Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 126



Chapter 126

Episode 126

'What in the...'

My heart started pounding irregularly again.

'I was... forcibly pulled out... just like that?'

Staring at Kassel, filled with shock, I falteringly looked around to grasp the situation.

I saw the eyeball monster, sprawled out nearby.

It was lying limp like a giant black slime, its maw wide open, unmoving.

"Ugh...!"

My gaze fell on it, and I unconsciously frowned and shuddered.

The area around the eyeball monster's wide-open maw was hacked to pieces in every direction, as if it had been butchered by something sharp.

I had definitely only made a clean cut below its mouth, so I wasn't the one who did that.

Over the monster's mangled maw, I recalled the blade that had repeatedly stabbed through the white barrier just before I was pulled out.

Thinking of the man who must have persistently hacked at the maw just to get me out, I felt a chill for some reason.

At the same time, I couldn't understand Kassel's actions at all, going to such lengths to retrieve me.

"Why... did you pull me out?"

I tore my gaze from the eyeball monster, turned back to him, and stammered the question.

At that, he frowned slightly.

"What kind of question is that? Should I have just let you die in the monster's stomach?"

[Crown Prince Kassel Ludwig feels a trace of displeasure at your words.]

The system window popping up at the same time made me feel strange.

'You're usually exactly that kind of guy.'

Aren't you the type who doesn't care whether someone gets swallowed by a monster and dies?

I thought you'd be glad to get rid of a suspicious woman whose identity you don't even know...

While I was thinking that, I suddenly heard a gruesome sound, 'Grit'.

I flinched and looked up. Kassel was glaring at me, his eyes flashing and his teeth clenched.

"I don't know what on earth you think of me, but..."

"..."

"Ha."

Did my thoughts show that clearly on my face?

As I hesitated, feeling a pang of guilt, he let out a sharp, dry laugh and released the tight grip he had on my waist.

He fumbled in his clothes and handed me something.

"Drink."

[High-Grade Health Potion]

"This is..."

I flinched in surprise at the potion he held out.

I wasn't just surprised because he'd gone out of his way to pull me out and save me, and was now even giving me a potion.

It was because the health potion he offered me was one that I had made.

The one I'd sold at the temple along with the antidote potion for five million coin.

"Why this..."

Didn't he take it because of the potion addiction?

I was about to unconsciously ask why he still had it and hadn't drunk it, but I snapped to my senses and shut my mouth.

In my current guise, I absolutely couldn't show that I knew anything about the potion.

Fortunately, Kassel didn't seem to suspect my hasty, mumbled words.

"Even if you die, clean up this mess you've made first."

He just gestured with his chin toward something and spat out the words roughly.

I followed his gesture and saw the naked man, sitting dazedly, clutching the silver form.

"...Right, Nise!"

I'd been so flustered I'd momentarily forgotten about the twins, and they flashed back into my mind.

I reflexively tried to run toward them, but a hand 'snatched!' my wrist, stopping me in place.

"I said, drink."

As I staggered and regained my balance, Kassel, who had grabbed me, offered the potion bottle again.

The mottled body he'd bluntly called a "tattered rag" was due to the curse, so a health potion couldn't fix it.

"This won't fix it anyway."

"Drink it anyway."

I told him the truth, but he was stubborn.

"You have to hold on until at least one of those temple bastards comes to their senses and purifies you."

"That's why I said just let me die, why did you forcibly pull me out..."

Why wouldn't he even let me die as I wished?

As I grumbled in belated annoyance, his eyes flashed again.

"You must still be spouting nonsense because you just got out of that stomach."

"..."

"Just like I forcibly pulled you out, do I have to forcibly feed this to you, too?"

"N-no!"

I had no idea how he planned to 'forcibly feed' it to me, but at the sight of him personally opening the potion bottle, I was horrified and snatched it away.

And I hurriedly gulped it down.

'HP +500'

HP 721

My HP bar, which had been hovering around 200, on the verge of a forced summon, filled up instantly.

Now that I was out of the eyeball monster, I did need to hold on, just as Kassel said.

If I suddenly disappeared, I'd arouse suspicion, and I had to finish up the quest one way or another...

In the end, it was something I would have had to drink myself, but I didn't feel the least bit grateful to Kassel.

'I didn't want to finish anything...!'

Getting forcibly summoned was something I'd thought up impulsively, but it was definitely a perfect plan.

I'd send Nise out, and I'd be known as having died inside the monster.

What a clean and perfect ending that would have been!

I wouldn't have to explain being Solenian royalty, and Kassel would take care of all the remaining miscellaneous processing.

Besides, no matter how I thought about it, there was no way for me, not even a Hero, to directly receive the temple quest reward.

It wasn't something I did on his orders as the Crown Prince, and trying to get a reward from him would just create an awkward situation.

That's why I thought it would be faster to hound the developers and rip a reward out of them, but...

"...Liv! Open your eyes! Why, why are you doing this, Liv!"

I stared at the unwanted closing scene with unfocused eyes.

Nise was wailing, clutching the bundle of silver thread.

As I checked Liv's puppet in his arms, I was startled and my eyes widened.

As I'd feared, perhaps because the evil spirits connected to Liv's life force had been eliminated, Puppet Liv was no longer in a monstrous form.

The giant, tangled bundle of thread had disappeared, and she had changed into the form of a young girl.

It was her true soul, which had been in the deepest part of the lump that Nise had patched together with the life force of other beings.

But even that was fading, as if its lifespan was running out due to the recent series of events.

It was unfortunate, but I had anticipated to some extent that this might happen.

I recalled the conversation I'd had with Liv at dawn today when I gave her the cursed doll.

"These cursed-attribute magic tools can be used with life force or mana stolen from others."

"It could be dangerous for you, Saintess. Will you still follow my plan?"

In other words, she would be using the life force that Nise had taken from other beings and given to her.

Even with my fragmented explanation, Liv nodded without hesitation.

"Anything, if it means I can save my brother."

"It's not my real life anyway, so it's fine."

This was the only way to stop the Pope immediately and buy even a little time from whatever Nise was plotting.

To use the puppet to create a sense of wrongness about the temple and to shake the Pope.

Of course, I had fully expected that there might be variables in the process.

And, perhaps.

In the worst-case scenario, Liv's life force might run out...

It was an unfortunate turn of events, but it wasn't a major deviation from the main scenario.

Liv was ultimately fated to die by the Pope's machinations, and I believed the best I could do was to prevent that as much as possible and save Nise.

But.

'This is the worst of the worst.'

Because he threw himself into the eyeball monster, Nise was now seeing Puppet Liv for the first time.

It was only natural for him to feel shock and fear at her appearance.

"Liv! You can't die, please...!"

Perhaps because of his trauma, Nise clutched the girl, whose eyes were tightly closed, and shrieked as if having a seizure.

I had to tell him right away that it was a puppet.

And if we found Liv's real body and cut the thread connecting their souls, there would surely be time to save her.

I was about to run to Nise with that thought.

Suddenly, a white, noose-shaped rope slithered down onto Nise's neck.

It pulled tight in an instant, binding Nise.

"Ugh! What... Ah, no, Liv!"

Because of that, the child-like puppet in his arms rolled limply onto the ground.

Nise, naturally, freaked out and tried to grab the puppet.

But the noose around his neck yanked him back harshly.

"Uuugh!"

"Nise, and Liv. We are placing you twins under emergency arrest for blasphemy!"

A group of holy knights and priests approached Nise, who was choking, clutching his constricted neck.

[High Priest Yones]

In their midst, that familiar bastard priest was pulling taut on a white rope labeled 'Lv.200 Holy Binding Rope'.

It was the noose around Nise's neck.

'That son of a bitch, whose neck does he think he's leashing?'

The moment I flared up at seeing Nise treated like an animal.

Someone stepped forward before I could.

"By whose permission are you making this arrest?"

Kassel blocked the path of the men trying to drag Nise away, his expression extremely displeased.

Swish!

He swung his sword, trying to cut the rope tightening around Nise's neck.

Clang!

But perhaps because its level was so high, Lumiekar's blade just bounced off; the rope didn't cut.

At that, Kassel's expression grew even colder.

"This incident occurred during a tournament hosted by the Imperial Palace. Therefore, I will take custody of him."

"Begging your pardon, Your Highness, but heretics who threaten the temple can be judged summarily by the church."

That bastard priest Yones spouted this nonsense with a straight face.

By now, they must all know that the bundle of silver thread is Liv.

The twins they had protected and raised, suddenly heretics?

It was absurd.

Kassel also seemed to find it ridiculous and let out a snort.

"Did the person who was a saint just minutes ago convert in the meantime?"

"They have been impersonating the Saintess for a long time, committing fraud against the temple and, furthermore, the entire Empire, Your Highness!"

"Ugh!"

As if he couldn't see Nise suffering, the bastard priest yanked the binding rope harshly once more and shouted.

"Just look at how he was swallowed by the Arbiter! That brother must be a warlock with wicked powers. And the wench impersonating the Saintess is clearly a witch!"

"..."

"If not, why else would they take the form of an ominous monster to insult His Holiness the Pope and oppose the temple!"

"Then what about the Princess of Solenia who saved them?"

Kassel, who had been quietly listening to their bullshit, suddenly brought me up.

At that, the temple bastards all turned to glare at me, their eyes narrowed and vile like snakes.

"Isn't Solenia an uncivilized country that doesn't believe in God anyway? They might be plotting to invade the great Empire by helping these heretics!"

"Invasion... That's a statement that could escalate to a national level. Can you take responsibility for those words?"

At Kassel's sharp retort, the priest, who had spat the words out carelessly, flinched.

As if realizing his mistake, the bastard lowered his gaze and quickly changed the subject.

"Ahem, hem! In any case, the Goddess has spoken, saying those impious twins will bring great harm to the prosperity of the temple and the Empire, so we will formally arrest them and conduct a witch trial... Aaargh!"

It was then.

Paaat!

The priest, who was trying to wrap up the situation quickly, suddenly screamed and let go of the rope.

"...A witch, you say."

And at the other end stood Nise, emitting a strange, silver glow from his eyes.

"For six years, Liv and I did everything you bastards ordered, like dogs."

"..."

"Selling Liv's blood, attacking villages with dead monsters, sometimes even reviving the families of high nobles..."

"..."

"We did it all as you ordered, without a single complaint, without opening our mouths."

Nise muttered as if to himself, his face contorted.

Then, he raised one hand, grabbed the rope wrapped around his neck, and.

Snap!

The Level 200 rope broke in vain.

"Wh-what...!"

The temple bastards were all horrified to see the broken holy relic.

He tossed the rope aside and suddenly raised one hand.

Just like when he had purified the evil spirits inside the eyeball monster.

"And now... you're turning the Saintess you yourselves propped up... into a witch?"

"..."

"I won't forgive you."

Fwaaah!

An explosive light finally burst from his hand and engulfed the priests and holy knights.

"Ngh!"

The light was so strong it made my vision flicker. The moment I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again.

'Holy crap...'

My jaw dropped at the sight before me.

"Guuuhhhh..."

Like a scene from a horror movie.

The holy knights and priests who had come to arrest Nise were all floating in the air, their eyes, noses, and mouths wide open.

And from every one of their orifices, silver threads were pouring out.

The one pulling them out and holding them was none other than...

"I'm going to kill them all..."

A corrupted Nise.


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