Chapter : 191

Ah, I fainted for a moment.

When I opened my eyes wide, I saw the senior, dripping with sweat, supporting me as we moved forward.

“Senior.”

My voice was hoarse.

“How long was I out?”

“About 30 minutes.”

Fortunately, it seemed I hadn’t been unconscious for very long.

“I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize.”

In that short moment, my body seemed to have recovered a little.

However, I had only barely salvaged my consciousness from the darkness. If it weren’t for the recovery skill I obtained early on, I really would have kicked the bucket right there.

I was barely prolonging a fragile life that could be cut short at any moment.

“Hahaha. I feel like I’ve become Mr. Roach.”

“Talking nonsense again.”

“I meant I feel like a terrible six-legged insect.”

“Why compare yourself to that of all things, tsk.”

Perhaps he imagined it, but the senior’s expression turned pale.

Well, Mr. Roach is terrible.

As I let out a few chuckles, the senior’s gaze became subtle.

Is he worried? Indeed, even I would be a bit scared if someone who just woke up from fainting started giggling with weird jokes.

“Senior.”

“Yeah.”

“We will definitely escape, right?”

Even though I want to think only hopeful thoughts, fear keeps surging up.

That we might not be able to escape like this and die.

While trying to think it would be okay, terrible fear surged from deep within.

“Theo.”

“Sorry for saying weak things.”

We will be fine.

I have no choice but to believe that.

“Is the walk over now?”

Suddenly, a voice from ahead sends chills down my entire body.

“Iris Viden.”

At the appearance of the monster smiling leisurely, the senior’s complexion turns deadly pale. Clear fear shows on his face.

“Oh my, aren’t you going to run away?”

Tilting her head, she looked quite pitiful.

The sight of a monster imitating a human was even laughable.

“Lerwon.”

“…Yes, Mother.”

“You should end your running away from home now, shouldn’t you?”

“Iris! It seems you’ve already forgotten the bet you made with me? I clearly—”

“Ah, I remember very well, Theo. You told me to give up on you two. But, one can give up and then become greedy again, can’t they?”

“What kind of sophistry is that!”

I must think of a way.

A brilliant way to deal with Iris. A way to somehow escape this situation.

‘Nothing comes to mind.’

Emotions are clearly revealed. Despair was written all over my face.

What on earth should I do in a situation like this? Should we run further inside the dungeon?

There’s no way we can escape from Iris with such a method.

“Theo.”

At the voice calling me, I barely hold onto my sanity.

Don’t despair, Theo Lisitoel!

There’s no way anything will change just because I despair.

I slapped my cheeks and faced the opponent straight on.

The opponent is an overwhelmingly strong individual who defies comparison.

Even if I risk my life to fight, she is someone who could just snort and lightly crush me to death.

Even if I were to fight in a 100% perfect state.

But currently, my condition is so terribly bad that even empty words can’t call me fine, so I will probably die.

Yeah, I might really die.

“…….”

But isn’t it all the same anyway?

A faint smile spreads across my lips for a moment.

“Senior.”

The sensation of sensing death comes alive sharper than ever.

What I feel first with that sharp sense is instinctive fear.

As if there is any human who wishes for death.

However, it can’t be helped.

That it can’t be helped, maybe that means doing the easiest method that comes to mind—only now did such a thought occur to me.

“Senior.”

I’m sick and tired of things like sacrifice.

Every time Lucian sacrificed himself to protect the world, I couldn’t understand it, but now I think I know.

There was no other way.

It’s this hard to save just one person, let alone the world; how terrible must it have been for the protagonist who had to shoulder the world?

“Run away.”

Hesitating, I wrote the words with a trembling hand.

「Bind Iris」

As the sentence was completed, golden chains sprang out and tightly bound Iris.

Even for simple eight characters that didn’t even need to be long, my heart hurt as if being squeezed.

Ah, my heart isn’t a tomato, you know.

The strength in my legs gave out, and I knelt down with a thud.

“Hurry.”

I don’t even have the energy to urge him.

Senior Lerwon looked back and forth between me and Iris several times as if hesitating, then eventually ran off.

A very good judgment.

Iris, who was quietly watching the situation, lightly waved her arm.

Unable to withstand the aftermath, my vision began to turn red.

“What are you thinking?”

“…I’m wondering if I’ll die like this.”

“It seems that power of yours is trickier to handle than I thought.”

“It tends to be.”

I barely continued speaking intermittently.

The reason Iris, who could break those chains anytime, isn’t doing so is solely due to interest.

So I must somehow continue talking even a little more to buy time for Lerwon to escape.

My consciousness flickered, but I tried to wake up by pinching my thigh.

Since I could hardly feel the pain of pinching my thigh, I chewed on the flesh inside my mouth.

“Before I die, there’s something I’m curious about.”

“Ask away.”

“What does the senior mean to you?”

* * *

At Theo’s question, Iris’s pupils, which had been like a snake’s, momentarily transform into human ones.

As if realizing she had failed to control her emotions for a moment, Iris blinked once and returned her eyes to their original blood-red color.

“My special possession.”

Was there any meaning other than that?

Iris tried to quietly reflect on her memories but stopped.

There was no need to listen to Ouroboros’s sorrowful cries demanding love that filled her head.

Its reverence towards god was truly devoted.

“Do you need some other explanation?”

“…I don’t know.”

His voice, sounding like it would extinguish at any moment as if even continuing to speak was difficult, was pitiful if one considered it so.

Therefore, Iris decided to tell Theo a special truth.

A cruel truth that would make him give up everything and despair the moment he knew.

“Lerwon, that child tried to become Ouroboros, right?”

So what? The question was plainly revealed on Theo’s face.

Iris lightly waved her hand and unraveled the chains.

Blood burst from Theo’s mouth from the aftermath, but she didn’t really mind.

“Meaning arises in the ‘first’ of anything.”

Just as the Primeval Demon became the King of Demons commanding all demons with absolute power.

Just as the first human held the Holy Sword imbued with divine power and willingly sacrificed himself to become the first Hero.

The first snake created to support the world became the God of Snakes itself.

The ability to use and control all snakes under its command meant absolute power over humans who possessed the characteristics of a snake.

Therefore, Iris forcibly imbued her subordinates in the Dark Ops with snake characteristics.

Although they were raised strictly to obey the Golden’s orders, humans cannot be trusted 100%. If driven into certain situations, they can always change their words, break promises, and betray.

However, the moment snake characteristics were imbued, absolute loyalty became a guaranteed procedure, so there was no need to hesitate.

Although Theo’s expression was dyed with extreme disgust upon hearing all that.

“My son, who stopped short of becoming Ouroboros, will not be able to disobey my orders, as I have become the First Snake. Finally, he becomes my complete possession.”

“Crazy bitch.”

Explicit profanity flowed from Theo’s mouth.

Iris chuckled softly, not minding at all.

Having severed the remaining golden chains holding her feet, Iris strode towards Theo, who was kneeling and barely gasping for breath.

Iris personally bent down, grabbed the bloody Theo’s chin, and shook it this way and that.

“Being the First Snake is certainly impressive.”

Releasing Theo’s chin, Iris personally plucked one scale that had sprouted on her skin, hidden by her clothes.

The golden scale shone even inside the dungeon.

“To think that feeding just one scale can give an ordinary human snake characteristics.”

Theo’s expression bleached white upon hearing Iris’s words.

Ah, no. Amidst Theo’s voice murmuring quietly, Iris laughed innocently like a child, hee hee.

“Don’t worry. It won’t hurt.”

Iris reached out towards Theo.

* * *

“Master.”

“Call me Mother.”

At the firm command, the boy wiggled his fingers.

The splendid woman in front of him didn’t give the boy even a glance, but the boy could feel that the woman was pouring all her attention on him.

For a boy who had been abused by his parents, having someone else pour attention on him was a very unfamiliar thing, so he could notice it quickly.

“Mother.”

“Good job.”

Reaching out, the woman stroked the boy’s head.

That touch was so warm, it felt like it would take away all the boy’s reason.

The savior who saved the boy who almost died as dew on the execution ground, and willingly gave him her name instead of the name of the parents who abused him.

Although the work the woman ordered was sometimes too arduous, the boy felt he could endure it.

Though it didn’t take long to realize what an innocent delusion that was.

The boy, who had now become a young man, clenched his fists at the memories of the past popping up one after another.

“Damn it, damn it!!”

Even though he came to save him, he was the one saved instead.

Lerwon ran, trampling on familiar self-loathing.

《What a useless human being.》

“Shut up!”

He knew he shouldn’t listen to the voice in his head.

He had definitely rooted out and eliminated the curse completely, but the voice he heard when he was momentarily consumed by the curse rang in his head.

I feel like I’m going crazy.

Or not. Was I already crazy?

How good would it be if this situation were just my delusion.

《There’s no way that’s true.》

That fact drove Lerwon even crazier.

How good would it be if only he could bear all this price.

Was having hope a mistake?

Yes, it seems that was the mistake.

I shouldn’t have approached him from the start.

If I had died alone in the underground prison that day, the situation wouldn’t have spiraled to the worst like this.

《That woman will kill everything precious to you by taking it away.》

“I told you to shut up!!”

《If she kills them, it would be a relief; you will live a life worse than death.》

At those words, Lerwon couldn’t even spit out a shout to shut up anymore.

A life worse than death.

Since that meant Lerwon’s life itself, he couldn’t not know.

Because he knew all too well how miserable, how terrible it was.

His feet wouldn’t move anymore.

The despair he had barely trampled and eliminated eventually rose to his chin, trying to suffocate Lerwon.

Low laughter is heard.

Even while hearing the laughter that seemed to have achieved what it wanted, Lerwon was willing to give himself up to that thing trying to swallow his everything.

Because he didn’t want to think about anything anymore.

Because he was tired of everything now, both having hope and despairing.

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