A Horror Novel’s Supporting Character Wants to Live as a Human Chapter 134

"Terrible."

"Y-your safe awakening a-alone is s-so..."

"So fortunate, you an?"

His throat was completely ruined, producing only a rasping voice.

It was fortunate, if one could call it that.

But every ti he looked down at his body, he could only sigh.

The bitter sll of crushed herbs emanated strongly from his entire body.

His body was tightly wrapped in bandages. There were fewer exposed parts of flesh than covered ones, arms and legs alike.

Perhaps because he had been frozen and then thawed, as Leandros and Alia had explained, sotis his body wouldn't move as he wanted it to.

It was like his muscles would stiffen montarily.

It was better than showing the scene of dying and coming back to life in front of the two of them.

But still, wasn't this too much?

Alia sat beside him with a worried face, holding a bowl of thin porridge.

Leandros and Alia had been taking turns caring for him since he woke up.

The snowman had regained its form the mont he awoke.

But the snowman didn't seem to be in good condition, rely dozing off despite Alia's efforts to create a body for it with ice she had obtained with difficulty.

It seed that freezing him had taken quite a toll.

Twice a day, Verde would visit to change his bandages or check his condition.

All he did all day was sleep or eat porridge while receiving their care.

Occasionally, he would reflect on what had happened in Dreamland.

The city ruled by Bast, the sky of mysterious light, and the grimoire Pnakotic that the city's monks had supposedly been guarding.

He still couldn't understand the principle of how sothing he had dread of could exist in the real world, but.

The cover of the grimoire was certainly...

As he was thinking while accepting the porridge Alia was feeding him, there was a knock at the door.

"Are you awake? How is Your Grace's condition?"

"H-he can e-eat well."

"The physician says it will take more ti before the bandages can be removed. In the anti, I've looked into the current situation of the village."

Gallo.

The na of the area where they were currently located, a village almost large enough to be a city.

This village, where sturdy stone buildings were erected in the center, was administered by soone like a village headman when the representative managing the territory on behalf of the royal family was absent.

In the small and dium-sized villages he had seen so far, there had been no headn or representatives.

Perhaps this was because the place wasn't directly ruled by a lord equivalent to a king.

"It's on the verge of being promoted to a city managent district after being incorporated as a royal direct territory."

"D-did it grow that m-much? As f-far as I rember, it w-wasn't quite like th-that."

"I suspect there has been quite a migration of people between direct territories toward this area."

When a village is promoted to a city, it gains many rights.

The right to trade freely with other regions, and even though it belongs to a royal direct territory, it can obtain administrative freedom in certain areas as a city.

And that's not all. It can also attract branches of various guilds and, if done well, increase opportunities for academic learning.

"I s-see."

"The internal structure of the village is quite complex. I haven't fully grasped it, but it seems divided into areas from the central comrcial district where outsiders mainly stay to the residential areas of villagers. However, it seems difficult to easily leave places close to the center if one gets lost."

"H-hmm. In the c-center."

"Of course, we're also staying at an inn located near the center. According to the innkeeper, newcors tend to get lost while trying to navigate the village."

"R-really? B-but before, it w-wasn't like that, it s-seed like a village w-with nothing particularly s-special."

Alia tilted her head, seemingly unfamiliar with the changed village.

He watched the two conversing, then asked Leandros.

"Was there no ntion of when it changed?"

"It would be difficult to pinpoint exactly when the changes occurred."

"Lady Arnold, what was it like when you were the assistant head butler?"

"J-just how much t-tax was collected from h-here, that's all. I d-don't rember much e-else."

"So it was ordinary enough that you didn't even notice the characteristics Leandros ntioned. It sounds like the village changed after becoming a direct territory."

It was strange no matter how he looked at it.

Could the events that occurred in Glico be dismissed as re coincidence?

Let's put aside the fact that he had been mauled.

But why were the pig-humans there?

And what about the rcenaries who were supposedly hired for protection against demonic beasts?

Could this have happened overnight?

The more he doubted, the more questions arose.

At the end of all those questions was, of course, Yurik den nadia.

He had thought it would be a good opportunity to reclaim part of the territory while simultaneously raising Leandros's reputation.

The Yurik of this iteration probably still desired Leandros.

If so, there was a high possibility that Yurik was also making advances toward Leandros.

But in what manner.

-Everyone must know him. I can uplift him with everything I can do.

Leandros and Yurik were satellites.

Satellites standing on opposite sides of each other.

Each traveling in their own orbit, never able to et, just running toward each other.

Even without his help to Leandros, the story would progress.

Leandros would et Yurik and was destined to destroy him.

That was his fate.

He was created for this world for that purpose.

If Yurik also had a aning for being born in this world.

"...I had the sa thought."

"Y-Your Grace?"

Him?

He had been thinking the sa as Yurik?

Suddenly, a sense of nausea rose.

A feeling of denial rose first, insisting that couldn't be the case, but at the sa ti, a disgusting certainty that he and Yurik were not so different slithered up.

Just as he cherished Leandros, Yurik also cherished Leandros.

They moved with the sa logic and derived similar results.

Unable to bear this newly realized fact, he vigorously threw off the blanket.

Although his legs, thin and bony, were also wrapped in bandages, it didn't matter.

As he put his feet outside the bed, Leandros and Alia stood up in surprise.

"Your Grace, you must rest."

"Y-Your Grace, if y-you get up n-now, then!"

"This is not the ti."

Disgusting. His feelings were indescribably filthy.

It was like looking in a mirror and seeing Yurik standing there.

He asked the two.

"Bring Verde. Right now."

*

Verde, who had been summoned out of the blue, said as soon as Alia and Leandros left the room.

"I don't need thanks or compensation."

"What?"

"Were you not calling to give so jewels or sothing? If not, that's fine too. Is there sowhere that hurts?"

He looked quite refreshing, scratching his greasy green hair and responding casually.

Perhaps it was because he had only seen people who revered him, calling him "Your Grace" all this ti.

He didn't think he had been like this in Korea. This was why adaptation was scary.

"It's not that I'm hurting anywhere. I wanted to thank you. Leandros and Alia must have caused you trouble. I wouldn't have woken up if not for you."

"Well, for sothing like that. Just let examine Your Grace's condition more closely, that's all."

"I heard you belong to a rcenary band. Do you take individual requests?"

"It's not like we're regulated to move as a group. And I'm also kind of being ostracized."

"Then does that an you can accept my request too?"

"That's a bit..."

"Why?"

"It's botherso. Given your current condition, you're going to ask to continue caring for you, right? Just eat well and sleep well. That's the best."

"You don't accept such requests?"

"Why would I accept sothing so annoying? Tsk. Young people these days don't trust their self-healing ability. At your age, it's a waste of money to call a physician."

Verde yawned and turned around.

His attitude showed a complete lack of interest.

"I'm leaving. Let's pretend I didn't hear the request."

"I'll let you research humans."

His footsteps toward the door stopped.

He turned around with a creaking, unsmooth motion.

"What... did you say?"

"I said I'll let you do research. To research humans, you'd need dead people, right? But here, it's forbidden to desecrate corpses. Whatever your purpose, if you're caught tampering with a corpse, it won't end with just a fine."

Verde stood with his mouth closed and eyes wide open.

When he had been lying down, Alia had confessed that she had to explain to Verde about his frozen state.

And then the indifferent Verde imdiately accepted the request.

Verde was a character with a peculiar disposition.

Who would co running, chuckling about researching soone essentially dead while frozen?

That was just a madman.

In modern terms, Verde would have been called a mad scientist.

But for him right now, Verde's character was only welco.

Because he had the best bait to give to a physician who pursued curiosity and the desire for knowledge.

"I co back to life even after dying."

This body, Arenheit's body, revived even if it died.

Only when killed by Yurik did it completely lose its physical functions, and his mind and mories returned to the beginning of the story.

He didn't know the cause or reason for this.

He even felt as if this world itself was set up to tornt him.

But, it was fine.

He knew that if this deal was discovered by Leandros or those around him, the sa route might be repeated as before.

But if the secret was kept, he could offer this body as much as needed.

To see the end of this story.

If it could completely tie up the loose ends for his brother, for himself, for this deed.

"The condition is that you'll be allowed to research when I die. Since there will be a grace period of a few days until I revive, during that ti, as much as you want."

Verde was staring at him blankly.

A pathetic young man sitting on the bed, wrapped in bandages, speaking with a raspy voice.

Though this was him, Verde looked as if he had discovered a huge gold vein, dumbfounded.

Only after a long wait did he finally speak.

"H-how can I believe that? A person coming back to life after dying is a lie."

"Is it a lie?"

"It's a lie, of course, it must be a lie! You're just trying to deceive , right?"

Excited to the point of forgetting formal speech, Verde stamred and shouted.

He looked at him and then stood up.

His entire body ached, but it didn't matter.

"Let give you one piece of advice. It would be better to order a lot of food from downstairs from now on."

"What? Why? Why is that?"

"Otherwise, when I wake up, I'll eat you."

Literally.

Adding that, he threw the cup placed beside the table to the floor.

With a crash, the pottery fragnts scattered.

He picked up one of the largest pieces.

The sensation against his fingers was rough, but nothing could be a more effective weapon.

"Watch carefully."

A single mont of pain.

His weakened body faded away, having etched the shocked face of Verde as its last sight.

When he opened his eyes again.

He didn't know how much ti had passed.

The sky visible through the window was dark, and Verde was standing alone beside him.

He checked his pulse, grabbing his wrist after seeing that he had opened his eyes.

Imdiately after, he collapsed to his knees beside the bed.

He looked down at him with a new body that bore no traces of either the wounds from being mauled by the pig-humans or the marks of self-harm.

With trembling hands, Verde ran his fingers down his face and mumbled.

Visible through the gaps between his fingers, his eyes revealed desire, terror, fear, and a conflict resembling a small beast with prey in a trap before it.

"Wh-what do you want?"

Of course, no matter how much he pondered, it would be an offer Verde couldn't refuse.

"Nothing much. What I'm going to ask of you is extrely trivial..."

Throughout his whisper,

A red number flickered above Verde's head.

[75/75]