Chapter 184: Light and Darkness 4
“Although I haven’t seen many masters in my life, I believe your case is a bit special compared to the others…”
Theo muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.
His eyes were fixed on the cold floor, a defeated look plastered across his face as he sat across from me, completely ignoring my situation.
The weight of the darkness chaining me down seemed to mirror the heaviness in his tone.
I remained seated, bound tightly by the chains of darkness that continued to sap my strength.
My body was stiff, but my mind raced as I observed the odd scene unfolding before me.
Theo, normally composed and diligent, was mumbling incoherently, lost in his own world of frustration and despair.
It had been roughly ten minutes since I was yanked into this unknown place.
The sudden kidnapping had been a whirlwind, but the moments that followed were even stranger.
For the first five minutes, I had watched my two classmates, Theo and Susan, vent their frustrations on the hard stone walls.
They screamed, punched the walls, and cried out in anger, their emotions spilling over like a dam breaking under pressure.
Susan, normally so composed, had tears streaming down her face, while Theo’s knuckles were red from striking the walls.
The other half of those ten minutes was spent like this, with me sitting in silence, bound and helpless, as Theo rambled on and on, seemingly forgetting my presence entirely.
“Haha…” Theo laughed bitterly, running a hand through his disheveled hair. “The fact that she managed to keep a monster like you in place… it means she’s really serious about her decision….” His voice trembled slightly, and I could sense the tension gnawing at him from within.
I glanced at him, trying to suppress my rising frustration.
For five long minutes, this guy had been spouting random nonsense, ranting and raving like someone on the edge of a breakdown.
His words had started as an incoherent mess, but little by little, I pieced together the puzzle of what was really going on.
‘I got kidnapped for a main event.’
Not by any ordinary means, but by Oz—the mystical, enigmatic familiar of Dorothy.
[Note: [Skill: Abyssal Chains] currently binding user stats]
[Note: User status currently in state of constant stasis]
[Note: All active skills locked!]
[Note: Passive skills will now have their effects reduced by 90%]
The system notifications flashed in front of me, one after another, confirming the grim reality of my situation.
The Abyssal Chains binding me were enough to suppress my abilities, but seeing the full scope of my constraints spelled out in the system made it all the more real.
Stats locked.
Skills disabled.
Passive abilities barely functioning.
It was as though I had been stripped down buck naked. I feel like I’m back to where I started.
[Act 2 Chapter 5: Heroine] is currently taking place.
Theo’s constant muttering only solidified what I had already pieced together.
His rambling, peppered with mentions of Dorothy, confirmed my suspicions.
I didn’t need a detailed explanation anymore; I knew enough to put the puzzle together.
Although there was something about Theo’s connection to Dorothy that nagged at me.
His tone, his frustration—it was as if they had a deeper relationship that I wasn’t privy to, a backstory that I never encountered.
The game never covered this.
There was no mention of Theo being anything more than a background character and an occasional side character in one of Rose’s routes, a face in the crowd.
Yet, here he was, emotionally invested in something beyond the main script.
A missing part of the story—the part the devs never bothered to write in. And now I was stuck in the middle of it.
However, this wasn’t exactly the time to be pondering lost chapters and hidden narratives.
Dorothy chose me as the heroine for this act…
The thought alone nearly made me burst into laughter.
Of all the absurd and unexpected things that have happened so far, this one took the cake.
Me?
The heroine?
It was almost too ridiculous to take seriously.
And yet, here I was, bound in chains and caught in the middle of a scheme I didn’t fully understand.
Theo’s mumbling drew me back to the present, his voice tinged with frustration and helplessness.
“Did we do something wrong?” he kept repeating under his breath, like a broken record. His gaze was downcast, and the weight of the situation seemed to crush him from all sides.
In the corner, Susan quietly sobbed, her head buried in her arms.
Her small frame shook with silent tears, making her seem even more fragile in this cold, claustrophobic room.
The atmosphere was thick with tension, but there was no point in comforting her.
We were all trapped here, after all. No words could change that.
Still, I wasn’t exactly worried.
If we followed the scenario of the game, I knew I’d get out of this place even if I did absolutely nothing.
That was the way it always worked.
The purpose of locking the heroine in a room like this was to use her as a human shield in case everything went sideways for the antagonist—Dorothy and her familiar, Oz, in this case.
It was a failsafe, a way for them to buy time or ensure their escape when things got too dire.
In other words, I was their insurance policy.
‘Who was she even preparing me for?’
Once Dorothy found herself backed into a corner—when her plans began to crumble—I would likely be teleported out of this place, no doubt into the middle of whatever mess she had created.
The exact moment when Dorothy would need to sacrifice her “heroine” shield would be the moment she lost everything.
But here’s the thing… ‘I can’t let that happen.’
After everything that’s happened so far, there was no way I could just let go of Dorothy now.
Fate might dictate that her downfall is inevitable, but the fact that the scenarios kept shifting proved otherwise.
Maybe the final outcome would still be painful, but… there was nothing wrong with trying, right?
I couldn’t stand idly by and watch her fall into ruin without doing something—anything—to change the course of events.
“Hey…” I called out to the depressed Susan, huddled in the corner.
My voice was steady, despite the chaos swirling in my mind.
She didn’t reply, didn’t even flinch.
She chose to ignore me, too wrapped up in her own world of misery.
But I didn’t mind.
I was patient.
“Do you two want to save her?” I asked again, my tone sharper, more direct.
The silence in the room seemed to thicken.
The sound of Susan’s shaky breaths, which had been the only thing cutting through the tension, suddenly quieted.
Her glistening tears halted, and wide eyes slowly turned in my direction.
Theo was the first to react.
His head snapped up, and he stared at me like I’d just said the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.
His emotions churned just beneath the surface—anger, disbelief, confusion—it was all there in his gaze, raw and unfiltered.
I could feel the turmoil brewing within him.
But for now, I ignored him.
My focus was on Susan.
Finally, she met my eyes.
Her gaze was different.
Unlike Theo, who was brimming with frustration, her eyes were filled with something else entirely—hope.
The smallest spark of hope, buried deep within the sadness.
“…What do you mean?” Her voice was soft, hesitant, but it carried a weight that wasn’t there before.
“You want to save her, right?” I pressed, leaning in slightly. “President Dorothy, I mean.”
“….”
“….”
A long, drawn-out pause followed. followed by eyes who looked at me filled with skepticism and curiosity.
The room seemed to hold its breath as Susan’s expression shifted, her eyes widening further, lips parting slightly as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
And then, finally, she nodded, her voice a mere whisper.
“…Yes.”
I smiled.
Honesty.
That was all I needed.
Adjusting my position as I sat upright, I ignored the pounding headache and the nausea that came with the chains, which were relentlessly siphoning off most of my strength.
Every breath felt heavier than the last, but I had to push through it.
The chains weren’t just a physical burden; they drained my mana too, leaving me with little to work with.
I could probably summon Raijin to help me, but with the amount of mana I had left, he’d only be able to last a minute or two at most.
A minute wasn’t enough.
And since I had no idea how long the effects of these chains would last, trying to break free with brute force or mana was out of the question.
I needed to conserve what little strength I had left.
Susan watched me carefully as I sat up.
Her legs were trembling, but despite that, she approached me.
Her movements were hesitant at first, but as realization dawned on her face, she quickened her pace.
“C-Can you save her?” Her voice trembled with a sliver of hope, something fragile yet desperate.
I met her gaze, steady and unwavering. “Yes, I can. And I will.”
Her eyes widened.
Relief and excitement began to bloom on her face, and she stepped forward with renewed urgency. “T-Then—”
“But,” I interrupted, my voice firm, “you’re going to have to try and kill me first.”
Both Susan and Theo froze, their faces twisting in shock.
It was like I’d just spoken pure madness.
And maybe I had.
