The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 158

Eliza had always been curious.

What kind of world did Kang Jaewon live in?

There was no magic, no miracles, no demons.

Social status had existed in the past, but in recent times, it had become a nonexistent concept.

Towering structures like magic towers filled every corner, and carriages that moved without horses crowded the streets.

Not every place in this world was like that, though.

The technological gap between nations was extreme.

It was baffling how such disparities could exist within a single world.

Though Eliza had been borrowing Kang Jaewon’s perspective to understand it, the world still felt alien, even bizarre.

And now, the answer to her questions had appeared right before her eyes.

[Eliza di Bevel]

The image displayed on the monitor screen.

The figure reflected within it was unmistakably herself.

Kang Jaewon spoke with a hint of irritation.

“Why did they include this Eliza character as an NPC? I don’t get what they’re trying to do….”

A game.

A form of entertainment enjoyed virtually.

NPC.

Non-Playable Character.

A character in the game that players cannot control.

They can interact with players but lack independent will.

They merely act and react according to predetermined patterns.

Eliza had learned this information through Kang Jaewon’s memories.

Difficult-to-accept information kept pouring in.

The character named Eliza di Bevel.

She wielded a magical power called “Mad Fire.”

Moreover, the virtual world in which this character existed was strikingly identical to the world Eliza himself lived in.

The Levant Continent.

The Duchy of Bevel. The Helios Empire.

The Temple of the Sun. The Church of the Moon. And other religions that had since disappeared.

Sealed evil gods. And so on.

It was impossible to dismiss this as mere coincidence.

‘…….’

Eliza was forced to recall an age-old question.

‘Who am I?’

It was a topic that had been endlessly debated in philosophy for a long time.

Who am I?

No scholar had ever provided a clear answer to that question.

Eliza had never been particularly interested in it.

It wasn’t that he didn’t find it intriguing.

She had simply realized one thing.

That it was impossible for an individual like herself to provide a clear answer to such a transcendent question.

Instead of wasting time pondering it, Eliza had focused on more practical matters.

But now, in this moment.

Eliza had to face that difficult question once again.

Her mind was in complete disarray.

Who am I? Is the “me” thinking right now even real?

What does “the real me” even mean?

If the entire world she had lived in and experienced was fake, then what about her own experiences?

What were all the memories of what she had felt, thought, and done?

‘I don’t know….’

Eliza suffered a mental shock akin to a headache.

But she couldn’t afford to dwell on it forever.

Even at this very moment, time was passing outside.

There was no way to know how much time had elapsed from within.

So she had to gather the necessary information as quickly as possible and return.

‘For now… let’s keep watching.’

Amid the confusion, Kang Jaewon’s memories continued to flow.

He was a traveler in this world—the world Eliza herself belonged to.

Through the medium of characters, he had experienced this world in countless forms.

An assassin, a mage, a knight.

Sometimes a simple farmer, a blacksmith, or a wandering mercenary.

Other times, the master of an assassin’s guild or the new emperor of the Helios Empire.

All these experiences occurred in slightly different timelines, and depending on Kang Jaewon’s influence, the future would transform into something entirely different.

But amidst all that, there was one constant.

The existence of Eliza di Bevel.

Every time they met, she was subtly sharp and relentless, killing Kang Jaewon’s characters without giving them a moment to breathe.

She killed them for making eye contact.

She pretended to accept their friendship, only to kill them later.

She was a figure so intimidating that one dared not approach.

Eliza felt even more confused as she repeatedly saw versions of herself.

‘Who… am I really?’

Countless other versions of herself kept appearing.

Should she consider them all the same person?

Or were they each different individuals?

Black hair. Red eyes. The magic of raging flames.

A certain temperament that only she knew she possessed.

All of these matched her perfectly.

Thus, countless versions of herself that could all be defined as “herself.”

If that Eliza was fake, and the Eliza that was “me” was also fake,

She began to doubt whether there even existed such a thing as “real” in this world.

If so, what constituted the person called “Eliza”?

Eliza couldn’t figure it out.

However, there was one clear difference between them and herself.

‘The scar on the face.’

Her current face was smooth.

On the other hand, the Eliza that Kang Jaewon encountered had a diagonal scar running across her face.

Every single one of them, without exception.

‘Why…?’

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t recall any reason for such a scar to exist.

Memories continued to flow.

Kang Jaewon cursed Eliza, yet he always sought her out.

No matter how far he progressed in the game, the end always revolved around Eliza.

Later, after mastering the game, he would dive straight into Eliza’s story from the beginning.

Though they were all set in slightly different time periods, there was a common thread.

All of them were set after Eliza had reached adulthood.

Eliza picked out a few more commonalities related to herself.

‘By the time I reached adulthood, the Bevel family was practically gone. I was the only one left. And I was a lunatic who took pleasure in murder and arson….’

Eliza was far from what one would call a “good person.”

She knew that herself.

But she was certain she wasn’t as insane as those versions.

‘The me that Judas meets is always like that.’

There were far more versions of Eliza who were wildly out of control, unlike the relatively stable version she was now.

What was the difference between herself and them?

Who am I?

The questions grew deeper.

‘What does Judas think of me?’

Eliza accepted Kang Jaewon’s perspective.

Naturally, while playing the game, Kang Jaewon didn’t see Eliza as a real person.

She was a fictional character.

A fake person.

And yet, for some reason, Eliza had met Kang Jaewon.

Through everything that had happened so far, Eliza wondered how Kang Jaewon had defined her.

She was also afraid.

Kang Jaewon’s words of affection.

That emotion.

Were the expressions and actions he showed toward Eliza genuine?

If he had entered this fake world, was he real or fake?

Unanswerable questions swirled in her mind, leaving her in chaos.

After immersing herself in the game for several months, Kang Jaewon started working.

He got a job as an instructor at a nearby judo gym.

There, he met many people, worked in a way that suited his profession, and occasionally encountered Eliza in the game. Gradually, his life stabilized.

The name ‘righteous sports student’ was forgotten.

The deep-rooted corruption and ugliness in the sports world also faded into the past.

One day, Kang Jaewon succeeded in obtaining the ‘Sun Statue’ within the game.

He had stolen it from the emperor of that worldline.

After nearly dying while approaching the scarred adult Eliza, he had fled and gone into hiding before seizing it.

Thus, it was a world distinct and independent from the one she had been inhabiting.

He used it immediately.

Throughout his time playing the game, there was only one thing he truly wanted to achieve.

In front of the status window that asked him to write down his wish, he pondered.

What did he want to achieve within this game?

‘Eliza.’

He wondered why it had to be this way.

Did it have to be this kind of person?

If there was a past that had twisted Eliza into a murderer, if that was the case…

[I want to save Eliza.]

It wasn’t some grand, desperate intention—just a pure wish.

He wanted to know if there was a possibility for her to grow into someone different.

And also, whether he could witness or even make that happen.

Of course, at the time, it was just a wish within the context of the game.

He typed it in and pressed enter. The status window disappeared, and so did the Sun Statue.

And then, nothing happened.

“…What the hell? Where’s my item? Do you know how hard I worked to get that?!”

He waited to see if anything would change and even looked into it, but nothing happened.

At the time, that was all there was to it.

Kang Jaewon muttered in frustration.

“If you can’t implement it, at least say so… Ah, what a trashy indie game.”

After that, he left a scathing review on the game’s platform.

[A total garbage game. Even if you paid me, I wouldn’t play it. A pile of data junk that makes me wonder what’s inside the developers’ heads.]

A lengthy negative review that started like that.

Even after writing it, nothing changed.

He was still perfectly fine.

That was Christmas.

A few days after leaving that review—

A producer from a broadcasting station contacted Kang Jaewon.

As the head of an investigative journalism program, the producer was planning to expose corruption in the sports industry.

He chose Kang Jaewon as his ally.

It wasn’t as if Jaewon’s previous exposés had had no effect.

High-ranking officials in the association had been removed from their positions, and the faculty at Yongho University had been reshuffled.

On the surface, at least.

But the officials had simply taken similar positions elsewhere, and their old posts had been filled with their connections.

The situation with Yongho University’s faculty wasn’t much different.

In the end, nothing had fundamentally changed because of Kang Jaewon.

The producer suggested they work together, and after much deliberation, Jaewon agreed.

To avoid causing trouble for his gym, he quit his job as an instructor.

He believed it was the right thing to do.

That very day, he responded to the interview request.

The conversation went on for so long that it was late at night by the time they wrapped up.

And on his way back through the dimly lit alley—

“…….”

Kang Jaewon lay collapsed in the alley, stabbed.

The cartel within the sports industry, including the association, remained intact.

However, those who had clung to that cartel, wagging their tails for scraps, saw their positions crumble.

They could no longer show their faces anywhere.

Those who had knowingly turned a blind eye.

Or those who had secretly fed off the fallen crumbs, fulfilling their greed and desires.

People who, in the end, were no different from Kang Jaewon—just ordinary individuals who couldn’t gain entry into the cartel’s inner circle.

They redirected their misplaced rage at Jaewon and stabbed him for it.

Jaewon let out a dry chuckle as he watched the blood seep from his side.

“Idiots….”

A laugh full of self-mockery.

The knife had gone in deep.

His phone slipped from his weakening grip.

He had no strength left to hold it.

Memories flashed before his eyes.

None of them were particularly pleasant.

A life spent being ignored.

He had struggled and barely avoided rock bottom, but that was it.

In the end, he had achieved nothing.

If only he had stayed quiet.

If only he had turned a blind eye like most people, pretending not to see.

Then he wouldn’t be dying such a meaningless death.

That thought crossed his mind, but never once had he regretted his actions.

What’s wrong is wrong.

As his consciousness faded, a completely random thought surfaced in his mind.

A fleeting, nonsensical image—like the ones that come when drifting into sleep.

‘Eliza… So what was the rest of that story, anyway…?’

He mumbled inwardly.

Then, his consciousness finally blacked out.

And when he opened his eyes again—

‘…Shit.’

He had reincarnated inside the game he used to play.

In a world where Eliza truly existed, he had become someone named ‘Judas.’

‘Who the hell did I just possess?’

At the time, Kang Jaewon had no idea.

The character he had become wasn’t anyone he knew.

Searching for clues, he reached into his pocket.

His fingers closed around something hard and sharp.

‘What the—?’

It was a shard of broken glass.

‘Damn it, that scared me.’

He immediately threw it to the ground and covered it with dirt.

Along with the glass shard, a bundle of papers also fell out of his pocket.

‘What kind of trash was this guy carrying around?’

That was what Kang Jaewon thought.

However, before Kang Jaewon became Judas.

Originally, Eliza, who had read Judas’s memories, was able to connect the dots that Kang Je-won did not know.

A shard of glass.

It was a concealed weapon brought to kill Eliza.

A crumpled piece of paper.

It was a magical decree embedding the command to kill Eliza.

Judas, trained and raised as an exceptional assassin, had come looking for her.

At the point in time Kang Jaewon knew, Eliza always had a scar on her face.

‘That scar… was originally inflicted by the person known as Judas….’

However, when the person named Kang Jaewon possessed the body, everything changed.

At first, he tried to run away from her.

Using the information he originally knew, he meticulously carried out his plan.

Yet, unable to suppress his temper, he unintentionally drew Eliza’s attention.

By chance, they grew closer. He became curious about Eliza, feared her, and pitied her at the same time.

She had saved him, wiped away his tears when he cried, held him, and despite his fear, he pitied her and stayed by her side.

One of those shared memories—

Eliza ended up witnessing it.

‘…Gasp! W-what are you doing?!’

Her younger self planting a kiss on the cheek of a sleeping Judas.