Chapter 110 : Medusa - 2
Chapter 110: Medusa - 2
Karin asked with a bewildered expression.
“W-what are you saying, suddenly showing up like that? No, why didn’t the spirits say anything.”
“Those things could never notice me.”
“Don’t underestimate the spirits.”
“I’m not ignoring them. I’m ignoring you.”
After saying that, Magireta looked over our group from head to toe.
And then she asked me.
“Come to think of it, you would’ve obviously known since you’re the little brother. I worried for nothing.”
“…….”
“Good. I didn’t need to… hmm.”
“Please continue speaking, sister.”
“Mason.”
“You were going to say, ‘I didn’t need to warn you anyway,’ right?”
Magireta smiled softly.
That smile soon became a sign of affirmation.
But she was mistaken about one thing.
I corrected that misunderstanding.
“This time I really don’t know anything.”
“What?”
“All I know is that you would come today. And that you would sigh as if you wanted to tell me something but couldn’t.”
“…….”
“To add one more thing, maybe… that I will die the day after tomorrow.”
After a short silence, Magireta asked.
“Isn’t that enough to say you know everything?”
“I don’t know what will kill me or how. That’s why I can’t make any preparations.”
“…….”
“I can’t tell if a meteor will fall from the sky and hit me, or if I’ll trip on the road and die from shattering my jaw. So give me a hint.”
Magireta’s lips twitched.
We held our breath and waited for her words.
However.
“Haa.”
Just as I saw in the Future Diary, she only let out a long sigh.
She even tapped her chest as if feeling frustrated.
Magireta spoke in a somewhat gloomy voice.
“……I’m going.”
“No. Please don’t go.”
“I have nothing to say to my little brother.”
“It’s not that you have nothing to say, it’s that you can’t say it, right? Something must be restraining your mouth.”
Her body jolted faintly.
I continued speaking.
“After seeing the future, I did think about it. First, I focused on what exactly would kill me.”
“…….”
“I’ve lived kindly, so I’ve never built up grudges with anyone. Except for one person—Edgar.”
“…….”
“So I assumed this crisis would also originate from Edgar. Then the next deduction followed naturally.”
Edgar had already suffered heavily from our group several times.
After all that, that self-proclaimed genius must have thought of another move.
—Let’s not do it myself.
Use someone else and get things done without getting my hands dirty. He must have thought that.
“But ordinary humans can’t kill me. I’m weak myself, but the companions who protect me are extremely strong.”
“Continue.”
“I remembered that a monster named Louis is beside Edgar. Perhaps Edgar learned information about other monsters from Louis? And among them, he might have used Louis as a mediator to request cooperation from a monster?”
“…….”
“Yes. Edgar is using a monster to try to kill me. That’s my guess.”
I wetted my lips.
My throat felt completely dry.
But I kept speaking as evenly as possible.
“At this point Edgar must have made a deal with you. A deal not to tell me about his plan.”
“…….”
“You admitted you favor me more than Edgar, right? That guy must have noticed, so he took measures to prevent me from preparing anything. That must be why you can’t warn me.”
So. How about it.
My deduction is right, isn’t it?
I observed Magireta closely.
She couldn’t tell me the answer because of some restriction.
So I had to guess out loud and read her expressions or behavior.
‘Damn it.’
But Magireta’s expression didn’t move at all.
I couldn’t tell if I was right or wrong.
“……Judging from that face, it’s not just that you can’t warn me verbally. You’ve been stopped from warning me by ‘any possible method’.”
“Well. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“…….”
“You have nothing more to say, right? I’ll go.”
“Wait. Please wait. Just 5 minutes—no… just 3 minutes.”
Magireta sighed and waited.
She didn’t need to grant my request.
Did she also not want me to die here?
‘No. It doesn’t feel like that.’
Back in the Bungee Jump Quest, wasn’t Magireta excited at the thought of bringing me to Hell?
There was something more than simply not wanting my death.
What was it?
How could I get information out of her?
“……Ah!”
A spark of realization struck my mind.
I hurriedly spoke to the Diary Book.
‘Diary Book. Can you also show me what Magireta wrote?’
[What do you mean.]
‘The peeking function. The function that lets me peek at what someone wrote!’
[Ah! Right, that existed. It works. Probably works.]
‘Really?’
[Yes. For that, you don’t need the author’s real name. You just need the name by which the target is currently being referred to.]
That’s right.
From the beginning, hadn’t I torn Edgar’s letter with the peeking function and scattered it into the world?
Edgar Tyler wasn’t the first name he was ever given. In other words, it wasn’t his real name.
Even so, there had been no problem at all peeking into that guy’s letter.
So even if Magireta’s name wasn’t her real name, I could still read what she wrote.
“Sister. Write it down.”
“What?”
“Write every hint you want to give me in writing.”
“I can’t… No, I don’t even know what hint you’re talking about.”
“You remember the incident with Edgar’s letter, right?”
At those words, not only Magireta but even our companions realized what I meant.
Clap.
Armelia even clapped her hands as she spoke.
“I see. That method will work!”
“…….”
“Magireta. You don’t need to give us a hint. Just go back and write a diary or something.”
At the word ‘diary,’ I flinched slightly.
“Needless to say, you don’t even need to show that diary to us. Just write something that only you will see. Mason will take care of the rest.”
“Ha.”
“Why are you laughing?”
“Edgar may be immortal, but he was originally just an ordinary human.”
Her voice grew a bit sharp as she continued.
“Just because peeking into his letter was possible, do you think my little brother can peek into my diary too? Aren’t you looking down on me too much?”
“I’m not looking down on you. I’m just placing Mason above you.”
“You don’t understand what you’re saying right now.”
Magireta’s voice dropped.
She swiftly turned toward me.
Her eyes were hidden under her hood, but I felt certain something like a glow was shining from within.
“Little brother. You have a helper, don’t you?”
…….
This almost turned into trouble.
I nearly reacted without realizing it.
Using every ounce of composure I had cultivated throughout my life, I stayed calm.
I inhaled lightly through my nose and answered.
“What are you talking about?”
“The memory you offered as payment before. And the blood you offered as well. Both were completely ordinary—nothing special at all. Just a normal human’s.”
“…….”
“A little brother like that couldn’t possibly awaken mysterious abilities overnight. There must be someone unseen helping you.”
My companions looked at me.
Their expressions asked whether that claim was true.
I tilted my head innocently.
“No. I’m just a late bloomer.”
“It’s fine. I’m not blaming you for it. No matter how impressive your helper may be, finishing the quests safely so far was entirely thanks to your own ideas.”
“…….”
“I can’t see through the unknown abilities your helper has. That’s why I overlooked your cheating in the Pop Quiz.”
During the Pop Quiz, I had taken the exam safely using the Diary Book’s Secret Conversation function.
Magireta had realized that I had ‘done something.’
She simply hadn’t figured out what it was, so she let it go without treating it as cheating.
“But likewise, your helper won’t surpass my abilities. If they could, they wouldn’t have let you participate in such dangerous quests until now.”
“…….”
“……or so I thought.”
“If I can take the writing you leave behind, that would mean my helper surpasses your omnipotence, right?”
Magireta remained silent.
I continued.
“There’s more. The deal between you and Edgar must have been ‘by any means,’ you were not to warn Mason. Correct?”
“…….”
“If I can secretly read what you wrote and nothing happens, that means my mysterious helper even tricked your deal system.”
“…….”
“You hate that. Or maybe I should say, you don’t want to acknowledge it.”
Crack.
Magireta ground her teeth.
Hearing that, Aina spoke.
“Does it upset you? The thought that someone greater than you exists?”
“It’s not that it upsets me… I’m saying such a being couldn’t possibly exist.”
“Then you can write your diary normally. Since it shouldn’t be able to see through it anyway.”
Magireta fell into a contradiction of her own making.
The rest of the group added their own comments.
“You’ve always tormented and toyed with people from above. You crushed weak, powerless humans. Now you know even a tiny fraction—one ten-millionth—of what they felt.”
“In any case, give us the information. No—just scribble it down on a note only you’ll read.”
“If we die here, we can’t participate in the game anymore. And you said Mason’s play is fun to watch. Isn’t it a waste to lose that?”
“It’s not exactly a substitute, but we’ll definitely send Edgar—the one who caused trouble for you—to Hell with our own hands.”
“Help us. I may have just joined, but I’ve come to like these people.”
Magireta bit her lip and said nothing.
I hadn’t expected to see her emotions sway this intensely.
I waited as patiently as possible, but once five minutes passed, that patience evaporated completely.
“Sister……”
“I’m leaving.”
“Wait! A name. At least tell me the name. No—write it.”
“I said I’m going.”
“Even a single line is fine. Just the name of the monster who will come for us!”
Swoosh.
But Magireta disappeared without answering.
For a moment, everything before my eyes went dark.
After that, my companions and I called out to Magireta one after another.
But she no longer appeared.
Aina muttered.
“She shows up whenever she wasn’t called… but not now, huh…”
Exactly.
Armelia asked me,
“But Mason, can you really gain information just by learning the name?”
“For now. Though honestly, getting a full explanation would be better.”
“If you can’t get information from Magireta, how about hearing it directly from Edgar?”
“About that……”
I quietly handed her the compass.
Sharp as always, Armelia understood instantly and murmured while holding it.
“Edgar Tyler.”
And soon, her eyes widened.
Berseum asked,
“Your Highness, what is the matter?”
“There isn’t a single red dot anywhere on the map.”
“What? Could he be dead?”
“There’s no word that suits Edgar less than ‘dead.’”
“Then why…?”
I gave them my answer.
“After guessing that the threat approaching me must have come from Edgar, I checked with the compass immediately. From that moment on, no red dot showed up at all.”
“Do you understand why?”
“Because he’s not in this world.”
“What do you—”
I pointed upward.
“He must be in Hell.”