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"Kaycee."
At the sudden call, Kaycee—to be more precise, Kaycee's character in the game—raised her head. Glowing amber eyes were staring at her in the darkness. A ray of doubt crossed his eyes as he looked at her tiredly and quietly. "Am I overcaring?" "what?" In the dark, his hand taps the table. Kaycee gazed intently at the slow, regular, and habitual-looking hand movements, quite different from when he had to rush her next move. "I don't trust him... Magnificus. But his bumptious eyes are pretty reliable. SO reliable that I want to get one out and keep it." He is also your creation, so it must be natural-he added a bit sarcasticly, that he in the dark was also her 'creation', so Kaycee couldn't help but smile. However, the calm atmosphere for a moment fades with the amber gaze that swirls like a burning flame. Inside the Cabin, lit by candlelight, the dust was like ashes. The ashed that flew like the only legacy of the dead, after a huge flame engulfed everything.
The silence grew longer, and when no answer came, the Scrybe of the Beast slowly uttered a word. "Are you really safe, Kaycee?" Again the regular sound of hand tapping on the table filled the Cabin. "I replied that I don't believe in him, so I don't believe his stupid prophecies. But looking at your actions now, Kaycee... What should I do?"
Kaycee in reality bit her lip hard without realizing it. Before long, the bloody taste of iron lingered in her mouth. She didn't have the confidence to face the eyes of a creature that could only look at her, trust her words. Lately, she has been unable to dismiss the feeling that she has noticed something she shouldn't have known. She didn't know what to do, and she often went into the game and spent a lot of time with Leshy, who was able to communicate in order to forget the stuffiness of her reality for a while. "…No, nothing. I'm fine. Thanks for your concern... But you don't have to." The Scrybe did not answer.
Leshy, the Scrybe of the Beast, could easily detect such a lie. Although he couldn't see Kaycee's pale complexion on the other side of the screen, humans were animals after all, and all beasts were within his circle, so every moment of Kaycee's hesitation came as proof of his lies. But he didn't push her. He felt no reason for that. If there was something she couldn't tell him, she probably wouldn't have told the other Scrybes either. Then, the Beast's Scrybe thought, there was no need for him to forcefully open the beast's mouth-or beak-to make a sound when she didn't want to speak.
"Oh, I think I have to go now, Lesh." "We haven't made your death card yet, have we?" In response to the absurd answer, Kaycee just stared at the orange eyes on the screen as it was far away. “Death wasn’t enough… Why don’t we make one now?” It was a refusal to say goodbye. Kaycee hesitated, but then slowly nodded without realizing it. "good."
"From among the cards in that deck right now... Let's pick the cost first." Kaycee's deck was well-made one. Kaycee pondered for a long time as she touched her deck, then selected the bullfrog card and put it in front of darkness. "If another challenger chooses my card in the future, I hope he can use it comfortably." "By a sacrifice of blood..." The bullfrog card disappears, and a drop of blood is inscribed on the blank card between them. "Attack power and stamina?" "Damn, my Urayauli is not showing up at this time!" Kaycee looked desperately at the pelt, the sparrow card, and the cockroach card offered by the Scrybe. "1 attack power and 2 stamina..."
"…Now all that's left is a portrait." After the two sigils were engraved, the Scrybe looked at the blank card in the middle and said. Her name, Kaycee, which she typed in herself, seemed to evoke a somewhat chilly sensation. He didn't feel good. "I'll see you later, Lesh." Leshy watched in the dark as Kaycee saluted her ahead of time. Thinking what might be next, he slowly raised the camera to focus her on her face.
'The lens is my instrument, and you are my instrument. If you aim, I'll catch you... '
"You don't have to laugh." Concealing his complicated feelings, Leshy looks at Kaycee through his lens. For a moment, Kaycee falls into the illusion that he is aiming the camera at her beyond the screen. Looking at him with concentration in the dark, Kaycee in reality smiles weekly. "Cheese." A flash of light flashed, and Kaycee was nowhere to be seen in the game, but her face was slowly inscribed on the empty cards on the table. Leshy didn't know why Kaycee said 'cheese' before she took a picture of her. He will never understand for the rest of his life. Nevertheless, he occasionally speaks to new contenders.
"Say cheese."
And he didn't even hear exactly what Kaycee whispered right before he pressed the shutter.
It wasn't just a overcare. After that day, Kaycee did not return. Although it was a fair fact and he too had expected, Lesh was quite disappointed that Kaycee Hobbes, the ghoul of Grimora, knew nothing about it. Maybe Grimora might have been hiding what she had heard from her ghoul Kaycee, but Leshy trusted Grimora considerably more than his other fellow Scrybes, so he did not interrogate or press her more when Grimora said she and her ghouls know nothing abou Kaycee.
But he did it to Magnificus. Thinking he wanted to dig out the eyes that were gazing at him, he invaded the Tower of Magicks, approached Magnificus, who had no reaction to his existence because of his absurdity, without hesitation, and pushed him against the wall. Before any counterattack, he grabbed Magnificus' one arm—a brittle-looking arm—that was both twig-like and bone-like. Leshy was also aware of the rumors that his pupils were quiet these days, but the thought that those with magical skills might come running from downstairs made the beast feel impatient.
“When will your eyes be of any help?” Despite his furious growls, Magnificus only snorted his nose-kind of action that might be 'snort' of a human. "At least a fragmentary beast like you will never be helped by my eyes." Leshy's hand gripped his arm, and Magnificus could feel additional strength of the beast. "I don't think you deserve those eyes either." "It's really you, too, to talk about your qualifications as you like, Leshy." He didn't show it, but his arm was going to break, so the Scrybe of the Magicks who had finished applying the protective spell tried to roast him in a hurry.
The beast no longer speaks. Due to physical strength belonging to a realm separate from magic, the wizard gradually began to look up at the beast. Magnificus didn't know if he was trying to calm down or he was holding his breath to generate additional power, but there was silence except for the sound of inhaling and exhaling while the beast was looking down and the wizatd was looking up.
Despite his powerful magic, a raging beast was pressing down on his arm, ready to devour, and Magnificus was unable to stop Leshy's further actions. And the Scrybe of Magicks had not expected that the Scrybe of the Beast would choose such an ignorant and one-way method. Before he could react, Leshy's opposite hand struck Magnificus.
"…!" His rough hand reached into his right eye without hesitation. The Scrybe of the Beast, who almost sat on him, disregards the painful groan that erupts later and some unpleasant touch, ruthlessly pulls out the magical eye and puts it into his hand. The eye shimmered eeriely even in his hands and gave off a faint light. Blood was pouring out of the empty seat, dyeing his greenish body red. Leshy clearly ignored the groan that had been interrupted by gasp and continued, and instead focused his ear towards the lower floors of the tower. It was sillent. The conviction that his pupils would not come up crossed his mind.
It was about an hour after that when the Scrybes of the Beast finally left the Tower of Magicsk. The beast returned to his forest, holding the impulsively obtained spoil in its blood-dried hands.
However, the fact that no matter how much he torment Magnificus-whether he plucked out his eyes or his arms-he could not find any information about Kaycee annoyed the Scrybe of the Beast. It wasn't Magnificus' fault, of course, but the Scrybe tried to blame the wizard entirely for what the Magical Eye could tell them about Kaycee in out-of-game reality. If that's the case, then what 'worth' is in that high and mighty eyes? Leshy thought so as he carefully placed the cleansed Magnificus' eye into the box, so only a disgruntled, lowly growl made the Cabin noisy for a moment before it faded away.