#125
Carlisle—no, the fake imitating Carlisle—seemed to freeze for a moment at my words. His face hardened and his eyes twisted slightly, then he quickly changed his mood and forced a somewhat surprised expression.
“Raon, what are you suddenly talking about?”
He reached out his hand and approached me. I stepped back again.
“Stay there. Don’t come closer.”
“Raon, what on earth are you thinking… I understand you’re confused. It must be hard to accept, but even so…”
I was annoyed by his disgusting acting.
“Drop that tone. Wearing Carlisle’s face but acting uncharacteristically affectionate… Hey, and you probably don’t know this, but Carlisle doesn’t call me ‘you.'”
“…What?”
“He doesn’t call me ‘you.'”
As far as I could remember since coming to this world, he always called me ‘dangsin’ (formal ‘you’). (Sometimes he mockingly called me ‘jagi’ (honey), but still.) Of course, it probably wasn’t like that when we were young… but come to think of it, he’s older, so I don’t know why he calls me that way.
Until now, I thought it was just the aftermath of being married, but if what this bastard said was true, we didn’t actually get married either.
“That’s…”
Fake Carlisle’s brow furrowed and his mouth clamped shut. His eyes seemed both bewildered and like he was mulling something over.
‘Think all you want.’
Honestly, Carlisle might have called me ‘you’ before. At first, I didn’t pay any attention to how he addressed me, so I don’t remember every instance. He might have called me ‘you’ when he was angry.
But it didn’t matter. What was important was the reaction this fake showed when I made this assertion. Didn’t he look like he considered this a setback?
“The way you address me, your tone, your atmosphere—it’s all different. Just having Carlisle’s shell doesn’t make you Carlisle. Besides.”
I didn’t need to explain in detail why the fake was fake. I showed him my bracelet.
“See this bell here? Do you know what this is?”
He frowned. With an ambiguous expression that couldn’t say whether he knew or didn’t know, he pretended to know and opened his mouth.
“It’s a cheap bracelet and bell you bought from a festival merchant. I bought both for you. What about it?”
He bought it for me? Crazy bastard. I snorted and shook my wrist.
“That’s why you’re not the real one. Do you hear the bell ringing? You don’t, right?”
“Bell ringing, that’s originally…”
“Only I’ve been hearing it. It rang like a warning every time you touched me. You have no idea how mentally exhausted I was because of this.”
“Raon, get a grip. That’s just a dummy bell. You’re mistaken. You’re having delusions because of this dungeon’s trick…”
He deliberately sighed loudly and tirelessly tried to gaslight me.
“Don’t try to deceive me.”
I gritted my teeth and cut off his words.
“This is a special item. Carlisle is a control freak with jealousy issues, so he set it up to ring when other guys approach. Are you saying the person who explained it to me like that right before falling into the dungeon doesn’t remember?”
Of course, this was a lie. The way to deal with fraud is with fraud.
But somehow it seemed like that kind of function, didn’t it? Bisang wouldn’t have sold ordinary items, and as I recalled, he said this was a protective charm. But he gave it to me after doing a love fortune reading. Every time this bastard touched me, the bell rang warningly. Whatever the case, it clearly meant to be wary of this bastard.
Of course, Carlisle Lightinger might actually be evil and intending to harm me. But whatever the real Carlisle was like, what was clear now was that the bastard in front of me was absolutely not Carlisle Lightinger.
As I just told him, I had continuously felt discomfort from that insipid affection and the way he addressed me and his atmosphere. Moreover, his combat ability was strange. How many battles had I fought alongside Carlisle so far? I couldn’t help but know his strength, fighting skills, methods, and annoyingly stylish body and hand movements. But Carlisle Lightinger being pushed around by just one or two boss-mob-level warriors?
Most of all, his smell was different. His scent that I had encountered in battles, in bed, in the bath. You might ask what kind of dog nose I have, but honestly, I liked Carlisle’s body scent so I remembered it clearly.
He wasn’t Carlisle. He wasn’t even something inhabiting Carlisle’s body. He was some kind of transformation, fake even in body.
My lie was a kind of trap and final confirmation procedure.
He couldn’t refute my lie. He opened his mouth slightly but seemed unable to find anything more to say. Or maybe he gave up trying to persuade me. Soon his face contorted and the corners of his mouth twisted. He revealed his sinister gaze without restraint.
I had thought it was impossible for Carlisle Lightinger’s natural handsomeness to disappear no matter what annoying or irritating expression he made, but I was wrong. He was still wearing Carlisle’s shell, but now that face looked ugly and hideous. I no longer thought of him as handsome or cool.
Even when he came close to me, I didn’t feel excited. He absolutely was not Carlisle Lightinger. He couldn’t be Carlisle.
“Ah, shibal. That bastard Carlisle did all sorts of things.”
Fake Carlisle removed the (also fake, as expected) couple ring from his left hand and threw it away, then burst into a hollow laugh.
“I thought I was going to throw up practicing that disgusting way of talking, but why wasn’t it right? Strange. That person also said so, and as I remember, that bastard was definitely famous for acting all coy and talking like that in front of you, so why… ah, whatever.”
The ring seemed to have been a transformation item. The fake who finally revealed his identity casually placed his rough hand on his waist. Burly build, tall height. He wore a flashy dragon-embroidered jacket over a bright yellow silk shirt, leather pants that clung like second skin, and western boots. Except for the shirt color, it was exactly the same fashion as before. He grinned at me.
“Our Raon looked naive but is sharper than expected?”
Now it was my turn to be surprised. The slimy fake’s identity was unexpectedly Muchi.
‘Muchi? That thug Muchi? Wasn’t he not even a main character?’
No, being main or not meant nothing now. If this world wasn’t a game world but an actually existing world, as he said.
More than that, Muchi was someone I had briefly gotten involved with unpleasantly early on, and though his name was mentioned once or twice regarding the expedition team joining issue, we had no dealings since then. In novel terms, he was like a minor character who briefly bothered the protagonist early on, then disappeared after being thoroughly defeated… so why did he reappear now wearing Carlisle’s shell? And what was that about designing a game to lure me here?
Moreover, that transformation item—if it was an item that could perfectly change even the voice like that, it would definitely be extremely expensive. Elmer’s words about him having backing suddenly came to mind. Around that time, I was only thinking of someone like the Mayor at most. He was the person who recommended joining Muchi’s team when I was struggling with the expedition team issue.
But was the Mayor really that great a person? Of course, in novels and movies, unexpected figures sometimes become the mastermind behind things… No, constantly thinking of this like content was also a problem. If there was truth in what Muchi told me…
Honestly, it didn’t seem like all those incredible stories were completely false. No matter how much he was deceiving, words like ‘game’ and ‘other world’ couldn’t come from the mouth of someone from this world, right? At least, as someone who actually crossed over here from reality, I had no choice but to believe that this wasn’t a game world.
Looking at it that way, couldn’t the priest also be… the mastermind? No, was he the most likely candidate?
“You… why are you doing this?”
“Well, let’s say I received a commission.”
“A commission…? From whom?”
“You don’t need to know that. If you had just quietly handed over the fragment and followed along, it would have been good for both you and me.”
Saying that, Muchi pulled out a weapon from somewhere in the air. It was a club-like rod that wasn’t very beautiful in shape. Sharp thorn-like things protruded densely from it. If hit properly, no skin would remain intact. My skin had already been mangled from the earlier battle, whether it was real or hallucination…
“Is your backer the priest?”
I asked outright, but Muchi didn’t take the bait.
“Hey, don’t try to fish around clumsily. I saw earlier that you can fight pretty well now. Shall we have a proper go at it?”
He approached, swinging his club through the air.
I stepped back and gripped my sword tighter. I gulped. Tension rose.
I had never properly fought Muchi before. Early on, I was just in a position where I could only run away and get beaten unilaterally. Thinking about it now, it wasn’t that Muchi was great but that I was completely incompetent, but that didn’t mean I could be at ease.
Of course, now I had raised my combat power through countless experiences, so I wouldn’t be so easily defeated like in the beginning, but he had also continued exploration activities and as time passed, his skills would have jumped considerably.
Even in the earlier battle with the merman warriors, while he seemed inferior compared to Carlisle, I couldn’t underestimate the skill to face two boss mobs at once. Objectively comparing it to my own skills…
‘Close… no, honestly, that bastard is more…’
“Alright, here I come!”
Then Muchi leaped up high. Despite his large build, his movements were relaxed.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
