PMEVBO 73

Ding!

────【 Sub Quest 】────

Praise ‘XXX Hayut’!

(0/5)

D-3 (72h)

Reward: Vaccine Generation Rate ?%

────────────────────

“Is it Iser again…?”

I let out a hollow laugh and exhaled cigarette smoke. The blue smoke reminiscent of Iser’s eyes spread through the air. It felt like dawn had fallen inside the dark cell.

Six years ago, I also went through three sub-quests before the main quest dropped, but back then, the praise target was different each time. So why is it Iser three times in a row this time? And also…

…This difficulty is fucking insane.

I could spend barely over three hours with Iser in a single day. Since the time limit was three days, the actual quest time limit was about nine hours.

Praise him five times within nine hours… making a whale dance would be easier.

I took a drag on my cigarette and leaned my head against the wall.

I’d cleared five sub-quests so far, but to do that, I’d had to fulfill over twenty compliments. Achieving that many compliments was down to luck. But there was no guarantee that luck would hold out forever. From now on, I needed to approach my targets in a planned and systematic way.

Since our reunion, Iser had felt joy because of me four times. The first was when I called his name. The second was when I held him and fell asleep. The third was when I visited his lodgings to see him. And the last was… when I showed him the butterfly birthmarks.

“…Listing them like this makes it seem like I’m inviting some strange misunderstanding.”

That guy… liked me…

At that moment, someone’s voice surfaced in my mind.

‘I’m sorry. …For liking you.’

It was a whisper, small and cracked.

I froze, cigarette still in my mouth. I thought I knew who that voice belonged to. It was fourteen-year-old Iser’s voice.

“What memory is this….”

As far as I remember, Iser never said those words to me. …Or did he?

“Ugh…”

Suddenly, my head felt like it was being pierced by an awl. I grimaced and clutched my head.

I couldn’t remember what I had been thinking about just a moment ago.

Then, a low, elegant voice tore through my aching mind.

‘I wanted you to feel how agonizing it is to lose someone you love in an instant. But then I thought about it, someone like you couldn’t possibly have someone like that. So I decided to become that person myself, the one you love.’

‘Lucariel, you love me. So it’s enough now. I’m going to die.’

‘I hope you hurt as much as I do.’

Since I possessed this body in this world, I had never once encountered Isabelle. Naturally, I didn’t know her voice.

Then why do I remember her words as spoken, not written? As if I’d heard them directly from her…

Is this a side effect of staying too long in this world…?

…I really need to get back to my original world as soon as possible.

I took a drag on my cigarette. I could feel the hand holding the cigarette right on my lips trembling.

Suddenly, the skin on my neck stung as if it had touched red-hot iron. Only then did I realize I was scratching my neck again. Instead of blood, something sand-like was caked under my fingernails. Looking closer, it was dried blood crust.

Ah, I scratched myself here yesterday and got a wound….

I pressed my palm against the wound. Fortunately, it wasn’t bleeding too much.

That’s a relief.

This should be enough to get by without Iser noticing.

I leaned my back against the wall and let my body fall flat. The cigarette I’d been holding had turned to ash. Normally, I would have disposed of the ash, but for some reason, I didn’t have the strength to lift a finger.

I lay still as I watched the cigarette smoke grow faint and disappear.

***

Squeak─

Clang.

I awoke to the sound of the iron door closing. I’d only meant to lie still, but I must have fallen asleep. It was understandable. The last time I’d slept properly was a few days ago, when I’d used Iser like a body pillow.

Feeling something foreign on the back of my hand, I looked down to find an IV needle inserted. The person who had just opened the iron door and left the cell must have been the apothecary.

“Are you awake?”

The voice came from beside my head. Soon after, a cool hand stroked my face and the back of my neck.

“You must have had a nightmare. Look at the cold sweat.”

It would have been unpleasant to have another person’s sticky sweat on his hand, but Iser didn’t look disgusted. He seemed like someone genuinely concerned for me.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that his affectionate manner was similar to the original Isabelle. She, too, had devoted herself to Lucariel to get what she wanted.

In the original story, Isabelle didn’t want to kill herself. It was the enemy who killed her beloved family, Lucariel Nebella Saracephon.

She never wanted to kill herself in the first place. Instead, she wanted to see Lucariel jump to his death like a moth drawn to a flame. That was the revenge she desired.

‘Lucariel, you love me. So it’s enough now. I’m going to die.’

So this was a trap. A grand trap set to drive Lucariel to his death.

And Lucariel, in the end, fell into that trap.

“…How can I… make it so you don’t die?”

When Lucariel finally said those words, Isabelle conveyed her true feelings to him for the first time.

‘Die as painfully as possible. That’s the only way I think I can live.’

My restraint device was similar, but the original Lucariel’s was built with a mechanism to painfully execute prisoners who escaped. To fulfill Isabelle’s wish, Lucariel left the prison while wearing the restraint and died, bleeding from every orifice in his body.

Isabelle didn’t hesitate to whisper love to her loathsome enemy for revenge. She rejoiced every time she felt the psychopath—who had never known love, either given or received—slowly becoming ensnared by her. If she had been the target of praise for the original Lucariel’s story, her achievement rate would have soared.

…Come to think of it, Iser is similar.

Whether mentally or physically, whenever he grew close to me, he always seemed genuinely pleased.

Throughout the sub-quests, I felt considerable guilt. I couldn’t help but feel that I was exploiting someone’s heart for my own selfish desires. Yet, I couldn’t abandon the quest. Iser was the only praise target who made me feel so guilty I hesitated to complete the quest.

Iser had already died because of me once. His attitude toward me was peculiar. If my instincts weren’t mistaken, targeting Iser for a praise quest was a cruel and irresponsible thing to do.

My goal was to clear all the quests and return to my world. I didn’t want to be ambiguous with someone whose feelings I couldn’t possibly return.

But what if…

…Iser’s purpose is the same as Isabelle’s?

Yes, both I and the original Lucariel were the worst murderers, responsible for countless deaths. The reason someone kept giving affection to such a person couldn’t possibly be out of goodwill. Unless they were approaching me for revenge.

If it’s not because he has feelings for me, but because he wants to win my heart for some other purpose… then I wouldn’t need to hesitate anymore.

I was worthless trash, so as long as Iser didn’t have feelings for me, I could act without restraint. After all, my top priority was returning to my original world.

I grabbed Iser’s hand as it caressed my neck. His hand froze.

“…Iser.”

“Yes, Lucariel.”

My voice was more hoarse than I expected, but he seemed to understand me just fine. I slowly rose from my seat. Iser waited silently for me to speak.

“You said it yesterday. You asked me to answer.”

“…….”

“Does this count as an answer?”

I cupped Iser’s cheek and tilted his head toward me. His eyes widened. His beautiful pupils shook slightly. It was the second time I’d seen the startled expression of twenty-year-old Iser, following last night.

No matter how much someone despised me, as long as they desired something from me, pleasing them wasn’t difficult. I just had to give them what they wanted. I learned that from the original Lucariel.