A Fatal Misunderstanding

“The place you belong is by my side. Bi.”

Struck by the unexpected blow, I could only stare at the man in a daze.

“So, I’m telling you to accept your place and stop thinking about running away.”

“…I.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him or was afraid of him.

I knew that the words and actions Karvan showed me were no longer just cold.

‘I’m Shinbi! ‘Shinbi’! I’m different from you!’

My conflict lay elsewhere.

Even if I had doubts at times, this world ultimately operates according to the rules of the game ‘Legacyth Chronicle,’ and I can’t exist in this ‘virtual world’ forever.
Someday, I have to leave this world.

【Karvan Baharga】

On the other hand, he is different from me.
The status window flickering above the man’s head was proof of that.

“Karvan, you know. I…”

Swallowing the words that came up to my throat, I tapped my wrist, and the transmuted GB (Gaming Band) was revealed.

It was an item that had to be worn to connect with brainwaves when using a virtual reality simulator.
The only proof that I was a person from the real world, not data made of 0s and 1s.

“I, what’s next?”

Karvan asks, his gaze following mine to my wrist.

Since it’s an item visible only to the wearer, his eyes shouldn’t be able to see the GB, but the man’s golden eyes gleam fiercely.
As if reflecting the blue light of the GB, which signifies its reality.

‘Reality?’
That can’t be.

At first, I thought it was a device malfunction.
Since I couldn’t log out, I considered it a side effect.

“…No. It’s nothing.”

But, I don’t know anymore.

I surreptitiously hid my wrist behind my back as I looked at the man who was so vividly alive and breathing before me.

After a certain amount of time without contact, the GB naturally became transparent and disappeared.

“So, the answer, I haven’t heard it yet.”

“…I will never leave you of my own free will. But…”

As if he wouldn’t listen any further, he pulls the back of my neck and presses his lips against mine, silencing me.
He explores my lips with a satisfied face, as if he has already heard the answer he wanted.

“I, too, will never let you go.”

Forever.
The words branded into my ear sounded distant.

“So, don’t deny it anymore.”

That you want me too.
The man revealed the beastly side I had forgotten and bit my neck as if snatching it.
He whispers with his whole body, nibbling at the Imprint Vein, which is as good as an erogenous zone, that you are mine, that you are my mate.

Even though I was on the verge of being devoured again by the wolf who had slipped his leash, I didn’t push him away like before.

Instead, I hugged his neck tightly.

The man, who seemed to have understood my meaning, clasped my hand as if intertwining our fingers.
His fingers slid and wrapped around mine, one by one.

Just like when I had made a promise with him once before.

Before I knew it, the night before our departure for Midvalen had arrived.

Even though I was lying in bed, my eyes were wide awake.

Normally, I should have been stressed, thinking about my anxiety over the Observers and the detestable Baalzeph, but my heart felt unusually light.
I even felt a strange sense of anticipation.

Even with my eyes closed, sleep wouldn’t come, so I went down to the front yard, thinking of warming up with Leviathan.

In the sky, a slightly misshapen moon, just before the full moon, was hanging.
Perhaps because there was less fog today, I was looking up at the moon, which was shining an exceptionally bright yellow, like Karvan’s eyes.

“Shinbi.”

Thud, thud.
A large figure was walking out of the darkness.

Thinking it was Karvan, I was about to wave happily when I flinched at the glint of red light in his eyes.

“Radugan?”

It was him, whom I hadn’t seen a trace of for days due to the access ban.

“At this late hour…”

I was about to ask what he was doing here when Radugan approached without hesitation and grabbed my wrist.

He had never touched my body before.
I was surprised and tried to shake him off, but I was startled by his ice-cold hand.

“Why is your hand so cold?”

“……”

“Don’t tell me you were waiting for me all this time? Here?”

Radugan just stared at me silently without answering.

…Why?
For some reason, I felt Karvan in his gaze.
His face, his eye color, there wasn’t a single thing that resembled him.
But the eyes that were once filled with hatred and disgust had changed at some point.

The moment I realized that, a chill ran down my spine.

Because if Karvan saw that look, it was clear that it wouldn’t end with a simple access ban.

‘The Valta has been very patient. He didn’t kill him because he saw how much Shinbi-nim cherishes him.’

“Radugan. You don’t have to come to give me gifts anymore.”

So, for his own safety, it seemed best to draw a clear line.

“I’m grateful, but anymore…”

“I’m leaving Bahalgras.”

“…What?”

“Leave with me.”

‘What?’
I almost asked stupidly again.
Radugan keeps surprising and flustering me.

“Don’t be held by him and suffer any longer, let’s leave together. I’ll help you.”

I wondered what he was suddenly talking about.
As I looked up at him with a dumbfounded face, the man twisted the corner of his mouth.

“Do you think this is ridiculous nonsense?”

“N-no. I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t leave.”

“……”

“Besides, Karvan won’t let me go until he dies, you know? Haha. You know. How…”

“Then you can just die.”

“…Excuse me?”

“You seem to have forgotten, but you are an Awakener. Don’t you have an immortal body?”

An immortal body?
I blinked my eyes, looking at him, and then I belatedly understood what he meant.

“A blessed being who resurrects as if nothing happened, no matter how many times you die. Isn’t that what you Awakeners are?”

Come to think of it, that’s right.
As Radugan said, even if I die, I will be resurrected with a perfectly fine body.

The laws of the game ‘Legacyth Chronicle’ still apply to my body in some way, and I still have the ability of a ‘player,’ so even if I die from a fatal wound, I will respawn.
This means I will wake up in the nearest safe town from where I died.

“The blessing of immortality, I believe it’s still valid for you.”

“Yes, it’s valid. As long as I’m not caught by the Grim Reapers.”

But I had been alone ever since I was trapped here, and all towns except Midvalen were hostile to me.

Moreover, if I was unlucky enough to run into an Observer before I even woke up from respawning, that would be the end of me, so I had never even considered using it.
The same was true after I met Karvan.

“But even if I die, I’ll wake up here again. Bahalgras is the closest town…”

“I’ll take care of it.”

I couldn’t understand what he meant by that.
Was he saying he would change my respawn point to another place?
But how could he?

“The current Valta is not a wise king. It may sound ridiculous coming from me, but he is whimsical and merciless. You never know when he’ll turn on you and cast you out.”

Regardless of my puzzled look, Radugan continues in a cracked voice.

“I just don’t want to see you suffer. Let’s go together.”

…It seems he has misunderstood something seriously, and my head hurt trying to figure out where to start explaining.

“Well… no. I’m not suffering, for one thing.”

Groan.
I put a hand to my forehead and shook my head in frustration.

“I’m doing better than ever.”

It was true.
At some point, I had perfectly adapted to the wolf’s den that I had once feared so much.

“…You’re doing well?”

“Yes!”

To reassure his suspicious face, I deliberately put on a bright smile.

“Thank you for worrying about me. But I’m really okay! Really!”

To lighten the serious mood, I even gave him a thumbs-up, just like the day he made up with Tegen.

“You seem to have been thoroughly brainwashed.”

But for some reason, it seemed to have the opposite effect.

“……”

Radugan stared at me in silence for a long time.
His expression was complicated.
It was as if he had been betrayed, and also as if he pitied me.

But why was he suddenly leaving Bahalgras?
I remembered that Karvan had been giving the entire Black Mane tribe the cold shoulder recently because of me, so maybe his feelings were hurt because of that.
As I was speculating, I suddenly realized.

“In any case, you will wake up in the Fox Tribe’s village.”

That Radugan was standing right in front of me again.

“I’ll shake off the Grim Reapers, so don’t worry. I don’t want to talk any longer.”

At that moment, there was no one around us.

Karvan was in the middle of a final military meeting before departing for Dowongyeong, so all the Suras were in the meeting hall.
And it was originally my bedtime.

“The opportunity is now. You’ll thank me for this.”

He suddenly said something I couldn’t understand, then strode towards me and pulled something from his waist.

Thinking he had brought another gift, I tilted my head and watched what he was pulling out, and my eyes widened.

In his hand was a gleaming black dagger.

“…Ra-Radugan? Wh-why the knife?”

Stumble, stumble.
As much as I, horrified, backed away, he approached.
Naturally, the distance between us didn’t grow.

“I’ve applied a pain-numbing agent, so there will be no pain.”

“What did you apply? What are you suddenly…!”

My bewildered words were cut short.

I blinked my eyes and slowly looked down at the piece of metal that had been instantly plunged into my chest.

“…Ah…”

As he said, there was no pain at all.
Was it because of that pain, whatever, thing he had applied?

If my vision hadn’t started to blur rapidly, I wouldn’t have even realized I had been stabbed.

“It’s okay. It’ll only be a moment.”

Had I lost so much blood in such a short time that my hearing was going strange?
A voice, so gentle that I couldn’t believe it came from the person who had stabbed me, came from above my head.

“Just bear with it for a little while…”

Just as Radugan was about to hold me, as I was staggering, to support me.

“You crazy bastard!”

Crack!
With Tegen’s sharp shout, the man who was holding my shoulder was sent flying.

In slow motion, I saw Karvan, who had appeared from the fog, snatch me up with a face harder than I had ever seen before, and Radugan being grabbed by the collar by the Suras who had rushed in like a thunderbolt.

【Awakener ‘Shinbi’-nim is currently in a <Fatal Injury> state. If appropriate follow-up measures are not taken, you will retire within a few seconds and resurrect in the nearest town.】