I’m Sick of the Kind Protagonist, so I Might as Well Just Die - Chapter 37
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#37
“Let me be clear about this—my goal hasn’t changed. I’m aiming to shuffle along as an unremarkable, insignificant villain, get wounded, die, and gradually fill up that tragic quota one meager piece at a time.”
“I look forward to seeing that unfold. Since you’ve devised a method to evade Silpi’s curse in this world, perhaps your desires will come to fruition.”
“That’s rich. The one who’s gotten me into the worst trouble is Perenustus himself, after all.”
Perenustus gazed back at me with a leisurely, knowing smile. I furrowed my brow sharply and turned away. His amused laughter brushed against my averted cheek.
“However, Aurelia, there is one absolutely decisive difference. No one in this world can scold me, but I can certainly discipline my students—”
The moment he uttered such absurdly unfair words.
With a deafening crack, the very air tore open. From that fissure emerged a colossal hand of pure white, its form too immense to fully comprehend.
“Perenustus!”
Silpi and I threw ourselves forward simultaneously to shield him. Instinctively, I recognized that this enormous hand represented the “decidedly unfortunate situation” Estella had warned of.
‘No, this can’t happen! Perenustus’s safety is our safety! Bilateia and Leonas are already deployed across the worlds!’
My desperate charge proved futile. The pristine hand flicked us aside like insects and seized Perenustus’s entire body in its grip.
“Ugh…!”
Unable to overcome the savage squeezing and twisting force, Perenustus contorted his face and coughed blood. As I lunged forward with Basilect drawn, I gasped—startled by the emotion surging within me.
‘Insane… I’m actually furious.’
It should have been me who disheveled Perenustus’s immaculate composure, me who twisted that smug face of his—not some grotesque oversized hand.
Shaken by my own selfishness, I shook my head violently to clear it and adjusted my grip on the blade. But before I could steel myself, the colossal hand seized Silpi as well. Then, as if discarding trash, it swatted my body and hurled me away.
‘Damn it, how humiliating!’
Powerless to resist, I was flung beyond the veil of darkness, my eyes wide and blazing with fury at the enormous hand. As my vision receded, the image of Perenustus struggling in that giant grip lingered like an afterimage.
“Ahhh!”
My body tumbled across the ground of some world, wracked by the nauseating vertigo of warped spacetime. I had no chance to even identify which world it was. The moment I tried to open my eyes, wincing at the hard, dusty earth pressing against my back, someone roughly seized my collar and hauled me up.
“Hey, are you even aware that you’re currently undergoing a special corrective education program?”
It was Bilateia. Behind her stretched nothing but pitch-black darkness and an oppressive, endless silence.
‘So Bilateia dragged me into the Dark Space the moment I fell into the world.’
Leonas appeared over Bilateia’s shoulder, arms crossed, his cold gaze surveying the surroundings as he kept watch.
“You’re not answering? Do you have any awareness at all?”
“Maybe…?”
“Maybe? So you’re saying you maybe do have awareness?”
As I nodded, Leonas, who had been keeping watch, approached and crouched before me. His voice, lower than usual, carried through the heavy air of the Dark Space.
“It seems we need to start with the fundamentals with you, so I’ve arranged this setting. So listen carefully, Aurelia.”
“Okay.”
“This world operates as a role-play where a predetermined script is memorized and executed. It’s an intricate stage arranged by the gods themselves.”
“I know that.”
“No, from our perspective, you don’t. You completely ignore the predetermined script, which throws off the pacing of the other actors. It’s not just that you’re profoundly affecting the characters’ lives—the entire system is overloading.”
I narrowed my eyes slightly. His patronizing tone, as if addressing a four-year-old fool, irritated me ten times more than Bilateia’s exasperation.
“Look. If you’re trying to vent the stress you got from Perenustus by taking it out on me, stop.”
“What? Seriously?”
“You do your job well, I’ll do my best in my own way. Let’s just maintain that relationship. Don’t try to establish some hierarchy now.”
“It’s not about hierarchy—it’s about maintaining basic standards!”
“Standards or whatever—my goal is singular. Die pathetically as a scheming, perpetually failing extra, fill up that ‘comedy-tragedy quota,’ and bring back the people from my village. That’s all I care about.”
Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike pressed her temples and shook her head.
“You really didn’t understand a single word the professor said, did you?”
“Aurelia…. You bear the titles of the Creator’s Mission and All the World’s Joy.”
“What does that even mean?”
“A character who has acquired such titles can never become the kind of trivial extra you’re hoping for. Never.”
At Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis’s words, I let out a scoff.
“I don’t care about all that. Anyway, I’m going to focus on filling up my tragedy quota first, so don’t get swept up in this and keep your head on straight. You know how much I suffered to save you all last time, right?”
At my sharp retort, Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike’s face flushed crimson. Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis also seemed to recall the final scene of the previous world, his ears reddening as he averted his gaze.
“Right now something really bad is happening to your professor, so I need to check on that first. So after this, let’s handle the urgent matters and talk about it later.”
Having silenced them both, I shrugged my shoulders and stepped beyond the boundary of the Dark Space.
‘Being around the kids is making me childish too. First, I just need to figure out what role I have in this world, then I’ll go check on Perenustus.’
I moved my feet as my body remembered. Judging by the fabric I could feel at my fingertips and my body devoid of any ornaments, it seemed I had finally been born as the extra I’d so desperately wanted to be.
“Hey, where did you go and why are you just now coming back?”
“Oh, Older Brother. I went for a short walk.”
“Mother and Father were waiting for you, saying the bread came out really delicious.”
Just from the conversation, they seemed like a truly affectionate family. The man I called ‘Older Brother’ gestured toward me and headed into the house.
It was a humble home, but sunlight poured gently through the windows. The furniture, though worn, gleamed with careful polish, and the savory aroma that permeated the interior spoke of peace.
‘A poor but harmonious household. Everyone seems quite healthy, and Older Brother is known throughout the Village as a sincere young man. And there’s even a simple-hearted Childhood Friend sitting at the dinner table who harbors unrequited feelings for me.’
I watched the young man of my ‘Childhood Friend’ role fidgeting with the bouquet of flowers in his hands, my brow furrowing slightly.
It was all too happy, too peaceful, too smooth. A world with no room for cruel nobility, bullying thugs, devastating illness, or sudden natural disasters.
‘Not bad, actually.’
Even as I nodded, I sensed it instinctively. With Perenustus captured, the system settings had clearly become completely corrupted.
‘In a mundane life like this, it would probably take a hundred years to fill the gauge…. Anyway, now that I know what kind of character I am, that’s enough.’
“Hey. Could you grab a chunk of cheese from the Barn? I meant to bring some but forgot.”
Mother smiled warmly and pointed somewhere. I quickly headed in the direction she indicated. It was truly an ordinary, safe, and peaceful everyday life.
Completely at ease, I picked up the knife that Mother had definitely left after slicing cheese. Looking up at the empty air, I pressed the cool metal against my throat in a threatening manner. Even as a sharp pain spread across my neck, my mind remained eerily calm.
‘If Perenustus had been free, he would have scolded me through my thoughts by now. If not that….’
Without hesitation, I applied pressure. After hot blood gushed forth and my vision went black, I opened my eyes in that dingy Dark Space.
“Hey!”
Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike loomed over me, her shout filling my entire field of vision.
“Is self-harm your hobby or something? How can someone just die so casually like that? What’s wrong with your head?”
“No, there’s a reason, so calm down and listen to me.”
“What reason! You died almost immediately after leaving here, you know that?”
“I know. Perenustus was captured, so I thought something might be off with how this world was set up, and I wanted to check.”
“The professor was captured? Who would dare seize the absolute being of the Worlds?”
Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike, who had been shouting frantically, and Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis, who had been keeping watch behind her, rushed toward me and demanded answers.
“I don’t know who captured him either. I just saw an enormous hand appear in the sky, grab him like this, and then disappear.”
The color drained from both Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis’s and Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike’s faces as they stammered uncertainly.
“A hand that touches the professor… that would mean….”
“It could only be an ancient god….”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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