One by one, all the people whom Hess had hidden and saved from the demon were brought out and into the field where the fight had taken place. The body disintegrated on its own after a little while, but the stench of blood remained in the air. There was nothing to be done about it.

The archer, whose name I found out to be Typhen, was roaming around the field with Hess, asking people if they were fine or whatnot. A lot of people were crying due to the hospital being destroyed, which felt a bit weird to me. But to them, perhaps, it had been a place they could turn to for help, for the last many decades.

The mercenary leader had gone into the ruins to check the symbol that had been used to summon the demon. I thought it would have vanished once the job was done, but it apparently stayed until it was manually removed by someone. That’s what the leader intended to do.

Meanwhile, Sylvia was being treated by Kaisel, who was later going to go around and do the same for the others. He had quite a tough job. Olbert was asked to lie down for some time, and given some kind of red-colored fruit to eat. He was doing so with a quiet satisfaction on his face. I was sitting with my back to a tree nearby, looking at the three of them.

Soon, the time passed.

Evening went and night came. Typhen and Hess had headed into the forest a bit earlier, and returned with some more fruits and water for everyone to eat and drink.

In total, counting me and Olbert, thirty-eight people had been saved. I could see the people who I helped get out of the rooms before they were destroyed. A few of them came back to thank me and offered me some fruit to eat. I already had mine them, though, so I let them fill their stomach too. It felt nice to see them fine. Their smiles made me happy.

In total, there had been over two hundred and thirty people in the hospital. That meant that Sylvia’s guess of eighty being eaten had been way off the actual number. Of course, there was the chance that there might be some survivors that we hadn’t found yet, but the estimated number still did not match reality. To a certain degree, the fact that it had eaten much more people than thought was actually a good thing.

It was one of the types that grew when it ate. The fact that it had eaten almost close to two hundred people and still been a size that the mercenaries could handle was miraculous. Sylvia’s decision to release it early hadn’t been in vain. If the ritual would have been completed, the demon would have been much larger and stronger, leading to a longer fight. On top of that, there was no telling how many more people it could have killed and eaten.

The entire time after the fight had ended, I hadn’t been able to get some things out of my mind. I was, of course, still worrying about the fact that I did not feel bad about the death of so many, but there was also something else. Something about the story itself, that did not feel right to me.

A bonfire was soon made in the middle of the ground, and people gathered around it. More of the mercenaries would arrive in the morning tomorrow, and help all the survivors get to a safer place.

Almost everyone stayed awake past the regular bedtime as they talked to each other, crying and laughing. Some people dance and sang in the middle to entertain others. Most of that time, I was sitting all alone, in silence. It was a bit peaceful, after everything had happened in the day.

When two a.m. rolled around, everyone divided into groups and started talking much more loudly. It seemed like they had been waiting for this the entire time. Sylvia was sitting with the four mercenaries and talking to them joyfully. Olbert had talked to some other people from the hospital, who were all thankful to him, and then sat down beside me to apologize.

“I lost myself back there, for a while.” He shook his head, “Even now, I don’t think I was completely wrong. Yet, I can’t believe I was ready to kill someone.”

“I agree, actually.” I said, “In the end, even I wasn’t able to stop myself from getting involved. It’s not your fault that you cared for the people while I was still worrying about saving ourselves.”

Olbert nodded, “I guess you could look at it that way.”

I patted him on the back, and decided to bring the matter up, “There’s, something else I need to talk to you about.”

“What’s that?” He asked.

The flames of the campfire had grown tall. Every now and then, Sylvia sent some flames its way and they danced. The warmth felt nice, and for some reason, made me a bit more comfortable talking about this.

“It doesn’t make sense, does it?” I asked, “This story.”

“As in?”

“You suggested that that demon was the hero of the hospital. But then earlier, you had mentioned that his body would probably be in the basement.” I explained.

“Yeah, well.” He closed his eyes and stressed them a little, “Of course, I was given some information to memorize and reveal to you when they asked me to. Those two were definitely part of it. The basement part to give us a reason to find it, and the demon part to tie the story of the hero to the current situation.”

“Yes, but it does not connect in any manner. How could the body be in the basement if the hero hadn’t been dead, and later burnt in a war?”

“I…don’t think anything specific like that was mentioned.”

“Exactly.” I pointed out, “Your character spoke like he knew everything down to the last detail. I mean, that was your whole characterization. You kept telling me the stories, even while adding things that weren’t relevant. If so, then how could you have not noticed the very obvious contradiction there?”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“I guess that’s something.” He whispered. His eyes seemed to be shining due to the light of the bonfire.

“But there’s more. You could write that off as creative liberty, but there’s a bigger plot hole.”

“Go ahead.”

“The basement itself. You very explicitly mentioned that that is where all the dead bodies, ever since the founding of the hospital, were kept. And yet, it had none. All the people hanging above the symbol were alive when we saw them. On top of that, you said you knew the location because of your great-great uncle seeing them doing construction there. But if the dead bodies dated back to the first few days of the hospital, then-”

“Why were they making the basement so late into the timeline?” He completed my sentence, “You can’t argue that the incident might have happened during the beginning of the hospital, because my great-great aunt was literally born in this place, decades before then.”

I nodded my head. His mouth was slightly open, a bit puzzled.

“The logical fallacies in this story are insane.” I spoke, “Has this ever happened before?”

“Well, as I said, this was the first time I’ve actually been in a story that wasn’t limited to my house. But I’m guessing that even if this does happen all the time, then people probably can’t be bothered to look past the suffering it causes and analyze it like you did.” He said, “Even now, these people, including Sylvia, are just happy that they are alive.”

He was right. The only reason I had even caught those things was because for whatever reason, I could not feel any personal connection to this story at all. No sadness, no disgust, no fear. My mind was clear.

“But we’ve got something now.” I declared, “And I might have a small theory.”

“A theory? About what?”

I leaned forward a bit and started whispering, “When I met God in that room for the first time, I could tell that he loved these stories. They meant more to him than people’s dreams. So, if he loves them so much, then why would he do such messy work on any of them?”

“Uh, maybe he’s just not a good writer?” Olbert cracked a smile.

I snickered, but continued, “Yes, but he’s God. He can freely control every single person in this world. He can make my limbs disappear and remove my eyes from my skull without killing me. He can squash people with a thought. How is making a perfect story difficult for him? He could snap his fingers and have one ready.”

“Maybe.”

“On top of that, he left me in the room for almost fifty hours, to watch one of the stories unfold. He was very happy when he saw it. But...he wrote it, which meant that all he wanted to see was how people reacted to the situation. And if all he wants to see is what they feel in these final, desperate situations, why did he need to sit there and watch for fifty hours? He must have known that when that story was going to reach the point of highest suffering.”

I continued, “There’s two answers. Either he did just that, and that point just lasted for that long. Or second, he did not know when that point would happen.”

“But the second one is just…”

“Yeah.” I confirmed, “It would suggest that he did not know anything about the story. If he wrote it, then he obviously should, though. So, what if he didn’t?”

“You mean-”

I nodded my head, “What if someone else writes these stories, and all God does is give his power to make them happen? Someone who does not have the skills of an all-powerful being. One who is scrambling to put out regular new content in such a small timeframe that these fallacies are an obvious side-effect.” I took a breath before delivering my actual idea.

“What if the one who writes the stories is human?”

Olbert gulped, “Th-that’s-”

“Beatable.” I said, “Someone we can win against. Those mercenaries can take down such a large demon. What’s human being to them?”

“We need to tell them.” Olbert whispered to them.

I nodded my head.

“But how much longer do we have?” I asked.

Olbert looked up at the sky and sighed, “Two minutes. That won’t be enough to explain everything.”

“Tomorrow, then.” I decided.

“Tomorrow it is.” Olbert smiled.

Around half an hour after that, everyone went to sleep. But I could not.

I kept looking at the sky. Just like my world, it was dotted with stars. The only difference was that I could make most of them out clearly, due to no source of light being around. Some of the patterns that they made were absolutely charming. I realized that this was the first time I had looked at this world’s stars. For however long after that, all I could do was create constellations in them. Or maybe they already existed. I’d have to ask someone someday.

I hadn’t ever cared much about looking at the night sky in my previous life. It had never appealed to me as much as some other things. All I knew was that it was there, and it occasionally looked beautiful. Right now, however, the once-present idea of this just being another planet came back to my mind. Maybe one of those dots was my star, with my planet. If it was, then it wasn’t that far away after all.

Then, I heard footsteps.

I raised my head just a little bit, and spotted a shadow slowly walking through the grass, towards the mercenaries. He had something in his hands, and was moving towards them as if wanting to make sure they did not wake up. Right as I was trying to consider the possibilities, a bit of white shined on his clothing due to the moon. It was one of the doctors.

I slowly turned myself while lying down, ready to get up and run towards him if necessary, He was probably here to attack Sylvia to take revenge.

As he got closer, I raised myself and my feet into a running position. All I needed to make it there in time.

But, before I could do anything, one of the mercenaries suddenly appeared behind the doctor and put a hand over his mouth. He twisted the doctor’s hand and the knife fell down on the grass, making no substantial noise. The mercenary then held both of the doctor’s hands in a lock using right hand while the left still covered the mouth. Then, he pulled him away towards the forest.

I crawled out of my space and followed them in.

The mercenary took him a bit deep into the forest and threw him on the ground. Making sure I maintained my distance, I halted behind a tree and looked at them.

The mercenary was Typhen. The archer.

“What were you doing?” He calmly asked, “Answer without shouting if you don’t want a blade in your neck.”

The doctor kept silent for a while, before replying as ordered, “She ruined all of our plans. We were working on making sure the demon was never summoned. A whole group of traitors amidst those doctors. But then she ruined everything in the name of her justice! She killed all of those people!”

Typhen bent down and spoke, “You wouldn’t have won. Think about it for a second, beyond your plans. And anyways, you think she didn’t sense you? You think none of us sensed you?”

The doctor did not reply.

He continued, “All of us did. The others kept quiet because they wanted to see what Sylvia would do. And she did not move because she accepted your dagger. You think she does not suffer for what she’s done? You think her to be heartless, like you? One day, try and be there when she sleeps. The tears she sheds for the ones who died because of her, are way more than the miniscule amount of blood you’ve sacrificed for your ideals.”

Typhen stood back up and walked away from the doctor, who sat still in his place.

“If you come back, I won’t talk before killing you.”

As he walked back towards the ground, he gave me a quick glance. He had known I was there the entire time.

It made me a bit scared. But at least he did not think of me as some kind of problem. I turned and looked at the doctor, who kept sitting for some time.

Then, he pushed himself up, and slowly walked away into the forest.