・・・・・
‘Where am I now?’
I let out a sigh of despair.
I’d shaken Benyamin off with everything I had and slipped through the hole, but aside from being able to breathe a little easier, nothing had changed.
The fog was still so thick I couldn’t tell front from back.
No matter how much I stumbled around, my sense of direction wouldn’t come back to me.
'Still, I should be glad I managed to get away from that human trash.’
I rubbed my numb cheek with the back of my hand and winced.
My mouth must’ve split — even the slightest touch made it sting.
I was still grumbling under my breath when I suddenly froze, eyes wide.
Through a break in the fog, I spotted a familiar figure.
There was no way he could actually be here.
I knew that. But even so, I forgot the pain and ran toward him without thinking.
“Fel...! …Oh. It’s not him.”
My vision was still a mess, and for a second, I thought it was him again.
But as soon as I saw those red eyes, my mouth fell open in a sharp triangle, and I froze.
"What is this? An illusion? For a devil’s illusion, the quality’s pretty bad."
Though his eyes were the same red as Lucas’s, instead of feeling strange or eerie, they first brought to mind a velvet-like, antique elegance.
I rose onto my tiptoes and stretched out my hand toward his face, thinking carelessly that since it was only an illusion, it would disappear if I poked it.
But then, my wrist was grabbed.
“...”
The illusion moved.
For some reason, I felt an ominous chill.
After hesitating for a moment, I cautiously asked.
“Who are you...?”
“Hmm, who could I be?”
“…Wait, listen here.”
Did I really have to play the ‘Guess who~?’ game in a situation like this?
My eyelids twitched with frustration. After barely shaking off Benjamin, I now found myself facing yet another lunatic.
Nivas? Wasn’t Nivas supposed to be busy fighting Larry right now?
Wait a second… with that face and red eyes, could it be Larry…? Or perhaps…
“Leraze?”
I threw out the name that seemed the least likely.
After all, there was no way that devil could actually be here right now, was there?
But the man released my wrist and replied, sounding intrigued.
“You recognised me right away. I suppose it’s because you’re from another dimension.”
・・・・・
Why did I end up inside a novel? Whose intention was it? And if so, what did they want from me?
Ever since I possessed Irene’s body, I’ve asked myself these questions countless times.
Of course, at first, I couldn't come to terms with the situation itself.
But even after several days had passed, the dreamlike reality of living inside the world of a novel didn’t change.
Eventually, I stopped denying it and began to wonder about the ‘reason’ behind it all.
Why? For what purpose?
If there really was an absolute being above humans in this world, there must have been some reason they put me here — someone who knew the original story inside and out.
Whether it was a god or something else, their forceful and selfish actions were frustrating, but maybe I was sent here on a mission.
If I hadn’t thought that way, I doubt I could have endured the fact that the world I lived in was just a novel.
But as time passed, no revelation or guidance came to me, and the situation I found myself in was far from easy.
Under a worthless man unfit to be a parent, I was tormented by debt collectors and had to struggle just to avoid being sold off.
Like being swept away by waves, countless crises came crashing down on me — mostly threats to my life.
There was no time to dwell on loneliness or think about the people from the world I had originally come from.
In that way, I had no choice but to adapt quickly to my harsh environment and learn resignation.
‘Ah, whatever. Just live.’
They said humans were creatures of adaptation, and as I lived, I found that life just went on.
Looking back, if there really was a god in this world who arbitrarily brought me here, then maybe it wasn’t about a mission or a revelation at all — maybe it was just because they were bored.
After all, who would pick up an ant from the side of the road, throw it into a completely different place, and say, “Here, your mission is to change this place”?
Who would expect an ordinary human to bring about change in this world?
There was no reason.
It just happened.
More than once, I was afraid that everything would suddenly turn upside down overnight and I’d be sent back to my original world.
Because I had come to care for so many precious people here.
But no matter how much I worried, I was just an ordinary human who couldn’t prepare for something like that in advance, so I tried not to think about that possibility too much.
Then someone appeared — the first to realise I wasn’t from this world.
The other party wasn’t a god or an angel — it was a devil.
I didn’t even know how to begin asking questions.
"…Who on earth are you?"
With confusion clearly showing on my face, I asked, and the one who claimed to be Leraze answered.
“I am...”
But before he could even finish his sentence, he was grabbed by the collar.
“Now’s not the time to be doing this.”
I shook my head quickly, as if scolding myself, and blew away all the curiosity and questions that didn’t know the time or place.
For Leraze, it was already the third time today that his collar had been grabbed, leaving him feeling baffled.
At this point, he half-wondered if grabbing someone by the collar had become the new way young humans greeted each other these days.
“You said you’re Leraze, right? The real devil, Leraze?”
“That may be true, but…”
“I really don’t understand why you’re here right now, but anyway, let’s forget about that for the moment. It actually worked out better this way.”
"Hmm?"
“Please help! You might not be aware of what’s happening outside, but your fragment is in danger of vanishing!”
・・・・・
‘No, you’re the one who doesn’t know what’s happening outside.’
Although it was quite late to realise it, it was understandable — any ordinary human wandering through a place like this would lose all sense of time.
Even Leraze, himself, had no idea how much time had passed since then, yet this human still firmly believed that Larry was alive.
It was rare for a person living alone, far away from home, not to experience homesickness even once. Moreover, if it were in another dimension. One that they could never return to in their lifetime.
That was why Leraze started by mentioning “another dimension.”
After all, wasn’t this the very theme that someone isolated alone for so long would deeply long for?
Like a nomad wandering through a desert, so desperate for an oasis that they would have run toward even a mirage without hesitation.
However, revenge came second. Both the man searching for this woman and the woman herself were driven by that urgent, desperate need to find each other.
・・・・・
"You resemble each other."
Leraze muttered, glancing me over and noticing just how desperate I looked.
‘What is he on about?’
I grew frustrated.
Why was this devil just staring at me when I told him his fragment was about to vanish?
No matter what, if it was part of him, he should be upset if it disappeared!
Just as I parted my lips to say something, Leraze, with a strange look on his face, unexpectedly and kindly shared some unwelcome information.
"If it’s Larry, I erased him."
...What? I blinked repeatedly, my face full of disbelief as I echoed the question.
“Wh-why? No, how — huh? Erased?”
Already dead? And you killed him?
No matter how many things in this world I couldn’t understand, this... this was really beyond what I could accept.
I frowned in disbelief, my mind refusing to register his words.
Perhaps it was because he used the word 'erased' instead of 'death.' It made it feel so vague, so unreal — like disappearing into thin air. I just couldn’t accept it.
“From the beginning, I was the only devil summoned to the human world.”
Leraze roughly explained what had happened so far to me, who was still confused.
“The devil you know as Nivas was erased and no longer exists. It was me from the start.”
So that black mass was Leraze?
“Then how is it possible for you to exist here at the same time?”
“Because this place is my conscious world.”
Wait, what was a conscious world?
Was it just what it sounded like?
I had found myself in a fantasy world and witnessed all kinds of oddities. But never did I think I would end up infiltrating a devil’s mind itself.
“The only good news for you is that your lover is still alive.”
I pressed my throbbing temples, visibly shaken, but quickly forced myself to calm down.
"You're lying."
And with a single sentence, I brought Leraze’s bombshell declaration to an end.
It wasn’t just a speculative remark — it was a weighty conclusion, filled with conviction.
“Larry is still alive. At the very least, he hasn’t been completely erased. And that makes sense — after all, you never had any intention of hurting him.”
At first, I was unsettled, caught up in the extremity of the word ‘erased,’ but now, I was certain.
"Why do you think that?"
He asked, puzzled, wondering how I could be so sure.
“I came to the human realm for one reason only: to completely absorb Larry.”
"See?"
"Hmm?"
“You’ve been calling your fragment ‘Larry’ since the very beginning.”
"I don't know how you even know that name..." I muttered under my breath, the taste in my mouth turning bitter.
I clearly mentioned that it was his ‘fragment,’ but the answer that returned mentioned ‘Larry.’
How many people would bother to name a piece that had broken off from their own body?
At the very least, it meant Larry meant more than that to the devil.
“Is it really just because of that?”
“Are you going to say you just didn’t know what else to call it?”
“That’s not the impression I got. Wouldn’t you agree?” I pressed.
“It’s filled with affection.”
“...I don’t think it’s quite that much.”
He mumbled, fidgeting with his lips.
At his words, his serious expression faltered, and for a moment, he looked genuinely taken aback.
There was something so anticlimactic in his tone that all the tension seemed to melt away at once.
"So he's alive, huh?"
"Yeah, that's right."
“I came here to see him, after all.”
When I saw through his true intentions, Leraze was honest and confessed his real purpose, totally different from what he’d said earlier.
"...Is everyone safe?"
"Yeah."
I sighed and collapsed onto the ground, whispering to myself.
If Felix and Larry were both safe, then everything was fine.
My heart, which had been racing wildly with a mix of hope and dread, finally began to calm.
“Well, to be exact, I guess we’ll have to wait and see if he survives going forward.”
After saying that, Leraze reached out into the air.
The shards of Larry that he had collected shimmered like stardust and scattered into the empty space.
The sparkling dust swirled like flower petals, slowly gathering into one.
Gradually forming a large mass, it began to take the shape of a person.
I watched the scene, mesmerised.
It was almost like witnessing a god creating a human.
As if reading my thoughts, Leraze explained softly in a light, flowing voice.
“At least as long as God permits it, I can do anything here. Because this is my world.”
"World?"
“This place we’re in is a space I obtained by asking God. In exchange for following His request, I asked Him to turn my consciousness into a world of its own.”
“You could say I’m the god of this place — or something like that. Though it’s just a barren, empty space.”
He finished his explanation and added one more thing.
"He’s a devil who willingly sacrificed himself to protect, and it seems even God couldn’t bring Himself to cast him away harshly."
The explanation was so vague and unkind that I couldn’t really make sense of it.
But one phrase stuck in my mind right away: he had obtained this space as a reward for following God’s request.
A god?! Why was a god suddenly appearing here?
Especially now, when I had already concluded I had no mission, no divine revelation was coming, and that all of this just happened by chance.
I pursed my lips.
‘I’m the one who mysteriously got possessed into the book — so why did you make a deal with God?’
Maybe it was because I finally felt relieved knowing everyone was safe, or maybe all the frustration I’d been bottling up alone just burst out at once.
The urge to blame Leraze welled up in my throat.
A devil making a deal directly with God?
No matter how I thought about it, it felt like a strange pairing — maybe because of ingrained stereotypes.
After all, devils were supposed to be creatures forsaken by God, destined to hate Him forever and to corrupt humans.
That was what I had always believed.
⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡ ⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆
If you notice any errors or broken links, please let me know and I will get that fixed~ Additionally, if you would like to support me, I have a Ko-fi ~ Thank you! 💖