Chapter 125

When I opened my eyes, I was lying down, tightly holding Lapheche’s shoulder.

But I couldn’t stay that way. The power surrounding us was undulating far too unstably.

“Ugh… What is this place? It’s full of Yoshicho.”

Gabbie spoke with a gloomy voice.

– It seems they used Yoshicho to harness the power of fire, and then later amplified it by mixing in that girl’s magic.

Gabbie looked bloated and puffy, as if he had been absorbing power even before I woke up.

– It’s hard to digest… Honestly, human greed!

Greed is something all animals have, but there was no need to add fuel to the fire with Gabbie, who was angry and struggling.

I muttered, looking at the half-torn Yoshicho plants and the chaotic fragments of broken stone.

“So that’s why it was so unstable.”

As if it would explode any moment if handled incorrectly.

But it couldn’t. My companions, who were doing their best on the floor above, had to return together without a single person dying.

I was just about to regain my composure and start carefully absorbing the power when something happened.

“Hmm…”

Lapheche, with a dazed expression, groggily got up.

“Lady Celeste? Stay still.”

She was looking around as if searching for something, and at the sound of my voice, she finally turned her head fully towards me.

“I’m the protagonist. Why do you, the villainess, get all the love?”

“…What did you say?”

Her expressionless eyes gave me the creeps. But it didn’t end there.

“If only you weren’t here.”

Aren’t those words a bit too harsh?

Honestly, I was a little shocked, but I quickly pulled myself together and spoke firmly.

“Snap out of it. That won’t happen.”

“No! If you’re gone, I’ll be the protagonist again!”

Why is she suddenly like this?

It felt like she was accelerating too fast, and as she spoke, a hoarse voice overlapped hers.

As if some other being was speaking through her.

‘Is it the energy filling this place, or is it another being?’

Another creepy thought came to mind, and I swallowed hard, focusing on reality.

In front of me was Lapheche, whose state was bizarre, and behind me was Gabbie, suffering from overeating. It was a complete mess.

“Gabbie, you’d be better off going into the Spirit Stone and expanding your world.”

Unless a spectacular explosion was to occur, that was the best way to handle the overflowing power.

– …Okay.

Gabbie’s form disappeared, and the bloated power was sucked away, finally relieving the pressure and allowing me to breathe freely.

But the moment I gasped for air, Lapheche’s body lunged at me.

“Give it back! Give me back my place!”

She had no strength, so I pushed her away easily, but irritation came before relief.

“Are you really crazy? Do you really think being a protagonist or not is necessary to live your life?”

I had a sudden outburst, but then immediately regretted it.

‘She’s not in her right mind right now.’

Getting angry only has meaning if the person understands you.

I sighed and went back to my work.

“Just rest for now. We can talk after we get out of here.”

“You don’t know. You don’t know what it’s like to not be at the center!”

This time, I only heard Lapheche’s voice, without the overlapping rasp. It meant she truly believed what she was saying.

“Haa.”

I continued to push the elemental power constantly spewing from the Yoshicho into the Spirit Stone, while brushing my messy hair out of my face.

“The place we stand and breathe is reality. So you shouldn’t think of this as an imaginary place.”

I relayed the words I had heard from Gabbie, hoping Lapheche would let go of her attachment to a predetermined role. Genuinely.

‘Even if you try to break free from a role, you can easily become obsessed. If she’s also trying to hold on to the protagonist’s place… what would that be like?’

Lapheche was exactly that case.

She had struggled so much, and the thought that things just didn’t work out for her made me, as a fellow transmigator, feel pity.

“In reality, there are no protagonists or villainesses. People just live in their own places… Ack!”

SMACK!

The sound of a slap across my face echoed loudly.

“Huh.”

I rubbed my stinging cheek. Now, there were two people who had hit me in this world. Austin and Lapheche!

It hurt, and I was dumbfounded.

“You seemed to have no strength a moment ago. Was that just an act?”

“Shut up. You’re not even in my grade.”

The pain disappeared in an instant, and my mind went blank as if I’d been hit.

Grade? Not a league, but a Korean beef ‘grade’ for a person?

“Some people just don’t get along until the very end.”

Any remorse I had for not understanding her feelings and pushing her away, even though we were both transmigrators, vanished in an instant.

However, there was a more urgent matter than my personal feelings.

Gabbie spoke as if he was about to shake me.

– Minuelle, magic is gathering around that girl. At this rate, all the remaining natural power will combine with it, and something terrible will happen.

“How bad would the explosion be?”

I asked, planning to flee with my companions on the upper floor if necessary, but the answer was far beyond my expectations.

– This one city would be completely wiped from the map.

“Wow.”

Only a hollow laugh escaped me.

“You have the magic to cause something like this, and you say you’re not the protagonist? And you want me to give you my place?”

I asked, but Lapheche’s eyes were unfocused again, and her lips just twitched.

The flow of magic became so rapid that I could feel it, even without being able to detect it. My hair and clothes fluttered violently as if they had been hit by a strong wind.

“Oh, for real!”

I finally sighed, pushed Lapheche away, and took my place at the center of the flow.

“Aaaargh!”

The magic was so rough that a scream escaped me on its own.

– Hey, Minuelle! You reckless idiot!

Gabbie’s scream, added to mine, also assaulted my ears.

‘Ah, well, is there any other way?’

“Kyuuaaaah!”

Even as I was dutifully screaming, I didn’t forget to ask Gabbie for help.

‘You handle the elemental power coming from the Yoshicho! It would be even better if you got rid of it all.’

And I didn’t plan to just stand there and endure the pain while screaming.

The magic, which was ricocheting like a pinball and was completely out of control, felt like it would make my body explode instead of causing a magical detonation.

‘Damn it, help me! Lord Plendena! Brassidas!’

In my search for a solution, I had resorted to calling upon a god and a grand magician.

They say to knock, and the door shall be opened, right? Then a voice clearly entered my mind. It wasn’t the voice of a god; it was something Palos had said.

‘My master says that for magic, you’re halfway to success just by guiding the magic along a predetermined path.’

So… what on earth is that ‘predetermined path’?!

All the while, the pain was getting worse. It hurt so much that I was on the verge of crying loudly.

‘Is this just delaying the explosion instead of stopping it?’

It was only pain, with no change in the flow, and I was about to feel a sense of futility. But then, the last thread of my reason whispered.

‘This isn’t the first time such a destructive power has entered my body.’

Yes, that was right.

In that moment of realization, the path of the flames that had once surged through me was still vividly etched in every part of my body.

At this point, I had nothing to lose.

I squeezed my eyes shut and immediately tried the method that had come to mind.

* * *

If you had to say which side was dominant, it was this one, not Austin’s.

At least on the surface.

Thanks to the tactics of rotating like cogs and filling each other’s gaps, no matter how inhuman Austin had become, our side had a slight advantage.

However, if you looked closely, the wounds they inflicted on Austin were meaningless.

Whoosh!

The spattering of blood was only for a moment, and just like footprints on flowing sand disappear, Austin’s injuries vanished.

‘It’s a war of attrition.’

Esadien’s expression hardened. At this rate, the side that gets exhausted first will lose.

As if reading his mind, Austin grinned and charged. It was to the exact spot where he had been injured last time.

“Your life is as tenacious as ever, Eddy.”

Esadien could clearly see what he was pierced by this time. Austin’s hand transformed and rotated like a giant awl.

It was a disgusting sight, but Esadien didn’t even flinch.

“It seems you’ve forgotten. It was I who defeated you.”

“You barely survived and you’re all talk.”

“Even so, the fact doesn’t change.”

Austin’s mouth twisted.

His hand and Esadien’s sword clashed, and a sound like a hammer hitting steel rang out.

Kaang!

Just after blocking Austin’s blow once, a crack appeared in the blade.

Kaang!

And once more. The second time, half of the sword broke off at the crack.

From that moment, Austin began to push Esadien back as if he was having fun.

“Beg like you used to! That suits your dirty blood.”

Dirty blood?

At the meaningless words, Esadien’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Everywhere is full of maggots, but among them, you are the dirtiest.”

As if to create a dramatic effect, Austin paused his words and looked around.

And he dropped a bomb.

“A seed born from a sibling’s relationship… What more could you expect?”

The air froze as if it would shatter.

However, the calmest person in that place was Esadien himself.

He spoke even more calmly than he had been before hearing the words, as if thinking, ‘If you think that, what would the nobles back then have thought?’

“Having been officially recognized in the name of Giona, I am not His Majesty’s biological child.”

Even after hearing the name of the God of Judgment and Justice, Austin sneered.

“That kind of orb can be manipulated anytime.”

If words had a scent, Austin’s words at that moment would have a faint stench. The stench of a non-believer.

Esadien felt a deep weariness and skepticism. Not only his mother, but to have wasted his life caught up with someone like this.

But at the same time, the sequence of events was falling into place, like putting together a puzzle.

‘His Majesty would not have endured that insult without some kind of deal.’

He hadn’t known it as a child, but looking back now, it was true.

The reason why the Marquis Sandor family had endured the ridicule of being the Emperor’s stooges and lived in silence all this time was finally clear.

‘And amidst all that, he poisoned a child’s mind.’

However, he felt not a shred of pity.

Austin frantically lunged at his calm, downcast gaze, but Esadien did not waver.

“You’ve been used your whole life.”

In Preseria, by the grandfather he trusted.

In Chitrum, by the Apostle whose hand he held.

“Don’t you fit the description of a naive maggot better than I do?”

When he even went so far as to provoke him, Austin’s eyes turned blood-red.

His hand once again transformed bizarrely and lunged forward, but at that moment, Esadien felt a power dwell in his sword.