I’m the Only One With a Different Genre

20 – I… I didn’t know anything.

The incident happened suddenly, without any warning, like a natural disaster.

“Oh, Noah, I have plans to experiment with Mia tonight, so I won’t be able to eat with you. I’ll eat in advance, so can you prepare the meal?”

Noah looked at Lianne, who casually uttered dreadful words with an indifferent expression. Noah managed to move his stiff tongue and gave a dry response.

“…Sure.”

“Thanks!”

He smiled brightly as if it was nothing and left to prepare the dinner. Noah stared at the empty space left by Lianne, biting his lip and bowing his head deeply.

‘Is this the right thing?’

He said. His body heals easily, it’s not that painful. So, it’s okay.

‘Yeah, he said it’s okay.’

It felt as cold as if blood didn’t flow at his fingertips. Images of children being dragged out of the prison flashed before his eyes.

The screams and the pungent smell of blood seemed to paralyze his mind. No matter how much Lianne said he was okay, Noah couldn’t just brush it off as ‘okay.’

‘…Let’s check.’

Noah didn’t want his brother, including himself, to be experimented on. At the same time, he didn’t want Lianne to go through a terrible experiment.

These two conflicting emotions couldn’t coexist in the face of cruel reality. So, it was time to check.

‘Whether what Lianne said is really not cruel, whether Lianne is not really suffering. Let’s check.’

Noah hadn’t been with Lianne for a long time, but he relied on him quite a bit. Unlike Noah, who forced himself to be strong at a young age, Lianne took care of them like a real adult.

Noah was subtly trusting Lianne’s words. Or perhaps, he wanted to believe them.

As he said, if the experiment wasn’t too cruel, and if Lian didn’t suffer too much, he could freely laugh in the tepid peace he had tasted for the first time since birth.

Noah started preparing as soon as he made up his mind.

“Pia, could you handle the meal distribution for tonight? I have something urgent to help Lian with.”

“Sure. Just meal distribution, right?”

“Yeah.”

Thanks to Pia readily taking on the meal duty, Noah could make time for the evening.

So, time passed, and it was evening.

“Well, I’ll go ahead.”

Lian, who had finished preparing the meal, waved as she left the kitchen. Noah, trying to be as natural as possible, smiled and waved back. Frighteningly, he went to find Pia as Lian left, indicating that the meal preparation was finished.

Pia entered the kitchen upon seeing Noah and immediately headed in the direction of the corridor Lian had walked.

***

“I’m here.”

“First, have a seat over there.”

When Noah arrived, Lian was already in the laboratory. Fortunately, the door was slightly ajar, allowing him to peek inside.

‘What… is all this?’

The sorcerer’s lab was more horrifying than he had imagined.

A foreboding crimson smoke rose from a furnace that looked ominously fiery, grotesque byproducts of magical creatures hung dry on the wall, and goblin arms oozed green blood as if alive, enchanted with fresh magic. Various dreadful things filled the room, and a nauseating smell permeated the air.

Thud! Thud!

Mia, who had gone downstairs, returned from the basement. He poured the contents of a large orc barrel into the bathtub and approached Lian.

“Now that everything is ready, let’s begin the experiment.”

As her words finished, frighteningly, Lian rolled up her sleeves. In response, Mia casually pulled up Lian’s arm, seemingly accustomed to it.

“Huh…?”

Swoosh!

Blood, red blood, gushed out. Mia, as if familiar with it, blocked the pouring blood with a shield and looked inside. Her hand… –

‘Ah, ah -…’

Noah sat down in place, his mind turning white. Despite witnessing countless scenes of children dying, he had rarely seen directly cruel scenes, always closing his eyes or avoiding eye contact desperately when faced with brutal situations.

Squelch -.

Lian’s experiment, which she confidently claimed wouldn’t hurt at all, continued. His arm dissolved into a viscous substance due to the poison, and pus oozed.

Bloodshed!

As the wounds that seemed to need cutting were unraveled, blood poured out. Lian’s expression was not clearly visible, shrouded in blood. No, it couldn’t be seen.

“Is this, is this some experiment that isn’t agonizing…?”

Noah shook, holding his mouth with both hands. Tears welled up in his eyes and, unable to contain them, flowed down his cheeks to the floor.

Thud.

A sound of bones breaking resonated as the wounds were unraveled, breaking even the bones. His arm bent in a direction it shouldn’t, broken.

Closing his eyes tightly at the too cruel scene, when he opened them again, as if Mia had shifted aside, her body was covering Lian’s wounds.

“…Lian, are you by any chance…”

The casual conversation didn’t reach Noah’s ears. Due to the immense shock, a ringing filled his ears. When he regained his senses, Lian was sitting quietly with something stuck in his arm.

The mangled arm had returned to normal. As if to prove that the cruel experiment wasn’t a dream, a reddish mark remained on his arm.

Noah’s gaze followed what was embedded in Lian’s arm. A large container was swaying with red blood.

“…What kind of being is this? I dissected the whole body, but I couldn’t figure it out. Should I open the head after all?”

…!

Noah had unconsciously separated Mia from the cruel sorcerer. Not only because of her beautiful appearance, but also because she provided them with a place to stay and meals.

Having lived in hunger and persecution, Noah, swayed by the kindness of Mia, perhaps mistakenly thought she couldn’t be that bad.

Having had such a foolish thought, he might have believed Lian’s words.

“Dissected the whole body?”

Noah recalled the cruel traces on Lian’s body. The marks that looked like scribbles were all smoothed out by Mia’s hands.

‘I thought I knew it properly…’

Noah was definitely rational compared to children who couldn’t properly hide their excrement and wailed cruelly, either murdered or driven insane by mental illness.

But, for his age, he was by no means wise. She was too young to accumulate wisdom.

‘I knew nothing at all.’

She was too easily forgetting how the peace she enjoyed was being created through horrific sacrifices. Somehow, it felt like her throat was dry.

“Well, then, let’s try the next experiment.”

At the mention of a new experiment, Noah involuntarily closed his eyes tightly. She didn’t want to watch anymore. Nausea surged, and it felt like she might vomit blood.

She staggered to her feet, her face turning pale.

“Hah, I’ll… go…”

She had only run for a short while, but it felt like her breath was already choking her, and her throat seemed about to tear apart.

{ Fuhahaha! Really? }

Laughter echoed in her ears. Lian’s laughter lingered in her ears.

{ How about trying this next? }

The image of someone approaching with a bright smile, speaking like a child of that age, lingers before Noah like a faint trace. Noah’s steps slowed.

“I, I…”

Noah was more afraid that he or his sister might be subjected to such a dreadful experiment than dying. At the same time, he felt a sense of relief that Lian might sacrifice herself in his place.

“Ugh…”

A suffocating sense of guilt and remorse pounded her spine. She tried to retch, but nothing came out. Tears streaming down her face dampened the floor.

Before she knew it, her steps had come to a halt.

“…”

She looked down at her hand with a clouded gaze. The hand, seemingly untouched by anything, appeared stained with red juice as if contaminated. Noah began to scratch his hand.

The scratching was too intense, leaving red marks. Tears fell onto the red traces. Lian’s wounds came to mind.

“I have to… see.”

Noah mumbled slowly, taking hesitant steps backward.

“I have to face it… directly.”

She clenched her teeth. The desire to escape was vivid on her face, but she didn’t. She couldn’t.

Noah twirled his body and began to move forward slowly. His heart raced, and his stomach churned.

She was running before she knew it.