I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 28

Chapter 28 – Searching Far and Wide for Iris

“Hap, hat!”

The wooden swords abandoned in the armory’s warehouse cut through the air with a sharp whoosh.

“Lift your arms higher!” “Hrgh!” “Breathe regularly!”

The training ground was sweltering with heat today as well. Noah swung her sword time and again then brushed back the sweaty light brown hair sticking to her face.

Her eyes, usually a murky emerald, sparkled radiantly. Julianna circled around her, smiling contentedly.

“You still have a long way to go, but this is not too bad.”

Although she spoke as if it was nothing extraordinary, Julianna was actually astounded by Noah’s talent.

Teach her one thing, and she’d master ten, learning techniques in a few hours that would normally take others a month. It was a gift from the heavens to call her skill anything less.

Noah also felt it in every fiber of her being that she was getting stronger, which made her more impatient.

“I need to get stronger faster.”

It was one thing if there were no solutions, but the sweet fruit of success was almost within her grasp. It was only natural then that she pushed her talented body even harder.

If Noah had been of average ability, she would have collapsed before truly honing her skill, but her remarkable talent only grew stronger as she pushed herself to the limits.

That’s why she was becoming more and more addicted to training with each day. Her eyes shone beautifully with hope.

In contrast to Noah, there was someone emitting a gloomy presence.

“Hrrrgh, hrrrgh…”

Pia was huddled up, moaning inside a dusty wardrobe in the neglected guest room.

“Sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, sister it hurts, don’t you see I’m hurting?!”

“Kyaaak..!”

She screamed and clutched at her hair, her hands gripping so hard around her temples it hurt.

“Ah – ahhh..”

Her rich brown hair, the color of cocoa, had darkened from the roots and was now half black. Her previously amber eyes were also slowly clouding over with purple, as if clean water was being tainted with murk.

Exposed continuously to a toxic black spell, her body was exhibiting abnormal reactions.

“Huuk… mom, momma…”

With teary eyes tightly shut, Pia burst into tears, triggering her mother’s voice in her ears.

“Pia, take care of your sister. You’re strong, I’m sure you can do it.”

A tender voice and gentle laughter materialized before her. Pia’s mouth trembled and tears streamed down unchecked.

“Mom, momma…”

She sobbed like a child of her age, running towards the vividly conjured illusion.

“Why are you still alive?”
T hi s w a s copi e d f r o m ki n g m t l . o rg

The once bright scenery turned as red as hell, and the smiling mother stared at Pia with a fearsome look.

“I told you! You! Had to protect! Your sister!!”

“Ughh, I did wrong, I did wrong..”

Pia shook uncontrollably, consumed by endless fear, begging for forgiveness.

The phrase “you should have died” echoed in her ears like a refrain. Pia’s surroundings grew increasingly dark.

“Lian..”

Pia instinctively thought of Lian, who had brought her comfort. But she couldn’t reach out to him because of her stubbornness and the spell.

Why did her sister’s voice fade away in Lian’s presence? Was it because Lian was a good person?

If Pia had any positive thoughts about Lian, her mind might have wandered in that direction, but she considered him to be ‘someone putting on a pretentious performance’.

T h i s w a s c op i e d fr o m ki n g m t l. o r g
Her thoughts naturally took a negative turn. Moreover, the black magic Dovan cast amplified negative feelings and made Pia avoid places where the magic dissipated. That’s why she kept away from Lian.

“It’s… all because of him.”

Pia directed all her endless fear towards Lian. Only by blaming him could she breathe.

“Right, sister, it’s all his fault.”

As Pia’s mind crumbled beyond a certain point, her logical thinking breaking down, her sister began to whisper different words.

“It’s all because of that white-haired slave these things are happening. Let’s get rid of them.”

“Get rid, you say?”
“Like, chase them out of here so they can’t bother you anymore.”

Had Pia maintained any of her composure, she would have found her sister’s sudden change of attitude strange.

But her psyche was on the brink. She was in such despair she might have taken her life. That’s how crushed she was by her guilt.

Someone who commits a sin often instinctively tries to treat the victim well, seeking solace for their own conscience.

Pia was no different. Crushed by a distant guilt and enslaved by the hallucinations, she blindly followed their direction.

“What should I… what can I do?”
T hi s w a s c o pi e d fr o m k i n g m t l. o r g

Her once hatefully venomous sister began to sweetly detail what she needed to do.

T h i s w as co p i e d f r o m k i n g m tl . o rg
Creak –.

Pia emerged from the wardrobe and staggered out of the room, her presence diminished due to the dark magic.

T hi s w a s c o p ied f ro m k in gm t l . o rg
***

T h i s w a s cop i e d f r o m kin g mt l . o r g
“No news is good news. No news is good news.”

Walking down the somewhat chilly corridor as if strolling, I muttered to myself, but my mind was far from at ease.

“Where on earth are you!”
T h is w a s co pi e d f ro m k i n gm tl . o r g

Upon hearing ‘new test subject’, Mia had gone berserk and headed straight to the slave market. She had looked in both large and small slave markets, but reportedly she hadn’t found Iris.

That meant, she had already been sold.

“Okay, okay, it’ll be okay.”

Even as I reassured myself, my legs trembled. Without Mia’s assistance, there seemed no other way to meet Iris, leaving a lump in my throat as if I had swallowed a dense sweet potato.

Eventually, I found myself kneeling on the corridor, clutching at my hair.

“No way out! There’s no way!”

I screamed inside, tears flowing like a waterfall.

“But there’s an original story and there’s such a thing as causality -… maybe it’ll work out?”

Trying to escape reality.

“Why did Odil run away! I treated him well! I fed him good food and clothed him nicely!”

Getting angry.

“Should I just continue living here as an experimental slave? Seems not so bad, maybe?”

Accepting reality.

That led me through several stages of emotional change to a simple conclusion.

“Ugh! Please have the protagonist fall in front of me! Or send me through a door that leads me right to them! Where are you, Iris…!”

Inhabitants of a comedic world cry out their wishes fervently in despair. Then they quickly come to their senses and get up. That’s me.

“Ugh, let’s go prepare meals then.”

Until that point, I never imagined that what I had just shouted would ever come true.

***

Whiz, whoosh!

“Wow, impressive as always.”

I was watching Noah skillfully wield the sword while I did some sewing. It had been only a week since she picked up the sword, but she was already moving like it was part of her.

“Wow… She’s totally a prince.”

NOTE: In Lian’s eye, Noah is a boy. It’s bothersome to change pronunciation each time the POV changes. It may lead to typos.

Each time she swung the sword, Noah’s short brown hair danced like the protagonist in a dazzling martial arts film. Her eyes, reminiscent of a fairy-tale prince, would surely make countless women cry in the future.

“I guess I’ll be an extra by her side. Yeah..”

Tears streamed down my face. But these weren’t tears. It was rain. Even though we were indoors at the training hall, my words still held.

After dabbing my face to wipe the tears away, I resumed my quick hand movements.

“What in the world are you doing?”

Julianna approached during a break I guess, looking at what I was sewing while I had been crying.

“Making a doll.”
“This?”

After doing some simple mending for Mia, she had handed me a needle and thread. I was using worn-out clothes to make cute dolls.

I showed her the doll beside me, about the size of a man’s fist.

“Oh, that’s actually not bad?”

The doll somewhat resembled a sock puppet, with a body half the size of a baguette and embroidered eyes, nose, and mouth.

“This is easy.”

I internally praised myself and quickly produced several dolls when Julianna remarked incredulously.

“Why did you make so many?”
“I started by making a doll for Pia, who’s been looking a bit down lately, but I figured the kids would be envious if only one got one, so I ended up making one for everyone. This one’s for you, Julianna.”

“Mine too?”
Julianna looked at the doll I held up with a reluctant expression. Like the other dolls, it had small bean-like eyes and a tiny mouth and nose, but its hair was styled similar to Julianna’s.

“How can I catch this…huh? Why can it be caught?”
Th i s w a s c o p i e d f r o m k in g mt l . o rg
“Because you are a ghost.”
“No, I can’t because I’m a ghost!”

Julianna huffed a few times before flying off to restart training with Noah, as it seemed their break was over.

“Sigh… Iris’ disappearance is a problem, and so is Pia.”

I recalled Pia, who recently began avoiding me. From the sad expressions she made when we crossed paths from a distance, it seemed apparent that something was troubling her.

“I shouldn’t force a meeting. I heard from Lily that she seems fine if talked to.”

If she’s avoiding me because she dislikes me, it’s only right to leave her alone. Even in the world of comedy, there was a girl who would get nauseated by anything unattractive and once vomited in front of me.

“If she doesn’t like it, avoid her.”

Tears flowed down my face again like streams of water.

“Mm, that’s it!”

After completing the last doll, I cradled the bunch in my arms.

Th i s wa s c o pie d f rom k i n g mtl .or g
“They’ll go on the kids’ beds, right?”

Th is w as c o p i e d f r o m k in g m t l .o r g
With a beaming smile, I carried the dolls to the dormitory to deliver them.

And then I was kidnapped.