Chapter : 164

How long had I been unconscious? When I opened my eyes, my throat was parched.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t had any water since morning. The nanny had been so busy with party preparations that I hadn’t even had a chance to feel thirsty.

But the thirst that came late was excruciating.

“Albedo.”

My voice came out a little hoarse.

《I am here.》

“How long was I out?”

《About four hours have passed.》

At Albedo’s explanation, I thought that not much time had passed.

If I hadn’t known how much time had passed, wouldn’t I have felt psychologically intimidated?

I’d heard that one of the reasons for locking people in a windowless underground prison was for the purpose of pressure.

Come to think of it, I think I’d also heard that police interrogation rooms don’t have windows for that reason.

My thoughts, pieced together with difficulty, continued without breaking.

“Ha.”

I really must have lost my mind.

…Let’s trust my father. He was the one who sacrificed himself to protect me in the midst of the destruction that dyed the entire sky crimson.

I couldn’t possibly imagine that he wouldn’t be able to find me just because I was in a place like this.

“Peep….”

At Lou’s worried chirp, I gave a small warning.

“Don’t come out.”

It seemed a visitor had arrived.

Swallowing my nervousness, I listened to the sound of footsteps.

Being locked in an underground prison in this state, I must be pretty crazy.

To be happy to see Iris Viden, is this Stockholm syndrome?

While I was connecting my thoughts here and there, the light turned on.

As the light suddenly flooded in, I instinctively furrowed my brow. It took some time for my eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness.

After blinking several times and finally adjusting to the light, the moment I opened my eyes, I witnessed a shocking sight.

“Mordegar!”

“So you knew my name.”

Of course, he was Iris Viden’s right-hand man, trusted enough to act as the Master of Gold’s double.

In fact, that was just a single sentence to describe Mordegar.

‘Damn it!’

Even in the Empire where magic was commercialized, there weren’t many people who could create magitools, and among those who made staves for mages, commonly called staff craftsmen, they were extremely rare.

And Mordegar was a precious individual who could personally craft a high-grade staff, one of the best in the Empire….

“What happened to your arm!!”

Startled, my voice cracked.

After coughing dryly several times, Mordegar stared at me for a while, then strode over.

He then stuck a water bottle in my mouth and tilted it back.

Water poured out of the bottle, and some went up my nose.

“Kehek, keoheok!!”

After finally spitting out the water bottle, I coughed repeatedly, as if water had entered my lungs.

For a moment, water mixed with my coughs, and then, exhausted, my body went limp.

Thanks to that, my thirst was quenched, but what little strength I had left was completely gone.

“Water torture now?”

“If you find this much painful, it would be better to give up quickly.”

What on earth was I supposed to give up on? My well-being? Or my mental health? I thought that had been shattered a long time ago.

‘Albedo. Can you tell me this person’s desire?’

《That much is not difficult.》

Then while Albedo observes Mordegar, shall I draw some attention?

“So who on earth did a number on the arm of the Empire’s precious staff craftsman?”

“You knew about that too?”

At Mordegar’s question, I let out a smirk, pretending to be relaxed.

“Because I know more than you think.”

I did know the future at one point, after all.

I can’t say that anymore. If I really knew the future, I wouldn’t have been so powerlessly locked in an underground prison.

“The source of your knowledge was also one of the things my master wanted to know.

Now… it seems she has an idea.”

“Ah.”

At Mordegar’s words, a fact I had momentarily forgotten resurfaced.

Iris Viden knew about the game, Lapis Academy.

The secret of the world that even Albedo didn’t know, and that the system had tried to destroy me just for attempting to reveal it.

‘Could there be another possessor or reincarnator besides me?’

It probably wasn’t regression. If it were regression, they wouldn’t have been able to know that this world was a world-game-created for the amusement of an unspecified number of people.

《Theo! You said you would draw his attention!》

Ah, right, my mind was momentarily distracted.

Fortunately, Mordegar hadn’t noticed Albedo yet, so let’s call it safe.

《Mordegar’s strongest desire is for Iris Viden, that woman, to go no further.》

Mordegar, who was supposed to just follow Iris and help her move forward, wanted her to stop.

For his unwavering loyalty to be shaken, what she was doing had to be a huge event, enough to sacrifice even himself.

For example, a terrible thing like transforming herself into a cursed monster like ‘Ouroboros’.

A small piece was enough to turn a guess into a certainty.

“Iris Viden really is trying to become Ouroboros.”

At my small mutter, my body was suddenly lifted.

Clang. With the slight sound of chains moving, my body, which had been powerlessly leaning against the wall, was instantly lifted up.

The cold wall pressed against my back, and at the same time, in the blink of an eye, my breath was cut off.

Mordegar was choking me!

“Keoheok!”

“How did you know?”

Murderous intent filled Mordegar’s eyes.

I tried to pry his hands off with my broken fingers, but it was impossible to remove him with my strength.

My heart beat like crazy, as if it would break through my ribs.

My whole body trembled with the suffocating pressure.

Like I was flailing with water rising above my head, every time I tried to breathe, a deeper despair rushed in.

I’m going to die. Here. Without ever seeing my friends again, and without seeing my father—

“Kkuueuk….”

Just as my vision was turning white and my ears were going numb, the sound of a tongue clicking sounded like a massive clap of thunder.

At the same time, the hand choking my neck disappeared, and air rushed in all at once.

Hot and cold breaths mixed and poured into my chest, and it hurt as if a knife was stabbing my lungs.

“Cough! Cough!”

I gasped and coughed. My vision flashed, and my heart pounded as if it would burst.

My consciousness, which had been fading, was forcibly dragged back up with the sharp taste of the air.

I’m alive, I didn’t die.

A faint tear of relief almost came to my eyes.

“Mordegar.”

“…My apologies.”

Through my hazy vision, I saw Iris scratching the empty left arm area of Mordegar with her fingernails, as if tearing it off.

The wound had just been staunched, but as Iris Viden stimulated it with her own hand, the clothes seemed to be dyed red as if the wound had reopened.

“You may leave now.”

“…As you wish.”

Mordegar bowed his head and left, and I looked up at Iris Viden, gasping for breath.

Iris Viden, who had strode over, wiped the corner of my eye with her finger.

What? What is she trying to do? Flinch, my body trembled naturally.

“Oh my, are you a little scared now?”

“I was always scared.”

When facing Iris Viden, I was always accompanied by fear.

“Should I take that as a compliment?”

Iris smiled lightly.

Even so, she just looked like a cruel woman who had just picked at the wound of her faithful subordinate.

“What on earth did you do to provoke my child, that the ever-so-gentle Mordegar would dare to try to kill a guest I brought here?”

“I just realized that you intend to become Ouroboros.”

“Oh my.”

As if surprised, Iris’s eyes widened, and then she laughed like an innocent girl.

But what I felt was—

“Kuaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!”

The excruciating pain of a sharp heel digging into my ankle.

It wasn’t the pain of skin tearing, but the pressure of twisting and crushing the bone, and the strength drained from my legs as tears streamed down my face.

Had my ankle bone been shattered to pieces?

As if not satisfied with that, Iris stomped on my ankle several times before finally, slowly, lifting her foot.

My body, out of control, trembled.

I couldn’t even catch my breath properly, and strange, animal-like sounds escaped my throat.

“Everything that has happened to you is all because of that child, Lerwon.”

My mind, which had been melting in pain, instantly returned at Iris’s gentle nonsense.

“Don’t, haak haak, give me that bullshit, haak.”

There’s a limit to gaslighting.

The reason I was like this now wasn’t my senior’s fault, but because of this damn person in front of me.

It was Iris who had kidnapped me, and it was Iris herself who was inflicting extreme torture, yet there was a limit to her sophistry!

“…Get lost.”

With a trembling hand, I raised my middle finger at Iris and glared at her as if to kill her.

“Alright, then.”

Iris smiled gently and left the underground prison without looking back.

The sound of her clicking heels faded, and darkness returned.

As soon as the thought that I was alone came to me, tears started to stream down my face again.

《You! Are you out of your mind!!》

While I was shedding tears, Albedo’s harsh reprimand helped me maintain my sanity.

Damn it, I was just an ordinary gamer.

This was too much for someone who didn’t even know the first letter of torture. It was just too much.

《Are you crazy and want to die!》

“Who in the world wants to die….”

I also had a promise with my father, so there would never be a time when I would give up on my own life.

“I’m okay.”

The index finger that had been forcibly broken throbbed, but it would probably heal within three days.

Then I would immediately escape with the Writer skill. Yes, that would do it.

“I’m really—”

If I didn’t think so myself, I would not be able to bear it.

“Okay.”

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