Your Majesty, Dinner Is Ready. - Chapter 148

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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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Chapter 148: Southern Continent Expedition – Land of Delusion (3)
A space that exhaled antiquity.
Butterflies of every conceivable shape were carved densely across every surface.
Flutter, flutter.
Real butterflies too drifted lazily through the air.
Though not a single flower bloomed, they had gathered in great profusion, stitching the void in brilliant, varied hues.
“Kar.”
A middle-aged priest stroked my head and pointed to the center of the space.
The vast floor was entirely composed of mirror.
So smooth and polished that stepping on it seemed it would slip from under my feet.
“Do you know where this is?”
I had to answer well.
He was asking lightly, almost in passing, but a wrong answer would certainly earn me a sound beating.
“A place to ■■ the ■■.”
“Correct.”
The priest’s hand grew gentler as he nodded with satisfaction.
My mood was far from good, yet I kept a smile at the corners of my mouth.
For now I had to stay small and obedient.
‘…What?’
Suddenly, a sense of wrongness welled up sharp and bright.
Why did I have to endure something I hated?
There was a reason—I was certain—but part of my mind had been erased as if by an eraser, left blank and white.
“Bring them.”
Immediately after, devotees dressed in ceremonial robes of different colors and appearances arrived with a crowd of children.
“I’m scared….”
“Where is this place?”
“…It hurts.”
Half-Elves, half-demons, hybrid beastkin, sky-touched children.
The children of races treated as symbols of “impurity”—scorned and looked down upon—whimpered in distress.
“Kar, go there.”
I stepped to the center of the mirror floor at the priest’s command.
“We shall now conduct the ritual.”
A devotee brought two children and placed them before me.
“Number 3849…?”
“U-uh….”
I knew these children.
The boy was sky-touched.
The girl was half-demon.
No—I didn’t recognize their faces.
Yet I knew them.
I didn’t understand, but I knew.
“Kar. Take the ritual dagger in hand.”
A dagger lay in my robes.
I withdrew it carefully, taking care not to cut myself, and the priest instructed in a low voice.
“Gouge out their eyes and swallow them.”
“…….”
Both children stared at me desperately, eyes wide with terror.
It was a gaze meant to stab at guilt.
Whiiiiish.
A cold wind rose without warning.
The scene twisted and wavered, and a new landscape appeared.
A familiar, low hillock came into view.
Crack! Crack!
Somehow, I was already clawing at the earth with bare hands.
Desperately, urgently, frantically.
It was nearly the only moment in my life when I had felt such piercing emotion.
‘…What?’
Why had the place changed all at once, and why was I so desperate?
The situation and my emotional state made no sense.
“Huff… huff….”
Despite the doubt gnawing at my mind, my body moved of its own accord, gasping for breath as it clawed frantically through the earth.
Then my fingertips brushed something soft.
With trembling hands, I tore away at the ground, and the child who had been sleeping beneath the soil came into view.
Yunji.
In a state too pitiful to speak of aloud.
……
Half my vision shifted again, and children shuddering with cold appeared before me.
On one side: the location of the mirror ceremony.
On the other: the Small Hill.
I gazed back and forth between the two spaces.
Hm.
A single realization brushed through my mind.
This is an illusion.
The moment I spoke those words.
Wheeeee—!
A blizzard I hadn’t noticed until then came howling down with sudden ferocity.
……
Amid the snow and wind, the trembling children suddenly turned their stares toward me.
The middle-aged priest and his devotees did the same.
All of them looked at me in silence.
Look all you like. Gawking at a mongrel comes free.
It didn’t stir anything in me either way.
My heart, which remained grave even when hideous ghosts leapt out without warning in games, was too unshakeable to be startled by something of this caliber.
I flashed a thumbs-up at them all and spoke to the children.
You’re the ones who appeared as phantoms before, aren’t you.
The children who had manifested as phantoms at the Sanctuary of Purification.
It seemed we must have known each other in the past, before my memories were erased.
I still didn’t know their names, but I could guess what sort of connection we’d had.
Friends who, like me, were sold as offerings to be prepared for the Evil God Cult.
What kind of person had I been then?
Perhaps I’d carried the memory of a “stagnant pool” like I do now, or perhaps I’d simply been an abandoned Half-Elf child.
I’m sorry. For not remembering any of you.
I held the cold body of the dead Yunji to my chest, meeting their gaze.
I was caught in the illusion spread by the Snow Mountain.
And doubly so, locked tight.
It was because of the penalty from the Fragment of Colossal God, which doubled the effect of any affliction that touched the mind.
Truth?
The Eye That Pierces Truth didn’t respond.
I waited quietly, but neither the Evil God nor the two Artein sent me their will.
— Everyone.
The telepathy of Good Good Friends didn’t reach either.
I was completely trapped in the hallucinatory space of the Snow Mountain.
‘At least thirty minutes must have passed.’
My real body would be nearly buried in the snowfield by now.
Swallowed by the Snow Mountain, dying bit by bit.
It was utterly hopeless.
…hm.
And yet.
A smile kept spilling from my lips.
Pleasure and joy rising from deep in my chest seized my heart and made it throb.
If this had been a game, I’d have had a blast before just rolling a new character. Right?
I carefully wiped the blood-stained face of my younger sister.
Even being buried forever in the Snow Mountain along with this illusion wouldn’t be such a terrible end.
But the Southern Continent Expedition, even stretched to its absolute maximum, was only a B-rank Lower Dungeon—hardly a fitting grave for me.
Don’t be surprised. I’m not alone right now. I have people I’ve genuinely grown close to.
Every Explorer needs companions to face hardship and trials with them.
Alone, my strength has limits.
Slip.
I pulled out a thick, taut spider silk from my right index finger and gave it a gentle flick.
Twang.
Something akin to an out-of-tune acoustic guitar sounded out.
He plucked four strands of Spider Silk, embedded them into his left thigh, threaded the upper part into his Prosthetic Arm, and began to play.
Ping, pinging.
Naturally, the playing was abysmal.
Yunji, nestled in his arms, twisted her face away in disgust.
“Even so, you didn’t have to turn your head away like that.”
For what it’s worth, I’ve been working hard every day to make your dream come true in your stead.
He straightened his posture and continued moving his hands with all his heart and soul.
“Come on, Merlin. Hurry back.”
I believe in you.
As the Exploration Expedition leader, I trust you—a member with outstanding talent.
“I’ll be waiting. You can do this.”
You’re the kind of child who deserves to shine.
***
Whoooosh—!
The blizzard swirled in with fierce intensity.
“…Where is everyone!”
Merlin wandered without direction.
After Kar vanished suddenly into the blizzard, the members of the Expedition were caught in a delusion and scattered in all directions.
Even if he was somewhat peculiar in his own way, it was only natural that losing a Socialite as trustworthy as the Exploration Expedition leader would cause such chaos.
‘So cold….’
Her body was frigid.
She could feel her heart gradually freezing over as well.
“I’ve failed again. I’m so useless.”
“Just die already!”
“Ugh, ugh-ugh-!!”
“That’s right, I buried you.”
The landscape around her, reflecting the deep wounds in the hearts of the Expedition members, lurched and twisted without coherence.
Screams erupting without end.
Sobs flowing without pause.
Countless figures repeating cruel words and deeds.
Whoooosh—!!
The blizzard did not cease.
“Merlin, face reality now.”
As she trudged forward, a phantom of ice and snow mimicking the Black Sword Guild leader Maken appeared and began to whisper.
“That Half-Elf will betray you someday. Why do you cling so blindly to a Socialite like that?”
“…Be quiet.”
“Because he treated you and Abel kindly? Are you truly foolish enough to call such a man family for that reason alone?”
The Black Sword Guild leader leaned close to Merlin’s ear.
“Think about it. At first, I took better care of you siblings than anyone.”
…….
Exhausted, Merlin knelt down and rested for a moment.
“At first, you called me family too. You were so happy to have finally found an adult you could trust and rely on.”
She meant to rest for just a moment.
Instead, she collapsed forward.
“You know he’s not a bad person, don’t you? But how do you know that? He might be deceiving you, just as I am.”
The ground is so cold.
But that’s all right, isn’t it?
If I fall completely asleep, it will become warm.
Within the howling blizzard, Merlin slowly closed her eyes.
‘I’m not playing house with you two siblings.’
She tried not to resist the peculiarly comforting pull of sleep, but to surrender to it instead.
Then, suddenly, Kar’s words brushed across her mind.
‘I want us to become a real family.’
That’s right.
The Black Sword Guild leader had said something similar.
On some day in the past, when she was so happy she could only think of sweetness.
What was the difference between Kar and Maken?
Why did she trust and rely on Kar—a Socialite, a Class more wicked than a thief?
“You just want to believe in him without thinking. You’re tired of doubting now. The future seems so bleak that you’ve decided to trust that Half-Elf blindly. Even if you’re betrayed later, you just want your heart to be at ease right now.”
The guild master’s words poured down on Merlin’s head along with the snow.
Finding nothing to counter with, Merlin simply lay still.
“Will you wake up now? You ran from reality. And so….”
Swish.
Without warning, a dagger cut through the empty air.
Merlin’s shadow behind the guild master swung the dagger twice more.
The Black Sword Guild master’s body crumbled where he stood.
“…You’re right.”
Merlin rose slowly and spoke.
“I was too exhausted, so I decided to lean on Kar. He seemed strange, but he cared for me and Abel, treated us with consideration, so I chose to believe in him and follow him.”
There was no rational basis for it.
It was purely emotional and impulsive.
“But what’s wrong with that? Kar always abandons rational methods and only chooses the path his heart desires.”
Kar is an irrational Half-Elf.
A Socialite who deliberately ignores reasonable opinions.
Because of that.
To become a true family, I too decided to follow thoughts that are clearly not rational.
“I’m going to trust Kar. I just want to believe in him.”
Merlin smiled and stood straight.
Climbing Snow Mountain, Kar emphasized his words.
‘I am with you all. I will become the anchor that fixes your sense of reality and hope in the sea of delusion.’
An anchor is a tool.
It cannot perform its role through its own strength alone.
In other words, one had to directly ‘use’ Kar.
‘…He said our role is important.’
How to use Kar, rule one.
When given any instruction, follow it faithfully without doubt.
Merlin followed Kar’s advice to always keep the Sky Ear activated while on the Southern Continent, and strained to listen.
She even closed her eyes, wanting to turn away from sights that troubled her mind.
“Rosalia, what are you doing? Stab it quickly.”
“It’s infected! Burn it at once!”
“Lick it up quickly, Demon-type Being 227. That’s your dinner today.”
“Isn’t he taking that one to the back hills?”
“If you don’t sever his neck right now, next time your little sister will be the practice subject?”
“End yourself quickly, Lucius. You’re a disgrace to Lord Artein.”
“So you’ll just grow old alone, yearning for disaster your whole life!”
“You are the future of our cult.”
Voices pouring in from all directions.
Her head throbbed.
A trickle of blood seeped from her ear.
Even so, Merlin faithfully followed the technique Saint Seraphina had taught her, focusing all her consciousness on hearing.
Then, before long.
“Where is everyone!”
She found it.
The voice of the genius swordsman, the only one among the expedition members whose heart bore no darkness.
With her eyes still closed, Merlin recklessly charged toward the direction of the voice.
Thud!
Before long, she collided with someone.
“…Ugh, Merlin?”
– Merlin!
The beloved’s figure, shimmering like a star even in the blizzard, full of life.
Merlin nearly shed tears of joy at the sight.
“Pendrick! Astrímia!”
“Merlin, are you alright—body and mind both?”
“Yes!”
“Thank goodness….”
– We’re not out of danger yet!
“That’s right!”
Merlin looked around with her beloved.
Whiiiing.
The fierce blizzard still swirled, tangled with multiple distorted spaces.
“Let us save them. The others.”
She could do it. Surely.
Because Kar believed in her.
“Just a little longer—!”
Merlin was no longer afraid of the hallucinations of the past.

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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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