novelraw Chapter 262: After Story #3 — Low-Temperature Burn (1)
Chapter 262: After Story #3 — Low-Temperature Burn (1)
Ibamon didn’t want to throw away a [Legendary III]-grade weapon from the End Ocean shop, so he obediently sent people to bring Star Runes.
“Lord Ibamon.”
“Yes?”
“I kinda know the market prices around here. And I also know about how much you should be bringing, Lord Ibamon.”
“.......”
“If you bring Star Runes and it’s below my standard, I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do. Sparing the person who came to kill me was my own way of showing sincerity. And now you’re trying to trick me.”
“Th—.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to take that lightning-shaped weapon I don’t even need. That’s a Radiant Constellation⁺₊⋆ Stigma weapon, right? Ah. I don’t even need it, but I’ll take it and snap it. And from now on, I’m going to talk more casually.”
“Ah, um, over there....”
Ibamon spoke in a voice that shrank back into his throat.
“...Could you please not talk down to me. Just... at least let me keep my image. I’ve got a lot of followers here.”
“Depends on the Star Runes you bring.”
“.......”
For an instant, I didn’t miss the pretty corners of his eyes twitching.
But I didn’t particularly care.
Right now he looked wronged, and he had the same expression as Robin did when he got beaten up at first, but later on, his sense of injustice would fade anyway.
If I were the only one left behind as a disaster victim after a typhoon swept through, sure, that’d feel unfair.
But if everyone became equally broke, wouldn’t it feel a little less unfair?
“...Here.”
Soon, Ibamon’s two subordinates (both pretty women, but now I couldn’t trust anything anymore) brought some kind of card filled with Star Runes and held it out.
< Star Runes acquired: 9,539,011 >
A truly enormous amount of Star Runes poured in and got absorbed.
Whether this was all of it or not, it was definitely the kind of amount that made your breath catch the moment you received it.
It felt like I’d become rich.
“Is this all?”
“...Yes?”
“Are you kidding me? You don’t just have that one weapon.”
“Huh? Huh? What... no. I gave you everything.”
“Lord Ibamon. If you cleared Hard, you should know. What kind of game Hiaka Academy is—what kind of way you have to play it to get close to profit. Or did you come out of a wizard academy, so you don’t really know how an assassin academy works? Want me to tell you how I cleared Hell difficulty? If anyone attacked me, I wiped out their whole clan.”
“Ah, um, over there.... I really gave you everything....”
But a few minutes later, Star Fragments refilled.
< Star Runes acquired: 5,725,009 >
“See? Looks like this person forgot my temper.”
“.......”
“You’ve got them, so why are you saying you don’t. Does what I say sound like a joke? First you tried to kill me, then you tried to trick me. Now you’re trying to scam me.”
“I’m sor—.”
“Ibamon. This isn’t all, is it.”
“Yeees...? No. This really is all...! This is unfair. Even if it was ten years from now, I almost three full years collecting from my followers to try to get even one Myth weapon, collecting taxes, running dungeons like crazy and painfully saving it up, and I gave it all to you, but if you keep doubting me like this, even I start to feel resent—”
A few minutes later.
< Star Runes acquired: 7,095,181 >
“This is fun. If I poke # Nоvеlight # you, it keeps coming out. Even more came out than before? You said you didn’t have a single coin.”
“.......”
“Lord Ibamon.”
“...Yes.”
“Do that again.”
“...Do what?”
“That thing. ‘If you keep doubting me like this, even I start to feel resentment,’ you know. Do it again.”
“.......”
Unable to hold it in anymore, Ibamon started bawling like a baby.
Ah!
At that moment, I felt a powerful, mental satisfaction.
Yeees. This. This is it.
Back when I was at Hiaka Academy, how suffocating was it that I treated people like people?
For example.
If, on my very first commute, when a guy like Joaquin rushed me, I’d counter-assassinated him right away, there wouldn’t have been any proxy assassination nonsense, and it would’ve been easier.
But because I didn’t touch him with thoughts like, how can a person kill a person ㅠ...,
didn’t he come to assassinate me several more times after that?
But right now, I’m free.
Looting. Deception. Threats. Robbery. Bullying weak guys. And so on.
‘This is a game, you X-fuck—’
After I squeezed Ibamon dry down to the bottom, an even bigger satisfaction settled in there.
< Star Runes in possession: 23,903,453 >
Wow!
‘If it’s 90 million Star Runes, that’s a [Myth] weapon, right.’
I tried putting two into my cart.
< [Myth] grade weapon random box >
< Book of Awakening Authority (Hell difficulty exclusive): 25,000,000 Star Runes >
I don’t have any reason to float an island up into the sky.
So if I assume I’ll just have one Myth weapon and one Book of Awakening, one each... that’s 115,000,000 Runes.
Then the Runes I need are 91,096,547.
But.
< Star Runes raised so far: 2,190,002 >
If I subtract the Runes those cute Easy-difficulty users are collecting for me here,
then from now on, the Star Runes I need are 88,906,545.
“!!”
I turned my head and looked at the sea and the sky. The countless islands laid out there, and even the floating islands in the sky.
When I thought of them as people, each and every one of them was a precious space filled with everyone’s memories.
But the moment I recognized it as a game, the whole world started looking like money.
“Robin!”
“Yeeees, hyung!”
“Move the island toward the direction with lots of people nearby!”
“Yessirrr!”
I moved like a single typhoon.
Standing on the clock tower of the island as it rapidly cut across the sea, I thought,
‘Well done, Danhitler.’
I’ll destroy End Ocean with my own hands.
***
It was a season when the scorching sunlight was slowly growing stronger.
Rebecca, sitting in a terrace chair in the mansion’s courtyard, slowly opened her mouth.
“Honey.”
Then the man turned his head.
“Yeah. What.”
“...That thing called the frog in boiling water. Do you know it?”
A man answered—someone she treated like a prince, and at the same time, the only man who made her into a true princess.
“I know it.”
A lukewarm gaze. An arm slung a little crookedly as he leaned against the railing.
“So you know.”
Her red gaze moved. From his chest, to his neck, rising again to his face, then stopping at his eyes.
He was an assassin. A Radiant Constellation. So maybe that was why—Rebecca once thought darkness suited him.
Because assassins hide in the dark.
Because light is prettiest when it’s dark.
Even now, his face was dim, hidden under the pergola’s shade, under the vines that filled the terrace ceiling.
But.
Something was a little strange.
It was a face she had always thought shone, even in darkness, even when they lay together in a bedchamber with not a single bit of moonlight.
But today, that man’s face wasn’t shining.
No....
Actually, it had been quite a while.
Since she’d stopped feeling light from that face.
“Why is the frog in boiling water—”
“...Never mind.”
“Never mind? Looks like you got curious about something. Just looking at our princess’s expression.”
“.......”
The voice was still sweet, but Rebecca shook her head.
Then the man came closer. Out of the terrace, into the light.
“...It’s an interesting metaphorical lesson. But the truth is different. They say it’s a rumor that even if the temperature rises slowly as it simmers, it doesn’t realize it and dies little by little, but even if it’s warmed very slowly, I heard a frog does avoidance behavior at a certain point. Amphibians’ nerves and temperature sense are far more sensitive than human common sense.”
“Oh my. Is that so. You’re truly smart.”
“I’m a professor.”
Dante, who’d come closer, put his big hand in front of Rebecca’s forehead. He blocked the sunlight that was painfully bright to her eyes.
“Let’s go into the shade.”
“Huh?”
“If you sit like this wearing clothes like that, you’ll tan.”
Rebecca stared down blankly.
Because she’d forgotten what she was wearing.
It was a sleeveless one-piece dress.
She’d started wearing it after she heard Dante say he liked sleeveless.
Lately, even while living in a daze, had she still made sure to wear this?
Rebecca ended up laughing without realizing it.
Because she realized she’d been tamed.
“Why are you laughing.”
“I was just thinking when you started being this warm to me.”
“If we’re going to live together, it’s my heart to want to make you happy, even a little.”
“.......”
Dante was also saying that he himself had been tamed by Rebecca.
That was right.
The changes were gradual.
If she thought about it carefully, Rebecca had once said things she felt lacking.
For example—
- When I talk, I want you to look me in the eye.
That anxious feeling when he treated her carelessly.
- When you go out, I want you to tell me where you’re going. If I can’t see you, I get anxious.
A personality that felt anxiety in absence.
- Why do I have to be the one to open my arms first for you to hug me?
A slightly passive expression, because she was so considerate. And so on.
At first, she’d thought even saying those things might make Dante pull away from her—
but unexpectedly, Dante understood all of it and adjusted himself to her.
It was being tamed.
Four years since marrying him. The point where she thought she was truly being loved was two years.
Was it because, over slow time, the two of them had tamed each other?
Because they really changed for so long, so slowly?
“...Amphibians’ nerves and temperature sense are far more sensitive than human common sense?”
The fact that Rebecca realized something.
And the fact that she admitted what she realized.
It was a little late.
“That’s right. Because it’s directly tied to life.”
“...Things tied directly to life are sensitive?”
“Of course.”
“.......”
But now she knew.
In truth, she’d known a long time ago, but denied it.
Now she couldn’t deny it anymore.
“......Really?”
Meeting the two eyes of Dante Hiakapo as he made a warm expression at her,
Rebecca smiled.
“Then, honey.”
“Yeah.”
“What if the frog fell asleep.”
“Yeah.”
“It must’ve been a very tired frog. Born and lived a hard life for a long time. It could be a frog that wants to sleep for a long time.”
“That’s right. I want to sleep a lot on weekends too.”
At Dante’s faint smile, Rebecca smiled too.
“The frog fell asleep in shallow water, and the water warms up very, very slowly.”
“Like boiling water.”
“No. No. If it was that high a temperature, it’d be hot, so it’d wake up, right? So let’s say it got warmed to about this tea’s temperature.”
Dante touched the teacup.
It was completely cooled and lukewarm, but it would’ve been warm enough—like the hot water you bathe in.
“If it sleeps there for a long time, what happens?”
“In this teacup, you mean.”
“Yeah.”
“.......”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
He was a sharp man.
Sharper than her.
So if she said a single line with intent in it, he’d quickly grasp the deeper meaning and stop talking.
For example—
- I bought bread, honey.
If she said that sometimes—
- Something happened at the royal palace today. You’re anxious. Will you tell me?
Like that, there were times he skipped steps.
It was like that now, too.
“.......”
Rebecca knew the answer.
Even if it was a low temperature so absurd you couldn’t call it “heat”—
the moment it went past forty degrees, where protein denatures.
In other words, the moment it got as hot as the tea in this cup.
She knew the frog would start to cook slowly.
She wanted to hear those words from Dante’s mouth.
“......It’ll have a warm dream.”
But the fake Dante Hiakapo did not speak the truth.