NOVEL WEB Episode 162
Episode 162
“You…”
A named who was not only the boss monster of the dungeon, but had also attained a level that could not be called simply one of the monsters.
“…Who are you?”
When Ryuseong encountered ‘Jeong Ian’, he instinctively realized.
That he was a being connected to ‘Cassice Demillang’.
[Do you want to know?]
So even when a cunning scheme like the treachery of a viper came down his ear and wet his eardrum…
[If you want to know, your own stomach…]
That man, without hesitation, drew his sword.
He pierced his stomach as instructed. He ripped it open. Ryuseong remembered the smile of ‘Jeong Ian’ collapsing at that moment. He remembered the resentment and grudge that a living person couldn’t seem to pour onto himself.
But don’t you find it suspicious?
Why did Ryuseong obey the words of the monster ‘Jeong Ian’ so readily? He who had ripped apart dozens, hundreds, thousands of monsters. All of this might just be an illusion of the named.
You can’t believe that a monster would tell the truth, so why…
[This is a dirty fetus. It’s a lump of blood that should have died.]
Why, not only stabbing his own stomach, but also remembering every single word of the enemy?
Why was he chasing the man behind ‘Cassice Demillang’ based on the named’s hint?
‘…What do you desire to go so far?’
Putting down the code of non-killing that had no room for compromise, even colluding with monsters…
Is it just for a single person called you?
‘What I desire is…’
***
Ryuseong is not a person who lacks tact.
Rather, he is someone who has to close off his senses to some extent in order to lead a normal life because he is too keen. If he wielded his beastly intuition even in everyday life like friendships, it’s obvious he would be treated like a ghost.
Ryuseong is someone who only turns on his instinctive senses and absorbs information with his whole body when engaging in combat.
In other words, while the software of keen senses is installed in both the prodigies Ryuseong and Cassice Demillang, in Ryuseong’s case, if he runs the software every moment, it breaks down.
The cooling system goes haywire and the hardware explodes.
Because intuition doesn’t just catch and deliver useful information.
It was natural for his head to explode if he tried to read the favorable and unfavorable emotions from people’s gazes he felt every time he went for a walk, the respect they had for him, and the changes in the rumors their lips spread.
However, perhaps due to his exceptionally brilliant mind, the pre-regression Cassice Demillang didn’t break down even with his keen senses constantly turned on. Rather, he was a monster who could derive when a drought would occur in a few years by adding up the rainfall and frequency, the amount of sunlight, etc. that he had comparatively analyzed so far just with the information value of when the roadside trees were planted.
Who could face a schemer who easily produces information like that, plays with it at his fingertips, and freely roams people’s hearts as he pleases?
Before the regression, Ryuseong had also tried to live with high sensory output in daily life like Cassice Demillang.
‘But I fell ill in less than two days.’
In a word, if Cassice Demillang had the brains to calculate all the information values received in daily life, derive the answers, and display appropriate behavior, such a level of computation was impossible for Ryuseong.
Instead, Ryuseong’s hardware was a bit sturdier, and when engaging in combat, the same level of software with different hardware performance clashed, so the pre-regression Cassice Demillang was always pushed back a little.
However, after the regression, Cassice Demillang’s appearance was a little different from the chilling side profile back then.
“But how are you going to buy plane tickets without a cell phone?”
“…”
“And how will you leave the country while hiding your identity?”
Before preparing to smuggle into Russia for the raid to accumulate merits, before being informed of the destination called the Demon Realm.
It was like that back then too.
“I have it all figured out, so follow me.”
First of all, it was a bit funny. Because his smiling face or the corners of his mouth were obvious when he was hit in the bull’s eye or his guard was lowered.
Because his face was shining as he boldly blabbered despite that.
So without being able to properly object, I was dragged along…
This too was different from the pre-regression Cassice Demillang. His eccentric ideas and way of thinking that was so novel that you wanted to slap his cheeks were the same, but the tempo at which it came out in action was impromptu, so to speak.
But the Cassice Demillang Ryuseong knew was never someone who moved impulsively.
No matter what happened, he wasn’t that kind of person.
‘So…’
About how the pre-regression and post-regression Cassice Demillang have such different attitudes…
It would be a lie to say he never doubted it at all.
But at the same time, Ryuseong was also a taciturn person. He was also someone who, once he decided to endure, would grit his teeth until the end.
What did Ryuseong promise first when he regressed?
‘I will watch over you.’
That’s why he ‘watched over’ Cassice Demillang. Silently without a word.
Even if suspicious behavior was seen, without saying anything.
Nevertheless, he only vowed to embrace him.
[I’m sorry to you who loves Cassice Demillang, but that is nothing more than an external monster wearing the shell of the one you loved. Do you understand reality now?]
“…Who said they love ‘Cassice Demillang’?”
[…What?]
“If what you say is true, it means the one I love has the name ‘Jeong Ian’.”
[….]
“Nothing changes, named.”
So maybe that’s why he stabbed his own stomach despite the named’s illusion.
Because ‘that’, which seemed to collapse at a single word of love and instantly regained its toxicity, glaring at him with sharp eyes, was a monster created based on the psychological ‘trauma’ of a strategist.
…Because it matched the appearance of the one he had been searching for to a tormenting degree.
Because it was an opportunity to catch the one he had been chasing.
[Are you going to embrace even a fake cloth doll? As long as you can violate it, you don’t care what’s inside?]
“You’ll misunderstand, like ‘Jeong Ian’.”
[….]
“So I will love with the determination to die.”
He couldn’t let go. Ryuseong might seem like a simple person whose thoughts and actions match to others, but his inner self was close to a black leopard. Even if he was languidly stretched out, where would his class go? He was someone who could maintain the same appearance and relationship as usual even if he suspected the betrayal of a close friend, as long as the matter wasn’t concluded. That’s why he didn’t bother to open his mouth and spew disaster.
As if proving that a man who is neither dull like a bear nor cunning like a fox could live like that because he had absolute power that didn’t require it.
Ryuseong wasn’t in a hurry. In a world that had already been destroyed once, even if he intervened here and there, if he couldn’t change Cassice Demillang anyway, nothing would change.
He simply observed Cassice Demillang.
Without recklessly comparing him to the ‘past’, he just looked at the ‘Cassice Demillang’ in front of his ‘eyes’ as he was.
And he felt it.
‘There are many different aspects. But suddenly, in unexpectedly similar parts, he acts the same to a strange degree.’
The Cassice Demillang in front of his eyes doesn’t have mysophobia. Since the day he forgot to wear gloves and strutted around the school, making absurd excuses, he doesn’t necessarily wear gloves. Should I say he decides whether to wear gloves depending on the date or season? But if his hand touches something he doesn’t want to touch, he definitely washes his hands more than ten times.
He always lifts the faucet handle of the public restroom with his wrist bone, and when lowering it, he uses the same part and wipes it with a paper towel or handkerchief. The used handkerchief is immediately thrown away, and because of his temperament, he carries several new handkerchiefs. So whenever he has to use multiple handkerchiefs at the same time, it’s like watching a magic show. How many handkerchiefs are coming out from inside his jacket…? When rolling up his sleeves, he unbuttons the cuffs, folds them three times at right angles. Instead, he buttons the cuffs above the elbows to prevent the shirt from slipping down. When wearing a harness on his upper body, he pre-fixes the connection points and pulls it down from above his head like putting on a t-shirt. After that, he adjusts the belt to make it fit his body.
These kinds of detailed behaviors are the commonalities between the pre-regression Cassice Demillang and the Cassice Demillang in front of his eyes.
Isn’t it strange?
‘If the two are unrelated people, why are even these habits all the same?’