episode_0049

When I fell asleep and opened my eyes, I was standing at the entrance of an alleyway.

I looked ahead. The alleyway was a place rarely touched by human hands.

“Ugh.” Beggars were huddled together in the narrow passage. They had placed bowls in front of them and were begging. This was how they survived.

I looked behind me. It wasn’t an alleyway there, but a place touched by human hands.

“Hahahahaha.” Merchants and children were walking around there. They were selling goods or chatting happily. This was how they lived.

No clear line existed, yet people neither looked at nor approached the alleyway, as if there were an invisible wall.

I immediately knew. That this was a dream. No, a nightmare.

The nightmares I had without medicine or Yerika were always the same. It was a nightmare I had experienced many times, but I never got used to it.

It wasn’t a fear of the unknown. On the contrary, knowing what was going to happen made it even more terrifying.

Stomp, stomp. My body entered the alleyway. My body moved regardless of my will.

“Every time I come here, my body trembles… Damn it. I can’t even speak as I please.”

My mouth also moved against my will. At that time, I wasn’t used to the clown-like way of speaking and often wavered because I was embarrassed.

The reason I went into the alleyway was to obtain a magic tool.

“Ugh.” Someone ran into me. My body lowered its head to look at the person who had run into me.

It was a small girl. She wasn’t the kind of child who should be living in an alleyway.

“S-sorry!” The child trembled and knelt, begging. This was how the child survived in the alleyway.

Dash, dash, dash. Then someone ran and stood between the child and me.

“O-Oppa.” “It’s okay. I’ll protect you.”

It was a boy slightly older than the girl. He was certainly not old enough to say he could protect someone.

“Just try to lay a hand on my sister!” The boy said, threatening me with a knife in his hand.

The knife the boy held was so shabby it could barely be called a knife. It was probably something someone had used and discarded.

They both looked terribly thin, as if they hadn’t eaten well. There was nothing a child could do in the alleyway.

Whoosh. ……………..

I silently took out bread from my sub-space and handed it to the children. I didn’t remember if it was because I had nothing to say, or if I simply didn’t want to speak in that clown-like manner.

The girl was still hiding behind the boy. The boy was still standing as if protecting the girl.

The children were wary of me, but their gaze was fixed on the bread.

“Eat.” I left those words, put the bread down, and walked past the children.

The girl’s gaze remained fixed on the bread on the ground, and the boy watched warily until I disappeared from his sight.

“Oppa, can we eat this?” “Just wait a moment.”

I hid and watched the children eat the bread. This was my first encounter with the children.

Suddenly, the world around me sped up. My body was walking through the alleyway again.

“Thank you for the bread you gave us last time!” The girl approached me, smiling and greeting me. The boy silently bowed his head. He hadn’t drawn his knife, but he was still wary of me.

………………. I handed bread to the children again.

“Eat.”

Unlike last time, the child took the bread I offered.

“Thank you!”

I said nothing more and walked past the children.

“Hehe, we got bread again today. How should we repay him?” “Still, we should be careful, just in case. He is wearing a suspicious mask, after all.” “Hmph, you ate it deliciously too, Oppa. I wonder if he’ll give us some tomorrow?” “Sigh, this is enough for me, so you eat a lot.” “No, I’ve eaten a lot too. Oppa, you eat more.”

My body hid and watched the children again this time. Again, the world around me sped up.

“Hello!” As soon as she saw me, the girl ran up with her short legs and greeted me. The boy next to her also bowed his head in greeting.

“Eat.” My body handed them more bread than usual, along with water. And then I walked past the children.

“Why are you giving us food?” The boy, who had been staring intently at the bread and water, spoke to me as I walked past.

My body turned around and looked at the boy. He was wearing thin, worn-out clothes, as if he had given his thicker ones to his sister.

The child, who should have been cheerfully chattering and playing, had become mature to protect his sister.

“Just because.” My body left, leaving only those short words behind.

Again, the world around me sped up.

“Wear these.” My body handed the children thick clothes along with food.

“Thank you!” “Thanks.”

The boy also thanked me.

“Hehe, it’s warm.” “…..It is. It’s warm..”

My body hid again this time, silently watching the children’s satisfied expressions.

And then again, the world around me sped up.

“Masked Oppa~.” The girl ran and hugged me.

Quite some time must have passed, as the children had grown taller, and their scrawny bodies were now average.

“Why are you only coming now today?” “…..Eat.” My body took out warm soup and meat from its sub-space and handed it to the child.

“Wow—meat! Meat! Masked Oppa is the best!”

My body no longer just handed over the food and left; it ate with the children.

“But why do you never speak at length, Hyung?” Unlike the girl, who spoke informally, the boy used polite language.

“Right! Masked Oppa is a kind person, but because he speaks so briefly, he was scary when I first saw him.”

“If I speak at length, lighthearted words come out.” If I spoke at length, the clown-like way of speaking would automatically emerge. Speaking briefly was the only way I could avoid using that clown-like speech at the time.

At that time, I disliked the clown-like way of speaking. No, I detested it.

Lighthearted speech and actions make people look down on me.

“I like the silly Masked Oppa too, though? What do you think, Oppa?” The girl asked the boy. The boy, who was cooling the hot soup for his sister, fell into thought after hearing the girl’s words.

“I prefer serious.” “However,” the boy said.

“I think it’s also good to sometimes speak casually and comfortably, Hyung. You seem to be intentionally speaking formally right now.”

…………… I silently stroked the children’s heads.

“Hehe.” The girl laughed and enjoyed my petting,

“……Ugh..” The boy’s face was slightly flushed, as if he wasn’t used to being stroked.

If it had only shown me up to this point, I wouldn’t have considered it a nightmare, nor would I have tried to avoid this dream by using medicine.

…

“Aaaaargh!!” Johanna heard a woman’s scream coming from inside the house and entered.

Thump. Inside the house, a woman was screaming in agony, and Loki was grabbing her by the collar.

Johanna tried to stop Loki at first. That is, until Loki spoke.

“Did you sell that child?”

Only then did Johanna look around the house. Trash was scattered on the floor, yet in contrast, the woman’s clothes were flashy.

“She’s my daughter! It’s only natural that I do as I please! Why are you, a complete stranger, interfering?!”

Slap. “Gasp!”

The woman’s face was turned away. Because Loki had slapped her cheek.

“Who did you sell her to?” At Loki’s cold, low voice, Johanna flinched. She had never heard Loki speak like that before.

“Why would I……..” Slap! “Who did you sell her to?”

There was no emotion in Loki’s voice as he spoke to the woman.

Slap! Slap! Loki slapped her cheek without hesitation every time the woman hesitated to answer.

Johanna silently watched Loki. No, she couldn’t help but watch.

Loki had always been full of playfulness and laughter. That’s why his current emotionless appearance felt foreign.

Loki hadn’t even noticed that she had entered yet.

“Tell me.” The woman’s face was already bloody. Loki’s hands were covered in her blood.

“Skull! People with skull markings came!” Thump.

Upon hearing those words, Loki released his grip on the woman’s collar.

“What did you say?” A jolt.

If no emotion had been felt from Loki until just now, then at that very moment, an immense killing intent was felt.

During practical training, I had encountered high-level assassins. But none of them emitted such a thick killing intent.

“Gasp. I don’t know anything else besides that!” The woman trembled uncontrollably due to the killing intent Loki was emitting.

“Why on earth would those bastards…” Loki muttered to himself, lost in thought.

It was too late. His poker face was already broken. The emotions he had suppressed and hidden deep down were bursting out.

It was different from fighting bugs. At that time, I knew I would be fighting bugs, so I controlled my emotions through meditation several times.

But I hadn’t anticipated this situation at all.

If there was an even bigger problem, it was that I didn’t want to control my emotions.

“Johanna, go to the Academy first.” Therefore, I decided to act however I pleased.

The best choice in this situation would be to ask for help from an Academy professor.

But I didn’t act that way.

I’ll kill all those corpse-obsessed bastards with my own hands.