Chapter 67: Aftermath and Iris's true intentions
A/N: The censorship in the last chapter wasn't intentional. WN censored it because I misspelled 'patron' as 'p@treon.' :/
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I walked out of the room, dragging an unconscious Garl. He didn't have any wounds or cuts on him, courtesy of a healing potion.
'Damn it. It took half an hour to get the info I wanted.'
I doubted Sharon came back, but even if she did, she didn't open the gate leading to the cellar, and the Silencing charm that I used before waking him up likely kept all the noises inside the cell itself. Such a convenient item.
[It wouldn't have taken so long if you hadn't beaten him senselessly so much in your anger. You went as far as using Body Reinforcement Magic on yourself to hit him harder.]
I sighed tiredly.
'… Yeah, I did. But, I couldn't control myself. And the fucker deserved it! He beat that catgirl badly and left her dying in that shithole. And his own stupidity almost led to MY kidnapping… though I got "saved." It could have been so much worse if those cultist pieces of shit had taken me. I hate to admit it, but Sharon truly did save me there.'
Now I knew for sure the evil god's cult was working together and interfering with other villains from the main story.
Fucking exactly what I needed in life. Various dangerous and annoying villain groups working together to fuck up the rest of the world.
One, the demons, wanted dominion over the world for whatever reason they had(*wink* Demon king *wink* *nudge* power hungry *nudge*), and the other, cultists, wanted to resurrect their "One True God."
Demons were one thing. At least their dispute with humanity and other races was more or less territorial— them wanting to expand their dominion over the rest of the continents and the other countries, including the Empire I was in, vehemently refusing to submit and even pushing them back— so it was kind of like a constant ongoing war, and they could be reasoned with… kind of. Well, not really. Maybe a little bit. They're still cruel and cunning.
But the cultists… oh boy. They were too single-minded and too dangerous to be left alive. They did their "job" with fervor.
Those creepy slimy bastards… If only they knew the fucking truth.
That they weren't resurrecting a Divine God by performing the crazy sacrifices and rituals but giving more power to a sealed ungodly and frankly scary-looking creature from motherfucking Souls or Lovecraftian universe, if I had to paint a rough picture, that was constantly mind-raping the said cultists and corroding them, turning them slowly into his sustenance.
Evil God was called "evil" and "God" for a reason. His entire being was destructive and corrosive in nature and any contact with him or his energy turned any non-divine being unable to resist(or even divine beings with weaker will) into a vile being out of a dark fantasy novel. Above all, while it wasn't really sentient, it was hell-bent on corroding and turning EVERYTHING in the whole damn world.
And it actually had the power to do so. Enough power that even the goddesses, the main ones anyway, feared it.
Stopping his partially-awaken self was already hard as hell in the game. Now that it was real… and if it was released… I didn't want to imagine the chaos and destruction it'll cause.
Why did an eroge world have to be so damn dangerous!?
Seriously! Cryotopia had no right to be so troublesome.
… Well, it was admittedly fun and entertaining to experience as a videogame, but it got complicated when things got real.
…
Coming back, I didn't get all of my answers verbally from the interrogation, no matter how much I beat him. And I beat him a LOT. He still hid a few things of importance from me. Thankfully, using Observe helped quite a bit in the extra info gathering.
'I know he definitely wants to kill me.'
Too bad for him he now didn't know and will never know who I am and will likely be executed once the knights knew his connection to demons. That memory wipe potion had cost me quite a bit for a one-time use item and it probably fucked his brain a little bit.
'Welp, not my problem if he loses a few dozen… I mean, a couple hundred … maybe a few thousand… of his brain cells…
He's not going to be brain dead, right?'
[I think he'll be fine. Just one memory wipe potion shouldn't cause that much harm. And only his very recent memories will be erased, if the description were to be believed.]
Even Iris sounded unsure.
The description of the potion I bought from the Eroge shop—which once again had a product that didn't truly belong in a shop like that— said that 'it erases recent memories of the subject who drinks it.'
One of the side effects(and it had a couple, mind you) said 'it can cause brain damage.' Not something you wanna use willy-nilly. But on someone like Garl, yeah, who cared if I fucked up his brain a little. He deserved it.
I still needed him to spit out the info about the demon and the 'Circle' to the knights— and thus the lord, a.k.a. my mother— when they interrogated him though. They'll likely be better at interrogation and info-gathering than a noob like me who did more torture and less info-gathering in the end.
They would know that they're already targeted by an undercover demon and his goons and will be better prepared from now on. And hopefully, that'll help make this territory safer in the future, because it sure as hell wasn't as safe as I had hoped if demon supporters and cultists could enter this damn city so damn easily.
Maybe I should've killed him and been done with this shit… But, no. I didn't want to get blood on my hands so soon. And I couldn't. The knights needed to get information out of him. They wouldn't have gotten any real information from the goons.
And… I wasn't sure if I was truly capable of killing people… yet. Can I do it? I had wondered. I knew I'll have to— and I probably will— eventually, but…
It's one thing to do it in a videogame, but now that things were real, and people were real, I felt a bit of hesitation when the thought of stabbing the bastard's throat crossed my mind. I couldn't do it as easily as I had hoped, even though the bastard was a piece of shit who kidnapped little children for his own greed, desires and benefits.
He had his own unfortunate reasons to do what he did, even though what he did was horrible and, honestly, pretty fucking stupid. I'd felt frustrated by it.
'Is this how those Isekai protagonists feel when they get Isekai'd to an anime or game world they know of? Should I have just killed him and been done with him?'
I had thought. I knew I couldn't always be a wimp about it. I'll have to kill one day… probably very soon with the monsters, and eventually with humans and other such sentient beings. There's no way this world will let me have a passive life. Especially when the damn demons are trying to conquer the whole northern continent. And the cultists, for some reason, trying to kidnap me. Just why?
In my time of doubt, Iris's words calmed me and see the right path...? (I think?)
[It's alright for you to feel this way, Alex. It's a normal reaction, really. You're a normal human from Earth who's lived over 2 decades of his life in a peaceful environment. Peace and quiet are what you're used to. Even here, in the past 2 years, you've spent your time in relative comfort with your new family. But the outside world is harsh, without a doubt.
You'll have to kill things eventually. Otherwise, there's no point in the leveling system given to you. You already knew what kind of world this is. You're just a bit shaken from things. It happens. The first time is always difficult. It'll get easier as time goes on. You'll get used to it.
And also, don't you dare pussy out from the Main Quests now if you're thinking of so! Did you forget how passionate and giddy you were when you set your second life's main goal? Have some fucking balls and perseverance and stick with what you desire, you good-for-nothing horny bastard. You knew damn well that it was going to happen. Or what? This is too much for you now? Did your dick go limp from seeing a little bit of blood? Fuck you! You're a fucking pussy! You don't deserve this power and the hot babes if you can't handle some villains.]
"Pfft! Hahaha!… Alright, alright. Stop. Ahahahahahaaa…haaa. Jeez. Haha. That was… ah shit."
Realizing I was talking out loud, I immediately shut up and turned to mental communication. Luckily, no one (conscious) was nearby to hear that.
'Nice "pep-talk." Pfft… And thanks. I needed that. You're pretty good at it, huh.'
All my doubts and worries subsided immediately thanks to Iris's shit-talk—I mean, pep-talk. And she seemed quite smug about it, by her reply that followed.
[Duh. Of course, I'm good at it. I'm tailor-made for your needs. I've studied enough of your life to know you quite well. I won't let you get soft so easily from your life's goals because of insignificant things.]
'Hmm. Not scary at all that you have access to all of my private life and memories and are trying to brainwash me. Not at all.'
[Brainwash? Hah! You fucking know you want this yourself. I'm just stating the facts, your own desires, to you. I get nothing at all out of it, you know. :/]
'Alright, fair enough. Guilty as charged. I do want it.'
[Yep, the life of a degenerate, Harem-seeking pervert. :D]
'…'
Uhh, she knew me a little TOO well. Not sure if it was a good thing. Probably was, since she was nice.
I could only count my luck that she wasn't some evil AI trying to manipulate me into doing her bidding or one that doesn't care if I live or die.
I shuddered momentarily and immediately shook my head, trying to rid myself of that thought. It was a bit scary.
Maybe more than a bit scary.
Okay, definitely more a bit scary. Okay fine, I was terrified of such systems.
But there was no way Iris was like that.
… Right?
'No, stop it, me. This isn't some tragic Isekai story hidden in the erotic yet crazy eroge world façade.'
[Alex.]
'Yeah?'
[There's something I have to tell you. It's very important.]
'Yeah?'
[Actually, I was just pretending to be your friend. I don't really care about your stupid "life goals" or whatever. Getting OP and getting a harem. How cliché. Pfft. And pathetic, no less.
You should know this. you're just a tool for the Creation God to entertain himself and I'm here to watch over you and make sure you entertain him. This world isn't real. You're not real. You're just a character from a novel. You don't actually exist. Your life is a lie.]
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