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

Chapter 213

As he thought every time, suddenly regaining consciousness wasn't a very pleasant experience.

Organs he couldn't sense suddenly pounding and beating noisily inside his body was one thing.

The headaches and eye pain from blood rushing all at once was another.

In the past, he hadn't known well because this state lasted for a long time,

But learning that life was accompanied by such unpleasant sensations only made his desire to stay dead for a long time grow stronger.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I don't know. I hate the fact that I'm keeping my eyes open."

"It's just a guess, but you might not be adapting because you had no opportunity for extreme life activities inside there for a long time. Can you walk?"

"Probably not. I think it's a miracle that I'm lying down like this."

"It seems muscle loss has occurred too.""Damn it."

He eventually cursed at Yurik's cold diagnosis.

What more was there to disappear from this wretched body that even a handful of muscle had to be thoroughly obliterated!

But right now he didn't have the strength to grit his teeth in frustration. It seemed his muscles had really all disappeared.

Yurik checked his condition by poking around the half-corpse body that could barely breathe.

Because his touch was precise and fast, there was hardly any unpleasant feeling of another person's hands touching his body.

"Your eyes?"

"They seem a bit better than before."

When he had just regained consciousness, the world had been too dazzling and difficult, but now it wasn't that severe.

It seemed to be thanks to the fog covering this area.

Moreover, Yurik had personally covered his eyes and helped him adapt to small amounts of light,

So now, though very blurry, he could distinguish ordinary objects to some degree.

"...You, you're the same kid I knew, right?"

"You've finally come outside but you keep saying strange things, Yesung."

"You've grown too big. The kid I knew was small and tiny."

Including the Yurik next to him.

Where had the child who used to grab his arm and cry gone, and why had adult Yurik ver.2 appeared?

Honestly speaking, he didn't particularly like adult Yurik's appearance.

Separate from no longer fearing him, he found his appearance unpleasant to look at.

The emotion he felt looking at adult Yurik was similar to what he felt when having to take calls from client companies immediately upon arriving at work on Monday morning.

Of course, this didn't mean Yurik was ugly. If Yurik went to Korea, he might immediately become a model for Paul advertisements hanging on the exterior walls of Shinsegae Department Store in Myeongdong.

But... thinking conversely,

No matter how pretty a national treasure-level design smartphone Steve Jobs had carefully crafted stitch by stitch,

Hating 9:01 AM calls was the same thing. That was the logic.

That's why he had been able to treat young Yurik relatively warmly.

The situation where the cute child had gone somewhere and only a disgusting male was standing there was somewhat hard for him to accept.

His mind and body were both exhausted.

Yurik massaged his arm and answered primly.

"Everything alive is bound to grow, but Yesung doesn't seem to know such things."

"What are you talking about? You didn't grow for 7,000 years."

"Why can't you say anything nice when you meet me after so long? In the past, you used to say I was pretty and did well no matter what I did."

"...Did I do that?"

He couldn't remember. Wasn't this bastard just making things up?

But to harbor such suspicions, Yurik's attitude was too gentle.

Thinking he had regained enough mental state for banter, Yurik stopped the massage and wrapped him well again in the cloth he had been lying on, then lifted him up.

"Let's go back now."

"Where to?"

"Home."

Where was home?

Did they have anything that could be called home? Even searching his memory, there was no such thing.

They were always sleeping rough and lying on bare ground.

Suddenly he thought the surrounding air was too cold and chilly.

Even if it was inside fog, this was a bit severe.

"Something feels different."

"Really?"

"It's colder than I remembered."

"I see. If I had known this would happen, I should have brought thicker cloth instead of this."

"That's not what I meant."

"Then?"

"How much time has passed?"

The primitive planet's atmosphere he had known was warm and humid. It was a climate that felt somewhat hot wherever you went.

He wanted to know how much time had passed since falling asleep with Yog-Sothoth, but Yurik just kept his mouth shut and walked.

After waiting for a long time, he briefly spat out.

"I couldn't count either."

"You couldn't count? Because I didn't teach you numbers?"

"It's not that, too much time has passed. ...Snake-people and Elder Things are topics that are a bit difficult to bring up now. I'll tell you everything when we get back, so wait."

"So where exactly are we going back to?"

"Home."

Eventually they returned to the starting point.

They left the black land. Only then did his thoughts reach Yog-Sothoth.

"That thing?"

"You don't need to worry about it for now. Yesung, there won't be any problems for you to worry about."

What didn't need to be worried about?

More than that, why did Yurik's words sound so familiar?

While his unresponsive head turned trying to figure out the source of this unknown déjà vu, Yurik continued walking with long strides.

The surroundings had changed a lot from the geography he remembered.

The dry, red earth was no longer visible,

And large and small plants were densely spread everywhere.

"Oh, that."

"It's similar to what we saw in the Elder Things' garden. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say all plants existing in this era originated from there."

"Really?"

"Really."

Were the Elder Things still alive? He wanted to meet them at least once more if possible before they became extinct.

As they passed through the damp earth and dense trees and bushes, a murmuring sound could be heard faintly.

When Yurik revealed himself by pushing through overgrown reed-like plants, the sound briefly stopped.

Silence flowed, then someone asked.

"Ah, Anutara?"

Who was that...?

Yurik moved naturally as if nothing had happened.

He sat him leaning against a tree, brushed away his still mud-covered bangs, and his words were utterly cold.

"What about the Arahan? I sent them back first."

"Ah, Arahan. The Arahan are getting drinking water nearby. But that..."

"He's still a living person."

A hesitant voice asked, but Yurik cut it off sharply.

Covered in mud and motionless, he would indeed look like a corpse, he supposed. He understood.

"But Anutara."

"This person saw the world before I did, and is the one who led and taught my ignorant self. He is the only one I respect, and the one to whom you Shambhala people, including the Arahan, should properly show respect. Don't expect any benefit from him, and don't be disappointed either."

"Anutara!"

"I alone am more than enough to stay by Shambhala's side."

Yurik carefully adjusted the cloth wrapping him and stood up.

Behind him, several people were visible. One peculiar point was that they all had blue eyes and blonde hair of different colors.

Just like copies made from Yurik as the original...

"...No way?"

It couldn't be, right? His imagination was just too speculative, right?

When he looked up at Yurik, their eyes met as Yurik happened to be looking down at him.

Yurik smiled silently with a grin.

It was a mischievous smile he hadn't seen in a very long time.

*

All the people here said they came from a village called Shambhala.

It was a small village in the desert, and Yurik, who had been called Anutara, seemed to have made great contributions to establishing Shambhala and relocating people there.

Thanks to this, they trusted Yurik absolutely,

And he could eat at a distance from the group without arousing particular suspicion.

"What does the 'Anutara' attached to you mean?"

"It's probably a language they acquired when they were with the Mi-Go."

"I understand that the Mi-Go took over the Elder Things' cities. But you said you directly cloned them using Elder Thing technology."

"It's true that I learned Elder Thing technology and cloned myself to create them. Of course, I didn't utilize all of the cloning technology."

"What do you mean?"

"It means my understanding of the devices the Elder Things left behind was lacking. Such things are the essence of a species' civilization, and it's natural to make them so that just anyone can't easily copy them."

The origin of the Shambhala people was Yurik's clones.

They were born from the very technology the Elder Things had used to create Shoggoths and Yurik.

But no matter how long Yurik had spent with the Elder Things, he couldn't understand all of their technology.

Moreover, having lived most of his life as a slave, he wouldn't have had many opportunities to access Elder Thing knowledge.

Eventually, he had somehow succeeded in creating clones, but they weren't as complete as Yurik.

At least, thanks to combining biological factors extracted from the 'Elder Things' garbage dump,' a subspecies of Yurik that could walk, run, speak, and think was born, he explained with self-deprecating laughter.

"It was great luck, but at the same time I felt self-loathing. Maybe because my origin is the Elder Things' garbage dump, I ended up using factors extracted from there to create the Shambhala people."

Listening to Yurik's explanation, he suddenly felt uneasy.

At this rate, it seemed like Yurik would define himself as a combination of Elder Thing garbage and become twisted, so he hastily replied.

"No, that's not right."

"Why? Doesn't it sound filthy just hearing about it?"

"Even if it's a garbage dump, it's a collection of things that failed by Elder Thing standards. If you think differently, it could become a pile of gold to someone else."

"...Really?"

"Of course. You didn't use Elder Thing garbage. You practiced excellent... reuse, recycling, environmental protection."

"What's reuse?"

"Resources aren't infinite on this planet either. Life is the same. You prevented the waste the Elder Things committed, right? I'm proud of you. Please keep doing that."

"Really?"

He wasn't sure what nonsense he was spouting,

But seeing Yurik's expression brighten somewhat made him feel relieved too.

"Anyway, you weren't just trying to talk about clones mixed with other factors, right? Tell me why the clones ended up with the Mi-Go."

"It was good that I succeeded in creating them, but after that I was discovered by the Mi-Go and got chased away."

"...Didn't you make an agreement beforehand?"

"I was in a bit of a hurry then."

Just because he was in a hurry, he had broken into an alien species' home and ransacked it?

He had never met the Mi-Go, but he understood they were also a fairly civilized alien species.

What Yurik had done was no different from picking someone's door lock, entering, and making and eating a meal in the kitchen with muddy feet.

Yurik sighed deeply as soon as he saw his face.

"I was in a hurry. I was desperate. So urgent that I couldn't delay any longer. And very, very desperate."

"What was the reason?"

"Hmm."

He would decide whether to punch him after hearing it.

When he asked again with his fist clenched, Yurik smiled ambiguously and put down the bowl containing crushed bean water.

"The snake-people appeared again, Yesung."