My Illusion Is Survival - Chapter 5

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

Chapter 5

During my last playthrough of this game, I had only one goal.

‘I will absolutely prevent the destruction.’

What would be left in a romance simulation game with a hopeless worldview if you removed the romance?

The result is right before my eyes.

To prevent destruction, I invested solely in the protagonist Yulia’s abilities. Though I didn’t really do much.

‘I just told naive Yulia a few truths about the world she had turned away from.’

Thanks to that, Yulia became stronger, but she lost her faith in God.

‘But she couldn’t accept that, so she became even more fanatically obsessed with faith.’

Of course, even that couldn’t stop Azel.

Anyway, if I had known I would be possessed into this ‘Inquisitor version’ that I only played once, I never would have done it.

But what’s done is done, and regretting it wouldn’t change anything.

‘Then I need to figure out how to survive.’

If I let Yulia run wild like this, it was obvious I’d end up provoking Azel’s mood like before and meet my doom.

Rather than that, I needed to turn Yulia’s attention toward me.

“What did you just say? That I lost my faith? Me?”

Her asking in that eerie voice was like something out of a horror movie.

“You just want to defeat Azel, whom the world has defined as evil, to prove that your faith hasn’t wavered.”

“Shut your mouth.”

“You already know, don’t you? That doing this won’t change anything.”

“Didn’t you hear me tell you to shut up?”

Sorry, but I’m someone who made a living with this mouth alone.

Telling someone like that to shut up? That’s too much.

‘And I haven’t even gotten started yet.’

This is me being nice and choosing only pretty, gentle words because of our past relationship.

But Yulia already seemed to be reaching the limits of her patience.

“To slander me with such insolent words. Why don’t you understand that there’s no sin heavier than one committed with a cunning tongue.”

With her slightly crazed eyes and twisted smile, Yulia didn’t look like a protagonist at all.

While even the male leads who had been standing like folding screens watched her with uneasy eyes, I finally threw my last counter.

“Yulia,”

No, I tried to throw it.

“Enough.”

If only Azel hadn’t intervened.

He was blocking my path with a somewhat strange expression on his face.

“Stop wasting time. We haven’t finished our conversation yet.”

“Azel.”

I was making a troubled expression, feeling slightly startled, but Yulia didn’t seem ready to give up yet.

“Don’t interfere.”

“Are you asking because you don’t know who interfered first?”

However, Yulia’s goal would not be achieved.

“Simoer.”

Following Azel’s call, his subordinate who had been quietly observing the situation moved.

A man in black clothes who had been melting into the shadows answered with a smile that didn’t match the situation.

“You called?”

“Capture them.”

Simor Cleorl.

Since Simoer, Azel’s right-hand man, had stepped forward himself, it was obvious the commotion would be quickly suppressed.

“As you command.”

But there was something I hadn’t anticipated.

“It’ll sting for a moment. Think of it as taking a nice nap.”

The place he headed was toward me.

…Huh?

“W-wait!”

“Haha!”

I was the one being captured.

‘This damn…!’

Then everything went black.

*

“Azel! Why did you do such a thing! Unless you’ve gone mad, how could you-!”

“I’ve already repeated this dozens of times, Yulia. How could I not go mad, right?”

Blink.

‘Was it a dream?’

It seemed I had fallen asleep while unconscious.

“Ugh! That bastard…”

I unconsciously tried to sit up, but the back of my neck where I’d been hit was stiff.

‘Where is this place?’

The bedroom with its quite antique atmosphere was an unfamiliar place, but thinking about it, I could guess where it was.

This was Azel’s Mansion.

“I thought I’d be locked up in a torture chamber or basement.”

“But you’re a guest we haven’t seen in a long time, so we couldn’t do that.”

At that moment, I heard a voice from beside me.

“Are you awake, guest?”

I hurriedly turned my head and saw a familiar face.

Simoer.

The very bastard who knocked me out and delivered me here. But his expression was somehow sinister.

“By the way, were you referring to me as ‘that bastard’?”

It seemed he had heard everything.

“…”

“…”

As a terrible silence descended between us, I desperately searched for something to say.

“…I had a nightmare.”

“Oh my.”

With a dry “oh my” that showed no sympathy at all, Simoer pulled up the corners of his mouth.

‘Haha, can I restart?’

When taking Azel’s route in the game, there’s someone you encounter more often than Azel himself, and that’s Simoer.

Therefore, players knew him well.

This bastard was truly-

‘A crazy bastard.’

A crazy bastard. And in a different sense from Azel.

-That monkey bastard Simoer killed someone for dropping cookie crumbs after finishing carpet cleaning.

-Wow, that’s quite a reasonable reason? I died before because the sky was ominously red.

-But I wasn’t the one who ate that cookie?

-…???

What would be the odds of surviving after cursing out such a guy in my sleep?

‘Mom, I’m coming.’

Once I was certain, my mind actually became at ease.

As the two characters for ‘death’ flickered before my eyes and I was inwardly preparing for my next life, Simoer soon showed a bright smile.

‘The last face I see before dying is that handsome pervert bastard. My fate is truly twisted.’

But surprisingly, instead of killing me, Simoer took a step back.

“It’s my first time meeting you. I am Simor Cleorl, my master’s faithful servant.”

“Nice to meet you, …Simoer.”

Just when I was wondering what was going on, I soon understood the reason.

“My master is waiting for you.”

Azel had spared my life.

“How long has it been since I fainted?”

“You enjoyed just the right amount of afternoon nap.”

“So about half a day has passed.”

The guy who knocked me out is still going on about afternoon naps until the end, which makes me even more annoyed.

Still, I got important information. If half a day had passed, they would have already thoroughly investigated my background.

“What about Yulia’s group? No, what happened with the plaza incident?”

“It was cleanly resolved, so you don’t need to worry.”

It seemed Yulia’s group was also safely alive.

…No, they are alive, right?

I felt slightly anxious, but there was no way to confirm.

“…Let’s go right away.”

“Then, I shall escort you.”

Now that I had confirmed the urgent matters, it was time to meet the final boss.

Since these weren’t the type to give me time to steel my resolve, I immediately got up from my seat.

“Ah.”

When I opened the door, the corridor that appeared was literally like a scene from a famous painting.

The pure white corridor bathed in the tranquil afternoon sunlight shone brilliantly, and the walls were lined with golden decorations and elaborate portraits.

The fact that a place I had seen countless times through a monitor was now unfolding before my eyes somehow gave me a strange feeling.

“Guest?”

I must have been lost in thought without realizing it, as I heard Simoer’s puzzled voice.

‘How foolish.’

As I began walking, only the sound of my low shoe heels echoed through the corridor. This was because Simoer, being a former assassin, walked without making any sound.

“Is that person currently in the Third Floor End Room?”

At my deliberately hesitant question, the smile at the corner of Simoer’s mouth deepened.

“Yes, he is waiting for you there.”

This was an intentional question.

When Azel’s mind is complicated, he seeks out the Third Floor End Room. It was his habit known only to a few close associates including Simoer.

The reason I deliberately said this was as a kind of hint that I knew even such intimate details about that person.

‘Each of these little things will become precious foreshadowing.’

And all of this would reach Azel’s ears through Simoer.

They are suspicious of me.

‘Honestly, it would be stranger if they believed such words right away.’

So from now on, I must prove my existence at every moment.

“How did you know that my master likes the Third Floor End Room?”

“That can’t be right.”

But fortunately.

“That person doesn’t like that room.”

“….”

“Who could possibly like being inside a tomb?”

That wasn’t a difficult task for me.

*

The silhouette of a man standing with his back turned against the large window is pitch black.

As if lost in melancholy, as if fallen into ennui.

He stood quietly and blankly like a corpse in a coffin.

“Have you been waiting?”

Waiting only for me.

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