Chapter 50

In the south, besides the mass die-off of fish, another rumor began to circulate.

The rumor of a calamity that would engulf the coastal villages and cities.

Stories of massive waves coming to swallow everything, and countless monsters rising from the bottom of the sea to climb onto land.

At first, people scoffed.

However, as days passed, the stench from the sea intensified, and with no harvest despite setting sail, one by one they began to seriously speak of the rumor.

That everything that had happened in the south so far was a precursor to the calamity that would occur.

That if they didn't prepare, many people would lose their lives.

People began to protest fiercely against the continued blockade of the south.

There were even eyewitness accounts of people already secretly leaving the south.

What would the lord's response be to this?

Regardless of how Arndt was persuading, the lord of the southern cities showed no noteworthy reaction to all this commotion.

Perhaps he couldn't react.

How would an ordinary nobleman think about this situation?

When monsters suddenly came up from what had been a peaceful sea, and giant tsunamis were said to strike.

Realistically, it was awkward to immediately dispatch troops, and it was also difficult to establish suitable countermeasures right away.

The complete lack of preparation for a calamity that could engulf the coastal areas was a passage that well exposed the noble's negligence.

But, anyway.

"That old man Erich, despite crying that he couldn't do it, is spreading quite realistic rumors."

At this rate, shouldn't he become a writer rather than a scholar?

He couldn't help but laugh as he imagined Erich, who would have become a fraud, traversing the south.

"Is Arndt doing well? Has there been any news?"

"No particular news. Only that no specific disposition has yet been issued for those leaving the south."

"He's doing well. It would be good to check if there are people who can be incorporated into the manors of other territories, just in case."

"I will check on that later."

How long had he been stuck at the end of the south?

He put on the cloak he had taken off for a while and roughly combed his hair.

His hair had grown quite a bit in the meantime, with his original reddish color rising from the roots.

After tying the eyepatch securely and fastening his cloak.

Leandros, who had been standing by, escorted him out of the house.

The wind was calm and quiet.

Leandros, who had been watching him take a deep breath in front of the door, opened his mouth.

"Will it be alright not to go to the gate?"

"He'll come directly."

That was the intuition he had.

Yurik would definitely come here, to the place where he was now.

Leandros, standing like a tree beside him, seemed to have become less talkative than usual.

"Do people often tell you that you have a good memory?"

"...I haven't been told it's bad, at least."

"I see."

"Is there something you want me to remember?"

"No. I just think today will be a memorable day for both you and me. I hope it stays in your memory for a long time."

Preferably, it would be better if he remembered it until the next life.

Leandros tried to ask again about the unclear statement, but he blocked his words.

"He's coming."

A black horse was climbing up from the hill below.

Fine platinum blonde hair rippled against the blue sky background, and a voice that was eerily pleasant urged on the imposing black steed.

If Yurik hadn't been a villain, he would have thought it was a scene from a masterpiece painting.

He waved his hand as if meeting a close acquaintance.

He and Leandros bowed at the waist, showing the proper respect.

"Your Highness, the Crown Prince."

"With no one watching, you don't need to be so formal."

Yet he would complain if they weren't, he thought.

Yurik jumped off his horse and looked around.

His attitude and appearance were like those of a tourist.

"Is this the place the Duke has chosen as his residence? It's more modest than I expected."

"I wasn't planning to stay long."

"Yes, yes. But that eye..."

Yurik stared at his eye and suddenly burst into laughter.

"Ahaha, hahahaha! Ah, Duke. You are truly an interesting person. You've changed from before, but I like this version more."

"You flatter me."

"Did you give it to the merpeople? It would be a good catalyst for the ritual they're performing. So that's why the sea is in this state now."

Yurik's eyes sparkled.

Yes, he had expected this far.

He calmly suggested to Yurik.

"I don't understand well, but if Your Highness thinks so, that's good. Then may we return to Hartmann Castle?"

"It's not perfect, but at a level that can be somewhat accepted. I permit it."

Good.

He turned to look at Leandros, but Yurik intervened with a smile.

Just go away already, he thought.

"But since things have come to this, how about viewing the results of what you've achieved before leaving?"

"Are you suggesting we look at the trench?"

"Don't be afraid. It's under the sea, let's just look from above the water. If there's something strange, the Duke should be held accountable, shouldn't he?"

Yurik continued to smile at him, who was completely stunned.

His request wasn't unreasonable.

It could even be considered legitimate from a certain perspective.

After hesitating as if unsure, he finally provided an answer.

"...If Your Highness says so, as a subject, I will accompany you."

"Since it's come to this, your escort knight will have to work a bit. Would you find a boat in that village?"

What boat and what boatman when ships haven't arrived for a long time, he wondered.

Pressing his temples firmly, he said to Leandros.

"Please do."

"I will do as ordered."

After heading to the village, they rented a small boat there.

There was an abundance of people willing to lend out boats that had been uselessly moored in exchange for money.

When they chose the one with the largest sail that looked relatively good, the boat's owner promptly volunteered to row the oars himself.

They set sail, difficultly departing from the fish carcasses that floated on the water, giving off a stench.

As only the creaking sound of the oars being rowed by the boatman continued, Yurik asked.

"Why did you give your eye?"

"Why don't you ask your merpeople, Your Highness?"

"As you already know, the merpeople and I are not in a relationship of loyal subordinate and lord, but closer to business partners."

"That merperson wanted my eye."

"But no matter how I think about it, it's strange. That something that seemed difficult even if the entire merpeople were sacrificed was accomplished with just one of your eyeballs."

Yurik was leaning on the side of the boat.

Even his casually tilted posture seemed to contain a calculated aesthetic, as if with some intention.

"I suppose they expected the same things Your Highness expects from Hartmann."

"The former Duchess wasn't like that, though."

"What answer do you want?"

He was thoroughly tired of being played by Yurik's wordplay, both then and now.

Yurik laughed a little.

"I just wondered if there was much you didn't know about yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you never doubted yourself, Duke? About your abilities or innate qualities?"

"Never. You're asking philosophical questions."

"Ah, yes. You could think so. Though not at all from this side."

Red eyes were looking at him.

His heart pounded even though he didn't know what words would come next.

Why? Why did it feel ominous?

"You could think so there. Duke. Or should I say, the outsider who fell into this world."

Creak, creak.

The noise of the oars and the splashing of waves couldn't possibly cover Yurik's words.

Outsider.

A word referring to him, not Arenheit.

The boatman, sweating profusely behind, shouted.

"I can't go any further, the wind is really bad! Besides, the flow of the current has changed strangely, so I think we should return to the port!"

"Ah, we've already come this far."

Yurik stood up on the shaking boat and looked down.

The water was no longer blue, as if they had come quite far in the meantime.

Yurik moved toward the boatman and nonchalantly said.

"Well done. Since we've come this far, there's no need to return."

"What? What do you..."

-Splash!

The boatman was pushed off the boat without time to react.

As he struggled to grab the boat, he gradually sank deeper.

It seemed as if something was pulling him to prevent him from getting out of the water.

"Help, some, hel..."

As the boatman's plea disappeared, blocked by water and foam, Yurik took off one glove.

"Outsider, how much do you know about madness?"

"Yurik den Menadia!"

"I'll tell you something good now."

He drew the sword at his waist and cut his palm without hesitation.

The flowing dark red blood fell into the swirling dark green sea.

"Each person has their own unique mental strength. Mental strength is the measure of reason that allows humans to exist as humans. But when reason is rapidly consumed by some trigger, people are devoured by madness."

No one could move.

The sea greedily swallowed Yurik's blood.

The songs of merpeople began to resound from everywhere.

"Madness is the minimum means of survival a person can have. When faced with a massive fantasy that invades their existence, people hide in the defense mechanism of madness to remain somewhat human."

"How could you..."

"Because that's the law of this world and the rule arranged by ancient beings... Or perhaps it's just someone's scribbled prank."

Novel, madness, monster, prank, younger sibling, web novel, reason, defense mechanism, Yurik.

Amid the confusingly emerging thoughts, only one asserted the truth.

Yurik knew.

He smiled at him as he bled.

"If you're going to lose a book, you should have kept it well. It's the doctrine written for the Hartmann family by 'that person,' isn't it?"

The book in the Duchess's hidden room.

Only two pages separated from that book.

What he had been able to see there was.

[Yu Yesung will wake up with a headache.

He will try to check the time, but it will be of no use.

He would be in a moving carriage, and the attendant and escort warrior who were with Arenheit in the created world would welcome him.]

[A world created in tragedy, where madness and incomprehensible beings have nested within the arrangement of 'that person.'

The outsider from another world, inhabiting Arenheit's body, will bear Arenheit's karma instead.]

"That paper was bait. To lure me here. Intending to be discovered from the beginning...!!"

"There was no reason to hide."

The small boat was being swept away by a massive current.

An ominous dark cloud covered the sun.

The sharp hymns of angels blessing the awakening of the being sleeping in the trench only grew stronger.

A whirlpool that had grown so large that the bottom of the black sea could be seen.

Something was rising from below.

It wasn't just a monster.

When this planet was just created.

When the water rose and the continents that are now submerged proudly revealed themselves.

When primordial mysteries and terrors, unaware of the significance of their birth, strode the earth.

An ancient, blasphemous god that had slept then was now extending its tentacles from the seabed and rising.

Among the seawater pouring down like a downpour, Yurik called out to that form.

[Ya-r Lieh'u! Ya-r Lieh'u!]

It responded with a massive cry.

It was neither sound, nor echo, nor music.

But that sound denied the status of those who heard it, denied logic, denied existence.

At the end of such denial, no one could do anything. The same applied to him.

Between Yurik's laughter, its response, and the merpeople's hymns, only Leandros cried out in a voice filled with unbearable pain.

"Stop...!"

Five massive tentacles and smaller ones whipped through the sea area.

The raging entity thrashed in all directions as if it would reach the end of the sky, then destroyed everything.

Their boat also seemed about to be finished soon.

Yurik looked at the tentacles and then turned to him.

"...Outsider, you don't belong to this world of madness. You're merely wearing such a shell."

"What are you saying!"

"This story is about me and your escort knight. You are a character who should have been removed long ago."

No, that's not right, he thought.

His insides churned.

Yurik's pale hand pointed at him like the hand of a death god.

"Though the ending of every story might be predetermined."

The boat swayed greatly.

Because of that, he was thrown from the boat and fell into the center of the sea whirlpool.

Below his body, the bottom of the pitch-black trench was visible.

The moment he brushed against a terribly black and viciously glimmering light, a thin tentacle snatched him from midair.

The tentacle brought him to the front of the boat, which was as precarious as a leaf in a storm.

On the boat filled with water, he could see confused Leandros and Yurik, who was still standing.

A distance so close that he could reach out and touch.

Yurik observed his face as if to devour it, then took something from his neck that was hanging upside down.

It was the former Duchess's stone necklace.

Something similar hung from his neck as well.

A black, elongated stone, slightly thicker than his.

Yurik combined his necklace with his own.

The two fit together as if they had originally been one.

A horn slightly longer than a finger.

After snatching the horn, he smiled in satisfaction.

"Until that ending is reached, I will never give up. Even if this world was created by someone's whim."

Almost simultaneously, a crushing sound emanated from his entire body.

Hot fluid regurgitated through his nose and mouth, flowing down his cheeks and forehead.

His vision turned bright red and blue. At the same time, white and black.

Just by turning his gaze slightly, he could see Leandros, who was overwhelmed with merely proving his own existence, with no means to resist.

When their eyes met, he repeated.

Remember.

Remember, Leandros.

The eyes of the soaking wet Leandros widened.

Yurik was looking down at him.

"Last, cough, words."

"Go ahead."

"You'll, definitely, get, screwed."

The execution of the Duchess and the murder of her son.

To leave trauma to the protagonist twice.

Usually, this would cause a true awakening, right?

After he died, Yurik was truly screwed.

Yurik chuckled and lightly touched his blood-covered face.

"Now go to sleep. Outsider from a strange star."

With Leandros's scream as the last thing he heard, he closed his eyes to the terrible sound of his organs bursting.