Chapter 85
Serena stared at the blood on her hands with a resentful gaze.
It was uncomfortably warm.
When she lowered her eyes slightly from her hands, she saw her younger brother.
Her brother was not human.
By the ti she had arrived at the village, he had already turned into a zombie.
“……Sis.”
Her brother spoke.
He was a fake.
Since her brother was not a variant, he lacked the ability to speak.
The image of him groaning in a cracked voice was still vivid in her mind.
“Why, why couldn't you save ?”
The illusion imitated her brother’s voice perfectly.
Strangely, she did not feel a sense of longing.
It just made her angry.
[You are not my brother.]
“What do you an? It is , Marlon.”
Her brother’s face hardened.
She stepped closer and kicked him in the face.
The bastard fell helplessly to the ground.
“Ugh, why are you doing this, Sis?”
Abominably, the illusion did not stop imitating her brother.
The bastard did not know.
He did not know who she was with or what kind of influence she had received from him.
To survive, one has to be cool headed.
“W-Wait a minute.”
She beat him repeatedly with the staff she was holding.
“This should not be happening……”
The fallen illusion slowly retreated.
She could no longer stand to watch.
It felt as if her already dead brother had been dragged out of the grave once again.
She barely managed to suppress the nausea rising within her.
She gathered mana in her hands.
A yellow light flashed several tis and vanished quickly.
Just before being seized by the hallucination, she rembered that she had handed over most of her mana to Joshua.
With no other choice, she picked out sothing usable as a weapon from her belongings.
There was a dagger.
She gripped it and aid it at the throat of her brother standing before her.
“Sis, spare .”
Slash!
She slit his throat without hesitation.
The hallucination that had been her brother gradually grew sluggish in its movents.
She watched from her spot until he disappeared completely.
‘I feel more indifferent than I thought I would.’
Her family was her trauma.
The guilt of losing her parents and killing her brother.
That guilt had manifested as a nightmare every night and gnawed away at her.
Yet, she was calm when facing the hallucination before her.
Suddenly, she wondered about the reason.
‘Is it because I knew it was an illusion? Or did I feel a sense of incongruity?’
No thought reached a satisfying conclusion.
While she was pondering, soone walked toward her from the opposite side.
“Are you safe?”
It was Joshua.
At first, she was flustered, thinking it was a hallucination.
However, she soon realized it was not.
[Yes.]
“It seems you don't mistake for a fake.”
[Detection magic is my specialty. If it is an illusion, I can tell through the texture of the mana.]
“I see.”
He approached her and looked around.
“What did you do with the illusion?”
[I defeated all of them.]
“Really?”
He rolled his eyes as if surprised.
It was the first ti she had seen him looking flustered.
“If my guess is correct, what you saw was……”
[It was my brother.]
“Are you alright?”
[Are you worried about ?]
“It would be a lie to say I am not concerned.”
A smile ford on her face.
She felt as though she knew the answer to the question she had been pondering earlier.
It was Joshua.
She had watched the way he survived by his side.
He certainly would have knocked it down as if it were the most natural thing to do.
[My brother is dead. He will not return now. Even if I t him again, he certainly would not be the child I knew.]
“If it is hard, it is okay to say so.”
[It is true. Rather, I felt angry.]
“You felt angry?”
[It made kill my brother again, even if it was an illusion. I will never forgive this zombie.]
Joshua shrugged his shoulders.
It seed her actions had strayed far from his expectations.
For so reason, her heart felt light.
For the first ti, things did not go according to his plan.
Perhaps in a good way.
[You thought I would be crying, didn't you?]
“I thought you would be suffering.”
[If I had, what were you going to do for ?]
“That depends on the situation.”
[Did it help a lot that I overca the hallucination on my own?]
“Probably.”
She received a complint.
The words he said felt special.
She wanted to create a place for herself in the group he led.
* * *
Joshua felt stunned.
The girl he thought would struggle the most escaped more easily than anyone else.
[Cool] increased his evaluation of her.
[You have completed the achievent of rescuing the illusion.]
[You have acquired 30 coins.]
[Current coins held: 100]
Well now.
He had earned coins for free without lifting a finger.
That was not all.
Serena’s expression had beco much lighter.
Using [Analyze].
[Serena]
[Status Ailnt - Trauma (dium)]
[She has acquired Illusion Resistance (High).]
The trauma that had been [Highest] had suddenly dropped to [dium].
As a bonus, she had also gained illusion resistance.
He had only intended to earn coins, but he had achieved Serena’s growth as well, killing two birds with one stone.
[You always used to say it like a habit. To be cool headed.]
“I did.”
[In reality, we fight living corpses, so I should not be swayed by re illusions.]
She was changing rapidly.
The cause was likely himself.
He wondered if this was what it felt like to carry and raise a character.
He felt a bit moved.
He felt as though the processes he had carried out were being rewarded.
“Well done.”
[I did learn from the best after all!]
“Do not flatter too much.”
[There was nothing to see and learn when I was under Sir Derek, but you are different.]
The feeling of Talleon and Gavinu wafted strongly from her.
He felt an infinite trust directed toward him.
“Will you follow ?”
[Anywhere.]
“Do not fall behind.”
Serena nodded.
He headed toward the place where Tania was located along with her.
[Where are we going?]
“It is the place where Tania is.”
[Can you tell?]
“Luna is with her. A contractor can tell the location of a familiar.”
It did not take long to find Tania.
She was also in the middle of dealing with an illusion.
“……Huh?”
A flustered voice flowed from her mouth.
“Why are there two seniors?”
The illusion standing next to Tania looked exactly like him.
A fake Joshua.
Unlike the other two people, her illusion was born from desire, not trauma.
“That is why I told you, Sister Tania. This person is not Oppa.”
Luna shook her head.
[Clever] quickly organized the unfolding situation.
Luna was a familiar.
It was a simple task for her to recognize who the contractor was.
She seed to have conveyed the information she found to Tania, but for so reason, Tania seed unable to accept her advice.
“Explain the situation, Luna.”
“Um, as for how this happened……”
“No!”
Tania shouted abruptly.
Her face was flushed as if it were about to explode.
“Luna, you must never report what happened here. Do you understand?”
“B-But, big sis.”
“There are no buts! You are taking this to the grave. If Luna breaks the promise, I will never see your face again.”
It was a truly childish threat.
Luna looked back and forth between him and Tania with a troubled look.
If he set his mind to it, it was possible to check what happened here regardless of Luna’s will.
[Clever] was clamoring to try it right away.
“You fake! How dare you trick .”
Tania glared at the fake Joshua with a resentful gaze.
“That is a sha.”
“What!”
“In the end, you failed to grasp my existence until the real one appeared. If I had intended to harm you, you could have been defeated.”
Oh, the quality was not bad.
Perhaps because it mimicked him, it even knew how to give fairly decent advice.
“This is a score of 10. You lost your usual caution. What I said earlier to you was……”
“That is enough!”
Tania conjured a fla.
Just before entering this place, she was the one who had yielded almost all her mana.
Even a light formula would be a great burden, yet she created a large fireball.
“Do not say another word.”
She threw the fireball.
The fake Joshua did not avoid it and submissively received it.
The flas flared up and his body scattered into mist.
“Huff, huff!”
Tania, who had poured out her energy, knelt on the spot.
She covered her face with her hands.
She must have done sothing quite embarrassing.
“I am sorry. It seems my judgnt was clouded.”
“Any injuries?”
“None.”
“Be careful next ti.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
He did not want to point out her mistake.
She was reflecting enough on her own.
[Clever] tapped one side of his head.
Perhaps because his curiosity was strong, or perhaps because he simply wanted to tease her, the trait suggested investigating what had happened here.
“Oppa.”
Luna approached and pulled at his trouser leg.
He lowered his waist to match her eye level.
She then leaned into his ear and whispered softly.
“There is no information important enough for you to need to know. Just this once, for my sake, please don't peep at what big sis Tania did.”
“……Alright.”
Luna was pleading with him.
He also decided to bury what happened here and pretend not to know.
[Clever] felt quite disappointed.
“I am going to kill it.”
“Huh?”
“The variant that is creating this mist. I will not forgive it for making experience this.”
Tania’s eyes lit up with fire.
It seed that what happened here today was a dark history for her, sothing that would make her kick her blankets at night.
At this point, he personally wanted to see it too.
When he shot a glance at Luna next to him, she shook her head.
“No.”
It was Luna shaking her head.
“Senior, what is the plan now?”
Tania spoke, her head still lowered.
“We are going to hunt the variant from now on.”
“May I go as well?”
“You must be very fatigued since you gave away your mana, no?”
“If I don't have teeth, I will fight with my gums. If it is not a hindrance, I will be helpful even if I have to hit it with my staff.”
“It does not matter. Fortunately, the opponent this ti is not the type to fight by approaching.”
Tania stood up from her spot, burning with enthusiasm.
“Let’s go, as quickly as possible.”
According to her request, we headed toward the lake in the hallucination world.
ntal power is important for the center we are about to head toward.
And when it ca to ntal power, it was his specialty.
He encouraged [Patience], which might beco the protagonist today.
Next, he requested [Steady Nerves].
Both traits were more excited than usual.
While [Cool] and [Clever] were his closest advisors, those two traits were usually only displayed when necessary.
[Patience] and [Steady Nerves] vowed to show their activity.
[It is getting closer and closer.]
Serena was the first to react.
Even without using detection magic, if it was a place filled with mana, it was possible to distinguish it through a sixth sense.
We ran toward the place where the variant’s mana was felt.
He felt the mist growing stronger and his body becoming heavy.
Drip.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of water.
The story of the n he had t in the cave ca to mind.
They had said they saw the sa sight.
A flower field.
There were blue leaves with yellow stans.
It was a forget--not.
“What, this ti three of you appeared at once.”
Adela was nearby.
She frowned and was wary of us as we approached.
Similarly, we did not approach readily either.
There was a possibility that each other were fakes.
“Do you rember the code na we discussed just before coming here?”
“I rember.”
“Say it in order.”
“I know mine was Ifrit.”
[Mine was Gaia.]
“Erm, mine was Draco.”
“Mine was Ice Witch. With this, four people have spoken.”
Adela let out a sigh of relief as if she were glad.
Her sharp gaze directed toward the person who had not yet answered.
“Only you have not answered.”
“Are you sure Luna is real?”
“That is because Draco is correct.”
“If Luna is real, I don't see the need to confirm even my code na.”
Adela shook her head in dissatisfaction.
“You are talking about the relationship between a familiar and a contractor? But I want to be a bit more certain.”
“You are stubborn.”
“I would prefer it if you said I was cautious.”
“……It is ssiah.”
Even though he told her the code na, a sense of indignation remained on her face.
“You are the Joshua I t earlier, right?”
“I wonder.”
“It is no use feigning ignorance. Why didn't you say so earlier when you knew?”
“I don't know what you are talking about.”
“Ugh.”
“Focus rather. We have arrived.”
The bickering with her ended there.
The mist cleared and the hidden place revealed itself.
It was a lake.
There was a small island in the center of the lake.
Countless flowers blood upon it.
Among the flowers, a single zombie stared this way.
Finally, we reached her.
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