A Horror Novel’s Supporting Character Wants to Live as a Human

Chapter 207

"Why do you have such expressions? It's not like you couldn't predict something like this. Usually apostles can interfere sufficiently with other gods."

When he wrung out his clothes that were drooping wetly like being soaked in a downpour, viscous blood dripped onto the floor.

Indeed, taking a shower in blood wasn't as refreshing as washing in a lake.

"You managed to come out from there."

"Yeah, sorry but I stabbed through your father's belly to get out. I was really worried since I was bare-handed, but there was more stuff inside than I thought. He must have eaten a lot over the years?"

When he waved the sharp bone fragment in his hand, the snake-person's face contorted.

"How dare you insult the Father of Serpents!"

"Insult? Let's speak properly. I came because it seemed like a polite invitation, but then you immediately showed hostility. When I politely refused with words, you swallowed a person whole. If it had been another creature, they would have died inside without even being able to pick out their bones."

He seemed to have fainted once while being swallowed, but he couldn't tell whether that was death or fainting.

It had been so chaotic.Looking at the snake-people trembling with rage, he asked again.

"No, really. It's reasonable, isn't it? I didn't kill Ig, so I don't understand why you have such expressions. Is this something strange on my part... when did it become strange..."

"Kill him! Make him pay for spilling the Father's blood! Wash away the Father's humiliation in his stead!"

The snakes bursting from the ground happened in an instant.

When his limbs were instantly bound by living snakes, he couldn't move. The snakes with crescent moon patterns on their heads bared their fangs and threatened him.

When he staggered, the snake-people rushed over and knocked him down on the pool formed by Ig's blood.

"Take his heart! We'll grind even the bones of the one sent by the 'competitor' and offer them to the Father to appease his anger!"

Ig's blood entered his ears, nose, and mouth.

The old pajamas he had worn throughout this life's regression were torn away, and sharp teeth dug into his bare chest.

Even amid the chaos of confusion, pain, and rage, he quietly recalled Verde's words alone.

-Please do not thoughtlessly hate others.

-Please pity them.

-Please promise not to harm those who don't trust you or won't move for you.

-Please be kind to everyone.

But Verde.

Was that a guideline that should apply even to beings digging out his heart?

Should he pity equally those who didn't want him to die and those who did want him to die?

What was the range of those he should have compassion for?

With a feeling that his senses had become strange somewhere, he watched the scene of them taking his heart.

Seeing the beating heart, the snake-people's speed of rummaging through his body increased even more.

The snakes that smelled blood tightened around his limbs more strongly.

Finally, when they grasped his heart and cheered.

Hovering between life and death from excessive blood loss, he opened his mouth.

"I have... one thing... I'm curious about."

"Die. Apostle of a strange god! Pay the price for daring to insult a god!"

"If you just... do this... will you all... feel better..."

Feel better?

Just as he was about to ask that, his vision went black with extreme pain.

Of course, he wasn't too worried.

He didn't have enough consciousness to measure the blacked-out time, and when he came to his senses like this.

[It's a monster.]

[Even though we tore out the heart, the chest healed. A newly generated organ inside began to pulse.]

[That was a monster. Unless it was a monster wearing the hide of a strange species, it couldn't refuse death and return.]

[Monster, homunculus, immortal. All the words that came to mind were creepy and ominous beings.]

Everything before his eyes was completely red.

The descriptions rapidly written behind the snake-people,

The red numbers swaying precariously above their heads disturbed his vision.

After dying, such things were always visible.

He didn't know why. But the situation wasn't very good right now.

"...That's why I asked. Would this make you feel better?"

He had promised Verde.

To cherish life.

When he slowly rose from the blood pool, the snakes that had bound his limbs had gone somewhere.

His clothes were all torn to rags, and maybe because he had drunk divine blood and come back to life, his stomach felt bloated.

Though they said his wounds had healed, that spot still hurt.

"I know... a being. The same kind of person as me. That person taught me several things. Don't hate people, be kind, things like that."

"You scaleless creature! You're utterly cunning!"

"At first I wondered what that meant. Being told to live kindly is a kind of universal lesson, right? But that person asked so earnestly that I thought I had no choice and have been trying to keep it all along."

"Kill! Kill him!"

"So I'm not sure what to do when I encounter reactions like yours."

He adjusted his torn clothes and stepped out of the pool.

The snake-people in front slowly backed away.

He noticed the red lump in the nearest snake-person's hand.

Ah, that was it.

"I didn't kill Ig either. Of course, since he swallowed me first, I was angry too and it was probably wrong to pierce through his belly to get out. I acknowledge that. But it would also be strange to politely ask from inside his belly if I could come out by knocking."

He quietly extended his hand.

But since that snake-person had no intention of giving it, he reached out with both hands first and took the heart.

It was smaller than expected, lukewarm, and squishy, which felt unpleasant.

"But I caused you no harm. Was I so hateful that you'd dig out my heart while I was alive... That could be possible. Should I understand? If it's as Verde requested, I should understand. Anyway, I'll come back to life. Yeah, it's okay. Even if you take all my organs, I'll come back to life."

"Mon, monster."

Someone voiced what they were thinking.

Monster. A monster.

He repeated it in his mouth but only laughter came out.

Him a monster? That couldn't be. He was an extremely ordinary human.

The fact that he didn't cry in fear or become terrified even after experiencing such things was purely because of this world.

So to him, this world was more inhuman.

"I should understand you all. If you're still not satisfied, you can do it once more. But I'd appreciate if you avoided the heart. That place hurts for personal reasons."

He made a generous offer, but none of the snake-people tried to come toward him.

Behind him, he could hear the giant snake groaning in pain.

Weren't they going to do more? That would probably be the case.

Rushing at someone recognized as a monster wasn't something an intelligent beast would do.

He looked around the ruined cave and asked.

"Where's the child who was with me?"

"......"

"Where did he go?"

The way the snake-people were rolling their eyes slightly told him the atmosphere wasn't good.

These bastards.

"Isn't it common sense to answer when someone asks? Are all your mouths blocked? Or do you have no ear holes?"

The already extracted heart began trembling and blood started flowing through his fingers.

Among the snake-people who were speechless at the grotesque sight, the one in white robes answered.

"The great Ig bestowed the young animal upon us. Our proud hunters will soon finish their hunt and return."

"Hunt? Did you just say hunt? Who gave permission to bestow him?"

He had tried to understand well and wrap things up, but had they all drunk snake poison and gone mad!

He had to immediately shake off the hunters and retrieve Yurik.

But as soon as he moved, the snake-people blocked the cave entrance with their bodies.

"Move aside, you bastards!"

"We don't know what strange method you used to escape death, but the second time won't be the same!"

"You're really acting like complete lunatics...!"

He opened the book soaked in Ig's blood. The pages inside were completely blank.

When he gripped the pen, Hastur's mark carved on the back of his neck began burning hot.

There was exactly one sentence suitable for this gloomy cave.

"[The Snake King, who had fainted from pain, instead awakened because of that pain. The maw without even consciousness devoured his faithful believers to heal his wounds!]"

*

The small, weak beast, the snake-people's prey, ran across the red wasteland.

The presence of silent pursuers could be felt from underground and behind rocks.

Where should he go?

What should he do? Where was Yesung?

The young beast, fallen into confusion and terror, ran frantically like a young deer hearing gunshots.

Because of this, he didn't notice that the ground he was treading had changed from red to dark color,

Nor did he realize that the things chasing him were getting farther away.

Only the fact that he was running, running again to escape from that terrible place behind him mattered.

The animal that had been running for a long time stopped abruptly only after seeing the landscape where gaunt trees stood here and there.

Where was this?

He seemed to have come tremendously far.

The animal could tell only that this wasn't the place he had wanted to come to with Yesung.

The ground he stepped on with bare feet was damp with moisture and sinking down. Even the atmosphere was covered with fog as if he had instantly entered a different realm.

The animal trembled with unfamiliar anxiety but took steps forward.

He had to save Yesung, he wanted to be by his side again.

Going alone to a place full of snake-people was scary. Moreover, some of them had even chased him.

What should he do?

-Whoosh!

"!"

He turned around in surprise, but there was nothing behind him.

Behind his small frozen figure, an unknown shadow slowly passed through the fog.

-Thud, thud, thud...

The young beast crouched down completely. A world in the fog where nameless things soared, writhed, and walked around.

Would he be trapped here forever, unable to get out? Without meeting Yesung?

The small animal, conflicted between fear and hope, finally crouched down in that spot and held his head. He wished anyone would come here.

To him sniffling quietly, the fog whispered.

-This way.

"...? Yesung? Is that Yesung?"

-Come here.

The beast slowly got up and walked toward where the voice was heard.

Enduring bizarre shadows that seemed to have run enough to tire a dog's legs, and the gaze of monsters with six horns and seven heads, the beast faced a giant mountain made purely of stone.

The mountain was extremely bizarre and imposing.

The black peaks were curved like claws, and the surface had no traces of life whatsoever, giving even an unpleasant impression.

Looking at it, the beast steeled his resolve again and walked toward it.

At the bottom of the mountain, in a place no one approached, there was a black lake.

The lake, large enough that the other side couldn't be seen clearly, was bubbling, filled with black mud.

Near the mud lake, many things were writhing and living their lives.

The beast didn't know what they were, but he could instinctively sense they were lowly life forms that no one in this land would give a glance to.

Such life was being born ceaselessly and dying ceaselessly.

A mud lake where life and death achieved unity in silence.

-Come here... Closer... My form... Born from me... thing...

The young beast, who still knew nothing, Encountered his origin for the first time since birth.