NOVEL NEXT chapter 122
122 – 9. How to Win Against the Monster (Complete) – Spring Will Come Again.
A small girl appeared.
A girl who had just learned to walk was being scolded by her strict father.
The content was simple.
Don’t be kind to your servants. They will look down on you.
Don’t show your true heart to others. They will mock and insult you.
As a noble, as the eldest daughter of the Rttebih family, one must always maintain a perfect image.
The girl cried, saying she couldn’t be a perfect person. But her father didn’t back down and continued to speak.
If you can’t be a perfect person, then become someone who acts perfectly.
You’re naturally weak and fragile, so never show your true self to others.
Become the greatest inspector on the continent and surpass even me.
“…..”
If you can’t do that, you don’t deserve to be part of this family.
“……”
After that day, the girl changed.
Her bright smile turned into a strange, awkward smile.
She started carrying a sword during her playtime with friends, and eventually, her friends began to disappear one by one.
She focused only on maintaining a perfect facade in front of others.
People praised and admired the girl who showed a perfect image, and every time, she maintained a humble attitude and only smiled.
But that smile didn’t contain any sincerity.
The girl also got a cute younger sibling.
“Hehe… keke~”
“Aww, so cute…”
The girl was at a loss when her baby sibling approached her. She had forgotten how to make a genuine expression after living a life of acting.
What was it like to ‘smile’?
How did one express ‘love’?
The girl hadn’t learned those things from her father. She couldn’t do them because she hadn’t learned.
“But… you’re too cute!”
In the end, she could only smile at her approaching sibling.
.
Years later, the grown-up girl became the student council president of the empire’s largest academy. It was natural, given her overwhelming talent and hard work.
With many experiences, her scope of thought broadened, and she made many friends, but she still couldn’t stop acting. To her, acting had become a habit.
Telling lies had become a habit, rather than speaking her true mind.
Then, a boy who caught her attention for the first time appeared. He was a cold, cynical person, just like her past self.
At first, the boy was just a handsome junior, but as time passed, he started working late nights with her.
Every time she saw the boy silently completing his tasks, she felt a sense of gratitude.
Every time she talked to the boy, she felt joyful.
Before she knew it, she started looking forward to spending time with the boy.
Before she knew it, Vivian stopped acting in front of Diaries.
Good times never last long.
“The 13th floor, which no one has ever conquered. Conquering the 13th floor is like a lifelong ambition for the Rüttebih family.”
“…..”
“My daughter Vivian, conquer the 13th floor and come back.”
The girl gulped. She didn’t want to go. Most people who challenged the 13th floor met with miserable results.
And Diaries might get hurt too.
“…I think it’s too dangerous.”
She opposed her father’s will for the first time.
“Vivian. You’re disappointing your father. Where did your confidence go?”
It failed.
“…That’s not it, I just considered the possibilities and realized it was impossible…”
Before the girl who hung her head, her father let out a deep sigh and then blurted out something he shouldn’t have said.
“Then try the 13th floor. Conquer it.”
“Father, I…”
“If you can’t conquer it, you’d better die there.”
“…..”
In the end, she couldn’t help but nod.
She hadn’t learned how to resist properly.
She started her challenge on the 13th floor.
Until the very end, she was most concerned about the boy’s safety.
Thanks to that, she could substitute for the diary and be crushed by the remnants.
She thought it was fortunate that she could keep acting until the end, facing the disappearing boy.
Fortunate.
Really.
Really fortunate.
As Vivian’s lifetime passed, a girl walked towards me.
“Hi.”
“Yeah.”
“Long time no see, Diaries.”
“Yeah.”
“Want to take a walk?”
She smiled brightly and hastened her steps beside me.
I found myself walking with Vivian.
We walked aimlessly, without saying a word to each other.
Under the blooming cherry blossom tree, we just kept walking.
Vivian seemed to be extremely happy to have met me, still smiling.
I slowly opened my mouth.
“Vivian.”
She responded to my words while repeating her steps.
“Yeah, Diaries.”
“Was it tough?”
Pause.
Vivian’s body momentarily stopped.
She looked straight at my face and replied with a bright smile.
“What’s tough about that? Look! I’m really strong. You were going to ask that, right?”
Seeing her laughter, her actions, and everything about her, I knew.
It was a lie.
Vivian was telling a lie.
.
Vivian was good at acting. She had been forced to live such a life.
She didn’t want the diary to feel guilty because of her, so she lied.
Thinking she had gotten away with it, she felt relieved and walked again. Who knows how long it’s been?
When she was basking in the happy atmosphere, his mouth opened again.
“Was it tough?”
“Again, you’re asking again! It wasn’t tough at all~”
She lied again. Her walking continued.
“Was it tough?”
“It really wasn’t tough. Can you stop asking me that already?”
She lied again.
The diary’s questions continued.
“Was it tough?”
“…Why are you doing this since earlier? Can’t you say something else when we finally meet?”
“Was it tough?”
Vivian was slightly annoyed by the repetitive question. She decided to ignore the diary’s words.
At the end of the continued walking, she arrived at a huge gate.
She stood in front of the gate and delivered her last words to the man.
Her last words, still with a smile.
Maintaining the smile.
“It’s time to part ways, bye.”
“Was it tough?”
“That’s what you’re saying again… I didn’t find it tough, you know? So don’t keep looking so down.”
The sound she made until the very end.
Vivian, whose heart had cooled, finally turned her body towards the gate.
Even in the last moment, she hid her true feelings. Vivian, who was about to open the gate, stopped moving.
“Was it tough?”
Because the diary had grabbed her hand.
“…..”
Vivian didn’t say a word. She couldn’t say a word.
From the moment she started walking, she had been living a life of perfection, forced to act.
Whether happy or sad, enjoyable or not, she always hid her true feelings.
So, she had become a caterpillar buried deep in a hard shell.
A defective product that couldn’t even say “I’m sad” when sad or show a happy face when happy.
A hard shell containing that defective product.
This man kept trying to enter that world.
The hand that held her was too warm, and she couldn’t help but lose her mind.
She just uttered the words that came to her mind.
“It was tough…”
The fake smile was washed away, and the rain poured down. It was the first rain she had cried in decades, and she didn’t even know how to stop.
She could only feel the tears flowing down her face.
She spoke from the heart.
“I was so, so scared. When I was left alone in the dungeon, I was scared to death.”
“…”
“And my body hurt so much it was scary. The dungeon was too dark and damp, it was disgusting.”
“…”
“But what scared me the most was that I couldn’t see Diarus anymore.”
“…”
“It’s because of the promise Cachi made to me that I was able to hold on.”
“…”
“Thank you for not giving up on me. Thank you for saving me. I’m… I’m really a happy person…”
The dam that had been holding back her emotions broke, and she couldn’t help but cry uncontrollably.
Vivian, who had poured out her true feelings, was anxious.
She was worried that Diarus might be disappointed in her true self.
She was worried that the person Diarus liked was the fake her.
Diarus seemed to understand her fears and hugged her tightly.
“I’ve come to save you.”
“…”
“I thought I was really going to die, it was such a long way.”
“…”
“I’m sorry for saying the same thing over and over. I can see that you’ve had a hard time, but you keep lying.”
“…Did you know?”
“I wouldn’t know, I’m not good at acting either.”
The cocoon envies the free and easy flight of the butterfly.
But despite that, she was afraid of being seen and hid her true self deep inside, where no one could see.
“Don’t lie to me, at least not in front of me. I can see right through it.”
“…”
The man didn’t miss the small gap in her tough shell. He looked at the cocoon, who was gazing out at the outside world, and said:
“Let’s go back, Vivian.”
“…Okay.”
The cocoon followed the man’s hand and shed its shell.
“Let’s go back, Diarus.”
Only then could she finally become a butterfly.
The sand in the hourglass had run out, and the fantasy world had disappeared.
.
I, who had returned to the original world, drew a magic circle with Luna’s help.
There was only one way to safely separate her from Behimos, who had merged with her.
It was the same method I used to absorb Latina’s curse.
Luna, who had finished drawing the magic circle, looked at me with inquiring eyes.
“What are we going to do now?”
I patted Luna’s back, as if to reassure her, and reached out my hand towards the portal.
As soon as I recited the incantation, I felt Behimos entering my body.
“Ugh…!”
“Are you okay?! Is that really okay…?”
After completely absorbing Behimos, my entire body ached for a while.
It took about 10 minutes before I could move my body again.
Seol-gwi had killed Behimos and turned it into her own nutrient.
After the last boss of the 13th floor died, the door to the 14th floor, along with various treasure chests, opened.
Finally, our expedition team had conquered the 13th floor.
I woke up my companions, picked up Vivian, and escaped from the dungeon.
As I opened the door, the cheers of the people filled the air.
It was so loud that I fainted on the spot.
.
This is a story that took place not long after Vivian was rescued.
She was teasing her favorite junior as usual.
“Can I tell one lie?”
“…Do as you please.”
“Hehe.”
The way to defeat monsters is,
“I love you, Diareus.”
It’s to love the monsters.
As if celebrating an unexpected confession of love, cherry blossoms fell onto her red hair.
Diareus smiled wryly and placed a cherry blossom on her head.
And, as if warning her not to tease, he tapped her head.
“Ow!”
Vivian also refused to back down, tapping Diareus’ arm.
The cherry blossoms falling between them signaled the end of spring.
However, Vivian was no longer afraid of the end of spring.
If we waited and waited…
“Let’s go with Diareus! The road is long, so let’s hurry!”
“I’ll follow soon.”
Someday, spring will come to them again.
The way to defeat monsters is… (Complete).