DBCR 09

Chapter 09

“…You don’t like it?”

Saying that immediately, without even thinking.
It’s all for your sake.

Shouldn’t we be avoiding those paper birds for now?
I know exactly what they are and what they can do. I know where and how they were made, too. That’s why I know we need to avoid them first.

I suggested we go to my room just to stay out of their way—and you don’t like that?

“Why don’t you like it?”

“If it’s a senior-class cabin, that’s not a standard one. Too many people.”

“You don’t like crowded places?”

“I just don’t like people.”

“……”

Ah. Misanthropy.
I finally found one trait that really fits a final boss.

Should I be happy? Like, hey, I did find him properly after all.

No. I don’t feel like that at all.
Right now, I honestly want to grab his ear and drag him along, telling him to shut up and follow me.

My hand rose on its own—but I forced it back down. Stop. Don’t do that.
This isn’t my workplace. Let’s persuade him with words.

“You don’t need to worry about that. I’m the only one using the cabin. There’s no one else.”

“How?”

“Because I’m the only one who bought tickets for that cabin?”

Well, that’s what Elphini said.

Flap, flap—

The long, sharp, annoyingly pointy paper cranes were increasing in number.

Having read the novel and knowing just how much of a menace these birds were, I wanted to get away as fast as possible.

Flap, flap—

There were more and more of them. I hurried him.

“Irix, we need to go before those birds start acting friendly toward you. If they latch onto you, everyone’s going to think it’s because you’re a cultist.”

Irix frowned and fell into thought. After a moment, he spoke quietly.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

“Good. This way.”

When Irix and I confidently opened the dining car door and walked out, the other passengers suddenly surged to their feet.

What’s with them?

They were all terrified and scrambling—faces pale, legs trembling, hands twitching nervously. The moment we stood up, they seized the chance to follow us out.

Thanks to that, we were able to leave the dining car quite naturally, but with so many people crowding out, we couldn’t move forward at all.

Irix grabbed my shoulder, pressed me toward the wall, and moved ahead.
After that, I didn’t bump into anyone anymore—because Irix blocked them all.

When we finally arrived at my cabin, Irix stopped dead in front of the door and didn’t go in.

“What’s wrong? Not up to a young master’s standards?”

If even this kind of cabin wasn’t good enough, just how luxurious would it need to be?

“Are you really using this alone?”

“There’s no one with me.”

Irix peered into the cabin suspiciously.

“My father wouldn’t spend this much money on the Legion.”

So that was the problem?

“He never buys anything unless it’s absolutely necessary for my studies…”

But we couldn’t continue that line of conversation.
Flap—there was the sound of wings.

I noticed a paper crane stuck to Irix’s back.

“Stay still. I’ll take it off.”

I tried to smack it with a cushion to catch it (Irix would get hit too, but who cares).

Crunch—

Baemi snapped it up in one bite.

Irix and I stared blankly at Baemi. Baemi puffed up its neck and started swallowing the paper crane down its throat.

Irix recovered first and shouted.

“Spit it out! Spit it out! Don’t eat weird things!”

Baemi blinked its black eyes and gulped the bird down.

“……”

It belonged to someone else… is this okay?

Looking at Irix’s face, it clearly wasn’t.

“Senior, Baemi just ate a bird from the cult.”

“It’s not my snake…”

Behind us, we heard the fluttering sound of paper again.

With a bad feeling, I turned around—and yes, it was bad.

There were more of them. Several, floating in the air, staring straight at us.

Baemi puffed up its neck dramatically and opened its mouth wide. Its head, which had been about the size of a small bird’s egg, swelled to the size of a basketball.

Irix’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.

He was horrified.

…Now the world that got destroyed by things like that just feels pathetic.

Like a whale swallowing a school of fish, Baemi swept up the birds and swallowed them all at once.

And then, a moment later—

Gulp—
—Hic.

“……”

“This isn’t a good thing either, is it?”

“Of course it isn’t.”

Irix snapped irritably.

“Up until just now, there technically wasn’t a crime. Now there is.”

“Then… am I going to some kind of reeducation center or something?”

“Not that. Senior, this is just destruction of property.”

“What’s the difference?”

“It means you go to the police station, not a reeducation center.”

So they have that kind of thing here too.

Yeah, it did seem like a country ruled by law—just one where nobody seriously followed it.

“But I didn’t eat them. Baemi did.”

“It’s your snake.”

“I’ve said this before—Baemi doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to nature.”

“If you say that, the cult won’t blame you. They’ll just cut open that viper’s belly. Can you pretend not to know and let them do it?”

Irix pointed at Baemi.

“……”

I looked at Baemi. It blinked its black eyes and tilted its head.

No. I can’t let that happen.

How could anyone cut open the belly of something this small and cute?

Seeing my expression, Irix said,

“…You really are a viper lover, senior.”

“It’s not mine, but it’s not a stranger either.”

We’d spent several days together. I’d even fed it with a silver spoon—well, not my silver spoon. I’d grown attached.

If you suddenly get dropped into another world, and the only human you know is someone destined to destroy the world in the future, you’d end up like me too.

“Can’t your father handle it?”

“Why would my father take responsibility for your viper, senior?”

“Well, earlier Baemi helped you not fall over. Since his underage son received help, wouldn’t it be proper for the father to repay the favor?”

Irix looked dumbfounded.

“You’re in the Legion—don’t you know what kind of person my father is? Right. Everyone worships him like he’s some kind of god, so of course they wouldn’t. You probably do too, senior.”

Why is he suddenly blaming me?

That’s unfair. I never did that.

And honestly, I didn’t really like his father, Duke Verkart.
He was immoral, unethical, and far too faithful to his own desires.

Sure, later on he stands against Irix to save the world—but that’s in the future. Right now, he’s not an unethical man acting for the sake of the world. He’s just unethical.

Baemi, the troublemaker, climbed onto Irix’s shoulder, yawned widely, and shook its body.

Well… as long as you’re happy.

Just then, the letters on the notice board sitting on the cabin table blurred.

‘Do you understand what is happening right now?’

“No. I don’t. Since I don’t, just explain it yourself.”

I more or less knew, but I needed things organized. It’d be easier if that existence just explained everything.

Irix asked,

“Why are you suddenly talking nonsense to thin air?”

“Irix, be quiet.”

I grabbed Irix’s chin. His eyes widened, and he froze.

“Keep talking.”

“You just told me to be quiet.”

“That wasn’t for you.”

“Then who was it f— …Ah.”

I tightened my grip.

‘It should have been written like this.’

Seventeen-year-old Irix Verkart disappeared on the day the cult stopped the Central Line express train on the Grand Gorge Bridge, and returned two months later.
After that…

I knew.

What happened was scattered across several stories, in fragments.
Putting those pieces together and arranging them chronologically, it went like this:

Irix Verkart disappeared on a train while traveling to the capital. At the time, there was an operation underway to root out cultists on that train.

No one knew whether he was taken away along with cultists or slipped off somewhere else in the chaos. He vanished completely.

Then, two months later, Irix returned.

The Irix who came back was no longer the same. He had awakened power and knowledge capable of destroying the world—and the will to do so.

There must be a narrative for a result to exist.

One of the most important narratives necessary for Irix to become the final boss lay behind that disappearance.

‘Go to school together.’

And that meant erasing that very narrative.

Irix, who originally awakened immense power during those two months when he vanished from the world, now had to become just Irix—someone who simply rode the train and went to school.

Then where did the original story’s Irix disappear to?

That was revealed in another story, one where the protagonist was someone who died at that time.

Irix had been in a monastery belonging to the Raugina Cult.

It was a place secretly built deep in the mountains, housing an enormous library and research facilities.

The perfect place to prepare to become a final boss. All the knowledge and information needed to destroy the world were gathered there.

But I couldn’t think any further.

There was the sound of someone violently throwing open a door—again and again.

Bang, bang, bang—!

It was getting closer.

Were they coming to catch Baemi?

Irix wrapped his hand around Baemi’s head and pulled it into his clothes.

“Hide here, viper.”