NOVEL NEXT Chapter 235
“Just a little side story the author wrote out of boredom.”
It’s not canon or anything, so just see it for fun.
– – – –
Suddenly, a gate appeared right in front of me, and when I came to my senses, I found myself in a room with some unintelligible signs all over.
“I was definitely just talking with the boss…”
Maybe it was the shock, but I couldn’t remember exactly what just happened, mumbling as I tried to recall.
But my conclusion could only be this: “I have no clue.”
No, was that even a gate to begin with? It just popped out of thin air and swallowed me whole.
Can you even call that a gate? As someone who’s been sucked into one, that definitely wasn’t what a gate looks like.
I had never even heard of such a gate existing.
Grabbing my throbbing head, I looked at the paper hanging on the wall as if it were some sort of explanation.
‘A room where you can’t leave unless you reveal an important secret.’
A room where you can’t leave unless you spill an important secret, huh? Did Heros Company make this? Are they trying to extract information from me?
There’s no way Heros Company has the technology to create something like this. So did they employ some abilities user?
Given the bizarre range of abilities, it made sense. There’s everything from the ridiculous ability to sweeten water to my own nonsensical powers…
If some outrageous and absurd abilities user was specifically working for Heros Company, that would actually add up.
…But if that were the case, they would have figured out all the secrets by now. This kind of thing never happened in the original story.
The more I thought, the more I felt like my head was going to explode. There was too little information. Is this an ability or some tech? Who did this? I had no clue.
Meanwhile, that person is probably worrying about me, and here I am doing nothing but acting pitiful.
All I knew for sure was that I needed to get out. The only possible exit was a door on the opposite side of the room, so I tried turning the doorknob to open it.
Of course, it opened…
“Huh?”
It’s not closed? I really thought it would be. This was too ridiculous. But the scenery outside was even more absurd.
Literally, there was nothing. It was different from just plain black.
The end of the world? Emptiness? I couldn’t even find the right words to describe it. A place where neither time nor space exists. It was hard to even call it a place or a thing.
…It could be some kind of illusion, but what if it actually was something? I threw a water droplet at it, just to test my luck.
And the droplet vanished completely.
I had no idea what would happen if I crossed over there, so I couldn’t even think about extending my hand.
So it seems the only way out is to confess this ‘important secret’ as they say.
To save my own life, I have to betray that person? I’d rather die, thanks.
That’s what I wanted to say confidently, but honestly, dying was a bit scary—especially in such a ridiculous manner.
I absolutely refused to die suddenly one day. So, I decided to look for a bit more information.
First of all, there were no observation equipment whatsoever in this room. No tiny microphones or cameras.
Meaning, no matter what I said here, there was no way to observe it from outside. If whoever trapped me is an abilities user, they could probably get a listen somehow…
But they could just track me down and deal with it outside.
Since I got swept up in something that might be either an ability or some tech, I couldn’t really confirm anything.
I wanted to just spill everything and get out—
But at that very moment, a door appeared out of thin air, and another person walked in.
“Huh?”
I couldn’t help but blurt out in shock at the unexpected situation, especially since that person was someone I also knew.
Altera. The grandmother of Lapiz, and a returner. At the same time, the one person whose secret I wanted to keep hidden the most.
And now, she was here in this room.
—What should I do?
Regardless of anything else, that woman must not learn about the liberators. She holds a terrible disdain for her own family. If she realizes it…
The liberators might meet a horrible end, and I could very well become Lapiz’s pet cat. She was definitely the type to do that.
Destruction? Can I even kill someone like her? She’d probably just shake it off like it was nothing.
As I nervously looked at her, she showed a completely unexpected reaction.
“Hmm? Blanca, what on earth are you doing here? Surely you’re not the one behind this?”
It was as if she knew who I was and even had a strange sense of warmth towards me. We weren’t that close, so why the heck is she acting like this?
“Hmm? You look really suspicious. Did something happen? Or… hmmm.”
Altera mumbled something and then dropped a bombshell that left me slack-jawed.
“You haven’t betrayed me yet?”
How did you know that…
“Just look at your face. Tch, I guess it is what it is. I thought it was just an annoying prank, but this might actually be dangerous.”
Having read my thoughts and frozen me in place, Altera glanced at me and said, “Well, you’re not senile yet.”
“Besides, now that I’ve worked you like a horse, I have a fair idea of what you’re thinking. You seriously couldn’t have failed to guess that?”
“…Wait, you mean I’m now working for you?”
“It’s a bit of a stretch timeline-wise for you, but yes. Hmmm. Even though I just said that, you don’t look surprised at all. There couldn’t be a more secretive secret than this. What exactly am I supposed to reveal…”
She didn’t even give me a moment to recover from the shock, asking if I might have some secret I was hiding.
“Um… Did you see something…?”
“Of course, I asked because I saw something. Why else would I?”
Ah, she saw. That means there’s no need to explain, then.
…But is there any secret that’s more significant than what she knows about? I was already going to mention that, but if Altera already knows, does it even matter if I say it?
“…Before that, I’d like to know just how much you know about me…”
If I can find out how much she knows, I can gauge what’s a secret and what’s not.
“Let’s see, where do I begin? You’re rude, quite enjoy tormenting others a little too much, originally hailing from the liberators, and you’re absolutely crazy about catnip. You were an experiment subject, and… “
“Ah, I get it, you can stop there!”
She knows everything, ugh. What on earth did I do in the future to end up under this lady?
Moreover, from the way she’s speaking, she seems to know about the liberators. So, does that mean…
“Just one last thing, please tell me… Did the liberators fail?”
“Yeah.”
“…You’re not going to tell me why they failed, are you?”
“What good will telling you do?”
…Given that, it must have gone horribly wrong.
“Even if I could tell you, you wouldn’t stop, would you?”
That was true.
When I left the outside world, there might still be a chance I remember it.
For some reason, I had a hunch that this was likely.
“Secrets… secrets… Hmm. What kind of secret could I have?”
Wondering about what I might have failed to notice, just one possible thing crossed my mind and I blurted it out.
“Uh, actually I’m a guy, and I’ve been possessed into this novel?”
“You too? Wait, what? A novel?”
You too? Seriously?
– – – –
After a long explanation, I finally understood what the cat was trying to convey.
He was actually a possessor and was originally a guy. He used to love novels so much that when the game version of one came out, he played it and was utterly disappointed.
So, he left a bad rating and ended up getting possessed.
“Is that the gist of it?”
“Yeah, but earlier when you said ‘you too,’ you meant you were also…?”
“Sure, there’s nothing to hide. Yeah. I was a dude. I knew that even then, yet you still took me in.”
“So, you’ve never seen such a novel…?”
“Hmm? Not at all.”
As she explained her circumstances, she seemed just as confused as I was, and then she asked if I was a reincarnator.
“Reincarnator? One could look at it that way. Heh, who would have thought the maid I used to order around had such a secret. I might just have to treat you better from now on.”
Turns out, there are others like me who’ve ended up here. I didn’t know if there were memories left or not, but if there were, I resolved to treat her better.
In the meantime, Blanca hesitated and then asked me something.
“Uh, um… I just heard that the world I live in is a novel, yet you seem, like, okay with that…”
Ah, that.
“I’ve traveled through many worlds. Among them are those that you saw in novels.”
“Huh…?”
It seemed like Blanca wasn’t quite grasping it.
“Well, it might not matter. I could be just insisting that these worlds I knew exist or happen to have a lot in common with my imagination.”
“Um… could that really be…?”
Blanca seemed ready to concede and give up on understanding.
“So what if it’s a novel? Right now, we’re here, alive and breathing.”
“Ah, yes…”
As I smiled at the gradually fading soul that was Blanca, I watched the space grow hazy and collapse.
“Has the time finally come?”
“Time? What do you mean?”
“Now that we’ve both spilled our secrets, we should be able to leave. There seems to be no time to hesitate, so go.”
I nudged Blanca towards the door, and she asked if she could say one last thing before going.
“What is it?”
“Uh, um… Please don’t say anything once we’re outside.”
Ah, that slipped my mind.
“I see you’ve got some common sense, kiddo.”
I pushed her into the light, followed by stepping outside myself.