#127

I tried to think calmly.

If he could use Distortion like that, I couldn’t suppress him with raw strength.

‘I absolutely have to stall for time.’

If I could just buy some time, the Saintess would arrive, and then this bastard would be Game Over.

Necessary information?

I had already obtained enough.

I knew that the strategy game maniac was online and that he was hostile toward Insanity.

As for who Insanity was and how the world was turning, I could just ask the strategy game maniac.

‘To do that, I have to pretend I actually intend to kill him.’

The kid was wavering between ‘should I kill’ and ‘should I die.’

The moment I showed signs of being terrified, he might conclude that killing me would be more entertaining.

“Right. Just stay still next time. It’s hard to kill you if you use your ability to slip away.”

I did my best to act nonchalant as I searched my pockets.

“…Using a tool is fine, right?”

Unless one’s grip strength was overwhelmingly powerful, using cloth or string was more efficient when strangling.

That’s why assassins carry wires.

“Of course.”

“Wait a second. I don’t carry murder weapons around specifically to kill people.”

I pulled out a ball of thread from my pocket and untangled it.

I intended to make a sturdy, multi-layered cord.

“Why do you carry thread?”

“…This is an orphanage. I use it when playing with the kids. Things like cat’s cradle, or making bracelets.”

“That’s great!”

‘What is?’

The boy continued with a bright smile.

“Killing someone with a tool brought to play with children! I absolutely love that irony. It really brings out the feeling of a murder attempt by someone who isn’t used to killing—no, someone who never even intended to do something like murder. This fresh feeling! Is this your first time?”

Because it was such an unexpected, crazy thing to say, my hands paused for a moment.

“…I’ve never killed anyone before.”

“Wow, really? Actually, it’s my first time too!”

Well, of course it was.

If he had died before, he’d be in a grave or in hell by now.

“Ah, but I wish there were more blood splatters. Like the feeling of stabbing someone dozens of times because you don’t know where the vital spots are. Strangling is just too clean. The pain is too short…”

The boy looked at me with a shy expression.

“I want my first experience to be special. You understand, right?”

‘Understand my ass.’

I fought with all my might to keep my face from twisting as I replied.

“…Sorry, but I don’t have a tool for that.”

“I do!”

As the boy said this, he covered his mouth and made a gagging sound, like a cat coughing up a hairball.

‘Is he throwing up?’

Then, with his head bowed, he reached into his mouth and pulled out a dagger.

“Here!”

“…Why on earth did you take it out that way? Can’t you just wear it on your waist normally?”

“I’m an outsider visiting the Order, so I can’t possess weapons. That’s why I used Distortion to put it inside my body. It can’t be properly detected in there.”

‘He’s like some kind of drug mule.’

Though I didn’t like it, I concluded it was better to take it for now.

I wouldn’t actually use it, but it was better to have a weapon in my hand.

“Give it here.”

As I reached out, the boy hesitated just as he was about to hand over the dagger.

“…Come to think of it, I think we can do the killing and being killed all at once.”

“What?”

“You can just kill me while I’m dying from excessive bleeding!”

“What the—”

Before I could call it nonsense, the lunatic swung the dagger.

The moment I quickly raised my arm into a defensive posture, the dagger was repelled by something invisible.

“Ack!”

The boy let out a short scream and dropped the dagger.

‘Did the Sacred Relic activate?’

The boy looked at me with teary eyes.

“…Can’t you take off the Sacred Relic?”

‘Am I crazy enough to take this off?’

“No.”

“I promise I won’t attack.”

‘Bullshit.’

If he wasn’t going to attack, it didn’t matter if I wore the Sacred Relic.

I stepped backward, creating distance.

Soon, the boy’s face turned pale.

“Wh-where are you going? You still intend to kill me, right?”

“That feeling just disappeared.”

“What?”

“Why should I grant the wish of someone who lies?”

“I-I’m sorry! I really won’t do anything this time! Really! I won’t even ask you to take off the Sacred Relic!”

The boy hurriedly picked up the dagger and held the hilt toward me.

“Please…”

His expression was earnest and desperate.

“I’ll be satisfied with just once. If you just stab me once, I’ll die of excessive bleeding on my own. Please?”

“I said I won’t.”

“…Then, could you at least frown for me?”

I replied with a deliberately gentle smile.

“I don’t want to.”

“H-how could you…”

His purple eyes darted back and forth.

I watched the movement of those pupils closely.

‘…Now that we’re in a stalemate, the Helper will probably send a new Quest.’

If Affinity rises too high, a person becomes unable to think of anything other than killing that person or dying by their hand.

The so-called ‘SukiDEATH’ mode.

Only by escaping that state would he be able to negotiate or flee.

Therefore, the ‘Helper’ would lower the Affinity toward me.

That was my expectation.

“…Then it can’t be helped.”

However, the ensuing action deviated greatly from my expectations.

The boy raised the dagger and slammed it straight down into the back of his own hand.

‘What is he…!’

My eyes widened.

Sudden self-harm? Why?

Is there some blood-activated magic circle drawn in the underground archive?

Otherwise, there’s no way….

“Ah, you frowned.”

The boy beamed.

“…Why did you do that?”

“It’s possible to ‘show’ something worth frowning at, right? I did it so I could see more of your frowning face!”

‘Is he an idiot?’

What if he dies from excessive bleeding?

‘…Wait a minute.’

“You asked if you could come back to life after being killed by me, right? What about you? Can you be revived?”

“That’s a secret.”

“Is there any point in keeping it a secret? Anyway, once you die, if you’re online when your name is called, it’ll be obvious immediately.”

“…Ah.”

“You have a way to resurrect, don’t you?”

“Th-this is something Fabio figured out on his own? Not because I answered?”

“No, the fact that you called it a secret is practically an answer. Thanks for telling me.”

The boy flinched.

I took a step toward him.

“By any chance, did a Quest to commit suicide pop up?”

“…How did you know?”

‘As I thought.’

“If you can resurrect, suicide is a means of escape. If there was no other way, a Quest to escape even if it means dying must have appeared.”

“…….”

“What I’m curious about is this. Why haven’t you committed suicide yet?”

“If I commit suicide, a corpse remains, right? Then I wouldn’t be able to pretend to be Reyes Floren anymore…”

The boy lowered his head and mumbled.

“I worked so hard…. I don’t want to lose Andrea, lose my family, and be unable to meet Adelaide. I won’t do it unless it’s truly the final moment.”

‘I get the gist.’

This guy is definitely the type to die in a Roguelike Game while hoarding items.

To not realize that a situation where nothing changes regardless of how much time is stalled is already the ‘final moment.’

‘The Helper probably sent a Quest to commit suicide quickly a long time ago.’

From the moment someone who remembered ‘Reyes’s’ face couldn’t be killed, this identity was as good as discarded.

But because this gaming failure ignored the advice and kept spitting out important information, the Helper had grown impatient.

‘So they caused all this chaos to somehow drive a guy who has no intention of committing suicide toward death.’

“…Can’t you stop the bleeding? Using Distortion or something.”

“I can.”

“Then do it quickly. If you die of excessive bleeding, you can’t die by my hand.”

I spoke while deliberately scowling.

The boy stared at me blankly and then obediently followed my words.

“…Why didn’t you try to meet Athanas?”

“What?”

“You could have visited the Capital Church and met Athanas at any time.”

If it were the truly insane ‘Athanasuki,’ I feel like he would have ignored whatever Quest was given and sought out Athanas first.

How did the ‘Helper’ prevent that?

“…Because that’s not the Athanas I know.”

“What do you mean?”

“I realized something after seeing Adelaide.”

The boy was silent for a moment before continuing.

“…The child I met wasn’t Adelaide. She was just a child who could become Adelaide.”

‘Well, of course.’

The name Adelaide itself is a baptismal name received after becoming a Saintess.

Unless the world is ruined and most of the apostles are dead, ‘Alicia’ would never become the Gray Saintess.

‘Nor would she need to.’

If nothing unusual happens, Alicia will simply live as ‘Alicia’ until she dies.

“Since I brought her here, that child is now further away from the possibility of becoming Adelaide.”

‘Isn’t that a good thing?’

Becoming the Gray Saintess means sacrificing endlessly in a ruined world and receiving no reward even after death.

Why is he saying that with such a serious expression?

“So?”

“What do you mean ‘so’? I’ve erased Adelaide with my own hands. The Adelaide I love can never be seen again. All because of me!”

‘……?’

What kind of nonsense is this?

“You said you took Adelaide and are protecting her? Then who is at your house?”

“That’s a stranger named Alicia. Not Adelaide.”

My brain stalled for a moment after hearing such baseless nonsense.

So, the fact he realized after seeing Adelaide was….

“…An Athanas who isn’t a Heretic Inquisitor is not Athanas?”

“Exactly!”

‘I’m getting dizzy.’

“That’s why I’m waiting. I want to die at the hands of Heretic Inquisitor Athanas, not at the hands of some unknown Holy Knight.”

‘Where do I even start debunking this?’

“…That Athanas became a Heretic Inquisitor when the Plague God swallowed the world. What if the Plague God player has already been eliminated? Then wouldn’t you be unable to meet that Athanas forever?”

“That’s fine! No matter which Othergod ruins the world, Athanas became a Heretic Inquisitor.”

“So, in any case, the world has to be ruined?”

“Of course! Otherwise, I can’t meet Athanas.”

Looking at the eyes filled with absolute conviction, I felt my breath hitch.

“…Did you really think of that yourself?”

To meet the real Athanas, an Othergod must swallow the Dark Realm?

‘Bullshit.’

This was a ‘Distortion’ a hundred times more forced than the idea of destroying the entire Order Sect to avenge a loved one.

“Naturally….”

“No, that’s not your wish. The Distorted One distorted it as they pleased.”

The purple pupils unnaturally fumbled in the air.

‘The Helper must be sending some kind of message.’

“In the first place, what do you even know about Athanas? The ‘real’ Athanas? Does such a thing even exist? You just played a game. Don’t you only know as much as the game company put into the game?”

I continued before Reyes could retort.

“How can you be sure that setting is the same as reality? What if the game company combined settings of various real-life figures to create a protagonist-like character? What if Heretic Slayer Athanas is a completely fictional entity?”

“…The fact that Athanas killed the Plague God’s Cult Leader actually happened.”

“Fine, let’s assume Heretic Slayer Athanas existed. That’s why Adelaide’s soul is in the hands of the Distorted One. But who exactly is the Athanas you know? The perfect Athanas who killed the Cult Leader without taking a single hit? Or the Athanas who repeated the nightmare of dying stupidly and waking up in a startle hundreds of times? Which version of Athanas, from which playthrough, is closest to the real one?”

“That’s….”

“It’s a meaningless question, right? You’d need to know how it actually was to judge if the reproduction was accurate, but you don’t know what the real Athanas is like.”

“You’re saying… I don’t know Athanas well?”

The purple pupils narrowed vertically.

Facing a face that had completely lost its expression, cold sweat naturally flowed down my back.

‘Did I step on a landmine?’

But I couldn’t step back and retreat here.

‘The important thing is momentum.’

To persuade, there must be conviction. The moment I said something weak, like the previous words were a mistake, all persuasiveness would vanish.

I spoke with an even louder voice on purpose.

“Yes! You don’t! That’s why you came here! Because you don’t know!”

“Again with the not knowing….”

“If you thought only the Heretic Slayer Athanas was real, you wouldn’t have even started Conclude.”

If you want to see Athanas’s face, it’s faster to turn on ‘Die Heretic!’.

If the play time is 1,000 hours, Athanas appears for all 1,000 hours.

Because Athanas is the protagonist.

On the other hand, in Conclude, there isn’t even a guarantee that you can meet Athanas.

Because Athanas might have died before meeting me.

“Out of 800 hours, if you count only the moments Athanas was mentioned even in text, how many hours would that be? I bet it’s not even 5 hours.”

Then why go through the trouble of playing Conclude?

“You wanted to know more about Athanas.”

Other possibilities of Athanas.

A guy who plays a strategy game that doesn’t even suit his aptitude just to see a glimpse of that—and you’re saying he isn’t curious about the current Athanas?

“It’s a ridiculous contradiction. If a perfect Athanas, the Athanas you love, exists and that Athanas drifts further away the more someone intervenes, then you shouldn’t have chosen to enter this world in the first place. If you thought that from the start, you wouldn’t have played the game multiple times. You would have just picked one perfect gameplay video and repeated it forever.”

But ‘Athanasuki’ didn’t do that.

“Don’t be swayed by that damn Helper or whoever. Don’t stop thinking and ponder until the end what is real. At the very least, you should know what it is you truly want.”

The purple pupils trembled.

“If you stop thinking, you lose. Got it?”

“…Yes.”

[

SYSTEM:

‘Atanas, I like you’ has been deeply influenced by your words!]

[

SYSTEM:

An anecdote is added to the achievement ‘Miracle of the Silver Tongue’.]

[

SYSTEM:

Affinity has risen very slightly.]

Chapter 128