[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian":3,"chapter-surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-chapter-764":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Surviving the Game as a Barbarian",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1328126,1764,"Chapter 764: The Secret Garden (5)","surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-chapter-764",764,"\u003Cp>Before diving fully into the Marquis’s diary, I asked Hyeonbyeol a question.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Where’d you get this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wasn’t my first time seeing something like the Marquis’s diary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Well, to be precise, it was likely a book of undecipherable codes assumed to be his diary, but still.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why? You think I slipped you a fake book or something?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No. That’s the problem. If this is real, it doesn’t make sense. How the hell did you get your hands on the Marquis’s diary?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are you mocking me for being incompetent now?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uh...? No, that’s not what I meant...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m joking. It’s not something I got because I’m capable anyway.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She laughed while watching me squirm, clearly enjoying herself, and then barreled forward before I could even react.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He gave it to me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...What?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He gave it to me. After locking Countess Peproc up and putting her into forced sleep, he just handed it over.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She said it as casually as tossing a stone, but that didn’t make it any easier to understand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait... he just gave you his personal diary?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Well, not just like that. Marquis Tertherion sensed his end approaching and was instinctively searching for someone who might understand at least fragments of his life.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And... that person was you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Technically, it was Countess Peproc. No matter how things turned out, he wanted her to have the diary when she woke up. If he couldn’t give it to her himself, he said I should burn it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But he let you read it too? That’s suspicious...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s why I said he was a lonely man. I asked him if it was okay if I read it, and he said if I wanted to, go ahead.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“......”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The kingdom’s second-in-command. The Iron-Blooded Chancellor. Lord of the Tertherion house... Whatever people say about him outside, and no matter how he looked to you, to me he was just a man who loved his daughter. Even the parts he normally couldn’t express.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The more she spoke, the more it felt like the Marquis Hyeonbyeol knew was a completely different person from the one I knew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'Guess that’s only natural.'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the way he treated me and the way he treated Hyeonbyeol weren’t the same.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone has unexpected sides. It’s just that which side you get to see depends on your relationship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So... you’re not gonna read it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I will. When else will I get to peek into the secret diary of the Marquis? Even if it’s not the first time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s probably not the second time either.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...What?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Elthora Tertherion. He came by a few days ago, poking around. I tossed the book somewhere it’d be easy for him to find.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...What?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh, this is the original. I used a magical transcription tool we use for paperwork to copy just a few parts and made a duplicate.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ugh...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My twitch wasn’t from wondering which was the original—it was from something else entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You showed it to him? Why?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I tilted my head, and she answered as if it were obvious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Because once Elthora Tertherion learned what the Marquis was really thinking, I knew he’d turn on him. And that helps you, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...Uh...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was momentarily speechless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She was right. And that’s exactly what happened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But still...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Didn’t you just say the Marquis was a lonely man?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a tone of disbelief, I shot back. Hyeonbyeol, in turn, looked at me like I didn’t make sense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yeah. And I’m lonely too.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huh... seriously, how do you win a debate with someone like this?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As I gave a small, helpless chuckle, she asked slyly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I did good, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I answered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You did.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alright. Time to read that diary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>***\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It didn’t take long into reading the Marquis’s diary before one thing stood out:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dates were all over the place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>July 16, August 27, September 22...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gaps between entries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t that he only wrote during school breaks, or that he was too lazy to keep a regular diary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This diary was simply—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A collage.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A compilation of fragments clipped from daily entries, gathered together like selected newspaper clippings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Can we stop questioning the format and just finish reading it already?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chastened by Hyeonbyeol’s gentle scolding, I kept reading.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its genre was clearly an essay. But if you looked past the format and just followed the story, the genre of the diary was... romance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a dash of paranormal thriller.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[At the royal ball I attended with Father, I met the nameless girl.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The story begins with the Marquis seeing the girl from the palace ghost story with his own eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He ran straight to her and asked if she was the girl from the tale. The girl, perhaps startled, vanished like mist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back home, unsure whether he’d imagined her, he decided to search for her again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[August 27. The end of summer, when night’s chill began to seep in.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[In a maze garden filled with slumbering flowers, I found the nameless girl.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[At last, again.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He saw her once more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, instead of running up, he approached cautiously from a distance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He kept space, lowered her guard, and used conversation techniques he’d studied from basic negotiation texts, gradually deepening the interaction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[The more we spoke, the more the nameless girl seemed... off. She lacked common sense, and our conversations often went nowhere. But her pure, curious gaze told me everything.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[She wasn’t a ghost.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[The question that haunted me for a month was answered. But a new question took its place. Who was this girl? What strange story lay behind her odd behavior?]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[At dawn, she vanished again without a word. I returned home, dazed like a man under a spell, and only when I stood in front of a mirror did I realize—]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[My eyes were just like hers.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Growing more curious than ever, the Marquis kept making excuses to visit the palace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eventually...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[September 22. Our third meeting.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He finally met her again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The conversation wasn’t deep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mostly, she asked questions and he answered. He never asked her anything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t dare. He was afraid she'd vanish again like smoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t ask—not once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And only when it was nearly dawn and time to part did he ask his very first question.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[At the time, there was one question more important than her name.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Can I see you again?]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[I asked. She looked surprised, thought about it for a while, then stammered—]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Maybe.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s when Hyeonbyeol spoke up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sweet, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Eh? All I can picture is the Marquis’s creepy old face, so not really.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then look at the table. That young man in the portrait—that’s the Marquis in his youth.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...You’re kidding.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was absurdly handsome.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No wonder the ghost girl blushed at the thought of meeting again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Anyway, I’ll stop interrupting. Keep reading. The real story starts soon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her tone carried a strange sense of unease.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Almost like: Now it’s your turn to suffer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn’t quite place it, but I didn’t press. I just resumed reading.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Summer passed into fall, winter, spring...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seasons changed, and their meetings continued. Their relationship deepened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[She sat at the fountain’s edge and spoke. I could barely hear her over the water...]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From opposite ends of the garden to the fountain’s edge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the fountain’s edge, a little closer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The distance between them gradually closed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[See you next time.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eventually, meeting again became a given.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[During General Arkan’s inauguration, I’ll probably only be able to come out at dawn...]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They even began scheduling their meetings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gaps between entries grew shorter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, the Marquis knew nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not her name. Not her age. Not her story...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t care.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those moments were so peaceful and precious, he never dared ask first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He figured she’d tell him when she was ready.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the plan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But then—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[July 19.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A full year later, in the heart of summer—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[She disappeared.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He arrived early in the royal garden where they always met and waited until sunrise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe something came up, he thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After that, he visited whenever there were official palace events, hoping to catch her again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She never appeared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[I once read that all emotions stem from loss. That true awareness of one’s feelings comes only in the face of absence. I didn’t understand it back then. Why not just appreciate things while they’re still around? I figured people were just stupid.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Yeah. That was me back then.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only after she vanished did the Marquis realize his own feelings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He asked around to see if anyone knew who she was, kept making excuses to visit the palace—but she was nowhere to be found.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And then—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Do they meet again?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wouldn’t be a story if they didn’t, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Makes sense. The book still had a good number of pages left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ reminded me of that old balance game I once saw online:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What’s scarier—when the story isn’t finished but only a few pages remain, or when the story seems over but a ton of pages are left?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Personally, I think the latter is more terrifying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If there are too many pages left, it means a whole new genre is about to begin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just like now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[When I finally saw her again, she was no longer a girl, nor even a maiden. She had grown into a woman—just as I had imagined in my dreams.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[But more than joy, the weight of those years crushed my chest.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Six years... It had been six years since we last met.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Six years had passed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And finally, the Marquis was reunited with the girl—now a woman.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[I had imagined this moment countless times. I would tell her how I felt, ask her name. In my dreams, she would cry and embrace me.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Then, she’d confess some unimaginably tragic story. When she asked if I could handle it, I’d say it was nothing—that I could endure anything...]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[I imagined that scene a thousand times. But when we met again that day, I didn’t ask her a single thing.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Because I had a pregnant wife.]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment I read the last line of that page, I muttered aloud without thinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...You son of a bitch.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looks like we need to add one more genre to this tale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...So it’s a goddamn affair drama.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At my muttered complaint, Hyeonbyeol shook her head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Nope. It’s a tragedy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...Somehow, I suddenly became afraid to turn the page.\u003C\u002Fp>",1734,"2026-06-05T19:33:19.606Z",1,"novelbin.me","ce511b47240be86224b81444f5a50ae7037625417906ec56e227b00fcd0550dc","surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-chapter-586","surviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-chapter-585",807,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurviving-the-game-as-a-barbarian-cover.jpg"]