CHAPTER 4

<Protagonist1>

It was a very strange word. It shouldn’t be shown here.

The protagonist, what was it? In a dictionary sense, it was a word that meant a person who was the center of an event in the story that was created.

That was why Nigel couldn’t understand the situation where the word ‘Protagonist’ was applied in reality. Because protagonists exist only within a story; there could not be a protagonist or supporting roles in reality. That was, the reality that Nigel knew up to this moment.

If this was really reality…

Words that could not exist.

“…”

Protagonist. Reality. Story. Protagonist. Reality. Story. Protagonist. Reality. Story.

Words that should have only existed in a fictional world crossed into reality and stirred Nigel’s head. The sharp words that were splintered left a scar on Nigel.

The <Protagonist> was standing before him in reality. This nonsense, was it possible to call a world that had a protagonist reality? The existence of a protagonist was as if this was not reality, but within a story…

<system: An error has occured!>

Suddenly, a blue window appeared in front of him. An ominous blue, blinding blue window completely covered his field of vision. As if it wasn’t going to show Nigel anything.

<system: An error has occured!>

The blue window flickered quickly. A white, blue light shone so intensely that it seemed to burn Nigel’s eyes and brain. A phantom pain that seemed to burn not only his eyesight, but all the five senses that covered Nigel.

Nigel couldn’t stand it and fell to the floor. Without even realizing that doing it, Nigel screamed in pain and grabbed his head.

“A, ah. Aaaaakh!!”

“D, Duke2 Magnus?”

He heard someone’s startled voice, but he wasn’t in a condition to answer. Phrases, terms, words that shouldn’t exist, they were stabbing and crushing Nigel’s head.

Protagonist.

This, it’s reality.

… No.

This story…

<Forget.>

Yes, it would be easier if he just forgot about it.

Just as he always did.

<system: Unable to fix error.>

A red window appeared above the numerous windows that filled his field of vision. Nigel let a low groan out of his open mouth.

And then, breaking through the many windows, Inas came running. At the same time, the pain that had been crushing Nigel disappeared in an instant.

“Ina, s…”

Nigel reached out desperately. But he couldn’t lift his hand and ended up scratching the floor helplessly. Instead, Inas grabbed Nigel in desperation and hugged him, as if he was catching someone who was about to fall off a cliff.

“Nigel-nim!”

A desperate scream. Liking the look on Inas’ pale and worn face from worrying about Nigel, he smiled even as he fainted.

***

Nigel, who had collapsed, was still seriously ill. He regained consciousness for a moment, but he had yet to recover from his high fever. Still barely conscious, Nigel felt a hand touching his. He didn’t know whose hand it was, but it wasn’t important to know who it was right now.

“Just now, what was…”

“Don’t worry about that and get some rest, Nigel.”

A soft but firm voice, as if slightly angry, whispered to Nigel. It was Inas’ voice. Since he had killed him twice, why was he still being so affectionate? Nigel wasn’t able to figure it out and lost consciousness again.

It was still night when he woke up again. The doctor, Hayes, and Inas were all nearby.

“Duke. You’ve awakened?”

“… That’s right. How long has it been since I collapsed?”

Nigel replied with a frown on his face. He looked around the three of them, clutching his head nervously, and then asked Hayes.

“How long has it been? What’s the situation outside?”

“Two days have passed. Outside… Yes, there are some strange rumors going around… But it shouldn’t be a big problem.”

The way he glossed over it was suspicious. Nigel recalled the recent situation of his relatives, nobles who were rather hostile to him, who were after his seat. There were so many elements to worry about that he sighed. In the first place, he collapsed in a place where all kinds of nobles gathered, so there’s no way it wasn’t a big problem.

“Tell me more.”

“Nigel-nim, you need to rest now.”

Inas intervened. Nigel glared at Inas, who was concerned about him, with a very strange look, then sighed and nodded his head.

There were many times when he almost crossed the line of life and death due to his illness when he was young, so there were many people who opposed Nigel when he ascended as the duke because of his health. Therefore, Nigel’s biggest enemy was not external, but internal, which was his own physical condition. After he inherited the duke’s seat, he went around acting like he wasn’t worried about having to maintain his position, but he ended up collapsing in a banquet hall where everyone was gathered…

Of course, most of those with malicious intentions had been trampled, and he had built a solid foundation, so there’s no way his seat would be taken away now. But there were always reckless flies going around. This was a position he did not want, but he had no intention of giving it up as he had devoted his whole life to this unwanted position. It seemed like he would be busy again for a while.

“Then how is my body?

“There are no noticeable abnormalities. Your health is rather good… Also, no poison nor drugs were detected.”

The doctor said cautiously. It would have been better to hallucinate by taking poison or drugs, but it was more difficult to find the real cause. Nigel looked back at his condition.

‘I’m insane no matter how you look at it.’

The information window and the protagonist… it’s just crazy. The doctor must have thought the same thing, but he kept hesitating because it was difficult to say that the person who was giving him money had gone crazy. Instead of asking about the situation, Nigel waved his hand and dismissed everyone. He needed some time to think about it.

“For now, I will leave some medicine for you to recover your stamina, so please rest well.”

“Yes…”

Both the doctor and his assistant left, and Nigel stared at the healing potion. Without fail, the information window of the medicine popped up.

Amantasa’s Elixir.An elixir produced from Amantasa, a giant snake living in the Pagan Mountains in the northern part of the kingdom. Its characteristic fishy taste is strong enough to make you feel nauseated, but it is very effective.Effect HP +999Price 100 rubels

He only checked to see if there was any poison, but it would have been better if he had just drunk it without knowing. Amantasa was not an ordinary serpent, but a monster. When he remembered its appearance, his stomach hurt and he couldn’t even consume it.

Nigel groaned and pushed the elixir away, but a big, firm hand stopped him. It was Inas.

“You leave too.”

“Drink this first, Nigel-nim.”

When he was young, Inas had stuck to Nigel and attended to him. At the time, feeding him was always the most important daily routine for Inas, and it continued to this day. The loyal knight stared at Nigel stubbornly. It was hard to refuse…

Nigel shivered and swallowed the Amantasa’s Elixir. The taste was so terrible it made him feel nauseous as soon as he took a sip. After putting up with the nausea several times and emptying all the elixir, Inas took out a small piece of paper-wrapped candy from his pocket and put it in Nigel’s mouth.

“…”

As the hand that had killed him lightly brushed his lips, he got goosebumps all over his body. Perhaps it was because he had been murdered in the same bedroom every time, the mere presence of Inas and him in the same room made the memories resurface. Nigel didn’t want to show a frightened expression, so he lifted his heavy body and raised his chin stiffly to stare at Inas.

“I drank it, so leave now.”

“I have a question for you.”

“Next time.”

“It has to be now.”

Nigel’s eyebrows rose upwards at the blatant disobedience.

“You must think I look ridiculous because I’m going crazy, don’t you?”

“You’re not crazy, Nigel.”

Inas answered calmly. That firm trust was somewhat creepy rather than pleasing. Nigel looked at Inas’ eyes, which shone rather weirdly.

Something was strange. It’s different from the usual Inas. Today’s Inas resembled the Inas who had pierced Nigel’s chest with a blade.

Fear came over him. He wondered, did Inas intend to kill him for a third time? Of course, there were no weapons in Inas’ hands currently, but hundreds of magic were shining in his skill window with the dazzling label of ‘Master’ on them. Even if it wasn’t by magic, with his strong arms, Inas could easily kill Nigel, who had never held a sword in his entire life, using his bare hands.

Thinking that far, anger engulfed Nigel instead of fear. He was angry at Inas for betraying him after saying he would devote his entire life to him.

But before that anger took shape and exploded, an unidentified window quickly appeared in front of Nigel.

[Inas Edenbach] has requested a party.Accept?YES NO

What was a party?3 Nigel read the sentence, trying not to show appear awkward. But he didn’t understand the meaning of the word even after reading it several times. Even the options listed below consisted of characters he had never seen before. YES and NO. But while he was looking and thinking about it, he naturally came to understand what it meant. Yes and no, accept and reject.

What the hell was this?

He didn’t have time to think long. The window didn’t disappear according to Nigel’s will, but followed and obstructed wherever his sight went. Nigel closed his eyes and made a choice.

► NO

He didn’t know what it was, but regardless he didn’t want to be mixed up with the current Inas. It was a refusal brought on by instinctual rejection.

Finally, the annoying window disappeared and he was able to see Inas’ face. Inas beyond the window had an expressionless face. His heart was pounding because he thought he had done something wrong. Inas calmly observed Nigel’s reaction before opening his mouth.

“Nigel. Something quite interesting happened before you collapsed.”

“Something interesting?”

“Yes. A system error occurred around you.”

System error.

Whispering foreign words in a quiet voice, Inas drew closed. Nigel’s body stiffened like a mouse in front of a cat. As he stretched out his hands and applied strength, his stiff body slid back slightly. A heavy weight pressed against Nigel’s body, and a large hand struck him on his shoulder.

“Ina, s…”

In front of him was Inas with a face he had never seen before.

Not the Inas who loved Nigel nor the Inas who killed Nigel, but an Inas who seemed to have completely killed his emotions.

“How did you see it?”

“What?”

“The party window.”

Inas repeated the words he had never thought other people would say very naturally.

 

T/N:

Finally! The big reveal! This is one of the parts that I looked forward to translating lol.

1 Previously translated as ‘main character’.
2 If you read the previous chapter before it got edited, Nigel was called Prince Magnus. I decided to change it to Duke Magnus to avoid confusion and because I just found 공 can also mean duke lol.
3 ‘Party’ is written in Korean as the loanword instead of using a traditional word for party/group. It’s not that Nigel doesn’t know what a party is, it’s just that the vocab used by the system is unfamiliar to him.