Don't Want to Be Ordinary Even Though I'm an Extra Character-Chapter 47: [46] Betting

-Rainer Astoria-

I’ve carried this trauma since that day.

Even now, the memory of it haunts me like an unending nightmare. I remember hiding in that small cave, my body drenched in blood and mud. I don’t know how long I stayed there—days stretched into eternity, and every second felt like agony.

Inside that cave, I could still hear their voices. The screams of my subordinates.

The ones who believed in me, who fought alongside me, who called me "Captain" with unwavering respect. They were all dead now, their bodies reduced to nothing more than a dragon’s feast.

"Why didn’t I die with them?"

That thought repeated in my mind, over and over, even as hunger began gnawing away at my body. Sleep was impossible; every time I closed my eyes, their faces appeared—blood streaming down, terror etched in their expressions, their mouths frozen as they shouted my name.

"Captain! Save us!"

But I had done nothing. I’d simply fled like a coward.

When my mind cleared, even just a little, questions began to surface.

Where did that dragon come from?

By all accounts, the Astoria territories should have been free from threats like that. Our borders were tightly controlled, and dragons were far from ordinary monsters. They were the apex predators of this world, rarely leaving the most dangerous regions of the continent—far from where we were.

So how did a dragon appear here?

The longer I thought about it, the more questions emerged.

Was it coincidence? Or was there something bigger happening behind the scenes?

But no matter how hard I tried to find answers, my mind always returned to the same reality: I had failed.

I failed as a leader. I failed as an Astoria

The nights I spent in that cave were an unending nightmare.

I thought of the soldiers who had followed me into that expedition. I knew them all—their names, their families, their dreams.

There was Liora, the best archer in my unit, who always wore a small flower in her hair because her daughter said it made her look like a fairy.

There was Darel, a young man who had married just two months before the expedition. He couldn’t stop talking about his wife, about how excited he was to return and build a small house on the edge of town.

They all had dreams. They all had hopes.

They all believed in me.

And I... I destroyed everything.

As the days passed, another grim thought began to fester in my mind.

How could I return to Astoria after this?

What could I possibly say to my father, the great Duke Astoria? What would he think of me, his third son—already deemed a burden—returning with empty hands and a list of dead soldiers in my wake?

What about the empire? The people? They would scorn me. They would say, "Astoria? That once-great name? A myth. Their third son can’t even protect his own men."

The thought weighed on me like a stone sinking in a bottomless lake.

I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t face them.

But then, amidst the whirlwind of guilt and shame, a small, treacherous voice whispered in my ear.

"Run."

Yes, I could run. I could abandon it all—the Astoria name, the empire, all the burdens and expectations they placed on me. I could escape, start over somewhere no one knew me.

I could become just another face in the crowd. No more expectations. No more failure.

But even that thought brought no peace.

I knew that no matter where I ran, the memories would follow. Their faces, their voices—they were etched into the very core of me.

I wanted to believe that running would solve everything. But I knew, deep down, that was just a lie I told myself.

"Then... what am I supposed to do?"

The words slipped from my lips, but there was no answer. Just the hollow silence of the cave.

So now, I could only wait.

Wait for time to erase everything, or wait for someone to give me a reason to keep going.

And to be honest, I wasn’t sure which was more likely.

###

-Arkan Lawrence-

Ah, why did he pass out again?! I thought as I shook Rainer’s unconscious body. Muttering under my breath, I checked his breathing. Thankfully, he was still alive.

But the real problem wasn’t him.

The colossal centipede at the center of the cavern had gone berserk. Its massive body coiled and writhed, smashing stalactites that crashed to the ground in a chaotic cascade. The deafening sound of destruction filled the cavern as the creature began gnawing at the walls with its razor-sharp mandibles.

"This is bad..." I muttered, surveying the area.

I glanced at Clara’s lifeless body lying in the corner, her blood pooling beneath her. The woman who should have been Rainer’s motivation—the first heroine in the story—had ended as a tragic villain.

Everything had changed: the story, the plotline, even the fates of the characters. Clara, who I once thought of as an innocent heroine, had turned into a threat. And Howard? The priest I had suspected as the mastermind had instead been trying to help all along.

"Is something bigger at play here? Did I miss some detail the novel never revealed?" I wondered, trying to piece everything together. But I had no time to dwell on the questions.

The centipede thrashed again, its violent movements making every bone in my body tremble.

"Focus, Arkan. Don’t get hung up on things you can’t control. What matters now is surviving this."

I turned my gaze back to Rainer and then to the centipede. The plan I had devised the previous night came rushing back to me.

The trap.

Yes, the trap I had set in one of the other chambers. If I could lure the centipede out of this cavern and into that trap, I might have a chance of injuring or even stopping it.

"All right, Arkan. Time to make this work," I muttered, steeling myself.

I looked back at Rainer’s unconscious form sprawled on the cave floor. There was no way I could drag him with me, not in this condition, and to make matters worse, the centipede was becoming increasingly unpredictable.

"I need to leave him somewhere safe for now," I decided.

Scanning the cavern, I found a sheltered corner hidden from the centipede’s line of sight. I quickly carried Rainer there, making sure he was as protected as possible. Before stepping away, I took one last glance at his face.

"Hang in there, Rainer. I’ll come back for you."

I checked my gear—a single flashbang and one remaining bomb. That was all I had left.

"This is insane. Absolutely insane," I muttered, trying to calm the pounding in my chest. The reality of facing a creature this massive with so few resources was as terrifying as it was absurd.

"I might be an NPC in this story, but I’m not dying like some throwaway extra. If I’m going to fight, I’ll fight with everything I’ve got."

Step One: Lure the Centipede Out

Grabbing a sizable rock from the cavern floor, I weighed it in my hand for a moment. "Hey, you big ugly monster!" I yelled, hurling the rock at its massive body. The stone clanged off its hardened carapace, the sound echoing through the cave.

The centipede paused its gnawing, its lengthy body coiling mid-motion. Slowly, its fiery red eyes turned toward me.

"Yeah, that’s right. I’m talking to you!" I waved my arms dramatically, taunting the creature.

With a clicking hiss, the centipede let out a guttural growl before lunging toward me, its enormous body barreling through stalagmites and rock formations alike.

I sprinted down a narrow tunnel I had scouted earlier, every footfall echoing in time with my frantic heartbeat. Behind me, the ground rumbled with the centipede’s approach, its movements shaking the entire structure of the cave.

"Stick to the plan! Don’t panic!" I shouted at myself.

When I reached the narrow pathway leading to the trap room, I grabbed the flashbang from my pocket. Without slowing down, I lobbed it behind me.

BOOM!

The flashbang detonated, flooding the tunnel with blinding light. The burst of illumination reflected off the cavern walls like bolts of lightning, stunning the sensitive-eyed monster.

The centipede thrashed violently, its segmented body writhing in confusion as it screeched in rage.

"Just as planned," I whispered before resuming my mad dash.

Step Two: The Trap

When I reached the designated trap chamber, I leaped to the side, making sure to keep clear of the danger zone. The centipede, still disoriented, barreled straight into the room behind me.

"This is it," I murmured, pulling out the last bomb from my bag.

I gripped the bomb tightly, my hands trembling from adrenaline as I waited for the perfect moment. The centipede reared its massive body, emitting another ear-splitting screech as it flailed wildly. Every movement cracked more stalactites and sent rubble tumbling to the floor.

Carefully observing its erratic movements, I bided my time until it wandered directly over the trap site.