PMEVBO 62

Iser gazed quietly down at Lucariel’s face, fast asleep in his arms. His snowflake-like, pure white eyelashes were drenched in tears. The sight was heartbreakingly beautiful.

Six years ago, Lucariel was seventeen, but even then, he looked no different from an adult. His height and voice were already nearly fully developed back then.

Yet, the person before him now was completely different from six years ago. That fact stung painfully in his eyes.

His silver hair, once like starlight, had faded like a spider’s web. His body, emaciated with protruding bones, seemed as though it might shatter with the slightest pressure. His gentle, delicate face had always been pale, but the shadows under his eyes made him look somehow precarious.

‘There’s nothing I can do about this…’

Lucariel’s body, reunited after six years, was broken. Scratches marred his skin, and severe congestion filled his body. The internal injuries were likely sustained while forcibly breaking the restraints around his neck. However, Iser couldn’t discern the cause of the wounds on his skin, including those under his eyes and on his neck.

Whether internal or external, healing human wounds was not difficult for Iser. Now that he could properly wield the Power of Life, it was even easier. He could heal without pain, without the troublesome process of inflicting wounds on his own body.

Perhaps freed from the shackles of fear that he might hurt Lucariel, Iser impulsively kissed him.

Even though there was no need to go that far.

What could have been resolved with a simple handshake was replaced by a kiss, and Lucariel’s wound healed instantly. But Iser could not heal the time he had spent alone here, being worn down over the past six years.

‘If I could, I’d take you out of here right now.’

But the restraints binding Lucariel’s body wouldn’t allow it. The moment they escaped this hellish underground prison, those restraints would take Lucariel’s life. Just like in his past life…

Then, the sound of guards’ footsteps echoed from the floor below.

“…It’s probably best to send him to those people here.”

He had already drawn more attention from the guard instructor than he’d wanted. Any more conspicuous actions would strip him of even the right to stay by Lucariel’s side.

Iser sighed and carefully laid Lucariel, whom he had been holding, down on the floor. Pushing a strand of hair tickling his pale cheek behind his ear, Iser whispered softly before leaving.

“I’ll come back to see you soon, Lucariel.”

***

I saw a familiar ceiling as soon as I opened my eyes.

That pitch-black ceiling I’d stared at so often lately it felt like it was slowly descending. It was the ceiling of the cell assigned to me.

I hadn’t slept soundly a single day since arriving in prison. But now, it felt like I’d awakened from a very deep sleep. My mind was clear, yet my body felt sluggish.

As I struggled to sit up, I felt the restraint collar around my neck. In that moment, fear took hold of me. It felt like breaking this collar and leaving this cell had been nothing but a dream.

At that moment, something happened.

───【 Skill Draw Ticket 】───

Would you like to use the Skill Draw Ticket (1x)?

Yes/No

────────────

A praise quest completed just because someone called my name once. The reward had just been generated.

“…It wasn’t a dream.”

Thank goodness. … Iser being alive wasn’t a dream.

Leaning my back against the wall, I selected ‘No’. Then I immediately checked my inventory.

Skill Draw Tickets: 1

“…This is strange.”

…Why only one ticket, not two? …I should still have the one I received after clearing Seriha’s praise quest six years ago?

And not long after, I discovered another oddity. Whether it was true that evolving to Level 1 expanded the inventory, two skills were stored there.

The two butterfly icons displayed ‘Guidance’ and ‘Wisdom’ in sequence.

Guidance I can understand… but what the hell is Wisdom?

An unknown skill was stored in my inventory.

…..This probably has something to do with the missing skill draw ticket.

This damn shitty game is now secretly pulling skills behind the player’s back.

The system’s insane antics weren’t exactly new. I quickly resigned myself and tapped the two butterfly icons in turn. Upon checking, I found each skill had a different cooldown.

Guidance has about 5 days left, and Wisdom has roughly 10 days.

After confirming that, I exited the inventory window. Well, I tried to exit. If I hadn’t spotted an unfamiliar category on one side of the inventory window, I would have.

“Monster…?”

The newly appeared ‘Monster’ category contained a single icon, shaped like a ginseng root, sitting all alone. I had no idea what it meant.

Is it a level-up reward…?

But there was no mention of them giving something like this as a level-up reward.

More importantly, was this a world with monsters in it?

Monsters had never appeared in the original work. But the sudden intrusion of a monster didn’t really worry me. Strange. Why?

I’ll think about that later. First, let’s check what this is.

Does pressing this activate something like a skill?

Just in case, I pressed the ginseng-shaped icon.

───【 Monster 】───

Would you like to view ‘Root.txt’?

Yes/No

────────────

“I thought it was edible since it looked like ginseng…”

…So it wasn’t food for the stomach, but for the brain. Guess there’s writing on the ginseng root or something.

I pressed ‘Yes’ and a new window opened. And the contents of that window were…

────【 Root.txt 】────
[Unreadable corrupted text]
뷁웱긁□퀧댉툵□슭뫍켫□
죃릮샗웂□□꿵뎂뷟웱□웱
캷슭덟뭷퇶□□□□껅궫궫
□□뫍웱쉒댉꿲죃뷁툭□□
□웱웱궳슭뎂캷샗뭷□□□
────────────────

“Damn…”

……Anyway, this damn system was a master at screwing over players.

The root.txt window, complete with a scroll bar, was crammed full of bizarre characters. As I scrolled down, something occurred to me.

Sometimes when you open a file wrong, the text gets garbled like this.

…I heard this happens when the encoding or something gets messed up. That’s exactly what’s going on.

Scrolling all the way to the bottom revealed a help icon. I clicked it immediately.

───【 Help 】───

The current ‘Root.txt’ file cannot be viewed.

Acquire additional entities and try again!

────────────────

How am I supposed to acquire additional entities……?

At the moment, the only thing that came to mind was getting them as level up rewards. But to level up…….

▝▚Accept the Main Quest?▚▗▞▘

When I believed Iser was dead without a doubt, I feared nothing. Now, even if that insane main quest popped up again, I saw no reason not to accept it. I had already killed Iser, and countless others since.

But.

For some reason, Iser was alive.

Even if it wasn’t strictly for reading the text, I had to clear every quest to obtain the wish ticket needed to return to my original world. But accepting the main quest again meant this time, Iser would surely…

Suddenly, I realized something strange.

▝▚Kill ‘Iser Hayut’!▚▗

Success!

“…Why did it succeed?”

If Iser wasn’t dead and was alive, that meant… the quest had failed.

I closed my eyes as soon as that thought occurred to me.

You piece of trash, this just makes it look like I’m regretting Iser being alive…

I struggled to shake off the anxiety rising in my mind. In doing so, I failed to notice the sound outside the door.

Clang.

Creak─!

The heavy iron door swung open, flooding the dark cell with light from the hallway.

I knew the hallway light wasn’t very bright, being underground. But in the dark cell, even that light felt blinding. I couldn’t believe that before passing out, I too had walked around in that very light.

I forced myself to open my eyes, which reflexively crinkled against the glare. There stood the guard instructor who had personally fitted the restraints on my body six years ago, holding a lamp. Soon, the man’s thick voice echoed within the narrow cell.

“You’re awake, I see.”

“……”

“Prisoner Number 1004. You’ve been quiet until now. But this morning, you slipped out of your cell, evading surveillance.”

“……”

“Any reason?”

To be honest, the guard instructor’s words barely registered. All my attention was focused on the person standing behind him.

Iser.

Come to think of it, he was wearing a guard’s uniform…

Earlier, I’d been too distracted to notice.

When our eyes met, Iser frowned and silently mouthed the words.

‘Don’t do it.’

Only then did I realize I was habitually scratching under my eye again. My hastily lowered hand was already stained with blood.