Chapter 223:

Chapter 223:

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When he opened his eyes again, Cadel realized he was in a cave. Blinking hard, he felt his entire body drenched in sweat. As the sweat cooled, his body temperature dropped, but he didn’t get a chill, because of the presence behind him.

The Scarlet Dragon was sitting behind Cadel, pulling him into a hug. Coincidentally, they were both topless. Cadel instinctively squirmed at the feel of hard muscle against his bare back, but the Scarlet Dragon’s hand on his chest restrained him.

“I’m circulating energy through your body, so don’t move. It’s a pesky power, so there’s a lot to worry about.”

“Energy......?”

His voice cracked badly as he retorted. Cadel frowned at the sound of his own voice. It seemed unlikely that his strangely deteriorating condition was merely a coincidence.

‘I think I’d be more comfortable fighting back and forth.’

The longer he stayed with the Scarlet Dragon, the more he felt his body heat up. It wasn’t just warm, it was like boiling water was being poured over his body. He tried not to make a sound of pain, but a gasp escaped his lips.

“Hang in there.”

The Scarlet Dragon’s low voice rang in Cadel’s ears, and it was an outrageous request for a man who had already endured enough pain to make his knuckles white.

But the next moment.

“Cough......!”

Like a flaming skewer piercing his body, the intense heat and pain shot through his entire body at once. The Scarlet Dragon arched his back and pinned Cadel’s flailing upper body to keep him from sprawling on the floor.

Cadel, who had been struggling for a while with his eyes rolling back in his head, gasped in pain that gradually subsided just before he lost consciousness again. His body shook with the afterglow of the terrible pain. His face was a mess of physiologic tears and saliva, but it didn’t occur to him to wipe it away.

“Now that you have all your powers under control, you won’t be bothered by just talking with me.”

The Scarlet Dragon released Cadel from his swaying form and rose to his feet. Drained of strength, Cadel leaned against the cave wall and followed the Scarlet Dragon’s movements with his eyes.

His stride was unimpeded by the vastness of the cave, which was of immeasurable depth. Traversing the cave as if he were at home, the Scarlet Dragon entered a shadowy cavity and returned with something.

“This is the only thing to drink, and there is no human being who doesn’t like it, so drink it.”

Cadel barely caught what the Scarlet Dragon tossed up and peered at it. It was a liquid in a clear crystal bottle. He unscrewed the lid and sniffed the liquid, then gulped.

“......It’s alcohol.”

He didn’t want to drink in this condition, but he felt like his throat was going to tear up from thirst if he didn’t get something to drink right away. After a short deliberation, Cadel tilted the bottle and took a swig. Contrary to his expectations, the liquor was quite cool and flavorful. It was like drinking a nice cup of tea.

As Cadel downed half the bottle in one swift gulp, the Scarlet Dragon, now in front of him, crossed his arms and looked down at him.

“Now I’d like you to start answering questions because I have a lot of time on my hands, but you’re human, and every minute is precious.”

“From a certain point of view, yes. Maybe even this situation of having just learned the truth will be quickly accepted by you because the soul was already aware of everything.”

It was as if his thought circuitry had snapped, and he couldn’t think anymore. He was over capacity. Cadel belatedly realized that his hand holding the bottle was shaking. It was the same even if he held it with both hands.

What he was thinking, how he was feeling. He became afraid of feeling clearly. He was afraid that Cadel Lytos’ will, which was not his, would intervene. Even if he intervened right away, he wasn’t confident that he would be able to distinguish it. There was no way he would be able to do what he had never done before.

Wasn’t this fear also the emotion of Cadel Lytos? He began to doubt everything. Then, he suddenly came to a question that he couldn’t shake off.

“Then...... The emotions I feel when I look at someone may not be mine.......”

Unable to finish his sentence, he glanced at the Scarlet Dragon, who tugged at the corner of his mouth smoothly, as if he found Cadel interesting.

“Correct. What I’m saying is that if you fall in love with someone, it could be your love, it could be the love of another soul in you, or it could be a bubbly love created by the merging of two souls with the right amount of attraction.”

Through the battles he’d fought, Cadel realized he had a reckless side. Even if it was to complete a quest, even if it was a difficult situation in which he couldn’t return to the original world if he didn’t clear it. He couldn’t deny that he had acted like he had multiple lives.

He had never fought a battle so dangerous before. He had never experienced it, nor had he ever experienced it, so he assumed that the actions of naturally making reckless decisions during his first battle were part of his hidden nature that had never been revealed before.

But it wasn’t.

‘If I think about it, the real Cadel was truly a reckless bastard.’

The real Cadel Lytos seen in Van’s recruitment story. That man could truly be said to be reckless. He was a man who had no hesitation in putting himself on fire for the sake of others.

Didn’t he think about it then? He said he couldn’t do it like Cadel Lytos. He said that risking his life to save others’ lives was not for him. And in truth, he had risked his life many times over.

In the end, he was influenced by Cadel Lytos from the beginning. The unexpected side he found in himself was not the discovery of a precious new self, but merely something he borrowed from someone else for a while.

And for all the unexpectedness, it was still Cadel Lytos who was the protagonist of this world, because Cadel Lytos was the one who had gotten him through so many obstacles. He was nothing more than a thief trying to steal Cadel Lytos’ spot and his credits.

‘......How can this be?’

The system told him nothing. It gave him two choices and said nothing about the fact that he had stolen someone else’s body.

For Cadel Lytos, the system would have been a disaster. So what about him, the man who rode that wave of disaster and swallowed Cadel Lytos whole? Was he a messenger from hell, or maybe hell itself?

The realization that he had plundered someone’s life had never hit him as hard as it did now. It finally hit him. Every moment of taking what was Cadel Lytos’ and laughing about it, even if it was unwillingly, felt sickening.

“I think I’ve explained enough. I’ve told you a lot, now tell me everything you know.”

The Scarlet Dragon urged him on, unconcerned by all the confusion Cadel must be feeling. He was curious as to what method Cadel had used to cross the dimension of another world. His curiosity about a world he did not know seemed to awaken his long-dormant senses.

Cadel swiped a hand across his flushed face and cleared his throat. His breathing was ragged, like a man about to collapse, but his eyes were clear as if he were trying to pull himself together somehow.

He drew out a dry voice and began to recount what had happened. He couldn’t trust the system anymore. He needed someone to tell him the whole truth and nothing but the truth.