There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 101

‘Wait. My head has stopped working, so I can’t think straight.’

Could Ryuseong, on his way to pick me up, have been punched in the face by Alice from Wonderland and shrunk?

I fought against the part of my brain that wanted to deny reality and forced myself to face the truth. That’s a baby version of Ryuseong, isn’t it? It is, but at the same time, it isn’t, and it’s driving me crazy. What I’m trying to say is…

‘That’s a trauma from the inner world…!’

Then again, if Ryuseong and I were to pinpoint when our traumas were formed, they’re all concentrated in our childhoods. Even so, I never expected it to take the form of such a young child…! The shock was so great that I couldn’t stay sane. As if seizing that moment, the little Ryuseong charged at me and immediately swung his sword.

And I hadn’t adapted in the slightest to Ryuseong’s shrunken body.

‘It’s definitely not because of love that I can’t kill him!’

Whoooosh!

Man, for a little brat, he sure wields a sword well! Life truly is unfair! Rather than just stepping back, I practically tumbled away and barely managed to evade the trajectory that was meant to split my chest in half. I rolled on the ground to dodge the next attack, and after just barely regaining my balance, I scrambled toward Ivan Karpin’s back. As I beat a hasty retreat, fast enough to make the air whistle, the look on Ivan Karpin’s face when we met was quite a sight to behold, but I had no choice if I wanted to live.

As soon as I hid myself securely behind the tough soldier raised by the frigid lands, the young Ryuseong immediately deemed Ivan Karpin a new enemy and began to size him up. He took a step back to deal with the iron-walled man, then thrust fiercely from an unorthodox angle.

Clang!

After a few blows were exchanged, Ivan Karpin’s face turned pale. Haha, our Ryuseong is damn strong, isn’t he? Of course, that wasn’t something I, who was now his enemy, should be saying. However, rather than helping Ivan Karpin to take down the young Ryuseong, I let Ryuseong attack Ivan Karpin to his heart’s content.

“Young Master! What are you doing, not helping!”

“Did we ever agree to be comrades?”

“What, you punk?”

It’s a little awkward for me to say this, but is there any guarantee that we could win even if I joined in? Anyway, true to my damn-the-world-I’ll-do-what-I-want life, I pushed all the aggro onto the Russian officer, and once I took a breath, life felt worth living again. Ivan Karpin seemed flustered that I had withdrawn from the battle and desperately called my name… But oh dear, how could I, his lover, hurt Ryuseong?

‘What a crazy excuse.’

So, you can just get your ass kicked all by yourself. Heheheh.

‘…That was a joke just now. For real.’

Anyway, I’m just watching the fight to prepare my winning move.

Because if I fought seriously, I might accidentally die. It’s already hard for me to beat Ryuseong without getting hurt, even though I can kill him… If so, for a dungeon trauma that must be killed, shouldn’t I be able to show my full skills? Hold on, kid. The world doesn’t work that simply.

Therefore, Cassis de Millang’s calm amethyst eyes watched for a while as Ivan Karpin barely defended against the young Ryuseong’s fierce attacks. But he couldn’t help feeling strangely detached, as if having an out-of-body experience. And it was only natural, what with the handsome, large Ryuseong I was used to seeing gone, and only this little kid running around all by himself.

‘…I feel like I’m floating.’

From Ivan Karpin’s perspective, Ryuseong, who was swinging his greatsword with the intent to kill him, was surely terrifying. However, I don’t know about Cassis de Millang, but at least I, Jeong Ian, couldn’t believe the scene before me. In fact, it might be natural that I couldn’t adapt. It wasn’t Ryuseong who had shrunk, but my sanity, and what appeared before my eyes wasn’t Ryuseong either. He was just a fake child manifested from Ryuseong’s trauma, a false and distorted image.

“Why does he have to be so lifelike…”

…and drive me crazy, I muttered.

“And break my collarbone? I know. So please, just help me!”

A slow laugh escaped me at the sudden outburst of nonsense. For someone with such a difficult and stern-looking face, Ivan Karpin seemed to be a rather funny person.

On the other hand, my rational mind knew that I should cooperate when he was trying to laugh it off. This dungeon would have fed on Jeong Ian’s trauma and grown stronger than it was in the original story.

I know it too. The weight of my trauma is no joke. That’s why I can’t let a named, unique-titled hunter like Ivan Karpin go to waste so pointlessly.

This is the unique title Ivan Karpin possesses. <Blue Wolf of the Snowy Mountain>. It’s such a badass title that I almost want to ask to trade it for Ryuseong’s. I’m only saying this because Ryuseong’s is just <Guardian of the World>. Although Cassis de Millang doesn’t have a unique title, his reputation isn’t any less than the named hunters… so, I.

‘I don’t know.’

The Ryuseong before me is a fake. Nothing but a fake. I don’t need to be afraid of it. But why do I feel this way? Do I not want to hurt him? Even though he’s just a fake? I couldn’t tell. I truly couldn’t tell. But as I was about to draw my own blood to prepare blood magic, our eyes suddenly met, and in that gaze, I was able to realize many things.

Ah, I…

‘I’m feeling a sense of kinship right now.’

Jeong Ian is a fake. He’s just a transmigrator, not the real Cassis de Millang.

The Ryuseong before me is the same. He is just a self, a monster, created based on trauma.

He is not the real Ryuseong. And so, Cassis de Millang…

‘I don’t want to kill him.’

He dared to think such a thing.

‘Dared.’

Projecting his own self-image, in a dungeon where anyone could die at any moment, he was being so generous and leisurely, thinking he didn’t want to harm Ryuseong. Creating what must have looked to others like a very lovey-dovey scene, he embraced the young Ryuseong who leaped toward him at the same time as Ivan Karpin’s scream. Doing this would surely get him stabbed by Ryuseong’s sword, but that would draw blood, so he believed he could then respond.

Pleading that he was at least that smart…

He prayed against the imminent pain.

‘Just allow me a hug.’

Shit. I think I’m really a man of pure love. I gritted my teeth, feeling like I was getting the short end of the stick, but then I felt something strange. Ivan Karpin, who, according to the original character analysis, should have been rebuking Cassis de Millang long ago, was rubbing his face with his dry hands as if he had nothing to say. Wondering why he was acting like that, I looked down at my perfectly painless belly and witnessed the little Ryuseong clinging to me, his legs wrapped around my waist. Wait, what is this?

Don’t tell me, did I just tame the young Ryuseong?

‘This kid, did he get tamed just by looking at me?!’

Damn it. He’s too docile! How can I release a kid like this into the harsh world!

So I decided to raise him instead of releasing him.

“Sit.”

“…”

“Stay.”

“…”

“Eat.”

Ivan Karpin stared as if he’d seen a ghost at the young Ryuseong, who was sitting on my thigh, happily eating a piece of bread, but I didn’t give a damn.

‘Is he kidding me?’

Ivan Karpin had never seen such a crazy bastard in a century. Was that to be expected? Is this kind of shittiness standard-issue for a scion of de Millang? But Ivan Karpin couldn’t think so. The successive de Millang children he had seen, except for a few outstanding ones, were all arrogant in a humble way, equipped with an appropriate air of pretentiousness and obnoxiousness. And those few outstanding ones had now become the masters of a great noble family whom Ivan Karpin dared not look down upon, or were next in line.

Ivan Karpin remembered their gazes, filled with a frighteningly cold elegance.

Perhaps only one, Isaac de Millang, had smiled innocently like a kind and neat gentleman.

But Cassis de Millang had nothing in common with any of them.

‘To the point where I wonder how such a mutant could be born from Isaac and his wife.’

He had seen the cold elegance in their first meeting. So he’d thought, ah, as befits a young master, he’s of that sort. That’s why he thought he’d face serious repercussions if he didn’t treat him with courtesy. But then, to return command just like that and quietly set up his own tent.

Of course, Ryuseong had been the one to build the barracks, but just not mobilizing this side’s forces was something to be thankful for. The personnel for monitoring and guarding the dungeon were already stretched to their limit. For someone in that position, he could have easily blamed them for discovering the dungeon break too late.

‘Does he simply cover for the faults of others?’

And on top of that, to possess a heart warm enough to tame a lump of trauma that was less than a beast.

‘Just what kind of person is he? Why is it that the more I look, the more new sides of him I see.’

He was so different from the image Ivan Karpin had rashly held due to his preconceptions.

And so, Ivan Karpin wanted to know him a little more.

It was the moment Cassis, feeling the gaze on him becoming overtly intense, was thinking:

‘Is that bastard trying to get himself killed? He couldn’t even get the date of the dungeon break right, and now he’s giving me that fucking look with his eyes? Staring like an X?’

Just then, the baby Ryuseong kissed Cassis on the cheek.

“Cu. Cute.”

Cassis’s mind went completely blank.

He was half-dazed, about to let the baby Ryuseong pull him in and plant a kiss on his lips when it happened.

“Are you insane? Cheating on me out here?”

The real Ryuseong had appeared.

‘Sh, shit.’