Chapter 06

The sound of buzzing insects could be heard from over there.

‘Why are you suddenly saying something so meaningful?’

Ian looked at Ash, rolling his eyes back and forth. If he opened the system window to check his character status, his fear level, which had been low for a while, would have risen slightly. As he looked back and forth between Ash, whose thoughts were unreadable, and the dreary gray-black swamp, Ash’s lips, which had been sealed for a long time, finally opened.

“I heard from Mr. Gale. That you gave me a choice… that you said I could stay at the manor if I wanted.”

“Huh? Oh… Yes, that’s right. Do whatever you want.”

Ian nodded and answered, wetting his parched lips with saliva before continuing.

“But couldn’t we have this conversation in the study?”

The sound of bubbles popping came from the swamp. Sweat beaded slightly on Ian’s smooth forehead.

“I wanted to say thank you.”

At Ian’s words, Ash lowered his gaze and spoke. At first Ian had been worried about Ash slipping, but now he was starting to worry about himself. The child was standing on a flat stone, but Ian was precariously balanced on the edge of a rock.

What if someone pushed him slightly from behind or in front? At that thought, cold sweat began running down his back. Then the sound of fluttering came from somewhere. Without realizing it, he looked behind him, then turned back to see Ash frowning and looking around. He turned his head this way and that as if something was bothering him, and the moment he adjusted his posture, his small foot on the rock slipped.

In the instant it happened, startled Ian reflexively reached out his hand. And he succeeded in catching the slipping Ash. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, having been standing precariously, his off-balance leg plunged straight into the nearby mud. With a wet, squishy sound, his foot was swallowed up as if devoured. And soon his other leg, which had been unsteadily standing on the rock, also slipped and fell in.

“No, no!”

Standing there wide-eyed and dazed for a moment, Ash then screamed sharply and grabbed Ian’s hand. As he desperately tried to pull with his face turned deathly pale, Ian bit his lips seeing the child’s two legs wobbling on the rock.

If he’d just stepped lightly, even if eaten by the mud, he could have somehow escaped by abandoning his shoes, but it wasn’t just that—he was stuck up to below his knees and couldn’t move at all. His two legs were being sucked downward like heavy weights were attached. If Ash had been a robust adult, or if Ian had been in Jung Ian’s body, he might have been able to somehow pull his legs out. But now that was a meaningless thought.

‘…This is insane.’

Ian took deep breaths trying to calm himself and first gripped the child’s small hand and said:

“Ash, I’m fine, so go to the manor and bring some people.”

Ash’s pupils dilated to their limit. Though Ian tried to speak calmly to reassure the child, the voice reaching his ears trembled like paper in the wind. But more strength was added to the pulling hand. He wanted to just let go, but if Ash fell and got hurt, it would be more dangerous. The thought of them both sinking together into the foul-smelling swamp was horrifying.

“But… if we stay like this…!”

“Go quickly…!”

At the serious expression on the face that usually wore a kind smile, the small hand that had been pulling with all its might in the sweat gradually lost strength. Then, as if deciding, he immediately turned and stepped on rocks, moving forward at quite a fast pace. Ian turned his upper body slightly to see if he was going carefully, then saw the child’s back as he ran like a wild animal.

The child stopped briefly and turned to check on Ian.

“You have to go carefully! Don’t get hurt!”

At the shout, Ash nodded and ran off. When the child completely disappeared, Ian looked down thinking ‘I hope he doesn’t slip and fall in,’ and by then his legs had sunk above his knees.

Ian pondered.

‘What happens if I die here?’

Since it’s a bad ending, would it start over from the beginning, or would he wake up to find it was reality? The latter would be welcome, but he didn’t want to try it in this unpleasantly cold, nauseating-smelling swamp.

He looked around to see if there was anything to grab onto while people came. Though he hadn’t noticed before, there was a blackened tree branch hanging just within reach above his head. Ian carefully waved one arm upward. What brushed his hand seemed like it would work if he reached just a little more.

‘Just… a little more…!’

Since he was gradually sinking downward, if he didn’t catch it this time, he’d never be able to. Ian struggled for a long time trying to grab the branch. And finally he barely managed to catch it, but the bark was slippery.

Still, he’d caught it, so he tried pulling to grab it with both hands, but with a snap, the branch fell down. Only the broken branch remained in both hands.

‘……’

With empty eyes, Ian looked at the branch in his hands, then released the now-useless branch. The sound of a crow cawing came from nearby. Ian looked up briefly, then stopped. Though it didn’t seem like he and Ash had walked for very long, there was no sign of anyone coming.

‘Maybe it’s just my imagination, but my body seems to be getting sucked down faster… Did Ash arrive safely at the manor?’

What if Ash heading to the manor had accidentally fallen in like himself? His lips dried up from needless anxiety.

‘What if he doesn’t tell anyone?’

When his thoughts reached that point, Ian shook his head to erase them. He didn’t think the face of the child who had struggled to save him until just now could be false. But being stuck in the mud unable to move, only negative thoughts kept coming.

At this rate, surely…

‘Am I really going to die like this?’

Dying while trying to save someone was better than dying while trying to kill a nephew, but it was so absurd he felt no sense of reality. Wouldn’t this have not happened if he’d just looked around inside the manor appropriately? If he hadn’t followed Ash all the way here.

‘Why on earth did Ash come here to play?’

What was fun about a swamp with nothing to see? He looked around blankly. Startled by the sound of something small splashing and swimming nearby, he looked around. A salamander the size of a child’s finger with damp brown skin was swimming past Ian in the swamp, waving its arms, legs, and tail.

It was a bit funny that he’d been startled by one small salamander, so he sighed quietly. As soon as he had a moment of leisure, the disgusting mud smell below his neck reminded him this was a swamp. Before he knew it, mud had reached below his neck and his chest was buried in mud. His arms, raised high to avoid the mud, ached.

As his weak body grew exhausted from extreme anxiety and fatigue and was almost losing consciousness, Ian suddenly felt something like rope wrapping around one wrist. And soon it began pulling strongly as if grabbing his wrist.

Only then did the commotion outside the swamp become audible. The swamp reluctantly spat out the drooping Ian, as if unwilling to give up its long-awaited prey. Below his face was a mess of dirty mud. Mud stains were vivid on his pale white cheeks. The people who pulled Ian up and set him on the ground poured clean water from the water containers they’d brought over his mud-covered body. Then they began wrapping him in a sheet to carry him.

Receiving this series of treatments, Ian slowly blinked his eyes and spotted Ash standing in the distance. His shoes were gone somewhere, and both his white socks that came up to his knees were a mess with mud. Seeing the child’s face with wet, reddened eyes finally put his mind at ease.

‘…I’m alive.’

Barely holding onto consciousness and moving his lips, Ian soon lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, it was in a dim room with a point of orange sunset light seeping through the window. To think he’d fainted from falling in a swamp—what a frail constitution. Just as he was thinking he should eat well and exercise, he heard a small muttering near his ear saying he was sorry. Startled Ian looked toward the sound and saw a small back at the foot of his bed.

“…Ash.”

The dejected voice surprised even himself. The one who heard the voice also stopped muttering briefly and lifted his head. When he met the puffy, tear-dampened eyes, he almost couldn’t help but smile.

So different from his usual lifeless appearance, so childlike that he couldn’t stop the smile rising to his face. Ash, meeting Ian’s face, roughly rubbed his face with his fists.

Young children don’t recognize that they or those around them can fall into danger at any time. Ash said that though the foul-smelling swamp where no one went and stones sank when thrown seemed dangerous, he thought it was eerie but quite fun.

“I was wrong. And I wanted to show you… the salamanders.”

At those words, Ian recalled the finger-sized creature he’d seen in the swamp. In the end, he had gotten to see the salamanders. And hadn’t the child directly called him ‘brother’? Ian silently spread both arms.

At that action, Ash looked puzzled as if not knowing what it meant.

“Come here.”

Only after hearing those words did Ash carefully approach. Ian moved his upper body to embrace the child. He felt the child’s warm body temperature, higher than an adult’s. The small body that had stiffened for a moment eventually relaxed softly. Ash stayed still for a long time, then carefully wrapped his arms around Ian’s neck.

As he patted the small, thin back and sighed in relief, something appeared before his eyes. At a certain distance, clear text floated unrealistically. Judging by the font being the same as used in system windows, it seemed like a system message.

[System: Conditions met. ‘Free Branch’ activated.]

And looking at text written smaller in a corner above that sentence, Ian unconsciously tilted his head.

[System: Ash will remember this.]

‘What? Remember what?’

Bewildered, he blinked trying to confirm it properly, but the text quickly disappeared. Meanwhile, Ash was holding Ian tightly as if he’d never let go again.