Chapter 50: Twisted Things (5)

“……I did think it was possible.”

“Khe he he. Yes! Such suspicion is a virtue an alchemist must have. Very good, very good.”

He clapped doll hands instead of real ones.

“I too, a few hours ago—no, a few hundred years ago? It must have been around then.”

“But now I know! My brain is already ruined! Unless I replace the whole thing, it’s impossible. Or be reborn in a new body.”

Evan suddenly thought of himself.

Wasn’t he a living witness whose soul alone had transferred?

The soul of the pushover Lee Han-ol possessed Evan’s body.

In the beginning, the disconnect between body and soul caused so much suffering.

When trying to move a foot, an arm would move; trying to move the head, the waist would twist…….

Anyway, judging only by the result, it was a success.

Couldn’t Hargen—no, the brain—survive in a similar way?

“Unfortunately, the soul assimilates with the body. Unless you have extreme luck, it’s impossible.”

Guess not.

Well.

Even Evan still had no clue why he had been possessed.

He just accepted it as something that happened.

The question of whether he might be the protagonist had vanished long ago.

Common sense dictated that a protagonist would have been given better abilities, right?

“I have to keep this a secret for now.”

Possession was Evan’s greatest secret.

If discovered, he might be dragged off somewhere for experiments.

Even now, who knows how that emperor dreaming of immortality might react.

“Still, if the soul is very unique, it might work? Let me see, you are……!! The brain stared at Evan, then flinched. It trembled briefly.”

“Hm.”

A voice mixed with faint fear, as if seeing something it shouldn’t.

“You…… would be safe from necromancers.”

“?”

“No, perhaps even from black mages……?!”

“??”

Necromancers mainly deal with corpses and souls.

They usually live near graves and sleep with corpses to slightly increase sensitivity.

They have expertise in most poisons and curses.

Safe from them?

“I’d probably die just from poison or a curse?”

He always carried antidotes just in case, though..

“Ahem! This isn’t what’s important.”

The brain subtly changed the subject.

“Alchemy is the best technique to improve our frail bodies. The only means to change the constitution itself.”

“It’s on a different level from relying on divine power or gods.”

A voice filled with strange pride.

“Body improvement is the best path. Don’t even think about swapping or discarding bodies.”

“I wasn’t even thinking about it…….”

Swapping because the body hurts?

Discarding it?

He never considered it.

That’s scarier.

It’s not like you can just pluck! out the brain and transplant it.

“Ah, unless you have the skill to create a homunculus, maybe.”

“I’ve never considered it. That’s close to a ‘taboo.’”

“But it’s not actually taboo, is it.”

Similar crimes aren’t non-crimes just because they’re similar.

Does he have a conscience or something?

“Ah, taboo. Come to think of it, if I had ground everything up and put it in, wouldn’t it have been different?”

Crackle!

Suddenly, noise began mixing into the voice.

Distorted phrases from madness pounded the ears repeatedly.

“I’m wronged too. If it was going to end like this, I should have ignored taboos and everything and just experimented. Hateful, so hateful, I hate it so much……..”

“!”

Why is he like that?

Eugene subtly stepped back.

“Ah, it’s starting to flicker on and off.”

The brain shook.

The intangible force blocking nearby sounds also vanished.

When Evan looked at him demanding an explanation, the brain chuckled heartily and pointed at itself with a doll hand.

“See it? This is ruining my mind. Originally, only the pituitary gland was contaminated, but now even the marrow is damaged.”

The darkened part had spread further in an instant.

The speed was incredible.

“Didn’t you say there were 2 hours left?”

“I said 2 hours of life remained, not that I’d be fine until then.”

“My brain has already reached its limit. It’s because of the infinite cycle; otherwise, I would have long returned to the earth naturally.”

The darkened tip.

“I wanted to teach you directly, but it’s unfortunate. Junior. Study the books well. I put helpers in there too.”

“……How much longer can you hold on?”

“Who knows, 10 minutes? 30 minutes? I’m not sure. Who knew the concept of time would be this difficult.”

Lapis tactfully pulled books from the pile and placed them in front of Evan.

No. 5 neatly slid them into subspace.

The brain spoke in a pleased voice.

“You pack well. Yes, take everything. And the price for that…….”

“?”

“Could you kill me?”

“…………”

“If I accidentally fall into madness, I don’t know what I might do to survive.”

The brain’s gaze shifted.

Not to Evan, but behind him.

Toward Innocence, who had been quietly eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Like that white-haired old man behind you all.”

Only then did the shrine maiden notice something wrong and jerked her head around.

A cluster of stars sparkled and enveloped the area.

But before that, Innocence’s hand moved.

[Innocence Style 1]

[White Line]

The sword drawn like lightning from his waist drew a white line across the world.

Slash!

“Urk!”

“Kyaa.”

“Ugh……..”

The shrine maiden and Aegis screamed and collapsed in place, while Lapis sweated coldly.

Felix silently vomited blood from behind.

The sword in his hand was cut in half.

In a single surprise attack, he had incapacitated many.

Ssssslide,

The surviving No. 5 repaired its body and protected Evan.

Innocence approached the brain without concern.

“So there was this variable.”

The brain and Innocence’s gazes met.

“A talking brain…… seems to possess much knowledge.”

Innocence moved his hand.

“I’m curious if you can fix my mind.”

“No……!”

Aegis screamed.

Crack!

Innocence’s hand shattered the alchemist’s flask and grabbed the brain.

***

“You……..”

The brain held in Innocence’s hand.

Opaque liquid like cerebrospinal fluid dripped plop, plop down his fingers.

The shrine maiden’s lips trembled.

“You deceived us.”

“I had no choice, shrine maiden.”

Innocence closed his eyes tightly.

The hazy white eyes were hidden behind closed lids.

“I am already going mad. I reached my limit long ago.”

“……Even so……!”

“If I die, the Demisia kingdom will collapse.”

The shrine maiden could not retort and closed her mouth.

She knew it too.

How malformed and precarious the structure of the Demisia kingdom was.

How heavy a burden rested on one man’s shoulders.

I…… must endure. Even if I break, I must endure somehow…….

His voice gradually piled with madness.

Evan understood why, roughly three years later, Innocence was still fine before falling as a villain.

He must have resolved it here somehow, only for the madness to return.

“Young blood of Alkart. You knew of my madness.”

Huh?

What does that mean.

“You seem to have used the infinite cycle to gain knowledge and try to fix me…… but unfortunately, I am already too late.”

Innocence opened his eyes.

His grayish-white eyes flickered faintly with madness.

“This is my best.”

“……Innocence. Stop.”

“What I can do is let you all live and leave.”

“Ah, let me say in advance. Stop thinking about swapping just the brain or fixing it. That’s impossible.”

The brain still spoke in a cheerful voice.

Even while gripped tightly in Innocence’s hand.

“You’re already damaged to the marrow like me. There’s no way to fix it.”

“Then just swap the marrow.”

“Aha ha? What? You don’t even have a clone, how would you—”

“Conveniently, there’s someone in this dungeon who looks exactly like me.”

Eu ha ha ha ha! You’re insane!”

The brain burst into laughter.

“You plan to extract the king’s brain marrow and transplant it!”

The king who looks exactly like Innocence.

Even so, there’s no law saying the insides are the same.

Innocence would know that.

He attempts it anyway.

Aegis’s lips trembled.

Aegis, staggering to her feet, began forming hand seals with both hands.

“That…… makes no sense. It’s impossible. Even if possible, how is that different from a black mage?”

“It’s no different. But it doesn’t matter.”

Innocence swung his sword.

Cough!

Aegis vomited blood and collapsed.

The sword energy that forcibly disrupted her mana did not stop.

The pure white sword energy cleaved the house in half.

Boom!

“If that can protect my kingdom, that alone is enough.”

Innocence abruptly left the house.

All that remained was the half-destroyed house and the bloodied, collapsed party.

“No. 5. Distribute these potions.”

No. 5 nodded and handed out potions to everyone.

Evan let out a weary breath.

Hati and Skoll licked his cheek with their tongues.

He petted the two heads and thought.

“It’s not because I came…… that things changed, right?”

Innocence said it himself.

He was already broken.

It couldn’t have suddenly accelerated because Evan arrived.

“He must have come here before, right?”

In the original game, alone or with the shrine maiden.

For some reason, the shrine maiden never appeared on the Demisia kingdom side!

“I should have noticed sooner.”

The shrine maiden said all the missing persons were dead.

Fate severed.

Yet she came here?

Then it must have led here.

Not just snap! cut off.

“Ah, I never even thought of this.”

What to do about this?

That was when it happened.

Far away, Innocence walking away.

The brain in his hand.

A mouth formed by alchemy on the brain.

It twitched and conveyed a message to Evan.

Look closely at my alchemy book.

Is the answer in the book?

He had hesitated briefly because it was written too detailed inside.

Evan steeled his resolve and opened the book.

“……No.”

It is there.

But…… will this really work?

……It seems like it would.

This.

He had read it before.

But to actually do this?

Well, we can’t just leave like this……..

Innocence becomes a villain later, but killing him early is not an option.

Because until he goes mad, he is the knight who supports and protects the Demisia kingdom.

If Innocence dies now?

The empire might declare war to absorb the kingdom.

War weakens the power of each nation.

It must never happen.

“Reenlistment, of all things.”

Absolutely not because noble sons are forced to the front lines and take positions they don’t want.

“I have a way.”

“I believed in you, Evan. Tell us quickly.”

Lapis clenched her fists tightly and listened attentively.

Ugh.

The pressure.

But he had to say it.

Reenlistment is absolutely not happening!

Evan forced his mouth open.

“There is a way to fix Innocence’s brain madness.”

“……!”

“And Felix. You must help.”

Evan stared at Felix.

Intensely praying inside.

“Can you do it?”

Please!

Please say you can!

“……I.”

Felix opened his mouth.

***

Crunch, crunch.

Innocence climbed the snow-covered mountain.

Snow blanketing the rocks.

Incredibly slippery, nearly falling several times, plus the skin-piercing cold.

He paid it no mind.

At Innocence’s level, such things were meaningless.

He just needed to reach the castle at the end where his ancestor stayed.

The brain in his hand had ceased moving, as if frozen.

Not dead.

Merely frozen.

This was better.

It hadn’t given the desired answers when asked multiple times.

This way, it could be extended a bit.

He could thaw it upon return.

Already beyond the realm of ordinary bodies.

If worse came to worst, kill and revive; that was all.

He had confidence to repeat it as many times as needed.

To remain as king.

To somehow fix the mind going mad.

“Whoo.”

White breath scattered over his lips.

Innocence reached the mountain peak.

His eyes widened naturally at the scenery before him.

Whoooosh—

In the relentless blizzard.

A castle stood atop the artificially carved summit.

Countless graves stretched from the snow-white painted castle.

A man knelt before the graves, head bowed.