Chapter 75: The Incident (3) (1/2)

“…”

Rambling while reading the thesis, I shut my mouth at some point. However, I kept revising it.

[This has a lot of wrong and inefficient parts. Keep the idea, but…]

Drent had an unfortunate incident during his first thesis defense, but to the original Deculein, he was a talent that he couldn’t even dare think of recruiting. It was an unexpected harvest for me, considering I thought only Epherene would fall under my command.

That put me in an unintentional good mood, which probably was what made me talk to myself out loud.

It wasn’t like me… No.

I didn’t even know what it meant to be me at this point.

“… Hmm.”

Deculein’s personality was “authoritarian.” The better the opponent was, the more he desired to make them bow down to him. Hence, when a genius became my underling, I felt a certain joy rise within me.

However, that joy was quickly replaced by something entirely different.

My [Iron Man] characteristic made my body develop hypersensitive senses, allowing me to recognize Allen’s secret. Those very same senses now emitted a similar sensation at the corner of my mind.

Whoever was holding the steering wheel…

It wasn’t Jeff.

“…”

However, I refrained from acting rashly.

Looking around the car’s interior, I found no danger perceived by [The Villain’s Fate], which was as I expected. After all, if it were a risk to get on this car in the first place, this attribute’s radar would’ve already caught it.

However, it did have a blind spot.

[The Villain’s Fate] indicated leading to death, not all danger.

I opened the window.

The passing scenery was nothing out of the ordinary, but when the wind that accompanied it came in, it was swiftly engulfed by a bright red hue, covering the entire road with it.

Beyond my eyes stretched a lifeless zone. The safest place, at least in this seemingly desolated area, was inside the car.

The moment I became aware of the current situation, a message popped up.

[Unexpected Quest: Encounter]

◆ Store Currency +1

A quest had been issued.

“An encounter.”

Unknowingly, I smiled.

I didn’t know who arranged this nonsensical meeting.

“… But I’ll think of it as an invitation.”

That would be far more convenient for me.

I looked at the person in the driver’s seat through the rearview mirror. Making eye contact with me, he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead.

“Don’t worry. I won’t do anything ungentlemanly. You’re not real anyway, right?”

He didn’t answer. There was still time.

I continued revising the thesis.

* * *

Vroom—

Gerek glared at Deculein’s car as it approached them in the distance. He was supposed to pursue him from a reasonable distance, but he found that frustrating, considering he was filled with murderous intent for their target.

“Why can’t I kill him?” Gerek asked.

Arlos, driving the car remotely, answered calmly. “Are you Gerek?”

“Yeah. I’m Gerek. I’m just like you now, Arlos. A ‘Puppet.'”

She stepped on the accelerator without answering.

The puppet driving Deculein’s car now was a half-doll implanted with around 7% of her soul.

Hence, it lacked bodily wisdom and was immature and vague. However, what it saw, heard, and felt was fully transmitted to the puppeteer herself, allowing it to act as if it were the main body.

It was the only way to make her magic work perfectly.

A puppet that knew it was, in fact, a puppet wouldn’t move animatedly. More accurately, it wouldn’t have the will to do anything. It wouldn’t perform its duties properly and would occasionally refuse to receive orders.

However, since [Soul Departure] charged an extremely high penalty for completely transplanting one’s soul into a puppet, she developed an alternative method with great care.

“Does your puppet die as soon as your soul in it returns to you? Doesn’t it know what it is?”

“Something like that.”

“That’s cruel. Do they have no personality?”

“I’m making the necessary sacrifice.” She laughed bitterly.

He glanced at her.

“What sacrifice?”

“I don’t know if the current me is a puppet or the main body anymore.”

“…”

Gerek’s eyes widened.

Even her, thought to be the main body, might just be a ‘part of the soul’ given to her by the real Arlos, hidden somewhere.

Her memories might also just be a fake the main body had manipulated and instilled within her.

She was the master of the perfect puppet even though she was an imperfect human. Since the perfect puppet was a human, Arlos would live her whole life with the suspicion that she could be a puppet too.

“I like that on Unnie.” Gerek smiled broadly.

At the word ‘Unnie,’ Arlos frowned. “… I told you not to come out.”

“Unnie~”

Gerek grinned and ran to Arlos. With her shoulder, she shoved the fully grown man whose personality had switched to his younger sister’s.

“Unnie~ I love you so much~”

“Don’t cling to me. I’m driving.”

He was lucky to have had a pretty face for a man.

If he looked like a bearded bandit, she would’ve already killed him.

“Unniiiiieee~”

“You’re noisy, Zelin.”

Zelin.

Among all of Gerek’s personalities, she was the easiest to handle.

“But, Unnie, I don’t think I can stand this for much longer. I want to kill Deculein as much as my brother does. You know how I died, right?”

“I’ve heard about it dozens of times from Gerek.”

In response to her answer, Zelin’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Humpf. My stupid brother steals everything. I was the one who thought of all the topics we could use for conversation, but he’s the one who reveals them all…”

Grumbling, Zelin suddenly lowered her head and grabbed the hem of her pants. Soon enough, she asked in a lower voice.

“Unnie.”

“What?”

“I’m real, right?”

Arlos turned to look at her.

“Well…”

She was a puppeteer and a soul master.

It was no coincidence that she teamed up with Gerek.

“Don’t bother trying to find the answer to that.”

Gerek’s numerous personalities, which might be the result of a mental illness, could just be a ‘part of the soul’ that his main body had given.

“You’ll be fine if you don’t think about it too deeply.”

That polymorphism was his identity.

Living a life without knowing whether he was real or fake was quite blurry, and sometimes, like an anchor in his heart, he dragged all his emotions down to the gloomy abyss.

“Everything in the world is like that. If you never think too deeply about anything, you’ll always be fine. Believe in the resilience of your ego and… Live shallowly.”

“… Unnie~”

Zelin rushed in excitement, but Arlos pushed her chin away with her elbow.

“Piss off, Gerek.”

“Sheesh. How did you know?”

Zelin’s acting skills were excellent, but Gerek’s wasn’t.

She clicked her tongue.

“I don’t have time to play around.”

At that moment, she heard Deculein’s voice through the puppet’s ears.

—An encounter… But I’ll think of it as an invitation.

That damn professor’s intuition was astounding. In fact, she was ready to break the plan when he realized she was a puppet, but if she did, Gerek would be forced to go on his own.

That would be even worse.

“Deculein is taking this encounter as an invitation. He’s confident.”

“Really? That’s interesting. After all, he fought Rohakan to a tie. I couldn’t kill that old man either. When did he become so strong?”

Not long after, Arlos’s body trembled when she heard Deculein say something significant.

—Don’t worry. I won’t do anything ungentlemanly. You’re not real anyway, right?

Of course, he might be saying that since he was talking to a puppet, but if, by some chance…

Deculein was talking about the authenticity of her ‘soul’ itself…

“What is it, Arlos?”

“… Nothing.”

It couldn’t be. Only God could determine a human soul’s authenticity.

“We’re almost there.”

Their destination was already in sight, which was a vacant lot away from the imperial city. Its basement was empty under the pretext of being under development.

“Woooo~ I’ve been looking forward to this.”

“Are there beasts in your personality too, Gerek?”

“Yeah, of course! The one I raised is. There’s some cowboy wielding a shotgun too! Hell, yeah!”

Smiling, Gerek roared like a tiger.

* * *

The car moved slowly. Buildings and street lights along the road gradually disappeared, and at some point, the entire vehicle sank into the basement of an empty, vacant lot.

Darkness filled the unknown space that stretched beyond the window.

They stopped in the middle of it.

Deculein looked at the driver’s seat, finding ‘Jeff’ had already turned into a mannequin.

Was it Arlos?

He looked out the window again, having no problems scanning his surroundings due to [The Villain’s Fate].

“…”

Deculein got out of the car, finding himself in what seemed like an underground parking lot.

Click— Clack— Click— Clack—

The sound footsteps echoed all around him.

“Good to see you.”

A voice came from his right.