* * *
“I will apply this for you.”
Eren said, picking up the ointment that was placed next to his own medicine, adding that he would apply it since Ashard wouldn’t be able to reach his own back.
Ashard initially refused, saying he was fine, but thanks to Eren’s persistent pleading, he eventually agreed.
“The physician just treated it; I told you it’s fine.”
“Applying things like this often helps you heal quickly. Hurry, take off your shirt.”
When Eren tugged on Ashard’s shirt, urging him, he nodded as if to agree.
As he slowly unbuttoned his shirt, a feeling of tension lingered.
His slowly beating heart began to thump—pounding heavily.
Ashard unbuttoned the shirt he was wearing completely, turned his back to Eren.
Beneath the shirt, which slowly slid down, numerous scars were plainly revealed.
When Eren unwrapped the bandage around his upper body, he saw fresh cuts.
Eren’s gaze, which had been fixed on Ashard’s back, trembled slightly.
His suspicion was not unfounded.
‘The scar I got from Anasil is gone.’
It was a scar that had remained despite using healing magic because the wound was so large.
A massive scar that crossed his back from the upper left to the lower right.
There was no way a scar that had been there just a few days ago could disappear in such a short period of time.
Ashard looked back at Eren with a quizzical expression, seeing him stare at his back without moving, despite saying he would apply the medicine.
Smiling gently back at him, Eren carefully applied the medicine.
“You… have many wounds.”
As the man’s gaze returned to the front, Eren’s face darkened further.
This person was not Ashard. After confirming it, all the actions he had witnessed since waking up suddenly came to his mind.
Ashard was always a person who prioritized Eren’s safety over his own wounds.
In contrast to his usual expression, which looked like the world was collapsing over a tiny scratch, this man wore a strangely indifferent face.
It was as if he knew everything would be alright.
It was also strange that after waking up from losing consciousness, he didn’t call a physician but only offered medicine.
When his ankle had merely been broken, Ashard called the physician constantly, to the point where Eren had to stop him to calm him down.
This time, it was a carriage accident.
Since Eren couldn’t use healing magic due to the artifact’s side effects and magical depletion, calling a physician was the natural thing to do.
Although he pretended to worry outwardly, his concern was not genuine.
He seemed completely confident that Eren’s condition was fine.
This was behavior that Ashard would never display.
‘You, who exactly are you?’
This was completely different from the usual, brazen methods of the antagonists.
He had disguised himself as Ashard and even decorated the bedroom to look exactly like Ashard’s room, intending to deceive him.
This meant that everything was planned.
Specifically, starting with the carriage accident.
It seemed best to pretend not to know for the time being.
Although he didn’t know his true intentions, it appeared there was something he badly wanted, even resorting to impersonating Ashard.
While Eren could not tolerate anyone daring to take that face to replace him, the priority was making him let down his guard.
—This thought only lasted a moment.
It didn’t take long to figure out the identity of the man in front of him.
If you ask why, the reason was simple.
“All done, Ashard-nim.”
When Eren called Ashard’s name, one of the man’s eyebrows visibly twitched, clearly showing his displeasure.
He realized it belatedly and tried to compose his expression, but it was too late since Eren had already seen it.
Julius, who was expert at changing his expression like a mask, wouldn’t be this sloppy.
If it were Helid, he would have quit already due to his nature.
That left only one person.
‘…It’s Carlyle.’
The hand that was touching Carlyle’s body stopped in mid-air.
Carlyle’s previous words to him suddenly came back.
“I was originally going to kill him, you know.”
The last time Eren saw him, Carlyle had said he intended to kill Ashard.
Why would Carlyle, who hated Ashard enough to want him dead, go to the trouble of disguising himself as him now?
It was impossible to understand.
He wondered if he had killed Ashard and was trying to live in his place, but that didn’t seem right.
If his goal was to eliminate Ashard, he would have checked Ashard’s condition first, not Eren’s, when the carriage accident happened.
Then what exactly was his scheme?
Why would he dislike hearing Ashard’s name, yet deliberately remain by his side looking like him?
He thought hard, but reached no conclusion.
He was a person whose inner thoughts were impossible to figure out in normal times, so there was no way he could know what he was thinking now.
‘Actually… that’s not what’s important right now.’
He didn’t care what Carlyle wanted.
The most important thing now was simply to “eliminate” the protagonists who had deviated from the original story.
“If it’s elimination… how do I do it?”
[What you are thinking is correct.]
“…”
[Kill them.]
When he thought about it, it was obvious.
Unlike Ashard, the original male leads were literally the protagonists.
They were not beings who could be simply eliminated just by intervening in the original story, like Ashard, who had the fate of annihilation.
According to the man he met at the temple, the world that had escaped the God’s grasp was entirely revolving around those three people.
The words were easy, but the action was not.
If asked whether he felt guilty about killing them, the answer was no.
Their violent acts of chasing him at every turn weren’t enough, and now they had even tried to kill Ashard.
He wasn’t so weak-willed as to pity the death of such people.
Then why hesitate?
If the body he possessed was a swordsman who could easily handle a sword or a mage who could freely cast spells, it might be possible.
But he had a weak body that could only manage mind games, so that said it all.
It meant it was impossible unless those three crazy guys willingly threw themselves onto the knife he held out.
Eren lamented his renewed awareness of his frail body.
Ultimately, a physical fight held no chance of victory.
He couldn’t rashly ask for help either.
He absolutely could not risk Ashard finding out and intervening again.
“I feel suffocated. Can we go out for a walk?”
“Let’s go together. It must be uncomfortable for you since you just woke up.”
“Thank you, Ashard-nim.”
Eren deliberately emphasized Ashard’s name when he said it.
He felt the hand holding his twitch, but Eren did his best to look unconcerned and natural.
As he left the room with Carlyle, Eren couldn’t hide his shock.
The realization that he had implemented the bedroom was one thing, but he hadn’t imagined this scale.
The tiles in the corridor, the wallpaper, and even the type of potted plants placed there—everything matched the Fridit estate.
It was so convincing that he almost thought this really might be the Fridit estate.
Of course, there were subtle differences, which kept him from being completely fooled.
However, even the passing servants looked similar to the Fridit family’s servants.
The fact that all of this was real, not implemented through magic, sent chills down his spine.
If a magic spell had been cast, his body would have reacted first due to the artifact’s side effects.
‘What kind of insane psycho is this?’
A hollow laugh escaped him at the scale of the deception, which transcended dimensions.
This would absolutely have been impossible without someone’s help.
Someone who had actually lived in the Fridit estate.
Someone like, for example, Julius.
Now that he thought about it, it was similar on the day of the gargoyle attack at the banquet hall.
Unlike Helid, Carlyle skillfully dealt with the monsters, as if he knew the plan.
Helid had been quickly knocked out, and he had understood that Carlyle and Julius’s relationship was not good.
He had no idea when the two people had joined hands.
It didn’t matter, anyway.
They were bound to break up soon. Julius was incapable of trusting anyone.
It was clear that he was pretending to cooperate with Carlyle while waiting for the perfect opportunity to stab him in the back.
‘The two of them will separate on their own anyway. For now, it would be best to worsen their relationship with Helid.’
He couldn’t do it directly, but getting them to betray each other was an easy problem.
Especially when the target was someone as simple-minded as Helid.
After that, Eren began to watch for when Carlyle would go out.
It didn’t take long for an opportunity to arrive.
* * *
