BHDGB-Bab 692

I just couldn’t follow the flow of the conversation.

Lee Baekho suddenly asking if she wanted to kill him, and Jaina answering yes without a moment’s hesitation.

Just what was the relationship between these two?

“Oh, look at you glaring at me like that again?”

“…”

“S-stop it, Baekho… If we fight amongst ourselves in a situation like this, it’ll only please the bastard who trapped us here!”

Aures, for once saying something sensible, tried to defuse the situation.

“You just shut up. You think I don’t know you’re still in contact with the Lord?”

“… W-what are you talking about! I, I—!”

“Hey, I told you, you can’t lie in here.”

“…”

“Still, you said you didn’t tell anyone about leaving this time. So I’ll let it slide for now.”

“T-thank you…”

Listening to them, it seemed even the innocent Aures had some schemes of his own…

‘If they’re like this, why are these bastards even traveling together?’

It seemed that for Lee Baekho, the concept of a ‘companion’ was entirely different from what I knew.

“… Baron, perhaps you should step in. If this leads to a division…”

“Stay put for now. I’ll intervene if it gets serious.”

The atmosphere turned ice-cold in an instant.

The GM expressed his concern, but I decided to watch the situation for a while longer.

And why not?

At first, I couldn’t understand why Lee Baekho was so suspicious of his companions.

‘Well, with circumstances like these, it makes sense.’

Their seemingly friendly appearance almost fooled me, but their fundamental nature hadn’t changed.

They were only traveling together because their objectives aligned.

These people were not ‘companions’.

“As for you, Old Man… forget it. I knew from the start you had other plans.”

Lee Baekho was about to say something to the Scholar of Ruin but let out a deep sigh and shook his head instead.

I didn’t know why, but his eyes held a look of utter weariness.

What, did he suddenly have a moment of clarity?

Tick-

For whatever reason, at that moment, the usage time for Twisted Trust ran out.

“Continuing this would be a waste. Hasn’t it been proven by now that there are no traitors among us?”

“…”

Perhaps he wasn’t so far gone as to cause another scene here.

Lee Baekho, as the old man suggested, put Twisted Trust back into his Pocket Dimension.

Oh, of course, he had to add a useless parting shot.

“Still, it’s a relief. Even I would feel a bit uncomfortable killing a bastard I’ve traveled with for years. Glad that won’t be necessary.”

Then, Lee Baekho looked at Jaina and snickered.

“Ah, would you know? You can’t even remember things properly, after all.”

I didn’t know the full story, but I could feel it instinctively.

Those words were like a dagger to someone’s heart.

Thud, thud.

Jaina, who had been trembling silently, took one step, then another, and stopped in front of Lee Baekho.

And…

“What, you wanna hit me?”

Looking up at the jeering Lee Baekho, Jaina muttered through clenched teeth.

“Lee Baekho… we are not your toys to take your anger out on.”

“…”

“So go whine to your mother.”

It was a bold counterattack that made even the nearby GM and Aures flinch.

“Ah, maybe you can’t whine to her? You’ll never be able to return to your original world—”

Jaina was about to cross a line.

In that instant, Lee Baekho’s form vanished from sight.

Kra-koooom!

A deafening roar pierced my eardrums as a gust of wind spread in all directions.

“Well, this is interesting.”

The situation was simple and clear.

Lee Baekho had tried to attack Jaina, and Aures, who was right beside her, had blocked it with his shield.

“What’s this? You regain your memories or whatever, and you’ve already found someone to cling to?”

Even to an outsider like me, his words sounded pathetic, like something a third-rate villain would say.

It felt like I had seen the true depths of Lee Baekho in this unexpected place.

“Baekho, I know you’re anxious, but please, regain your senses. This isn’t like you.”

“What is like me?”

“You were always fickle and difficult, but at least you weren’t one to cause a scene like this.”

Aures stood his ground, meeting Lee Baekho’s menacing gaze and saying his piece.

‘Yes, this is a Tank.’

There’s no such thing as a bad Tank.

***

“… Ha, I’m going to cool my head.”

With those words, Lee Baekho fled the scene, and Aures, as if his tension had broken, let out a long-held breath.

“Phew… Baekho’s killing intent is always terrifying. I really thought I was going to suffocate to death.”

“Haha, for someone who says that, your eyes showed no signs of backing down. I’m impressed.”

“Ahaha… It’s about protecting a companion. How could I possibly back down…”

“… Thank you.”

As Jaina offered her thanks in a small voice, Aures awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“Well then, would you all like to go ahead? I’m going to cool my head for a moment and follow you down.”

“Ah… ah! You will?”

‘You will?’ my foot.

I quickly intervened before Aures could say anything more.

“Acting alone is not an option. There’s no guarantee it’s safe here.”

“Uh… but didn’t Lee Baekho just leave alone?”

He talks back.

Are Lee Baekho and a Priest the same?

“When I say no, I mean no.”

I spoke firmly once more, but Aures did not back down.

“If being alone is the problem, I will stay with her. Would that be acceptable?”

Uh…

If he puts it that way, I don’t really have a comeback…

‘Hey, you could speak this logically all along and just chose not to?’

Aside from finding it strange, I had no intention of allowing it.

“No.”

“Why not?”

There were several reasons.

First, I was uneasy about entrusting our only Priest to this guy…

“You just said being alone was the problem, didn’t you? So what’s the issue with me staying by her side?”

Second, it was just him.

With the team already divided, adding a romantic entanglement would create a truly chaotic party.

“Answer me properly. Otherwise, I will not back down—”

Ugh, so noisy.

“Then you guys go down first. I’ll stay behind.”

He seemed determined not to yield if I just said no, so I chose to take his place instead.

“Uh… uh? T-that’s not necessary…”

As expected, Aures was greatly flustered.

“It’s alright, Aures. I’ll follow you down soon, so don’t worry.”

“… I understand.”

When even Jaina said that, he seemed to have nothing more to say and left with his shoulders slumped.

And…

“He’s an interesting person, isn’t he?”

Once we were the only two left in the stone chamber, Jaina spoke to me.

“He’s been like that for a while. Even when he’s joking around, he’s always glancing over.”

“You knew?”

“How could I not? He’s so obvious.”

Is that so?

To be honest, I hadn’t noticed anything until today.

“Anyway, it’s just the two of us again.”

“Yes, it seems it’s turned out that way again. I’ll be quiet now, so you can gather your thoughts alone.”

After saying that, I sat cross-legged near the entrance, and Jaina also sat down, leaning against a wall some distance away.

A long silence followed.

As I was lost in various thoughts, chewing on some jerky, she spoke again.

“… Aren’t you going to ask?”

It was a random question, but I understood what she meant.

“Didn’t you need some time alone?”

“But I’m not alone anyway.”

Hmm, that’s true too.

“So if I ask, will you tell me?”

To my casual question, Jaina gave a casual reply.

“There’s nothing I can’t say. It’s not something I’d bring up first, but it’s not exactly something to hide either.”

“…”

“And besides, wasn’t that the reason you said you’d stay? Because you were curious?”

Well, that was one of the reasons.

“There was a bigger reason.”

“What is it?”

“Because if a romance sparked in this situation, it would become a headache.”

A brutally honest answer.

Hearing this, Jaina laughed out loud as if she hadn’t expected it, then suddenly changed her mind.

“No, on second thought, I won’t tell you.”

“… What’s with the sudden change?”

“Just because. It’s not a very interesting story.”

“Is that so? Do as you please.”

Tsk, I got my hopes up for nothing.

Feeling deflated, I let out a sigh.

But did she feel a pang of guilt seeing me like that?

“But I’ll tell you one thing. I lied to you before, Baron. No, to be precise, I intentionally left that part out.”

“What was it?”

“The person I wanted to save so badly that I offered my memories to Lord Karui. I was the one who killed that person. Well, after hearing what Lee Baekho said, you probably expected as much.”

“Can I also hear how that came to be?”

“There wasn’t any grand reason. It’s just that Lord Karui demanded that person as a sacrifice. He promised to grant me a new Divine Power, so I killed him.”

“…”

“It was a powerful Divine Power that saved my life several times. But… I wouldn’t have done it. If I had known it would become this suffocating, never…”

I could feel the deep regret in Jaina’s voice, so I didn’t press further and gave her time to herself.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes…

After about thirty minutes, Jaina got up, said she was fine now, and descended from the stone chamber first.

“Are you feeling better now?”

As soon as she entered the ruins, Aures approached her.

The two seemed to be having a conversation, but I didn’t bother to eavesdrop.

“Where’s Lee Baekho?”

I approached the GM and asked, only to be told he hadn’t returned yet.

Ha, it’s not like he’s a teenager.

“Should we search for him?”

“No, what’s the point of searching? He’ll come back on his own if we wait.”

“But there might be someone unknown in these ruins with us, right?”

“We’ll wait a bit longer. If he doesn’t show up, it won’t be too late to look for him then.”

Besides, there was a conversation to be had while Lee Baekho was away.

“Hey.”

I ended my conversation with the GM and turned to the old Scholar of Ruin.

“What is it, Baron?”

“There’s something I want to discuss with you.”

“Speak.”

This old man wasn’t the talkative type, so I got straight to the point.

“Lee Baekho, did he seem normal to you?”

In fact, I’d been feeling this for a while.

No matter how abnormal that Baekho guy was, he wasn’t someone who acted so thoughtlessly.

He only ever did things that brought him ‘profit’.

“Probably not. Seeing as you’re saying so as well.”

“So you also felt something was off?”

“His standard isn’t something like ‘good and evil’. He always tries to think and act rationally in any situation. However, what happened today was far too emotional.”

“Is it possible he acted that way out of anxiety?”

“A ridiculous notion. If he were the type to feel anxious over something like this, he would never have been able to run toward a single goal for nearly twenty years.”

“I see…”

Then what on earth made Lee Baekho act that way?

Is there some kind of Field Effect we’re unaware of?

But if that were the case, everyone else except Lee Baekho seems perfectly fine.

As I was contemplating, the old man quietly approached and brought up another topic.

“More than that, I have a different question.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a thought that came to me as I was piecing things together. I can only conclude that there must have been a traitor among us.”

“Wasn’t that issue already settled?”

We even used Twisted Trust and checked not only Lee Baekho’s team members but also the GM.

It didn’t work on me, so I couldn’t use it.

So why is this old man bringing this up again?

“Don’t tell me… you suspect me and Lee Baekho?”

I couldn’t think of any other possibility, so I lowered my voice and asked.

The old man chuckled.

“It’s not that. Of course, you certainly have a clear motive to interfere with us… But there is a suspect more suspicious than you.”