"That's pitiful."
That was my impression after reading a chapter of the book.
It was inevitable.
A genius destined to make a name for himself in the world lives as a complete wreck because of his brother's jealousy, only to be killed by him in the end.
Thankfully, what I read was just a side character's story. Otherwise, I would have closed the book out of sheer frustration.
'At least it was revealed that the brother ruined the younger sibling's life.'
Even after his death, the side character was falsely accused of all sorts of things and cursed by the entire nation.
His family didn't shed a single tear over his death, which says it all.
Anyway, the villain lost his honor and wealth and died at the hands of the protagonist, so the ending was somewhat satisfying.
'Still, this was too much.'
Of all the people to kill, why his own brother? Just for some success?
'No, it's not even real anyway.'
I tried to stop thinking about it, but I found myself clicking my tongue again.
Maybe it was because I was so emotionally drained that I felt a wave of fatigue wash over me.
The thrill of revenge was as intense as the hardships I'd endured, but the exhaustion was unavoidable.
I closed the book, turned on my phone, and set an alarm.
'Just 10 minutes of sleep.'
After a nap, I should be able to shake off these overwhelming emotions.
It would be better to read the next chapter with a clear mind.
Thinking that, I flopped onto my bed.
***
'Ah... this is crazy.'
When I woke up, the world had already turned completely dark.
What 10 minutes? It felt more like 10 hours.
It couldn't be this dark if I had napped at midday. My body felt heavy from sleeping too long.
'…But….'
Why can't I see anything?
Even though my eyes were open, I couldn't distinguish anything around me.
I groped around hastily. All I could feel was the rough stone floor.
'Stone?'
I was sleeping in my bed, so why was I on a stone floor?
As I entertained the ridiculous thought that my bed had turned into a stone bed overnight, I quickly realized the seriousness of the situation and hardened my expression.
I tried to shout, but no sound came out. It was more of a deflating hiss. I squeezed my throat to force out some sound.
"Ah, ah."
Thankfully, it was enough for someone to understand.
I couldn't scream, but if someone came close, I could ask for help.
'Let's try to move.'
I slowly raised myself.
Although I couldn't see anything, I could feel that my sense of balance was off.
Being more cautious than before, I placed my hands on the ground and gathered my strength in my legs.
Clang—
"…?"
It was the sound of metal clashing.
As if the situation wasn't frightening enough, now my leg movement was causing such a noise.
Moving my leg again, I realized something was wrapped around my ankle.
'…This is insane….'
No matter how I thought about it, this was the worst-case scenario I could imagine.
Once I roughly understood the situation, the fear I had been trying to ignore suddenly surged up. Before I could hyperventilate, I covered my nose to calm my breathing.
"Phew."
Stay calm.
There's no one around.
Even if I'm bound, I have time to assess the situation.
I reached out to feel my legs. I touched something metallic.
Fortunately, there were no wounds from forcibly removing it. There was enough space for blood to circulate.
If I could just break this, I'd be able to run.
'No phone.'
As if they'd leave a phone in this situation.
Not expecting much, I wasn't disappointed. I tried to maintain my composure and groped around.
At that moment, I heard voices from a distance.
My heart started pounding. Before I could mentally prepare, a line of light formed in the pitch-black space and quickly became a surface.
My eyes stung from the sudden light after being in the darkness for so long.
"Have you been well?"
A gentle voice wrapped around my ears.
Someone walked in, silhouetted against the bright light.
I hurriedly opened my mouth.
"Bro... brother."
'Huh?'
Did I have someone I would call brother?
No, that wasn't what I meant to say. I was trying to ask where I was, not speak some nonsensical words.
But as if mocking my confusion, my mouth continued to speak in a trembling voice.
"I-I'm sorry…. I was wrong. I won't do it again…."
"What? No, what are you talking about, Luka?"
"I won't do it again, brother. I was wrong. I'll do it right from now on. Really. Please spare me…."
"Luka."
At the reprimand, my mouth, which had been babbling frantically, stopped. The person, frowning deeply, glared at me.
Whether a stranger glared or not, it was a relief to me.
The more I spoke, the more fear and dread filled my mind, preventing me from figuring out the situation.
With my consciousness gradually clearing, I reflected on what the person had said.
'Just now… did they call me Luka?'
Of course, I'm not that person.
Coincidentally, there was a character named Luka in the book I read before sleeping… but it shouldn't be related.
Maybe they mistook me for someone else, or it's a kidnapping scene where I have a codename I don't know about, or both.
Anyway, there's a reason they tied me up all night, so they won't kill me right away. I have some time to understand the situation.
Pretending to be scared, I rolled my eyes around.
'Nothing particularly dangerous.'
The room was surprisingly empty, with two people standing near the door. There didn't seem to be a way to physically escape past them.
I need to figure out what's going on and convince them I'm not Luka.
As I kept my mouth shut, the 'brother,' who had been feigning sternness, softened his expression and spoke gently.
"You must have waited a long time. I was just checking on your condition."
"…Condition?"
"Yes, you were right. You didn't stop taking your medicine."
Medicine?
A suddenly out-of-context topic, coupled with the tone of someone who seemed to know me well, was quite irritating.
'…But….'
"That's sudden," I thought, feeling a creeping sense of foreboding. Unlike before when I couldn't grasp anything, now the rough outline of the situation was becoming clearer.
I didn't need to open my mouth to extract more information. The person across from me looked at me with pity and continued talking.
"Your illness has worsened. They said the usual dose you've been drinking won't be effective anymore. It's all my fault for not noticing earlier. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding."
"Illness?"
"What? Oh no… you must be in so much pain. What were they even doing while you were suffering like this?"
At his sharp question, the people standing guard at the door stammered out some kind of explanation.
While he berated them for their mistakes, I quickly pieced things together in my mind.
'Your illness,' medicine, brother, and Luka.
My heart started beating faster.
I couldn't help but think of the characters from the book I had read earlier.
That 'Luka' also had a brother and suffered from a mysterious incurable disease, for which he took medicine.
The ridiculous coincidence made me frown.
Seeing my reaction as a shock to the worsening condition, the person tried to comfort me.
"We've increased the dose, so you'll be fine now. But thinking about how scared you must have been in here for the past week breaks my heart. Please understand, it was all to prevent you from having another outburst because of your illness… It was all for your sake."
At his gesture, one of the guards at the door handed him a black wooden box.
Thanks to the light coming from behind, I could clearly see the contents. The box was filled with small crystal bottles, each about the size of a fingertip, containing a black liquid that shimmered with every slight movement.
It was something I had never seen before, yet at the same time, something I knew very well.
If the poison the brother used to ruin his younger sibling's life in the book existed in reality, it would look just like this.
"…This is…."
"Yes, it looks just like what you've been drinking so far. We just increased the concentration and amount a bit, so it won't feel too different."
He held one of the crystal bottles up in front of my face.
"At least you'll be able to go to school on time. I thought you might never get to go, but it's a relief, isn't it?"
"..."
"Come to think of it… I heard you already drank two bottles yesterday, so the news came a bit late. We need you to drink it to see if the new dose works properly. But there's no choice."
He rambled on uselessly.
I had no time to listen to such nonsense.
Luka didn't have any illness.
There was no such thing as the 'outbursts' his brother mentioned.
There was no need to take medicine, and no reason to be confined in a basement.
The person who was supposed to be the most healthy and extraordinarily talented was living like this because of his brother.
In a world governed by magic, birth order meant nothing.
Only the strongest magic user inherited the title and the position of head of the family.
The brother, born with extraordinary talent, would have easily become the head of the family without lifting a finger.
'If Luka hadn't been born, that is.'
Unlike his brother, who only manifested magical power at the age of six, Luka used magic at a higher level by the age of three.
No one doubted that Luka would become the greatest magician in the family's history.
Since a stronger individual had been born, the brother had no chance of becoming the head of the family, so he decided to suppress Luka's magical power.
The 'medicine' the brother had been giving him wasn't a cure but a poison that killed his magic.
Having drunk that poison for half his life, Luka could no longer use magic as his brother had hoped, and he slowly approached death.
My eyes fell on the transparent medicine bottle in his hand.
He had mentioned earlier that Luka's condition had worsened.
In his brother's terms, that meant Luka's magical power had grown too strong to be suppressed by the poison.
'They must have misunderstood, thinking he hadn't taken the poison.'
Considering the nonsensical words that had come out of my mouth, the situation became clearer.
Who in their right mind would confine their sibling in a lightless place because they thought he hadn't taken his medicine?
And then claim it was all for his sake? How shameless could he be?
'If it ends here, he might be lucky.'
By the time Luka graduated from school and became an adult, he was locked up again, and his brother eventually killed him with his own hands.
Slowly killing him with poison wasn't enough to satisfy him.
But now, I was being called by the name of the twenty-year-old who died and placed in that same situation.
'This is insane.'
I looked down at my body.
Unlike when there was no light, I could see many things now.
Clothes unfamiliar in this era and region, shaggy hair obstructing my view, an emaciated body, and strangely pale skin.
This wasn't my body. No way, no how.
It was more believable that I was in the body of an extra who died at twenty after living on the poison his brother made him drink than that I was myself.
Considering the apologies I involuntarily uttered and the fear I felt toward the 'brother' I had never seen before, even more so.
My consciousness must have been transferred into the body of that minor character from the crazy novel.
There was no other way to explain this situation.
Whether it made sense or not, all my sensations were real.
It was just a crazy situation; my perception wasn't flawed. Seeing this with my own eyes, I felt a strange sense of relief.
"The introduction was too long."
Noticing I wasn't listening, he tapped the bottle with his finger to catch my attention.
The black liquid, tinged with blue, shimmered before my eyes.
Smiling softly, he spoke in a gentle voice.
"Drink it now, Luka."
"…!"
The servants' eyes widened. Mine did too.
He wanted me to drink the stronger poison on top of the already double dose?
'…Theoretically, this could kill me.'
One of the servants seemed to think so, as they urgently opened their mouth.
"Young master…!"
"Do you have something to say?"
Though his tone was gentle, his meaning was clear.
The servants exchanged glances, apologized, and left the room.
In the end, only the two of us remained in the spacious basement. He looked at my face and smiled softly again.
"You won't die. Trust me. You know this is all for you."
Ridiculous. He couldn't be unaware of the poison's danger.
It was impossible to say such a thing without valuing his brother's life less than a fly's.
'…This bastard.'
My nails dug into my palms.
The sound of my heartbeat pounded in my ears.
The fear I had barely held back flooded my entire body like a broken dam.
Just as my breath started to quicken, a bright white light appeared before my eyes.
Ding—!
〈 Chapter 0. The Beginning is Always Difficult 〉
Choice: Make the Optimal Decision. (0/1)
* Route 1 ― 〈 Chapter 1. If You Help Yourself, God Will Help You (1) 〉
* Route 2 ― 〈 Death 〉