“Really, I believed in you. That you would pull it off.”
“Haha.”
The complete awakening of Glutton. That event brought many changes to me. The incompetent Jack who relied on Belly’s abilities disappeared, and I became a talent showing excellent ability in information.
Glutton was that amazing. Glutton’s ability was to let me read individual novels about the characters I knew.
Even though I was a low-ranking guild member of the information guild, through joint missions with Belly, I could access information that only higher-ranking guild members could see. Thanks to that, the breadth and depth of information I had was wide and deep, so the novels also became diverse.
But if that was all, it could be called a secondary creation combined with my delusions. Because facts I didn’t know would be added to the novel. However, all of Glutton’s novels had accuracy close to 100%.
The reason was simple. It was thanks to another function of Glutton. Glutton brought out all the knowledge I had accumulated as a reader to increase the accuracy of the novels. As long as this world was inside a novel and I was a reader, there would be no cases where Glutton’s content was wrong.
Anyway, I recently demanded information that higher-ranking guild members could see from Rose for more interesting novels. I was able to make such demands because I had seen Rose’s novel <The Gardener>.
No matter how much I obtained information through Belly, Rose was the guild master. His information wouldn’t have been easily obtained without Glutton.
[He did everything he could to decorate his garden lushly green. The children he chose all showed decent growth and made Rose proud. He poured individual affection into each child as much as he had picked them up, but the best among them was Jack.]
Rose cherished me more than I thought. To the point where I couldn’t understand why he cherished me.
[He never doubted that the raggedy brat he chose would someday show the greatest presence in his garden. Rose’s closest aides and guild members suspected Rose’s judgment had deteriorated, but his thoughts didn’t bend. It could even be called favoritism. He always waited for the right time.]
That’s why I boldly demanded information usage authority from him. Because I believed that if someone believed in my potential to this extent, they would accept even my absurd demands.
Well, even if my demand wasn’t accepted, I was confident Rose wouldn’t cast me out.
‘Right.’
And sure enough. Rose didn’t refuse. He seemed to ponder a bit, but then stared into my eyes and accepted refreshingly. There was no need to even go to the information storage room.
[New synchronization data has been discovered.]
[The system will automatically update.]
Glutton automatically acquired the information I could see and produced a bunch of new novels. Arbor’s information network was tremendous, and thanks to that, the updated novels were unimaginably numerous.
The day I received authorization, I brought secrets of big shots to Rose. It was payment for giving me the information.
Of course, no matter how much Rose trusted me, he didn’t accept it right away. But after acknowledging through several cross-verifications that my information wasn’t wrong, he immediately announced my abilities to everyone as if he’d been waiting. He completely revealed outwardly the affection he had been subtly showing.
His moves were unhesitating, as if he’d been waiting only for this moment.
Guild members who had connections with Carl and other children showed reluctance, but after seeing my abilities, they couldn’t even open their mouths. Glutton’s ability was that amazing.
“This is all thanks to Rose.”
“You even speak prettily. Let’s just keep going like this.”
Rose was looking at me with sparkling eyes as if he would pluck the stars for me. Undisguisable affection and trust were right there. My heart felt ticklish somewhere, but before I could properly recognize it, that emotion disappeared.
After the meeting with Rose, we returned to the dormitory. The self-loathing and depression that had been tormenting me until recently weren’t felt anymore.
Glutton made me recognized in the guild while also letting me enjoy numerous novels. Reading them, satisfaction and relief embraced me. Thanks to that, every day was enjoyable. It was like walking on clouds.
“Master.”
“Hmm?”
As we entered the dim alley, Belly looked at me with a somewhat anxious face. But that expression was fleeting. Judging by how he quickly returned to his usual grinning expression, it didn’t seem like a very serious problem.
Besides, to me right now, the new novels in Glutton were more important than Belly’s expression. I felt sorry for Belly, but if there were gold and silver treasures before one’s eyes, wasn’t it natural to be distracted by them?
“What would you like to eat today?”
“Well? Something simple?”
“You’re doing that because you’re reading novels again, aren’t you? Master, you’ll hurt your body like that.”
Belly’s worried words sounded like nagging, but because I knew he was genuinely worried about me, it didn’t sound bad.
Besides, it was true that my diet had been poor because I’d been continuously focusing only on reading novels lately. Because I begrudged even eating time. Even if Belly made sandwiches for easy eating, I would skip them if he didn’t feed me. I even had Glutton on while washing, so that says it all.
Ah, if only the reader had a design more suited to this world, I could see it while walking too. It was regrettable. Time is money…
“…Belly-ya?”
In the midst of that, I noticed that Belly, who had been walking alongside me, was standing stock still in the middle of the alley and turned around.
Belly’s face, draped with shadows like a curtain, looked like a wax doll with all the blood drained out. His eyes were also wide open as if surprised. I was amazed because I’d never seen him lose his composure to this degree over something unrelated to me.
“…”
“Belly-ya? What’s wrong?”
Because Belly never ignored my words, his current appearance was unfamiliar. I retraced my steps and stood in front of Belly. Even then, Belly didn’t blink an eye. At that sight, anxiety suddenly surged within me.
“Belly-ya!”
I called his name loudly and grabbed Belly’s large hand. The hand that had always been cool was now cold like a corpse, as if I were grabbing ice.
“Ah, ah… Ma, Master.”
Belly, who barely came to his senses at my touch, stuttered unlike usual. While he had asked me if I was okay, he himself looked as if his soul had left him, so worry surged up.
Even though Belly was bigger, healthier, and stronger than me, that didn’t mean he didn’t get sick. I remembered the frail and small Belly from when we first met.
“Are you sick somewhere?”
“It’s not that, Master. Just for a moment…”
Belly turned his head and glared at the brick wall overgrown with ivy. It was a sharp glare as if there was a mortal enemy there.
“I heard nonsense.”
“Nonsense?”
Belly had never said anything strange even once. Since it was him saying this, I stared intently at where Belly was looking, wondering if there was something I couldn’t see, but there was still nothing there. Only lush green ivy was abundant.
The moment I narrowed my eyes to look more closely, Belly lifted me up and began striding forward. The hands holding me were trembling faintly.
“I’m sorry, Master.”
Belly moved his steps urgently. He moved so fast that a strong wind blew. At the unusual atmosphere, I closed my mouth and entered the room embraced in his arms.
Even after coming to the room, Belly’s anxiety didn’t disappear. He muttered something nervously and cast defensive magic. Even normally after being able to use magic properly, he had set up defenses just in case, but now he was urgent as if being chased by something.
“Belly-ya.”
“…Yes, Master.”
Sitting on the bed, I patted the spot next to me with my hand. Belly approached slowly but obediently and sat beside me.
“What’s going on all of a sudden?”
“…”
Belly kept his mouth tightly shut. His mouth, closed like a clam, showed no signs of opening. Belly, looking down with lowered eyes, glanced at me furtively from the corner of his eye. Seeing him act like such a frightened dog, I couldn’t think he possessed strong power.
At Belly’s timid gaze, I smiled as warmly as possible. Then Belly’s eyes, which had been frozen in fear, melted away like dissolving in water.
“Master…”
Belly hugged my waist as if acting spoiled and burrowed into my embrace. Even though his build was much larger than mine, his behavior was still like an immature child.
When I stroked Belly’s head, he went further and laid his head on my thigh. It was heavy, but it was a precious weight that couldn’t be bought even with ten million gold.
“Yes. Master is here.”
“Master…”
Belly, like a broken radio, just repeated calling me. Whenever he called me, I answered and continued stroking his head.
In that peaceful time, I half-forgot the strange incident that had happened earlier. If not for Belly’s strange behavior the next day, I surely would have forgotten it.
* * *
Belly doesn’t leave my side. If I didn’t tell him, he was the type to follow me even to the bathroom. For such a Belly to not show even a strand of hair was definitely strange.
I waited until noon, but in the end, he didn’t appear. This surely meant a problem had occurred.
“I’m not going back. Fuck off.”
While searching even the secluded areas behind the dormitory looking for the disappeared Belly, I could hear Belly’s angry voice. Normally he would have noticed my approach like a ghost, but he didn’t seem to notice and just kept staring intently at the wall.
But there was no one there. It was a continuation of what happened yesterday.
“Have you forgotten what we did for the next chieftain?”
However, as if it being empty was a lie, a murky voice was heard from somewhere. I opened my eyes wide and looked there, when someone snatched me away with strong force.
