I Just Wanted to Avoid Death - Chapter 5
The boy looked at Yeshion as if he were seeing someone strange.
It seemed as though he wanted to ask how a priest could not know his way around the temple, but he dared not voice this question—probably fearing Yeshion’s notorious temper.
Eventually, the boy led Yeshion to the bathroom with a questioning look on his face. After picking up the cleaning supplies tucked away in a corner, Yeshion, seeing the boy’s uneasy stance, said,
“You can go now. Thanks for the help.”
“Are you, really… you mean, just like this?”
The boy’s eyes widened in surprise. The look only made Yeshion more questioning.
…Should I have done something more?
After a moment of contemplation, Yeshion reached out his hand.
“Thanks for showing me the way.”
As Yeshion raised his arm, the boy instinctively closed his eyes, bracing for a blow. Instead, a warm hand touched his head.
It was Yeshion.
Seeing the boy’s surprise, Yeshion marveled at the boy’s genuine goodness.
‘Yeshion’ was a villain so bad that all the priests would run their mouths. Yet this boy had dared to help. Perhaps this was the mark of a true priest’s qualities.
As Yeshion prepared to leave with the cleaning supplies, the boy asked,
“Uh, you’re not going to hit me?”
“You? Why would I?”
“Well, because…”
The boy faltered, his lips twitching. After all, Yeshion had always hit him whenever he saw him, so it was a natural question, but now hearing why he should hit him, he had no response.
“I won’t hit you. Not now, not ever. So, you can go.”
Encouraged by Yeshion’s words, the boy hesitated and then took a few steps back, quickly making his escape.
Watching the boy’s retreating figure, Yeshion swallowed a sigh.
“…Reading it in text is different after all.”
‘Yeshion’ is a bad guy. Even Eldis, the archpriest who doesn’t hate people, despises him to that extent.
But he wasn’t the real Yeshion.
He had no intention of committing evil acts that might increase his chances of dying, especially since dying wouldn’t allow him to exit the novel nor end the infinite loops.
So he had to survive by any means.
‘If I do something bad, I don’t know how I might die.’
Yeshion did not want to die anymore. However, he wasn’t planning to reform completely and engage cheerfully with those around him.
Usually, when possessing a character in a novel, the role of the protagonist is predetermined.
To assist the good roles to embellish the story beautifully or to escape from the novel. In the latter case, many solutions involved death.
But Yeshion could assert with determination:
‘Dying is pointless.’
Probably, his real body had already died; what could he do even if the possession ended? Ultimately, this world had now become the reality he had to accept.
‘I’m not sure exactly what I should do right now but…’
But surviving came first.
Dying would only mean waking up again in that same garden. Instead of wasting time seeing the same scenes over, it was better to find things he needed to do while alive.
Whether to transform ‘Yeshion’ from a villain into a good character, or to save the saintess who might end up confined.
However, the first thing Yeshion wanted to try was one thing:
‘To escape.’
At all costs.
To do that, he needed to create an opportunity to escape.
“How great would it be if the underground dungeon was connected to the outside.”
Then, escaping would have been much easier.
If there’s a problem, it’s that Eldis gritted his teeth earlier and said he wouldn’t grant whatever I wanted.
“I should have been more careful asking to be thrown out of the temple.”
As Yeshion muttered to himself and was about to leave the bathroom, a mirror caught his eye to the side. Curious about his appearance, he turned his head and unwittingly let out a gasp of admiration.
His pale blond hair sometimes appeared almost white. The eyelashes that fluttered with every blink were exceptionally long, and the golden eyes beneath them shone as if embedded with jewels.
In the original work, the description related to Yeshion’s appearance was just one line: ‘A bastard who hid behind his pretty appearance.’