I’m Sick of the Kind Protagonist, so I Might as Well Just Die - Chapter 79
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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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#79
“Ren… what were you thinking, putting the children in such a place?”
Silpi spoke while watching the screen projected in the void of my office. In the image, Aurelia, with a bedsheet draped across her shoulders, began driving her male attendants beneath the bed. The bewildered attendants, cast out from the mattress, covered themselves with the cloth she distributed.
“Isn’t that the world you created on a whim ages ago when it was briefly fashionable, then buried because you decided it wasn’t worth keeping?”
“Since I left it buried, I was impressed that the world matured so beautifully on its own.”
Silpi turned to me with an expression of utter disbelief. I was grinding my teeth so hard they creaked, glaring at the screen.
One of the male attendants beneath the bed was devotedly kissing and licking Aurelia’s feet. She, about to push him away, merely exhaled a sigh into the empty air and left the clinging man to his devices. The moment her resistance vanished, the other attendants clung to her legs.
“Hey, your expression is something else. Are you trying to bore a hole through the world with your eyes alone?”
I shot a glance at Silpi, who was mocking me, then rubbed my face vigorously. Silpi watched me—growing stranger with each passing day—with a mixture of curiosity and exasperation, circling around the projected image.
“Now tell me honestly. If it’s a contractual marriage scenario, there were other well-developed worlds that would’ve worked just fine, right? Why on earth did you choose such a repulsive world?”
“Precisely so you’d die of curiosity.”
I removed my palms from my face, which had turned red from rubbing, and replied flatly.
“Through the previous world, the old ones surely learned the delights of close-range observation. They must be desperate to see this mature world unfold as well.”
“Right, the Ancient Gods’ default stance is distant contemplation. Only when the creator of a given world earnestly invites them to observe do they deign to watch more intimately and vividly.”
“Exactly.”
“So you deliberately sent the children to such a place to exploit that principle and throw your weight around with the Ancient Gods?”
I didn’t deny it. Instead, I raised my hand and pointed at the empty space in the center of my office. At that precise moment, an enormous hand materialized there.
The colossal hand, which had opened its palm as if to seize me once more, awkwardly clenched into a fist the instant it met my extended index finger pointing directly at it. Then it gently lowered that fist to the ground.
It was an invitation—not a kidnapping, but a summons to ascend.
“See? This is the kind of entertaining thing that happens.”
I let out a brazen laugh and nodded toward Silpi.
“I’ll be back soon, so keep a close eye on them. Since you’re my extension, I don’t need to tell you to watch carefully—you’ll do it naturally.”
Silpi understood the subtext. If the students were in danger, I was telling her to go help them. Before Aurelia found herself in genuine peril.
“Of course I’ll do it well! Stop with the unnecessary nagging and just go already!”
Silpi pouted and pushed me. I pretended to yield to her shove and stepped onto the enormous hand.
‘I knew the old ones’ taste for stimulation well enough… but I didn’t expect them to summon me this quickly.’
Suppressing a quiet laugh, my lips twitching, I arrived in the vast expanse and bowed respectfully. Yet the Ancient Gods showed no reaction. I, too, stood firm against their gaze, curious to see who would yield first.
Pressure that transcended language bore down on my entire body in the form of their stare. I could feel against my skin the countless eyes covering the surface of these great beings, all trained upon me in unison.
‘The one in need always bows first. The urgency isn’t mine.’
During that tedious interval, I organized in my mind what I had witnessed on the office’s projection screen. How many cycles Aurelia was repeating. How much Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis had grasped. How well Bilateia Fernichiosa Venisike was managing them.
‘Aurelia’s adapting faster than I expected.’
The moment my thoughts turned and displeasure welled up, one of the great beings spoke.
-Why do you not invite us to observe this world?
“The restoration of the previous world has not yet been fully completed.”
I answered with a slight bow, my tone respectful and courteous.
“I believed your great selves were more invested in that world.”
-Tsk.
Complete the restoration properly before issuing invitations, they seemed to say. At this gentle rebuke wrapped in courtesy, the Ancient Gods unfolded the restoration status of the previous world in the empty space.
-Look freely, then.
Murae’s World, densely packed with buildings beyond recognition, unfamiliar regulations, and rapidly established social structures, captivated my gaze.
Perenustus caught himself calling his own world “Murae’s World” and let out a soft, self-deprecating laugh.
‘This progress would be impossible for me to achieve alone. Six different worlds competing, each contributing their finest technologies and advantages—that’s what made this possible. The world truly needs unexpected freshness.’
He smiled with satisfaction as he reaffirmed his hypothesis. Such transformation was worth enduring the humiliation and inconvenience.
The Ancient Gods vibrated the air with displeasure upon witnessing Perenustus’s unguarded, proud expression.
-Well, you must be satisfied enough by now.
-Confess why you didn’t invite us.
“Regrettably, I was afflicted with a penalty for deviating from my plans.”
-….
“Since you are the ones who imposed that sanction upon me, you would know better than anyone.”
Perenustus continued to blame them with meticulous courtesy, not dropping a single word.
“The more firmly I resolved to invite your esteemed presences, the less my hands and feet obeyed my will.”
-The sanction does not activate in such a manner!
“Yet it activated precisely that way for me. Have I not proven it by failing to invite your esteemed presences?”
The Ancient Gods raged in their own ways. They were well aware this was blackmail to lift the penalty.
-A most elegant form of coercion. I find it pleasing.
“Surely not. How could someone like me presume to coerce your esteemed presences?”
A piercing gaze shot forth like an arrow, striking Perenustus’s neck. He accepted even this rebuke with composure. After time flowed away in this exchange of thrusts and endurance, a voice finally resonated.
-My inclination is willing enough.
It was a low, resonant tone tinged with something like frustration.
-Yet understand that we cannot do so, given the grievances already lodged by your peers.
“Your words alone are gratitude enough.”
Perenustus bowed his head.
“I am well aware of your generous forbearance and attentive consideration.”
-And yet you display such arrogance despite knowing?
Perenustus raised his head with a subtle smile instead of answering.
“Then, with all explained, might I take my leave? I have left my students in a rather perilous world, and my concern knows no bounds.”
Perfect silence descended upon the space that appeared empty yet brimmed with everything. The Ancient Gods had severed his senses to confer among themselves. Perenustus savored even this unwelcome vacuum of silence, his thoughts turning to Aurelia.
What transformation would she display this time? What wind would she bring to that shameful world left covered and unanswered?
Piercing gazes, deeply displeased, penetrated, brushed past, and enveloped his entire being as he leisurely imagined.
‘These old ones crave stronger stimulation. They must be on the verge of turning back, wanting to observe my world directly, intimately, vividly.’
Perenustus smiled more beautifully, meeting the displeasure of the Ancient Gods.
‘They themselves established the rule that observation instead of mere contemplation requires the Creator’s invitation. If they decide to revise the ancient rules through this matter, that would be even better.’
True to his conjecture, not long after, the Ancient Gods’ answer finally descended.
-We cannot nullify the penalty already granted.
“How unfortunate.”
-Instead, we shall grant you one wish.
“Regardless of my penalty?”
-….
“A wish that manifests exactly as I plan and desire?”
-…Yes. We stake our authority and honor upon this guarantee.
I lowered my gaze and feigned contemplation. Once I judged sufficient time had elapsed, I bowed deeply in gratitude.
“I am grateful for the magnanimity of such exalted beings. I humbly beseech you to grace my humble world with your presence and observe it with joy.”
The moment I returned to my office wearing the face of a victor, I witnessed Leonas Hagpethar Yuletanis and Aurelia entangled together without a thread of clothing between them in the world projected within my chamber.
The composure I had maintained even before the Ancient Gods Council crumbled in a single breath.
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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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