Old People Don’t Hold Hands - Chapter 127



Only Krnovel

Episode 127, Cigar (3)

“This is so beautiful… … , … … Go! Let go!”

Let’s approach the place after hearing Diana’s voice.

A very loud voice was heard from far away.

… … Huh, you seem to have a lot of energy despite being so exhausted.

As I approached, there was a woman there, struggling so much that the wall shook occasionally.

“… … You there, you! You’re the one who tied it up here!”

As soon as the woman saw me, she couldn’t control her anger and started to thrash around even more.

Well, that’s no use.

From the beginning, I was tied up against the wall so I couldn’t move.

What can you do about it?

“Let go quickly!”

I called out to the woman who was shouting as if she was cursing.

Control what is spreading out in all directions, then condense it into one point.

A wealth that is sharp and swaying like a weapon.

He brought it close to the woman’s face.

“… … What, what are you trying to do?”

Only then did the woman stop struggling and calm down, glaring at me and asking.

“I don’t think you understand the situation yet. Shouldn’t I be the one asking now?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. This is just a thread. If you use your strength once… …!”

As she said that, the woman tried to transform her limbs again.

Udoo, doo, dam.

Suddenly, a black aura emerged from the arms and legs that were changing while making a strange sound and was absorbed into red thread.

Nothing happened.

It was because of Lahmerah’s bondage.

“… … !”

okay.

This seems to have gone well.

“Do you understand the real situation now?”

“… … How do you know about Lahmerah’s atonement?”

Oh, right.

This one seems to be under-educated.

“again.”

“what?”

“I’m the only one asking questions. Do you have a better grasp of the situation now?”

“… … .”

At my words, the woman did not open her mouth anymore.

He just stared at me silently.

***

It took me more time to start a conversation with a girl.

… … So about an hour from then?

I turned my attention away from him because he kept his mouth shut and was uncooperative.

We had our own break.

Let’s just treat her like air without even making threats. It seems like the woman’s patience is reaching its limit.

“… … Ah, I got it! Just say it!”

He began to open his mouth obediently.

The first thing I asked was the woman’s name.

“What’s your name?”

The woman hesitated for a moment at my words.

“… … Inozen.”

Now he was showing a rather obedient attitude.

Hmm, by the way, Inogen?

The face and the name are somehow familiar.

I’m sure I knew it from EndWorld… … .

It’s not like I remember it though.

Is this an NPC you knew from the beginning?

… … Well, anyway.

Okay, let’s move on to the next question.

“Are you human?”

“Are you asking if this body is human after seeing it?”

“… … ?”

Let’s look at her arms and legs, which were not human until a moment ago.

“Ugh, ugh, human, that’s right… … .”

As she answered like this, the woman slyly avoided my gaze.

Hmm, no matter how I look at it, there’s something bothering me.

Above all else.

“You seem to have quite a unique power for a mere human. Are you the Successor?”

The woman glared at my perhaps obvious question.

“Do you think I’m some servant of that god?”

He answered like this.

Looking at this, it seems like you also have hostility towards God.

“Th, what is that… …!”

… … Yes. There’s no way Nowen would let such a remark go unnoticed.

But no matter what Nowen said, the woman just laughed as if it was funny.

“I thought it was some great person who came to the nest after such a long time, but it turns out they were just servants.”

“What, what does that mean! We are the great… …!”

When Nowen tried to continue speaking, the woman simply turned her head away as if she did not want to hear.

At that sight, Nowen clenched his fists tightly as if he was getting a headache.

… … Before things got any worse, I decided to change the subject.

First of all, getting information from this woman was a priority.

“If you are not the Successor, then you are the Manifestor?”

“… …? A manifestation?”

Normally, if someone had that kind of power, they would be a successor or a manifestor.

The woman even grimaced, as if it was her first time hearing the word “manifester.”

“A person who has manifested himself without receiving power from God like a successor.”

“… … Ah, what was that? Are you talking about the awakened one?”

“… … ?”

Are you an enlightened person?

It was the first time even I had heard such a name.

Even in the world of the Ancients, which appeared when I first started EndWorld.

Because the manifester was literally called the manifester.

The more I talked to women, the more I felt a strange sense of disconnect.

As if there was a temporal gap between the world the woman knew and the world I knew… … .

When you feel this sense of discomfort.

Diana suddenly popped out and opened her mouth.

“Okay, just a moment.”

She also had a confused expression.

“So that means… … , you are neither a successor nor a manifester? But how… … .”

Yeah, it’s weird.

The woman clearly used her power.

A power so strong that it could overwhelm me and Diana.

“How on earth… … .”

“So, you’re wondering how I use those abilities, something like that?”

“……then?”

“I can tell you that. But, there is a condition.”

“condition?”

In response to my question, the woman licked her lips and said.

“Take me out of this nest. That is my condition.”

……what?

“What that means is that you can’t leave the nest now.”

“Yes. To be exact, it’s a state where you can only leave if you’re with a living human.”

Hmm… … .

It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of such conditions in a nest, and above all…

Are you just handing us over such important information?

He just looked at the woman as if he was suspicious.

The woman simply shrugged.

“If I don’t tell you honestly, I’ll probably die anyway. Wouldn’t it be wiser to tell you?”

“Then what can we gain by taking you out?”

At my words, the woman smiled again.

If you look closely, every time he smiles, his pupils split vertically. It looks sinister and scary.

The woman who opened her mouth with a big smile answered, again, unexpectedly.

“me.”

“… … ?”

“You can get me.”

He looked at me with a scrunched up face as if to say, “What the heck are you talking about?”

“I am something so great that you guys can’t even imagine.”

***

First, I decided to listen to what the woman had to say.

Of course, the bonds were not released.

Because we don’t know yet what will happen.

When I said I would listen and decide, the woman smiled leisurely as if that was enough.

I was confident that if you listen, you will have no choice but to let it go.

… … In fact, the woman’s next words were quite surprising.

At least this much could be said for sure.

In 11 years of playing EndWorld, this has never happened once.

[To be honest, I am a demon.]

[In this dragon’s homeland, I lost my body and was left wandering with my soul incomplete.]

[I tried to find another vessel, but even that wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy to find a vessel that could hold my soul.]

[And then… …, I met a human.]

The story from then on was somewhat predictable.

Even though he had a vessel strong enough to contain his soul.

It was the story of a human who rejected other gods with high names and chose a god whose name he had never even heard of.

It is said that the demon dragon hovered around the human in spirit form, waiting for an opportunity to attack every day.

However, thanks to the god, who was quite clever for a god, giving various legacies to humans, humans were able to last longer in the labyrinth than expected… … .

[In the end, even that human could not avoid envy and jealousy. He was ambushed by servants of other gods in the labyrinth.]

[Humans begged the god they loved so much to lend them strength… … .]

[God did not appear.]

Still.

[Humans believed that one day God would come to their aid, and they endured and endured again.]

[The god who appeared late at the end of such a desperate battle… … .]

[On the contrary, he was busy quickly taking away the power he had given to that human.]

[All the weapons, armor, and tools received from that god.]

[And the fragments that made humans grow stronger.]

[… … Even the mysterious ability that he had received from that god, which allowed him to take away the powers of other humans. Everything.]

[Humans lost everything and were completely dried up.]

[Even at the moment when they were becoming living corpses, humans continued to cry out to God.]

But the lofty hand that hovered over the human being.

It just disappeared in an instant, as if it had no regrets, as if it were ignoring the earnest wishes of humans.

[So I proposed. Before that human completely loses consciousness, he will become my vessel.]

[I thought it would be so hard to take away a body, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought.]

… … The story from then on was clear.

He used the body of a living corpse abandoned by God, a body that was turning into rags, as a vessel.

The contract is still incomplete and has not been finalized.

So now it is contained in a vessel, but in reality it is only borrowing the original power by drawing out the lifespan of this body.

After hearing the whole story, I couldn’t help but ask this.

This body that the devil possesses, and the god that this body serves.

It somehow seemed like it had something to do with me.

“… … Then, what are the conditions for completing that contract?”

“The only condition for the contract to be completed is that the vessel fully grants its wishes.”

“So, I asked what the conditions were.”

When I asked, the woman looked at me.

He answered without a moment’s hesitation.

“The death of the god that man worshipped, ‘Siger’.”

“… … .”

“I must grant that human’s wish and take over this body. Is that the answer now?”

In the frame of the woman’s eyes looking straight at me as she answered.

For a moment, an aurora-shaped light appeared and disappeared.

… … and I knew exactly what this border meant.

A sign of the ancients.

So, it was a physical characteristic that ancient people definitely had.

And this is the first worldline I encountered while playing EndWorld.

This was the world line in which these ancient people lived.

Furthermore, the name of the first character raised there was… … .

It was Inozen.

To be exact, he also named me by my last name out of respect for me.

His full name was Inozen Cigar.

My first successor, who died a horrible death while I was sleeping while playing a game.

“… … Phew.”

So now I had no choice but to worry.

First of all, it was somewhat believable that the woman was a demon dragon.

Because the story of the vessel, Inozen, seemed to be true.

When I searched his body to confirm the truth, I found a successor mark behind his ear.

The mark of ‘Cigar’, which is exactly the same as my mark.

Moreover, unlike us, the Dragon’s Curse did not seem to apply to Inogen.

Even Inogen was the first to come forward and destroy the nest, proving that the Dragon’s Curse did not work.

And without us, you can’t even leave this nest.

Since I am convinced that I am not the real Shiger, but the successor… … .

He said he would like to join us, as long as he can help us complete the contract.

The problem was that the condition for completing that contract was that I had to be killed.

What should I do? What should I do… … .

I didn’t know what kind of variable Inozen would become if I left him alone.

Right now, just the gold belt and ice gel give me a headache.

However, it was difficult to just take it with me.

If there was a way to control Inogen, it would be beneficial to accompany it.

… … Come to think of it, there was that, right?

While I was thinking about it, I quickly got up.

“Uh, where are you going? So, what’s the conclusion? What’s the conclusion?”

I leave Inogen behind, still tied to the wall, and ask him urgent questions.

I started searching all over the dragon’s nest.

Since I had already organized half of the square, it wasn’t too difficult to find what I wanted.

After searching like that, what I found was one thing.

No, it was a treasure that existed here.

When I showed this to him, Inozen looked quite surprised.

To be exact, he looked as if he was thinking terribly.

“Ugh, how did you do this… … ?”

Yeah, well.

Well, I guess you know since you’re the owner here.

“I guess we’re not close enough to trust each other.”

So, let’s use ‘this’ to get to know each other.