I'm the Only One With a Different Genre - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – It’s Alright to Get Hurt in the World of Gags (1)

In the typical world of gags, it was common to see blood and collapse from a massive blow by a large dog or a person charging into someone. Because of this, I wasn’t too flustered. All I did was causally wipe the corner of my mouth and spoke.

“The strength… must be from the meat in the soup, huh? Ha ha..”
“Are you joking right now?!”
“N-no, bro… you can’t d-die… Waaaah!”

Suddenly, Noah approached me and wiped my mouth with his sleeve. Nero, clinging to my waist, showed tears. I waved my hand lightly and said,

“No, it’s nothing serious–”
“How can this not be serious?!”

Noah shouted with a determined look. I shivered and said,

“I’ll… I’ll be fine soon. Really, I’m okay.”
“You…”

Noah bit her lip and glared at me. What? What’s going on? Did I do something terribly wrong?

“Sob, waaaah…”
“Huh? Nero bro isn’t dying. It’s really okay!”

While calming the crying child, I climbed the stairs and pulled out a cookie, wrapped in paper packaging, from my pocket that I had intended to eat.

“Here, eat something sweet and calm down–”

Swish, crunch.
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Just when I thought a gust of wind had passed, the cookie in my hand vanished.

“Uh..?”

I turned my head to see a red-haired girl munching on the cookie while looking at me.

“Yummy.”
“Uh… that’s mine..?”
“Very yummy.”
“Uh… thanks?”

Half my size, the girl approached me as if flying and then tightly hugged my head. No… she clung to me.

“Argh! Wait a minute!”
“The person who gives yummy things! Master!”
“What? What master?”
“My master!”

Each time the girl spoke, cookie crumbs fell on my head. I tried to pull her off by grabbing her waist, but she didn’t budge. Nero and Noah next to me also tried to pull her off, but she showed her teeth and growled, preventing anyone from helping.

“If you don’t let go, it’ll be difficult to prepare lunch later–”

Swish!

Before I could finish, she let go suddenly.

“Stay here quietly. Then I will bring you more soup with meat later on.”

The girl nodded vigorously at this. Suddenly, animal ears popped out on top of her head. Beneath her long skirt, which reached her knees, a red tail flicked out, whisking across the floor.

‘She liked the soup the last time she ate… today seems even more dramatic.’

I chuckled with a peculiar sense of pride as I exited the jail.
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Clang.

I locked the door and spoke to the children inside the prison.

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“We don’t know what might happen, so never come out of the prison. If there’s a loud noise, hide in a corner, got it? I’ll try my best to fend them off…”

As I trailed off, I remembered Lania who had collapsed after being hit by a floating celestial body. She must have woken up by now.

The children’s faces hardened as they considered Lania’s situation, but Rian did not notice.

‘Maybe if I baked them some more cookies they would stay calm? No, they might be attacked even sooner.’

Thinking so, I went up the stairs.

Creeeak.

I cautiously opened the door leading to the underground prison and looked outside. Fortunately, Lania’s figure was nowhere to be seen.

“Maybe she went back?”
“Who went back?”
“Aah!”
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Terrified by the voice that was close at my ear, I kicked the door and rolled forward.

“You really ran away, huh?”
“That, that’s because…”
“Huh, you ran from me only to end up here? Why? Got something good hidden here?”

Lania peered inside the staircase leading underground. Odil wasn’t particularly wealthy, so the underground stairway was quite short. If you turned your head correctly, you could see the underground prison. I quickly got up, pushed Lania’s body away, and said,

“There’s nothing, nothing at all!”
“You were so scared before, running away. Is there something that important down here you want to protect?”

I didn’t reply to Lania’s words and slammed the opened door shut.

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“The only thing in the basement is Lord Odil’s test subjects. With Lord Odil now away, an uprising could happen at any time, so I’m being cautious!”

I laid out a plausible excuse so she wouldn’t take any interest in the children.

“Even with me here?”
“Will you stay here the entire time?”
“No.”

Lania shrugged and answered. To that, I replied as if to convince her.

“We don’t know when Lord Odil will return, but it’s best not to provoke the test subjects until he does. Right?”

“You think there are test subjects interesting enough that they need to be treated so cautiously?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying, but…”

I rubbed my neck and continued,

“Even a normal test subject… there aren’t many that I can handle.”
“Hmm, I suppose.”

She looked me over from head to toe and nodded. Although only children were in the prison, test subjects were commonly used from adults to children, so she easily believed that I, who looked to be only about 13 years old, couldn’t handle them.
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“But you know… I don’t think Odil will come back.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I can tell because I am a fellow dark mage. Normally, a dark mage’s laboratory would have certain items, but there was nothing.”

“That means…”
“All of you have been abandoned here! Ha ha! Soon you’ll be dragged away by slave traders!”

She laughed, tears streaming down her face as if she had found amusing entertainment. I grabbed my head and fell to my knees, my head hitting the floor.

“That can’t be!”

As I lay there in despair, I saw a shadow fall over me. I lifted my head with teary eyes, and there sat Lania, squatting in front of me, twirling a lock of hair with her finger as she said,

“Scared? Want to come with me? I’ll take good care of you.”
“Eek!”

Had it been anyone else, I may not have known, but this was Lania, who was fittingly known as the ‘crazy woman’ among the Four Heavenly Kings. Currently, she was interested in me and behaved in such a way, but if I slightly upset her, I could be smashed to bits.

‘Just assembling the pieces would be challenging!’

If I put myself back together only to pop back into existence, surely she’d find it even more intriguing and turn me into her personal punching bag. Just thinking about it made my gut wrench.

“No, it’s okay. I’m a loyal servant of Lord Odil…”
“Saying it like that makes me even more interested.”

A black shadow fell over her face.

She grabbed my shoulder and leaned her face close to mine.

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“What part of you is worse than Odil?”
“Eek?!”

Right when I shrugged and tensed my shoulders,
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Thud thud.

The sound of heavy knocking resonated.

Creak.

Due to the spell Odil had cast, the door that was supposed to be securely shut opened effortlessly. As I saw this, tears streamed down my face while I thought to myself,

‘Odil really has run away… after I fed him such delicious food too…’

As I was engrossed in this feeling of betrayal, the door opened, and a woman with navy-blue short hair entered. The first thing that caught my eye was the corset cinching below her chest.

It didn’t look like the tightly laced corsets worn by noble ladies in movies, intended to constrict the waist tightly; instead, it seemed more like a garment meant to accentuate the waistline. My gaze wasn’t directly at the corset itself; it was drawn to the majestic bosom that was accentuated by the corset.

‘Wow…’
“Wow…”

I was so captivated by the beauty and shock of the scene that I lost my train of thought. My gaze then traveled to her lower half. The trousers that connected to the corset made her long legs look even longer and slimmer. Unlike me, who was endlessly expressing admiration, Lania had an irritated expression as if she had encountered something annoying.
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“Ugh.”

As Lania stood up, she released me, which resulted in my falling to the floor with a flop. Lania walked past me, heading to her front as she spoke.

“Mia, what are you doing here?”
“Ha… shouldn’t that be my line? Master.”

Mia, with large, round glasses that covered half her face, pushed them up with the tip of her index finger, frowning. The thin silver-framed glasses glittered as they caught the light.

“Master, you are one of the Four Heavenly Kings. Leaving your post so carelessly—”
“Ah, I don’t want to hear it! I only listen to the Demon Lord!”
“Ha…”

She sighed and tapped the ground with the wooden staff she held in one hand. The staff Mia was holding was at least as tall as I am, with wild branches enfolding a round bead. The bead buzzed and hummed a dark red color. At first glance, it looked ominous.

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“When do you plan to go back?”
“Uh, actually, the person I was supposed to meet today has run away—”
“Then you should just go back now.”
“That’s a bit problematic, you know?”

Lania pointed at me with the tip of her thumb.

“This kid has nowhere to go.”
“…?”

A thought bubble reading ‘What exactly is the problem?’ seemed to be floating above Mia’s head. Then she let out a short “Ah.” and lifted her staff.

“Does that mean he need to be taken care of?”

At the tip of her staff, dark, ominous-looking red flames began to flicker to life.