Chapter 97
“Who could it be?”
Edith asked back with a grimace as if she was dissatisfied with Irene’s attitude of trying to confirm the obvious answer from her.
“You know that, too, don’t you, how someone’s favorability plays into fate.”
“I know, but…”
“I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but isn’t it only natural that there is an administrator among them?.”
Her heart sank at Edith’s words.
Even though she spoke coldly, it was not such a simple matter for Irene. Including the male protagonists and the heroine, there were four… and all four meant a lot to her.
‘Only when one of the four dies completely will this cycle end?’
She already knew that getting out of the game wouldn’t be easy, that someone had to die.
Irene’s hand holding the lighter trembled feebly. The only reason she had been able to drive Louise and the other protagonists to their deaths until now was because she knew the game would return to the beginning.
They’d go back to the beginning and forget everything.
‘And, I might be able to get back to reality.’
If she went back to reality, she’d never run into the characters here again anyway.
…A game was just a game.
How many times had she said this? But this time, things had changed… a situation where she had to choose between herself and the characters in the game.
Irene felt her mouth go dry, and she quickly composed herself.
‘I don’t need to be shaken yet.’
Perhaps, there’s a way to overcome this situation by taking advantage of the fact that this was inside a game.
Unlike the bitter feelings inside, her lips moved freely.
“Then… how are you going to find the administrator?”
“I’m going to do the same method I’ve always done. Through experimentation and seeing when it’s going to bump into each other.”
“What do you mean, bump?”
“What I said earlier. If you recall, administrators are one level above us, so we can’t kill them the normal way.”
Then, Edith further explained that the only one who could kill them was Elios, who was also one level above them.
Throughout the conversation, Irene, who had sunk throughout the conversation, was deftly silent. It felt like all the words she spat out through the cracks in the smoke of a burning cigarette were stuck in her brain.
A woman with a pale face uttered as if she was stabbing her with a knife.
“So, let’s kill the most powerful ones one by one.”
Thud.
The sound of something sinking was much louder than it had been a moment ago.
“As I said beforehand, my son is the lowest ranked. Most of the time, even after he dies, fate continues to haunt us.”
In short, people who survived all the endings were ranked higher. In many endings, Rodion, who was consumed early in the awakening event, was, of course, excluded.
‘And at the end of Rodion’s Die route, Louise dies before him.’
So, Louise was excluded.
‘…That leaves Otis and Ahibalt.’
One of them was going to die when she put them on the table for Edith.
When her thought reached that point, Irene involuntarily stiffened and took a step back. And without realizing it, her head was shaking from side to side.
“Madam Edith. Please consider again… that’s—”
The moment she was about to say no, Edith opened her mouth.
“I’m sorry, but my experiment is already underway.
“…I beg your pardon?”
Edith glanced up at Irene with an incredulous gaze and continued to speak calmly.
“Thanks to your ruse, Henrietta thought her son had taken the potion, so I gave her a bottle of the antidote. I told her it would kill the effects of the potion as soon as he took it, but, well. The effects will be gone if he dies.”
It meant that she gave Henrietta the poison under the guise of an antidote.
Irene’s face grew pale as the explanation continued. Clenching her sweaty hands together, she parted her lips.
“There’s no way that the Second Young Master would take the medicine that Madam Henrietta gave him, so it will surely fail…”
“Do you really think so?”
However, Edith cut her words off.
“Otis took Charlotte, and his mother believes with a stone-cold conviction that her son has fallen in love with the person she wants to get rid of more than anyone.”
But, do you really think Henrietta is going to be easygoing?
“Henrietta is no fool. She’s just acting like that.”
She would poison Otis by any means necessary. In particular, Otis had believed that Henrietta would never let him die, so maybe the process would be much easier.
Irene knew this all too well, too. A nightmarish puzzle fit together in her head. Nonetheless, the words that flowed out of her mouth still remained the same. She repeated the same words like a broken rag doll.
“It can’t be. Madam Edith’s experiment is going to fail. Why… why are you using such an extreme method? There might be other ways.”
“Then, why don’t you tell me the other way, Irene?”
A cold response followed.
“This is the research I’ve devoted half my life to. If there were another way to do it, I would’ve done it. And Rodion doesn’t have a lot of time left. Do you really think you can find another way and figure out the administrator in less than a year?”
Edith, who said so, also had a visibly tired face. It was only natural that she would not be happy to engage in unethical experiments and actions that only focused on the results. However, for such emotional reasons, she couldn’t sway her convictions.
That was what Edith had in mind when she first started this research.
‘…I wonder if I’m repeating my past mistakes.’
If her past self knew everything through Elios, and it had still resulted in Rodion’s death… then it was just a matter of following fate.
Still, what could she do? To overcome anything, you have to face it.
Edith gazed at Irene, who had a wounded expression on her face, then turned her head and spat the cigarette that had burned to the end onto the floor of the trough.
“And, equally regrettably, Ahibalt will also meet his end here.”
“Don’t… don’t say nonsense.”
“Why do you say that it’s nonsense?”
“There’s no way that Miss Veronica and Madam Henrietta will return at this time, and even if they do, they won’t be able to hurt Young Master.”
“It’s good to trust the people you love, but you seem to be thinking about stopping boulders from above, not tripping over them.”
“What are you talking about—”
Puk.
There was the sound of a knife tearing through flesh.
Plop, ploop.
The blood dripped down with a dull noise.
It was Irene’s blood.
When she lowered her head, she could see Edith’s hand. To be more precise, Edith’s hand with the knife in her thigh.
“Literally, the weaker side isn’t seen as a threat.”
That was why you were handing over cigarettes to the enemy, not even realizing that they were holding a knife behind them.
Along with Edith’s words, a distant pain came and her vision spun. At first glance, Irene could see that she was cutting the rope through her back.
‘I’ve been caught off guard.’
Irene reflexively gasped in pain. She grimaced and grabbed Edith’s arm before throwing her to the ground.
Taang!
As the chairs tumbled together, Irene drew her knife and clutched Edith’s collar, suppressing her pain.
“From the beginning… was this what you were aiming for?”
“Of course.”
“Why? You don’t have anything to gain by stabbing me!”
“That’s because there’s an explosive device installed on the door to this lab.”
“…What?”
“It’s not that big of an explosion. It was made to prevent intrusion in the first place, so it’s enough to kill intruders. The door to the lab is automatically locked from the inside, so you can’t open it from the outside without a key if you try to break it by force.”
…An installed device caused an explosion.
“What does it matter…”
Irene’s words stopped abruptly. It was because there was one person who passed through her head.
“…Ahibalt.”
Irene had forgotten because she couldn’t see outside from this side, but he must have been watching inside from the outside.
…Even until the moment she was stabbed.
Bang!
The sound of the door being kicked in made Irene jump to her feet, and for a moment, she couldn’t feel pain or anything.
“You can’t…”
Her mind went blank.
Bang!
Once again, she could hear the door being kicked in from outside.
“You can’t… No! No, Young Master…!”
The moment Irene, almost sobbing, ran to the door…
Bang!
__
If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know or tag admin in comments so we can fix it as soon as possible.
