Saving My Favorite in a Doomed World Chapter 127

「(True) Hell of Falsehood arrives. Now, the world for liars has ended.」 

「The world will collapse soon. Every liar trapped here will die. There are no exceptions.」

 

A world where liars die.

 

If such a world existed, those fellows would surely say I’d be the first to drop dead.

 

Even back at the Academy, we used to talk about things like that quite often.

 

— Brother, you are a liar. 

 

— Hm? Why do you think so? 

 

— Because you always say you aren’t kind. But among all the b*st… I mean, people I’ve seen, there’s no one kinder than you. 

 

— Dear sister, that is because you haven’t seen the whole world yet. …Yes, it would be good for you to go on a journey to see the wider world once you graduate from the Academy. 

 

— Really? You’ll come with me, brother? 

 

— Yes, I’ll be with you. By then, I should be able to quit being this damn Royal Mage. Even if I quit, could they possibly stop me? If they tried, I’d drop a meteor on the royal castle. 

 

— It’s a promise, you promised! Brother! 

 

— What, you two are making promises without me? I’m coming too! 

 

— What, Haim, don’t follow us! It’s unpleasant!

 

Come to think of it, I couldn’t even keep that promise of going on a journey.

 

Yes, my sister. I’ve ended up telling you far too many lies.

 

— That’s right, brother. I haven’t even seen the outside of the Academy yet.

 

I know. Your brother really is a liar to the very end.

 

— Don’t look back. Look forward. And live with a smile, you idiot.

 

Haim, it was the same for you. I told you I’d put everything back to how it was, but in the end, I ran away.

 

— Good grief, you brat! I told you! Smile! Even when you’re sad or angry, just laugh it off, man. Haven’t you ever heard that saying? You don’t smile because you’re happy.

 

“It’s that the guy who smiles makes even misfortune run away.” 

 

The corners of Hwashin’s mouth slowly rose.

 

Even if hell had arrived, it didn’t mean there was no solution.

 

Cha Jaeha was already moving nimbly. He had Samela, whose mind was still not quite sound, back on Wang Hao’s back and kept Verite by his side. Verite still looked like she hadn’t grasped what was happening.

 

“Has the hell begun?”

 

Yoo Jian stared past the thicket.

 

Beyond it stood things that were no longer human.

 

“Doesn’t it finally look a bit like hell now?”

 

“It does. It was definitely waaay too peaceful until now.” 

 

“The dancers probably won’t turn into monsters. The ones who change are everyone except the protagonist and the dancers.”

 

Hmm.

 

Hwashin rubbed his chin, gauging their abilities. The Hell of Falsehood was a hell that competed with quantity over quality. That was why he had evacuated the citizens of Seoul who would have been caught up in it beforehand, and why he had blocked those GH Department heroes, who would have been swayed by lies, from entering the dome.

 

Now, then.

 

“Everyone.”

 

Tak.

 

Spinning around lightly with his heels together, Hwashin held up a single finger. A relaxed smile spread across his whole face. Verite thought that smile contradicted the current situation far too much. 

 

“From now on, what we have to do is simple.”

 

Grin.

 

Lee Suho’s pupils shook anxiously at that smile. Yoo Hwashin was a man who called things that weren’t simple at all ‘simple.’ Jeong Mueum felt the same. What is that hyung going to make us do now that’s making him smile like a pervert? Yoo Jian was readjusting the ‘S-rank item’ she had received from Hwashin earlier, as if she had been waiting for this exact moment.

 

Hwashin said with a gentle smile:

 

“We run like hell. Toward the place where we first entered.”

 

“Pardon…?”

 

At the unexpected answer, Lee Suho and the shadow beside him blinked their eyes in unison.

 

Run away? Weren’t they going to confront those people?

 

“If you get caught by those monsters, you’re dying by my hands. Everyone, got it?”

 

***

 

“Kyahaha!” 

 

“…..” 

 

“Kyahahahaha!” 

 

“He’s insane.” 

 

“As expected, our Hwashin-ssi thinks differently.” 

 

“…And that Chinese guy who’s enjoying it is insane too.”

 

Yoo Jian shook her head and looked forward.

 

Hwashin’s group was sprinting with lighter bodies than ever before, at a speed that the transformed monsters could never catch up to. This was because Hwashin had taught Mueum how to properly utilize [Gravitational Upforce]. It was the first time Mueum, who had previously applied gravity only to buildings or himself, had applied his ability to others simultaneously.

 

Yet, it was easy.

 

‘Using [Gravitational Upforce] on others is simple. First, designate the target for the gravity. Then, think like this: half of that person’s weight, then half again, then half of that. If you keep reducing the weight sequentially like that, you’ll realize it yourself—which point is best for generating speed.’

 

The explanation was so pinpoint that it made one wonder if he had actually been a teacher somewhere, and Mueum couldn’t help but marvel internally.

 

Thanks to that, Hwashin’s group was able to quickly reach the village where Verite had lived, their bodies feeling light as feathers. Perhaps the hell hadn’t arrived this far yet, as the villagers’ eyes went wide upon seeing them, tattered as they were from leaves and branches.

 

It was understandable. The people they had sold off—and moreover, the silver-haired man who had left the village head speechless—had reappeared.

 

“M-Mages? H-how did you—”

 

“How did we get here?”

 

Hwashin answered in a light tone.

 

“We ran. To get away from those things.”

 

Fwoosh—

 

A purple object leapt over Hwashin’s group and pounced on a villager. Seeing a magic spear used by the magic corps pierced through the purple object, it seemed that thing had also been human before it changed.

 

“W-what on earth is that—”

 

“Verite, it’s Verite! Verite is mixed in with that group!”

 

“I knew it, that wench brought a curse upon our village. Get out! All of you, get out of here!”

 

“Get out! Get out! Get out!”

 

Standing at a distance from the villager struggling with the purple object, they all began to chant in unison.

 

Get out, get out.

 

That primitive criticism was aimed solely at Verite.

 

Verite, who was tightly holding the hand of Samela on Wang Hao’s back, found it difficult to understand this situation.

 

She had become a mage now, and she was no longer a liar. Yet, in their eyes, she was still a child of a curse, a child who should not exist.

 

[ See. As expected, they are liars. ]

 

Slither.

 

From within Verite’s body, where the World Tree dwelt, he—or she—whispered.

 

[ They are trying to pin all the blame on you without even thinking of their own sins. ]

 

That’s right.

 

[ Wouldn’t it be better to just kill them all and create a new world? Verite, you can be the king of a new kingdom, and you can place that woman named ‘Samela’ by your side. ]

 

That’s right.

 

Perhaps she had already known.

 

Whatever choice she had made, was making, or would make, these people would hate her. Simply because they needed someone in the village to hate. While deceiving their own consciences to the very end. 

 

Lies are terrible. Because any kind of lie eventually ends up hurting someone.

 

[ Yes, that’s how it is. Now, girl. It is time to carry out our plan— ]

 

Slips.

 

Large hands were placed upon the shoulders of the blankly standing Verite. As she turned around in surprise, that man was standing there. The one who had saved her, the one who had brought her here once again, said:

 

“Verite.” 

 

“….” 

 

“You are right.”

 

Hic—. A sob broke out. It was the first time in her life she had heard those words. Wearing a subtle smile, Hwashin looked at the villagers while laughing right next to Verite’s ear.

 

“So don’t listen.” 

 

“….” 

 

“Not to those people’s words, nor to the one inside you.”

 

「 Do not interfere. The World Tree inside Verite’s body spoke. In principle, it was something that could not manifest outwardly, but the World Tree broke that rule and directed its voice toward Hwashin. 」

 

“Interfering with the plot window too, I see?”

 

Hwashin let out a smirk and stared at the window. It felt as if he could faintly see the original form of the World Tree. The World Tree that created a world full of lies and was now trying to destroy that world for the sake of a new kingdom.

 

No, the identity of that thing was not ‘just’ the World Tree.

 

「 You speak as if you know who I really am. 」

 

“Of course I know. Because you are telling the greatest lie in this world.”

 

They say that all myths and stories are delivered similarly in any dimension.

 

What Elric—that is, Hwashin—realized after coming to this world was that the stories of some of the transcendental beings he knew were being passed down here exactly as they were.

 

However, the World Tree, the transcendental being in the ‘Hell of Falsehood,’ was not the true World Tree.

 

Its very existence was a lie itself.

 

A being that had even deceived itself and become able to fabricate its power into a lie.

 

Hwashin slowly opened his mouth.

 

“The Bible says, Genesis chapter 3, verse 1.”

 

「 Shhhh— 」

 

As soon as those words were heard, the World Tree raised its voice as if threatening him.

 

Even so, he had no intention of stopping here.

 

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”

 

「 Shhhhhhh—! 」

 

A black monster covered in serpent scales extended its tail and lunged at Hwashin’s throat. The tail, split into eight branches, rushed at him with a roar, but Cha Jaeha’s [Small Purgatory] simply incinerated it.

 

“He said to the woman…” 

 

Hwashin let out a fishy smile. Above Verite’s chest, that form slowly revealed its true entity.

 

“‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?'” 

 

「 Shhhhhhh—!!! 」

 

This time, another demonic hand reached for him, but Wang Hao simply severed it. As if telling him not to stop his king’s speech, he also looked at Hwashin with a smile.

 

“And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan.”

 

The World Tree that created the Hell of Falsehood. The royal relic containing the sap of the World Tree, which was said to produce fruit containing the power of all things in the world and good and evil. And the World Tree that had contracted with that royal family.

 

However, all these legends were born from one fatal lie.

 

In the distant past, what their founder had contracted with was not the World Tree, but the serpent that had been entwining the World Tree, and the serpent reigned over this world as a transcendental being instead of the World Tree.

 

And this time, to keep its lie from being discovered, it had made a scapegoat of the body of someone who was not a liar.

 

This information consisted of facts revealed as the girl died after the Hell of Falsehood ended.

 

Therefore, in the original work, this plot line does not appear.

 

The contents of the hell had completely changed. If the hell was the past, then the present, which had already become different from the past, could no longer hold true. Because the two worlds had already become connected through different points in time.

 

「 Verite clutched her chest and collapsed where she stood. Something surged within her heart. Shhhh—. The whispers vanished, and only the sound of a serpent’s tongue dominated the space. 」

 

“Wait, something’s strang—”

 

“It’s okay.”

 

Yoo Hwashin slowly took the girl’s hand.

 

“Because a liar cannot defeat someone who speaks the truth.” 

 

“….” 

 

“I told you, didn’t I? That you are right.”

 

What is right can break a lie.

 

If such a world cannot survive, then what would be the reason for this world’s existence?

 

The world had to belong to those who loved the world, and ironically, the one who loved this world the most here was this girl.

 

“My, my. This is a good story. I arrived just in time to see such a tale unfold.”

 

Hwashin, who had been crouching toward the fallen Verite, raised his head toward the voice heard from the air. Yoo Jian, who was the first to spot the man, jumped high from the ground.

 

She lunged at him without hesitation. Calling the man’s name loudly.

 

“Han Jeyuuu—!!!!” 

 

Kwaaaaang.

 

However, someone blocked her. A taciturn man dressed in achromatic clothes, unlike Han Jeyu, took Yoo Jian’s punch and slammed her straight into the ground.

 

Sand dust rose, and Han Jeyu revealed himself loftily through that dusty wind.

 

As if he were someone who had experienced this village before, he walked forward with his hands behind his back in a familiar manner.

 

“It is a good hell. No, would this greeting be appropriate as a greeting?” 

 

His green eyes, symbolizing peace, were shining.