VII. Beneath the Sky: Deneb, Altair, Vega (1)
She hadn't been after the Star's Fragment.
From the very beginning, she'd crashed the special lecture intending to turn a divine beast's remains into an object. To murder my childhood friend, Eunha.
"Alright~ If you think I can hunt the Greedy Wolf Star, smash that subscribe and like button for me~?"
A splendid conversation piece—no. A vicious, serrated chainsaw.
The split segments recalled a centipede's belly. The jagged teeth evoked a viper's fangs. The second beast that binds time to the earth—Vasuki's remains—had become an object.
I faintly furrowed my brow.
"You're the Seven Deadly Sins Cult's Envy?"
"A fresh-faced newbie, I'll have you know. Tch~. Even Apostles only get paid peanuts. It's an equal-opportunity cult, y'know."
The Seven Deadly Sins Cult was a different breed from the League that threaded through the City's underbelly like veins. A cult of extremist rogue sorcerers. They advocated forcibly awakening all three hundred million people into sorcerers, which put them at odds with the Jujutsu Bureau, an institution that recognized sorcerers as a special class. All seven executives took their names from the Seven Deadly Sins.
In the original story, Envy had been an ugly woman whose mouth split from ear to ear, her teeth so sharp she wore a mask. Looking Mira over carefully, it wasn't as if there was no resemblance. If she'd been this gorgeous when she was young, they should've at least given her one panel in the setting book!
"Ooh, you're staring a hole right through me. Don't tell me I look like a different person now that you've heard I'm with the Seven Deadly Sins Cult~? The position makes the person, as they say."
Rumira flashed a V-sign and beamed.
"Joining the Seven Deadly Sins Cult really does change your life, y'know. Convert right now and His Holiness the Pope's Baptism will turn a non-sorcerer like you into a real sorcerer~."
"I know what that really is. Spare me the disgusting pitch. Why are you trying to kill Eunha?"
"Whew, whew. Calling a girl disgusting? So heartless. Still—well, it's not like I can't tell you."
Rumira giggled. Heeheehee.
"She sparkles more than this great me. Makes me jealous? Something like that."
"Originally I came to the academy to keep tabs on Miss Botan. But I hooked myself a real prize~," she added lightly.
It was an absurd reason, but I couldn't argue with it. People who shone too brightly were hated as commonly as the leftover stars scattered across the night sky.
"I've made every last preparation to bring a star crashing down~. Inside my Domain, the Enshrinement Palace, objects made from corpses perform at a hundred percent. Ahaha, even a divine beast's power is at full throttle. All I have to do is wait for the Greedy Wolf Star to walk right in!"
The drawback of objects created by her Innate Cursed Technique, Corpse Eternal Night—that they could only exert half their strength—had vanished. As if she were taking the stage, she flung her arms wide, and the columbarium drawers slid open.
Swords. Spears. Guns. Dreamcatchers. And more besides. Every last drawer was packed with objects. The scale rivaled the Jujutsu Bureau's underground vault, where dangerous objects were kept in quarantine.
"Well? And this great me was a model student, I'll have you know. I've stockpiled objects made from four hundred Nephilim and seventy sorcerers. I'm just so diligent~"
"You're saying you killed all seventy of those sorcerers yourself?"
I frowned and pressed her.
"Whoa~. Calm down. Even if they died, they live on—in these drawers, and in this heart of mine."
She deliberately clasped her hands in front of her chest, where the school swimsuit clung tight, and it jiggled. The winged tablet zoomed its lens in for a close-up. Even now she was thinking about milking her viewers for cash. Terrifying woman.
"Besides, most of them were the League's Evil Friends. I did a good thing, okay~~?"
"I'm sure some Jujutsu Bureau people died in Seven Deadly Sins Cult terrorist attacks too."
"Minor sacrifices. Uheheh. Still, I'm nowhere near that hot potato, the Hundred-Kill Lord, just yet."
My expression flooded with bewilderment.
"The... Hundred-Kill Lord?"
"Heeey heeey. You don't know the Hundred-Kill Lord? What a total nerd. He's the great evil who killed a hundred big shots and is gonna kill a hundred more. Super hot right now. A real man's man~. Ah, a guy like that? I might just give this great me's first time to him."
Mira flushed like a girl in love and twisted her body from side to side.
How far has the rumor about the Hundred-Kill Lord gotten blown out of proportion?! I'm going to lose my mind.
"Shut up. So why did you show me the objects?"
I somehow glossed over the Hundred-Kill Lord business and wrapped it up.
"How does it look to you, Mr. Childhood Friend~? This great me prepared this hard to reconstruct my Domain, and I'm still gonna lose to the Greedy Wolf Star?"
Rumira's eyes sparkled as she asked, brimming with confidence.
"You'll lose."
I answered in a single word, without hesitation.
Rumira whistled slyly, staring into my eyes. Her mouth was smiling, showing those pointed teeth—but for the first time, a serious glint surfaced in her gaze.
"Wheew~ Straight to the point. Is that a swordsman thing? Sometimes you should think it over before you talk~."
"You won't even get to meet Eunha in the first place."
I gripped Damro and dropped into a fighting stance.
"I'll stop you before Eunha ever sets foot on this island."
If it were my easygoing childhood friend, she'd slack off until the last possible second. I'll finish this first.
At that, Mira's lips curved into an amused smile.
"Wow...... this great me just revised my opinion of you. Honestly~~, when you were begging a Nephilim for help, you looked pretty pathetic. Aren't you putting on a little too much swagger?"
"Shut up. Shut up."
"That means you and the Greedy Wolf Star are pretty special to each other, huh? Come on~. Spill it just to this great me."
Could I call Eunha and me special to each other? Well, I did get hit with a supernova explosion for a wake-up alarm every morning.
I admitted it without thinking.
"Obviously."
"He admitted it right away!!? Wheew~. That's scorching hot."
"I raised her like a daughter. Spoiled her rotten."
In the original Jujutsu Return, Hwi Eunha was a self-absorbed narcissist who didn't give a damn about other people. But maybe she saw me at least a little differently from everyone else?
"Pffft! A d-daughter? That's what a daughter does? Are you stupid?"
Boing~. Streamer MiraMiracle's eyes bulged like they were about to pop out of her skull. A reaction straight out of a cartoon. Rumira glanced at the tablet, clutched her stomach, and laughed for a long time.
"Uheheh. Uheheh. I wanna show you the comment section."
Mira dabbed at the tears that had gathered at the corners of her eyes.
"No need. You've already blown past the ban threshold, haven't you? How have you not been suspended yet?"
If it weren't for those interlopers, Rumira would already have been a genuine, chopped-up mummy. Admiral Yi Sun-sin had twelve ships. BJ MiraMiracle had three million subscribers. Too many eyes watching. Cursed energy wouldn't gather.
"Too bad~. I've already seized the JuTube servers. We're broadcasting on the front page."
Mira spread her hands in an exaggerated flourish.
The work of Sloth, Apostle of the Seven Sins? Tch. This conversation went out as a JuTube featured video? How embarrassing.
"Nya─ha~."
"Don't laugh like that. You sound like a cat that ate pesticide."
"Here's the thing. Before the Greedy Wolf Star gets here, I'm going to seize your body and your heart. I may not look it, but I'm a virgin in mind, energy, and body, y'know? Consider yourself lucky~?"
Mira made a heart shape with her palms, as if she'd come to a grand decision.
"Did you eat something weird?"
"For the Greedy Wolf Star, that's a perfect defeat. Heeey heeey. Everyone watching? If it looks like this great me is gonna pull off this NTR, throw me a thousand-won Super Chat punch!"
Even as I scoffed, she didn't care in the slightest, throwing punches at empty air. Whether for tactical reasons or for the sake of my virtue, smashing the tablet broadcasting the video was still the best move.
"Tch."
I charged the small tablet with sylph wings, about to smash it—and the girl hoisted a chainsaw nearly as tall as she was and sprang into the air. This one... her physical abilities weren't to be taken lightly either.
"That surprised me a tiny bit. There's only one camera that's gonna film the moment this great me kills the Greedy Wolf Star~!"
The chainsaw that Vasuki had become snarled to life with a piercing roar.
Vrrrrrrrrrrrr—
The sawblade let out a magnificent sound, as if it meant to rip heaven and earth apart.
"Alright─! This is the climax. Let's go!"
As if things weren't bad enough.
The Second Beast That Binds Time to the Earth
Vasuki's great jujutsu had awakened as well......!
The seafloor hot spring off the coast of Lost Paradise.
A tablet sealed in a waterproof case. Watching the JuTube chat flood in at dozens of messages a second—
"Ah......─! Daughter? Daughter?! She should've said honey or darling there!"
Then she could have locked it down!
Eunha puffed out her cheeks at the tactless answer. She'd nearly hurled a red giant at her phone.
Of course, she had saved one line.
Gonna use it as a morning alarm☆
Three of the students under her charge were dead. One was a murderer. The one standing against that murderer was, of all things, a non-sorcerer.
It was a disaster, and yet Eunha was watching BJ MiraMiracle's stream with astonishing composure. To a woman who gazed upon the stars, the humans of the lower world were no different from plants crawling across the dirt.
But he was different. A nameless variable star, nothing more—and yet that feeble light had moved a celestial being.
When Rumira provoked the off-screen Eunha like that, she almost wanted to fly straight to Lost Paradise—but she held back. If she intervened, the special lecture's predetermined ending would fall apart.
"─Beom. This time, you're going to be everyone's hero."
Yeah. I'd cast that kind of jujutsu.
Because my hero couldn't simply remain an ordinary extra named Beom.