DBOFS 11

Chapter 11

Harris turned around without hesitation.

The immense, pitch-black power that rose in response to his will surged like a tidal wave toward the door that was about to close.

BOOM—!!

The closing door shattered under the impact of the dark explosion.

“Aaaagh…!”

The servants trying to close it were swept away by the force and collapsed.

“Harris-nim!”

A panicked voice seemed to grab at his collar, but Harris didn’t look back.

Now was the time for revenge.

“…!”

I jumped in shock when I felt weight on my shoulder.

“Jade?”

A now-familiar voice called me.

“…Adrian.”

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Y-yeah, I’m fine.”

I was fine. That was the problem!

Harris isn’t fine!

My hands trembled uncontrollably.

Oh no—Harris was shot!

I thought that kind of thing only happened in TV dramas! As someone who’d lived in a country where personal gun ownership is banned, witnessing a live shooting was utterly shocking.

What do I do?

In theory, I knew we had to remove the bullet, stop the bleeding, and treat the wound.

But at that moment, all I could think of was the blood pouring out of Harris.

His pale face and red lips stained with vivid streams of blood filled my mind.

“Harris…”

And before I knew it, Harris had already stepped beyond the massive doors of the prison.

“H-Harris-nim?!”

His steps had slowed slightly, leaving bloody footprints. A dark, mist-like power surrounded his wounds.

If it weren’t for that, one might even doubt that he had been shot at all—he looked so strangely unscathed.

“Harris-nim, wait!”

Whatever happens, the first priority is treating him! Or at least stopping the bleeding!

But just as I was about to approach him, someone suddenly blocked my path.

“Jade, what are you doing?”

“I-I need to stop the bleeding…”

“Forget about that monster and worry about yourself.”

Adrian wiped a drop of blood from my face. I stared at him blankly.

Adrian squinted slightly, examining my face—a look of genuine concern for me.

What are you really thinking?

There were three reasons I helped Harris escape.

First, I didn’t want to die.

Second, I didn’t want my favorite character, Harris, to continue suffering in this underground prison.

Originally, his escape was supposed to happen much later.

Not only in the first timeline before Adrian’s regression, but even in the second, after regression, the prison break didn’t happen this early.

Adrian and Harris met in a similar way, but their time imprisoned together lasted longer, allowing their relationship to gradually deepen.

Guardedness. Suspicion. Hope. And eventually… trust.

The only reason Harris had never escaped this underground prison before was simple:

He was alone.

The servants in the Duke Godwin’s mansion had grown accustomed and complacent with the Tower Master’s intangible prison.

Even though taking away just one controller could mean the end, Harris had never even attempted escape.

Because he was tortured through his restraints and couldn’t break free from the barrier.

No one ever reached out a hand to that man who had fallen to such depths. So he probably never even realized there was another option.

Then Adrian appeared in Harris’s life…!

A man trapped in hell, and another who dropped from the sky to save him. This wasn’t bromance—it was romance!

In any case, if my efforts could bring my favorite some relief sooner, why wouldn’t I help?

And then…

“…Are you okay?”

The third reason—was Adrian.

Why did Adrian push me toward Harris, who was in the middle of a violent rampage?

At first, I thought it was out of spite or an attempt to get rid of me.

But as I watched Adrian’s actions afterward, I couldn’t be sure anymore.

Do you really care about me?

That question lingered. Which timeline is this Adrian from?

Is it the first timeline—where he choked on frustration and died painfully? Or the second, where the story began anew after his regression?

I mimicked the escape plan from The Return of the Visionary Noble to find out. Since it was copied from what the second-timeline Adrian had prepared in advance, I figured it would provoke a reaction.

But—

“Youuu—?”

The reaction came from a totally unexpected place.

“Jade Lian. Did you just call your oppa ‘you’?”

“…Huh?”

“You keep acting up. Just because oppa spoils you a little, you think you can keep doing this?”

Adrian narrowed one eye at me, clearly displeased.

“…”

Wait. What? That was not the response I expected.

Oppa?

My brain short-circuited, replaying the word in an echo.

Did he just say oppa?

My frozen reason finally came to a conclusion.

No way… Is Adrian an oppa-chung?! (T/N: “Oppa-chung” = someone obsessed with being called oppa)

How could this be?!

I staggered, forgetting even the life-or-death situation.

My protagonist is an oppa-chung—?!

As someone with only a mom and sister, and a firm hater of oppa-chungs, this was a massive red flag.

Even more than when he threw me to Harris in a fit of rage!

It felt like my intestines had frozen over…

The fangirl’s reaction to discovering her protagonist is an oppa-chung, step one: Denial.

“No, no, no, no, no!”

“J-Jade?”

I think I heard Adrian’s confused voice, but it didn’t register in my ears.

There’s no way our Adrian is an oppa-chung! Even though there were tons of female characters, he never had a harem or a proper heroine! People even called him a eunuch!

This kind of character-breaking behavior couldn’t be real. It wasn’t real!

Step two: Anger.

This whole “oppa” honorific culture is the problem. Just a few years older and they think they deserve respect? Ridiculous!

Step three: Bargaining.

Adrian lost his family. He’s basically an orphan. He must’ve grown up lonely and desperate in a dystopian world, craving connection. Maybe he just wants to play house with someone. That’s not so bad…

Step four: Depression.

Adrian’s an oppa-chung… The guy I fangirled over all this time—who is he, really? Even if he’s not my ultimate fave, I loved him. Cherished him. He was my only protagonist… Should I quit?

Step five: Acceptance.

Haha… sure. He can be an oppa-chung. It’s not like he’s the only male lead in fantasy novels like that. Add him to the pile—as long as it’s not a harem story, I’ll survive.

Sniffling, I wiped my tears and rationalized it. When did my standards for a second-favorite drop this low?

“What? What are you thinking?”

“I hate oppa-chungs…”

“What?”

“Hey! You two!”

Before Adrian could press further, someone called out to us. It was the other slaves.

They’d already packed everything up—thanks to Harris, who allowed us access to the underground supplies as payment for helping with the escape—and now pointed toward the exit.

“Hurry up! We don’t have time!”

“Yeah. We’ve got to run while that monster—uh, I mean, the young lord of Godwin—is distracted. Otherwise, the servants will catch us!”

Oh, right. They had said they’d bolt the moment Harris escaped.

“Sorry, but…”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Before I could decline, Adrian grabbed my wrist.

“We’re ready too.”

“What?”

I grabbed his wrist in return.

No, you can’t leave! You’re supposed to live your S-Class returnee life, remember?

Stay by Harris’s side as his strategist, clean up your identity, make connections with the elite, find ingredients to cure your terminal illness, earn money, build a guild—there’s so much you need to do!

—was what I was about to say when—

“Why?”

Adrian turned to look at me.

Those clear, beautiful violet eyes… and yet, they were as emotionless as glass. That’s when I finally realized:

This Adrian wasn’t the protagonist I knew from The Return of the Visionary Noble.

He hasn’t regressed yet.

This was the Adrian from the first timeline—the weak, ignorant boy who suffered and died.

No wonder he had no concern or attachment toward Harris.

Their connection hadn’t even begun yet.

Their bromance, forged in suffering, grew from that long, grueling prison life.

But I skipped all that, didn’t I…?

Thud. It hit me like a stone tower dropped onto my chest.

The story had deviated.

Because of me?

An excuse immediately sprang to mind.

Well, I couldn’t just die. I had to survive. Why should I quietly die as some extra in Harris’s rampage?

…Maybe that’s why.

Maybe things went wrong because I didn’t die as I was “supposed to.”

Causality. Narrative resistance. Call it whatever—when the original future in a possession novel gets distorted, some penalty always follows.

And that penalty had come in this form:

The bromance I loved between Adrian and Harris would end before it ever began—or more accurately, The Return of the Visionary Noble wouldn’t even get started properly.

My head spun, and my legs trembled.

“Jade, what’s wrong?”

Adrian caught me as I stumbled. His violet eyes shimmered with genuine concern.

This wasn’t right.

Those eyes were supposed to be searching for Harris. Not on me—on him.

W-wait a minute.

My dazed thoughts suddenly ground to a halt.

The entire bromance backstory between Harris and Adrian had been skipped.

And Harris had escaped like that.

That means—

The current Harris… has no emotional anchor to stop his rampage, does he?