episode_0050

About a month had passed since I met the children.

“Hyung, how long do you plan to keep coming to the back alley?”

The boy asked me.

The boy knew I was in the back alley because I was looking for something.

And that I would leave the back alley someday.

He was a quick-witted child, beyond his age.

“………………”

“Masked Oppa, where are you going?”

The boy was thinking about how he could feed the girl if I, her protector, disappeared.

My body silently stroked the two children’s heads.

There was nothing I could say.

At that moment, I was too weak and helpless.

It was hard to live day by day.

My meager good intentions were limited to giving the children food and warm clothes.

Again, all time flowed quickly. There was nothing I could do within the rapidly flowing time.

“Masked Oppa, what’s your dream?”

The girl said innocently while eating the bread I had given her.

“Not really.”

My body said, stroking the child.

At that time, a dream was a luxury for me.

I had a goal, not a dream.

To somehow enter the Croa Academy and prevent Johanna’s death.

I had no intention of joining the special class.

To enter any class and use information to prevent incidents as much as possible.

This was my goal.

Looked around. Looked around.

The girl looked around once, confirmed the boy wasn’t there, and gestured for me to bend down.

My body bowed, and the girl whispered into my ear.

“It’s a secret from Oppa, but I’ll tell only Masked Oppa. I want to go to school.”

“What do you want to do there?”

I said to the child in a blunt voice.

“I just want to learn to read, make friends, eat delicious food, and most of all, I want to learn divine power to help many people.”

The child seemed happy just imagining it, and her smile didn’t leave her face.

Footsteps.

“Oh! Oppa must be here already!”

The girl recognized him as her Oppa just by the sound of his footsteps.

“Oh, right,” the girl said.

“It’s a secret from Oppa.”

The girl said so, extending her index finger and placing it on her lips.

“Why?”

“Hehe, just because!”

The girl said that and ran in the opposite direction from the boy.

“What were you two talking about?”

The boy approached and asked me.

I shrugged and opened my mouth.

“Nothing.”

The Clown trait was consuming my body.

“What’s your dream?”

Perhaps because I had just heard about the girl’s dream, I asked the boy about his dream.

The boy seemed not to have expected such a question from me and pressed his lips tightly together.

It didn’t take long for him to speak.

“As if I would have a dream.”

“Oh, right,” the boy said.

“It’s not really a dream, but I want to protect my sister.”

The girl’s dream was to help people.

The boy’s dream was to protect such a girl.

No matter how dirty the place, flowers bloom brightly.

Two flowers were preparing to bloom in the back alley.

My body stroked the boy’s head.

“Starting tomorrow, I’ll be coming a little later. If anything dangerous happens, just take care of your sister and run away as fast as you can.”

As soon as I finished speaking, events unfolded rapidly. It was my dream, but there was nothing I could control.

“Hyung, recently priests have been occasionally visiting the back alley and distributing food.”

I wanted to close my eyes and ears.

But I couldn’t control my body.

“Really?”

“Yesterday, a priest told us. He asked if we’d help with a simple task. He said he’d give us money too. Wouldn’t it be good to go?”

Don’t go! Don’t go! Don’t go! Don’t go! Don’t go! Don’t go! Don’t go! Don’t go!

No matter how many hundreds of times I screamed it in my mind, my words didn’t reach the child.

To know everything that was going to happen but be unable to do anything, only watch.

That’s why I called this dream a nightmare.

“If it’s a priest, it should be fine.”

My body said to the child in a blunt voice.

Ah, I hate myself for saying such things.

I wanted to tear my own mouth.

But there was nothing I could do.

Again, all time flowed quickly, except for me. Selfishly, I wanted to escape this dream.

Even knowing it was a dream, I couldn’t escape it.

It was my dream, my nightmare, but there was nothing I could do.

To escape this dream, I simply had to watch the end of this story.

“Buy delicious fruit!”

This time, my body was in a market where merchants sold goods, not the back alley.

My body pulled money from its pocket.

“This much should be enough for them to leave the back alley and live.”

This money was enough for the children to leave the back alley and settle in a normal village.

With this money, the girl could go to school.

With this money, the boy could protect his sister.

“Should I buy something on the way?”

I thought of the girl who didn’t have a single common accessory.

My body headed towards a store with various accessories.

Since I hated being conspicuous, I created a random face with an illusion and put it over the mask.

“Are you looking for something?”

“Please give me an accessory a girl could use.”

“Is it a gift for your sister?”

Hearing the clerk’s words, I hesitated for a moment.

“…… Yes.”

“Oh my! What a kind Oppa you are. How about this bracelet?”

“… Please give me that one.”

I thought of the boy who treasured a worn-out sword as if it were a treasure.

This time, my body headed towards a weapon shop.

“Looking for anything?”

“A small sword a boy could use.”

“A boy, you say? A dagger would be the most suitable for a child to use. More importantly, is it a gift for your younger brother?”

“…… Yes.”

“What a good Hyung! I’ll specially find you a good one.”

My body, holding the dagger and bracelet, headed towards the back alley.

“Did you hear? The carriage carrying the priests who were coming this way had an accident, and all the priests inside died, they say?”

“When on earth?”

“Three days ago. But what’s even more important is that all the priests’ bodies have disappeared!”

My body, holding the dagger and bracelet, trembled terribly.

The priests died three days ago.

The date the priest came to the back alley was two days ago.

My body ran.

It sprinted.

“No, it can’t be.”

I had been too complacent.

“Why, why.”

I had been too arrogant.

“The necromancers shouldn’t be active yet!”

I trusted the in-game information too much.

My body entered the back alley.

It still didn’t stop running.

It ran to the place where I always talked with the children. The children were not there.

Normally, if I waited here, the children would come find me.

My mouth opened to call the children’s names.

“……………”

But I couldn’t say anything.

I only realized now.

I still didn’t know the children’s names.

It was me, but I truly hated myself for being like this.

I hate the Clown trait. I hate being underestimated. I hate losing myself.

For such a trivial reason, I hadn’t even asked for the children’s names.

In the end, I was just an idiot who only filled my own pride while helping the children.

But the real nightmare began now.

. . .

“Johanna, go to the Academy first.”

It was a cold voice, not the bright and gentle voice he usually used with her.

“Th-that…”

She tried to say something to Loki but couldn’t utter a word.

Footsteps.

As Loki was heading out the door, he suddenly turned around.

And walked towards the trembling woman.

“P-please save me.”

Swish, swish.

As Loki made a casual gesture, the woman was bound by threads.

“Choke! Cough!”

The threads tightened around the woman’s entire body and neck.

Loki bound the woman and dashed out of the house.

Johanna also ignored the woman and chased after Loki.

Loki had told her to go to the Academy first, but she absolutely couldn’t go to the Academy ahead of him.

Whoosh. Whoosh.

“W-what was that?!”

“What just passed by?”

Even though there were many people, making it difficult to pass, Loki ran, breaking through the gaps with dazzling movements.

‘Where on earth is he going?’

Johanna didn’t know where Loki was going, but she chased after him anyway.

Johanna did not possess the dazzling movements to weave through people like Loki.

Whoosh!

Nevertheless, Johanna chased after Loki.

She simply chased Loki with overwhelming speed.

Stopped.

If there were many people, she hesitated and then ran again.

Johanna was originally much faster than Loki, but the distance didn’t close. No, it was widening instead.

‘No.’

She felt she would lose Loki if things continued like this, so she increased her speed further.

Thud!

Even after increasing her speed, the distance didn’t narrow, so she reinforced her body with mana, pushed off the ground, and climbed onto a rooftop.

Loki looked incredibly anxious right now.

To others, he might have looked like he was consumed by rage.

But to Johanna, it was different.

Loki looked as if he was terrified.

That wasn’t fear of an enemy.

It was as if he was afraid of what might happen.

Of course, it was all speculation.

Because of the mask, no expression was visible.

She had rarely wanted to see inside the mask until now.

But now, she desperately wanted to see inside the mask.