Chapter 779: Epilogue – The Boy

As the sound of creaking screws broke through the cold silence, Puppet’s perception of time slowly resumed.

In that sluggish world, Puppet saw.

Click!

One of the armed men dropped his jaw in surprise.

He looked more like a puppet than a human. Like a Nutcracker, like a Zombie Puppet.

And indeed, that was the case.

From his parted lips, a black gun barrel protruded.

Thud! Thud!

Tranquilizer darts were fired, instantly knocking the kids unconscious.

The kids hit by the darts fell silently, and the remaining children’s faces slowly distorted in fear.

At that moment, another armed man—or rather, a Zombie Puppet disguised as one—opened his chest wide like a door.

Inside his opened chest wasn’t human organs, but a bundle of nets made from a woman’s hair.

Whoosh-!

The net shot out, blotting out the sky, and captured the children below.

The net, made from the woman’s hair, captured the children like it was alive and dragged them along. The kids screamed for help, but no one could aid them.

The other children either screamed and fled, or froze in fear.

Embarrassingly, Puppet belonged to the latter group.

Despite his outer facade, he was paralyzed with fear, unable to do anything in front of a second-rate Zombie Puppet that creaked from poorly tightened screws.

Puppet himself, a Grand Dark Sorcerer, and the top authority in Manipulative Dark Magic, was afraid of such a crude Zombie Puppet.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Because of this boy’s body that didn’t obey, it was then that—

“Run!!”

Lebowski grabbed Puppet’s frozen hand and dragged him forcefully.

Puppet ran as if he truly were a child, simply following Lebowski’s lead.

***

As the children fled, using each other as bait, Puppet thought.

About why Lebowski, who held Puppet’s hand as they ran, had helped him.

Initially, Puppet didn’t understand his actions and was flustered, but as they ran and his fear gradually subsided, he naturally began to guess the reason.

Maybe Lebowski thought he’d have a better chance of survival by staying with him.

Though rare, such cases did exist.

There were smart, quick-witted humans who, despite their bad luck at being caught as materials for dark sorcery, would help others to create allies for the future.

In fact, Puppet, in his hundreds of years as a Dark Sorcerer, had witnessed such cases occasionally, and Lebowski seemed to be such a person.

Although still a kid, Lebowski had been smarter and braver than the others, even leading them. In a way, it was a natural conclusion.

Perhaps after seeing Puppet’s decisive actions when they first escaped the prison, Lebowski thought there was something to him.

Well, that didn’t mean Puppet wasn’t grateful. Whatever the reason, the fact remained that he had been helped. And more importantly, he would likely need Lebowski’s help to survive in the future.

“Hah-! Hah-!”

Puppet, understanding this, barely managed to catch his breath, and now answered Lebowski’s question.

“That thing earlier… What… is it? …Do you know?”

Lebowski asked, forcing the words out of his breathless lungs, clearly curious.

“Z-Zombie Puppet…”

Puppet, also out of breath, did his best to respond.

“Zombie Puppet? What’s that?”

“It’s a puppet made from processed corpses. A zombie puppet.”

Puppet, who had created more Zombie Puppets than anyone else, explained.

He explained that Zombie Puppets weren’t mere zombies, but carefully crafted puppets, created by a Dark Sorcerer.

Unlike simple undead, these puppets could be equipped with various mechanical devices, use magic depending on the corpse, and even disguise themselves as humans—a pinnacle of Manipulative Dark Magic.

“Made from a corpse to look like a person?”

“Yeah, just like what we saw earlier.”

“How is that even possible?”

It wasn’t Lebowski who asked, but another child. One who had somehow escaped with them. Despite everything, the question was sharp.

How?

Puppet looked up at the sky.

It was still early morning.

How had the Zombie Puppets been positioned here, as if lying in wait, to catch them?

Puppet deliberated.

First hypothesis: They knew we’d escape today.

That didn’t make sense. If they had known, it would’ve been more reasonable to stop them inside the prison beforehand.

Second hypothesis: Zombie Puppets were regularly stationed here for patrol.

That also seemed unlikely.

Even though Zombie Puppets might seem handy, they weren’t easy to manage.

Between the intricate Manipulative Dark Magic, corpse processing, medical knowledge, and mechanical work involved, starting was difficult enough, and operating one required high costs.

Even if they had anticipated an escape, puppets like that wouldn’t just be used for ‘patrol.’

Unless they had the enormous resources Puppet did.

At least not at the level of a family like the Valerie Family.

‘Then does it mean they somehow knew we’d escape and moved in response…?’

Puppet trailed off, lost in thought.

He was back to square one. How did they know we were escaping? It was too early to have figured it out. Yet… the biggest possibility was…

“Was there a snitch?”

After a long silence, Puppet muttered those words, and everyone glared at him.

Puppet’s words suggested that one of the Old Men they’d lived with for so long had sold them out.

“Don’t say such ridiculous things!”

A kid who remembered the Old Men’s kindness immediately pushed back.

And indeed, it did sound ridiculous.

After everything, for them to suddenly betray the children? It made no sense. But humans were often irrational.

Parents who hit their kids but claimed to love them, or a world that preached love for thy neighbor while waging wars. These contradictions were everywhere.

So it wasn’t completely strange that someone had become so afraid of dying that they ratted out the escape.

Humans often only showed their true selves when facing death.

“Apologize!”

One of the kids, unable to contain his anger, grabbed Puppet by the collar.

He was furious that their benefactors were being insulted. Over nothing more than a few extra bowls of porridge.

Puppet scrutinized the child, noticing the tears welling up in his eyes.

A fear born of being hunted, mixed with dread at the thought of betrayal.

Puppet considered apologizing, figuring that it would improve his survival prospects.

He was about to explain that it was just a hypothesis when—

Thud.

Lebowski stepped in, calming the furious child.

“Hey, stop fighting. We don’t have time for this.”

Lebowski, taller than most, doused the tension, and the kid cooled down.

“But the things he’s saying…”

“He was just talking. Right?”

Lebowski shot Puppet a demanding look, and Puppet nodded.

Honestly, it was the most likely explanation, but saying that wouldn’t help anyone now.

Right now, what mattered wasn’t the truth—it was survival. They needed to minimize tension and work together.

“You heard him. Settle down. If we keep this up, it’ll only get worse. We have to escape. Otherwise, Grandpa and Grandma’s sacrifice will mean nothing.”

“Can we escape?”

Another child asked, the despair clear in his voice.

It wasn’t just that one. Soon, another child collapsed, starting to sob.

“We never should’ve come here in the first place.”

The sobs spread like a disease, infecting other children.

Right then—

“Don’t sit down!”

Lebowski grabbed the collar of a kid who had fallen, forcing them back to their feet.

“Who’s going to help us if you sit?! Stand up!!”

The children who had once followed Lebowski as their leader obeyed his call and slowly got to their feet.

Once the situation had somewhat calmed, Lebowski approached Puppet without warning and demanded:

“Can we escape?”

“What?”

“Is there a way to escape? Think carefully before answering. You need us just as much as we need you.”

Lebowski’s tone was almost threatening, although clumsy, it wasn’t wrong.

Puppet also knew things would be safer with the kids than on his own.

If this were the past, it wouldn’t matter, but now that he had a reason for living—

“I’m… not entirely sure.”

“That’s good enough.”

***

Let’s get straight to the point.

The escape failed.

Clunk.

In reality, the outcome had been inevitable.

It had always been bound to fail, this prison break.

For a successful escape, they needed to either flee far away before the Dark Sorcerers noticed, or find an ally to help them. Now, they had failed on both fronts—not only that, they’d been caught.

From the moment they encountered the Zombie Puppets, the escape of Puppet and the children had already failed.

Sure enough, around dawn, the Dark Sorcerers began their pursuit.

Grrr….!

Throughout the Verdant Forest, undead wolf packs, reanimated as zombies, tracked them by scent.

Hisssss-!!

Giant zombie spiders crawled between the trees, shooting webs to capture the children one by one.

‘Help me! Save me!’

‘Eeek-!!’

‘Mom! Mom…!’

The children, who had barely managed to stand, fell into panic and screamed, but in reality, there was nothing Puppet could do.

It might seem foolish and helpless, but that was reality.

Wisdom, experience, and strategies could only be utilized when one had the strength to back them up.

In the body of a boy, someone unable to use Dark Magic, all Puppet could do was run.

And even that, he didn’t do well.

‘Aaaah…!!’

One by one, the children were caught as they ran.

‘Help me! Save me!!’

Some were dragged away by zombie wolves, whose bodies had been modified like patchwork.

‘It won’t come off! Help me!!’

Others were trapped by the webs of zombie spiders.

“Ah-…!”

Some were seized by zombies springing from the ground, while others were caught by nets made of human hair that flew out from nowhere.

All that Puppet, Lebowski, and the remaining children could do was run and take solace in the fact that they hadn’t been caught yet.

But it was not simply a matter of running.

During their escape, Puppet realized something and began to form a hypothesis.

He realized that the Valerie Family had changed, albeit slightly, from the one he remembered.

The Valerie Family, which he had once shaped into an organization that primarily dealt with raw materials and deliveries, had managed to grow in secret, avoiding the notice of Puppet’s disciple.

The Zombie Puppets they’d encountered earlier were proof of that. Puppet had never taught such refined zombie puppet crafting.

Not only that, but the family had quietly taken control of the surrounding forest, an area where potential competitors could have gained a foothold, further deviating from the reports Puppet had received.

The forest was teeming with zombies and Zombie Puppets, along with traps disguised as camps belonging to bandits, rebels, or revolutionaries.

Having witnessed countless power struggles between Dark Sorcerers, Puppet realized the Valerie Family had found a new way to learn Dark Magic and were consolidating their power.

However, this realization led him to a new question.

Namely, why were they capturing them one by one instead of catching them all at once, which they could’ve done easily?

Clunk.

It had been mentioned many times, but Puppet’s body right now was just that of an ordinary boy. He wasn’t particularly fast or agile.

Yet, instead of capturing them all at once, the zombies sent by the Valerie Family were wasting time and resources to catch the children one by one.

It was an incomprehensible act.

But Puppet didn’t have the time to question or speculate about it.

He was too busy trying to escape.

Being powerless was such an unfair experience.

He had to run just to survive, setting aside all his questions and desires—and even so, he couldn’t escape well.

Clunk.

In the end, Puppet, like Lebowski before him, was caught last. His eyes were blindfolded as he was dragged along.

‘Indoors?’

Blindfolded, Puppet tried to piece things together from the sound of wheels under the moving bed they’d strapped him to, the scent of the surroundings, the faint whiff of medicine, blood, and oil.

The smell and atmosphere were all too familiar. The only difference was that now Puppet was the test subject, no longer the examiner.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Regardless of his will, Puppet’s heart pounded, and cold sweat dripped down his body.

Just moments ago, he thought he wouldn’t mind dying, but now that he was caught, fear bubbled up inside him, causing his body to tremble uncontrollably.

Was it because of his newfound goal to save Grandpa? Or was he simply afraid?

Puppet asked himself as—

Creak.

Before he could answer, the bed came to a stop, rising vertically and forcing Puppet to stand.

With his arms and legs restrained, Puppet had no choice but to rise alongside the bed.

Snap!

Someone rudely snatched the blindfold off Puppet.

The scenery before him was familiar, as was a face he could vaguely remember seeing once.

Who is this?

And then, that person spoke.

“Is this the kid?”

The Valerie Family Master—Valerie—stood before Puppet.