Seiren's First Friend

Seiren, possessed of a world-spanning intellect, ironically had a world not much different from that of an ordinary person. No, it was even narrower.

Humans meet their first world the moment they're born: their parents. Parents care for their children and teach them love. They show them how to live and what emotions are. Since children inherit everything from them, parents are the world to a child. A child's world expands and enriches as it collides and communicates with others' worlds. What was once the parents' world mixes with many others, evolves, and becomes the child's own unique world. That's the second world, often called the self or personality.

But for her—a girl with no memories before age five, whose only recollection was endless pain on a white bed—there was no one to introduce her to the world. So Seiren had to learn it all herself. What is the world? She could only judge by her experiences, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠so it boiled down to this: pain, loneliness, darkness, eye-piercing light, the coldness of a white bed. Horrific imagery for a five-year-old to harbor. So barren and parched it could barely evolve into a proper world. Enough to turn someone into a shut-in.

Yet Seiren made it possible. The talent of an archmage writhed in her unconscious, desperate to survive, weaving a world from scratch. Forged in pain, modeled after the wounds of solitude. A brutally barren abyss. A grand witch to freeze the world in frost and agony. And so was born a world so vast it wouldn't clash with others upon meeting—it would absorb and destroy them.

—Aigoo, so cute.

"Ung?"

It had nearly turned out that way.

2

Lee Hyun melted the ice in the child's heart.

—Agu, so cute. How can she be this adorably pretty?

His benevolent smile and warm tone breathed emotions into the child's heart.

—Eating well~ Looks like you like it.

Delicious food, a cozy bed, a snug home, fun magic lessons—he gave her everything she wanted. Under the sunlight of his sincerity and affection, spring warmth welled up in Seiren's heart-image. She came to like him, and following those you like is human nature.

—Our Iren needs to grow up kind, yeah? Can't treat people like slaves just 'cause you're talented... Ha, that bitch Lee So-rin, fuck.

"Ung!"

—But you gotta speak up in unfair situations... If you see someone raising their voice for you... help them out, got it? ...Ha, those fucking assholes. Got fired for taking the fall, and not a single call.

"Ung!"

To live up to Lee Hyun's expectations, Seiren strove endlessly. Not just in magic studies, but deeply pondering benevolence and righteousness until she "understood" and realized goodness. It was far from heartfelt virtue, fragile enough to be swayed by one person, but still—Seiren grew up kind.

—Our Seiren, how is she so perfect?

"Hehe."

As he said, she lacked for nothing. She felt it too, and was happy. As long as she had Lee Hyun, she could stay in this house forever.

—Sigh, it'd be nice if she had a little sister or a friend.

"Friend?"

Thus, she couldn't understand Lee Hyun's worry. She was already so happy with just him—what more could she need? It wasn't that she'd never had friends and thus didn't feel the need. She genuinely believed she didn't need any.

Magic tomes emphasized the importance of a true confidant for ascending realms, but whatever. To Seiren, who'd achieved ample growth without one, it rang hollow.

—Seiren, you don't feel lonely?

"No!"

—What about a little sister...?

"Don't need one!"

On the contrary, their presence might keep Lee Hyun away more—she feared that. Even positive influences from friends were unwelcome. Emotions flowing to friends meant less exchange with Lee Hyun, meaning distance. Seiren didn't want to drift from him even a little.

"No friends! No little sister! If you bring any, I'll hate you!"

—Ah, got it.

"I really hate it!"

—I get it...

Under his repeated questions, Seiren finally got mad at Lee Hyun for the first time. His evasive gaze made her anxious. His troubled look seemed like he'd already brought a friend. So she secluded herself for a while. She retreated to her little house within the house, not showing her face even when he visited.

A month passed like that. After skipping his fifth visit too, she wrung a surrender from him.

—My bad. I surrender.

"If you ever talk about making friends again, I'll leave home..."

—Never again.

Still, she remained uneasy. Enough to say things she didn't mean and couldn't do.

"I-I'll really leave...! No lie!"

—Okay...

Their parallel tracks only improved after the system's guarantee.

"Phew..."

Back then, Seiren still trusted the system quite a bit. So she had to interpret Lee Hyun's earlier sighs in that light too.

—Tch. Can't join the merger event now. Made a new one for nothing.

—Already dumped some cash in too. Oh well, nothing to be done.

"Good. Hihi."

And so the Seiren friend fiasco ended.

2

Now Seiren finally understood why Lee Hyun had been so insistent on her making friends.

"Uh... Let me briefly explain the twin annihilation mechanism for the Yangma cattle..."

Chatting like this was fun! Seiren felt a new emotion. Pure enjoyment. With aligned intellectual curiosities, dopamine exploded with every exchange. Hearing her own thoughts from another's mouth, new perspectives on her questions—total blast! She even regretted her past walls a bit, it was so great.

Even when she'd ventured out to the empire, wary of anything disrupting her bond with Lee Hyun, she'd rejected all comers... Maybe there could've been good friends? She shook her head after a moment's thought. Water under the bridge. Friends might've stopped her from perfecting the dimensional transfer circle, and if weighing friends vs. Lee Hyun, he'd win overwhelmingly...

She decided to focus on the present. Friends? She could make them now. Didn't she have a prime candidate right in front of her?

'But how do you make a friend?'

She'd never learned. Was it a contract for a price? Or just spend time until you both think "friend"? Mage-like, she plotted the most probable plan when a memory surfaced.

She'd picked up a wallet dropped by someone ahead and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠got all the cash inside as thanks—an event still mysterious to her. Lee Hyun, beside her then, had said:

'Seiren. You're constantly casting a magic you don't even know about.'

'Huh? Me? What's that?'

'The grand spell called Super Beauty. It's like word magic—tell people what you want, and there's a high chance it'll happen.'

'Hmm, really? Don't buy it.'

'Hohoho. Just know it.'

Time to wield that grand spell actively. He'd said it worked best on men, but plenty on women too.

Seiren blurted out, "Be my friend!"

"Y-Yes? Uh? Oh, I, um."

"Be my friend~"

"Th-that, uh. Ah, yes. I, um, yes. There's that..."

"Huh? Can't be friends?"

"Ah, understood."

And so Seiren made her first friend, wrapping up their deep paper discussion. Her stomach growled.

"Eat together!"

"Ah, uh, yes. Sure..."

Seiren naturally hooked arms with Sebin. Per Lee Hyun's "skinship theory," light contact was fine with close same-sex friends. Ordinary citizen Kim Sebin jolted at the super beauty's soft skin touch, but Seiren ignored it. She's the jumpy type, I guess.

As Seiren headed out to find Lee Hyun, Sebin said, "If he's not on the first floor, try the terrace."

"Sebin's so smart!"

"Huh? It's not that big a deal... Ah, haha."

"Smart!"

"Ugh, ehehe? Eh?"

Sebin's circuits shorted from the super beauty's sudden praise barrage. What? Did I do something that amazing? Uh, did I? Kinda feels like maybe...?

Seiren's over-the-top tone naturally came from Lee Hyun. Using it rashly on others might spark "Is this guy mocking me?" suspicions, but Sebin's fried brain couldn't judge normally.

Thus, Seiren unconsciously mastered brainwashing technique one, grabbing Sebin's arm toward the terrace. And overheard,

"Her belly fat's even worse than the other day."

"Makes me wanna punch it."

"Don't. You might lose a fistfight."

"True."

That vile topic's target was—

"......"

—clear from the trembling transmitted through her arm.

Seiren's eyes darkened—a natural response to what she'd learned.

"Ha."

Sebin felt ashamed, sad. She wanted to flee this instant and nearly did. But couldn't.

"Hic, h-hic, let go, uh, wh-what."

Seiren dragged Sebin's arm. "Hey! Apologize!"

Seiren's yelling back drew fully into Sebin's tear-blurred view.

3

"...For what?"

"Those filthy words you just said."

Kim Sebin saw the one who'd stepped up for her. Hic, sob. Too busy crying to speak. Vision blurry. But her voice rang clear.

"Apologize."

"...What did I even say?"

"Brain dead? Forgot already?"

"...Harsh words."

Seiren was advocating for her. No one ever had. She'd never had an ally.

"Ah~ Can't understand? Explains your shitty research."

"...What'd you say?"

Sebin couldn't lift her head. Grateful to Seiren fighting in her stead. Sorry too. Pitiful, herself—the anonymous mask who'd trashed her.

And Sebin's trembling passed straight to Seiren. The opponent still wouldn't apologize, and her tone sharpened around then.

"Your research is shit~ty as is. Pathetic, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dragging out something so simple."

"...Take it back. That line. And apologize. Or else—"

"I think you said it first. Do it. Then I'll apologize too."

But they wouldn't bow easily. So she went nuclear.

"No apology? Fine, I'm out. Co-sign or whatever, I'm done. If the Chair contacts you, I'll repeat your ugly words verbatim."

"......Sorry."

"Not to me."

"Sebin. I'm... sorry. I sincerely apologize for mocking and insulting Sebin's true feelings."

Finally, an apology. Prostrated groveling, but best possible now. Seiren was still unsatisfied—the victim wasn't her, after all.

"Hic."

Sebin bawled. Sobbing, tears splashing. She'd hated them so, vowed someday to wring apologies—unexpectedly fulfilled today.

Happy? Satisfied? No. Her tears were far from that.

She opened eyes long veiled in loathing. Thus, she could only marvel.

'How... how can she be...'

So noble. Pure... beautiful. Flawless in character and looks, she'd approached without hesitation, offered friendship, and protected her for that reason alone.

Sebin felt like she'd shed her shell. Hurt by people, ironically saved by the one she'd most wanted to hurt. It hit so hard she crumbled.

And Seiren didn't let her collapse. She supported Sebin out of the terrace. Lingering with one last line.

"Your research all sucks anyway."

"Pffft..."

Sebin burst laughing through tears.

And days later.

A new fan appeared in Seiren's stream.

Of course, that's a bit later. "Sigh, something about how she talks..." Doubts on Sebin's identity come a tad after. Back to now—Lee Hyun's reaction to witnessing that shining friendship scene was straightforward.

"Won't make friends when I tell her to, but now she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠does."