episode_0152

Chapter 6 Episode 8 – That’s the way it is

“After dealing with the investigators, peace came to our village. It’s a really cool story, right?”

“……”

Finally, Ariel’s half-useless flashback came to an end. I didn’t have high expectations, but as expected, Ariel did not betray my expectations in a bad way.

‘All I found out was that Gordon and Ariel were idiots from birth.’

Is it okay to convey this information to Aslen as is? Gordon was just born with a mental problem and wanted to kill you too?

“Now that I think about it, what about Aslen? There is no Aslen in your story?”

“Aslen is not from our village. Aslen and her father were traveling the world looking for ruins and came to our village.”

I thought for sure the three of them were childhood friends who were born and raised in the same town.

“Then it must not have been that long?”

“No. The Aslen father and daughter stayed for quite a long time. I haven’t counted, but about 8 years? During that time, we developed a beautiful friendship. Huhuhu.”

When I think about the story just now, I don’t think that friendship was beautiful at all either.

“So, what happened between those two?”

“Between the two… . A lot happened.”

Ariel closes her eyes and smiles as if she is remembering something fun.

“The ruins that Aslen’s father was exploring were quite dangerous places. So he left Aslen at our house and went exploring alone. Since I always played with Gordon, Aslen was able to naturally become close to him. As I watched the two becoming friends quickly, I became curious.”

Ariel opens her eyes. Before I knew it, the smile had long since disappeared.

“If Gordon falls in love with Aslen… . Will they kill Aslen too?”

“Crazy bitch.”

“Hehehe. why? Isn’t this something everyone is curious about?”

“Don’t generalize the people in the world to your level.”

“Oh my. I believed that Zeke would understand… .”

What kind of image is that in that bitch’s head?

“Anyway, I helped two people fall in love with each other.”

“You didn’t help me, you manipulated me, right?”

“It’s called manipulation. I swear to heaven, I never controlled those two people. Even though I gave him a little ‘hint’ and pushed his back.”

“That’s manipulation, you crazy bitch.”

Ariel can completely take control of someone’s mind and manipulate it, but instead of taking over, she can also ‘suggestion’, which inserts a message into the subconscious.

In the case of manipulation, the target becomes a doll that loses self-consciousness and only follows Ariel’s commands. Suggestion, on the other hand, retains full self-consciousness, but one’s actions and thoughts are influenced by the suggestion.

“……So what happened.”

“After quite a long time, Gordon asked me for help. I want to kill Aslen, but at the same time I don’t want to kill him.”

“It’s contradictory.”

” Right? Perhaps he realized that while there are plenty of substitutes for other animals, there is no substitute for Aslen. That was the first time that Gordon’s homicidal impulses were directed at someone.”

One not very important question occurred to me. Gordon’s murderous intent is directed towards his loved ones. Considering that it was directed at animals as well, it seems like it wasn’t limited to love, so why didn’t they want to kill Ariel?

‘Doesn’t Gordan feel any friendship for Ariel? Or did he prevent Ariel from killing him by hinting?’

“Did you suppress your impulse towards Aslen?”

“Me? No way. I just gave some advice for my friend.”

“I don’t think this is normal advice.”

“Hehehe. Do you think it was the best you could do? Thanks to my advice, Gordon was promoted to a special article.”

“……What advice did you give?”

“I tried to change my thinking. If I became a knight, I would have to kill people I didn’t love, so I thought that if I kept killing like that, one day that impulse would only manifest itself towards people I didn’t love.”

It wasn’t normal either.

“Well, I could have thought of a better way now, but I was still an immature child at the time, so that was the best.”

In the first place, killing someone or something isn’t an idea a child would do, you crazy bitch.

“So, Gordon decided to leave the village to become a knight. Coincidentally, Aslen was also scheduled to leave as his father’s exploration was completed.”

“What about you? Did you stay in the village?”

“No, I also left for another town. I wanted to experiment more with my gift.”

“I guess so.”

Most of the things Ariel did would be known to the world as simple accidents. Before she started working in earnest, even I, who had been collecting extensive information, was unaware of her existence.

Anyway, I don’t quite understand it, but Gordon was a fundamentally wrong person, and he became a knight to suppress his impulses. Considering that he had risen to the rank of special engineer, he seemed to have been able to suppress his impulses well, but he seemed to be unable to maintain it until the end and attempted to kill Aslen.

“By the way, now that I think about it, I also left a hint to Aslen. Aslen wanted to explore dangerous ruins like her father, but she was worried about her lack of courage. So, for my friend, I gave him appropriate hints to help him gain courage even in dangerous places.”

Um, I see. It was something like that.

No matter how strong Aslen’s desire for knowledge was, jumping into the southern continent filled with demonic energy was questionable because it was too reckless. But Ariel left such a hint.

In the end, the root of all evil was Ariel, a crazy bitch.

I wanted to feed honey chestnuts to Ariel’s head, who was looking proud as if she had done something good, but this crazy bitch, like Maria, was the type of person who enjoyed the pain I inflicted, so I just gave up.

Anyway, now I won’t be able to do anything because of the necklace.

*

*

“So the conclusion is that Gordon had a desire to kill from birth.”

When I summarized what I heard from Ariel and relayed it to Aslen, she froze with an expression of disbelief. I couldn’t believe I didn’t know even though we’ve known each other for quite a long time. Did Gordon hide it well in his own way, or was this also Ariel’s doing?

‘…I guess I made the right choice, right?’

Originally, it was obvious that Aslen would be shocked, so I prepared a suitable lie. A kind of white lie for Aslen.

However, I thought that hiding the truth from her who was among those recording it would be counterproductive, so I chose to tell the truth, and I am now verifying my choice.

“……Please leave me alone for a while.”

Aslen asks in a half-crying voice. It was a semi-commanding tone, but it meant that there was no time to spare.

Eventually, I came out of the hospital room with Asha.

“Because he was unconscious for a long time, his body is very injured, and he is also mentally unstable. In my opinion, I think we should give him about a month to recuperate, but that would be difficult, right?”

“It’s difficult.”

Before becoming the head of the medical department of the management bureau, Asha, a doctor, was concerned about the physical condition of her patients. But having to wait a month is ridiculous.

“If you make such an extreme choice… .”

“Well, then it can’t be helped.”

If Aslen had such a weak personality, he would have kicked out the archaeologist a long time ago. Of course, people can’t always act strong, so if they make that choice, you’ll have to retry and comfort them a little.

“Director, you’re looking at me like that again.”

“…What eyes?”

“……eyes that are different from ours.”

Asha looks at me quite seriously. I thought he was trying to nag me about my health again, but suddenly I noticed that his eyes looked foreign. What does this mean?

“Only once did I consult with someone who had similar eyes to the director. I don’t remember it properly because it’s hard to understand, but… . He claimed that this world was fake.”

“That’s really interesting. What happened to that man?”

“He died. He committed suicide. I left a note saying that the only way out of this fake world is death.”

If he dies, does that mean he is not a player? No, Lufia is also a player, but I don’t think she has a retry ability. It’s most likely that he’s just a crazy person.

“I diagnosed him as suffering from schizophrenia and prescribed medication. But sometimes this thought occurred to me. Was it really medicine that he needed? In the end, I took my own life, so I guess I needed something other than medicine.”

“……So what do you want to say? I also suffer from schizophrenia. What is this?”

Asha shook her head. Then he slowly placed his hand on my chest.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s not me, just confide in someone. The things piled up here.”

I think I get it roughly. Asha is worried now. I’m afraid I’ll kill myself like that crazy person.

It’s a useless worry. Who am I? He is a person who even succeeded in the no-growth, no-equipment, no-hit challenge of the entire Black Heart series, which many people said was impossible.

I can’t believe I’m giving up on clearing the game. This is nonsense.

Of course, there were times when I wanted to give up. But that’s just a whining and a break. I got up again and somehow moved on.

“Don’t worry. You know how strong my spirit is.”

“……Strong people are not immune to stress. It’s just that the limit of what can be endured is high. If you don’t fix it properly, it will eventually break.”

I’m really fine. But I felt like this conversation would never end if I kept saying it was okay,

“Okay. I’ll tell someone.”

I decided to just pretend to agree and move on. Of course, Asha looked at me suspiciously, as if she sensed that I was trying to ignore it, but what could I do? I said I knew.

Squeak–.

With perfect timing, the door to the hospital room opened, and Aslen came out with swollen eyes. Asha, who was about to say something, looked at Aslen and closed her mouth, and we went back into Aslen’s hospital room.