episode_0066

“Sigh···.”

After offering a light apology to Luke, Lily, who was left alone, let out a small sigh.

My heart ached. My conscience prickled every time Luke asked me questions.

Of course, Luke said it half-jokingly, but… there was nothing wrong with it.

And from Lily’s perspective, it didn’t seem like a joke to her in the first place.

Even now, when I close my eyes, I can vividly remember the cold expression on the warrior’s face that I saw just a moment ago.

‘You knew that and you still did it?’

The appearance of the warrior questioning with a cold expression (this is memory correction).

‘I still get goosebumps when I think about how heartbroken I was back then.’

The way he expressed his anger by suppressing his words (this is also a memory correction), etc.

That’s right. Telling him wouldn’t make his wounds go away. What had already been done couldn’t be helped. Maybe it was just self-satisfaction.

Thinking about that still made her feel depressed… but Lily tried to pull herself together.

It’s done. If you do well from now on, it will be fine.

“By the way···.”

Lily muttered with a bitter face.

“The curse still remains···.”

I thought that when I went back to the past, the curse would go away.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Even now, I still feel negative emotions when I’m around him.

Annoyance, depression, fear, doubt, etc.

“I think the human body is a musical instrument.”

Sometimes, when it gets bad, I vividly remember the times I was treated by the puppet master and my face turns pale.

But if I had to pick the most difficult one, it would be doubt.

Because wizards are born with a lot of doubt.

When I go near him, these thoughts come to mind naturally.

Could it be that everything he saw was an illusion?

Among black magic, there are many that act on the mind. In short, it can cause a certain degree of mental confusion.

So what if the warrior was having an illusion?

What if he made something up to benefit himself?

···Keep going.

Whenever such thoughts occurred to Lily, she felt a sense of disgust rising within her.

In your own head, which produces doubts even after going through such things.

And I can’t help but tremble at the viciousness of the curses that make me think such thoughts.

Of course, I have no intention of believing such thoughts.

Those vivid memories were not something that could be created with mere illusionary magic.

Lily was distrusting her own thoughts, which instead led to blind faith in the warrior.

“Did you have a nice conversation?”

I walked for a while, thinking like that.

Lily had already arrived in front of Yulis.

He sees a saint looking at him with a warm smile.

“···Yeah.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Lily nodded weakly. Yulis reassured her as if that was enough.

Although her comfort was warm… there was still one question that remained unresolved.

How did the warrior know all the information about that many Demon King’s troops?

How can someone who is fighting for the first time know so much about you?

How could he identify all the Demon King’s Army officers at once and find out the hidden objects of Chunghoe Castle?

The questions that followed one after another were impossible to erase from my mind. Even if other things were just doubts, this was something he had actually done.

And to be honest… isn’t it true that what the warrior is doing is a bit suspicious?

When I asked that question to Yulis, she opened her mouth with a dubious look on her face.

“···Actually, there is one assumption I have been thinking about for a long time.”

“What, what is it···?”

Lily looked at her with bright eyes, and Yulys continued. It was only a guess, but Yulys had a strange sense of certainty.

“As it turns out, the warrior really did have information about the Demon King’s army in advance. Almost to the level of the Four Heavenly Kings or officers.”

“But··· How? It’s not like he was really one of the Four Heavenly Kings in the past or a hidden spy, right?”

“Of course not.”

“Then how?”

“If there is no such history in the past… isn’t it possible that he returned with such knowledge from the future?”

“······!!!”

In an instant, Lily’s eyes opened wide.

In other words, Yulis was claiming that the current warrior Luke was also a regressor!

“How can that be··· That makes sense···!”

Lily raised her voice in embarrassment for a moment. But that was only for a moment. After thinking it over carefully, she soon agreed.

“Does that make sense···?”

If you think about it, she was also a regressor.

Even if you were to talk about the impossibility of time travel, she had already experienced it. And in the first place, the return itself was possible thanks to the warrior’s ability.

Also, if the information was obtained from the future, the warrior’s suspicious knowledge would also be explained.

The reliability of the warrior regression theory has increased even more as the assumption fits better than expected.

“If you think about it, the warrior said it before he became a warrior. How we died.”

“Is that so···?”

“Maybe it’s because I saw the results in advance···.”

Yuris muttered in a bitter voice.

Actually, that wasn’t a wrong statement. After all, Luke had been a warrior for hundreds of years, having ruined parties.

Even though it’s a game.

Lily’s face turned pale and hard.

“No way… So the warrior may have already experienced all those hardships?”

“Yes. How difficult and tiring it must have been···.”

“Keuheup···!”

Yulis’s eyes turned red. Lily’s eyes turned red as well. If what she said was true, she might have had a pretty close relationship with the warrior from the past.

At that time, there probably wasn’t a curse on his body, so I guess they would have been able to build a normal relationship.

Actually, Luke used to be on pretty good terms with them when there was no curse. There were also quite a few times when they ended up with a ‘that-so-so’ relationship.

Even though it’s a game.

“And yet you chose that path···?”

“Yes, I can’t help it···.”

“Keep···! How could that···!”

Lily, who sympathized with the warrior before his return(?), covered her mouth in sorrow. Yuris also shed a few tears.

This strangely fitting misunderstanding was slowly becoming established as an established theory among them.

*

There were a lot of things going on, but we had resolved the city raid incident and were doing the final cleanup.

Although they had won, it was still very difficult to win without taking damage. The walls were half-collapsed by the endless waves of monsters, and many soldiers suffered casualties.

Fortunately, the walls were not breached, so the town was safe, but the chaos still persisted, perhaps due to the hundreds of suicides.

We need to at least get this under control.

So I called the party together again.

There were some party members who fought and felt a little uncomfortable, but fortunately, they apologized, so it wasn’t particularly awkward.

“Huh?”

Of course, there were some strange things.

“Why are the corners of your eyes so red?”

I asked that while looking at Yulis and Lily. Strangely, their eyes were slightly red. It was as if they had shed tears just a moment ago.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Yeah, it’s nothing. Nothing···.”

They were embarrassed and baffled by my question. I was suspicious, but that wasn’t what was important right now, so I had no choice but to ignore it.

“As I said before, I called you all here to help clean up the mess. I also thought about how things got this bad…”

“So what should I do?”

Camilla asks bluntly, as if she doesn’t want to hear a cumbersome explanation.

I said it right away too.

“Wander around the city, and collect the brainwashed people. And the one-eyed bugs I scattered. I lost control of some of the bugs because I was so absent-minded.”

“Really, I can’t even control such a small creature properly?”

“Haha, yes, unfortunately.”

If the war is over, the first thing to think about is ‘why?’

Because you need to figure out why your opponent hit here and what you get from hitting here, so you can predict his next move.

Why did the enemy attack the city?

First of all, it would be advantageous to just attack. Just by striking, we could reduce the human forces, and by increasing the chaos, we could even release the Demon King’s seal.

In particular, the puppet master is someone who frequently raids the human world, so I expected that he would attack at some point.

But if it were me, I would have used my attack opportunities more carefully.

Of course, the guy’s resources aren’t infinite.

There are a lot of monsters, but they are not endless, and it takes quite a while to brainwash them.

And it was clear that this attack would raise the human army’s alert level.

In short, it has become more difficult to invade the human world.

And to be blunt, the Cloud City only had the advantage of being close to the Demon World. It wasn’t a land of much importance, culturally or politically.

Even if you attack, there won’t be much damage.

But why did the opponent attack this place…?

My thoughts are going round and round.

Meanwhile, the recovery of the one-eyed bugs continued. Although some bugs were lost, most were still under control.

I summoned the one-eyed bug again and examined the images contained within it one by one. Various pieces of information were combined and entered my retina.

First of all, the casualties were estimated to be around 460. As Oleg said, we had rescued a few hundred sacrifices in advance, so it was possible to end it at this level.

The worst has been avoided, but the tragedy remains.

I moved forward, listening to the cries of those who had lost their families echoing from all directions.

Perhaps because the city was small, as time passed, the recovery of the one-eyed bug was nearing its end.

And then, I happened to see one of the puppet master’s tricks.

“Hmm, is Lily here yet?”

“Well, I guess you’re a wizard, so you walk a little slowly. That’s why I told you to exercise a little…”

“Hey, warrior! Luke, wait a minute…!”

While I was talking to Camilla and Adele, who had already finished collecting the area they were in charge of, Lily came running out of breath.

In her hand she held a single one-eyed insect as if it were a sacred vessel. Then she held it out to us as if to ask us to look at it.

We watched the footage there, tilting our heads in puzzlement.

And there it contained the puppet story.

-Stop, stop! What’s going on!

-Haha, thank you for your hard work.

There were two gates in the Cloud City. One was the gate for the human world that led from the center of the country to here. The other was the gate for the Demon World when going to scout the Demon World.

The puppet master saw the gate to the human world. Two guards with spears confronted a handsome man with blond hair.

Perhaps because it was located on the opposite side of the street from where the commotion was taking place, this place was quiet and peaceful, unlike the chaotic city center.

However, the border guards were on high alert, having heard news from the other side.

-What’s going on?

-Something came up in the center and I have to go through the gate. Can I pass by for a moment?

-If you want to pass, show your pass.

I see a puppet with a smiling face that looks like he’s having fun. He has the face of a likable, handsome man, but strangely enough, I get goosebumps every time I see that smile.

-You mean a pass? Unfortunately, I don’t have one.

-Then you can’t pass. The city is noisy, so wait until the pass is issued.

-I’m sorry, but that might be difficult.

Eventually, the puppet master unleashed his supernatural powers. His polite attitude was still the same, but his actions were completely different.

The bodies of two guards who had been following the procedure begin to move on their own.

The spear that had been aimed at the puppet master flipped over, causing the blade to point towards his own neck.

-What, what···?!

-What did this guy do···!

The puppet master answered, hearing the voices of the bewildered guards.

-I have to pass through here for some business.

Soon, there was a loud bang and the guards’ necks were pierced. The guards, who had large holes in their necks, died without even being able to scream properly.

Across the blood-splattered streets, a puppet master passes by with a smile.

The video that was playing ended there.

Everyone who saw it had something to say.

“This fucking thing···.”

“···Oh no.”

The fact that the puppet master had passed through there meant that a path had been opened to the empire, to the center of the human world. If he were to use his powers near the palace… Their faces hardened as they imagined the worst-case scenario.

Just when everyone was guessing that things were fucked up···.

I thought a little differently.

‘No, wait a minute…’

The situation where the puppet master entered the center of the human world. It is no different from setting a time bomb in the city, but it can also be viewed from another perspective.

‘Isn’t this rather an opportunity?’

If you look at it one way, isn’t it like the guy himself got into the poison?