My Illusion Is Survival - Chapter 51
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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 51
‘Running away is the right choice here.’
Logically speaking, there was nothing I could do in this situation.
‘I can’t save Chase anyway.’
Then I should run away.
I should somehow escape, find Azel, and get out of this place.
But.
“Sniff, sob…!”
Having to just watch Camela holding back her tears,
The conversation they were having right before my eyes,
It was extremely displeasing.
‘If I act rashly, I’ll just die. I shouldn’t be swept away by emotions and need to think. How can I break through this situation?’
Then I had to think it through.
I needed to come up with a choice that could protect at least one thing, that could create a better outcome.
But right at that moment.
“How about coming out now?”
Ragnear’s voice cut through the silence and reached me.
“It seems like you’ve had enough fun watching.”
I slowly rose from my position, organizing my thoughts.
The moment my eyes met those vivid sunset-colored pupils, those handsome lips let out a sigh.
“Ah! I wondered who it was, and it was you.”
“Do you know me?”
“Of course I do. The Holy Maiden was searching for you so desperately. I was quite curious about you.”
Despite the unpleasant content mixed in with the smooth greeting, I was fortunately able to keep my expression unchanged.
“May the sun’s blessing be with you. It’s an honor to meet you, Your Majesty.”
“It seems you’ve come from a distant foreign land. According to the Empire’s etiquette, one should state their name and affiliation when greeting.”
“Elpis. I have no affiliation or family name, so please just call me Elpis.”
Rather than being flustered, I answered naturally, and Ragnear’s expression as he looked at me gradually became strange.
At this moment, the Duke’s muttering filled with regret brushed against my eardrums.
“Why are you here…?”
The staggering Duke and Bellode with his complex expression were both looking this way now.
This meant the moment of choice had finally arrived. I opened my mouth with determination.
“I was waiting because I thought you would come.”
“You were waiting?”
“Since I told you to run away first, I thought I should also tell you where that path is.”
“Run if you want to live!”
As if remembering the moment when I told them to run away from the Duchess, doubt formed in the Duke’s eyes.
“What do you mean by that—”
At that moment, Ragnear’s voice cut off the Duke’s question.
“It sounds as if you were waiting for us here from the beginning. Am I mistaken? How did you know we would come?”
To the suspicion wrapped in mild interest, I willingly pulled up the corners of my mouth.
“Because the formation was glowing, I said you would come soon.”
“Formation?”
“Just as Your Majesty and the Holy Maiden kindly announced your visit, as a subject, I naturally had to come out to greet you.”
In an instant, Ragnear’s gaze changed.
“So it was you who twisted this space.”
There was no way the quick-witted Ragnear wouldn’t understand the true meaning behind these words.
“I was about to activate the formation to break through and enter inside. But suddenly, the mana went berserk. The paths got all mixed up, and even my party got separated, so I wondered what was happening.”
His increasingly fierce tone was saying everything instead of me.
“Despite appearances, you seem to possess quite remarkable skills. Is this why the Holy Maiden was so desperately searching for you? Because of such tricks?”
I just needed to nod as if it were the correct answer.
‘In reality, it was just that the barrier got tangled because both sides touched the formation simultaneously by coincidence.’
What do I care? As long as I don’t get caught, that’s all that matters.
“The Holy Maiden won’t be able to come here directly.”
When I casually added this as if everything was my doing, hostile gazes instantly pierced toward me.
“What did you do to the Holy Maiden!”
“She and I simply took different paths, so please calm down, Sir Bellode. By the way, we meet again.”
As expected, Bellode, who started going crazy as soon as Yulia was mentioned, was quite transparent in a way.
At this point, Ragnear spoke again.
“Let’s end the greetings here. Since you were waiting, this works out well. I’ll punish the criminal and then take you to the Holy Maiden. I hate troublesome things, so will you wait quietly?”
The handsome face that seemed to have quickly lost interest now showed deep fatigue.
“Criminal?”
I deliberately caught onto his words as if mocking Ragnear.
“There are too many criminals here, so I don’t know who you’re referring to.”
“Are you also planning to blame me? I never knew that the life of one who bears heaven’s mandate would be so tiresome.”
Ragnear, who playfully shook his head, had already returned to his earlier languid appearance.
“There’s no need to waste more time. Kill Egmund and capture that one.”
As soon as the order was given, the knights behind Ragnear approached this way.
“I’ll try to buy some time somehow, so turn around and run.”
The Duke blocked my path, but I had no intention of running away like this.
“Run away? Didn’t I say I was waiting?”
“This isn’t the time to say such things—!”
“Step back, Your Highness. My conversation with His Majesty isn’t finished yet.”
This is why I came forward in the first place.
“I have nothing more to discuss with you.”
“That can’t be true. Didn’t you search for me so desperately?”
“I did?”
I opened my mouth as indifferently as possible, just as I had done before the Duke.
“Then who was it that wailed in resentment toward the unresponsive heavens?”
*
“On that day when you thrust a sword into your brother’s chest, you cried so much in resentment toward heaven. It seems you’ve forgotten it all.”
Ragnear suddenly turned his head to look at the woman at those words that made him doubt his ears.
The eyes that met his were calm, but the energy contained within them was not entirely calm. Those piercingly cold blue eyes were both intense and indifferent as they penetrated through Ragnear.
“What did you just say?”
“Heaven is indifferent and gives no answers, so you said you would become heaven yourself and find the answer. But this was all the answer you found.”
“What—”
Suddenly, Ragnear’s angry voice stopped.
It was because he realized whose words that somehow familiar sentence originally belonged to.
“Heaven is indifferent and gives no answers, so I will become heaven myself and find the answer!”
These were all.
Ragnear, because those were the words he had spouted.
“Did you say that God does not listen to the people’s words, but only grants the wishes of the Son of Heaven?”
“God does not listen to the people’s words, but only grants the wishes of the Son of Heaven.”
“So, did you seek to become the Son of Heaven to fulfill your wish?”
“So, I will become the Son of Heaven to fulfill my wish.”
All the words that followed were things Ragnear had said at some point.
“What will you do once you become the Son of Heaven and fulfill your wish? When you’re driven mad by your brother’s cries, living isn’t really living.”
At her voice full of compassion, Ragnear’s hands trembled violently.
“Who are you?”
With finely trembling hands gripping his sword hilt, Ragnear glared at her.
“You wench, what is your identity?”
In his sunset-colored eyes, an unfamiliar confusion had formed.
*
“Those words just now. How on earth did you….”
‘It seems like it worked properly, doesn’t it?’
The fact that Ragnear in the game was an important supporting character even though he wasn’t a male lead candidate proved useful. Thanks to that, there were also event cutscenes for him.
‘The monologue he uttered while resenting heaven the moment he killed his brother was the most famous among them.’
“You asked me to listen, so I listened. You resented, so I endured, and you grieved, so I felt compassion.”
“…What?”
“And yet you still say heaven is indifferent.”
But from Ragnear’s perspective, who couldn’t know these circumstances, my existence naturally couldn’t feel ordinary.
Sure enough, Ragnear asked with a trembling voice.
“You wench, no. You are- are you, are you human?”
I closed my eyes tightly at the dizzying question I had expected.
“…Well. Whatever you think, that would be the answer.”
If someone asked me whether I wasn’t embarrassed by this kind of role-playing, I could definitely answer.
‘I’m embarrassed. Embarrassed enough to die!’
Exactly, embarrassed enough to die.
But what couldn’t I do to survive? In this aspect, I was confident.
‘Right now I’m too weak. If I can’t solve this situation with force, I have to endure like this.’
If I pretend to be something significant, he won’t be able to kill me rashly even if it bothers him.
‘Of course, such shallow tricks won’t work every time. From now on, I absolutely must build my strength.’
I had been avoiding it because I hated difficult things, but now the importance of power had become truly urgent.
‘But first, I need to survive here.’
In that sense, I had to use my words well somehow right now.
“So please, let it end here.”
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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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