Chapter: 208
Iris chased after Lian, keeping close behind him along the ruined road. He moved lightly over half-rotten corpses and broken paths, his face as calm as if the world hadn’t been destroyed.
‘What in the world is this place…?’
It wasn’t long before Iris, who had been glued to Lian’s back, began to notice her surroundings.
Tap, tap, tap, tap!
Turning her gaze to the steady sound, she saw a body running along the road with only its lower half remaining, as if it were a marathon runner.
When the road became completely impassable, it naturally hung onto the building’s outer walls. The sight, defying gravity, drew Iris’s eyes.
After some time, they arrived at an upside-down streetlight. Around the flickering light, people stared blankly with dazed expressions.
The way they stared at the streetlight in the silent stillness was chillingly bizarre.
Suppressing a strange discomfort, Iris looked at Lian with concern.
“Maybe I should grab some jelly on the way… Um, no. Let’s just hurry and finish our homework.”
Lian continued speaking calmly, seemingly oblivious to the strange sight around him.
The tranquility amidst the wreckage felt unsettling. Iris pushed her unease aside and quickened her pace.
Finally, after a long trek, they arrived at a university surrounded by pools of blood and broken fences. Lian headed toward the entrance with familiarity.
Thud! Thud! Bang! Thud!
A woman, her face melting and with black holes for eyes, bent forward and continuously banged her head against the wall. The nameplate with the university’s name was split in half and stained with an unknown dark liquid.
Iris instinctively tensed up, her hand gripping the sword trembling.
“Hello!”
A cheerful greeting echoed, oddly out of place in the eerie atmosphere. Iris jolted and looked at Lian.
He wore a calm expression, as if there was nothing wrong.
Whoosh!
The woman’s head turned in an unnatural direction thanks to the perky greeting. Lian waved at her with a smile and walked into the university.
“Whoops!” He stepped lightly over the debris of the broken building.
The woman—or rather, the abomination—trembled a few times, then turned back to bang her head against the wall once more.
Iris, engulfed in unsettling feelings, kept glancing back at the woman before following Lian.
Not even a minute later, the woman twisted her neck again and began to stare at a group of survivors on the street, ready with makeshift weapons and wariness on their faces.
Hope flickered faintly on their faces. They had seen Lian enter the university in one piece, leading them to believe that the abomination might be docile.
Grrr…
Just like that, the abomination’s body split open wide, resembling a zipper being pulled down. Inside, it was full of undigested flesh and blood.
“Ah… ah…”
“Hello! Howdy!”
The survivors knew that these monsters followed certain rules. They assumed Lian’s cheerful greeting was the key to survival for the abomination.
Crack!
The abomination, upon hearing the desperate call from its prey, eagerly stretched its body outward and gobbled up the first person in front of it. As a person was torn in half and blood sprayed in front of them, the remaining survivors collapsed on the ground, some wetting themselves, eyes glazed as they stared at the abomination.
“Hello! Hi! Hiiiii!!”
A person, face soaked with tears, repeatedly begged for help while saying “hello,” only to be crushed.
After devouring everyone attempting to flee, the abomination began to writhe soon after. It transformed into one of the bodies it had just consumed, and its clothes began to slither forth.
“Hello! Hiiiii!”
A mouth formed in the center of what had once been a hollow face, elongating vertically. Just like the woman who had banged her head against the wall as she fled, the abomination started wandering the city, repeating the last words of those it had devoured.
*
“Is it warming up? The flowers are blooming! So pretty!”
Lian exclaimed, looking at the largest building, while Iris bit her lip hard.
‘Has he been psychologically attacked? Or is he just hallucinating?’
Seeing Lian smile brightly at the vines and giant flowers growing enough to cover the building felt anything but normal.
Just as Iris’s anxiety deepened, Lian approached the largest building. The entrance, completely shattered, didn’t really have a proper door. Instead, thick vines filled that spot.
Lian casually approached the vines, knocking as if to greet them.
“Hello! Thanks for your hard work today!”
Lian spoke to the vines as though a security guard were standing watch, then pulled three chocolates from his pocket and held them out as if it were the most natural thing to do.
“It’s nothing much, but here, have some and keep up the good work! Thanks as always!”
To this, the human-melting abomination extended its vines and accepted the chocolates from Lian.
Squoosh.
The thick vines that had been densely packed parted as if granting him entry. Lian simply stepped in as if it were the natural thing to do.
Iris followed behind Lian and took a quick glance back. Through the slowly closing vines, she spotted a human being speared by a vine as it drew closer to the building.
‘…Does it only react favorably to my brother?’
With no solid information grasped at that moment, Iris found it difficult to make any proper assumptions. She forced down her uneasy feelings as she kept following Lian.
“What will we be learning today?”
As Iris listened to Lian’s mumbled words, she became engulfed in confusion. The moment the vines completely obscured the entrance, the visibility within the building dropped to nearly nothing.
Unlike outside, the building’s interior was not as ruined as she had expected, allowing her to barely keep pace with Lian as he strode confidently forward.
Click.
At that moment, a sound like a match being struck echoed, and light appeared.
“Want to buy some matches?”
A young girl, no taller than knee-height and with a blank expression, held out some matches. Lian, looking as though he’d met a dear friend, beamed and approached her.
“Good morning! You’re out early again today!”
“Want to buy some matches?”
In that instant, Iris was convinced.
‘Of course, this place looks entirely different to Lian.’
Along with her certainty, new questions began to arise.
‘Then why haven’t the monsters we’ve encountered attacked Lian?’
In this dark fantasy world, losing oneself to hallucinations instead of believing harsh realities wasn’t uncommon, so she understood that. But the fact that the monsters, seemingly completely defenseless Lian, didn’t attack was baffling.
While she became lost in her thoughts, the Match Seller smiled, her mouth stretching eerily wide.
After asking three times if he wanted to buy matches, she’d respond with a price (some part of a human body or a precious item) if he said yes. However, if he refused, she’d hunt him down at night and set him ablaze.
“Want to buy some matches?”
The Match Seller’s neck tilted until it twisted. If proper answers weren’t given by the third question, the other would end up as just another match.
Given that situation, it was fair to say that Lian was in a desperate predicament. Yet he had no sense of danger as he smiled and playfully tapped the Match Seller on the shoulder.
“At this rate, I’m going to be late for class. Let’s go in together.”
“…”
She stared at Lian with a chill-inducing gaze, then with a crack, her head faced forward again. When she reached out her hand, Lian charmingly picked her up.
…Iris felt an unexpected surge of jealousy.
Lian continued on like that.
What followed was pure shock.
“Good morning! Busy as usual?”
He greeted an abomination munching on a completely rotten corpse.
“Oh? When did Cheese get here? If I had known you’d be here, I would’ve brought a snack.”
He sighed at the cute creature that could only muster a half-eaten human body, resembling a dog, as it showed off its belly.
“Professor! Hello!”
He greeted an abomination capable of driving people mad with just a glance, calling it ‘Professor.’
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