40. The Seventh Main Tower (3)
The side event in Malentaires proceeded at breakneck speed.
Following the predetermined future one step at a time, yet moving quickly, Pung Ryu-jin arrived at the destination.
At last, he came to know the entire truth.
“Uheuk… Ryu-jin……”
Looking at the woman sitting collapsed on the floor and weeping, Pung Ryu-jin looked down at both of his hands.
Through his own translucent hands, he could see the pattern engraved on the floor. For some reason, his reflection did not appear in the mirror.
“Ah……”
Only then did his memories return.
The fact that he was dead.
The reason he had died, and even the fact that there had once been a woman he loved, and that the woman now collapsed in front of him crying was that very person.
He remembered all of it.
“So I… had already been dead……”
Even after death, unable to pass on in peace, Pung Ryu-jin had wandered this world hunting ghosts in order to protect the woman he loved.
Only now did he finally realize that the source of all of these incidents had been himself.
I approached the woman and whispered quietly.
“Go on and at least embrace him once.”
“Hu…”
Even while crying, she forced herself to stand and walk toward the ghost, Pung Ryu-jin.
Then they embraced each other tightly and exchanged words of love.
As time passed, Pung Ryu-jin’s body gradually became more and more transparent, and the moment the woman finally confessed, “I loved you,” he passed on and disappeared into light.
“Ahuk……”
And with that, the story came to an end.
Leaving the sobbing woman behind, I came outside the mansion and leaned my back against it.
There truly were countless side events in the Aether World.
Each event had a protagonist at the center of the incident, and the player’s role was to jump into that chain of causality and help resolve the case.
But…
It was impossible to throw yourself into every side event.
Even at this very moment, incidents and accidents were occurring all over the world, and as a player I had merely called them “events,” but these were stories of real reality.
Having gone through one directly like this, I felt it even more keenly.
Just how insignificant the influence I could have on this world truly was.
I had thought the stories of the protagonists unfolding within Stella Academy were the most important, but if one looked beyond the boundaries of that tiny school, there were stories glittering like stars everywhere.
“Hoo……”
I picked up Pung Ryu-jin’s pipe.
A single raindrop fell upon it.
Tap.
Tap, tap.
Shhhhh……
All at once, a sudden shower came pouring down.
Since it was summer, rain was not anything strange, but the timing felt awfully peculiar.
Come to think of it, even in the game, a sudden shower had fallen after the event ended.
I had not brought an umbrella.
And unlike other magicians, I could not spread a mana shield, so getting drenched was unavoidable.
When I took out Stella’s coat, modified with Alterisha’s technical skill, and draped it over myself, it was waterproof enough.
I walked the streets of Malentaires one last time.
With the powerful aura of the vengeful spirit Pung Ryu-jin gone, the mood of the village felt far clearer than before, despite the gloomy weather and the heavy clouds overhead.
Ah, right.
That was the line that closed out this event, wasn’t it?
[As the woman shed tears, the sky wept with her.
That night, the sudden shower did not stop.]
I turned the rain-soaked pipe over in my hand.
Pung Ryu-jin had always told me that once this was over, he would retire.
That he would spend the rest of his days farming in a small cottage in some remote countryside village.
I never answered him.
Because I knew it was a dream he could never fulfill.
In the end, he was fated to leave behind only this pipe and depart.
…And this pipe was the very “Dead Spirit Talisman” that would be of tremendous help in the episode Black Magic Erosion.
If the artifact I had used on Meizen Tiren before, the Resentful Branch, was offensively useful in a boss battle, then the Dead Spirit Talisman was of enormous help to survival throughout the episode.
The best case would be never having to use this at all…
Still, now that I had secured an insurance policy, I could rest easy.
Next, I needed to go to the “villa” Pung Ryu-jin had kept mentioning, clear the hidden dungeon buried in the concealed ruins there, and then return to Stella.
No monsters would appear in the dungeon. As long as I cleared the quizzes and traps, that would be enough, and since a guide existed, the difficulty should be very low.
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“…Shall I go?”
Crossing the deserted street under the sudden summer rain, I quickened my pace.
Talking to a mirror did not feel especially pleasant.
If anything, it evoked something creepy, something on the edge of madness.
However, for dark mages, the act of speaking to a mirror was not all that strange or unnatural.
The world inside the mirror had everything reversed.
Right was left.
Left was right.
A completely opposite world.
That was why, to dark mages, a mirror was a window that led to the hidden side of the world.
A pitch-dark hall.
In this vast hall where there was no one and nothing at all, there stood only a single full-length mirror.
Professor Raidin spoke to the mirror.
“…The Child of the Stars has now headed there.”
Professor Raidin was not reflected in the mirror.
Of course not.
To begin with, that place was a world different from reality.
The mirror did not answer at once. It paused for a moment, then spoke to Raidin.
- You… are a useful errand boy.
“Is that so.”
- Yes. Along with the Child of the Stars, you even sent another descendant of the Twelve Disciples….
The owner of that voice sounded quite pleased.
“What are you planning to do with that child?”
- I will devour him.
Was that not only natural, if one thought about it?
…But it will fail.
For the first time, the owner of the voice spoke negatively.
- I am only one fragment of a shattered soul. I cannot possibly absorb the Child of the Stars….
A shattered soul.
That was a truly mournful expression.
“Then why make such a choice?”
- Even if I absorb only a part of that child and suppress it, he will not be able to awaken the abilities of his “previous life.”
The voice fell silent for a moment.
It sounded as though it had much on its mind.
“You mean to die by your own will.”
- …Though I may be extinguished here, is not the true “I” still alive? And under the King’s name, no less.
“That is true.”
- That is enough for me.
Professor Raidin closed his eyes.
The being within the mirror could not even maintain its own form, and it did not even possess the memories it had in life.
Because that being was nothing more than an imitation, made from a fragment torn from someone’s soul.
And yet, despite that, the clear will it had possessed while alive remained firm, and had endured steadfastly even now, after half a century.
He said, unchanged as ever:
- Remember this. Constellatio does not wish for the world to perish.
“…Yes. I know.”
- If one is to correct the mistaken choice of the founding magician, then this too must be an unavoidable choice….
That was the end of the conversation.
The presence in the mirror vanished completely.
Now, beyond the mirror, only Professor Raidin remained, standing there with a complicated expression.
He stared at the mirror for a long time, then turned around and left the hall.
And shortly afterward.
…Crash!!
The mirror shattered into pieces all on its own, then crumbled into powder and scattered away.
Now… it would never reflect anything again.
“Wouldn’t it be better to go this way?”
“No. It’s this way.”
“I think it’s the opposite.”
People often use the phrase being haunted or led astray by ghosts.
But among the people who say that, how many have actually been led astray by a ghost?
Flame and Eizel, both geniuses among geniuses, and even Anella, who had lived her life as a dark mage, had never once experienced such a thing.
That was why, even while following the ghost story, not a single one of them actually knew where or how they were supposed to go.
Whoooooosh……
An icy wind swept past their ears.
- Kyaruruk…!
- Kkallkall…!
Children’s laughter echoed from somewhere, like a reverberation.
At the same time, the girls came to a stop.
Then, though none of them said a word first, they tightly clasped one another’s hands and kept walking.
No matter how brave they were, girls were still scared of ghosts.
Cute…
Jeremy, walking behind them while keeping several dozen paces of distance, felt a certain thirst when he saw Flame like that.
The thirst born of possessiveness.
He knew the pleasure that came from conquest.
That sharp thrill that rose when one took possession of something one could not have, or could only obtain with great difficulty.
It was…
Something that could never be understood by those who had never felt it.
Jeremy even felt a kind of competitive spirit toward Flame.
If he were to completely make both the body and the heart of this woman, who always rejected him, his own and make her submit, then just how intoxicating would that sense of conquest be?
Since he had never once experienced a situation like this before, Jeremy felt a strange excitement as well.
Hmm……
But recently… a rather irritating group had appeared at school.
And it was not merely Baek Yuseol he meant.
Jeremy was curious about every little thing Flame did. He wanted to know what she did, where she was, and when, all of it, so he had sent his underlings to watch her from afar.
And because of that, they had recently detected movements that caught his attention.
There were others, besides himself, who were also watching Flame from a distance.
Those watching Flame included old janitors, laboratory administrators, and faculty members. Their jobs and genders varied so much that it was impossible to find any common thread among them.
The only thing he could tell was that they were looking at Flame with eyes that were anything but benign.
He did not like that.
To put it plainly, it irritated him.
The very fact that those insignificant things were aiming for prey he had chosen was absurd and offensive.
But whether he liked it or not, Jeremy calmly assessed and analyzed the situation.
The reason they were watching Flame.
Recently, she had apparently been stirring up the school while investigating the ghost stories. Was that the reason?
No. There were many students like that.
There was even a fairly large Mystery Club at Stella that had caused all kinds of commotion while trying to dig into the ghost stories of the Seventh Main Tower.
But…
Flame had been investigating in a slightly different way.
Instead of digging into the ghost stories themselves, she had been searching for the ones who had spread them.
If even Jeremy himself had managed to figure that out with ease, then there was no way the faculty had failed to notice. Flame’s investigation into the background of those people must have irritated them quite a bit.
So they started watching Flame?
There was no need to monitor her for such a reason. If anything, that was the sort of action that drew attention.
That meant he had to think of it the other way around.
They intended to use Flame, who was digging into their tracks, against her.
…So they’re trying to get Flame tangled up in the ghost stories.
That was the conclusion Jeremy reached.
That was why he had followed her all the way here after she secretly left the dormitory at dawn.
He had no intention of leaving even the task of protecting Flame to someone else.
This time, he would handle it personally.
“…Huh?”
“Wh-what… is this……?”
Stop.
The girls walking in front came to a sudden halt.
No one had noticed it, but… before they knew it, their surroundings had changed.
“W-wait. We really got in? Really?”
“Yes. From here on, it could get really dangerous, so let’s be careful.”
“I’ll take the lead.”
Leaving the noisy girls well in front, Jeremy quietly looked out the window.
A black moon was shining down upon the world, and the sky itself was glowing white.
Just before they entered, it had been late dawn.
And that was not all. Every color visible beyond the window had been completely inverted.
As if it wanted to make absolutely certain they understood this was another world.
…Beautiful.
A reversed world.
Jeremy found it exceptionally beautiful.
If it were possible, he felt he would like to tear this world free and put it on display.
But more than that, a certain movement kept nagging at him, making it impossible for him to simply enjoy the scenery.
Shhhhkt!
The walls rippled, and the corridor undulated.
Space itself was moving slowly, as if it had become pliant, pressing in on them.
Jeremy understood by instinct.
This place was already inside a zone of control designed by an unknown enemy.
Any resistance would be meaningless.
But if it was to protect Flame, he was willing to do anything.
Srrrrk.
Golden blades rose from the floor and began circling Jeremy’s body as they guarded him.
The gold climbed along the walls and began slowly devouring the blackness that had swallowed the corridor.
Little by little.
It feasted on the blackness.
…Weak.
Still not enough.
Jeremy understood his own level objectively.
At best, he was around the 4-Class level.
Compared to the magical ability of his elder brothers, he was laughably weak.
But the reason he had killed all of his brothers and survived was not because of his magical skill.
Cruelty.
No matter what stood before his eyes, he could cut it down without the slightest hesitation.
Shadows flickered and rose before him.
Creeping and creeping, they began devouring the space and trying to advance toward Flame and the girls.
Slash!!
The golden blade cut through empty air, and the shadow split in half and collapsed.
…This is manageable.
Jeremy drew up his mana and summoned even more golden blades and walls.
There was one thing he had come to realize thanks to the many things he had studied for the first time in his life, all in order to win the heart of a single girl.
Women fall for dependable men who can protect them.
That had been written in common across most books about romance, so it was probably true.
And Jeremy possessed power and authority great enough to protect someone.
He thought tonight would be no different.
…That was what he thought.
Flash!
All at once, he felt as though the entire world had turned pure white.
Jeremy reflexively shut his eyes, then quickly realized his mistake and hurriedly summoned a golden shield.
But then.
When he opened his eyes again… all the shadows had already melted away into powder.
Light still spread vividly in every direction.
And at the center of it stood a single girl.
Flame.
She spun the staff she had raised high, then struck it against the floor with a thump and said,
“Everybody okay?”
“Y-yes……”
“That was amazing……”
“Yeah. You all look fine. Then let’s keep going.”
Flame only glanced briefly toward the place where Jeremy had been standing to confirm that he was unharmed, then turned her head sharply away and took the lead again.
Watching her stride forward proudly…
He felt something oddly subtle stirring inside him.
Those masses of darkness that even he had not been able to slice apart all at once had been melted away completely by a single spell.
Was it even possible for a first-year to use magic like that?
No.
Before that, a more fundamental question arose, creeping up inside him.
Can I really protect her?
It was not that he was weak.
It was that the girl was too strong…
Strong enough that she did not need protecting.
“Heh……”
For the first time in a long while, he laughed.
Someone watching might have thought he was laughing out of helplessness.
But that was not it.
He laughed because he was delighted.
Because he was truly happy.
It was the first time in his life he had ever had such a strange experience.
How fascinating. How fun… and how captivating.
Flame, who always showed him something beyond whatever Jeremy imagined…
Truly, the more he saw her, the more he wanted her, far from ever growing tired of her.
