“Get out of my workshop.”
The words struck me like a bolt from the blue the moment I returned.
“…….”
First, I set the basket of medicinal herbs down beside the cauldron.
Then I turned my gaze toward the window.
An old man with golden hair, golden eyes, and a golden beard sat in the rocking chair bathed in moonlight.
He was Golden, the finest apothecary in Arche (αρχή), a village on the remote eastern edge of the Eastern Continent, as well as my master. I asked him,
“What did you just say?”
“I told you to get out of my workshop.”
“I heard you. You have to tell me why.”
“There were two things I forbade you from doing.”
“There were…….”
Do not use mana.
Do not touch poisonous plants.
I was beginning to understand where this was going, but I decided to play innocent for the moment.
“But I haven’t used mana in almost ten years. I can say that with my hand over my heart.”
“Then what is this?”
THUD.
The old man set a liquor bottle down on the table.
It was a copper-colored bottle filled with all manner of poisonous herbs, fruits, and willow branches.
‘……Damn it. How did he find that?’
I could not afford to panic.
At times like this, I had to overwhelm him with sheer force of personality.
I cleared my throat and shouted,
“Have you lost your mind, you old geezer? Why the hell were you in someone else’s room without permission-”
“Akkun───!!”
My shout was drowned out by the old man’s roar.
I hastily covered my ears, but his enraged voice forced its way through the gaps between my fingers.
“I told you time and time again! Do not touch poison! Do not go anywhere near the mountain behind the village-!”
“I…… I did touch poison, but-”
“Poison, poison, poison! I am sick to death of poison! And you used it to brew liquor?”
“Calm down and listen to me. It is true that poison was used to make this— "
“Who is this gift for? Who are you trying to kill with it this time?!”
“What did you just say?”
The fury in the old man’s eyes gradually subsided. His expression said that he had realized his mistake.
“What do you mean, who am I going to kill ‘this time’?”
“…….”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Haaaa…….”
The old man stared straight through me before releasing a long, deep sigh. I snorted several times and raked my hands irritably through my hair.
A heavy silence soon descended upon the old cabin.
Neither of us looked at the other. We were both too busy trying to calm our heightened emotions.
Just then, a flash of light stung my eyes.
The gold ring on the old man’s ring finger, which resembled a withered branch, had caught the moonlight.
I had never once seen the old man remove that ring. Even now, five years after his wife, Aunt Mari, had died, the ring remained in the same place.
‘Like some kind of curse.’
My guilt was the same.
Like that wedding ring, the feeling had never left its place for even a single moment.
‘Because Aunt Mari’s death was my fault.’
The cause had been me, so I could understand why the old man resented me.
But treating me like a murderer was another matter.
He had watched from beside me as I suffered after her death. He should not have said something like that.
Should he not have been even more careful precisely because we were as close as family?
Family was supposed to comfort one another, not inflict wounds upon each other.
‘……It isn’t as though the old man doesn’t know that.’
Perhaps he still had not accepted the emptiness Aunt Mari had left behind. Ever since she died, there had been times when he resented me.
Even as we buried her, he had looked at me as though he wanted to kill me.
‘Back then, well…….’
The old man must have been suffering just as much, so I could understand.
The problem was what came afterward.
The old man began voicing his resentment aloud.
At first, it was the alcohol talking.
Then it became a drunken habit.
At some point, it became simply a habit.
Now, it happened whenever he raised a glass.
‘……What happens if more time passes?’
Will he resent me even while sober?
If the words that Aunt Mari died because of me ever came from the old man’s mouth when he was in his right mind, then.
“Akkun.”
The old man shattered my thoughts.
Fortunately, his voice had calmed somewhat.
“Are you saying that what is inside this bottle is not poison?”
It was not an apology, but I did not care.
First, we had to move away from the subject of Aunt Mari’s death.
“……It is poison. An extremely powerful poison, at that. Anyone who drinks it will die. You and I would probably die as well. But look at this. This right here. You see it, don’t you?”
I pointed at the willow branches.
Tiny white grains resembling salt crystals clung to various parts of the bark.
“It is yeast.”
Yeast that had grown upon a willow tree.
Since it had grown on willow bark in the first place, this yeast was unaffected by the willow’s antimicrobial properties. In other words.
“All it needs is time, and it will become liquor. Not ordinary liquor, either. I am certain it will become one hell of a drink. As you know, I have always been better at brewing alcohol than you.”
“What do you intend to do with that liquor?”
“Sell it, of course. It is only a matter of time before word spreads. Once that happens, this backwater village will never have to worry about food again. We might even become wealthy. And who knows? Maybe those booze-loving mainlanders will even wipe out every last troublesome monster for us.”
“You expect me to believe you are doing this for the village?”
“It is about time I grew up. We cannot spend our entire lives at each other’s throats.”
I calmly spun a web of lies.
‘The truth is, I only brewed it because I wanted to drink it myself.’
Still…… if this liquor could be used for the village’s benefit, I was willing to share a little.
Looked at that way, it was not entirely a lie.
“…….”
I did not know whether he had read my thoughts, but the old man remained silent.
‘Why do I feel so uneasy?’
Ahem!
After clearing my throat, I asked,
“Master?”
“Shut your mouth.”
“How can you say that after hearing everything I just told you?”
“I am thinking. I told you to be quiet.”
“Of course. Take all the time you need.”
I stepped back several paces.
All while wearing the most relaxed expression I could muster.
Inside, however, I repeated please, please, please dozens of times. For some reason, it was difficult to breathe today.
“……I understand what you were thinking, but-”
It was then that the old man reached toward the liquor bottle while speaking those suggestive words.
I focused every shred of my attention on my ears and waited for him to continue.
【Patch in progress. 25%】
“?”
Something strange suddenly appeared before my eyes.
Apparently, I was not the only one who could see it. The old man also stared into empty space, blinking several times before shouting,
“You miserable son of a bitch…… Did you put hallucinogens in my food?!”
“W-What? What are you talking about? Are you insane? Why would I use hallucinogens on you?”
“You expect me to believe this is not your doing? Are you trying to deny it?!”
“How can I deny something I didn’t do?! What…… What the fuck is this? It says something called a patch is twenty-five percent complete. What does that even mean? Are you the one who took hallucinogens?”
“Did you just say ‘fuck’?”
“I wasn’t saying it to you!”
“Did you just say ‘fuck’?!”
“The word ‘fuck’ isn’t the point! What is this strange screen supposed to be? Why won’t it disappear? I can’t even touch it…….”
I stopped speaking.
I had sensed someone outside the door.
‘A customer…… Why now, of all times?’
My confusion lasted only a moment.
‘……It’s fine. I can ignore them.’
It was probably someone I knew anyway.
Besides, discussing the strange screen that mentioned a patch and deciding what to do with my infused liquor were far more important than earning a few coins right now.
That was undoubtedly true.
And yet.
“Come in.”
CREEEAK-
I opened the door for them.
“……?”
My body had just moved contrary to my thoughts.
‘What is happening?’
There was nothing wrong with my palm.
I looked toward the doorway.
A man and a woman stood there with the moonlight behind them like a halo.
Without saying a word, they walked past me and stopped before the old man. My first thought was that they were insolent, but I had no opportunity to challenge them.
The man wore steel armor that looked expensive at a glance, and a greatsword nearly as large as an ordinary person was strapped to his back.
The woman wore a pitch-black cloak that reached her calves and clutched a staff crowned with a skull in both hands.
They looked like a knight and a raven.
I did not know anyone who dressed so strangely. Their faces were unfamiliar as well.
‘Outsiders?’
Fortunately, they did not look like ordinary robbers.
Their faces were fully exposed, and judging by their clothing, they had plenty of money.
Besides, the fact that they had reached our workshop meant they had passed the Guard Corps’ inspection. At the very least, they were probably not suspicious people.
The old man spoke.
“Customers, I see. Welcome!”
It was friendlier than I had ever seen him behave.
Had his mood improved, or had he eaten something strange? Just as I was sinking into those pointless questions.
I leaned my back against the wall, crossed my arms in an exaggerated manner, and said,
“If you’re only here to browse, get lost.”
……What was that?
Telling them to get lost if they were only browsing?
That was far too hostile a thing to say to people I had just met. It was even less appropriate when one of them was a knight carrying a greatsword.
And it was certainly no way to behave toward two wealthy-looking outsiders. I should have been fawning over them and trying to sell them as much as possible.
‘Why did I say that?’
I had a short temper and a foul mouth, but I did not usually behave so outrageously.
That was right. The words that had just come from my mouth were not mine.
I was not leaning against this old wooden wall because I wanted to.
Even opening the door had not been my decision.
It sounded insane, but my body kept moving on its own.
【Patch in progress. 26%】
It had been happening ever since I saw that screen.
“Oppa, did you set the timer?”
The woman asked the man.
“Yeah. I set it for five minutes.”
“I hope it shows up right away this time~”
“Me too…… I’ll start now.”
“Mm-hm!”
The woman answered brightly.
CLANG-
The man drew his greatsword, scattering moonlight throughout the workshop.
A moment later, something rolled across the floor and stopped at my feet.
It was the old man’s head.
Chapter 1. Welcome to Amuse Online!
The old man’s head lay at my feet.
The blood pulsing from the cleanly severed surface looked like a thick red serpent.
The serpent began at my feet, looped once around the cauldron, crawled across the floor, then climbed up the old man’s body in the rocking chair and stopped at his neck.
There was nothing above the neck.
Of course there was not. What should have been attached there was lying at my feet…….
I felt sick.
I had not drunk a single drop of poison or alcohol, yet I felt sick.
My heart pounded madly.
Each beat spread throughout my entire body.
My arms and legs trembled uncontrollably.
What happened?
What is going on?
What is a patch, and why won’t my body move?
I could not even speak.
I repeatedly swallowed everything rising into my throat and looked toward the rocking chair again.
The bright moonlight made everything fucking clear.
The two outsiders stood on either side of the chair.
The woman holding the skull-topped staff.
The man carrying a sword nearly as large as the old man’s body.
Blood dripped steadily from the sword’s tip.
【Patch in progress. 27%】
Our eyes met.
“That NPC’s name was…….”
“Akkun, I told you, Oppa.”
“Right. That was it. The guide has been glitching for a while.”
They knew my name.
Was this a premeditated murder?
Was their target the old man?
Or me as well?
Was the motive money? The potions in the workshop?
Thoughts flooded my mind all at once before quickly fading.
Their motive no longer mattered.
The old man had been murdered.
That was all.
‘This isn’t the time to think about anything else.’
I have to make them pay.
Fine, how do I move?
The old man is dead. So I have to make them pay. What can I do right now? The old man was murdered. I know, I know! I’m asking what I can do! That damned old man is dead! He’s dead, so! Right, what? What can I…… The old man is dead…… The old man is dead……
‘……This is dangerous.’
My thoughts kept circling the same place.
I could not escape the old man’s death.
It was as though my thoughts had been poisoned…… Poisoned. Poison, poison, poison.
Poison.
My gaze turned toward the table.
There was a glass bottle there.
Given enough time, its contents would become an infused liquor with an extraordinary flavor.
Until then, however, it was merely a deadly poison capable of taking someone’s life.
The moment I saw it, my mind became cold.
All I had to do was shove it down the man’s and woman’s throats.
I did not even need to consider how.
There was a dagger at my waist.
I would teach them a lesson with that first.
Just as I reached for its handle.
BANG!
The man kicked off the floor and charged.
The bloodstained greatsword hurtled toward my neck.
I watched the blade clearly and ducked at precisely the right moment.
WHOOOOOSH!
A violent gust swept over my head.
Good. I dodged it.
Now it was time to curse him out and drive my dagger into one of his vital points.
That was what should have happened.
“Y-You hurt my master? You bastards!”
Instead, a fucking idiotic line came out of my mouth.
My voice sounded strange.
My actions were even more idiotic.
I did not charge at either the man or the woman.
“You’ll pay for this!”
Instead, I bolted through the door…… What the hell am I doing?
I did not want this.
Neither the words I had spoken nor the movements of my body had anything to do with my will.
【This conflicts with the character profile.】
It was as though someone were controlling me.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
My legs began racing toward the mountain behind the village. My pathetic scream scattered through the air.
Behind me, I heard the man speaking in a bored voice.
“Ah…… He had to run into the mountains…….”
“I’ll handle it, Oppa!”
CRACK!
The woman struck the ground with her staff.
The earth violently overturned around her.
【Raise the Dead】
GRRRRIND-
Human skeletons rose from cracks in the splitting earth.
They belonged to people who had been buried near the workshop.
GROOOOAN-
They moved their legs as though they were alive.
They were chasing me.
‘Magic…….’
The woman was a mage.
I had no time to be astonished by that fact.
A faint green light was leaking from the skeletons’ bare bones.
That light was not the woman’s doing.
The phosphorus seeping from the bones was gleaming in the moonlight.
Most of the corpses had been buried before I was even born, so they did not shine very brightly.
Except for one.
One skeleton glowed far more intensely than the others.
It had been buried relatively recently.
The skeleton had a broad pelvis.
It was a woman.
Several large, gaping holes pierced its skull and ribs, as though they had been punctured by enormous spikes. She had died after being torn apart and devoured by a wild beast or something similar.
I could now recognize the unusually radiant skeleton.
In truth, I had known instinctively from the beginning.
I simply had not wanted to look more closely.
But it was drawing nearer and nearer.
‘Aunt Mari……?’
As though murdering the old man had not been enough, those two bastards were desecrating Aunt Mari’s corpse as well…….
……My eyes burned.
It felt as though blood might pour from them.
My body was still trembling.
I could not tell whether it was because of fear or rage.
“Stop following meeeee-!”
Yet another pathetic voice burst from my mouth.
Turn back.
Go back to the workshop.
Fight.
Let me fight.
Aunt Mari is right there.
They killed the old man.
Please.
Please let me fight.
I do not want to run away like this.
No matter how many times I repeated those thoughts, my legs refused to stop.
【This conflicts with the character profile.】
【This conflicts with the character profile.】
【This conflicts with the character profile.】
【This conflicts with the character profile─】
Regardless of my will, my body continued fleeing deeper into the dark mountain.
【Patch in progress. 28%】
On and on.
【Patch in progress. 29%】
On and on.
【Patch in progress. 30%】
On and on.
【Patch in progress. 31%】
On and on…….
* * *
The mountains were dark in the dead of night.
There was not a single monster around me, but that only meant they had hidden themselves.
The mountains at night were unquestionably a den of monsters.
Perhaps they understood the danger, because I could no longer see any skeletons.
I could not sense the man or the woman either.
Only then did I lean my back against a tree.
My throat and lungs felt as though they were being torn apart.
“……Why…… whyyy…….”
My cracked voice sounded unfamiliar.
I lowered my head while forcing breath from my lungs…….
THWACK!
Numb pain spread through my cheek and teeth.
Something hot and salty filled my mouth.
This time, my body had moved according to my will.
No, perhaps it had been a coincidence.
I had no idea when my body might be controlled again.
I pounded my thighs with my fists.
My legs tingled as though they were going numb.
I stopped punching them.
Instead, I picked up a stone from the ground.
THUD! TAP.
The stone scraped away some of the tree’s bark before falling to the ground.
Then I struck the tree with my bare fists.
THUD! THUUD!
Thunderous impacts echoed through the mountains.
The skin over both fists had become as ragged as the tree’s bark.
I did not stop.
I smashed my head against the tree.
Before long, my forehead was soaked in blood.
I did not know whether it had come from my forehead or from my bleeding fists.
Even so, one thing was certain.
My body moved.
Freely…… No, it was too soon to conclude that.
Perhaps my mouth was still being controlled.
I stared into empty space and muttered the insult the old man often used.
“You idiot.”
The two words came from my mouth.
Next, I sang the village chief’s favorite song.
“Beau, beau. Beauti…… ful~”
My pitch was atrocious, but I could sing.
I could hum as well.
I stood up from the damp earth and even performed Arche’s traditional dance.
I could do everything.
“……Hah.”
I swallowed a deep breath.
With a trembling hand, I pointed at the ground.
Rosemary.
The first medicinal herb the old man had ever taught me about.
Using my flowing blood as paint, I drew it upon the ground.
The drawing came out surprisingly well.
I stared blankly at the flower.
A sob rose within me.
Everything I had failed to release inside the workshop came surging out.
“……I can do everything just fiiine……!”
My body moved exactly as I wanted.
My mouth spoke the words I wanted to say.
Yet I was not happy in the slightest.
Now you decide to return my freedom?
Do not give me that bullshit.
If you were going to give it back, you should have done it when I was running away.
I should have been able to move before they swung their sword at Master. Why are you doing this only now? Are you trying to show me mercy?
“Fuck, pick one…….”
If you are going to control me, then control me to the end.
If you were going to give me freedom, then you should never have taken it away in the first place.
‘No matter what I do now, the old man isn’t coming back.’
The moment I reached that thought, all the strength drained from my body as though I had just resurfaced after being submerged underwater.
I collapsed onto the dirt.
Streams of liquid rolled down my cheeks and chin, making them itch.
I rubbed my eyes with my filthy hands.
“Who are you……?”
Who had been controlling me?
Why had this happened to me?
Why had I not even been allowed to fight?
Why had I not even been permitted to die?
Had I truly regained my freedom?
Would I turn into a pathetic fool again the moment I stood before those two bastards?
I needed answers.
Tell me.
Anyone would do.
“……Please tell me.”
My knees touched the ground.
My forehead pressed against the dirt.
“G-Grid…… Lord Grid…….”
Grid.
The one who created this world and watched over it.
The great one who existed everywhere and nowhere.
The noble one who willingly embraced evil and forever watched over us.
God.
For the first time in my life, I desperately called upon a god I had never believed in.
I fervently begged for help and wept as I confessed my sins.
I hurled obscenities and curses as well. I pleaded for Grid to at least tell me why my body had changed.
Despite all that, Grid did not answer my call.
As expected, there was no such thing as a god.
If one did exist, I would somehow tear it apart with my own hands…….
……If Grid was watching me, Grid would probably scoff.
I could not even do anything about the two bastards who had barged into the workshop, yet I dared to talk about killing a god.
That was simply how I felt.
With this, I had become a complete atheist.
All that remained was emptiness.
The only thing I could lean on now was a tree weeping tears of blood.
I rested my back against it and silently sank into the darkness.
【Patch in progress. 34%】
【Patch in progress. 35%】
【Patch in progress. 36%】
【Patch in progress. 37%】
【Patch in progress. 38%】
【Patch in progress. 39%】
【Patch in progress. 40%】
【Patch in progress. 41%】
“……What are you?”
【I am your guide! Feel free to ask me anything you are curious about!】
At last, I found a thread in the darkness.