I’m Sick of the Kind Protagonist, so I Might as Well Just Die - Chapter 63

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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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#63
I opened my eyes in an unfamiliar silence. It seemed I was lying on the sofa in Perenustus’s Office.
“You’re awake?”
“…Yeah.”
I still didn’t understand the mechanism by which I entered the Worlds and returned to this place, but at least the fact that I had returned was undeniable.
“It feels strange to greet each other like this.”
“Why? Is this the first time you’ve died before me?”
Unlike me, who mumbled awkwardly, Leonas handed me tea with a face that seemed somewhat exhilarated. I accepted the teacup with a drowsy mind still heavy with sleep, then suddenly furrowed my brow and looked at him.
“Hey… isn’t this Perenustus’s?”
“The professor doesn’t seem like he’ll be in immediate danger, so I thought I’d take a chance.”
He shrugged casually and pointed to one corner of the chamber. The world I had just escaped from was projected dimly into the empty space. The trembling Imperial Palace, the people destroying it, and Bilateia were visible. And
‘Perenustus.’
In the hazy image, I took in at a glance the man cradling my dead body and the form of Perenustus before my eyes. Perenustus’s ‘body’ stood rigidly with hands clasped behind his back in front of the table where the Worlds were projected. His slender frame was utterly motionless. His color had faded like a bleached photograph, becoming hazy and pale—he looked less like a living person and more like a finely carved statue.
“Perenustus… did he leave his body here and send only his consciousness into the Worlds?”
“Seems like it. I’ve never seen anything like this before, so I was genuinely terrified at first.”
Leonas, sipping from an identical teacup, shuddered slightly.
“I died first and returned to this chamber first, right? I already said all sorts of things I shouldn’t have to the professor in the Worlds, but meeting him face-to-face here like this is just…”
“You should probably restrain yourself.”
“I was thinking about when I might get another chance to match wits with the professor.”
He grinned mischievously and winked. I pulled down the corners of my mouth and simply drank my tea. The more I saw of Leonas, the more I realized he had a reckless streak that didn’t match his appearance at all.
“For me and Bilateia, our bodies and consciousness don’t separate—we’re sent entirely into the Worlds, and we return when we die or when the Worlds end, right?”
“Right.”
“But you’re different. Like the professor, your body stays here.”
“Oh, really? I didn’t know that.”
Leonas shook his head firmly at my nonchalant response.
“Hey, this difference is huge. A nameless background becoming nearly equal to a Creator!”
He paused briefly, staring intently at the tea swirling in his cup, then spoke again.
“What’s different about me and Bilateia from you…? Since I returned first and have been watching your and the professor’s bodies, I keep thinking about it.”
I, who had been leaning diagonally against the sofa until then, lazily rose and approached Perenustus’s form.
‘Creator. Administrator. Whatever grandiose title. Perenustus and I are bundled together, while the capable senior students are bundled separately.’
It was a classification that made no sense.
“Could it be because of Silpi’s curse? Since Silpi is Perenustus’s avatar, maybe divine power or something like that is affecting my body—”
“What am I!”
Silpi, whom I hadn’t even known was there, shrieked and interjected. At her cry, the image projected in the empty space shook violently. Simultaneously, color began returning to the silhouette standing in one corner of the Office.
I watched as if witnessing a miracle—the hazy colors gradually sharpening from his feet upward. His eyes, frozen like sculpture, blinked once and moved. His broad shoulders lifted slightly, then descended slowly with a measured exhale. At the end of that mesmerizing movement, Perenustus’s gaze turned slowly toward me.
It was a complex gaze. It seemed to contain many things, but I was too inadequate to define exactly what. Unable to bear the piercing stare directed at me, I eventually opened my mouth to break the awkwardness.
“Shall we embrace to commemorate our reunion?”
Perenustus’s gaze dropped to my hand, awkwardly extended. Then his long eyes moved toward Leonas’s hand before crinkling slightly.
“I don’t recall giving you permission to use my belongings.”
“Ah…”
“Can you explain why that’s in your hands?”
Leonas couldn’t even manage a nervous cough, averting his gaze. After exchanging glances with him, I quietly set my teacup down on the table. Perenustus, apparently displeased even with the cups sitting side by side, pushed both of them away without touching them and pointed at the projected image with his chin.
“You should properly explain how you’ve reduced my world to this state.”
“…Yes, sir.”
With that exchange, Perenustus fell silent. As a result, Leonas and I couldn’t even sit down—we were forced to stand in an awkward position and watch as the world transformed. The Imperial Palace, swept up in fierce and crude chaos, descended into a mess far removed from elegance or splendor.
Bilateia, her expression troubled as if she’d undergone quite a significant change of heart while we were talking, was throwing off her crown.
“Why is Bilateia doing something so strange again? I missed it while I was busy threatening Leonas.”
The moment Perenustus reached his hand toward the projected world to check what was happening, the world suddenly shut down.
“These old fools…!”
As Perenustus’s irritation flared, Bilateia’s body suddenly appeared in the empty air as if hurled outward. Leonas reflexively rushed forward and stretched his arms with all his might. Fortunately, Bilateia’s body landed safely in his arms without major impact.
“Oh.”
Perenustus let out an unusually sharp exclamation of admiration.
“Not only did you use my teacup, but you even left footprints on my table.”
“….”
Leonas, his face looking as though he might faint, couldn’t even offer an excuse. He hurriedly jumped down from beneath the table. Bilateia, who had been in his arms until then, belatedly grasped the situation and quickly pulled away. Both of them simultaneously tried to offer some explanation to Perenustus, then simultaneously averted their eyes.
“That’s right. Even with ten mouths, you should have nothing to say.”
Perenustus, speaking with cold reproach, swept his emotionless gaze across all of us. Then he began neatly straightening his wrinkled sleeves.
“In any case, you all seem fine, which is fortunate. I was worried since you’ve been trapped for so long and witnessed so many deaths, but I suppose I wasn’t the one who should have been worrying.”
“Oh, you were worried? Really?”
“Please don’t worry about me. Just rest well.”
“Where are you going?”
“Why else would those old men suddenly shut down the world’s shutter?”
Perenustus answered the question with another question, meticulously arranging his cravat and hair before looking down at me.
“My words aren’t empty reassurance. Through this world, I’ve learned firsthand just how unsettling and irritating it is to worry about others.”
“….”
I was about to move my lips, wondering if I should apologize, when the entire Office suddenly shook violently and an enormous white hand thrust through. Just as a massive hand was about to crudely snatch Perenustus, as I’d witnessed before—
“Then, I’ll be going.”
Perenustus stepped onto those fingers like stairs and climbed up. One step, two steps—he ran across the back of the hand and up the forearm as if taking a familiar path, and the enormous man’s body vanished in an instant.
‘Can he really do that….’
The confusion wasn’t mine alone; the giant hand twitched in midair. The fingers that hesitated several times slowly clenched into a fist. The hand, with tendons bulging as if wanting to strike something down, simply vanished without a trace in an instant.
Leonas, Bilateia, and I, unable to even breathe loudly, could only exchange glances to confirm each other’s presence.
“Do you think the professor will really be okay…?”
“He said not to worry about him. He must have something to rely on.”
Leonas, who had been watching Bilateia and me exchange words, extended his index finger. Where his fingertip pointed, the comedy-tragedy total volume cylinder, filled to nearly half capacity, gleamed.
“Since he’s achieved record-breaking harvest quantities, they’d give him a reward if anything—they won’t punish him.”
“…But seeing him clench his fist, it doesn’t look like they’ll give him a reward.”
Even Leonas, who had been trying to reassure us, furrowed the bridge of his nose with an uneasy expression at my words.

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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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