No Dark Secrets In This Book

Episode 133

‘I almost forgot that this was all a fantasy.’

On another screen, Cassice Demillang was moving his hands as if controlling a marionette while looking straight ahead, leaving behind the cadets and his own body that had fallen into the hallucination as if asleep. The shadow play moved in sync with those movements. However, strangely, the shadow play did not support sound, so it was difficult to distinguish the actions.

So it seemed Cassice Demillang started narrating.

“My mother hated me. I understand. After going through such a thing, even if she gave birth to me from her own womb, she couldn’t help but think I wasn’t her child. My father was no different. He hated me catching my mother’s eye. My mother was afraid that seeing me would remind her of that day, and my father was a man who would do anything for my mother’s happiness, and he had two more children above me.”

No, no. It’s wrong. Even the goblin knows about Cassice Demillang’s family relations. Cassice Demillang is the only child of direct descendants. But he had siblings? He had never even heard of such rumors. But Cassice Demillang kept lying.

“When you live, sometimes humans who cannot be loved are born. That’s how it is. That was me. That’s the answer.”

The shadow of a long, thin stick went up and down over the small shadow.

As if it was natural.

“I was a child who could not be loved. I think that’s something that can’t be helped. But living as a child without a role is quite daunting. Starting from the fact that no one in the family tried to greet me. The elementary school teacher got angry at me for not greeting me.”

Cassice Demillang chuckled amusingly while moving the shadow of a long, thin stick. He thought it was a fun joke, but when no one laughed with him, he paused for a moment and changed the subject.

“Still, a way for this family to regain happiness began to appear. That was the appearance of my great-grandfather. The person who sprinkled chicken blood on a pregnant woman and made her give birth by the hands of an old woman claiming to be a midwife.”

The goblin gulped. Cassice Demillang was convinced that he had completely lost his mind.

‘He’s bewitched, bewitched.’

Is this that fun?

“Of course, it was a crime unfit for the 21st century. It was natural for him to go to prison. But after 8 years, it was time for him to get out on parole. Great-grandfather’s release even became an issue tied to inheritance. Originally, the one qualified for inheritance distribution was great-grandfather’s eldest brother, but he passed away without getting married, and because he wrote in his will to pass on all the inheritance to great-grandfather, a family crisis came…”

“…”

“My mother absolutely could not live in the same house as great-grandfather. Unless she got a divorce. My mother’s family was well-off. Knowing that, my father was also anxious. He pointed to the two older brothers, saying we should think of the children.”

Cassice Demillang said that casually.

“But a solution came out. It was none other than great-grandfather’s proposal to quietly live in a separate house and pass on the inheritance if we gave up ‘that child’ who was a thorn in the eye.”

The next moment, he shrugged a little smugly, as if intoxicated,

“Ah, that was truly a perfect solution. Because I was finally given a role. It was to protect the family. I just had to go under my terrible monster-like great-grandfather and pretend to be the granddaughter he loved. From then on, I became the person called Jeong Ian, the granddaughter great-grandfather lost early. Yes, that name is mine. That old name? I forgot it because no one called me by it. Haha. Isn’t it funny?”

He laughed alone even though no one else laughed. 

Anyway, the shadow play had already changed scenes to the figure of a slightly older child. Next to the round head shadow, there were two long oval-shaped shadows that seemed to signify arms, and below that, a triangular shadow continued. A skirt. And a tall shadow with a hunched back repeatedly made a motion as if waving a cane angrily.

“Great-grandfather recorded every moment of Jeong Ian growing up. So if I didn’t grow up like Jeong Ian, he scolded me. For example, I was a child who shouldn’t grow tall. My shoulders shouldn’t become wider than a certain standard, and my waist had to be slender. So I…”

Some cadets didn’t want to hear the words that followed, but Cassice Demillang let them out without filtering. That wasn’t something that could be called a weakness. That was, in other words, abuse. It couldn’t possibly be explained with any other word or concept and was simply abuse itself. But Cassice Demillang was laughing. As if it was funny. No, which part is funny?

This wasn’t it. The cadets thought. Capone also turned pale, Diedrich was retching, and Logan was sobbing. Hae Yuna jumped up to shout something but was held back by Lee Hyang. Other people weren’t much different. Everyone’s eyes were bloodshot, and… the fantasy world began to crumble.

“Anyway, the ‘scary story’ I will tell you ends here.”

Cassice Demillang smiled in a way that seemed sarcastic or not.

“Did you enjoy it?”

It was unclear who those words were aimed at.

***

‘I feel like I’m weak compared to the big deal I made, what do I do if I can’t earn the mission allowance.’

Although I had the intention to compete fair and square with the power of production, I opened my eyes, breaking the hallucination, feeling strangely anxious. The first thing I saw was the cadets I put to sleep. And the goblin.

Putting aside the goblin’s intense gaze, some of the cadets were weeping and mumbling something that it wasn’t, but I didn’t want them to wake up quickly, so I put a sleeping spell on my palm like stardust and blew wind to coat them with it.

Only then did it become an environment where conversation was possible. I smiled brightly and held out my hand.

“Penalty deletion. And 100 million mission allowance.”

“…”

“Is it enough to give?”

Well. What are you going to do? Cut your stomach open. When I glared with such eyes, the goblin looked at me helplessly and gestured with a sigh. Then, a mission paper like a system window popped up with a “pyong!” sound, took away the penalty given to me, and settled 100 million mission allowance. Oh, sweet. Then suddenly, there was a pungent smell, so I turned my gaze back to the goblin, and he was smoking heavily.

“What. Why. What. You think I’ll go easy on you because you’re a cadet? Let your lungs rot from secondhand smoke. Kuk. Ptooey. Just kidding, this is a fake cigarette. It’s just infused with a pungent scent.”

“…”

‘What is it? Then why are you smoking it?’

Still, I decided to overlook his strange hobby. Because there are people with weird doll-playing hobbies like my great-grandfather, and because he’s the one who just gave me 100 million in a lump sum.

The goblin grumbled irritably.

“Tsk. The professors will nag at me again. About fairness or whatever.”

“You’ll have to endure it. Wasn’t it a fun story?”

“…You, I think you have a misunderstanding.”

The goblin, who suddenly distorted his face, said while breaking the cigarette between his fingers.

“That’s not a fun story for me. It’s a terrible story. A fun story means one where the trauma you’ve deeply buried in your heart is released by talking about it. You weren’t fun at all.”

“Oh my.”

“In the first place, you didn’t even reveal your true feelings, did you?”

“…”

I smiled brightly without a word, and the goblin shook his head and gestured to me.

“Now get out. You have nothing to gain here.”

After staring at him for a moment, the goblin answered as if creeped out.

“Ah! I erased all the kids’ memories, so get out!”

“If that’s the case.”

The cadets had already stopped crying and were either licking their lips or sleeping soundly. I got up like that, and stopped after walking a little.

It was nothing special, I just got curious about something.

“By the way, what was the most terrible story you heard?”

The goblin answered.

“The story of how bad humans can be.”

***

Leaning against the wall, Ryuseong quietly listened to Cassice Demillang’s story and thought.

I know. Names have power. Some names are engraved on people. They become embossed stigmas. Such names cannot be satisfied with the concept of a proper noun. Ryuseong feels a sorrow like a crown of thorns draped over his heart when he rolls the name ‘Cassice Demillang’ on his tongue.

How could the name Cassice Demillang not be stigmatized, given the life Ryuseong lived?

‘And I thought I knew that the name Jeong Ian was also engraved, but…’

Ryuseong closed his eyelids. And he swallowed a curse.

The murderous intent was directed at the so-called great-grandfather.