Swarm Queen.
It was a monster that had given them no end of trouble with its quick reaction speed and focused assaults using many legs.
The trickiest part about humanoid spider monsters was that, because they walked bipedally, you had to deal with six attacking legs.
And on top of that, it used “killing beams.” At this point, it was a full-on festival of nonsense.
“Let’s go.”
Kang-hoo nodded.
Once the topic of the middle boss ca up, his agreent was already a foregone conclusion.
He could forbear other things, but not raiding a boss.
Succeeding at a raid ant a guaranteed skill—an irresistible lure.
“Let’s catch our breath first. I’m a little hungry, and my legs are a little sore.”
“Kh.”
“Why are you laughing?”
“Are you saying even spectating is hard?”
“Hoho. That’s right. Trying to focus on watching is, ironically, tougher than fighting, you know?”
Kang-hoo and Emilia looked at each other and laughed.
He had thought he would be the one to suggest a break, but their roles seed reversed.
Kang-hoo, who showed no sign of fatigue after intense combat; and herself, grumbling about being tired after peacefully watching.
Even on second thought, Emilia found it absurd and laughed so hard her shoulders bounced.
Kang-hoo, knowing how rare Emilia’s laughter was, laughed along with her.
‘Truly… curious.’
The thought ca to him suddenly.
In the original story, there had been no point of contact between Shin Kang-hoo and Emilia Rose.
When they later beca involved, it had been as enemies—never as friends.
‘If only soone knew I was carving out a life different from the original. A reader, perhaps.’
A passing thought.
Right now, the only one who knew he was living a life different from the original was Kang-hoo himself.
But if soone were watching from an omniscient vantage point, how satisfying would it be?
‘A reader watching an author who entered a possession-story world… It’s a wild idea, but it would be fun.’
Kang-hoo gave a little tilt of his head and shook off the idle thought. It was only imagination; it would never be real.
The truth was, he recognized clearly that he was the original author only because his mories remained.
It had been a long ti since he had fully assimilated into the person called “Shin Kang-hoo.”
Not once had he thought himself anything other than Shin Kang-hoo.
He wasn’t acting as though living another man’s life—he was living as him, perfectly.
Even if soone were watching, nothing would change. He would simply live as fiercely as he was now.
‘Jang Si-hwan.’
A na he could not help but think of. From the mont he opened his eyes in this world, his goal had been singular.
To correct the twisted ending.
To halt the rampage of Jang Si-hwan and his cohort, who were driving the entire world into a pit of destruction!
That resolve had never once wavered.
Being here with Emilia now was one of the ongoing steps to make that resolve reality.
A little later.
Munch, munch. Smack. Smack-smack.
Even trying not to make noise, the chewiness that clung to the mouth kept producing chewing sounds.
What Kang-hoo was eating was jerky Emilia had handed him.
She said it was homade jerky—and for “direct fla,” she even burst a fire spell right before his eyes.
Thanks to that, it had a proper char—the taste was excellent. Together with Dark Energy, it recovered losses from battle.
“Want so more?”
“Do you have more?”
“Lots. I brought a ton.”
“That seems like a pricey pouch to use for storing jerky. Isn’t it a little shabby a use for sothing so fine?”
Kang-hoo let out a dry chuckle at the sight of Emilia taking jerky out of what looked like a makeup pouch.
Of course, he didn’t refuse the pile she offered. The taste was on a different level from store-bought jerky.
Just then—
Emilia, gazing steadily at Kang-hoo, brought up a new topic.
It felt like the conversation, which had been light while eating, was about to take a very different turn.
“Kang-hoo.”
“Yes.”
“How about we each answer just one question without hiding anything? With a truthful answer.”
As expected.
For soone who had difficulty opening her heart, “truth” had to be one of the most important premises.
If you had a cynical disposition, you might even wonder whether truth existed at all.
Just like Kang-hoo.
Before coming to France, he had already experienced a “distorted truth” steeped in lies.
Hadn’t Jang Si-hwan said not a single truthful thing while briefing the citizens of Seoul about the Dongducheon battle?
There had been only truths wrapped in plausible lies. The plain truth had not existed there.
It sounded fun.
He didn’t know what she would ask, but if he had to give her an answer amounting to a revelation, then he could simply ask a question of equal weight in return.
Of course, there was zero chance Emilia would know about his possession or any sensitive background.
The likely question was how he had managed to increase his skills so much—that would be one of her biggest curiosities.
“Alright.”
Kang-hoo nodded.
Because he understood the aning of her proposal, he could not refuse it.
It was a twisted way of saying, “I want to try opening my heart to you.”
In essence, it ant she was anxious about whether they could be honest with each other.
So she wanted to exchange sincerity even by borrowing an external constraint—each holding one of the other’s secrets.
“How about a more reliable chanism?”
“You an a skill that forces truthful speech. I don’t mind.”
Understanding her intent, Kang-hoo nodded.
Emilia had a binding skill that made the other party speak only the truth.
Broadly speaking, it was similar to An Yeong-ho’s “Thousand-League Eyes of Truth.”
However, without the target’s consent and compliance, it could not be cast at all; effectively, it wasn’t coercive.
There was also a ti limit, so if things started to go wrong, you could simply keep your mouth shut.
“Okay. Then who goes first?”
“Please ask first.”
“Thanks.”
“No need to thank .”
Kang-hoo let the tension leave his body and sat comfortably facing her.
Soon she cast the skill “Oath of Truth” on him. At once, a notification window appeared.
【The caster wishes to bind an Oath of Truth. Each party may ask one question and receive one answer.】
Those were the agreed conditions.
【If the answer is not truthful, ‘Betrayal’s Falsehood’ will be triggered.】
It also ntioned the safeguard against lies.
As Kang-hoo rembered, when Betrayal’s Falsehood was triggered, the surroundings were shrouded in dark red smoke.
An undeniable proof of falsehood—leaving the other party disappointed.
In short, it was not a skill that threatened your life even if you lied. That made it easy to accept.
As Kang-hoo sat there blankly looking at Emilia, she cleared her throat a few tis.
Even she felt embarrassed to go so far as to bind soone just to ask a question.
But soon, having decided what she wanted to ask, she spoke without hesitation.
“You didn’t approach Takashi out of a pure desire to be friends, did you?”
A sharp question.
In retrospect—
The process by which Kang-hoo and Takashi grew close had not been 100% natural. There had been a suddenness to it.
From Kang-hoo’s standpoint, knowing Takashi’s “approach strategy,” he had moved without hesitation.
But from the standpoint of receiving it as a friend, the suddenly appearing Shin Kang-hoo was bound to seem suspicious.
He had expected to be asked this soday.
He just hadn’t expected the asker—he thought Takashi would ask, not Emilia.
“My criterion for a friend is simple. If soone benefits , they’re a friend. If not, I don’t want to be close in the first place.”
“…”
Kang-hoo added when Emilia fell silent.
“Of course, I only want to be friends when I can benefit that person as well. I don’t plan to mooch. I don’t want to be indebted to anyone.”
Emilia waited a beat after his answer—to see if Betrayal’s Falsehood would trigger.
But nothing happened.
In other words, it was all the truth. Naturally, the Oath of Truth’s binding dissolved.
Not for a single mont had Kang-hoo felt uncomfortable as he answered.
Because it was an honest belief.
It was the common ground of conviction that had run through his past as an original author and his present as Shin Kang-hoo.
It was also a clean acknowledgnt.
Hadn’t he tried to separate Takashi from The Thirteen Stars to “benefit” himself by weakening the enemy?
Of course, since Emilia couldn’t read his innermost thoughts, she wouldn’t know what that benefit was. That was all.
“I understand. Then let’s hear your question, Kang-hoo.”
“I’ll keep mine. There’s sothing I want to ask later, not now. Shall we leave it at that?”
“Ah…?”
She hadn’t expected him not to ask.
As Emilia blinked with her mouth half open, Kang-hoo popped the jerky in his hand into his mouth.
“Right now, I just want to focus on the flavor of this thing. I doubt I’ll get to eat it with this kind of char very often.”
Chomp, chomp. Smack. Smack.
How could he describe the texture—chewy, yet lting in the mouth the more he chewed?
It felt like jerky he would never taste again without eting Emilia, so he focused on eating.
Of course, that wasn’t the real purpose.
Kang-hoo wanted to give Emilia an “unsolved problem” that would keep making her think of him.
He thought it might make for a plausible pretext—but she had set the stage first. He was just laying down the spoon.
Because of that unsolved problem, Emilia would inevitably invest more thought into him from now on.
Kang-hoo was certain.
She would always wonder why, despite having an important opportunity, he hadn’t used it imdiately.
That was enough.
It seed he had now succeeded in etching the na Shin Kang-hoo vividly into Emilia’s mind.
What remained was to maintain their relationship well and draw her in as he had Takashi.
If their relationship deepened—
Soday, a lopsided 13-to-1 matchup could beco sothing like 11-to-3. Far better than the forr.
After ample rest—
They began the middle-boss raid.
The boss’s na was Sebum—a creature whose na ant “cruel” in Latin.
As Emilia had said, it was a humanoid spider monster that deployed killing beams from four legs.
Excluding the four beam-firing legs and the two supporting its body, it still had two legs left.
The tips of those legs were sharpened, like a pair of mounted long spears.
While Kang-hoo rolled his wrists left and right with his daggers and kept eye contact with Sebum,
Emilia naturally, standing behind him, twirled her rose parasol and asked:
“What do you want to do?”
She passed him the right to choose.
Just this once, since their coordination mattered, Kang-hoo made the intuitive request exactly as he envisioned it.
“Target only Sebum’s left side. Shoulder or arm—either.”
Crunch!
No sooner had he spoken than Kang-hoo chewed a standard Solarkium and burst into a sprint toward Sebum.
He had a feeling the reward would be good! Since a tricky fight seed likely, he hoped the reward would be worth it.
No—he was sure it would be.
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