzle that lacks pieces.

“Well, the picture is roughly drawn. Leon, what do you want to do with Lily?”

“……I would like to apologize to number 28.”

“Apologise?”

“I couldn’t protect that child. Because I’m so weak… ”

Leon smiled bitterly.

Is this also one of Leon’s core problems?

In that case, clearing up the misunderstanding between Lily and Leon would also be a strategy event.

‘The problem is that Lily throws a fit when she sees Leon.’

Should I give him a lot of medicine first and then meet him? No, reconciliation and everything else is meaningless in that kind of half-asleep state.

I sighed inwardly and opened Lily’s profile window.

[Heroine profile]

Name: Lily

Height: 158cm / Difficulty level: B

Progress: 90% / Likeability Level: 5

That guy’s remaining 10% is the problem. The third strategy information has not been unlocked yet…

‘Uh, why is it unlocked?’

Until recently, strategy information 3 was locked. The 80% progress condition has been achieved, but the conditions marked with ‘???’ have not been achieved.

But now that I have checked, it has been unlocked?

Scream right away.

[Would you like to purchase Lily’s Strategy 3? (Price: 300p)]

[Purchase has been completed.]

– Lily’s memories are distorted, and she is ignoring the contradictions in her memories.

‘Is this the end?’

It is already an inferred fact that memories are distorted. It is also natural to unconsciously ignore contradictions.

Did I lose my points?

‘No. If this information mentions the contradiction in memory, then this is the key point of the strategy.’

This game pretends to be complicated, but is secretly simple.

In Lily’s mind, Roddy is a good guy. Leone will be remembered as a bad bitch. This is the result of Roddy’s gaslighting.

In such a situation, no matter how much you say it’s a misunderstanding, it’s meaningless as long as the imprint is alive and well. Therefore, the priority is to break the imprint itself.

And in order to break the imprint, the best way is to present undeniable facts.

After a rather long period of contemplation, I realized that I had been neglecting Leon.

I glanced at Leon, and our eyes met.

Rion looks at me with blank eyes, perhaps due to the drug’s energy.

“Do you have something to say?”

“……No, there is none.”

Leon glanced away.

“Well, that’s all for today. Even if you are tired, make sure to eat and sleep.”

“Don’t worry. Even if you don’t tell me to eat it, I will eat it.”

Leon’s attitude toward me has softened considerably. Because we visited and talked every day from Friday to Sunday, the emotional distance became closer.

[Lion’s strategy progress has increased. (14 -> 18%) Acquire 200 strategy points]

[Rion’s favor level has increased. (1 -> 2) Acquire 100 strategy points]

As soon as I left the isolation room, alarms appeared sequentially. Because of the retry, the attack rating, which had increased to level 2 at 16%, was reset to level 1 at 12%, and has now been restored.

‘The current point is 37,680. It still hasn’t surpassed the 37,000 mark.’

Wherever you go, money is the problem.

Fucking capitalism. Marx bastard.

Oh, was he communist?

What do you know?