My Illusion Is Survival - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 12

“So then…”

An ominous voice cut through the dawn air and echoed.

“You’re saying that you, Spirit-nim, are actually a victim too?”

Goosebumps rose on my skin, but it wasn’t because of the cold dawn temperature.

After all, Gaspata, who didn’t belong to the material world in the first place, couldn’t feel cold.

Therefore, there was another reason for the chill.

Right now, the woman in front of me looking down at Gaspata.

Gaspata trembled in fear at her razor-sharp blue gaze.

“Not going to answer?”

Tap.

Her slender finger merely tapped the table in front of her, but Gaspata’s face turned pale.

Nod nod nod!

Who on earth would believe that the great Gaspata had been intimidated by a mere human woman?

The woman made ghosts, who were nothing more than mere spirits, tremble in fear all over their bodies, yet she looked down on spirits who were far greater and more fearsome beings.

But.

[…I, I never looked down on you and I am a victim too!]

He couldn’t even dream of rebelling.

Because he had already learned with his whole body what the consequences of rebellion would be.

“Thank you for your answer.”

…That’s more like it.

At the woman’s quietly muttered words, terror once again swept through his entire body.

‘That woman might not actually be human!’

In the first place, he had never even heard of a human who could see and touch spirits.

‘S-scary!’

At this fear he was experiencing for the first time, the great spirit Gaspata found himself short of breath for the first time in his life.

But right at that moment.

“Spirit-nim.”

[…!]

The woman’s finger caught Gaspata’s chin and gently lifted it up.

As her seductive lips parted, her glass-like eyes reflected Gaspata.

“You need to focus.”

The nightmare wasn’t over yet.

*

After having a serious conversation with Gaspata, I was able to learn the general outline of what had happened.

“So you don’t know how the Regression Stone ended up in Azel’s hands either, Spirit-nim?”

[Yes, …ahem! Yes, that’s correct.]

“Haha! What’s with that way of speaking? Speak comfortably, comfortably.”

Make yourself comfortable too.

Since the self-proclaimed great spirit of time was kneeling on the cold floor, it made me feel uncomfortable too.

When I pointed to the side of the sofa, meaning for him to sit comfortably, Gaspata desperately shook his head.

[I, I’m comfortable like this!]

“You don’t look comfortable.”

[I’m really fine-eek!]

When I smiled with satisfaction at his answer like a thoroughly disciplined new recruit, Gaspata smiled along with me.

Although the corners of his mouth were trembling and his large eyes were full of moisture, he was smiling nonetheless.

‘Then that’s good enough.’

That was sufficient.

And in fact, my head was already complicated for other reasons, so I didn’t have the luxury to pay more attention to Gaspata.

‘Even the creator of the Regression Stone doesn’t know.’

Last night, the story Gaspata told me was truly surprising.

Gaspata’s Stone that Azel used wasn’t originally a treasure made for humans to use.

The Regression Stone, which was said to be made for the trials of spirits, was originally under strict protection even in the spirit world.

But such a precious item suddenly disappeared one day.

‘By the time Gaspata, the owner, heard the news, it was already after Azel had used it…’

When Gaspata first learned of the Regression Stone’s theft, he thought Azel was an arrogant human who had defied providence and wanted to punish him.

However, Azel wasn’t the culprit.

He had just been unluckily caught up in it.

‘I never saw this kind of backstory even in the setting book.’

Since I had thought Azel’s regression was just a setting for the game’s difficulty, the confusion I felt was considerable.

‘Haah… I don’t know what’s what anymore.’

Anyway, Gaspata, who learned the truth, said he often watched over Azel from that day on.

He felt slight guilt watching the soul who had been pitifully caught up in this gradually break down through repeated regressions?

However, there was nothing Gaspata could do.

Humans couldn’t touch or see spirits.

“But why can I see and touch you, Spirit-nim?”

[I don’t really know about that either?]

It was a really unhelpful answer.

Gaspata, who received my flat stare for a moment, just smiled harmlessly with the same face as before.

…Well, at least one of us is happy, so that’s fine.

“Well, if you don’t know that, then fine. But why were you watching us during the day today?”

[…Huh? Th, that…!]

It must have been quite a flustering question, as Gaspata’s large eyes wavered.

[S, since the last regression ended, I came to see Azel, but there was an unfamiliar human with him, so I was just taking a look…]

It was a more trivial answer than I expected.

But for some reason, Gaspata’s face began to burn red.

“But why is your expression like that?”

[Wh, wh, what’s wrong with my expression?!]

“…?”

At his sudden outburst, I wondered why he was acting like that, and as time passed, Gaspata’s face became even redder.

‘No, why is he acting like that?’

I just blinked in bewilderment.

[Um, excuse me… c, can I ask just one thing?]

“Go ahead.”

Finally, Gaspata opened his mouth.

While he was even twisting his body, I couldn’t even guess what he was planning to ask.

[A, are you two, I mean- l, lovers…?]

Suddenly, something completely out of left field came out of his mouth.

“…What?”

I wondered if I had heard wrong, but looking at his eyes full of excitement as he looked at me, it didn’t seem like a mistake.

“We’re not.”

[What?!]

He had even been expecting something, because Gaspata despaired upon hearing my answer.

[That’s a lie!]

“….”

Later, she would tell me directly,

Our great spirit of time was, incredibly, a romance enthusiast.

That expression full of excitement I had seen that afternoon was truly the face of an avid romance drama viewer.

[B-but! The two of them were k-k-k-kissing…!]

“I said no.”

[Kissing…!]

“I said no.”

‘So right now. I was scared and cried because of that fool?’

It was absolutely ridiculous.

*

A quiet morning.

Azel opened his eyes in an unusually unfamiliar silence.

‘…Where is this.’

His drowsy, sleep-drunk mind creaked.

Perhaps because it had been so long since he had slept this deeply due to his prolonged insomnia. His heavy-lidded vision was still bound to the border of dreams.

‘What happened?’

Naturally, it took time for recognition to come.

‘Could it be that I… slept?’

The hazy memory of last night floated up.

Leaning against the bed with the cold dawn air as his companion was Azel’s last memory.

Everything was the same as usual, except for the unfamiliar presence beside him.

‘How on earth…’

The unfamiliar woman.

The warmth held in his hand.

But the fact that he had slept so deeply with just that small difference was utterly unbelievable-

‘…Wait.’

Suddenly, his hand felt empty.

“She’s gone.”

He hurriedly turned his gaze, but only cold air remained in the space beside him that should have been warm.

“…!”

Due to his mind going completely blank for a moment, Azel only then realized the woman had disappeared.

However, Azel’s confusion didn’t last long.

“Are you awake?”

The woman was there.

“Did you sleep well?”

It was a leisurely morning greeting that didn’t consider Azel’s complicated state of mind.

While he couldn’t respond due to the unfamiliar feeling, the woman approached Azel.

The woman was fortunately the same as usual, but the problem lay with Azel.

‘Is she okay now?’

He almost unconsciously asked an uncharacteristic question.

Only after realizing this fact did the drowsiness finally leave Azel’s face belatedly.

‘I need to leave this place.’

Though he didn’t know what he was trying to escape from, Azel hurriedly got up.

Unfamiliar emotions, unsuitable curiosity kept making him strange.

“Thank you for yesterday.”

However, the woman’s voice that followed immediately caught Azel’s ankle.

“I showed you a strange side of me, didn’t I? You must have been very surprised and flustered. …I’m sorry.”

You weren’t strange.

Azel felt a peculiar resistance to the woman apologizing to him. The one who was strange now wasn’t the woman, but Azel himself.

He had to spend a very bewildering, unexpected day because of the woman.

Yet far from resenting the woman,

“Don’t go. Please stay by my side.”

One side of his heart throbbed.

Even though he still remembered nothing about the woman, Azel felt as if he had forgotten something important.

It was strange and terrible.

But just then, the woman’s lips finally moved.

“About yesterday…”

“Stop.”

In the end, Azel cut off the woman’s words.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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