Chapter 50
Chapter 50
Episode 50
If any of the hardcore players who live and breathe this game saw this, they would curse me out for being insane.
It's not even a regular legendary-grade item.
To think I'd just hand over a super-rare sword that I got after going through hell, one that has a mere one percent drop rate...
Of course, I was also dying from regret.
'How great would it be if I could sell it to Adam myself for a high price...'
It's an Adam Hailey-exclusive weapon anyway, so I didn't really think of using it myself.
And I don't really have any greed for weapons.
If I were Kassel, I would have sold it to Adam for the highest possible price.
However, I didn't forget my purpose for playing this game and strongly reminded myself of it.
"He is a valuable asset who will be a great help when you return to the capital and are reinstated, and even after."
"..."
"So there's no harm in keeping him close and using him as Your Highness's sword. At least he's upright... he is upright, isn't he."
I tried to recall Adam's strengths from the past three days, but nothing really came to mind other than 'upright'.
It was only natural. He wasn't a very good employer to me.
He only looked out for his own people in the estate; he was more like a stubborn old codger and a paranoid terminal patient.
'Of course, this bastard is the same way.'
I thought, looking down silently at that bastard Kassel.
My job is just to get the main heroes to team up and clear the ending faster than anyone.
That's why I tearfully handed Lumiekar over to Kassel.
Fortunately, the current scene was perfect for anyone to believe that the Male Lead had fought and destroyed the monster all by himself.
Furthermore, a level-headed and rational man like Adam would naturally side with the Crown Prince over a mere apothecary who presumably fled.
'He'll keep his mouth shut anyway.'
I was certain that Kassel, too, wouldn't bother to correct the confusing situation.
To return to the Imperial Palace and secure his position, it would be advantageous to use Adam under the pretext of repaying a favor.
Ruuuumble.
Finally, as if signaling the end of the disaster, the pitch-black storm clouds that had filled the sky began to recede slowly.
The sun must have risen long ago, as a ray of sunlight poured through the gap, casting a brilliant light over half of the Male Lead's handsome face.
His eyebrows twitched, as if the light was too bright.
It looked like he would wake up soon.
'Even in this situation, he gets the protagonist effect...'
I did all the hard work, but it seemed the protagonist was getting the highlight in the end, which made me a little depressed.
"Good heavens! I wondered what the commotion was... the Tower is destroyed!"
"Gasp! I-is that a monster?"
"What in the world... Send a messenger to the Count, now! Immediately!"
Suddenly, I heard the busy shouts of people from below the half-destroyed, exposed prison.
[S-Grade Defense Artifact Effect Duration: 00:12]
Gauging the remaining time, I hurriedly pulled out the potions I had made from my pocket.
[Sleep-Inducing Potion x 199]
[S-Grade Healing Potion x 1]
[S-Grade Antidote Potion x 1]
'This should be enough to treat his potion addiction to some extent.'
It would have been best to make a separate neutralizing agent, but since I didn't have one, this combination wasn't bad as a substitute.
"Sob, my babies... Mommy's sorry for letting a bastard like this consume you."
It was so heartbreaking it brought tears to my eyes, having to give up all the top-grade elixirs I had worked so hard to make and had cherished.
'To think I'm giving this bastard an S-Grade antidote that even I can't use...'
But this.
This was a small atonement for him, who had endured being pelted with healing potions hundreds, no, thousands of times.
"...Anyway, with this, I've paid back my debt to you."
It was at that moment.
HP 109
HP 99
My precarious health finally dropped below 100.
[Danger! Health is below 10%! Automatically recalling to affiliated NPC area.]
Watching the system window announcing the auto-recall, I whispered one last thing quickly.
"...So next time we meet, don't try to kill me."
"..."
"If you're a bastard with even a shred of conscience...!"
Shwiiik.
The scene before my eyes distorted wildly.
And.
[You have arrived in Dover Village.]
As if to mock the utter beggar-like state I was in just moments ago, covered in ash.
I was now standing in front of the potion shop in Dover Village, in my perfectly restored robe, not on top of the half-destroyed tower.
[You have been relieved of the continuous attack penalty by leaving the quest area.]
[HP and MP have been fully restored.]
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
"…I was sorry about that time."
A prim voice faded in and out.
"…Tried to help... planned..."
Even while swimming through the overwhelming tide of sleep, he focused all his concentration, trying not to miss it.
That gloomy apothecary bastard, who wore a hood pulled all the way down and spouted nothing but infuriating words every time they opened their mouth.
The bastard, who was suspicious and displeasing no matter what they did, had finally caused trouble.
Even after he had laid out his circumstances and pleaded for a sword, they had used a sleeping potion to forcibly put him to sleep.
There had to be a faction behind them, plotting something, using the chaos of the disaster while he was asleep.
If he was lucky enough to survive, he couldn't miss a single small clue, in order to track them down.
But.
"I didn't think the broken glass shards would hurt you."
The bastard wasn't saying anything related to the faction behind them, but spouting completely irrelevant nonsense.
'Shut up.'
He felt displeased.
It just solidified his suspicion that this was the same bastard who had thrown the potion at him.
He had never said such a thing to the bastard.
Kassel frowned deeply, wanting to get up, clamp the bastard's mouth shut, and yell at them to stop spouting bullshit.
But, thud.
His consciousness cut off there.
As always, in his dreams, he was swept away mindlessly, drifting endlessly like a water weed.
Sometimes he became a blazing fire, devouring green vegetation.
Sometimes he became a free wind, dashing across wide fields.
And sometimes he became a beast, frantically pounding on a giant wall with two fists.
'In this dream, I'm not tearing humans apart and eating them.'
It was a dream no different from before, but he'd had that fleeting thought, even in his unconscious state.
"Kuweeeaaargh!"
It was the moment he had just turned into a lizard monster and opened his mouth wide.
Suddenly, thud, the dream cut off.
Then, his consciousness, which had been wandering an endless abyss, began to be pulled up, unawares.
Even as he gradually began to wake, he couldn't believe it.
This was, without a doubt, the first time he had ever woken from the dream before every living creature around him was utterly destroyed.
But he was no idiot who would miss an opportunity by panicking in an incomprehensible situation.
Kassel clenched his teeth and struggled with all his might to wake up.
His eyelids fluttered, threatening to open, then closed again.
In that instant, a woman flickered into his hazy vision.
A crazy woman in a tattered, half-burnt rag over a flowing dress, floating in mid-air.
"Tsk-tsk-tsk-tsst..."
She was splitting a giant centipede monster in half with a sword.
And then, it went dark again.
'Still wandering in a dream, I see.'
Kassel scoffed coldly at his own pathetic state.
He couldn't be sucked back into the nightmare again, so he focused even harder on opening his eyes.
Fortunately, his mind began to awaken more easily than before.
Had the Count done something?
No, perhaps the disaster was already over, and the Hailey domain had vanished, turned to ash, leaving only a mark on the map.
Even if it had, he had to see the sight with his own two eyes.
The sin and karma he had created with his own hands.
Only by engraving it all into his being would the inescapable, horrific cycle of the nightmare feel real.
Just as he was struggling, putting all his strength into lifting his eyelids.
Thud, thud.
He suddenly sensed someone approaching.
Then, a rough hand grabbed him, dragged him, and finally, dropped him onto the hard floor as if throwing him down.
Then, the bastard forcibly shoved something hard into his hand, making him grip it.
'It seems they're trying to frame me for something again.'
This kind of thing was sickeningly familiar.
As if dragging him down to be the lowliest of sinners wasn't enough, these so-called political enemies would appear endlessly to frame him and try to kill him.
'I'm sick of it.'
It wasn't the first or second time, but he felt exceptionally weary.
Everything, never changing, felt vague and empty.
He didn't even try to open his eyes anymore, listlessly accepting whatever was being forced into his hand.
It was then.
"…Shame... assassin... ran away..."
The bastard who had thrown him down began to chatter about something.
Kassel held his breath and listened intently.
Even in a situation where it wouldn't be strange for the bastard to shove a knife into his throat at any moment, his mind was working automatically.
'Who is it? Adam Hailey?'
But with the disaster having arrived, there was no way the Count could have returned to the estate already.
He might have already died fighting the monster swarm.
'Or, that suspicious apothecary bastard?'
That, too, was unlikely.
Seeing as they even used a sleeping potion, they seemed to know full well what would happen after he fell asleep.
Besides, the monster sealed in the Hailey estate was in the process of being released.
If they were in their right mind, they would have already fled and then some...
"And this sword... if you can, give it back to Adam Hailey and command his loyalty as payment."
At that moment.
The clearly heard voice brought his racing thoughts to a halt.
"He is a valuable asset who will be a great help when you return to the capital and are reinstated, and even after."
That familiar, slick voice.
'It's them.'
There was no doubt. The goddamn apothecary bastard who had audaciously covered his eyes with their hand and poured a sleeping potion on him.
"So there's no harm in keeping him close and using him as Your Highness's sword. At least he's upright... he is upright, isn't he."
'Why are they spouting such nonsense?'
'What does someone like you know?'
He wanted to get up right now, throttle the bastard, and demand answers.
But his eyelids still refused to open easily.
As if his earlier listless resignation to the enemy's attack had never happened, he now tried furiously to open his eyes.
"Sob, my babies... Mommy's sorry for letting a bastard like this consume you."
In the meantime, the bastard made a strange noise and whimpered.
And then.
"…Anyway, with this, I've paid back my debt to you."
Their presence grew distant, like someone about to leave.
'No. I still have questions for you.'
He couldn't let them leave like this.
A maddening impatience washed over him.
His fingers twitched, wanting to grab the apothecary right now.
"...So next time we meet, don't try to kill me."
Even then, the bastard was steadily spouting nonsense.
He couldn't understand why they were saying the same thing again, even after he had sworn not to threaten them while in the prison.
"If you're a bastard with even a shred of conscience...!"
'Insolent bastard. When I get up, I'll wring your neck this time for sure.'
The moment he retorted with a cold scoff in his mind.
His eyelids, which had been giving him so much trouble, snapped open.
And the last thing he saw was a small figure, disappearing like a mirage.
The pink hair, caught in the single ray of sunlight breaking through the receding storm clouds, shone brilliantly.
The one he had dismissed as just a bizarre fragment of a dream.
It was the woman who had been slicing the monster to death.
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