By Zephyria =======
Wake up! You’re blinded by jealousy! You’re just burning with a malice that wants to kill Uncle! If you kill him, that child will resent you!
He’ll be angry for a moment, then he’ll laugh. Haha, if that kid could smile and get along with the enemy who killed his mother, why wouldn’t he be able to smile and get along with me? As time passes, he might even be grateful to me. For killing Uncle in his stead.
The thoughts, tangled in a chaotic mess, eventually arrived at a certain field. Wildflowers in full bloom. The scent of irises swirling on the wind.
If I kill Uncle, I can roll around in that field with that child.
Wolf’s mouth opened. A voice came out, so low that it was barely audible even to his own ears.
‘I don’t refuse.’
〔Confirmed.〕
The window disappears.
The corridor disappears.
Even the darkness vanishes with a thunderous roar.
“……Hut.”
Wolf opened his eyes.
The sound of rain blocked his ears. A torrential downpour poured down as if it intended to push this shabby house all the way to the sea. For some reason, he felt as if he were trapped in a corridor beneath a deck where the scent of salt lingered. He felt like he had seen something similar in a dream. And…….
Someone reaching out. A figure shimmering as if obscured by water. Who was it?
Suddenly, an unbearable sense of anxiety surged. The dream was like shards of glass scattered across the floor. Dammit, why can’t I remember! I just woke up!
Wolf closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath. As time passed, the remnants of the dream gradually faded. They were erased one by one, and what remained in the end was a faint sense of unpleasantness. Like the feeling of peeking into a prison through bars and quickly retreating the moment a presence is felt in the darkness.
Wolf pushed himself up. The blanket, soaked in sweat, hung limp. Golden hair was messily tangled across his chest, where his tattoos stretched.
Another fever?
Wolf pushed his hair back and counted the days. It had been ten days again.
Since the middle of last year, the fevers had come regularly. Every week or ten days. The illness would burn Wolf’s body with high heat and then leave after a day or two. Despite suffering so frequently, his body actually grew at a rapid pace. To the point where people he met after a couple of months would be surprised, asking, ‘Who are you?’
“Hey.”
〔Yes.〕
“How many days was I sick? One? Two?”
Wolf lowered his legs from the bed. The cold wooden floor touched his bare feet.
〔23 hours and 15 minutes.〕
〔Almost one day.〕
“Excellent. You didn’t drag it out to two days.”
Wolf stood up, rubbing the back of his neck, which still felt slightly warm, with one hand. He trudged over and opened the door. A moisture-laden wind rushed inside, scattering raindrops across the floor.
Wolf caught the rainwater in his hand and rubbed it on his face. The heat lingering on his skin subsided slightly.
“Hey. Is this a terminal illness?”
He repeated a conversation they had already had over thirty times.
〔Scanning…….〕
〔No symptoms of life-threatening disease detected.〕
〔Conclusion. Fever symptoms are unrelated to any fatal condition.〕
“Is it not a Reward Side Effect?”
〔Cannot determine. Correlation with Reward Side Effect is uncertain.〕
〔Recommendation. Receive a detailed diagnosis from an entity possessing medical authority.〕
“Fuck off. Ah, you don’t have a dick.”
He kicked the floor once and plopped down on the edge of the bed. Rain continued to pour outside the wide-open door.
“Nothing happened while I was groaning, right?”
〔Nothing happened.〕
“Well, of course. There’s no way anything would happen…….”
Wolf’s voice trailed off. Suddenly, a strange scene bloomed before his eyes. What was this? Was it a part of the memory burned away by the high fever? Or was it an illusion?
The sensation of a door opening. The scent of irises spreading in all directions. A fragrance so thick it made him momentarily forget the heat burning through his entire body.
“Did nothing really happen?”
〔Nothing happened.〕
“Nothing? At all?”
〔Nothing happened.〕
Byeoruki, repeating the same answer, added:
〔A Thunder-Estimated Human Entity did stop by here briefly.〕
〔5 hours and 23 minutes after you exhibited a fever response.〕
“Something did happen. Dammit.”
And then?
Memories followed in succession. Pale blue eyes looking down at him. Through the eye holes of a tightly stretched human-skin mask. Unwavering, as if inspecting the carcass of a freshly captured beast.
A cold voice speaking. If you swallow just a few drops, the hardest hurdle will probably…….
“That guy, didn’t he say something to me?”
〔Correct. He proposed to supply drugs.〕
“……Hey.”
Wolf pressed his temples hard with both hands. When talking to Byeoruki, there were times he felt the limitations of the act called ‘explanation.’ Exactly like right now.
“Don’t you know what drugs are? And you still say nothing happened?”
〔The entity’s proposal was for the purpose of pain relief. No intent to kill detected.〕
〔If no murderous intent toward you is detected, it is generally not ‘something’ by my standards.〕
“Fine, I get it. Other than that, nothing else—no, nothing else happened, right?”
〔If you mean other things, there was something else.〕
〔Light physical contact occurred.〕
“What?”
Wolf took his hands away from his temples.
“Light physical contact? Light?”
〔Not referring to mass. Lightness based on the depth of contact.〕
〔Oral contact. 1 minute.〕
〔Initiated by you.〕
〔Contact was superficial. No contact occurred inside the oral cavity.〕
“…….”
It took a long time for Wolf to understand what Byeoruki meant. Superficial, the surface layer. In other words, their lips touched. For some reason, he had been the one to initiate it. And the opponent was that pirate wearing a human-skin mask.
The brain that had barely grasped this came to a screeching halt. Only after blinking four or five times did his mind escape the state of suspension. Wolf looked up at the ceiling.
Fine. Let’s organize this.
He was in a state of mental and physical weakness due to the fever. He couldn’t control his body as he wished. In the midst of that, he turned his face in a certain direction, and coincidentally, the guy’s face was right there. Collision. It’s a natural law of physics. He was merely a victim of that law.
Wolf shrugged and spoke nonchalantly.
“Well, when you’re sick, you can’t control your body properly. Most people can’t. Right?”
〔Correct.〕
〔Impaired movement during fever is common.〕
The witness agreed. Organization complete.
Thankfully, he had absolutely no memory of the physical contact in question. There was no way he had ‘been moved’ or ‘initiated’ it because of the guy. Rather, that initiation was definitive evidence of how severe his coma had been at the time. As if he were crazy enough to kiss a pirate who looked like a serial killer……. Stop. Any more than this is self-torture.
The next step was to devise a way to handle this.
“You said the light physical contact lasted for 1 minute? He just stayed still even though it went on for quite a while?”
〔Correction. 1 minute is not a long time at all.〕
“It is. Usually, if someone suddenly makes physical contact like that, you push them away immediately.”
〔The opponent likely froze in confusion. In that case, a 1-minute delay is a natural reaction.〕
Is that so? But he couldn’t imagine a Stohl Person freezing in confusion over that much physical contact.
“What was his reaction afterward?”
〔He asked you, ‘What are you doing?’ Then he lay back down and left the quarters after 6 minutes.〕
So this was it. The guy also found the superficial oral contact unpleasant, but he understood it was an accident caused by the laws of physics and left quietly.
He’s maintaining at least a minimum level of rationality. That Silver guy.
‘Do you know a guy named Silver?’
That had been a leading question, essentially meaning, ‘Can’t you recognize me, you piece of shit Attendant?’ The name Wolf had learned from his seniors was none other than Silver.
And that Silver had remained quiet even after being subjected to an unexpected physical contact. He had completely dropped his suspicions toward him.
〔The Thunder-Estimated Human Entity asked the Insectoid Entity to see if your face resembled the
Wolf chewed over Byeoruki’s words one by one.
〔Mentioned in the conversation that the two of them saw the
〔The logic being that it is rare for a human’s face to change drastically in one year.〕
〔The Thunder-Estimated Human Entity stated that the
〔Based on the context of the conversation, it is estimated that he concluded you are not the same person as the
It’s a relief it ended in his favor, but……. Did those two get confused because they saw me after a year? I think that
Wolf’s nickname was none other than ‘Attendant.’ Even after it was revealed he was the biological child of White Deer and he was recognized as the son of Bronze-beaked Hawk, the Stohl warriors openly ignored him. ‘Attendant’ was a nickname where that contempt was concentrated. Even if there were three people in the world who looked exactly alike, the probability that two of them would be called ‘Attendant’ is extremely low. There was no need to even look. That Attendant is this Attendant.
90 – Hell’s Execution Order