Book 2: Chapter 82: Lying

Book 2: Chapter 82: Lying

Mixed with howling winds, the sounds of rain pittering and pattering down rang out in my ears, appearing to continue forever as they rang from the far distance, all the way to the distant future.

“Are you awake?”

“Yes.”

An old gentleman sat before me. Although his body wasn’t broad or muscular, it had blocked the exit of this small room under the slide completely, keeping the bone-chilling autumn wind from being able to break into this weakly insulated fortress.

“Do you want anything to eat? I’ve got a little bit of food with me.”

I nodded my head in response. Despite clearly having his back faced towards me, the old gentleman pulled out a rock hard bun from his inner coat and handed it to me.

Right at the instant when he turned his body around, a sliver of faint light shot through the crack and illuminated his entire body.

Messy hair and a beard that seemed to have not been taken good care of for months covered the greater half of his face. Nevertheless, the glow of his eyes obscured behind his messy hair appeared exceedingly bright. Covering his body was an old and tattered western suit of unknown origin. Due to it being slightly small in size, it caused the old gentleman’s skinny body to appear really conspicuous. Wrapped around his neck was a slightly torn up flower-patterned necktie, which coupled with his grey color suit, gave him an extremely comical appearance.

“You’ve been beaten again.”

A slight jolt shook through the hand the old gentleman had used to hold out the bun. After a period of silence, he gave a forced smile and replied: “Nope. How can I be beaten? I’ve been on a tear1 recently, and have also been known as the king of the park, God Honkyu, you know.”

“You have to wait for the bruises on your face to heal before you start to sprout lies again.”

Lifting his hand, the old gentleman rubbed his face subconsciously, before suddenly reacting in fury as his face and neck turned red: “You’re making fun of me again, you smelly brat.”

“It’s your own fault for not being able to lie.” taking a forceful bite at the bun, which was as cold and hard as a pebble, I replied in confusion. “So? Why did you get beaten again this time?”

The old gentleman hesitated for a good while, before squirming about and speaking out with a mosquito-like squeak: “I just wanted to buy that bun, okay. Not only did he not sell, but he also beat me up...”

“You didn’t give him any money, right?”

“I paid for it.” the old gentleman stared at me.

“Then why...?”

The old gentleman flung his lips before replying, “When I went to buy, he actually had the guts not to sell! In a fit of anger, I tossed the money to him, grabbed the bun and ran. After that...after that, I stopped running.”

“Forceful buy and sell, huh...”

The old gentleman gave a low child-like snort, before turning around once again.

The bun in my mouth felt cold and bitter to my tongue, just as though I’ve really bitten into an actual pebble.

“I’ve been discovered...I’ve been discovered...”

“Okay, okay. Stop this incessant repetition. Hurry up and take it out.”

“H...However, it’s impossible for children to see it.”

“I’m already 14 years old, so I’m no longer considered a child.”

“However...”

“Stop with your nonsense, and hurry up and take it out!”

“Okay...okay.” truly unable to continue tussling with me, the old gentleman could only twist his body towards me.

The old gentleman shifted to a place exceedingly close to me, so close that I could clearly see the pores on his extremely wretched-looking face. With extreme care, he pulled out a wrinkled book from his undershirt.

The old gentleman carefully handed the book to me, before leaning even closer to me, “This...is my most valuable Holy Tome. Don’t destroy it, okay.”

“Of course I wouldn’t.”

I extended one hand out to hold onto the Holy Tome, while extending the other to grab hold onto the hand the old man had stealthily extended over from beneath the book.

“You...what are you trying to do?” the old man sent an awkward smile towards me, unwilling to give up as he asked me.

“Nothing.”

With a jolt of my hand, I easily dealt with the old gentleman’s hand, which he claimed could destroy all of the substance in “this world” and said: “Just trying to express my fury to you for taking my most important item.”

“.........”

“...How did you discover it?” after a moment of silence, the old gentleman’s voice suddenly changed, transforming into an icy-cold and indifferent girl’s voice: “I didn’t reveal any loopholes at all.”

“Of course you didn’t...” I took a deep breath, before surveying everything familiar in my surroundings: “ Regardless of smell, sight, hearing, taste, or touch, everything feels incomparably real. Even my feelings of hunger, cold, heart pain, and the senses of this body are exactly the same. However...”

Looking right at this very familiar face of his, I continued to speak, “It is impossible to feint the feeling one would feel when one loses the most important person to one. Regardless of how realistic this construct is, nor how identical you look to the one in my memories, I should still be able to feel the pain that seeps right into my bones when I think back about it.”

“That feeling...can’t be faked.”

As the R18 restricted book dropped down, my hand had already pierced right into the “old gentleman’s” abdomen. Staring right into his still indifferent looking eyes, I said: “However, since you’ve done such a thing, you should be prepared to pay the price. This price...would be more frightening than death.”

“Oh really?” The ‘old gentleman’ gave a disdainful laugh and replied: “I really must ask, what’s more frightening than /dictionary/on%20a%20tea