Seo A-jeong
The novel's setting is Earth in a parallel universe.
Still joined with her, I brush the hair from A-jeong's forehead as she sleeps deeply in the bathtub, limp with exhaustion. She must have taken a tremendous psychological blow today. Yet after several rounds of Purification, Mental Protection, Jini's intervention, some light conversation, and—decisively—hours of sex, most of that trauma seemed to have been shaken off at last.
Well... strictly speaking, she never killed anyone with her own hands.
I press Mental Protection, Purification, and Soul Purification in sequence against her temple. Watching her breathe evenly with a peaceful face, I feel a wave of relief. Little by little I can sense the future tendencies rising inside me. Even in the comfort of this World Tree bathtub, a faint dissonance from those shifting inclinations keeps brushing against my awareness.
Can't be helped. Even if it's passive, I'll just let things flow until the tutorial ends...
I trust that the Constellation and Jini will step in even in the worst case. It doesn't feel like they're pushing me to become a villain; more like they sensed something stifling in me.
The tablet on the sink shows 11:30. Yuri will be bringing the bitches soon, so I turn the fragments of the future over in my mind one last time. The subspace coordinates I had memorized just in case suddenly surface. I hurriedly open it.
"Subspace..."
A black void yawns open. Weapons bought in the Three Kingdoms World, scenarios, and more are piled high. I roll the coordinates through my head, wondering what to do with them.
"Coordinates... KLMA B8783 C0511 D3319 GK..."
In that instant a stiff, mechanical voice—not Jini's—rings out.
Exact coordinates and password GK confirmed... Opening subspace.
Oh no. The Akashic Records? Kim Ian's subspace is being re— Constellation? Yes? Yes...
Jini cuts in, clearly flustered; then, after a word from the Constellation, her tone turns acquiescent. I peer into a space roughly thirty meters on each side and my body locks solid.
Fuck. What the hell is this? I regressed—so why are there pillows?
Kim Ian—Mental Protection, Purification, Soul Purification.
At Jini's cry, energy floods from my crown downward; the mental freefall that had started snaps back to normal. Pillows. The same pillows I had seen in the future. There is plenty of junk, yet those pillows alone seize my gaze. Among the twenty-odd of them, two faces I recognize. Not my women—both are still extremely famous right now.
Time freezes, and Jini continues speaking.
As expected, your soul cannot be left unguarded. To snatch this subspace and the Link technique from that brief experience...
Link? Don't tell me...
The Link is sealed until you awaken mana. Or limited use only inside the master bedroom.
"But you said I regressed. Then why are Nashimoto Sumire and Scarlet Watson... those women turned into pillows over there?"
When the Dimensional Union activates the system, cooperation from the Akashic Records is essential. All records are therefore stored in the Akashic Records. Subspace also utilizes the reverse space of the universe that contains Earth. Even if time regresses a hundred times, that reverse space continues to exist—just like the Akashic Records.
"What...?"
I can almost grasp it, yet the more I hear the less it settles. I think for a moment.
"If I regress several times, doesn't that reverse space fill up?"
The number of awakeners is tiny compared to Earth's population, and the universe is far vaster than you imagine. Even the wide orbit between the sun and Earth would not fill up if every Earthling possessed a subspace—even after dozens of regressions.
Ah... right. The distance to the moon is way farther than people think, the science teacher said.
Yes. The subspaces used by Earth's awakeners before the regression aren't even enough to fill the Earth-Moon orbit.
"I still can't understand Scarlet. I thought she was kind—did a lot of volunteer work. Of course she was an Australian singer, so I might be wrong."
Whether she was kind or not, she was never villain material. But she got drunk by accident and killed several civilians. Australia sentenced her to death. She was delivered to you, processed, and you purchased her at auction.
"Ah... that..."
If it was Scarlet, I could easily see myself joining an auction just to buy her. I had been a fan. Her voice had been called heavenly.
"Then why not simply not make them?"
She received a death sentence. If she is not turned into an onahole, she must be killed.
"And Sumire?"
Japanese nationality but Zainichi, the star of Chelsea in London. Women's soccer is dull so I rarely watch, yet I occasionally followed the Women's Premier League solely for Sumire's dazzling individual skill. Of course it was possible because it was women's soccer, but watching her play felt like freestyle soccer—worth the time.
She is a villain. Of course, like the Kwon Su-jeong case, she should be regarded as forcibly villainized.
Kwon Su-jeong had been the slave of Park Jin-su, the man I killed in Jeong-mi's villa parking lot. Park Jin-su was Tam Reimi's subordinate. Maybe I had processed her into an onahole as well.
That is not the case. She was still alive and well beside Park Jin-su, who successfully regressed, until that point.
"But me turning Sumire and Scarlet into pillows is a first. I figure I would have just left them as onaholes."
You and Seo A-jeong misunderstood. The lines were meant to frighten the onaholes, so the confusion is understandable, but every pillow you use is in suspended animation—essentially a cryogenic state. Living, breathing creatures cannot enter subspace, yet once specially processed into that state they can be stored there.
Subspace... grotesque. Those things are alive... but I heard A-jeong never awakened, so how...
Only then does it hit me that unawakened A-jeong had used subspace.
"This is A-jeong's subspace, right?"
Precisely, she shared your subspace; these are the coordinates she used. A skill-ized subspace, unlike a characteristic one, can be opened and closed with only a mana-stone key and the coordinate password—no special mana required.
I feel no ill will toward the A-jeong sleeping in front of me. I had clearly ordered it. Still, the thought of taking those dolls out and using them is unsettling.
"Could you retrieve these..."
The Constellation says leave them. There may be need later. Note also that when you insert your cock into a pillow you may choose the option to convert it into an onahole. And if you place a Link on a pillow and select a nearby woman, you can feel that linked woman regardless of distance.
"Crazy... Ah—not the Constellation. Me before the regression. Did I actually do doll-fucking too?"
Yes... during outdoor battles when there was no leisure, you occasionally used pillows for that purpose. The Link was set on Seo A-jeong or the women inside the mansion.
Ah....
And summon Geumgang and Horan at once. There is also a saber-tiger corpse in that subspace; the Constellation will immediately summon them, unite them with it, and transform them into cat form. He is delighted to have obtained that subspace...
At the name Horan I somehow think of Hodol.
"Yes. Ah, by the way... this is awkward to ask, but... playing around with uteruses is a bit... I just can't understand that."
Among animals, only an extremely small number—like humans—can accommodate mana inside their bodies. Only those animals can be tamed and utilized.
"Like Horan?"
Yes. In fact, uterus-transplant surgery and uterus-transplant scrolls were techniques developed in Thailand for transgender use. Once human uteruses were banned, they were replaced with animal uteruses and adapted through alchemy and scroll-making. And... it became known that offspring born from such breeding are 100 percent tamed... that breeding is also legal. Legal in both the United States and Korea.
"Crazy... just how bleak is the future..."
How bad must things have become to reduce people to livestock? I regret only peeking for four hours.
I open my original subspace and give the twenty-two pillows inside one final sweep. Every one of them a beauty. Yet according to the conversation I once had with Michelle, nearly all had been villains. No reason to onaholize and revive them. Plenty of other items pique my curiosity, but the eerie wrongness of the pillows raises goosebumps, so I close the subspace.
For reference, if you coat arms and legs with the sky-blue solution from the subspace and then receive healing from a healer, reattachment completes within about half a month.
"What? What the hell is that sky-blue solution?"
A potion refined from troll blood. Nothing better for external wounds. Now hurry and summon. The Constellation is waiting.
That half-troll monster's blood?
"But do I have to remember the coordinates every time?"
No. You asked A-jeong for the coordinates only so you could quickly locate Bitna's arms and legs inside the subspace. When you open it you will feel both subspaces at once.
I close the subspace. Open it again. Sure enough it splits left and right; when I focus on the left—the original—the contents resolve into clear images.
Summoning scrolls...
I take the two summoning scrolls I received after sending Hyeong-seop and the others to heaven, and tear them.
Summoning male tiger Geumgang and female tiger Horan of Five Star Land. Copied clones of both individuals will remain in Five Star Land and be processed as deceased within one year. Tiger market price, including the cubs in the womb, will be paid to the Five Star Land account.
A flash of light, then two yellow lights are sucked into the right-hand subspace. Moments later the bathtub railing blazes brightly, and two cats appear, sleeping soundly.
"Ah... the one with the bulging belly must be Horan."
Yes. Until January 1, 2005, cubs, mother, and father all maintain cat form.
So-called Korean Shorthairs—ordinary stray-cat shapes, yet somehow cute in a way that faintly recalls tigers. The larger one with the rounded belly looks like Horan. Both have stripes, but they are closer to cheese cats. Still half-asleep, A-jeong feels the fur against her hand, pulls Horan close, and hugs her tightly.
I fed mana stones to that Hodol guy. Then he'll eat mana stones too, right?
The cat that had wriggled the moment water touched it is soon settled on her chest and begins to snore. Mana stones from the dimensional shop—expensive, but if I feed them maybe... While I am thinking this, Jini intervenes again.
Only tamed animals can ingest mana stones. If any of your women gain a taming trait, feed them then.
"Ah... yes."
Purr-purr. Snore-snore. The cat named Geumgang soon opens his eyes, yawns without the slightest fluster, and simply walks out of the bathroom. I stare blankly after him, but Horan seems to like A-jeong's embrace; she keeps purring and sleeping. True to her tiger blood, she neither startles nor shies away when water touches her.
While I sit with eyes closed, combing through memory for anything else worth taking besides the subspace, noise erupts outside. Rustling. Then Horan rises and pads off in the direction Geumgang took.
Ah... Yuri and the others are here.
"Oh my... why are there cats?"
A-jeong's mother Ppo-ae's high-pitched voice floats in, followed by admiring murmurs from the women. Even in stray-cat form, Horan has an appearance that draws gasps—especially that pink nose and those pink jelly-bean pads.
"Seems Master is raising them, Lady Yuri. Could they rank higher than us..."
Ppo-ppi's voice. Well, ranks do need setting, yet they are already as good as decided.
For the revenge targets I promised Hye-yun... keep them below our pets in rank...
As my pets, Horan is pet rank 3, Geumgang rank 4; the dogs still to come will be 5 and 6.
"Stop chatting. All of you strip now and put on your tails and headbands. Ppo-ae and Ppo-ppi, crawl on all fours and follow."
Yuri's sharp voice cuts through; outside come rustling and soft meows.
"Oh my... this little one likes the tiger tail. Ppo-na."
Ppo-na—Na-yeon, Ji-yu's mother—was a concubine-rank bitch and had therefore received a tiger tail. That must be why Horan is showing curiosity.
"Yes, Unnie. Oh my—don't bite. Hohoho. This... sensitive..."
"Meow!!!"
"Don't... Unnie, please get her off. What kind of cat is this strong?"
"Hohoho. All right."
"Nyaaang!!!!"
Click. The bathroom door swings wide and three women enter: Yeong-ho's mother Yuri, plus Ppo-ae and Ppo-ppi.
"Only Yuri come in for now. You two have work, so bathe here later or whatever."
"Yes..."
Yuri steps in, sits beside me, and snuggles close. Her careful movements so as not to wake A-jeong please me; I loop an arm around her waist and pull her tight.
"Master..."
"You worked hard today. You're tired too, so stay like that and get some sleep."
"Yes... Master. Thank you."
Not as drained as A-jeong, yet today she had attended the funeral of her child's enemies and watched magic being cast on those same enemies. She must be completely spent. Understanding that, I hold her firmly.
"You two take all the bitches to the master bedroom first. This is a command: each of you drink one bottle of the clear glass one from the fridge. Then wait in the pet room. Sleeping is fine."
"Yes...? Yes."
"Ah... Ppo-ppi drinks first. This isn't rank-breaking; it's necessary."
Ppo-ppi looks puzzled, then nods, and the two leave the bathroom.
The moment Ppo-ppi drinks, I can run batch body modification on all the bitches...
Any bitch—once semen touches her, it activates.
Hmm... come to think of it, I still have to decide what animals they'll become... to maximize body-mod efficiency...
I want to think the moment Ppo-ppi drinks, so I tighten my arms around Yuri and A-jeong and close my eyes.
Ding.
Set batch/individual body modification for Bitch-rank subjects.
How should I do this...
Listening to Jini's voice, I sink into thought for a moment.