Chapter 8

Chapter 8 : He Who Wishes to Die Shall Live (3)

Perhaps because the effect was slight, my rank did not change, but the notification that my Contribution had increased was unmistakable.

‘Is this your way of telling me to drink it, you system bastard?’

The moment I pulled out the cork, a gentler herbal scent than I expected drifted out. I narrowed my eyes and bent over the vial, sniffing at it.

Surely poison would not smell this fragrant, and if he really wanted to kill me, there were easier ways. I let that hopeful thought run wild.

If I shut my eyes and drank it, I might even be able to trick myself into thinking it was herbal tea, so I tipped the whole bottle back and swallowed it in one gulp.

“Listen while you drink. You are going to be imprisoned again.”

“Cough, hack, khh—what?”

“If you want to stay here properly, I need everyone’s consent. There is a limit to what I can force through on my authority alone.”

My head spun.

Everyone I had met here handled some kind of ability. If he ranked high enough to crush others through sheer authority, then just how high—

I tried to edge farther away, but only scraped my back against the rough tree bark.

“You do not have to be afraid.”

“Do not dress it up like that.”

“You noticed, did you not? They are all afraid of you.”

“Of me?”

It was absurd.

He had just hit me with the most ridiculous thing I had heard since arriving here.

You are not afraid of me either.

“No matter what happens, even if they all conspire to kill you, remember this much: no one can kill you.”

The way he stated something so contradictory with such confidence was not reassuring in the slightest.

But what choice did I have?

I could only grab at whatever straw was available.

“But if I am going to be imprisoned again anyway, why did you give me the medicine?”

“Hmm…… that? It was a sleeping draught.”

What, you bastard?

“I heard you have not been sleeping.”

My vision blurred on the spot.

I tried to steady myself, but the medicine was excellent. It took effect immediately.

In the meantime, he stepped even closer.

I forced my head up while trying to cling to my darkening consciousness.

If nothing else, I wanted to memorize every detail of his face.

“Ah, I never told you my name, did I? Chezer Pan, ruler of the forest.”

My vision went black.

---

The sleeping draught was astonishingly strong.

On top of that, it seemed to have some healing effect as well.

No matter how I looked at it, the reason my outward wounds had vanished so cleanly had to be that medicine. Thanks to that, the moment I woke, I was in good enough condition to properly look around.

The iron chain fastened around my neck again felt a little stifling, but as restraints for someone with a history of escape, it was rather sloppy.

Ignoring the clinking as best I could, I slowly examined the enclosed space.

Filled with fragrant flowers and plants, the place resembled a greenhouse more than anything else.

A pure white glass ceiling, green and brightly colored plants of every size, pleasant warmth, and the smell of leaves.

I was locked inside a huge birdcage in the middle of it all.

Apart from the fact that it was decorated extravagantly with gleaming jewels that looked like gold or silver, and large enough for me to stand or lie down in, it was no different from an ordinary birdcage.

I shook the locked door a few times, found that it would not open, then grabbed the bars and sagged against them.

“So he really did lock me up, that son of a—”

Whew.

I rubbed my face, took a moment to steady my breathing, then searched back through my memory.

While I was being tortured, my mind had all but collapsed, then I had failed at escape again and again, and on top of that a boss had appeared out of nowhere, so I had ended up rambling about whatever came to mind.

“Was it…… Random Original Work Loading?”

Ding!

[Randomly loading a scene from 〈Your Regret After Killing Me〉.]

“……? I was not saying I wanted to watch it right—”

[2 points have been deducted.]

「(Excerpt omitted)……Chezer, who had been carrying a dried branch like a makeshift cane, tapped the ground lightly with it and tilted his head.

His pupils, fixed on the dizzying depths of the gorge below, were clearly seeing shapes that were not even here.

He was one of the five rulers who governed the Surface Folk, the one whose authority took precedence most in the forest, and despite how much he looked as though he were merely loafing around, he was a superior who was good at his job.

At least until yesterday.

“My lord!”

“If you get angry, you will get wrinkles.”

Sweeping back his hair, the color of the forest’s green canopy, he tossed the branch into the gorge below and turned around.

“Lady Ariti has run into trouble.”

“Why?”

Frowning, Pering blamed his superior’s indifference.

“You killed one of the Underfolk delegates yourself, my lord.”

“Should not I be the one in trouble? Why Ariti?”

“Because we were in the middle of negotiating a nonaggression pact! You knew Lady Ariti had worked so hard to arrange that meeting, so why did you do it?”

The ruler of the forest could perceive everything that had happened, was happening, and would happen within the forest. That was why, the moment he saw that man’s face yesterday, he could not restrain himself.

Chezer shrugged as he pushed at the back of the distraught Pering.

“Ha ha…… do we really have to do that? Sek has no intention of going to war……(To be continued)”」

Ding!

[Current rank of the Executor: Minor Role D]

[The Executor’s contribution to the Original Work is low.]

[〈Random Original Work Loading〉 ends incompletely.]

It was beginner’s luck.

That a random, incomplete fragment of the Original Work had happened to show a scene featuring “Chezer.”

“So if things rub him the wrong way, he is the kind who kills people regardless of the occasion or circumstances……”

I could not understand why he had chosen to make things so complicated by locking me up again instead of simply taking the easy route.

Was he trying to save me, or kill me?

After seeing the Original Work, I understood him even less.

He was the ruler of the forest, and Ariti—was that not the same character I had seen earlier, the one being spoken of as some spoil of war? If he was saying “our Ariti,” then yes, he was definitely a major character.

“How does he know me?”

On my first day here, I had already checked, thinking I might have possessed someone else’s body.

It was my appearance, and it was my body.

The awkward hair I had been too lazy to deal with was still the same, and so was the little finger I had bitten open the day before I arrived. From scars to fingers to toes, it was all me.

I had come here and done nothing but wander the forest……

“The ruler of the forest can know everything that happened in the forest—”

“—He can.”

At the familiar voice from behind me, I leaped to my feet and pressed myself against the opposite side.

“Did you sleep well?”

Pan looked exactly the same as before, smiling brightly, but somehow it did not feel like a smile at all. It only made me more wary.

“You look much better.”

He was still using that easy, friendly tone.

“The medicine worked well.”

“Of course it did. Who do you think made it?”

Still showing off his presence in every possible direction, he folded his arms smugly.

I stared at him blankly, then curled one corner of my mouth upward.

“So, I understand that you spied on my private life, but have we met somewhere before?”

At my question, Pan’s expression stiffened visibly. Rubbing at his temple, he walked closer to the cage.

As he fixed me with a steady stare, I was just beginning to suspect some other intention when he raised his brows and tapped the bars.

Clang—.

“You do like pointless conversation, do you not?”

Claaang—.

“If you are still wondering how I know you.”

Thud—.

“I told you that is not important.”

Muttering something like “Hmm, sturdy enough,” Pan grinned again and tilted his head.

“What is important is that you are here, when you should not be.”

I flinched without meaning to.

‘He knows even that?’

The only reason I clamped my mouth shut instead of blurting everything out in surprise was because there was a contradiction in what Pan had said.

He claimed to know everything that had happened, was happening, and would happen in the forest, and yet he could not find the reason I was here?

“I see…… your ability does not work on me.”

“…….”

“You were so firm when you said I would not die that I almost believed you. Now that you have put shackles on me, are you finally planning to kill me?”

“Hmm……”

“Where is the place where I am supposed to be, then?”

“That……”

“So we really have met before?”

“You……”

Pan pressed his lips together, stared at me with narrowed eyes, then suddenly grabbed the bars.

Thud—.

Rattle-rattle. Rattle-rattle-rattle—!

Shaking the bars wildly like a zombie, Pan let out a long sigh, then smiled again as though he had vented all the irritation from that single outburst.

“Where did you pick up that habit of cutting people off? I will explain in order, so this time try to understand.”

Pan spread one hand and began counting things off on his fingers one by one.

“Yes, my ability does not work on you. No, you will not die. I do not know where you are supposed to be, but I do know it is not here. And yes, we have met before.”

Using his remaining little finger, Pan idly dug at one ear, then flicked the finger away as though something were on it, even though there was nothing there.

They were answers to my questions in sequence, but he had rattled them off so quickly that it took me half a beat to sort them out.

‘Does he think I lost my memory, this bastard?’

I leaned against the bars behind me and considered Pan’s intentions.

He knew, but acted as though he did not. Even when he knew, he had no intention of telling me. He was friendly, but unhelpful.

Most of all, he seemed to enjoy watching me suffer.

As though he were secretly looking forward to when I would finally come to my senses and recognize him.

“So we met before?”

At my question, he nodded readily.

I touched the tip of my chin, pushed myself off the bars, and stepped a little closer.

“Where?”

“The Black Forest.”

“And what was I doing there?”

“How would I know?”

The instant I saw Pan’s smiling face from up close, I became certain.

Either I had really lost my memory wholesale, or this world had slapped that kind of setting onto me.

It had to be one or the other.

‘This bastard is absolutely serious about messing with me.’

I gave a hollow laugh, then pointed to the iron chain around my neck.

“When are you taking this off? I let myself be imprisoned quietly, so give me some assurance that I am not going to die.”

“Ah, that.”

Pan glanced around once, then pressed his forehead to the bars and beckoned me closer.

I also looked around once on reflex, then stepped nearer.

“When I said that no one would be able to kill you, no matter who schemed against you—do you believe me?”

I did not trust Pan.

But the fact that, here of all places, he was the only one trying to keep me alive made my doubts fade.

If someone told you that you would not die, would you not cling even to a rotten rope out of a sliver of hope?

“If I do not believe you, does anything change? Just say what you came to say.”

“They are going to use the fact that they cannot kill you.”

“That sounds like a plan I do not want to know.”

“You trust me, right?”

No.

I shook my head from side to side as I pulled away from Pan’s utterly untrustworthy face.

It turned out to be useless effort, because he immediately grabbed me by the collar and yanked me close again.

“A meeting of the five rulers is going to be held here soon. When it happens, you must demand that they execute you.”

“……Excuse me?”

“……?”

“Explain that properly.”

Execution?

Scowling at Pan and his utterly ridiculous plan, I waved both hands in disbelief.

“Everyone here fears you.”

“What about you?”

“I am the exception.”

“……So?”

“The rulers are no exception either. They are going to want you dead one way or another, so is it not better to enter on favorable terms?”

Execution is favorable?

Perhaps sensing the sharpness in my gaze, Pan cleared his throat and finally released my collar.

“If you are stabbed and your head is cut off, you die. If you are formally sentenced to execution and it is carried out, that is how you live.”

Instinctively, I clutched at my throat, where the cold chain still hung in coils.

You want me to believe that.

Ironically, the reason I felt he might toy with me but would not kill me seemed to come from somewhere deeper—my subconscious, instinct, sixth sense, or something along those lines.

“Give me information.”

“I will explain the rulers first. The most troublesome one is Etel……”

Pan recited a surprisingly detailed list of information, seeming genuinely certain that I would not die, then ran off, saying he did not like this place.

And Pan did not attend the meeting.

…

…

…

And so I was dragged docilely to the execution ground and made to kneel.

To be honest, I was a little frightened.

What if that bastard Pan had only been playing with me?

Ding!

[!Unexpected Situation!]

[A 【Time】 Limited Quest has been assigned.]

【Time】 Escape the Execution

You have been placed in a situation where you are about to be executed.

It is honestly astonishing how you managed to earn such a hasty death sentence in so short a time. Resolve today’s execution.

▶Fragment of the Original Work (Bound)

▶Time Limit: 01h : 00m : 00s

〈Tip〉 If you fail to clear it within the time limit, a penalty will be applied (common to all Time quests).