My Illusion Is Survival - Chapter 14

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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 14

Inside a prayer room, quiet and cut off from the outside world.

A woman stepped across the thick red carpet spread on the floor.

“Still no word about Azel Viotz’s whereabouts?”

Beside her, as always, was a blonde holy knight.

“Nothing has been reported.”

“…Everyone’s so utterly lazy.”

“…Yulia…”

The knight’s expression darkened at the sharp reaction that burst from the woman’s lips. His eyes looked at the woman with desperate concern, but she was no longer looking at him.

“What about that woman’s whereabouts? Is that still pending too?”

“The same. However, we believe there’s a high possibility that Azel Viotz and that woman are together.”

“Who doesn’t know that?”

Finally, the woman walking on the carpet—no, Yulia’s steps came to a halt.

“What about her identity? Still nothing found?”

“As I mentioned before, nothing has come up.”

“That’s not the answer I wanted to hear.”

At her cold reaction, Bellode’s expression finally hardened.

“Yulia.”

“Speak.”

“Why do you care so much about that woman? This isn’t like you.”

Bellode was right.

She had been strange lately.

As if her former gentle and kind self had vanished, Yulia had recently been on edge like someone being pursued by something.

“Everyone is worried about you—”

“She said I lack faith.”

“…Yulia?”

“That woman told me I lack faith.”

That’s impossible. There’s no way that could be true.

Her desolate voice quickly muttered incomprehensible words.

“Bellode.”

“…”

“Bring that woman before me. I need to show her. How firm my faith is, how much I love this world. I need to show her.”

The words spat out through gritted teeth were filled with inexplicable rage.

“You’ll do that for me, won’t you?”

Bellode couldn’t bring himself to refuse her request.

*

Azel in the game wasn’t the type of person to share meals with anyone.

‘If he even refused dinner invitations with Yulia, the protagonist, that says it all.’

Yet that same person had invited me to breakfast.

‘What’s this? Is he trying to poison me?’

I couldn’t help but be flustered.

My tension over this sudden unprecedented situation was brief. Such worries soon disappeared.

“…What on earth have you been eating all this time?”

Because I discovered a truly shocking fact in the dining room I arrived at under Linoa Marigold’s guidance.

‘How can a person survive eating only that?’

It started with the meal placed in front of Azel.

‘No, can you even call that a meal?’

All that was placed at his seat was a cup of coffee and a single cracker. When I asked Simoer standing beside him, he said all three meals were like this.

This was an extremely serious and grave matter.

“Are you on a diet by any chance?”

Instantly, the gazes of Azel, Simoer, and Linoa Marigold fixed on me, but I was very serious.

“…Not particularly.”

“Then why is that all? And why is there so much food on my side?”

“It’s a meal the chef prepared for our guest.”

“…This is enough for me.”

Simoer and Azel answered in turn.

Simoer was laughing as if he found my reaction amusing, and Azel looked somewhat awkward for some reason.

When I still wore an expression of not understanding, Azel added:

“I won’t die even if I starve for about ten days.”

Right. He wouldn’t die.

Azel’s extremely trained body had long surpassed ordinary human standards.

Moreover, he was a special human born blessed with mana.

But still, wasn’t this kind of diet too dry and depressing?

“This won’t do. At least eat this.”

With a resolute air, I pushed the plate of bite-sized cut steak toward him.

Taking a new plate, I also served some turkey meat and diligently picked off the flesh.

“When the chef here has such amazing skills, eating just one cracker is an insult to the cook.”

I slipped a piece of meat into my mouth, and as expected, ecstasy spread from the tip of my tongue.

“Damn.”

With a short exclamation and a deeply furrowed brow as I glared at the plate, Azel’s expression hardened.

“What’s wrong? Is there some problem—”

“It’s fucking delicious, really.”

“What…?”

“Try this first. Really, truly, I’m not joking, it’s really delicious. Wow, I almost proposed marriage.”

“What, what would you…?”

Azel seemed somehow flustered, but at that moment laughter burst out from beside us.

“Pfft!”

“…?”

Simoer had turned his back and was shaking his shoulders, trying to hold back laughter for some reason.

‘Why is he laughing?’

Tilting my head in confusion, I finally realized the reason.

‘Ah, I shouldn’t use expressions like “damn” or “fucking delicious” here.’

It was so delicious that I unconsciously reacted like a modern person.

Judging by Azel’s strange expression looking at me, I should restrain myself in the future.

I was slightly blushing from embarrassment, but Azel’s expression still wasn’t good.

“You almost proposed marriage.”

“I made a mistake. I’m sorry, Azel.”

“No, I wasn’t telling you to apologize to me. It has nothing to do with me in the first place.”

“Still.”

“I said it doesn’t matter.”

Azel was quite firm.

Somehow Simoer’s shoulders seemed to be shaking more violently, but it was probably just my imagination.

“Anyway, please try this. It’s really because it’s delicious.”

When I stabbed a piece of steak with my fork and held it out in front of Azel, he looked flustered once again.

“I’ll eat it myself, so put it down.”

Worried he might take back his words, I hurriedly set the fork down on the plate.

When Azel awkwardly picked up the problematic fork and finally ate a piece of meat, I couldn’t help but ask.

“It’s delicious, right? It’s delicious, right, Azel?”

“…Yes.”

“I knew it! The chef here is truly the best!”

“You didn’t even make it, so why are you acting so proud?”

Now that I think about it, he has a point.

But if this had really been a dish I made, I would never have been able to feel proud about it.

“Sis, what’s that?”

“Today’s lunch!”

“No, what is that thing?”

“What do you mean what? It’s kimchi fried rice.”

“That lump of coal is…?”

I was an alchemist who could turn rice into coal.

Back then, my younger sibling had seriously begged me to never enter the kitchen again.

Meanwhile, perhaps because my expression had hardened while recalling that incident, Azel looked at me suspiciously.

“Are you bad at cooking?”

“No?! Wh-who said that?”

I found myself flustered by Azel’s innocent question.

“For someone who isn’t, your expression sure hardened quickly.”

It seems I’ve already been caught.

“People need to have one or two things they’re bad at to have some human charm.”

I meekly conceded.

Quick surrender and acknowledgment isn’t always a bad thing.

“How bold of you.”

“That’s part of my charm.”

When I cupped my hands under my chin with a serious expression, Azel covered his mouth while resting his hand on his chin.

The corner of his mouth that wasn’t quite covered was curved at a rather suspicious angle.

“Are you laughing right now?”

He didn’t answer, but it was obvious.

He was laughing.

It wasn’t loud laughter, just a slight smile, but laughing is laughing. This was the first time I’d seen Azel smile since coming to This Place.

I was naturally mesmerized by this sight I’d never seen even in the game illustrations.

‘He’s handsome.’

So shockingly handsome that I forgot my anger at being teased.

At that moment, Azel’s red eyes moved toward me again. His clear gaze held a hint of laughter and faint hesitation.

Soon after, his pleasant voice spoke words that made me doubt my ears.

“That’s enough, so hurry up and eat. Elpis.”

“…What?”

Did I hear wrong?

“What did you just say?”

“I said eat plenty.”

“No. Not that, what came after.”

His subtly teasing attitude was unlike Azel, but I had no time to process that.

I truly doubted whether my ears had heard correctly.

But just now he clearly said Elpis,

“You asked me to give you a name.”

“…!”

“Elpis. I think I’ll call you that from now on.”

I had heard correctly.

Elpis.

He had called me that.

“Since you don’t have a name, it was rather inconvenient to address you. That’s all. There’s no other meaning.”

The excuse-like addition was long, but it didn’t register in my ears.

“…Elpis.”

Today, the 9th day since coming to This Castle,

I finally had a name too.

With my heart swelling to the point of bursting, laughter came naturally once again. It was pure sincerity without a single lie.

I followed my heart’s urging and rushed toward him.

“Azel!”

“Wait! Don’t come closer!”

He pushed me away in shock, but what did it matter.

I finally had a name too!

I would later find out.

Elpis was a word meaning ‘hope.’

I was hope to him.

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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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