83. I'm the First
83. I'm the First
"...A curse?"
Tachia finally answered after a long silence.
But her voice was far stiffer than usual.
"That thing got cursed?"
She usually carried herself with a dry, blunt attitude.
But the instant she heard the ego weapon had been cursed, I felt her emotions waver—just slightly.
"Ah, yes. It was in a dream, actually..."
"There's no way."
Tachia cut me off before I could explain.
She even turned her back to me and continued quietly.
"In the first place, undead are far below ego weapons in dignity."
"...Tachia."
"So an ego weapon—something that can accumulate experience even from a past life and from after becoming a weapon—gets cursed by a rotting corpse mindlessly obsessed with its own past? Do you have any idea how absurd that sounds?"
"You do know something, don't you? About what state this child is in right now."
"It's not a curse."
She repeated herself while looking up at the sky.
She was pretending to be calm, but I could tell right away she'd lost her cool.
It was like I'd touched a nerve that was never meant to be touched.
"I don't know what you heard from that thing, but if it seems like a curse, it's because the kid was made that way to begin with. It's not a curse—it's inborn nature."
"...Tachia."
"You got your answer, so go. There's nothing else I'm going to tell you."
Uncharacteristically, she ended the conversation right there and walked toward her house.
There was even a hint of haste in the way she didn't look back at me.
"If it really bothers you, look into it yourself. Though I doubt you'll be able to find out anything."
"......."
"...You got more to say?"
"No, I'll get going."
After all, I'd set up this meeting because I owed her.
If she wanted to end it, it was only right to do so.
-Thud.
The door closed, and soon silence settled over the backyard.
I crossed the badly devastated streets, holding the child I'd personally named "Pilloi" in my hand, and asked:
"......What I saw back then—it wasn't a dream, was it?"
-Ooooong.
Pilloi let out a brief hum.
But it seemed Pilloi didn't want to say any more, because—just like Tachia—she gave no meaningful response beyond that.
Right. This child was clearly thinking about Tachia, too.
If that dream I had before wasn't just a meaningless illusion—
If this child really had been created by refining a living person's soul, then that person had to be connected to Tachia.
"So you really are Tachia's..."
A tragic figure who may have met death while hating her, for whatever reason.
Why would someone deliberately remake such an existence into a weapon?
Reviving a being that harbors hatred toward you—doesn't that seem like you don't care if this weapon kills you?
"......Curse."
I pushed the extreme thought out of my head, retrieved Pilloi into my body, and kept walking through the ruined streets.
"For now, let's break the curse and think after that."
First, figure out if the curse even affected this kid. Then think.
I was supposed to meet Ga-ram this afternoon anyway. I'd use her connections as a Hero to get introduced to a cleric.
With that decided, I headed to the place I'd agreed to meet Ga-ram.
'Please, for my sake—live on, carrying that weapon.'
'Do your best, for as long as you can manage it.'
I mulled over those words faintly.
The words she'd spoken on the day she entrusted Pilloi to me.
****
After the incident ended, Airi returned to her own sanctuary to rest.
If it were up to her heart, she'd stay a little longer at the side of the person she wanted as her partner—but the greatest calamity this world had ever produced was currently planted right beside him.
She'd been shown minimal medical care and offered a meal, but after getting off on such a bad foot from their first meeting, she couldn't help being wary of the woman.
'Just seeing the past doesn't tell me what's really in her heart, but considering she handed over her weapon and let us be, I doubt any harm will come to Hyosung.'
Still, just in case, Airi had made a prophecy after leaving the place and had confirmed that, come evening, she'd be the one to greet Hyosung when he returned from handling guild business.
Right. As long as no other Transcendent meddled, there should be nothing to worry about.
Having reached that conclusion, Airi planned to take some time to shake off her fatigue once she got home.
"Hee-hee~ So this is where Hyosung and Airi live together~"
She never imagined someone was secretly tailing her from behind.
"What!?"
At a voice she absolutely could not ignore, Airi's whole body stiffened, and her head whipped around toward the front door she'd just come through.
There, waiting for her, was a black-cloaked woman who gave a bright, innocent impression... No—innocent on the outside, but with a dark and murky abyss surely lurking within.
Airi had felt that lesson rattle her bones during their clash just the night before.
"M-Marilyn...? We literally just parted ways a moment ago—why are you here?"
"Hee-hee~ Originally, after hearing that scary woman's warning, I thought about backing off. But my thinking changed a little~"
"What do you mean your thinking changed? Don't you remember what happened yesterday? How can you make a decision so lightly...?"
"Well then, pardon me~"
"Wait, you—!"
Before Airi could even stop her, Marilyn stepped right into the house.
Airi felt a twinge in her body as she tried to block that carefree figure, and she ended up clutching her forehead and letting out a deep sigh.
'There was no future like this... What in the world is this woman...!'
She'd been uneasy about Marilyn backing down too easily and had checked the future, but meeting this woman was supposed to happen the next day, when Hyosung would be staying at the house with her.
Of course, as a Transcendent, there was always a chance Marilyn's future could be changed. But "whim"—one of the conditions for changing the future—usually comes hand in hand with some violent emotional upheaval.
And yet, even that impulse should have been suppressed in the face of a Transcendent whose dignity was higher than her own. Did this woman's madness run so deep it could overwhelm even that terror?
"So this is where Hyosung and Airi have meals together~"
But while Airi remained on guard over the altered future, Marilyn was paying her no attention at all, wholly focused on touring the house.
Eventually she made it to the kitchen, rummaged around here and there, and casually tossed questions at Airi.
"Hmm~ You said you cook together. Do you also serve Hyosung breakfast? Cooking, while naked?"
"Th-there's no way."
"Aha, so you at least throw on an apron over the nude bod, then?"
"Naked apron! As if I'd ever do something so indecent! Just what do you take me for!?"
"Ehh, but when you live together, you could totally do that~ Hyosung would definitely love it."
"Don't say such utter nonsense! There's no way Hyosung would like something that shameless...!"
She flared up at the absurd remark—but only for a moment.
Airi, suddenly at a loss for words, took a moment to turn over the thought that had popped into her head in light of what Marilyn had said.
'W-wait. Now that I think about it... in front of Hyosung, I've done plenty of embarrassing things already... haven't I?'
The many times she'd been intimate with him over the last three months.
What had once been nothing but embarrassing and awkward had, somewhere along the way, become something she approached with a pure, solemn heart—like conducting a ritual.
For that purpose, before each encounter she would divine a suitable day, prepare mood-enhancing candles or low lighting, study different positions at the library, and even secretly purchase daring undergarments at the market.
For someone who took her relationship with him that seriously, a question like this wasn't something she could just brush off.
'Compared to all that... w-wearing nothing but an apron is pretty minor... isn't it? N-no, but something like that requires mental preparation. If I carelessly wore just an apron in the morning and showed myself like that, Hyosung might get stimulated and pounce on me...'
Her imagination started swelling and feeding on itself.
By the time her face was bright red, Marilyn had already left the kitchen and was poised to step into the inner room of the house.
"Oh, bedroom spotted."
"Huh? W-wait, Marilyn! Since when were you over there!?"
Airi scrambled after her in alarm.
Soon she reached her room, and what met her eyes was Marilyn lying face-down, nose buried in the bed.
"Fufu, Airi, you use a nice bed. It's so fluffy, and the scent is... *sniff, sniff*."
"Y-you. Just what are you doing in my bed...?"
"Ah~ Hyosung's scent~♡"
The more she breathed in the lingering scent on the bed, the more an ecstatic smile spread across her face.
Picking up someone's scent isn't easy for a human, but for a demon with senses far beyond a human's, it was no trouble at all.
"But why does Hyosung's scent come from your bed, Airi?"
What demanded attention, though, wasn't her sense of smell, but why the scent she detected was lingering in Airi's bedroom.
"Th-that's..."
"It's not even Hyosung's room—it's your bed, and it smells like him. Don't tell me you tempted him into your room when he came back after work?"
"I didn't tempt him... I-I prepared myself mentally..."
"No, there's something else bothering me. If sweat or bodily fluids get on the bed, normally people wash the bedding within a few days, don't they? But the scent still remains now."
Twitch, twitch.
Her body flinched at every direct hit.
"Ah! I got it~!"
Marilyn watched Airi avoid her gaze and hem and haw. Then she rose from the bed and cried out with a bright face.
"Airi! Could it be... every night, you masturbate while sniffing Hyosung's sc—"
"Aaaaaah! Shut up, you!!!"
The moment those words burst out—words that even her own prophecy ability couldn't have detected—
Airi, losing all reason, lunged at her. Marilyn, as if she'd been waiting, grabbed her by the collar and yanked her onto the bed.
"Hee-hee, gotcha~"
"Let go. What are you even trying to... ngh!"
A hand slipped from the collar she'd gripped, slowly prying between the gaps in her clothing.
Airi's body, which had been resisting, went rigid the moment she felt the hand tighten around her throat.
A faint bloodlust seeped from it, and the gaze fixed on her had already lost all traces of its smile.
"...Strange. Last night you came at me so ruthlessly. And now you're showing such a careless, weak-looking side."
The Mad Demon traced a path with the hand on her throat—over her collarbone, then down her slender arm.
A chill like a snake coiling around its prey ran through her, and Marilyn closed the distance and whispered mockery into Airi's ear.
"Though I guess even yesterday, you mostly pressed me with traps. Without that kind of prep work, you're just an ordinary human woman—exactly as I see you right now."
At that whisper striking her weak point, Airi could only hold her breath in silence.
It was true. Her magic operated on the premise of reading her opponent's movements through prophecy and setting them to activate on a time delay, rendering an opponent's ability to read her meaningless.
Normally, she could use prophecy to identify danger aimed at her in advance and make moves against it. But against someone like this—someone her predictions couldn't even touch—she couldn't catch a hint of that danger at all.
"To think a body this frail wanted to go up against a Four Heavenly King of the Demon Lord Army."
So this situation—pinned down—might be even more dangerous than yesterday.
As that anxiety swept over her, she felt the strength slowly drain from the hand that had been groping her body.
"...I'm jealous. Not only did you nab your spot while I was gone, you even managed to keep a cool head—despite your genuine feelings for him—to push me back."
The bitter voice gradually faded.
But the mad fury from before was gone; there wasn't even a trace of the irate quarrel from the morning.
Right. She had probably realized it already from the previous night's friction.
What happened happened. Even killing Airi here wouldn't change the outcome that had already been decided.
"...Get up."
Having faintly read that true intent, Airi decided to erase her hostility toward Marilyn entirely.
Even if this was a being she couldn't grasp in almost every way—to the point they were practically incompatible—Airi knew one thing clearly: Marilyn's love for him was genuine.
"I also have something to say to you. So let's have some tea while we talk."
And Airi herself intended to walk a path where love and her mission coexisted.
She couldn't fulfill that purpose alone, so she needed to secure as many allies for him as possible.
"Are you really sure about this? You know I haven't given up on Hyosung."
"Yes, I'm sure."
Airi steadied herself, reflecting on that point. Then she turned a gaze full of firm resolve toward her rival and spoke.
"No matter how you feel about me, Hyosung's first was me."
She took comfort in that one unchangeable fact.
And she readied herself to take on all the responsibilities that would come with it.