NOVEL NEXT Chapter 26
Anyway, it was definitely certain that Agartha was alive.
Despite having lost an arm and nearly dying from the punishment dealt by me and the Hunter, there are jokes one can make and those that are best left unsaid.
The Hunter casually took a sip of water and remarked.
“Good to see you’re alive.”
Agartha, panting and complaining about her pain, narrowed her eyes and shot back.
“Weren’t you the one who just beat me up?! I was almost dead, you know?!”
“That Thief is just being dramatic.”
“Oh really? Now you’re pretending it was nothing?!”
Agartha was pleading as if she felt wronged, but those of us who genuinely thought she had died had our reasons for being this way.
Even in a dark fantasy world, who wouldn’t worry if someone lost an arm?
In any case, the fact that she could be this angry meant she was indeed alive.
We had vowed to survive together in the underground prison, and it would never do for a comrade to leave us so easily.
“I really thought you were dead.”
I said with a slightly trembling voice as I looked at Agartha, who scrunched her lips to one side before smiling and spreading her arms wide.
“Tanton!”
Agartha called for me and glanced over at the Hunter, who was still at a slight distance.
“And you too, Hunter.”
“….”
“Come on now.”
“Do I have to?”
When the Hunter spoke as if disgusted, Agartha made her signature smug expression and said to him.
“Are you perhaps too shy to join in?”
“…It’s just childish.”
Agartha hugged me first.
Perhaps because she was missing an arm, it felt a bit hollow.
After a fleeting embrace, Agartha quickly moved on to hug the Hunter too.
After a little while, the Hunter awkwardly nudged Agartha away and returned to his original spot, prompting her to burst into laughter.
“Anyway, I’m just glad we’re all safe.”
Even though she loved teasing people, she was surprisingly sentimental.
Satisfied, Agartha returned to her spot, stuffing her mouth with the leftover food and said.
“When I was captured in that underground prison, I thought, how on earth am I going to make it out? And now look at me, a free citizen! Life is full of surprises, huh?”
“You’re still considered a prisoner.”
“Publicly, I’m dead, so I’m no longer a prisoner.”
Hmm.
I had no choice but to nod at her rather sensible yet pointless remark.
After all, you can’t exactly keep a corpse locked up in a prison.
Before long, our ordered meal arrived, and I took a bite.
It wasn’t as tasty as I had hoped.
Coming from a background accustomed to strong flavors, I suppose the food of this era wouldn’t be appealing to me.
Seems like it also didn’t suit my Korean taste buds.
Ugh, this is greasy.
Noticing my expression, Agartha narrowed her eyes and said.
“Hmm… You don’t like it? Maybe you were a noble? It’s hard to see how being noble matters after the Empire fell and the capital was buried under the Snow Mountain’s Giants. But it happens. Sometimes there are people still clinging to the glory of the past, pretending to be nobles.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Well, I doubt a person obsessed with Outsiders would be a noble.”
This Thief certainly doesn’t hold back now that she’s alive, does she?
I playfully smacked the top of Agartha’s head with my palm.
She might have had some strange grudge against nobles all along…
What’s going on here?
“By the way, how did you escape? With your left arm cut off and all. The Deputy Director even said you were dead.”
“Oh, is that so? I guess that worked out better than I expected.”
Agartha flashed a euphoric smile and held up an emerald orb with her right hand.
“This is all thanks to this little cutie.”
It was the item that a knight had been holding, which was part of our wager to choose who would accompany me, Agartha, or the Hunter.
Come to think of it, Agartha had an inkling about what was inside that jade ball.
“Honestly, asking someone like me to take down an Outsider? I might as well end it all myself. So I was just looking for a way to escape.”
“So, you resorted to some clever tricks.”
“Isn’t that only natural? Who in their right mind would want to join the Knights and face Outsiders? My goal has always been a safe, peaceful life. Unlike you two, I’m the one who’s still sane here!”
Once again, her mouth began to work its magic.
If I didn’t cut her off here, she might keep talking until we reached our last breaths.
“Alright, just tell me what happened.”
“Sigh, I knew only you, Tanton, would understand me! That perverted knight. I scratched her ego a bit, and she just couldn’t stop explaining about this jade ball.”
Agartha gently caressed the jade ball as she continued.
“This is called an unfair roulette. It seems to promise a fair game, but as the name implies, it can be rigged with tricks.”
“Did you use it?”
—A fair game. If not, you die.
Now that I think about it, I had heard something like that before the knights began their rock-paper-scissors match.
“Do you think I would be reckless enough to use this? Even if the Outsider’s item is altered, you don’t just use it carelessly.”
Agartha waved her hand dismissively, looking panicked.
Right after saying that.
She sheepishly scratched her head, and Agartha chimed in.
“Just in case, I brought it as insurance. For the escape… if you think about it, all I had to do was remove the marking from my body, right? So I just decided to chop off my shoulder cleanly.”
“…You did that while conscious?”
“Um, not quite. Remember I said I swiped a knight’s stuff? While using the ball, she asked for compensation, and I told her I would give her some. I didn’t mention what that ‘compensation’ would be, and then we fought, which I lost, so she took my marking as payment. My arm ended up flying off in the process.”
“It was her fault for not mentioning the compensation first.”
Hearing her recount this incident made me feel sore all over, but Agartha spoke about it so calmly; if it weren’t for the Outsiders, I wondered if her mental resilience was truly top-notch.
Seeing Agartha finish all her food, she let out a sigh and leaned back in her chair.
“Anyway, since it’s been publicly declared that I’m dead in the Knights, I’m planning to slip into the underworld now. I have a bit of a reputation in Rondan’s underworld, so they’ll likely accept me.”
Well, it seemed Agartha had no other way to live from now on.
The Hunter took a deep breath after hearing what Agartha said.
“Since I’ve been granted the right to hunt Outsiders alone, I plan to go off and hunt them by myself.”
The Hunter said that and then looked at me.
“What about you?”
What was my goal?
Surviving was the immediate goal, and somehow I achieved that through sheer effort.
Perhaps I could just join the Knights and live peacefully while waiting for the Hunter to see his ending.
But this world, it was only a kind dark fantasy for me.
If the Outsiders truly decided to make a move, it wouldn’t be long before the Hearth went out.
Besides, the Hunter’s life wasn’t eternal either.
I couldn’t help but recall the countless deaths the Hunter had faced in that game.
If this world was the one in which the Hunter perishes, then hope was a distant dream.
In that case, I had to act—prevent the Hunter’s death and steer the world toward a happy ending.
I already had a few ideas.
The Dog Bone that the Watcher was looking for, and the Gardener’s friend.
Considering these two incidents, if the Outsiders had some goal in mind, wouldn’t helping them achieve that make them leave this world on their own?
Well, if there was indeed a Super Coward Mode, I could manage somehow.
This was also a continuation of survival.
Being thrown out into this world, finding a way to team up with the Hunter was likely the only chance I had to witness a happy ending here.
To do that, there were certain tasks I had to complete.
First, I would need to form a cooperative relationship with the Hearth.
“I will rise to a high position in the Knights.”
I would use the Super Coward Mode to tackle the Outsiders, and leverage the unequal information I uncovered to build up achievements, eventually securing a position so elevated that even the Deputy Director wouldn’t dare touch it.
If I could take control of the Knights’ core, the Hunter would have more freedom of movement, and Agartha wouldn’t be at risk of being pursued.
What I needed for that was sheer force.
And hidden secrets in this Dark Fantasy world.
The Hunter, perhaps mocking my thoughts, let out a scoff.
“If that’s your plan.”
With those parting words, the Hunter rose, casually tossed the exact fare onto the counter, and headed for the exit.
Before stepping out the door, the Hunter bid farewell.
“Don’t die on me. If you do, I’ll kill you myself.”
What a charming farewell, filled with grim worries as he left.
Agartha chuckled softly and stood up.
“Looks like it’s settled! Tanton, don’t hesitate to reach out if you need my help! Though, I get the feeling I’ll probably approach you first.”
Well, take care!
With that, she spilled some money on the table and vanished just like a true Thief.
As the owner rushed over, wondering if he’d have to calculate the bill, he nodded while looking at the scattered money, giving me the impression that Agartha was smiling.
Right, tomorrow I was told to come to the armory.
Among what I’d seen in the community were various weapons like the saw blade sword, bloodsucking axe, and the Heart Piercer gun, among others.
Getting my hands on a good weapon would greatly help when facing the Outsiders.
After settling the food bill, I returned to the branch, my mind filled with thoughts about what weapon I might draw before I fell asleep.
#
There was indeed a time when I had such optimistic thoughts.
I somehow managed to obtain a dedicated weapon from the armory.
I wanted to believe I had succeeded in the test.
“Distortion phenomenon occurring in the center of the Hearth! Emergency! Emergency!”
“Damn it, what’s happening?!”
Pandemonium erupted among the knights, who were rushing around in a frenzy, while people near the Hearth screamed and fled as the scenery warped, a colossal fracture forming in the world’s fabric at the center.
“Ugh, I’m stuck! Human! Help me!”
Before I could see the Watcher’s face peeking out, looking for my assistance…
…Um.