TEOCH 75

After losing consciousness, I think I floundered in a pitch-black void for a long time.

My body felt crushed from all sides, as if I had sunk to the depths of the ocean. My head was engulfed in a hot, dull pain, feeling like it would burst at any moment. I couldn’t come to my senses at all. For an amount of time I couldn’t measure, I struggled to wake up, only to lose consciousness again and again.

‘Damn it, I’m going to throw up…’

Nausea poked at my throat and a cold sweat broke out, but my body was so stiff I couldn’t even vomit the contents of my stomach or wipe the sweat away. It was surely one of the effects of the dryad’s sap, but in such a painful situation, I didn’t even have the presence of mind to think about that. I simply surrendered myself to the flow of time, intoxicated by the sap’s effect.

In all that time, there was only one thing I could figure out. A considerable amount of time had passed since I fainted. Though I couldn’t open my eyes, sometimes a painful sunlight poured from beyond my eyelids, and at other times, a suffocating chill pierced my lungs, so at least a day must have passed.

‘My comrades must be safe, right? By now, they would have had more than enough time to escape.’

By now, Damian has probably taken everyone back to the temporary shelter. The ‘Island of Trees’ has no real dangers, and it won’t be difficult to breathe inside the temporary shelter. They will surely be safe there.

Of course, I felt a little sorry for placing such a heavy burden on Damian alone. It was possible that Rikiel or the other comrades might blame him, and Damian himself would be having a hard time. He might even be crying.

‘Still, it will be okay. Damian is a person with a strong will… As long as no sudden anomaly occurs in the second playthrough, he will hold up well.’

Just as Rikiel’s attitude had changed slightly since the second playthrough, there was a possibility that Damian’s personality could change as well, but at least for now, there were no signs of that. So, let’s believe that it will be fine for the time being. Thinking that way put my mind at ease, and before I knew it, I had lost consciousness again.

How many hours, or perhaps days, had passed? After being stretched out for a long time, I regained my senses with a ticklish feeling of release at my fingertips. The sensation of warmth returning to a part of me that had been cold from lack of blood flow for a long time. Instinctively realizing what that meant, I carefully put strength into the tips of my fingers. They moved.

“Hngh…!”

My left arm suddenly felt like it was on fire, and something squirmed deep within the muscles. As the arm’s function returned to normal, the parasite began to repair the wound. I felt a similar sensation in my right leg and side, which seemed to mean that there wasn’t a single unharmed place on my body right now.

After the feeling returned to my whole body, I twisted my body to try and get up, only to realize it was futile. Something like tree roots was wrapped tightly around my entire body. Well, they must have made these kinds of preparations before waking me up…

When I opened my sticky, sleep-crusted eyes, pitch-black tree bark came into view. I had hoped to see something that would tell me my current location, anything at all. As I was wondering in what position these monsters had tied me up, the tree bark suddenly began to move bizarrely.

The part I had thought was a knothole blinked slowly, and the lower part of the bark opened strangely like a mouth. I realized what was going on. After blinking my blurry eyes several times, my vision became a little clearer. What I had thought was tree bark was actually a dryad’s face.

—Grrr…?

When I stared at it silently, the creature hesitated and moved back. No, to be precise, it only pulled back the hands that were holding me. I now saw that it was its fingers that were binding my body. The creature had been moving somewhere while holding me tightly to prevent me from escaping, and it seemed I had woken up in the process.

“Where… are you taking me…”

—Grr?

My tongue didn’t move well, perhaps because of my poor physical condition. Of course, even if my pronunciation were perfect, there was no way that monster would understand my words. The dryad pretended not to hear me and maintained a stoic silence, while I sank into thought to find my own answer.

‘Are they taking me to the Harpyia?’

Actually, there was no need to add a qualifier like ‘could it be.’ What other possibility could there be? The reason these creatures had kept me unconscious for several days must have been because it took that long for the Harpyia to come to this island. Since these things have no proper means of communication, it was only natural for the Harpyia to be late. In any case, that was the only explanation for now.

‘So now the Harpyia will decide whether I live or die. Damn it…’

How dare a mere stage 1 boss decide someone’s life or death? As I ground my teeth in frustration, I soon realized something didn’t add up. This was a bit strange. No matter how much the difficulty had increased because it was the second playthrough, this situation was too…

‘That gem, it was a trap that seemed to have completely read our actions.’

The idea of a ‘fake gem’ itself was a rather advanced strategy for the first stage, but there was something more important. The fact that they had set all sorts of traps not only on the ground but also in the air—that was the decisive move that brought us down.

Rehas’s ‘Spider’s Eye’ was not an ability that told him exactly how dangerous a trap was. It only made a red light shimmer around the trap, indicating that the area was dangerous.

Because of that, in a situation where traps were densely packed even in the air, the entire clearing would just look like it was embroidered with red light. That’s why Rehas couldn’t easily see through the fact that the gem itself was a trap. If the traps had only been on the ground, we would have noticed them long ago and been able to get out of there.

What if the Harpyia took that into account and ordered them to set traps in the air? Even though I knew it was a ridiculous notion, I couldn’t shake the thought from my mind.

It was impossible. How on earth could that creature have figured out the nature of Rehas’s ability? It must have just been a coincidence that things worked out so well as they were making thorough preparations to capture us.

‘But there’s another point that doesn’t add up. These spirits… why did they leave my comrades and take only me?’

During the battle, I was too flustered to think about it, but now that I thought about it, it was quite strange that the spirits had ignored my comrades and targeted only me.

Perhaps they thought, ‘It will be easier if we just take the petrified human,’ but they already had an overwhelming numerical advantage. They could have just knocked all five of us out and taken us. And yet, the fact that they ignored my comrades’ presence and took only me meant…

‘Could it be that they knew? That I was a different existence from my comrades?’

The thought occurred to me that maybe these creatures knew I was the ‘hero’ and had been targeting only me from the start. It was possible that the Harpyia had given an order from the beginning saying, ‘Just bring the one with brown hair and a red cloak,’ and these creatures, in order to follow that order, had deliberately let my comrades go and dragged only me away. Of course, this too was a ridiculous notion…

‘That can’t be right. How could the Harpyia, who has never even seen me in this playthrough, give such an order?’

I couldn’t understand why these ominous thoughts kept popping into my head. The entire time I was being dragged somewhere, held captive by the dryad, I had to groan, gripped by an unknown anxiety. If it were the anxiety that ‘the Harpyia might kill me,’ I could at least understand it, but I truly couldn’t comprehend why I was having these kinds of thoughts.

But, for better or worse, even those thoughts didn’t last long. Just as I was about to steer my thoughts in a slightly more productive direction, the dryad suddenly stopped in its tracks.

‘What, have we arrived already?’

Startled, I looked around and saw dozens of dryads and gnomes gathered around a wide clearing. It seemed this clearing was a completely different place from where the fake gem had been. The floor of the clearing was decorated with round pebbles and small flowers, looking as if they had made their own preparations to welcome a distinguished guest.

‘A distinguished guest to these monsters… It must be the Harpyia.’

I didn’t have to wait long to confirm that my hypothesis was correct. As soon as the dryad threw me into the center of the clearing, the faint sound of flapping wings came from far away.

I tried to get up somehow, but it wasn’t easy, probably because I had been unconscious for so long. The spirits knelt at the edge of the clearing and silently waited for the Harpyia. In less than a minute, a familiar silhouette appeared from beyond the sky.

‘It’s Charon.’

Seeing the flowing black hair, I ground my teeth. Among the Harpyia sisters, I could never forget her name. The oldest of the five Harpyias, the one with the most powerful strength, and the quickest mind, making her a pain to deal with. And if the item description was accurate… the one who gave these spirits the ‘fake gem’ to trap me.

Charon didn’t appear wrapped in a roaring wind like the silver-haired Harpyia on the ‘Volcanic Island.’ She probably didn’t want to ruin the clearing the spirits had decorated. The monster landed in the clearing with a light and graceful movement, like an ordinary bird, and gave the other monsters a cursory glance with a detached attitude, as if looking at inanimate objects.

Of course, that alone was just as intimidating. Her straight, elegantly spread shoulders and her emotionless, arrogant face were more than enough to express the dignity of a ruler of a domain. She gave a slight wave of her hand to the spirits looking at her, and they, after a moment’s hesitation, cautiously backed away and retreated from the clearing. The clearing, which had been packed just moments before, became empty in an instant.

The next moment.

“Ghk…!”

As a strange thread of magic wrapped around my body, I was pulled up like a puppet with its strings cut. Charon seemed to want to face me, as she pulled me up to a height where our eyes would meet. If I could have put any strength into my body, I might have been able to struggle, but even that was difficult now. My muscles wouldn’t obey me, as it hadn’t been long since I had woken up.

She slowly looked me over with eyes full of curiosity, like an animal seeing a mirror for the first time. She paid no heed to me wincing in pain as the threads of magic squeezed my arms tightly. Rather than taking revenge on the one who had collapsed her island and caused a ruckus in her territory, she seemed to have no interest in my pain itself. She would probably maintain a similar attitude even if I screamed that I was going to die.

But, something was strange.

‘What is that look in her eyes? It’s definitely different from before…’

What lay in the Harpyia’s red eyes was not just simple curiosity. Paying no mind to me scrutinizing her with a suspicious gaze, Charon smiled faintly, as if looking at a dear person she hadn’t seen in a long time. Wait, she’s smiling at me? Why? As I gaped blankly, dumbfounded, Charon said with a grin.

—So my thoughts were correct after all. I thought you would be the most likely one to fall for such a trap.

“What?”

—The things I experienced in the dream were as hazy as mist, but seeing your face, everything seems to become clear.

“A dream? What are you talking about…?”

—Yes, this is what you looked like. The faces of the other humans changed often, but your face never once changed. That’s why I had to bring you here. To confirm if my dream was correct.

What is this? Is it some kind of event? Having finally regained some strength in my limbs, I staggered and shook my legs, and Charon finally released me. As I took a few steps back, trying my best not to collapse to the ground, she just smiled softly, making it feel like a lie that she had just violently lifted me up moments before.

I couldn’t understand what she was talking about, but right now, I had to avoid getting on her bad side as much as possible. With no comrades and my body in a mess, it wouldn’t be strange if my head flew off immediately if I angered her. The first thing I needed to do right now was to figure out what she wanted from me…

“Can’t you speak in simpler terms? It’s really hard to understand what you’re saying.”

—Oh? Your way of speaking in the dream was much rougher, but now you’re more polite? Why is that?

“I don’t know what you mean about my way of speaking. Anyway, tell me what this dream is about. Unless you want to play with dolls with me right in front of you.”

—What is playing with dolls? Is it a game that humans play? In any case, this is strange. Why are you denying it? I thought you must have had the same dream as me.

Charon tilted her head in confusion, but I was in the same boat, unable to understand a word she was saying. I had no idea what she was talking about. This monster was speaking as if I should know something, but for me, who had been dragged here by monsters and had only just regained consciousness, I couldn’t guess her intentions at all. The dream she suddenly brought up was equally out of context.

Besides, why was she picking on my way of speaking? It was true that my speech had become more polite than before, but that was only because I was being careful around Tristan, and it had nothing to do with her. Besides, she was a realist who didn’t even expect a mere human to be polite to her in the first place. So why…

Oh, wait.

‘How does she know? That my way of speaking has become more polite than before?’

A shiver suddenly ran down my spine. The elaborate strategy that seemed to read our actions, the strangely familiar attitude, and the dream she said she had…

As the unbelievable hypothesis flashed through my mind, goosebumps spread all over my body. Wait, what is this. What on earth is going on with this story.

To avoid the ominous feeling I desperately didn’t want to acknowledge, I took a few more steps back, but Charon came closer by the exact same amount I had retreated. I wanted to cover my ears, but I couldn’t get any strength into my hands. In the first place, since she communicates with magic, covering my ears wouldn’t stop me from hearing her, but still…

Still, I wanted to deny it. No way, it can’t be that. I had noticed that there would be differences between the first and second playthroughs, and I had guessed that this current situation was a new event added to the second playthrough, but I never imagined it would be something like this…!

—You really don’t know?

The Harpyia’s red eyes glittered.

—We were on opposing sides, killing each other, weren’t we? In a very long dream.

Instinctively understanding what Charon was saying, I could only stare at her smile with eyes full of horror.