The Wager of Stars
The sun had already set completely, ushering in the late evening. True to its reputation as a metropolis, Hailyen was still bustling with noise. Of course, to her, standing on the school rooftop, those sounds felt incredibly distant.
Is this really the right path? she wondered, looking up at the night sky with a sorrowful expression. Thanks to Hailyen's transparent barrier, the stars sparkled with vivid clarity.
They say some of those stars have already died. She was afraid. Afraid that her own Constellation was also a dead star. Afraid that she had been clinging to a faded Constellation all this time.
Please answer me, my Constellation. Her eyes were pleading, as if begging for her very life. But there was no answer. Yoo Seora's expression gradually grew cold.
Do you intend to keep silent like this forever? She began to step forward. One step, then another, toward the edge of the roof. Soon, she stood at the very brink.
Even now? She looked straight down. For a moment, dizziness threatened to overwhelm her. It wasn't an astronomical height, but it was certainly high enough that survival wasn't guaranteed if she fell.
Please, speak to me. Stop me. She was entirely serious. She had already reached a point of no return. At the very least, she wanted confirmation of whether the path she had walked was the right one. Yet, silence was her only reply.
This is the end. She leaned forward. The ground below aligned vertically with her vision. It was the exact moment the sensation of freefall enveloped her body.
Huh? Out of nowhere, a gust of wind blew. Then, someone wrapped their arms around her.
"Damn it!" It was a somewhat familiar voice. She turned her head to look at the person holding her. It was Sung Yu-rang, her teammate.
Why? Rather than wondering how he had found her, her first thought was why he had grabbed her. After all, she was already falling. At this rate, it would be nothing more than a double suicide.
...Or so it should have been. But at that moment, a miracle occurred. Their falling speed began to decelerate. What on earth is this...?
I finally realized why I couldn't stop worrying about Yoo Seora. It was a sense of kinship. Her wandering, uncertain figure overlapped with my own past self, Sung Yu-rang. And the moment I saw her throw herself off the roof, there was no time for rational thought.
I activated the Wind Authority, sprinting forward to catch her mid-fall.
"Damn it!" But she had already gathered considerable momentum. Though I desperately tried to slow our descent with the Wind Authority, the added weight of Yoo Seora made the divine skill far less effective than usual.
Crack! It was a stroke of absolute fortune that a tree stood directly beneath us. Thanks to the Wind Authority dampening our speed as much as possible and the branches absorbing the brunt of the impact, we managed to minimize the damage. Ultimately, though it stung quite a bit, we rolled onto the ground very much alive.
I really almost died. A double suicide was definitely not on my bucket list. As I lay splayed out on the ground, gasping for breath, she spoke.
"Why?" Yoo Seora asked. I answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "When someone is trying to die, you save them first and ask questions later."
What a ridiculous question to ask. I wondered if that was really the first thing you should say to the person who just saved your life, but possessing Sung Yu-rang's memories, I couldn't entirely blame her. After all, I had tried to end my own life the moment I entered the first Trial.
For now, at least... We had cleared the first hurdle. But expecting Yoo Seora to change on her own from this point forward would be overly optimistic. I had already failed to grasp her situation earlier due to my own complacency. I couldn't afford to make the same mistake twice.
"Seora, when was the last time you were in contact with your Constellation?" Yoo Seora looked slightly taken aback that I knew about the existence of Constellations, but she quickly answered. "...Three years ago."
Holy crap. Three years ago was before I even inherited Sung Yu-rang's memories. That meant her current issue was fundamentally different from the one plaguing Wilhelm and me.
Did they abandon her development? Honestly, looking at her current growth state, I should have realized this sooner. But perhaps because I had adapted more to living in this world than thinking like the player Sung Yu-rang, the connection hadn't clicked immediately.
Does that mean she has still been following her Constellation's orders from three years ago? Yoo Seora was truly remarkable. Unless a character had an exceptionally high level of dependency on their Constellation, they would never have held on for so long. It brought a slight ache to my chest, remembering that even Sung Yu-rang had abandoned a few characters' development in the past.
But Seora must have suspected the truth to some extent. Otherwise, she wouldn't have resorted to such an extreme measure. This meant that sweet, sugar-coated lies and empty comfort wouldn't work on her now. In the end, there was only one way forward.
"In that case, Seora, your Constellation abandoned you three years ago." A direct confrontation. It was the only option.
"I appreciate you saving my life, but who do you think you are to speak so carelessly about my Constellation?"
"Well, do you really think that Constellation even remembers you?" Of course, they might. Perhaps as one of their ruined characters. That failed run might even serve as a stepping stone for when they built a new Yoo Seora in another playthrough. But to the Yoo Seora standing right here, that meant absolutely nothing.
"That's..."
"See? You don't actually know anything about those so-called Constellations." Yoo Seora snapped back, her pride stung. "And I suppose you do?"
"Yes." Of course I did. I possessed the complete memories of a Constellation. Though I couldn't proudly claim to be one like before, I was still half of one.
"My Constellation, you see, was a heavy smoker and an alcoholic. A fool who regretted his own failures and projected himself onto me."
"How could you possibly know..." "How I know doesn't matter. What matters is that they are imperfect beings, just like us." At those words, Yoo Seora's eyes widened.
"Imperfect beings?" "You must have known deep down. After all, the path of the sword that bastard commanded you to walk is riddled with flaws." Yoo Seora fell silent. I took that as confirmation.
"If that's the case... then doesn't it mean any Constellation will do?" "What is that supposed to mean?" Now came the core of my plan. The direct breakthrough strategy to save her. I uttered the words that would set it in motion.
"How about we make a wager?" "A wager? All of a sudden?" "Yes. The winner gets to become the loser's Constellation."
Yoo Seora looked utterly bewildered. It was a perfectly natural reaction to such a bizarre proposal. "But I don't even know what a Constellation actually is."
"It's simple. A Constellation is an entity that can give commands. But those commands carry no actual binding force." Her expression grew even more perplexed. "Then doesn't that make them completely meaningless?"
Far from meaningless. The greatest proof of their significance was standing right in front of me. "And yet, you've been bound for three years by the words left behind by such a 'meaningless' Constellation, haven't you?"
Yoo Seora's expression froze. It seemed she had finally realized the irony. She asked me, "Fine, let's say that's true. Then what is the subject of this wager?"
The subject of the wager. Since I had chosen a direct breakthrough, there was only one thing I was truly confident in. It was a bit underhanded, but... "Swordsmanship. We will settle this with a duel of blades."
Yoo Seora was taken aback once more. She began to ponder, likely trying to figure out if this wager was a trap. But she would have no choice but to accept. She didn't know the true extent of my swordsmanship yet, and besides, she had absolutely nothing left to lose.
It is a trap, so hurry up and take the bait. After a brief moment of hesitation, Yoo Seora finally spoke. "Fine. Let's do it." With this, half the battle was won.
"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Yoo Seora asked, checking with me repeatedly as if she couldn't shake her unease. Naturally, I had no issues whatsoever.
"I told you, I'm fine. I'm actually surprisingly good with a sword." "No, not the swordsmanship. I mean, are you really okay with me using Overload?"
I had made it a rule of our wager that we both had to fight with everything we had. For her, that meant including her Overload trait. "Use Overload, use whatever you want. Seriously, I'm really good at swordsmanship."
I was being entirely honest, but Yoo Seora didn't seem to believe me. Well, it didn't matter. I just had to show her.
"Then, let's head in." Normally, the Trial couldn't be accessed for purposes other than official classes, but thanks to my contract with that nameless god, entering was a breeze. I felt a bit uncomfortable owing a favor to a deity I still had bones to pick with, but I had no choice. To draw out Yoo Seora's full strength without exposing my swordsmanship to the outside world, the Trial was the only suitable stage.
Shall we warm up for the first time in a while? Lately, I had been doing nothing but shooting arrows from a distance, and my body was starting to feel stiff. Of course, I would hold back to some extent, so there was no need to worry. Though I couldn't say how easy it would feel to Yoo Seora.