The Extra of The Lunerra

The location Paul sent me to was... quiet. It was deserted at the same time. The trees here were not very dense, so it was relatively easy to see the surroundings.

’I don’t sense anyone in the forest.’

And... he had kept his promise, it seemed.

’There is nothing. No abnormal mana trail, no sense of being watched, no difference in the wind...’

Because there was no one in the woods.

I couldn’t help frowning, because it didn’t seem... realistic that Paul could really be telling the truth.

’They must have found a way to hide it. Maybe there’s an artifact or something. Keep checking the perimeter.’

Sith didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

So I kept moving forward, all my senses alert, ready to flee at any moment.

’He’s standing about sixty meters ahead.’

My eyes quickly turned toward the position Sith had said. And... I could make out a tiny figure through the trees.

"Huh..."

It was Paul...

’He’s really alone, Aiden.’

And he was on his own.

I kept moving forward, gripping my cane tightly. I had no intention of disguising the sound of my footsteps, so Paul quickly realized I was coming after a few seconds.

His yellowish eyes, shifting to brown, focused on me. A tiny smile suddenly appeared on his expressionless face.

"You’re here."

He looked... not so good, to be honest. He must have been wearing the same thing for a while because it was quite dusty and dirty. His hair was disheveled as if the story he told me about ’running away’ was true.

But it wasn’t.

It couldn’t be true.

"I’m here."

I took a few more steps, so that we were both in clear view of each other. And... the first thing I noticed was that he didn’t have any weapons with him.

Not even a dimensional inventory or buttons, let alone a gun.

He didn’t have anything with him except his cell phone. Which I could easily see because he was holding it directly in his hand. On the screen was the live location I had sent him.

"Let’s get rid of this first..."

He dropped the phone at his feet, then smashed it with his heel. When he was done, he rubbed his hands together, his smile widened slightly, and he turned back to me.

"I’m really glad you came, trusting me, and..."

"What makes you think I trust you?"

"Heh, understandable. You probably did something behind my back... didn’t you? You’re so hostile to me that I’m sure you didn’t come alone."

I narrowed my eyes slightly, the only thing standing between me and transforming my cane into sword form was a few millimeters to push my finger.

"But it doesn’t really matter. Because... I really wanted you to come here to talk."

He threw his hands in the air, emphasizing once again that he had no weapons. But his eyes... they were so calm that even that wasn’t convincing.

"What do you want? I’m here, I’m waiting."

Paul widened his smile. Without lowering his hands, he simply answered my question. With a... question.

"I wonder... why are you so hostile to me? It’s not only because I tried to use Clara, but before that... even when we first met. With my sister, I mean."

He paused, his smile falling a little for the first time.

"It’s like... like you always hated me. From the very beginning. I wonder why, what did I do wrong?"

Nothing...

He did nothing wrong.

If it wasn’t for the information I had from the game... I might even approve of his relationship with Clara. The image he paints of himself is so perfect.

"Instinct."

Paul sighed slightly.

"Instinct, huh..."

Then he raised his head.

"Everything I said was true."

This time, though, his smile disappeared completely.

"No matter how much you don’t believe me... it is. Saligia decided to get rid of me. So I stole something important from them. It was a bit difficult because my system didn’t wake up... but I somehow managed to escape. I don’t have much time, though. Because I can’t escape Saligia and the whole world at the same time. And... I don’t think you can help me either."

His eyes slowly shifted to the sky. The calm he had maintained slowly turned into a strange... coldness as he continued.

"I’m not... much of a person to help, though. I know that."

His tone didn’t change a bit. It was completely flat, calm.

"Still... I apologize."

As if... as if he didn’t have any emotion. So much so...

Even his apology seemed to mean nothing.

"Why... why are you like this?"

Paul raised his eyebrows and looked at me with a blank expression.

"Excuse me?"

"Why... are you evil? Why... do you work for Saligia, dragging your sister into this situation...?"

Paul let out a deep, really deep sigh. A smile reappeared on his emotionless face.

"Because I... never felt anything. Not when I was a baby, not when I was a child, not when I was growing up, not now."

His eyes left me, slid to the floor.

"My sister thinks our mother ran away. But... she’s actually dead. I killed her just because I wondered if I would feel anything.

And... I did. The look on her face as she died, the way she called me the devil... it made me feel like I had opened a secret door. And that’s what everything else is about."

He slowly took his eyes off the floor.

"Completely..."

And he fixed my eyes again.

"To satisfy myself. To prove that I can feel something. Even though it’s somehow wicked."

"And what about... your sister? Why didn’t you kill her?"

He paused for a moment, as if he didn’t know what to say. Then... he simply grinned.

"Olivia..."

His eyes narrowed slightly. And... his next words were uttered with absolute coldness.

"I don’t even really care. The only reason she’s alive is to show that I have a family. To give Saligia something to make them think they can control me. Not that it means much anymore..."

He was silent for a short while. Then his lips curled up slightly.

"But with Clara... I really tried, you know? Could she make me feel something, could she change me? Because... that’s who she was."

And more.

"If we’d kept going a little longer, maybe... who knows. But we didn’t. And we won’t. So it too doesn’t matter."

His words were... bitter, actually.

They almost made me feel sorry for someone like him.

But... I knew things he didn’t.

No, Clara wasn’t going to change him. It wasn’t going to happen.

Paul was a psychopath in every sense of the word. I’d seen enough of that in the game.

And now... I had confirmed that it had nothing to do with Sue. He didn’t care about Sue in the slightest. Sue’s death wasn’t the reason he was the way he was.

It was simply... who he was.

"I see..."

I took a deep breath, transferred a small amount of mana to my cane, and then the cane was replaced by a sword.

I slowly raised the sword, pointing it at him.

"You... you came here to die. To die by my hand. Not to talk or anything."

Paul didn’t give any answer.

"But... why me? I wonder about that. If Saligia were after you, they would do the same thing as me."

I continued, squinting slightly.

"Is it about Clara? Or some other reason?"

For the first time, Paul widened his smile as wide as he could instead of simply wearing it. His calm, cold eyes filled with emotion for the first time in our entire conversation.

And my eyes suddenly widened.

"Do you still not understand what I just said, Aiden?"

I quickly gripped my sword, planted my foot hard on the ground, and prepared to leap...

"What kind of person am I?"

I lunged forward.

Paul didn’t move a bit. His eyes were always on my sword as if he was waiting for it specifically. He didn’t even flinch.

My sword pierced his chest. His blood watered the blade of my sword. Blood trickled between his lips. Yet the expression on his face did not change. The only thing that changed... was where his eyes looked.

And then he whispered.

"B- before I go... I thought I’d play my last joke... after all, if you hate me that much, I have to give you my due, don’t I...?"

I quickly drew my sword from his chest, pushed his body back slightly and quickly turned to face where he was looking.

I waited for the traps flying at me, for the Saligia members waiting to take me down...

But it wasn’t any of them.

Not even an... enemy, to begin with.

On the contrary, it was someone I knew quite well.

Too well.

"A- Aiden?"

It was... Sue.

Her dark blue eyes slid from Paul’s body and back to me. Then back to him, then back to me.

"You... w- what did you...?"

And that’s when it hit me.

What Paul’s ’last joke’ was.

Sue approached me with trembling steps, her eyes never leaving Paul’s body.

And I... let out a deep sigh.

"When did you arrive?"

Sue didn’t answer.

"Sue, can you hear me?"

Again, no answer.

"Hey, Sue."

All she did was keep walking.

"..."

She finally got past me, crouched down in front of Paul, and put her hand on his cheek.

"I- I don’t... I don’t... understand..."

She put her ear to his bloody chest, as if she wanted to listen to his heartbeat.

"Why... did you... kill him...?"

But she couldn’t hear any.

"Even if everything he said was... true... why did you kill him?"

"You don’t know what your brother really is, Sue."

"I understood that!"

Her voice came out of nowhere. It was so sudden that I could tell her throat was a little strained.

"B- but... still... you could only neutralize him..."

No, I couldn’t.

"You could only... capture..."

He definitely had another plan. If he had survived, if I had left him alive... he would definitely have done something worse.

"Su-"

The first time her eyes turned properly on me... I froze in my tracks.

When I saw how tear-filled her eyes were, how... helpless her expression was...

All the words I was preparing to say stuck in my throat.

"Why... why did you kill him...?"

And... at that moment, I realized what Paul’s motive really was.

"Huh..."

Hahahah...

Really? Is that it?

That’s what you wanted to do... before you died?

How... ridiculous.