39 - Astilbe (10)

There's no way I can trust her anymore.

Sigh...

Eriu looked at the door and lay down again. Now his opinion of Amiley was very bad, worse than 001. All he could think of was someone who would do anything to justify what she thought was right.

It must have started when Amiley introduced him to Noah.

100% Amiley made us close on purpose so that he would realize the irregularities that were happening and get him to talk about it all. After all, what was the point of telling him that his mother had killed him?

To scare him?

What's the point of telling him that those who believe in his mother will feel betrayed because his mother gave birth to a child who is a chimera?

She just wanted to see what he would do from the beginning.

No more and no less than that.

But if what he said was true, then there were three people suspected of killing 'Eriu Grith' in the prologue: The targets of love, his father's organization, and his mother's worshipers.

It didn't matter who these people were, he didn't need to attend Anastasia's ceremony and therefore he wouldn't get an invitation from this prestigious school.

There was no need to think about things that were not going to happen, only about what he had to do to get the demon to accept him as its master.

"Huft..." Even the food on the table didn't make him hungry, he just felt nauseous looking at it.

Why would he eat if he wasn't going to survive the next day?

Why would he bother to survive if he was going to die in the dreamland the next day?

He couldn't even send a message to Eros, the paper from the book was scattered everywhere.

At the end of their conversation, he asked her to find all the papers from this book and promised to tell her something that happened in the future and the deal after that.

"Nokken..." In a sluggish voice he repeated Amiley's words, "He was a human who was crazy about music so that he could touch his violin forever, he turned himself into a demon..."

"That's why your mother gave him that demon to be your ally because he was weak..."

"..." Because he's weak. 

Weak, well...

What isn't weak in front of Mom? 

"The way to defeat it is to enter the deepest dream. Then you will see one of the 5 sides of this world, the darkest and most immoral world, and the people who see it will think that everything in the dark world is terrible, but the people on the other side will think that you are stupid because life is full of gray."

"In that other world, you can think things and make things happen that didn't happen because they are just wishes and dreams, so it's better to defeat them there than in the real world."

"Sigh..." He sighed again, like a desperate man looking at his debts. 

It would be better to sleep again and think about how to defeat them tomorrow.

Why was he so calm? Well, the answer was that the demon ate negative memories, which meant that the demon was curious about him from the beginning, there was no way he could kill him.

He couldn't die, which meant he couldn't be killed for the time being.

He just had to think of the fastest way to make the demon fall into his trap and defeat him.

Eriu closed his eyes and a faint sound could be heard.

It was nightfall, but the smell of blood and mud was still in the air. His heart beat with fear, afraid that someone would discover their existence, afraid that the sound of a gun would be heard.

The terror that haunted him made him unable to sleep, and he noticed that the young woman next to him touched his hand and said to him.

"You better sleep and recharge for tomorrow, because if you keep thinking about it, our plan will fail."

"After we escape, we will find my mother and leave the country."

"If tomorrow's plan fails, think of something else, because you're smart. I'll help you halfway."

"There, get some sleep!" After saying that, the young woman slept comfortably with no worries on her face. The young man laughed at that, even though her words were mediocre and sounded silly and delusional, but only with those words could he calm down for the night.

***

"...Not this one either, where did Father put it?" Eriu looked through the bag he was carrying and searched for the item, this was the first time he realized that the bag he was carrying was a magic tool. Who would put family photos in here...

There were even 1,000 origami birds in the bag.

"Huh..." Eriu's hand held a large jar of leaves and saw that there was another jar of petals. 

He seemed to know who the culprit was.

 Louise.

Before he was too lazy to check this bag, he had just taken his clothes, read his diary, looked for Eros' candy, and put the souvenirs into his bag. 

Now he realized how worried Louise was about him, whereas before his departure Louise had a calm face and didn't look like she was panicking. Last night, he suddenly remembered the bracelet Louise had given him. He had worn it for a whole month while he was still with Axel, but since it suddenly had black spots on it, he panicked and decided to take it off.

Odds are the bracelet will work and help him!

"Found it!" Eriu grabbed the bracelet happily.

All problems must have a way, so don't overthink it, because if you think about nothing, all ways of solving it will be closed!

Thinking of this random sentence made him feel like an ancient philosopher who had come to the modern age.

With this, all his plans could be carried out without failure!

His shoulders lifted as he felt proud of himself, considering that yesterday, he had felt completely hopeless when he heard that he needed to defeat the Demon that his Mother said was weak. The elated Eriu forgot about the dishes on the table, he didn't even remember them.

The dish was still smoking like it was freshly cooked, but looking at the condition of the dish, it was not worth eating.

"?" The moment he felt a touch on his shoulder, Eriu turned his head, but the dish on the table disappeared without a trace.

Ignoring the incident, he opened the door and went out into the dining room, walking slowly through each door, each window showing butterflies flapping their wings, disappearing between the blue sky and the green of the world.

"We'll do this together."

Eriu stopped and immediately looked back. The sunlight illuminated the hallway and the silence in the long corridor. 

He paused for a moment before stepping out of the passageway again.

Even if everything I saw was just a hallucination, I don't care, I'm happy with it and I'm glad to remember you for a second. 

"Um, let's go." he smiled as he walked away.

In the middle of the aisle, a young man with long black hair looked at the boy and disappeared in an instant.

Amiley sat in the middle seat, as usual, Eriu sat at the end and furthest away from Amiley. As usual, Amiley began with a prayer before they could eat the prepared food. Only the sound of plates and spoons could be heard.

Eight minutes of just eating their food.

"Ready?" Amiley wiped her mouth with a napkin. The meal served to her was also finished without any leftovers. Eriu looked at Amiley, who was still calm as usual.

"Of course." 

"..." Seeing Eriu's stern face made Amiley trust him, "Good, let's finish this quickly, your mother must have been curious about your situation." Amiley stood up and immediately left the dining room, seeing this, Eriu realized how stingy Amiley was with time. If there was nothing important, she'd leave immediately, if there was something important, she'd leave immediately so that the person near her would do the task right away without delay.

Indeed, the apple does not fall far from the tree; Noah was just like that. 

But the difference is that sometimes Noah still thinks about waiting for the person.

One went in front. One went behind.

In front of him was a very large door. Noah had once said that this room was forbidden and should not be entered, but now he was standing in front of a forbidden room whose door opened by itself.

When he entered the basement with Amiley, a feeling of excitement seemed to move him, but now, an overwhelming feeling of hatred and fear was felt, making him instantly nervous. It must be that the magical device was channeling his emotions, which meant that the demon was following him at that moment and his emotions were being channeled to him.

The dark room was full of black stains scattered everywhere, there was only one bed in the place, and on the bed was Noah. Her face was as pale as a corpse and her legs were deep black. 

An eye opened wide at each black stain, the pupils twisting and stopping as they stared directly at Eriu. All of those eyes were bent, and the feeling of excitement was overwhelming.

Suddenly, the sound of horror music rang out.

The music that would be played when fighting the boss.

"..." Eriu was instantly horrified beyond belief, the demon's sense of pleasure leaving him speechless. This was worse than when he felt his heart beating when Eros found his diary but didn't ask what language it was in.

"Can I ask you something?" Eriu did not turn his head, still staring into the room.

"What?" 

"Why is there only one bed in there?" 

"?" 

"No, I mean how do I get to the deepest dream?" Shouldn't I be asleep too? Then there should be another bed for me, right?

Amiley frowned and immediately pushed Eriu into the room.

"Huh!"

"Just go in and touch Noah's hand." Slowly, the door closed and the black stains instantly merged into a large black shadow that quickly moved towards him, "I'll wait for your news, so come out sooner."

Eriu stood still as he watched the door close, if he ran in a hurry to get out of the room it would make Amiley question her daughter's safety, and if he stood still the demon would attack him immediately.

So in the second that his brain was working, he decided to stay in the room with a resigned face as the demon came towards him.

Crang-!

Before he could reach it, the red aura coming from the bracelet he was wearing blocked the demon and immediately counterattacked it. Even though it was just a moment, Eriu immediately ran towards Noah. Isn't that strange, why is he trying to touch someone's hand now just to defeat the demon?

A room as big as a restaurant, but empty. Why he thought Amiley was stingy with time wasn't just because Amiley didn't like to wait, but because this whole mansion was so strange.

When the door opened, the living room was already in sight, the living room itself showed two staircases, on the left was where the guests stayed, and on the right was the area where Amiley and Noah usually were. But strangely, the room he used was in the middle. In the living room, there was also a big door with the difference between the garden and there would be a straight path, that was where his room was and it was very close to the dining room. What was even stranger was that he had to go through a very long hallway and he felt like the more he went the more he felt like he was climbing stairs because that's what it felt like!

At first, he thought the long hallway was weird, but now he thinks it's really cool.

It was the cool long hallway that made him realize that this room wasn't really big, it just looked really big, but it was easy to reach.

"Haa, haa..." At that moment, Eriu made his way to Noah and with a gasp, he held Noah's hand.

The black stain that covered Noah's body slowly moved to him.

The eyes smiled and a hand immediately closed his eyes.

At that moment, Eriu swore to himself that he would make this demon regret choosing him as his master, that he would work for him for the rest of his life, and that he would make this demon a shield for his safety!

Before closing his eyes, Eriu immediately thought of his old self. 

Droplets.

Anything he wanted would appear instantly, like an enemy hiding in the darkness. 

A blob of water was a reflection of his face.

His body was no longer that of a child, but that of an 18-year-old teenager.

A smile appeared on his face, "Aren't you curious about me? How about we start with a game like Dioskouroi?" 

A gun appeared in his hand, "The name of this game is Russian Roulette." A long time ago, he felt very strange when he remembered his old memories, it felt like a lie that those memories ever existed and the fact that he had moved another person's body.

Like the lie of the hallucinations that often appeared before him.

But when he used this old body of his, he was very sure that he was moving this body.

This was really his body.

"The way to play this game is simple, point the gun at yourself or me, and the one who manages to live is the one who wins."

He remembered what his friends who saw him often said, that his expressions were easy to read. They were not wrong, his expressions were indeed easy to read and he was happy about that. Then he wouldn't have to bother making mocking expressions.

Fortunately, Eriu Grith's face was very similar to his, unlike Eros, who even when he was angry, looked like he was crying. His angry expression was indeed angry and even looked a bit disgusted.

"As I recall, this world has already invented the gun, so I don't need to explain it to you at length." He deliberately mimicked the puppet's speech, "There are 6 slots on this gun, and one of those slots contains a single bullet."

"That's it." If someone saw this young man's face, they would immediately assume that this young man was a villain in a story.

"Then start with me first." He pointed the muzzle of the gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

Crek.

As expected, the gun was empty. The sound of the cylinder spinning was heard with the teenager's very smooth movements as if it were nothing.

"Now it's your turn." Eriu threw the weapon. 

Amiley herself said that this was a dream world, so she hit him quickly. 

The light only shone on him, deliberately making him a decoy. A moving shadow picked up the gun and pointed it straight at the young man.

The young man stood with a relaxed smile as the trigger was pulled.

"Heh..." The young man was silent as the thrown pistol fell close to his feet. Eriu picked up the gun and pointed it forward. But strangely, nothing happened during the next two rounds.

It was now the final count and the demon held the gun. 

The rules are simple, aim at your enemy or not, and there is no limit to where you can aim. Just like in the game of death, there are no restrictions, the player can lie as long as he never gets caught.

That's it.

Before, during this demonic transformation, he had always aimed the gun at the young man in front of him, but now he aimed it at himself.

Crek.

The trigger was pulled, but no bullet came out.

"Haha, there seems to be a mistake." He laughed as if it was all just a joke, "Take a look down there." 

How he managed to free himself from the clutches of these people in the past. Make them happy. Those people knew that even if they pointed a gun at her, the bullet would not come out, but they forgot that there were people who could make things just for their entertainment.

That was the reason why he often searched for magic stones and knew many strange things.

This is just a dream, anything can be made.

The gun was indeed empty, but not for the minutes and seconds that passed very quickly.

BOOMM-!

From above the darkness, the sound of explosions could be heard everywhere. Only where he stood, where the light came from, there was no explosion. Immediately, the water surrounded the light and disappeared along with the darkness. 

"!" Eriu immediately hid in the direction of the previous explosion, hiding behind a large rock. 

A's plan was to figure out how to use the bracelet his father had given him since the original object could not be brought into the dreamland. He wanted to attack the demon first, but the demon attacked him first, which made things easier. So it was just a matter of doing as planned, thinking he was in a cave, and the little light shining on him gave him a blind spot in the dark surroundings because the light was deliberately meant to attract the demon's attention so that he would not realize that the darkness he was in was water with bombs all around him.

If dreams can make anything happen, then dreams can also make nonsense happen, he just thought that around him was the deepest and darkest sea, that's why the light around him didn't go out to other areas, after the trigger was pressed 6 times, the bomb planted above would have exploded immediately, but because of the water pressure it hadn't exploded yet. That's when he changed the situation, making the water protect him and immediately attacking various places like the power of the bracelet.

That way, he could first escape to the destroyed area and hide. The demon was trapped in the water.

But if that fails, he has a plan B.

Not as difficult as Plan A, Plan B, suicide.

Because he knew that this demon was very similar to a shadow.

Crushh!

"..." Eriu felt blood come out of his mouth and a large shadow forming a needle trap surrounded him and instantly a stone pierced his neck with incredible speed.

As his vision blurred, he saw the puppet right in front of him and smiled broadly before disappearing the moment his eyes blinked.

The messy flesh moved away and his neck returned to normal.

His breath came out in gasps as he focused his eyes in front of him, that's when the shadow boldly showed itself, appearing right where the light was, "I won."

The yellow flower hiding behind the light appeared and immediately trapped the demon.

From the beginning, the reason why Amiley proposed to defeat it in the deepest dream was not because he could create something according to his wishes, but because the demon was sealed. It was probably because of the seal that the demon was not rash and attacked him immediately.

Or because the demon's request was granted, so this dream is not acting according to his wishes. He turned into a demon and his wish was granted, making him unable to ask this world of darkness again.

Cring!

Before he could see the form of the demon, a very bright light blinded his eyes. 

His voice seemed to disappear and a terrible sound was heard beside him.

[3]

[Verse two, We pray every night to scorch the unfaithful.]

Eriu felt his whole body being bound, but that feeling disappeared along with the woman's laughter and the blue butterflies that exploded together when his eyes closed.

.

.

.

[How can they trust you?] 

The words appeared in front of him, questioning the previous events.

"What do you mean?" The little boy was sitting in the living room, the room was full of fragrant tea, and there was even lemongrass tea on the table. Since the owner of the house was away and he was being punished for being caught at night, he could only be there without being able to do anything.

When he came back after saving the woman, the owner of the house was waiting for him in his room.

[Um, I thought you looked like a liar when you lied, but why did they believe you?}

The little boy opened his mouth in surprise, "Pftt, I thought you were smart, turns out you're dumber than me!" He laughed mockingly, causing the screen in front of him to go silent.

[...]

[You're mocking me stupid?] Seeing the writing appear again made him smile even more, "Yes!"

[ (0-0) ] 

The screen with the emoji appeared around the little boy, the little boy fell silent and leaned against the sofa, "Um, who do you think is the most evil person in the game You're my Ramiel?"

[???]

The screen disappeared and reappeared, [The Targets Capture?]

A triumphant smile appeared on the boy's face, "No!" He pointed to the diary, "The protagonist."

"Why him? You're bound to ask, so since I'm the kindest master, I'll tell you." 

"Why does the protagonist blatantly start a duel with a person who has a higher rank than him? Why does the protagonist disappear almost at the happy ending of every route? Why did he start the death game?"

"Everyone must have thought that because his 'friend' died, everyone would feel sorry for him and he would become a victim."

"But the moment the protagonist tries to destroy the love target that ends badly, the protagonist becomes a spectator."

"From the beginning, why is there a stupid choice?"

"There is no way that the creator of this sadistic game just put it there without thinking, is there?"

"This is the method I used on them that made me a spectator." Making them believe in my nonsense with a look like I lied to them.

[Ow... Very cool indeed!!!] 

At that time, he thought that 001 was praising him, but it looked like 001 was praising the protagonist.

It wasn't wrong for them to praise him.

The day he met Eros and befriended him, he realized that Eros was the protagonist of the game. The fact that he never stood up to his bullies and used that to create a chaotic situation at the end.

When he hears that the bullies have stopped acting after being thrown into the forest, it makes people pity and hate Eros.

That's where Eros takes center stage.

A victim who fought back.

Slowly the silence around him faded, he even seemed to hear Eros calling out to him.

"Hooo, it's like this, it's like this!!!" The horrible echoing voice, laughing like a perverted uncle. Before being assaulted, Eriu opened his eyes only to see the eyes on the ceiling staring at him.

"..." Those eyes widened and instantly all the pupils turned into dots staring at him. Eriu felt an overwhelming cold.

"Hey, hey, listen to this!" Even without the POV writing, he knew who was talking to him, those eyes. Slowly, the violin tones sounded very harmonious and full, before they became more and more strange and weird, making it even more frightening.

"I got this idea from your memory!"

...Emm?

This instrument is perfect for a horror movie. There's no way this song was created from his memories...

Eriu rolled his eyes and said to the demon, "Your hearing must be damaged.

"Huh?"

"You better stop playing the violin and check your ears, there's no need to worry about money, I'll tell Mom about it."

"How rude of you!" Before the argument resumed, a coughing sound was heard, " Ehem." Amiley was sitting by the open window, holding the charred booklet in her hand.

With that coughing sound, the eyes disappeared. Eriu, who thought it was all a dream, realized another reality.

That she had succeeded.

He had managed to defeat that demon! Even if he died once...

Amiley leaned back with a smile on her usually indifferent face, "Congratulations." Hearing that, his heart skipped a beat and he nodded happily, "Hm!"

He had once wanted to end it all, after all, he had thought at that time what was the point of a second life? He worked hard to die but was given a second life. But he realized that there were people who really loved him, which made him give up his intention.

Because 3 years is too short to be a good memory,

His first life wasn't bad. Full of memories and stories. But this was his second life, everything was different in his eyes.

That was the beginning of him acting like a child so they wouldn't be sad.

He was satisfied with that.

Because he could make them think he was just a kid and smile at his stupid behavior. 

Now he has made a promise to someone, and he has also fulfilled the promise he made earlier.

May you be blessed as I was and have a happy ending.