NOVEL NEXT Chapter 736
736 – Who Did That (7)
Oknodie felt strange.
“There’s never been an event where everyone skips class like this in the original. Where could everyone have gone?”
“Uh, I wonder?”
“Tito, tell me honestly. You know what kind of super fun event everyone’s gone to without me, don’t you?”
Of course, Tito Soga, who stayed back in the Academy as Oknodie’s close surveillance agent, broke out in a cold sweat.
“I don’t know anything!”
“Liar! Then why isn’t Jiang here?”
“Ugh, ugh… W-well, answer this. Who comes first, Oknodie or Jiang?!”
A pathetic attempt to stall by throwing out an unpickable option that Tito Soga would never choose!
Oknodie couldn’t help but think of a naughty prank today at Tito Soga’s naïve display.
“If Tito Soga sets a record of under one minute in the Dungeon Speedrun, wouldn’t that be better than Jiang?”
“What?!”
“Let’s hurry to the dungeon! If we get a one-minute cut, Tito Soga will be happier. Let’s go speedrunning, speedrunning!”
“Wait, just like that? Alone? Is this even okay?!”
“We just need to get the professor’s permission!”
Professor Minos, who managed the Dungeon Theme Park, stamped his seal with a grumpy expression.
“Since you’ve been such a noisy one lately, it might be easier to just put you in the Academy’s internal facilities for management.”
Having thought it better than Oknodie disappearing again and causing professors to search everywhere, Professor Minos gladly granted the usage permit.
“Ahhhhh!”
“Ahhhhh!”
“Ahhhhh!”
As the shouting ceased, monsters rushed in with a whoosh to beat Tito Soga in a noise pollution dungeon. Meanwhile, Oknodie was giggling beside, using the newly added Charm Spell on transparent mosquitoes to tame small animals and gather information.
‘Oh, Dorothy!’
It was a bit scary to go back to Professor Weird’s lecture, but it should be fine with Hestia and Dorothy around, right?
She thought she should ask to go to class together later!
But what if the animals suddenly spoke human language?
That would be super fun, right?
Excited about the idea of morphing into a green frog to talk to Dorothy, Oknodie stopped.
“Uh…?”
Oknodie didn’t even realize Dorothy was watching her.
What she said was quite concerning.
*
Dorothy finally understood Oknodie’s strangely abnormal behavior.
“She’s not one to easily give away food, so it felt odd.”
“She was a child who feared nothing except for the sheer difference in strength felt in the Student Dormitory Zone. Unless it was the Foundation, there wouldn’t be anyone for her to be truly afraid of.”
“Oknodie must have found herself in the same situation as Goo!”
“Are you talking about the plant that supposedly housed the soul of one of Oknodie’s friends raised by Hestia?”
“Yeah…”
“Most likely. They said the soul was torn and separated, confirmed by Professor Sadako, so the reliability of that information is 100%.”
It seemed that when the person became a bit harmful, the perception of the Foundation’s emotional and sensory deprivation of Numb was broken. Oknodie gained back that innocent childlike aspect during a tender time spent at the Academy, which now made her come off as pitiable in Dorothy’s eyes.
“Wasn’t it alright to refuse Jezel’s proposal?”
“The Foundation’s assault operation?”
“Yeah, that.”
“There are plenty of others who would jump into it. And even though the soul was torn, Oknodie is still here. Even if the Foundation pruned her as they pleased, Oknodie remains Oknodie. Wouldn’t she be sad if everyone left her alone at the Academy?”
Using the Dark Trading Company’s information network for a long time to color code, track, and monitor the Foundation, the Dark Trading Company declared war on the Foundation the moment the students’ rage reached its peak.
“Jaku, Sandkooker, Irene, and everyone else went to help Jezel’s operation, leaving no one to stay by Oknodie’s side at the Academy.”
“Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. Jezel’s planned operation isn’t something just anyone would do.”
Students from the lower class, including Jaku, volunteered as a combat force to bolster the Dark Trading Company’s lacking combat power.
Students from the Magic Department, including Sandkooker, mysteriously vanished after saying they’d bring something big.
Northern Grand Duchess Irene declared that she would push the front line significantly forward and eliminate numerous Foundation spies, leading the released forces to support the Great Army.
Jiang’s ambush unit.
Arcadia and Jigoku’s naval fleet.
Furthermore, many students who shared a special bond with Oknodie volunteered for the support mission.
“Still, somehow, I feel uneasy about this.”
Unlike Dorothy, Rockbell didn’t just see Oknodie as a pitiable creature.
“Why?”
“If her soul has been torn and she recovered her humanity, it means Oknodie has lost her humanity and all bonds with us.”
“That’s… quite plausible!”
“Then have you ever thought about how Oknodie, who lost her humanity yet tries to imitate relationships, looks at us?”
That was a pretty chilling assumption.
The silence and the noticeably heavy atmosphere were suddenly shattered by a sound of crying.
Ribbit.
A green frog suddenly made a sound as if it were hiccuping.
The frog, which was about to leap down from a tree, was caught by Dorothy’s Pull spell.
“Do frogs usually live in trees?”
“This is Gift Island. Don’t question common sense. Anything that appears is not surprising.”
“Oh! Look at its body.”
Dorothy gingerly touched the area below the green frog’s face with a sympathetic look.
“I think its organs have been altered. It must have escaped from a laboratory.”
“Is this… a human vocal cord?”
Rockbell, using his analysis magic to pierce through the frog’s internal structure, soon lost interest.
“It’s just an experimental frog. Don’t waste your concern on it.”
“But it’s still pitiable. They put so much effort into modifying it and just discarded it like that. An abandoned experiment that’s become useless is really unfortunate.”
“Are you thinking of those things that have flowed into the Monster Forest?”
“Wasn’t the Poppy we raised in the forest also presumed to have escaped from a laboratory?”
“Your sense of naming that gigantic creature Poppy is nothing short of miraculous…”
Recollection of her pet Poppy left behind in her hometown seemed to uplift Dorothy’s spirits.
She suddenly perked up and said enthusiastically.
“Even if there are some uneasy aspects, I still like Oknodie, so let’s banish the gloomy talks!”
“…If you’re deciding, I’ll just follow your lead.”
Rockbell also worked hard to hide his doubts.
Ribbit.
The green frog croaked again.
Maybe it was the change in mindset.
That croak somehow felt different than before.
It didn’t sound like a person using a frog’s body; it felt like a frog making its own noise.
“Are you planning to keep that frog?”
“Yeah? I’m thinking of bringing it back home.”
“To that treacherous forest, that tiny thing…?”
“I’m planning to give it to Poppy as a snack!”
The frog, flailing as if instinctively sensing danger, was pulled again by Dorothy’s spell.
The sound of the frog’s cries seemed exceedingly sorrowful on that quiet afternoon.
*
My friends are afraid of me.
Torn apart, lost relationships… what could all that mean?
I’m confused.
I’m right here, yet they left to save me. What does that even mean?
“Waaaah, Oknodie, you fool! How much longer are you going to keep messing around in the dungeon?!”
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll give you an elixir, so calm down!”
“Suddenly offering a legendary potion?!”
With an item salvaged from Seonhwang Papa’s treasure trove, I filled Tito Soga’s favorability back up again generously.
There was a motive behind wanting to calm her down, but there was also a desire to hear an honest answer using that high favorability.
“Hey, Tito Soga.”
“What is it?”
While petting the hair of the mishap-prone girl who quickly cheered up, I asked.
“By any chance, does everyone know about ‘another me’?”
“Hieek?!”
Tito Soga trembled as if she had stepped on a Lego block, fluffing her hair up.
Her hands busily brushed down her goosebumps, which didn’t seem to go away.
“U-uh, I’m a dumb Soga… I don’t know hard words…”
“So you knew.”
Darknodi must have been exposed.
Otherwise, there’s no way it would have caused such a commotion.
Darknodi had returned weeping.
I now understood the reason why.
Thinking the place for the fake Darknodi had disappeared, they fled, and now the friends were searching for Darknodi!
“Did you like that person so much?”
“Uuugh… I got found out too soon…”
“Hehe. There’s no way Tito Soga would lie in front of me. If it’s deceiving, maybe, but lying isn’t something that suits Tito Soga!”
“The fact that I can’t deny that is sad…”
Adopting a lie that didn’t suit her, Tito Soga quickly relented.
“But how do you know that person’s whereabouts and are looking for them?”
“Jezel said so. The rescue plan is perfectly laid out, so there’s no problem. Soon everyone will be able to meet the beloved Oknodie again.”
“Oh, really? If Jezel said so, she’s intelligent, so I think I can trust her.”
However, there was something that worried me.
“But why is it that I’m the only one with so few friends who are happy to see me, even though Darknodi yearns so much?”
Dorothy and Rockbell are scared of me.
The other friends have similar reactions.
Everyone misses Darknodi and went to find her.
None of them received me warmly or liked me.
I’m the real one.
Why does everyone hate me…?
Tito Soga hesitated, fumbled, and when she saw my sulky face, she hurriedly waved her hands.
“I’m not! I like any Oknodie!”
“Really?”
“I don’t like the Oknodie that makes monsters take away the light stands, or that sticks cellophane to the light stands, or that reinforces the light stands to make mirror ball lights, or that makes moth sounds to summon giant moths to the light stands, but that Oknodie is still Oknodie!”
Does that little rascal really like me?
Doubts sprouted quickly.