The door closed behind the mother of the child as she took him inside.
Only I was left alone. Dirty, old, and dark under the black of the night sky. The flickering streetlight was the only thing that was brightening me up.
Just because someone had lived long didn't mean they were old. They wouldn't grow without exposure to things. Development.
Yes.
No…
That was just an excuse.
As I blinked my eyes, the walls of the house were replaced by windows with yellow curtains always pulled down. In front of me, the child grew day after day, and so did its parents. Another year passed and they birthed another child, a daughter.
A daughter that would eventually use both, Mana and Ki in that world. The goal that the researchers wanted.
In between that happy, loving family, I was the only fake.
Excuses were useless. They were as useless then as they are now.
And I knew so.
That child knew so.
Instead of excuses, he developed a goal. The words that unit 155455 never completed. The curse that all the researchers left on me.
That it.
Won't matter if I am strong.
I wanted strength to be at the peak of everything… that was a lie.
I wanted strength for acceptance. But now that I had already felt.
Now that I had already loved.
Would I truly have been accepted even if I was strong? Would anyone accept a fake in the place of their child? I could have beat them up, I could have forced them to always accept me, but would that have been acceptance?
Was I that stupid, that I couldn't even realize something like that?
I don't think so.
The one I wanted acceptance from.
Was myself.
Just like every other person. Every other selfish human.
I wanted to stop being a fake. I wanted those voices to stop.
How utterly stupid.
A sigh left me as I shook my head.
Even now.
Even now…
Eugene Hall was not me. It was someone else.
I just wanted more strength to accept myself.
'I am who I am?'
What was that if not an excuse? It was just me saying I was not a fake. I never had the guts to call myself 'Yujin Han.' I never had the guts to call myself 'Eugene Hall'
I never had the guts to say fucking anything.
They were just the mutterings of a fake.
By saying I needed to be accepted, I was just solidifying myself as a fake even more. No matter how much one accepts it or not, the original would be the original and the fake would the fake.
That couldn't be changed.
These emotions I held for Maria, Lily, Keith, and Dawn.
These emotions I held for Albert, Sophia, Vienna…
The receptionist, the master, the adventurers…
Marquis Hall, Hades, Persephone, and Acheron...
Lethe…
All these emotions…
They
"WERE MINE!"
A scream resounded in my ears as a heavy blow landed on my face. My eyes blacked out all at once while blood drizzled out of my nose, tainting the streets red.
My hair fluttered above me as I lost my footing, and before I knew it, my head had hit the ground.
An indescribable pain filled my head.
And then, the crashing sensation came again.
Cold, hard, a heavy blunt object hit my face. It tore through my skin and broke the bones in my nose. My lips tore and blood filled my sight.
Again, the strike came again.
And then again.
With each hit my hands curved.
A constant beeping filled my ears, and even over that,
I could hear the bones in my skull cracking apart.
Through my bloodied vision, I took a gasp and looked up.
A stone.
My head was being smashed in with a stone.
"They were mine you fucker!! How dare you!"
Ah…
"You think you can take my body!"
Was this how…
"You think you can take my maids!? My knight! Fuck! That's all mine! That city is mine! The hall name is mine!"
Yujin Han felt?
"You are not me! None of this is fucking yours!"
That's right… even in this world. I had done nothing but take someone else's spot.
"It's all fucking mine! Everything you have is mine."
I was just a fake. All of them were supposed to belong to him…
"Even that stupid veiled bitch! They're all fucking mine!"
Lethe…
"JUST FALL HERE YOU FUCKING FAKE!"
Fake.
Those noises were starting again.
From within the house that was behind us, all of the family screamed the same.
From the skies, the night birds, the dogs, and cats on the streets, the bastard straddling me while smacking my head.
"Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!"
Just like back then.
"Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!"
All of them. My ears, my eyes, my brain, everything chanted the same words.
Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!
No…
I wasn't….
Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!
Shut up.
Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!
No.
Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!
"Fake—Ah…"
My hand moved on its own.
I stopped the stone falling on my face. My face that had already been crunched up like dried leaves.
I raised the other hand and punched the person sitting atop me.
"L-let go!"
My body raised on its own as both my hands grabbed the bloodied stone. I could feel my crumpled flesh and bones slipping off my face, but I still moved.
"H-How… what… huh…?"
"Shut up…"
Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!
Eugene Hall atop me slithered back.
His hands slipped on the blood that had fallen off my face as he crawled backward until his back hit the walls.
"S-stop… d-don't come closer…"
Even now.
He called me a fake even now.
Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!
"N-no… you can't… I-I am not…"
Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!
"SHUT UPPP!!"
My hand swung the rock and crashed it into his face.
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
"Ahhh! Help! Help! I-I am sorry!"
Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!
I smashed the rock into his face again.
Fake!Fake!Fake!Fake!
Just like I had done all those years ago.
Fake!Fake!Fake!
All the time, while that snarky child had kept calling me a fake.
Fake!Fake!
Just like him, even Eugene Hall…
"S-ave… me… we can… work together…"
Fake!
He kept calling me a fake.
"Shut up. Just shut up. Do you think I'll lose here? I am no fake. I am no fake you son of a bitch."
"Yes… I am sorry… you're… a person too…"
"SHUT UP!"
I swung the rock.
Over and over.
Over and over and over. No matter how much he screamed.
No matter how much he writhed.
This bastard who never stopped calling me a fake.
I smashed his head in.
Until it mixed with the ground below.
Until his flesh and bones had all been churned into his blood.
I kept swinging and swinging.
But he didn't stop calling me a fake, so I swung more.
The walls around me collapsed.
The streets broke apart, the buildings around turned into dust, and the dark skies faded away.
Everything, slowly, all of it disappeared.
There was just me and the headless corpse beneath.
Like the dawn of a morning sun, the place was filled with an empty white.
And at last, the sounds stopped.
Ah…
He was gone…
Eugene Hall was gone…
I let go of the stone in my hands and turned my gaze up…
Standing there, was a red-haired boy with a slightly bruised face.
Standing there, was me.
He raised his hands.
"You are a fake…"
The boy's lips curled into a wide smile.
"But it will all be ok if you grow stronger…"
"Hah…"
That's right…
"hahaha…."
"HAHAHAHA HAHAHAH!"
Tears streamed down my face as I covered my bloodied head, but the laugh never stopped.
As a newborn would cry, I laughed.
"Hahaha! Hahahaha! HAHAAA!"
My body fell backward and I rolled on the empty floor as my laughs never stopped.
My stomach hurt but I still laughed.
When I looked back up, the boy was gone.
But the corpse of Eugene Hall was still there.
Still laughing, I stood up and kicked his shoulders.
"Just fall here, you fake? HAHAHAHA…"
"This eroge won't make me fall…"
No.
"NOTHING WOULD MAKE ME FALL!"
.
.
.
***
A/N: I panicked, rushed, and skipped whatever I skipped. I feel like a failure with this story now.
Whatever, I'll not stop updating and will keep it going.
From the next chapter, we'll see why I never removed the villain tag despite multiple comments. Oh, and, I'll also call this the end of the volume. tyfr
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆webnovel