Chapter 45 – Faith & Believers (5)

Faith & Believers (5)

I want to go back. That place could be the original world, or it could be home. Or perhaps it’s the happiest moment of my life.
Truthfully, I didn’t have a strong desire to return to the original world. I was an orphan there. Not a complete orphan, as I lost my parents to a car accident before I entered middle school. I lived recklessly in my youth. I guess I’m still young, not yet an adult. Anyway, I don’t have much attachment to the original world.

So when I heard that I was called a hero, I felt as if I could soar.

The room I returned to was as cramped as ever.
By my estimate, it was around 5 o’clock. It took time to get here because of the distance between the factory and where I lived.

On the second floor of an old building. Turn a doorknob that doesn’t need a key, and there’s my home. Inside, it’s a simple setup with not much to see.

There’s just one old, worn-out bed. It’s so small that I have to stick my legs out when I sleep.
And right next to the bed, a round wooden table, with a squeaky chair that was there from the beginning.

And that’s everything.

Except for the clothes scattered haphazardly on the floor, there’s really nothing else.

For a human living in a concentration camp, I’m enjoying a relatively abundant life. As you can see, how many people in the camp can tear into meat like this?

I placed the meat and bread I brought on the table. I straightened the fallen chair to sit down and started eating the food. The bread was as hard and dry as always. The meat was tough like jerky, difficult to tear with the teeth. But it’s okay, where else could I be?
Just living like this.

I don’t think about it.

Next, I bit into the cold meat with my molars.
The value of the life I took today was just a few pieces of meat.

Well, it doesn’t matter. After all, when I die, it will all be meaningless.

While tearing off a piece of rye bread, I glanced outside through the only window next to the bed. A few children were playing happily. Then I looked around the room again. When I stopped the chewing motion, only the children’s cheers faintly echoed.

It was quiet.

I wasn’t lonely. It’s not that I couldn’t form relationships; I chose not to, since I would return to the original world anyway.

I don’t know when, but that day will surely come. The day I can return home and rest comfortably.
It will surely come.

…For now, it’s time to wait for that day.

I tossed the bag that had contained the food and surrendered my body to the small bed. It wasn’t soft, but it was firm and comfortable.
Perhaps that’s why, despite having had enough sleep, I was still drowsy.

-Bang! Bang! Bang!

But the deep sleep didn’t last long. Because the damn unwanted visitor would come almost every day.
A few steps from the heavy body wrapped in blankets, and there’s the front door.

With a clunk, the old door knob turned, and a pair of long ears appeared. The owner of the ears was a beautiful woman, her hair a deep dark blue that almost made her seem non-human.

Her name was Nerati.

She was a high-ranking demon who had saved me from being devoured by a beast. Recently, I heard she had been appointed as an subordinate in the Demon King’s army. Perhaps that’s why the aura she exuded now had a more refined air about it.

“Pleased to see you, Phelion. Have you been well?”

With a light greeting, she attempted to pat my head. However, Nerati was a full head shorter than me, so instead of reaching my head, she ended up in a somewhat comical stance, repeating the gesture.

For someone who’s a subordinate in the Demon King’s army, she still seemed quite casual. Maybe it was because she wasn’t wearing the thin fabric she usually draped over herself, which made her appear a bit less imposing.

She cleared her throat, perhaps feeling awkward.

“You’re still living in this dump. Graffiti, trash…”

Her smile froze into a rigid expression.

Demons are always like that. Their facial expressions and emotions are so chaotically unpredictable. That’s why when I first encountered her, I thought I was going to die.

“How about you make your decision now?”

Ah, that damned recruitment offer again.

Around this time, Nerati was desperately trying to get me to join the Demon King’s army. As a hero, I had the qualifications, but being dropped into the demon continent by the goddess’s trickery, my joining their ranks would have a significant impact, or so she claimed.

It was all the same to me.
Even if I hated the goddess who dumped me here enough to wish death upon her, joining the Demon King’s army was out of the question.

“I’ve already decided.”

“Is that so? Then let’s hear your answer.”

If I were someone who had killed tens of thousands of people, I would naturally be the perfect candidate for the Demon King’s army.
But that’s not me.

“I refuse. I’ve only just gotten used to squeezing people dry.”

As if I would.

Nerati’s expression grew even more grave.
Her gaze was cold as she looked at me, but… it was a look I had grown accustomed to.

The factory isn’t too bad. Even if it has the worst downside of having to kill people, it’s not something I’d abandon to join the Demon King’s army. Sometimes guilt washes over me… but still, where else could I be?

It’s not all good, of course.

In the camp, humans huddled together, but who would welcome someone who had killed their own kind and even sold their conscience to the demons? Because of the demons’ protection, there was no direct lynching, but it was common for people to throw trash near my house or ignore me when I spoke. In severe cases, they would pretend it was an accident and hit me on the back of the head as they passed by. To them, I was not a person but a demon wearing human skin, so their treatment seemed justified.

Perhaps it would be less lonely to join the Demon King’s army, surrounded by mad demons.

But still, I didn’t want to join the Demon King’s army.
There, I would have to torture people directly and watch them die before my eyes.

I’ve been working at the human factory for a long time. If I gathered all the blood from the people I’ve killed, I could probably float a cruise ship. But that doesn’t mean I want to get my hands dirty with blood directly. I’m already a scumbag murderer, but I haven’t crossed the line yet. So I can still go back. As long as I don’t join the Demon King’s army, I can return to being the original Kim Ji-hoon.

What am I now, grinding people up in the factory?
Phelion.

The people I’ve killed?
All the dismembering, killing, and squeezing were done by Phelion.

Not Kim Ji-hoon, not me.

Nerati didn’t seem to like the answer and stuck a skewer into the front door. She frowned as if something was bothering her.
Even the repairman who fixes doors ignores me… I wonder if she’ll fix that before she leaves.

“Hey, what’s worrying you so much? You can come in now if you want. No matter what the opposition shouts, I’m here, so why don’t you just come in? There’s no fun or hope staying here anyway.”

This time, I answered with a blank expression. Sometimes doing nothing is the best option, especially with demons who are sensitive to reactions.
And now was one of those times.

“Really… you’d better make up your mind quickly~ If you wait too long, you’ll have to grovel on to my feet to get in.”

Nerati walked away from the door without any hesitation, pulling the skewer out of the wall and putting it in her mouth. It was a sight I always saw… but it was still revolting.
I could handle seeing people turned into chunks of meat, though.

“Yes, yes, as you wish.”

As Nerati walked away, her stiff face softened at my reply.

Nerati chuckled lightly as she drew a magic circle with the skewer. Soon after, she began to be sucked into the magic circle, and the skewers lost their form, turning into dust and scattering away.

“Take care then… See you later.”

With that, she was gone. The remaining skewers had also completely vanished.

Ignoring the door with a hole in it, I trudged to the bed and lay down.
The bed felt cold and numb, which only added to my foul mood.

If I had known at that time that my only companion was a batshit crazy bitch who enjoyed tearing people apart… My mentality would’ve broken apart.

Well, in the end, I was the one who backstabbed first.

* * *

Shit.

When I opened my eyes, my face was wet. Seeing that my top was completely soaked, it seemed I had been unexpectedly drenched with water. My body was covered in sweat, and the clothes I hadn’t managed to change emitted a strange smell. My arms and legs trembled as if they had been continuously beaten.

How much time has… passed?

As I looked around with that question in mind, Cecilia was right in front of me. Her tired eyes matched well with the black clothes she wore.
She was staring at me with emotionless eyes.

“Escapist self-justification… You’re covered in defense mechanisms,” she said.

Such a straightforward statement. I’m someone who knows all too well the pain in my heart.

And what’s with treating people like they’re insane? Is it so wrong to think of Flan, Phelion, and Kim Ji-hoon as different people? If I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be here, and if it weren’t for the information I extracted….

Let’s not bring this up now.
I’ll wait for another opportunity.

But she hurled verbal abuse that could shake even my resolve.

“Disgusting. Why are you still alive? If I were you, I would have killed myself already. Shall I make it easy for you right now?”

Cecilia drew her finger across her throat, then stuck out her tongue and mimed gagging.
Suicide shouldn’t be made light of like that.

“Or how about you end your life right now? It would surely be a relief.”

“I promised not to commit suicide. I have a personality that keeps promises well…, I just can’t seem to die even if I wanted to.”

Ah, I made a mistake.
If I was going to endure, I should have done so to the end. There’s no point in bringing it up now; she’s not going to take it seriously anyway.

But instead of retorting, Cecilia’s expression just twisted even more. It didn’t feel like she was about to slap me as before, and something seemed off… She didn’t look like she had the leisure to hit me.

“Speaking of which, there was that young girl we captured together, where is she?”

I rather liked this desolate atmosphere. It didn’t feel like before when words didn’t seem to get through, so I could bring up a casual conversation.
But that was as far as it went.

“Seeing that you can still talk like that, you’re clearly not repenting at all. You really are selfish.”

As expected, I was ignored.

But after a brief moment, Cecilia, with a look of discomfort, let out a heavy sigh and then spoke.

“…She’s in the room next door.”

Her tone was emotionless, devoid of any feeling… but she answered.
Whether it was true or false, I didn’t know, but she had responded nonetheless.

“Are you telling me?”

Honestly, I didn’t expect her to really tell me. The question was more about eliciting a response than expecting an answer.
Well, it didn’t matter. Right now, information was the most important thing, whether it was true or false.

But it seemed to bother the saintess. She clicked her tongue as if she couldn’t understand why she had said that and glared at me.

She brought it up and now she’s pissed at me?

“If it weren’t for the influence of memory assimilation… Well, it’s an unavoidable side effect…”

So Valkvogel is in the room next door, huh?
No need to wander around when escaping.

But what’s this about assimilation, assimilation? Is she implying that she’s been influenced by reading my past?

Seeing my contemplative expression, Cecilia quickly approached me. It seems that this memory assimilation is indeed information that shouldn’t spread.
I greeted her approach with a smile. It was a smile of gratitude for giving me an important piece of information.

Flan—Cecilia, having received the smile, did not hide her disgust, but it didn’t matter.

The black coat slowly approaches.

Cecilia said that because of memory assimilation, she spoke strangely.
If my memories and hers were to assimilate, then an opportunity would soon come.

It’s almost time.