Chapter 39. The Most Fundamental Question

“Then if I discover anything, I’ll let you know through Vanessa. If you have something to tell me, you can do it through her too. Or send someone to the harem. Sometimes we might need to create diversions.”

The discussion among the three people that had begun during the day finally ended as evening approached. Nix rolled up the map, winked mischievously, and left.

Iella exhaled deeply and sank into the sofa.

“Overwhelming, isn’t it?”

Vanessa placed a freshly brewed cool tea in front of her. Iella immediately nodded. Now that she thought about it, Nix was someone who could thoroughly drain a person’s energy in many ways.

But it wasn’t bad. If her father had sent him, he must be trustworthy, and judging from their conversation just now, he seemed meticulous and quick in handling matters.

‘Well, I suppose that’s expected of the head of Aether.’

“Still, thanks to him, I think I’ll be able to return soon. It feels like we’re making progress bit by bit.”

“……”

“First of all, I’m really glad I was able to contact Father. It gave me the motivation to keep going.”

“……Iella.”

Iella stretched her arms wide and then sat up straight. As she drank the tea Vanessa had given her while rekindling her determination, Vanessa, who had been standing beside her and quietly watching, moved her lips.

Iella turned around with a casual “Hmm?” and was met with a serious face.

“Don’t trust Nix too much.”

The words came after a moment of hesitation. Iella just blinked her eyes. It was difficult to understand what she meant.

“Weren’t you two close?”

“That’s…… We got involved in many things together, so it turned out that way. Anyway, it’s better not to trust him completely.”

“Why?”

Vanessa couldn’t give an exact reason. Since she wasn’t the type of friend to tell someone not to trust others without cause, Iella found this behavior strange. She wondered if Vanessa was hiding something from her.

“Tell me why. So I can be careful too.”

“……”

“Seon-ah.”

When Vanessa kept her lips tightly sealed, Iella finally called her by her past life name. With a sigh, Vanessa plopped down next to Iella. Leaning her head on Iella’s shoulder, she poured out what she had been holding back.

“I really didn’t want to say this since your father trusts him, but I keep worrying.”

“About what?”

“In the novel… there’s a mastermind who encourages Allen to kill Ailexia, and that’s… Sigh, it’s Nix.”

Fidgeting with her fingers, Vanessa revealed the truth with another sigh. But before Iella could properly process this information, Vanessa hastily added more.

“Of course, I know the Nix I’ve met doesn’t seem like that kind of person. Even though this is a novel world, there could be variables, just like how you entered Ailexia’s body.”

“…Vanessa.”

“But sometimes that fact keeps coming back to me. I can’t forget it.”

“Vanessa.”

Iella gently gripped Vanessa’s shoulder as she rambled. She called her name to make her stop talking.

“First, calm down. Exactly how does he encourage Allen in the novel?”

“Well, that’s…… When the female lead appears, Allen’s emotions start to fluctuate, and Nix makes him fully aware of his feelings. Specifically, he encourages Allen’s feelings toward Ailexia to become perfect hatred. He even uses the kingdom’s people that Allen hates most.”

“Is Nix in the harem in the novel too?”

“Yes. But the novel doesn’t specify that he’s staying in the harem because of a request, like we know. He was just inserted as a character who provokes Allen.”

After thinking for a moment, Iella asked again.

“And then? Is that the end of his appearance?”

“No. Eventually Allen kills Ailexia, and when the female lead witnesses it, she tells him to run away to help him. That’s when Nix appears again. He ends up helping Allen escape. That’s his last appearance.”

“He’s the mastermind but doesn’t get punished?”

“Right. The novel strictly focuses on Allen, Ailexia, and the female lead, so Nix doesn’t appear anymore. The events he instigated just become nightmares that torment Allen in the latter half of the story……”

Vanessa, who had been slowly recalling the novel’s content, eventually cut her words short. As if that was all.

Iella removed her hand from Vanessa and pondered her words. Then she began to point out the differences between the Nix in the novel and the Nix she knew now, asking Vanessa to confirm.

Whether the Shua family appeared in the novel even briefly, whether Nix was the head of Aether, what explanations or descriptions were given about Aether, and so on.

Surprisingly, all the answers were negative.

“The Shua family doesn’t appear. And about Aether… I don’t think it was ever mentioned. Actually, I first learned about it when I met Nix here. Of course, there’s nothing about whether Nix is the head either.”

“Then, couldn’t it be different from the novel?”

Encouraged by those words, Iella expressed her thoughts. For her, this place was reality, so she couldn’t just see it as a novel. Because of that, she occasionally felt a disconnect between the two, and at those times, she would think:

What if this place isn’t a novel but reality?

Of course, the creator of this novel was right in front of her, and when she saw Allen, who was exactly like the one in the novel, she realized that such thoughts were just her wishful thinking, but still.

Still, she couldn’t help but wonder.

“Seeing how even parts you didn’t set up are filled in on their own, this place keeps feeling less like a novel and more like reality to me. It is reality for me, so that might be why. But Nix clearly has differences between the novel and here.”

Iella drove the point home to Vanessa, whose expression was changing subtly.

“Vanessa, is this place really inside a novel?”

* * *

Late at night, there were footsteps cutting through streets where both the light of revelry and those steeped in darkness coexisted.

His straight and elegant bearing, completely out of place in an area filled with the lowest of the low, drew everyone’s attention. It was obvious even at a glance that he was of noble birth—a prime target in this place.

Yet no one even thought of touching him. Despite wearing a robe that covered him, the pressure emanating from around him froze them in place.

Of course, there’s always someone who has lost all fear, no matter where you go.

“Oops!”

A disheveled man, heavily drunk, bumped into him. The surprised look in his eyes upon feeling a strength that didn’t yield even to his own robust build revealed that it was clearly intentional.

But the man didn’t back down and frowned fiercely as he usually did.

“Where are you keeping your eyes!”

“……”

“Hey!”

But he ignored the man as if he were beneath his notice. As the man, face reddening with humiliation, firmly grabbed his shoulder as he passed by—

“Aaargh!”

Dark red blood spurted into the night sky, followed by a scream of pain. The man clutched his severed wrist and collapsed to the ground. A shadow fell over him.

The man, who had been making continuous sounds of “huk, euk, kkeok-kkeok,” looked up with his body bent forward. Suddenly, deep fear settled on his face.

“Vilt.”

At his call, another person in an identical navy blue robe appeared beside him. The man called Vilt moved without needing separate instructions.

A heavy bundle of money was thrown in front of the man who was almost prostrate.

“This will be more than enough for treatment.”

Even after that, the man, frozen with fear, couldn’t move for a long time and kept fumbling at his neck and chest. It was because of the illusion that his life had been taken by those blood-red eyes, like a well-honed blade, that he had briefly met earlier.

“You only need to treat your hand.”

Vilt watched him for a moment and then, as if accustomed to such incidents, added one more remark before following his master who had already turned away. Soon, as Bill—no, Vilt—caught up, he quietly ordered,

“When his hand is healed, send him to the labor camp in District 8.”

District 8’s labor camp was where those who had committed serious crimes but weren’t immediately executed were confined until then. In other words, it was where prisoners serving life sentences gathered.

“Even a little searching will reveal plenty of crimes. Tsk, he was absolutely filthy.”

Helios clicked his tongue briefly as he recalled the pitch-black appearance that made him want to retch. True to the area’s reputation as having the most vicious individuals among the slums, someone always tried to provoke him whenever he came.

‘This is why I didn’t want to come here.’

But what could he do? It’s always the thirsty who dig wells. And he had been digging through the earth for a very long time.

Even though it had reached the point where no water would come out.

Helios recalled his audience with Aster. The eyes that requested search rights were very familiar to Helios.

Eyes desperately and anxiously searching for one woman.

Eventually, as he walked through the darkness-consumed alleys, he stopped at one place. When he knocked on the door of a building with no sign, a small window opened beside it.

Helios recited the password with familiarity. Soon, the door he had knocked on opened. Inside, a neatly dressed man bowed politely to him.

“Welcome to Aether.”