Author's Corner:
I am looking for your reviews, whether positive or negative.
Anyway, let's continue.
...
As if to remind me that what I was about to do was a sin, God seemed to have intervened to change the weather, and within a very short time, it became cloudy and then started pouring rain.
I had nothing to wear except the clothes on my back. Just a simple t-shirt and
ordinary pants.
Neither of them had any magical ability to keep out the rain. Well, this was hardly a situation for secretly following someone.
Hiding behind the trees, I watched what the man I had been observing for the last few hours was doing.
The man, with his sharp gaze combined with his unkempt beard and bald head, bent his neck and started looking around just as I was watching him. Since I was sure I was well hidden and that he wasn't a ninja, I continued watching him without feeling any tension.
I thought he was checking his surroundings to see if anyone was watching him so closely. He would probably reveal his true face eventually.
The man in his late forties suddenly started taking off his tattered clothes.
Contrary to my expectations, his body wasn't covered in tattoos. In fact, there wasn't even a large scar on his body.
Wondering why he was taking off his clothes, I hesitated to look, but then he quickly removed the clothes underneath and was completely naked.
As I hesitated to look, I saw him start to caress himself in the rain, like an ordinary man taking a bath.
Hmm...
Yes, he really is taking a bath.
"For God's sake!"
[Lilith: Hahahaha. Seriously, you should stop looking for a mountain bandit to ease your conscience and just grab the first person you come across. I don't really like this guy's appearance, but it's not a bad start. Go and claim that flesh garment, Eren. If it makes you feel better, all humans are evil. It's in their nature.]
"He's probably just a poor man bathing in the rain. No offense, Lilith, but I'm happy being human, and I'm not going to ruin that."
[Lilith: Oh, you will, darling. Just a matter of time.]
Could a man bathing in the pouring rain really be a bandit? I don't think so.
He's not carrying a weapon, nor is his body covered in scars from years of war. As if that weren't enough, the man is so thin you can see his bones.
The person I'm following is probably just a man. One of the poor ones.
Realizing I had no business here, I turned around without even trying to tread quietly and headed straight for the main road leading to the capital.
The first thing I need to do now is fill my empty stomach and get to the capital. If I come across a merchant or something, I can easily get to the capital, and it will be easier to find a whore's child to take care of there than it is here.
That's how I was thinking, but reality wasn't as cooperative as I'd hoped.
Walking back to the capital road had already taken an hour. Then, while walking along the road, I waited for a merchant to pass by, and that took almost two hours.
When the birdsong from the forest beside me was interrupted by the roar of a bear, I realized I could no longer resist my hunger.
Although I was no expert, like every person in this world, I knew how to build a fire using materials I found in nature. Combined with my knowledge of traps, the best thing to do was to set a few traps here and wait for the merchants to pass by without moving.
I started gathering branches from the trees along the roadside to set traps, but I knew I couldn't set a trap using only branches.
At worst, I needed some kind of plant that I could use as rope.
After thinking for a while, the only solution that came to mind was to look for rope and try to find a bird's nest. If I was lucky, I could find a few eggs and wouldn't have to go to too much trouble to hunt.
With this in mind, I entered the forest and began to move forward carefully.
I was carefully watching every branch of the trees, trying not to miss anything, while also trying to find a type of plant that could serve as rope.
After walking for a while, I couldn't find either of the two things I was looking for, so I changed my route slightly to avoid straying too far and continued searching as I turned back, and I came across something very good.
A thin wire placed between two trees, barely visible.
The only reason for this to be in such a place was that it must be a ninja trap.
The trap was positioned almost six meters above the ground. After looking at it for a while, I saw that the trap specifically targeted ninjas jumping from branch to branch. If a ninja tried to advance by jumping from branch to branch, they would probably get caught in this trap because the branches of the surrounding trees had been pruned abnormally.
When I climbed the tree and checked the trap, I saw that it had been set up a long time ago and there was nothing at the ends of the wires.
Considering how sharp the wires were, they were probably coated in poison.
And as far as I could tell, the trap had been set up very recently. Because the poison was still dripping onto the ground.
This doesn't seem like a good sign...
"What's up?"
Before I even had a chance to turn around at the sound coming from behind me, I received a hard blow to the neck.
He probably hit me with the back of a gun, and I think his intention was to knock me out, but he definitely hit the wrong spot.
Hitting someone in the neck probably doesn't knock them out, it probably kills them!
Fearing he would strike me again since I hadn't lost consciousness, I tried to pull myself together, but with my lost balance, I fell from the branch I was climbing onto the ground.
When I hit the ground, the excruciating pain in my neck was compounded by what felt like fractures in multiple areas.
The pain made it impossible to lift my head or get up, so all I could do was curl up in the fetal position, covering my neck to avoid a second amateur knockout attempt.
Immediately afterwards, the man who hit me must have jumped on me, as I could feel the vibration from the ground.
That hard blow alone was enough to paralyze someone. If the arteries that run through the neck and carry blood to the brain were damaged by this blow, I was in big trouble.
Did this idiot become a ninja yesterday?
Just as I was thinking that even the lowest-class ninjas know you have to hit the back of the head to knock someone out, a light bulb suddenly went off in my head.
He's not trying to knock me out! He just wants to kill me!
Considering how quietly he approached me, he's definitely a ninja, and one who's trying to kill me.
[Lilith: Don't think about it anymore. Here's a man who fits your criteria. Just touch him! I'm sure his soul is weaker than yours. Claim him!]
Even though agreeing with Lilith gives me an unavoidable feeling of discomfort, I guess there's no need to think too much in a situation like this.
Opening my eyes felt as difficult as lifting a car with my bare hands, but somehow I managed it.
Right there, just an arm's length in front of my eyes, stood a pair of mud-covered, heavy boots.
My arm must have been injured when I hit the ground, because when I tried to touch those dirty boots, a terrible pain tried to stop me.
The speed at which my hand moved toward his boots resembled a snail crawling. Maybe that ninja felt the same way right now.
He was watching me slowly reach out my hand to him and smiling narcissistically. Perhaps all this was just the last desperate struggles of a pitiable victim to him.
My hand actually touched the mud-covered boot, and I even felt the dirt getting under my fingernails.
As for how my possession ability works, I haven't really thought about it much.
What I hoped for was someone to lead me in using the ability. The System or Lilith.
[Lilith: grab her foot and imagine yourself flowing into her body like a liquid]
Lilith didn't abandon me halfway like I expected. She will definitely abandon me halfway one day. After all, she is a demon, but not today. To achieve a stronger effect, she will first gain my trust, then lead me down a dangerous path, and then, abandoning me halfway, she will smile as she watches me turn into a monster.
One day, these things will happen, but not now. Not at this moment.
All these thoughts quickly dissipated the moment I felt my hand grab the ninja's boot like a claw, and everything before my eyes became clear.
Using all my imagination, I visualized a white cloud of smoke coming out of my mouth and entering the ninja's mouth.
And at that moment, the ability truly succeeded.
I felt like slime. I felt like slime coming out of my own body's mouth. The new body didn't have a complete shape yet.
I could hear, I could see, I could feel my teeth rubbing against my soul as I left my physical body. I could probably smell too, but I doubt I could taste anything.
At that moment, I looked at the ninja waiting in front of me. He was looking directly at my soul, which meant he could see me in my white smoke form.
For the first time, I saw the appearance of the man who was about to kill me.
He was a bald man, about 2 meters tall, with a frighteningly well-defined black beard.
His eyes held the fear of someone who knew they were facing their final moments.
We locked eyes for a few seconds, both of us somewhat stunned by the abnormality of the situation.
I looked down, trying to adjust to my body's new form, as if I had gained a limb I never had before.
My spirit, in the form of white smoke, had completely separated from my body. It was at this moment that the obvious question came to mind.
If I leave my body, what will happen to it? Will it decay? And then what? Will I live forever, passing from body to body?
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to think and hesitate any longer because, while I was contemplating my own problems, the man finally woke up in shock and started running away, looking back over his shoulder.
He was running while looking at me with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
I quickly decided that if I returned to my body soon, nothing would happen to it. Then, enjoying the sensation of my first glide, I quickly chased after the man.
When the man saw me following him, he stopped looking back and began to flee at full speed, leaping through the trees.
At that moment, a seductive voice reached my ears, but I ignored it and flew quickly after the man.
Apparently, my flying speed and flexible gliding movements had reduced the man's chances of escape to zero. In the time it takes a glass of water to fill at a fountain, I appeared in front of the man and, based on what I had seen in the series, glided towards his mouth.
Surprisingly, when I tried to enter the man's mouth, I felt a strange sensation.
It was as if I was forcing my way into my girlfriend's single bed and pushing her into a corner, easily shoving his soul into a dark corner and taking control of the man's body as if putting on clothes.