Wolf 1

I couldn’t follow the flow of the conversation at all.

Not Baekho, who suddenly asked her if she wanted to kill him, or Jayna, who answered without a moment’s hesitation.

Just what is the relationship between these two?

“Oh? Look at him glaring like an asshole again.”

“…….”

“S-stop it, Baek-ho…! Fighting among ourselves in a situation like this will only benefit the bastard who trapped us here!”

Aures, for once, tried to defuse the situation by saying something reasonable.

“You shut up. You think I don’t know you’re still in contact with the fortress lord?”

“W-what nonsense! I-I—!”

“Hey, you do know you can’t lie in here, right? But since you said you didn’t tell anyone you were leaving this time, I’ll let it slide.”

“Th-thank you……”

From the way they were talking, even the stupid Aures seemed to have been scheming something behind the scenes…

‘Then why the hell are these guys traveling together?’

It’s clear that Baek-ho’s concept of “companions” is completely different from mine.

“Baron, shouldn’t you step in?” The GM pleaded, “If this keeps up, the party might actually split up…”

“Just stay put. I’ll step in if it gets serious.” I replied, deciding it was better to observe for the moment.

At first, I didn’t understand why Lee Baek-ho was so suspicious of his allies, but…

‘Yeah… with this much going on behind the scenes, it makes sense.’

I almost let myself be fooled by how close they seemed, but they were the same type.

They’re only traveling together because their goals align.

These guys are not ‘allies’.

“Gramps…” Baekho started to say something to Fallen Gramps, but ended up just sighing and shaking his head. “It’s fine. I already know you’ve been scheming something from the start.”

He looked tired for some reason, almost as if he was sick of everything.

Did he suddenly get a dose of reality or something?

Click-

Regardless of what he was thinking, the duration of Misplaced Trust came to an end.

“There’s no point dragging this out. This should be enough to prove none of us are the traitor.”

“…….”

Maybe they still had some standards left—Baek-ho stuffed his “misaligned trust” back into his subspace.

Of course, he still had to add a completely unnecessary remark.

“It’s fortunate. Even I’d find it a little unpleasant to kill someone I’ve traveled with for years. Looks like I won’t have to.”

Then Baek-ho glanced at Jayna and smirked.

“Oh, right. You probably don’t know what that feels like. You weren’t even in your right mind back then.”

I didn’t know the exact circumstances, but I could instinctively tell those words hit her right in the heart.

Step. Step.

Jaina’s whole body was shaking as she quietly took a step toward Baekho, then another, before coming to a stop.

“So? You want to hit me?”

Looking up at him, she clenched her teeth and forced out her words.

“Lee Baek-ho… we are not your punching bags.”

“…….”

“So go cry to your mom if you want to throw a tantrum.”

It was such a sharp comeback that even GM and Aures, who were watching from the sidelines, flinched.

“Ah, but I suppose you can’t whine. You’ll never be able to return to your original world.”

Jayna had finally pushed him over the edge. In an instant, Baek-ho vanished from my sight.

BOOOOM—!

A deafening roar echoed, and a shockwave spread out in all directions.

“Heh, this is interesting.”

The situation was simple. Baek-ho tried to attack Jayna, and Aures, who was right beside her, blocked it with his shield.

“Seriously? You’ve been ranting about recovering your memories, and you’ve already attached yourself to someone?”
Even to an outsider like me, it sounded like the most pathetic, third-rate villain line imaginable. It felt like I’d finally glimpsed the true depth of Lee Baek-ho’s personality.
Even to an outsider like me, it sounded like the most pathetic, third-rate villain line to say. It felt like I’d
the true depth of Lee Baek-ho’s personality.

“Baek-ho, I understand your impatience, but regain your senses. This isn’t like you.”

“What is ‘like me’?”

“What do you mean ‘like me’?”

“Sure, you’re unpredictable and a constant headache, but at least you’re not the type to stir up trouble like this.”

Even though Baek-ho was ready to strike, Aures stared straight at him and spoke his mind boldly.

That’s a real tank.

There are no bad tanks in the world.

Baekho didn’t answer right away. After a moment, he let out a sigh.

“…Hah. I’m gonna go cool my head.”

After saying that, Baek-ho practically fled the room, and Aures let out a long, heavy sigh. It seemed the reality of the situation had finally sunk in for him.

“Phew… Baek-ho’s killing intent is always terrifying. I really thought I was going to suffocate and die.”

“For someone who says that, your eyes didn’t waver. I’m impressed.”

“Ahaha… I was protecting an ally. How could I possibly back down from that?”

“…Thank you.”

When Jayna thanked him quietly, Aures scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

“Then, would everyone like to go down first? I’ll stay behind for a bit to cool my head and follow you down.”

“Then do you all want to go ahead first?” our priest asked. “I’ll come after I’ve cooled my head a bit.”

“Ah… Ah! If you say so?”

‘If you say so?’ What kind of answer is that? Before Aures could say anything else, I quickly intervened.

“I won’t allow anyone to act alone. There’s no guarantee it’s safe here.”

“B-but Baek-ho went off alone…”

Don’t get smart with me.

Baek-ho and priest are not the same.

“No. I won’t allow it.”

Despite my firm tone, Aures didn’t back down.

“If the problem is her being alone, then I’ll stay by her side. That’s fine, right?”

Well, if he puts it that way, it’s hard to argue.

Uh… when he puts it that way, I really don’t have anything to counter with. Has he been capable of speaking this logically all along and just never bothered?

Regardless of how surprised I was, there was no way I was letting him do that. “No.”

“No.”

“And why not?”

There are several reasons. The first is that I’m still uneasy about entrusting our one and only priest to this guy…

“But you clearly said being alone was the issue! I’m saying I’ll stay with her, so what’s the problem?”

The second reason is this guy himself. If relationship problems arise within a team that’s already splitting apart, it’ll become a real mess.

“Give me a proper answer. Otherwise, I won’t back down—”

Ugh, so noisy.

“Then, you guys go down first. I’ll stay with her.”

Since he didn’t seem willing to back down if I just said no, I decided to stay.

“H-huh? Y-you don’t have to…”

As expected, Aures was flustered.

“It’s fine, Aures. I’ll be right behind you, so don’t worry.”

“…All right.”

With Jayna backing me, Aures couldn’t protest and left with slumped shoulders. Then..

“He’s an interesting person, isn’t he?”

Once we were the only two left in the stone chamber, Jayna spoke to me.

“He’s been like that since before. Even when he’s joking around, he keeps stealing glances at me.”

“You knew?”

“How could I not? He’s so obvious.”

To be honest, I hadn’t really realized it until today.

“By the way, it’s just the two of us again.”

“Yeah, it just turned out that way. I’ll stay quiet on my end, so take your time and sort out your thoughts.”I sat down cross-legged near the entrance, while Jayna leaned against the wall a short distance away.

A quiet silence settled over us.

As I chewed on some jerky and sank into my thoughts, she suddenly spoke up again.

“…Aren’t you going to ask?”

The question came out of nowhere, but I could see why she asked it.

“Didn’t you say you needed some time alone?” I asked.

“But I’m not alone… right?”

Well… she wasn’t wrong.

“So if I ask, will you tell me?”

I hadn’t really thought much about the question, and Jayna answered with the same casual tone.

“It’s not like I can’t tell you. It’s not something I’d bring up myself, but it’s not something I need to hide either.”

“……”

“And besides… isn’t that why you stayed? Because you’re curious?”

Well… that was part of it “But the real reason is something else.”

“What is it?”

“With the way things are right now, letting feelings get involved could make everything messy,” I admitted honestly.

Jayna let out a laugh, as if she hadn’t expected that answer, then shifted the conversation. “No, on second thought, I won’t tell you.”

“……What, suddenly?”

“Just because. It’s not an interesting story anyway.”

“That so? Suit yourself.”

Tch. I shouldn’t have expected anything. I let out a sigh, feeling strangely disappointed.

Perhaps she felt a pang of guilt when she saw my reaction.

“Still, I’ll tell you one thing. I lied to you before, Baron. Or to be exact, I purposely left out something.”

“What was that?”

“The person I wanted to save so badly that I offered my memories to Karui. I was the one who killed that person. Well, you probably guessed to some extent after hearing Lee Baek-ho’s words.”

“Can I ask how it happened?”

“There wasn’t some grand reason. Karui asked for that person as a sacrifice. Promised me a new authority in exchange. So… I killed them.”

“…….”

“It was a power that saved my life several times. But… if I had known it would suffocate me like this, I never would have… never…”

Her voice was thick with regret, so I didn’t press further and gave her some time alone.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes… about thirty minutes passed before Jayna finally stood up, saying she was fine now, and went down the stairs ahead of me.

“Are you feeling better now?”

Aures approached her the moment we entered the ruins. The two of them seemed to be talking about something, but I didn’t bother eavesdropping

“Where’s Baek-ho?”

When I asked GM about Baekho, he just said that he still hadn’t come back.

Hah. Was this guy seriously going through puberty or something?

“Should we search for him?”

“Don’t bother, why search? If we wait, he’ll come back on his own.”

“But what about the mysterious entity lurking in the ruins with us?”

“We’ll wait a little longer. If he still doesn’t show up, we can go look for him then.”

More importantly, there’s something we need to talk about while Baek-ho isn’t here.

“Hey.”

Ending the conversation with GM, I headed toward the Ruin Scholar.

“What is it, Baron?”

“There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

“Go on.”

He wasn’t the talkative type, so I got straight to the point.

“Baek-ho. Does he seem normal to you?”

Honestly, I’d been feeling it for a while. No matter how much of a non-normal person that Baek-ho guy is, he’s not the type to act so thoughtlessly.

He only ever does things that benefit him.

“If even you’re saying that, then he’s probably not in his right mind.”

“So you also noticed something was off?”

“His standards aren’t based on good or evil. No matter the situation, he always tries to think and act rationally. But what he did today was far too emotional.”

“Could he simply be feeling pressured? Acting out from impatience?”

“That’s laughable. If he were the kind of man who grew impatient over something like this, he wouldn’t have been able to chase the same goal for nearly twenty years.”

“…That’s true.”

Then what on earth made Lee Baek-ho like this?

Some kind of unknown field effect?

But if that were the case, why is everyone except Baek-ho perfectly fine?

As I was thinking this, the Ruin Scholar quietly approached and changed the subject.

“More than that, something else concerns me.”

“What do you mean?”

“As I kept going over the situation, I could only reach one conclusion. Someone in the group is leaking our information.”

“I thought we settled that issue already.”

We even used the Misplaced Trust on everyone—Baekho’s teammates and even GM. Baekho couldn’t use it on me since it doesn’t work on me, but still… why was Ruin Gramps bringing it up now?

“Don’t tell me… you suspect me and Lee Baek-ho?”

No matter how I thought about it, this was the only answer that came to mind. When I lowered my tone, Ruin Gramps chuckled.

“That’s not it. Of course, you certainly have a motive to interfere with us… but there’s someone far more suspicious than you.”

“Stop dragging it out and get to the point.”

“There’s still one person we never got an answer from.”

What is this old man talking about?

He keeps saying things that don’t make sense.

“Bright.”

“…What?”

“We never heard him say he wasn’t the traitor, did we?”

“…Don’t tell me you think he’s alive?”

“Well, since I saw the corpse myself, I’d say the chances are extremely low…”

“But his death doesn’t prove he was innocent.”

The Ruin Scholar continued in a calm, emotionless tone.

“No matter how many times I reconsider, I always arrive at the same conclusion.”

“…….”

“If there is a mole among us, it simply has to be Bright.”

I didn’t know if he had any more evidence, but the old man seemed convinced that Bright was the traitor.

Hearing him, my own thoughts became complicated.

The priest wants Baek-ho dead, the warrior’s just the castle lord’s puppet, and the mage is plotting something entirely different. And now the archer turned out to be the traitor…

“Did Baek-ho even try to form a proper team?”

 

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