Help, I'm in Another World and All the Men Are Are So Dangerous! [BL]-Chapter 244: Unraveling Illusions

"I’m sorry, Laxus... This is... goodbye forever. Farewell. Please, take care of yourself."

"Rocco!? SHOW MORE ATTACHMENT, PLEASE!! YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME!!"

Laxus’s desperate, borderline clingy wails were completely ignored.

Sylas strode out of the room without hesitation, completely unmoved.

Rocco glanced up at his older brother’s face and felt the weight of his impending doom settle over him.

Yeah.

Once they got home, there was definitely going to be a long, painful lecture.

Ugh...

The lecture after returning home was brutal.

Sylas spent hours philosophizing about just how cruel and despicable Laxus Del Fiore was, while their father remained completely silent—the exact opposite reaction.

Honestly, the silence was far more terrifying.

At one point, Rocco peeked into the study and caught a glimpse of something unsettling.

Their father crushing a doll-like effigy in an ashtray, then cutting and burning it.

A curse ritual?

It looked like one.

But Rocco didn’t have the guts to casually stroll in and say, "Yo, whatcha doin’?"

As for Ragar and Georgio, they stuck to Rocco like glue for days, refusing to leave his side.

And to make matters worse, Ragar outright declared, "Master, there’s a rather... lewd scent coming from your body."

That statement alone nearly caused a disaster.

Both Sylas and their father overheard it, and calming them down was an absolute nightmare.

After all that chaos, it took days of deploying the "Teary, Puppy-Eyed Attack" before Sylas’s anger finally subsided.

The ban on seeing Laxus was eventually lifted... but restrictions on their interactions remained for a while. freewebnøvel.com

It wasn’t until a month later that Rocco was finally allowed to meet Laxus again.

And when he did, he was shocked.

Laxus looked absolutely wrecked—pale, exhausted, like a man on the brink of death.

What the hell happened to him in just one month...?

Rocco barely had time to process it before Laxus crushed him in a tight hug, whispering in a dangerously low voice.

"I want to lock you up... Keep you trapped forever... Cut off your hands and feet so you can never leave my side, tie you to my bed for eternity..."

That was the moment Rocco genuinely thought he was going to die.

He burst into hysterical tears on the spot.

Luckily, Sylas swooped in to save him.

But that terrifying experience made one thing painfully clear—

Rocco had been way too careless.

He had gotten too comfortable, too complacent.

But he couldn’t afford to forget...

Laxus Del Fiore wasn’t just some eccentric flirt.

He was an unhinged, obsessive, yandere lunatic.

That said, after the infamous sleepover, the Di Malvento family had become significantly more cautious around the Del Fiores.

No matter how intense Laxus was, even he couldn’t win against Sylas when his brother was truly serious.

So at least Rocco didn’t have to fear for his life too much.

And so, life carried on.

There were plenty of changes—like Laxus’s increasingly aggressive and suggestive advances—but in the end, the days passed in an almost mundane fashion.

Before Rocco knew it, the protagonist group had all turned eighteen.

They had finally reached the midpoint of the original story.

When asked if anything had changed now that he was twelve, Rocco could only answer with a resounding nope.

Nothing had changed.

At all.

His body was still small, like it had completely missed the memo about puberty.

His stamina remained abysmal.

He was just as weak as ever.

Later, he asked his father about it.

It’s turns out, Rocco really was biologically prone to low stamina and weak muscles—on top of having a body that tired out easily.

Apparently, his fragile constitution, which had been briefly mentioned in the original story, was actually canon.

Great.

The main plot had gone off the rails in so many ways, yet somehow, the fine details of his throwaway villain mob character were perfectly maintained.

What the hell?

Rocco had been so determined to get stronger, to become the strongest, just like the main characters.

So when he was faced with that reality, he got depressed, curled up in a blanket, and sulked.

Rocco had spent the evening buried in a mountain of blankets, meticulously crafting his cozy fortress.

Sylas, ever patient, indulged him in his odd little ritual.

And when Sylas reached out and gently patted his head through the fabric, the warmth of that simple gesture squeezed at his heart so much that he nearly burst into tears.

Life had been peaceful.

Blissfully so.

But this morning, Rocco realized—it had all been an illusion.

It started off as an ordinary day.

The weather was nice, and he’d thought, Hey, maybe I should invite Father for a walk today?

Humming to himself, he made his way to the study room, fully expecting a pleasant morning.

But the moment he arrived, he heard several serious voices coming from inside.

Curious, he decided to wait in the hallway until the conversation ended.

And then, quite by accident, he overheard something he definitely wasn’t supposed to hear.

"For the past few years, the Crown Prince’s approval rating has been steadily rising. There’s no sign of it slowing down."

"That’s likely due to the support of the two Great Families. Their open endorsement of the Crown Prince has been a decisive factor."

"The current King is a fool. Lately, the rebel forces have been growing more aggressive, and in fear of an uprising, he has even stopped providing aid to the outer villages."

"So he’s sealing off the royal capital completely? What a ridiculous plan. The rebel army already has bases inside the city—what does he think that will accomplish?"

—H-Huh?

—Wait... wait, wait, what?!

Rocco pressed his back flat against the wall, trembling.

Even his arms who is still clutching his beloved Mr. Bunny, shook violently.

He clamped a hand over his mouth to stop himself from gasping out loud, his thoughts spinning in circles.

He had no idea things had gotten this serious.

Sure, logically speaking, time was moving forward.

Events were unfolding, people were making choices, and the world wasn’t going to stay stagnant just because he wasn’t paying attention.

But still—