Chapter 70 :

Episode 70 - Pressure and Resolve

“You were an unnecessary character to the protagonist.”

Thinking about it, that guy had followed me around even though he knew I was not the owner of the prophecy.

It was as if I had finally found the reason for the unpleasant feeling I had sensed every time I saw him, but I did not feel relieved in the slightest.

“I think I was still quite kind to you.”

I opened my mouth toward that youthful face that was staring at me without a trace of guilt.

“Do not be angry. I merely made the best choice as well.”

At his calmly shameless answer, I fell into thought for a moment.

Was I angry?

Because he had interfered with me? Or because I had suffered something close to betrayal from him?

No, rather than anger, this was.......

“I do not understand.”

At the sincerity that slipped out like a whisper, the other party furrowed his brow.

“Have I misjudged you all this time? You do not understand this simple situation? You do not understand this situation where I tried to keep you because you would be both a danger and a help to the owner of the prophecy? Or is it me you do not understand?”

The guy asked while letting out a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded.

“I do not understand how your goal and your actions do not match.”

At my answer, the young imperial family member closed his mouth.

“There is no certainty that simply keeping me here would make me help the owner of the prophecy, and if you thought I knew too much, instead of interfering so ambiguously, you should have killed me for sure. You must have had plenty of chances.”

“When actions and purpose do not match, that means you are lying. And right now, your lie does not seem to make you a better person in particular.”

Even when I asked about several contradictions, no answer came back.

He and I had never carried on a long conversation until now.

The situation had been like that, and when a suitable situation was created, neither he nor I felt the need to do so.

I was someone who would leave anyway, and the person he was searching for was someone else.

I had thought of it as a relationship waiting to burn away slowly, like the flame of a candle with a spent wick going out.

I thought we would naturally grow distant if he had not poured oil onto it.

In the end, I had no choice but to ask him the question I had forcibly tried to ignore.

“What do you gain by getting rid of the imperial family? Why are you trying to get rid of them?”

“There is nothing I need to tell you.”

It was a firm refusal, but I had not thought that guy would obediently answer me either.

“Fine, let us do as you say.”

“What?”

At my sudden concession, his eyebrows twitched.

“I said I would follow your threat. Today, we will meet the owner of the prophecy together.”

At my unexpected agreement, he looked at me with a puzzled face mixed with relief and suspicion.

“It will be the first and the last. Today will be the first and last time you can meet the owner of the prophecy.”

But it took only an instant for all those emotions to unify into anger.

“What nonsense are you saying?”

“Because once I meet him, I will immediately tell him to kill you first.”

There was nothing particularly difficult about it.

Just saying that this little squirrel was a hidden imperial family member would be enough.

The current Ratel was suspicious, had no composure, and showed no mercy in his hands.

Above all, he hated the imperial family.

To him, a suspicion of “what if” would be a seed that must never be allowed to sprout.

“.......”

Unexpectedly, El also seemed to agree with my opinion.

The small imperial family member quietly, but fiercely, glared at me without refuting my words.

But I was not afraid.

“Now you are not even saying you will kill me.”

It was certain.

For some reason, he cared about me.

But the fact that he did not wish for my death did not make me happy or grateful.

Because it looked no different from valuing a precious tool set aside for later.

Moving according to his intentions without knowing anything did not suit my nature either.

“Now tell me. What is your true identity, and why are you trying to keep me alive and attach me to Ratel?”

Without saying anything, I stared at El, who kept biting his lip and glaring at me.

Watching his face grow paler by the second gave me no time to feel bored, but this was not a situation where I could afford to wait long either.

I did not know when Dito would arrive, and if Ratel failed to arrive on time, every plan would come to nothing.

“If you intend to drag this out.......”

“I….”

The moment I opened my mouth to urge him, this time El stopped my words.

With a face that looked as if he was about to die.

Literally, his face had turned so pale that it seemed he might suffer a heart attack at any moment.

To the point that I wondered if he was really going to die.

No, something is actually strange.

“Hey, wait.......”

Before I could stop him, his mouth opened faster.

“I am the very first...... Ugh!”

What he spat out before he could even continue a few words was a dark red lump of blood.

That was not the end.

Each time El forced out one syllable, an alarming amount of blood flowed out of his mouth with it.

It even looked as if the blood was trying to block his mouth.

What is this? Do imperial family members not usually avoid death?

My hands moved on their own faster than my head could follow the question.

I caught him as he failed to handle the blood pouring out of his body and collapsed forward.

Then I covered his mouth as he tried somehow to continue speaking.

Sticky blood flowed down between my fingers.

“Ugh......”

Even in the midst of that, he was trying to open his mouth somehow to continue speaking.

“Stop.”

“Ugh.....!”

“I said stop!”

When the blood would not stop flowing from his mouth, my voice rose without me realizing it.

“From now on, do not open your mouth. When answering my questions, nod your head or shake it sideways.”

His blurred golden eyes followed me.

And soon, he nodded once.

“Are there restrictions on speaking about your identity?”

His head moved again.

Nod.

“How far does it affect you? Can it take your life?”

Nod.

He shook his head up and down again.

“......Can you tell the owner of the prophecy?”

No......d.

Slowly but clearly, he nodded once more.

Damn it.

A curse came out on its own.

I could vaguely understand what the unpleasant feeling I had sensed from him all this time was.

Yes, he truly had no interest in anything other than the prophecy.

Not me, not the lives of other people, and not even his own life.

Feeling a little empty, I removed my hand from the face of the guy who had lost consciousness.

His pale white face was quite a sight, but I did not feel satisfied in the slightest.

Because the same was true of my face reflected in the pool of blood he had made.

Plin Feedus dies before the original work begins, that is, before Rasia spits blood and dies.

The child’s death before the beginning of the original work might not have truly been an accident.

It was before the protagonist began to be active.

That also meant there was still no one in Abiran who could defy the imperial family’s words.

In the original work before the protagonist appeared, perhaps Plin Feedus had been the only child on whom the imperial family’s orders did not work?

He might have died at the hands of Dito, who noticed that.

If so, then that was all the more reason he must not be here.

Perhaps having regained a little composure, El looked around the room and frowned.

“But what are those fellows doing collapsed like that?”

Where he was looking, men wearing black robes were sprawled unconscious.

Beside them, several children who had likewise lost consciousness were lying neatly.

“Trash who helped Dito kidnap and kill children.”

El blankly looked at the collapsed men.

“It seems he is repeating what he did to Rasia with other children as well.”

“Yes. And the protagonist will definitely come to stop that.”

He had continued this experiment for quite a long time.

In the novel, he repeated this even before the start of the original work and after it began.

Stopping this was the protagonist’s first meeting with Dito.

“So today, there should have been a disturbance here at a suitable time that Dito would come to. The protagonist must arrive before it is too late. Or at least the protagonist must arrive here first.”

I tapped his small head with my finger.

“Do you understand now how tangled everything has become?”

Since the young duke had disappeared, Tollin would be searching all over the capital.

Dito was watching the young duke, so he would come directly here.

If things went wrong, the young duke, the children, and even I could die.

El, who had been shaking his head this way and that to avoid my finger, grabbed my finger.

“Then you should not blame me all the more. Even without the brat of the Feedus family, it would have happened anyway.”

“What? What does that mean?”

Boom!

An explosion loud enough that it could not be ignored echoed from outside the door.

Boom!

Boom!

And in succession at that.

At my gaze demanding an explanation, El smiled awkwardly.

“The brats trapped here are no ordinary ones.”

* * *

Boom!

At the roar echoing through the corridor, the manager Gude cursed and moved his short, thick legs to open the door.

Smoke was already slowly filling the floor of the corridor.

A burning smell mixed with an indescribably strange odor pierced Gude’s nose.

What is this? Could it be an intruder?

As an ominous thought brushed through his head, he could no longer delay, so he rang the bell installed in his room once and threw himself outside the door.

The farther he walked down the corridor, the worse the smoke and smell became.

At a glance, it looked like a fire, but if so, there was no way to explain the explosions that had echoed through the corridor.

Besides, if it really was a fire, what on earth was this smell?

Boom!

As if refusing to give him time to think deeply, another explosion rang out.

Gude ran while covering both ears.

His mind was in complete chaos, but this much was clear.

This was not a natural fire, but a fire someone had intentionally set.

The enemy was not alone, but several people, and if they had prepared multiple devices like this, there was a high chance they were capable people with considerable financial power.

Compared to the trivial truth that the opponents were three brats still wet behind the ears, it was an excessive imagination.

“You idiots! Why are you standing still?!”

Gude, who had been running frantically, discovered the guys who had come out into the corridor in confusion and shouted.

Only after hearing his shout did they finally come to their senses and run toward Gude.

Stupid bastards.

Since they searched for people whose deaths would cause no trouble, in the end, the ones gathered were all people whose heads did not work.

Clicking his tongue, Gude pointed at six men who looked at least slightly less dazed.

“You lot follow me. And the rest guard this place. If you find the intruders, kill them without asking anything.”

And so four remained while six followed behind Gude.

Because Gude was a person who did not realize that he himself was also one of those humans whose death would cause no trouble.