Chapter 8: That Dummy
"Don't show your teeth. It's terrifying."
Fortunately, the aggro wasn't drawn.
Kamel seemed to feel a significant threat from the figure referred to as "him."
The more Kamel’s attention focused on him, the better it was for me. That way, I could divert his gaze from myself later on.
‘Placing that Dummy was a good move.’
The "him" I mentioned to Kamel was a type of Dummy. A fictional character I had created.
I needed time to acquire the strength necessary for survival after escaping, and the Dummy would serve to buy that time by drawing Kamel’s attention. So far, it seemed that the Dummy had successfully captivated Kamel’s interest.
“What do I gain from this alliance?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“He said that if you expressed your intention to form an alliance, he’d tell you directly in person.”
“In person?”
At those words, Kamel's interest was piqued.
“When and where?”
“In a small village near the Elletor Territory in two weeks. If you provide a map…”
“That can be arranged later. About this alliance sign you mentioned—does it involve releasing you?”
“……”
Typical of a smart guy. He was frighteningly quick to catch on.
But simply begging for my life wouldn't be enough.
You have to be even more shameless with villains.
“Two, 20,000 gold.”
“What?”
“I demand both my release and 20,000 gold.”
Kamel tilted his head in confusion. The person who had offered the rights to a gold mine as a negotiation condition was now demanding just 20,000 gold?
“I get releasing you, but what’s the 20,000 gold for?”
“I’ll spend it.”
“What?”
“It’s my retirement fund.”
“……”
“I’m quitting being an assassin.”
Kamel smirked, looking incredulous.
The bastard who had left a massive scar on his face with a suicide attack before the regression was now demanding money, claiming he was retiring right in front of him.
As things weren’t going as planned, Kamel clicked his tongue briefly, while I blinked innocently, waiting for his next words.
As if I knew absolutely nothing aside from what I was told.
Come on, after all this, just let me live, you bastard.
After pondering for a moment, Kamel soon called for Lyon and left a few words before turning his gaze back to me.
“Trust is essential for any alliance.”
“O-of course! If you release me immediately, even ‘he’ will respond positively.”
“About that alliance sign. It will have to be postponed.”
“…Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“I need some verification.”
What kind of verification?
Now that I think about it, Lyon was nowhere to be seen. Where did that bastard go?
Just as uneasiness began creeping in, Lyon returned, bringing someone into the prison.
It was a small figure cloaked in a dull gray robe.
“You called for me?”
“I need your abilities.”
The moment the man in front of me removed his robe, I gasped.
His entire face, extending down below his neck, was covered with hideous tattoos.
The gaze that met mine exuded a chilling eeriness.
He emitted a dangerous aura. The kind that makes you think he’s killed a lot of people.
When I saw him pull out a transparent crystal orb from the sleeve of his robe, I immediately recognized his profession.
‘A shaman!’
These beings perform great or small miracles through mystical or dark magic.
Those who practice the mystical arts usually deal with nature and life, so there’s no need to worry about harm. But no matter how I looked at him, this guy seemed specialized in dark magic.
Of course, someone by Kamel’s side would be a dark shaman.
As he presented the crystal and examined me as though appraising a mere object, an unsettling feeling washed over me.
“How much of this one’s memory can you extract?”
“Can I kill him?”
Can he kill me?
His first words were chilling.
This tattooed freak...
Wait, extracting memories? Is that already possible?
“He can’t die.”
“What memories are you looking for?”
“About the past month or so?”
“He could end up a complete idiot.”
Kamel briefly glanced at me, as if calculating the value of having me around if I became a complete idiot. After a moment, he smiled and nodded.
“It doesn’t matter.”
‘...Fucking hell.’
I momentarily forgot.
Kamel, this bastard, is the bloodless, tearless, main villain of Chapter 1.
Just a moment ago, it seemed like negotiations were going smoothly, but from the start, this guy never had any intention of negotiating properly.
It would’ve been fine if I were just being kept alive, but—
‘A…an idiot?’
A sense of crisis washed over me.
This was a wild card.
I knew dark shamans who aided the Massacrer’s forces would show up, but that was supposed to be around the middle of the chapter. I never expected Kamel to have a dark shaman capable of extracting memories by his side this early on.
As soon as Kamel finished speaking, the shaman began preparing a ritual right beneath my feet, and my heart started pounding like crazy.
‘Should I just blow everything up and die together?’
Even if I blew up, I doubted I could kill Kamel, who was protected by Lyon.
Of course, I had zero intention of committing suicide.
I wanted to live.
“I need to arrive at the place he mentioned before the two weeks are up!”
“As long as you’re alive, you can get there, can’t you?”
“N-no! Only I know the exact location…!”
“We’ll know once we extract your memories.”
He wasn’t listening.
He clearly had other intentions for extracting my memories.
‘His identity!’
Kamel must have been convinced that “he” had made contact with him and was doing this to confirm it. But the truth was, “he” didn’t exist. If they extracted my memories, the lie would be exposed, and then...
‘I’ll die!’
As my heart sank, the shaman rose from his position and bowed his head toward Kamel.
“I’ll need you to leave for a moment.”
“You’re telling me to leave?”
“I’m going to burn herbs necessary for the ritual, and they are extremely harmful to the mind.”
“Harmful to the mind?”
“It’s called Paralyzing Herb. Once inhaled, it weakens the mind’s defenses. Consider it preparation for memory extraction.”
The shaman’s last words made my mind snap to attention.
Paralyzing Herb?
That was the same poisonous herb the assassins from Crux had burned next to my bedside. Its effect was to break down the mental barriers of the target.
Now that I looked closely, familiar plants were scattered all around me.
If this was Paralyzing Herb...
‘It didn’t work on me before, though.’
Even after inhaling large amounts of Paralyzing Herb, I hadn’t been poisoned or affected at all. It was because I had remained unaffected by the brainwashing that I managed to survive.
And now they were planning to burn Paralyzing Herb near me?
As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I urgently called out to Kamel.
He had already turned his back, about to leave the room.
“It… it won’t work!!”
Fortunately, I managed to stop him in his tracks.
“The magic won’t work on me. Extracting my memories is impossible.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I’ve received a blessing from him. He predicted this would happen.”
Predicted it, my ass.
I was just spouting nonsense, hoping something would stick.
It just seemed like something I could endure.
The shaman, who had begun burning the Paralyzing Herb on the ground, chuckled mockingly at my words.
“You're spewing nonsense. With the energy flowing through your body, there’s no way you’ll withstand Paralyzing Herb. By the end of half a day, I’ll have extracted every single memory from your soul.”
“……”
“Heh heh heh, are you scared?”
Of course I’m scared, you tattooed freak.
If it were you, you'd have pissed yourself by now.
Instead of answering, I kept my mouth tightly shut and stared at Kamel. Sometimes, silence is the most persuasive argument. Please let this work.
“If what you claim turns out to be true, we’ll talk again.”
But my words were dismissed, and Kamel left the room with his knight.
Now, it was just me and the shaman.
Looking at the guy grinning with those rotten teeth gave me suicidal thoughts.
‘Should I just blow everything up and die?’
The shaman continued chanting incomprehensible incantations, and soon the crystal orb began to react.
Fwoosh―!
“……!”
A purple light emanated from the orb and surrounded the shaman.
From that moment, the shaman began muttering incantations while burning the Paralyzing Herb. As the herb burned, the prison filled with a thick white smoke, but the shaman seemed completely unaffected.
The purple light surrounding him seemed to be shielding his mind.
Cough, cough!
The amount of smoke was far greater than what the assassins had used before.
The suffocating fumes stung my eyes and throat. It was so harsh, it reminded me of a gas chamber.
But other than that, I was fine.
This confirmed it.
Paralyzing Herb didn’t affect me.
‘Could this be my ability?’
I started wondering if perhaps I had been granted some special ability after being dragged into this novel world.
At first, I thought maybe this body had some kind of special power, but that didn’t quite add up.
‘If that were the case, I wouldn’t have fallen under the brainwashing and tried to blow up Kamel in the first place.’
The power to resist Paralyzing Herb must have something to do with me.
With a little extra time, I began to survey my surroundings. The purple smoke drifting through the air gave the room a gloomy, almost hallucinatory atmosphere.
At some point, the shaman was holding the crystal orb in front of me, continuing his incantations.
He seemed to be attempting to extract my memories, so I clenched my eyes shut.
Paralyzing Herb aside, the glowing crystal itself seemed dangerous.
Only the sound of chanting filled the prison, and quite some time seemed to pass.
Then, all of a sudden…
“……”
The chanting stopped abruptly.
I cautiously opened my eyes and looked ahead. The shaman was inspecting the crystal orb with a puzzled expression.
“This can’t be happening…?”
It seemed the ritual had failed.
‘At least I avoided becoming an idiot.’
I had boasted so confidently, but I didn’t expect the sorcery to actually fail.
Was my ability not just limited to being immune to Paralyzing Herb?
This was something I’d definitely need to look into if I had the time. It could be crucial to my survival going forward.
“What did you do, you little bastard!”
Seeing that I was completely unaffected, the shaman grabbed my neck roughly and started shaking me.
“S-stop… kuh!”
You tattooed freak. How do you expect me to answer if you’re choking me? If you want answers, let go.
I tried to struggle, but the chains restrained me.
Then, all of a sudden, the shaman began chanting again, this time with a harsher, more vicious tone.
The crystal orb floated in front of my eyes.
Something didn’t feel right.
Flash―
The shaman’s eyes turned a deep purple.
The moment my gaze locked with those purple eyes, my head throbbed, and soon, the pain escalated until it felt like my skull was about to explode.
“Gahhhh!”
As I screamed, a chilling voice echoed in my mind.
‘Insolent worm! Bow down!’
It was the enraged voice of the shaman.
It felt as though his voice was forcibly taking over my mind.
Like I was being hypnotized, my own eyes began to turn the same shade of purple as his.
My mind went blank, and a sense of emptiness washed over me. Fear swelled as I felt myself on the verge of becoming a complete idiot. Just as my mind reached its breaking point, I heard a loud explosion.
Boom―!
“……!”
It felt like an explosion had gone off in my head.
No, it felt more like an explosion had happened.
At the same time,
Crack—!
The crystal orb that had been floating in the air cracked and shattered.
The shaman’s grip on my neck went limp, and I gasped for breath.
I had almost choked to death.
“Urgh! What the hell…!”
My half-faded consciousness slowly returned.
Something hot began trickling down from my eyes. I thought it was tears, but the liquid dripping to the ground was red.
The same was true of the hot liquid flowing from my nose.
From my eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, dark red blood streamed out. But I didn’t even feel the pain, instead staring blankly at the gruesome sight below.
I saw the collapsed shaman.
But…
“……His head.”
The shaman’s head was completely gone.
It looked as if it had been struck by a bomb.