I could tell just from the sticky voice. The parallel world Ruvlian had finally found me. Feeling an arm reaching toward me, I escaped and turned my back, and the fine bastard who was in perfect condition came into view.
“How did you know where I was?”
As I researched the Dimension Travel magic circle to return to the original world, I realized. The parallel world Ruvlian was finding where I was abnormally well. Even Ruvlian had to ask God for coordinates, yet he was doing it alone without that.
His moist, bright red lips curved smoothly, and his eyes bent obscenely. His eyes like the deep sea consumed by madness glistened. Obsession and desire. Various emotions were mixed together.
Naturally, a red alert sounded in my head. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that it was dangerous. When I glared with wide eyes, the lips that had only been smiling moved in various round shapes.
“Honey, I never said I only put one curse on you.”
As Ruvlian approached me with leisurely steps, I created a dagger with mana and backed away as much as he came forward. He looked at my ankle as if it was regrettable that it had completely healed. I felt like I was being licked by his gaze. I felt nauseous.
“…I guess you tracked my location with a curse?”
“Of course. If not, how would I have found your location this quickly? I’m glad that bastard acted stupidly. He should have cast tracking magic first like me.”
The slow and sticky voice seemed to cling to my ears. After roughly sweeping my ear once, I agonized. The magic circle was complete. I just needed to cast it, but what were the chances the parallel world Ruvlian wouldn’t block it? None. What were the chances the parallel world Ruvlian couldn’t stop me? This also could be considered none.
Moreover, he said he had put a curse on me. Unless I could remove this, my location was as good as always being revealed, limited to this uselessly smart crazy bastard.
“Using your head again.”
“…”
“Wouldn’t it be easier for you too if you just obediently followed me?”
The parallel world Ruvlian tilted his head slightly with a face that truly thought so. Leisure oozed from every single movement. Unlike me who had become impatient. I felt my heart beating rapidly. My lips were parched dry. With hands trembling unconsciously, I gripped the sword even tighter.
How about killing the parallel world Ruvlian who was currently in an infant state? There was no guarantee that the last magic circle would succeed, but I had extracted all the necessary knowledge from the ducal residence. Since there was nothing more to see, the method of killing him and returning to the original world wasn’t bad either. However, there was the premise of ‘if one didn’t consider the future that would change and the probability of this scheme succeeding.’
“This is my past, right? I always think. Why on earth did my honey not kill me and let me live…? Do you like me after all?”
He spouted nonsense while being certain that such a thing wouldn’t happen. I couldn’t get swept up in that pace. Right now there was no Ruvlian to help me either, so I had to keep my wits about me.
My condition was even worse because I hadn’t slept for two days researching the Dimension Travel magic circle. Coming at a time like this was also a talent. I racked my aching head and thought of a way to escape. Even if I escaped from this world, he would chase me using the curse, but I couldn’t remove curses. The only one who could remove it was… the underground prison. Only the kidnapper bastard imprisoned in the underground prison. But there was no way this crazy bastard wouldn’t catch me in the process of reaching there.
While keeping the parallel world Ruvlian in check, I was trying to continue my thoughts when he struck first. If it had been Ruvlian, he would have struck down with his staff first, but the parallel world Ruvlian stood still and deployed dozens of attack magic circles before developing them.
Kwaagwang! Hurriedly using protective magic, I gritted my teeth. This crazy bastard didn’t care even if his past home was destroyed. I wondered if he wouldn’t even blink if his parents or nanny died. I had such suspicions.
As soon as the parallel world Ruvlian appeared, the power that had doubled decreased back to its original size. I didn’t know the reason, but like in the parallel world, when I was in the same world as him, my power seemed to weaken. Therefore, taking his life or inflicting a fatal blow was impossible.
Dragging out time until my mana and Divine Power ran out. Only that one thing was possible.
Blocking the chain of attack magic, deploying attack magic, throwing daggers. Walls and ceilings were collapsing everywhere, enough to remind me of what the Belitent residence looked like back then. The corridor wall was no exception. Through the pierced hole, the servants and the Duke and Duchess looked at me and the parallel world Ruvlian with various faces—dejected expressions, surprised expressions, horrified expressions, and so on.
After agonizing, I ran toward them and hid among them. It was a choice made thinking he would stop attacking even for a moment since there were his parents who raised him and his nanny. Fortunately, whether the affection of being raised existed or not, the attack stopped for a very brief instant.
I cast search magic at the fastest speed I had ever deployed magic in my entire life. The underground prison and the person there were roughly caught. As soon as it was confirmed, I deployed teleportation magic and arrived right next to the kidnapper. It happened in less than 3 seconds.
He was alive, but seeing those eyes filled with hatred, there was no way he would listen to me. I simultaneously used Divine Power and mana to manipulate the kidnapper bastard’s memories. In such a way that if he removed all the curses on me, he could leave the prison with the parallel world Ruvlian. Being able to change the memories of the Magic Tower Master who had high mental strength was thanks to using Divine Power and mana at the same time, and my excellent application ability.
The Magic Tower Master who was in a half-corpse state reached out his hand to me. Then his rough, damaged voice said it was done. After the curse was removed, I immediately deployed the last magic circle without knowing whether it would succeed or not, and my vision began to spin dizzily. A circuit somewhere got twisted. The moment the scenery wavered and changed before my eyes, the parallel world Ruvlian, smiling like a snake, moved his lips.
Have a nice… trip? The moment I read his lip shape, I thought something had gone wrong. However, the magic was cast and I was helplessly dragged into the flow of dimension travel. Although something was twisted somewhere, I didn’t even have time to feel the emotion that it had succeeded. The place I was transported to was completely filled with bitter herbal scent and gray smoke. I coughed involuntarily.
It was when I was covering my mouth and trying to deploy the magic circle again. A large white hand that appeared suddenly grabbed and pulled my wrist. The one who grabbed my wrist was the parallel world Ruvlian. Something different from the appearance I had just seen.
“Let go.”
When I tried to pull my wrist free, he gripped it so strongly a groan almost came out. It seemed like red marks would form. Then he pulled me so fiercely I thought my arm would come off, sat me on his lap, and wrapped his arm around my waist. It was only one arm but I couldn’t escape. Just as I was about to use magic, he opened his mouth.
“Even the herbs have no effect now… I’m seeing hallucinations again.”
Hallucinations? With doubt, I looked at the parallel world Ruvlian, and he put his mouth to a long pipe with a languid yet tired expression. His cheeks that had become hollow from slowly sucking in swelled up when smoke was exhaled between his lips that soon became round. The bitter herbal scent was so strong my head spun.
Watching me like that, he curved the corners of his eyes thinly and let out a short deflated laugh. It was a truly decadent appearance, but that wasn’t what was important.
When I used magic to escape from his solid legs and arms, it was quickly neutralized. When I tried to stab him by creating a dagger with Divine Power, he blocked it as if familiar with it. When I tried to grab his hair, he tied my wrist with magic.
Releasing, binding, stabbing, blocking. At the end of that repetition, he took another puff of the pipe and exhaled. As if deliberately blowing the smoke in my face, gray smoke attacked my face. The bitter herbal scent invaded even inside my nose. Cough. A physiological cough came out and my eyes stung.
Having dropped the pipe into subspace, he touched my eyes with slow and sticky touches, gently and carefully. My expression naturally wrinkled deeply. It was even more so because subtle emotions oozed from his touch.
“What are you doing? And I’m telling you again, let go.”
When I brushed off the hand touching my eyes and spoke, the parallel world Ruvlian let out a hollow breath. He didn’t raise his hand again and stared at the hand that had been brushed off, then opened his mouth in a tone that was somehow precarious yet understanding.
“Even as a hallucination, you never obey my words.”
“…”
“Do you resent me? For continuously preventing you from meeting death peacefully?”
A self-deprecating voice was directly connected to my ears. From that, I could instinctively tell. This was definitely the erased timeline before reversing time, the one that everyone except the parallel world Ruvlian had forgotten as of now. How far into the past did this crazy parallel world Ruvlian send me? A curse was about to come out vocally.
“If that was the case, you shouldn’t have saved me from the start. You shouldn’t have died in my place.”
What did I just hear? That I died in place of the parallel world Ruvlian. Without realizing it, I stopped my actions of trying to escape, and it was words I couldn’t even imagine enough to frown. Before I could think further, the mature voice continued.
“Why did you step forward to save trash like me who’s not even human? Why do you always die like that?”
“…”
“Why did you make me feel such troublesome emotions and create this mess?”
His eyes, which made me feel like I was sinking deep into a dark sea, were particularly dark and mixed with various emotions. It was easy to notice he wasn’t in his right mind. He was maintaining his thread-like sanity with just one herb.
I couldn’t properly grasp the situation, so even in the bitter herbal scent I just felt dazed. Facing the madness submerged deep in those dark eyes, I finally came to my senses again.
“So I tried to kill you with my own hands…”
His large hand wandered around my neck. Since it was a vital spot, I tried to escape with a hardened expression, but even as time passed, no strength entered the hand gripping my neck.
“I just can’t put strength into it. You die because of me and come back to life, and I go crazy because of you. I don’t know how many times I’ve already done this idiotic thing.”
The breath he exhaled hollowly reached me. The strength in the arm around my waist weakened. Taking advantage of that gap, after escaping and trying to create distance, my wrist was caught. He closed his eyes tightly, then opened them and spoke again.
“But this will be the last time. I’ve decided to give your fate to you in another world.”
…What?
“Don’t die in that world. Don’t try to save anyone. I’ll beg like this, so just stay alive.”
Please.
