Chapter 52: Unwelcomed Guests (3)

I couldn’t see Garnet and Curse’s battle directly, but I could roughly see how it was going.

It was like observing light in a dark room.

Since the surroundings were filled with despair, Garnet’s hope was too visible.

If you ask how visible it was, it was so bright that it was blinding.

“Who do you think will win?”

Grumble—

“You think you can beat that magical girl?”

Grumble, groan, groan—

A magical girl ignored by a monster that fell into Curse’s trap…

Is this the level of magical girl in this world that’s acceptable?

“How can you protect humans from monsters when you’re so weak, tsk tsk…”

I clicked my tongue and downgraded my evaluation of Garnet’s fighting ability.

If she can’t even beat him, then she’s just a toy to Curse.

I shook my head and stared in the direction where Garnet and Curse were.

As I had expected, Garnet’s hope was gradually fading away.

‘I thought it would be a good fight since both of them poked holes in my stomach…!

As expected, a magical girl can’t be anyone but Emerald.

Although it’s a new idea, I thought that Emerald was amazing for making Curse run away.

Just how much hope did she have to make Curse, the embodiment of despair, run away?

“I guess my choice was right.”

Greep?

“No, I’m just talking to myself.”

I was 100% right in thinking that I’d rather suck up to her despair than get beaten up by Emerald’s magic.

By the way, she’s holding up surprisingly well.

No, this is Curse playing with me—

Flash!

Eugh… How dare you play with my eyes…

It was the moment when the successor who had been shining brightly in my eyes before the night shift came to mind.

More than that, if I get caught by Curse like that, my revenge with my own hands will be in vain.

My eyes widened in sudden realization—but then closed again.

I almost got hit again.

“How is it now? Who do you think will win?”

Grr…

It couldn’t be helped because I had treated Garnet’s wounds, and I couldn’t eat Tamako’s despair because I was in the hospital.

Instead, if you ask me if I didn’t eat Garnet’s despair, I can answer like this:

‘Is there anyone who gets full from one spoonful of rice?”

“If it’s Curse, I’m sure he’d use Garnet’s despair to experiment on her.

With that precious thing…”

Grumbling, rumbling…

“Then go and take it right now?”

Of course, Garnet owed me her life, so Garnet’s life was mine.

And that despair of Garnet’s was also mine, the monster that held Garnet’s lifeline.

And to have that taken away?

And by Curse?!

In a way, it could be called insubordination.

In the original, Curse was an ardent follower of Apocalypse.

Now, for some reason, he’s become an enemy of me.

It’s probably because he has no memories of the past, but not having memories doesn’t excuse him from insubordination.

“Whew…”

I exhaled slowly.

I didn’t care what Curse did, but I absolutely could not tolerate him tampering with my despair.

Then, let’s start by eating the despair around me.

It wasn’t the despair of a magical girl, but rather ordinary despair.

However, this amount might be enough to satisfy my hungry stomach.

‘A careful bite—’

Wooooowung—

“Huh.”

I had clearly intended to eat just one bite, but the despair around me disappeared.

Even Garnet’s despair was all gone.

“… What is this, why is it spinning on its own?”

But that wasn’t the problem.

The biggest issue right now was the despair circuit that had begun to spin violently.

Even if I tried to stop it quickly, it wouldn’t stop.

Instead, it gained momentum and scattered thick despair around me, causing me to momentarily panic.

‘Ah, I don’t know. I’ll just go towards Curse and Garnet.’

It didn’t take long for my white head to return to normal.

In the first place, I was not a person who thought deeply—I was not a monster.

Thump—Thump—Thump—

‘Is this the sound of my despair core throbbing?

Or is it just a vibration?

If not, then what the hell is it?’

Curse swallowed dry saliva at the huge ringing in his ears.

It was because the overwhelming presence that was slowly, very slowly approaching seemed to be glaring at him.

He clearly couldn’t see anything.

He didn’t even know if he had escaped the room or not, but he could feel deep in his bones that something was approaching him.

“You, you… What kind of monster did you create… Ugh…”

“…”

Garnet was already vomiting blood from the pressure.

If that thing had arrived here, it would definitely be crushed without leaving a single piece of flesh.

‘I have to get out of here—’

“Ugh…”

However, contrary to those thoughts, his body didn’t move properly.

Curse’s body refused to move on its own, as if telling him to witness what was approaching from beyond.

The pressure applied to everything within the framework of despair.

It felt like I would succumb to that enormous power just by daring to breathe.

Knock—

“You’re here, both of you.”

“…”

“Ugh…”

As the girl appeared, the pressure from before disappeared as if it had been a lie.

Only the thick despair spreading around her told him that she was the owner of the presence he had felt a moment ago.

“Was that last time a whim?”

“What do you think?”

The girl tilted her head.

Her emotionless voice lacked any truth or falsehood.

At the sight of her purely asking Curse’s own feelings, his mouth began to reflexively spit out an answer.

“…It was a whim, back then.”

The despair in the form of the girl’s eyes widened.

Like a parent praising a child who got the answer right—or like a predator who is now realizing its prey and laughing at it, like that.

“Aka, Lee?”

“Garnet, you look pitiful.”

“…You really are a pretty horrible person.”

“Uhuhu…”

“Are you friends with Garnet?”

She had doubts about the situation where she couldn’t move rashly, but she couldn’t bring herself to voice those questions.

The girl’s surroundings were like the eye of a storm.

It was a space where she would be hit directly by the overwhelming force if she twisted even a little.

There was no room to rest on her momentary freedom.

‘Even if it was just for a moment, all the despair in this area disappeared.

Could it be that she absorbed all that despair?’

She would be fine even after devouring all the despair that would have made her body explode and die right away.

It was impossible.

It was much worse than putting an elephant in a refrigerator or passing a lion through the eye of a needle.

“You, aren’t you holding on right now?”

“…”

“There’s no way that there could be anything in this world that would be fine even after devouring all the despair that had spread here.

Clearly, you’ve reached your limit as well.”

“…”

The girl didn’t answer.

Was that silence a positive one, or a negative one?

As if the smile he had been wearing until just now was a lie, his dry, indifferent eyes, devoid of any light, stared at Curse.

As if someone like him meant nothing to her.

“I don’t know how long I can keep bluffing—”

He prepared to attack.

There was no need to go as far as attacking someone to the point of knocking them down.

Just enough smokescreen to get out of here was enough.

Escaping from an unexpected situation, planning for the future—

“You’re not thinking of escaping from an unexpected situation, planning for the future, are you?”

“…”

“You’re surprisingly a human who knows how to bluff, Curse.”

…Human?

A human?

This body had long since left the category of human.

To call oneself, who had accepted great despair and eventually escaped the human skull, a human.

‘And those eyes…’

The eyes of a monster when it looks at a despairing human.

Those eyes seemed to say that there was no more or less value to what it was looking at.

“Me…”

“…”

“Don’t look at me with those eyes, you know!!!!!!!”

Despair burst out with a scream-like cry.

The monsters that had been sleeping in the minds of the beings that were once human began to jump out at random at their master’s command.

Guruk, guruk, guruk—

Kkieeeeeek!

Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak—

And the girl who saw this sight simply existed in that place.

As if asking to see something more interesting.