I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 157

Chapter 157
Home Run!

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The first sign was the sound of “growl…” coming from the Duke’s stomach.

True to his homeland, where enduring hunger was not part of their values, Lian immediately began to prepare for a meal.

As Lian lit a campfire and set up the food, the Duke needed a place to rest. Thus, a temporary tent was pitched.

It wasn’t necessarily bad to eat on the ground, but the thought of seating the Duke, who was both Iris’s mother and held the title of ‘Duke,’ on the cold ground to dine felt improper.

So, Lian pulled out a brand-new white tea table and chairs—which weren’t in the bag before—covered them with a white cloth, and served the meal.

He thought about preparing dessert, but since the Duke wasn’t fond of sweet things, he served tea to cleanse her palate instead.

Although he wanted to offer her something like expensive black tea, not knowing her exact taste, he served barley tea instead—it was well received.

While they sipped tea, they discussed ways to get out of this area.

The surroundings were filled with Apen ore, and the only feasible method seemed to be breaking through the ceiling.

The problem was, no one knew how deep they were, and attempting to break through the ceiling could result in them being buried alive.

[If that’s the issue, I can solve it.]

‘What? How?’

Without answering, the cursed sword immediately sprang into action.

A wave invisible to the eye spread out rapidly. Just like Noah had done earlier to scout their surroundings, the cursed sword unleashed its power to search for the exact location of this place.

“Just now, that was…!”

The Duke, who seemed highly sensitive to the energy of the sword, shot up from her seat and placed her hand on her sword hilt.

After coaxing some answers out of the cursed sword to figure out what it had done, Lian hurriedly calmed the Duke down.

Thanks to Lian’s frantic explanations, the Duke finally sat back down, letting out a sigh of admiration.

“Considering how full the area is with Apen, it must have been difficult to search around. Impressive.”

“No, it’s really nothing.”

Lian humbly tried to downplay his accomplishment, but the Duke firmly shook her head.

“The trials and challenges you must have faced to reach such a level… You shouldn’t belittle your strength. It would be like denying your past.”

“…”

At those earnest words, Lian’s gaze dropped downwards, his eyes rolling as his cheeks reddened, and he pursed his lips.

The truth was, the strength he had gained was thanks to a ‘gag filter’ that worked like a cheat.

He hadn’t swung the sword dozens of times like Noah had, nor had he gained his abilities through the tribulations the Duke had spoken of.

This thought brought a wave of embarrassment, causing his face to grow hot. To the Duke, it made him look like someone unaccustomed to receiving praise, and she gazed at him with even deeper sympathy.

‘To have such skills, yet be unfamiliar with compliments… He must have lived a life where he hadn’t been recognized.’

While the Duke’s mind wandered off into all kinds of speculative thoughts, Lian suddenly had a realization.

‘In this world… it’s true that strength comes from the trials one endures.’

The dark fantasy world was brutally realistic and cruel. Yet, even in such a world, hope existed.

In the harsh reality of this world, there are those who save others, dream of a better future, and never stop loving. These are what people call ‘heroes.’

For such ‘heroes,’ trials are inevitable, and the more they overcome, the brighter their light shines, becoming a beacon in a world devoid of hope.

It’s like a comedic world where a frail, helpless girl can have weak strength one moment, but when chasing after a handsome senior, she gains the force of a bulldozer capable of knocking over everyone around her.

Each world has its own governing ‘rules.’

‘Iris, Noah, and even Jess probably need to face such trials as well.’

As the original storyline had changed countless times, the futures of Noah and Jess joining the hero’s party to defeat the Demon King may have changed too. However, Lian had an inexplicable feeling—a kind of certainty—that the three would eventually stand on the battlefield to face the Demon King.

This intuition had developed thanks to the divine power that continued to accumulate, but Lian had yet to notice it. He only realized one thing—that for the others to grow stronger, they would need to experience many trials.

Just as his thoughts were about to deepen further, the cursed sword’s voice pulled him back to reality.

[I’ve finished checking. It’s not as deep as I thought.]

Given the amount of time that had passed, the cursed sword originally expected that they had fallen thousands of kilometers, but it seemed it wasn’t that far down after all.

[If the two of you launch simultaneous attacks, you should be able to break through the ceiling without any trouble.]

‘Really?’

[Yes! So hurry up and get us out of here! I need you to offer me some sweet blood!]

Having skipped lunch because Lian couldn’t figure out a way to feed it without the Duke noticing, the cursed sword’s anger had reached its peak. Its every thought was now dominated by the desire to escape the wretched space and indulge in its partner’s sweet, life-giving blood.

Lian immediately informed the Duke of the situation. Since the Duke was also eager to escape and check on her knights’ conditions, her expression noticeably brightened.

After quickly packing up, Lian and the Duke set their sights on the ceiling.

Around the same time, atop the land above the area where Lian and the Duke were trapped, someone was standing, panting heavily.

“Hah… Haah… Finally… made it…”

A woman with disheveled pink hair peeking out from under her deeply hooded cloak—her face twisted with a hint of resentment—stood there, leaning on a sturdy branch like a makeshift staff.

Her body trembled, to the point she looked ready to collapse at any moment, but she barely managed to maintain her balance.

“Heh… hehe… Even if I couldn’t get a soul… I’ll take at least the corpse with me.”

The Necromancer had assumed that the Duke had already become a cold corpse by the time she arrived too late. While she smirked and muttered that even getting her hands on a corpse would be worthwhile, her eyes were filled with both fury and fear.

Her thoughts flickered to Jess’s savage face, tearing into her throat. Since she had been using the Ranger’s eyes when hunted down, the fear of having her own neck ripped open clawed at her mind.

At the same time, a deep, dark rage simmered within her. Had it not been for that damned Red Beast, she would have obtained the strongest weapon in its perfect form… and these regrets, coupled with rage, flooded her mind.

“Hmph… First, let’s go down before the corpse rots further.”

Once she regained her breath, the Necromancer tossed the branch aside and stared down at the ground.

‘No way… they can’t still be alive, right?’

A sudden worry popped into her mind, but she quickly shook it off.

‘If that were the case, the doppelgänger would have been sent back.’

Since the Duke was trapped so deep underground, it became impossible for her to determine what her doppelgänger was up to.

Normally, whenever there was a problem with one of her undead minions, it’d return to her through reverse summoning, which gave her some peace of mind.

However, she couldn’t have known at that moment that this ‘rule’ had been completely broken by the cursed sword and the gag residents.

“No matter! Even if they’re alive, it won’t be a problem. I came well-prepared!”

She gave her chest a few confident pats on the fabric of her cloak. Inside, there were multi-layered, expensive defensive magical tools bought with every last cent she had, along with an incredibly powerful magical artifact capable of reflecting back any attack, but only once.

Finally managing to dispel her sense of dread, the Necromancer took a deep breath and, standing some distance away, ordered the Forest Master to reopen the ground beneath her.

Rumble.

The hole that swallowed up Lian and the Duke reappeared.

Just as her body was about to fall through—

Bzzt!

“Huh?”

A defensive magical artifact buried in her clothes suddenly activated.

Crash!

“Wha?!”

Before she even had time to fall, an incoming attack smashed through the many layers of shielding in an instant.

Boom, whoosh!

Before she could even process what was happening, a black-red arc of energy came slashing towards her, slicing through what remained of her magic barriers. The cursed blade’s attack nearly cut her in two.

Crackle!

Thanks to the defensive artifact she had spent her last dime on, the cursed blade’s attack was reflected. The clash was so strong it didn’t simply bounce back; instead, the energy wobbled bizarrely in midair with an eerie sound.

“What… What the hell is this?!”

Panicking, she shrieked as she tried to summon her undead servants; however, the power of the cursed blade overpowered the defensive mechanism even faster.

Crack!

Had it been a cheaper magical item, it would have shattered long ago and left her body in pieces, but the tool was so valuable that it narrowly prevented her from being sliced in half.

“Wha—wait! Hold on a sec!”

But since the defense wasn’t stronger than the cursed blade either—

Bang!

“Kyaaaah!”

Like a baseball striking a bat, she was launched skyward, flying away so high into the sky that she became a small, twinkling dot before vanishing completely.

“Did you hear something just now?”

“Hmm? Hear what?”

“I thought I heard something… But it might be just my imagination.”

The Duke shook her head, dismissing the scream she had heard as nothing more than a trick of the mind.

End of Chapter