Responsibility Without Pleasure
Responsibility Without Pleasure
My eyes didn't open, but my consciousness surfaced.
My mind was hazy. The bed beneath me was plush, and the blanket draped over me impossibly warm.
And my right hand was quite cold.
- Yaaawn...
A yawn slipped out before I could stop it, as if the dregs of sleep still clung to me. I made sure no sound escaped my open mouth.
Once the yawn passed, I pressed my lips shut.
My mouth felt sticky from just waking up. I chewed idly to moisten it, then pushed myself upright.
The blanket slid down, and a familiar voice sounded right beside me.
"You're up early."
I twitched my fingers, then activated the Observation Authority.
The domed ceiling still displayed the night sky, the bed placed in its center. Me, who had just risen from that bed...
"How's your body? The bed is so high-grade, I'm sure it didn't make sleeping uncomfortable."
And Baek A-rin, lying on the same bed, waving at me.
My hand swayed along with hers. A chill seeped through our intertwined fingers, as if we'd held on all night and I'd grown oddly used to it.
Waking up in the same bed as another person was profoundly shocking—stunning enough to make you fall backward.
"......"
I thought for a moment, then nodded.
[Yes]
[Good morning]
By this point, I was fairly used to it.
.
.
.
The streets on Sunday morning were quiet.
After leaving the planetarium-like facility, we walked quite a distance but barely encountered anyone.
Partly because the floating population was naturally low, and partly because it was early Sunday morning.
"Oh, it's here~"
[Table 11. Your order has arrived.]
When I tried to head straight back to the dormitory, Baek A-rin suggested we have breakfast together.
After mulling it over briefly, we'd stopped by a nearby restaurant and ordered food—just a moment ago, really.
There were no other customers besides us. Perhaps because of that, the food came quickly.
A serving robot carried the dishes over and set them on the table.
Broth releasing wisps of steam, roundly coiled pure white somyeon noodles, garnishes and crumbled seaweed on top...
The dish was a bowl of janchi-guksu, nothing special.
There were side dishes like dumplings, but Baek A-rin apparently didn't care for them.
She asked if I wanted to order dumplings, but I passed on them, too.
"Thank you for the meal~"
[Thank you for the meal]
Baek A-rin lifted her chopsticks. She gathered a mouthful of noodles, her mouth opening.
"Aren't you eating?"
[Huh?]
[Ah]
[Please, go ahead first]
The noodles remained suspended on her chopsticks. She'd stopped mid-bite and was glancing between me and the chopsticks still resting on the table.
I tilted my head, hands on my knees, then gestured for her to start eating.
Baek A-rin gave me an odd look before putting the noodles in her mouth. Only after her jaw moved and I confirmed she'd swallowed did I pick up my chopsticks.
I stirred the noodles into the broth a bit, then grabbed a suitable mouthful and stuffed it in. I chewed the somyeon briefly and gulped it down. Frowning slightly, I fiddled with my chopsticks, then lifted another portion.
Truth be told, I wasn't a fan of janchi-guksu.
When I was hungry, I'd eat bugs or whatever I could scavenge... but once I was well-fed and comfortable, I grew selective.
Even among those selective choices, janchi-guksu always seemed bland and watery. Adding pepper didn't make it taste all that great to me.
'Not bad.'
Right now, it wasn't bad. I sipped the broth with an odd expression.
It just felt like warm water... but honestly, the broth of janchi-guksu I'd had before tasted about the same.
Isn't janchi-guksu just flour somyeon boiled in a decent anchovy broth?
The flavor was inherently mild from the start, so I felt little dissonance or displeasure even as I shoveled the noodles into my mouth.
"This is my first time here, but it tastes better than I thought."
[Yes]
[I thought it was decent, too.]
I worked my chopsticks industriously and spooned up the broth, draining the bowl in no time. By matching Baek A-rin's pace across from me, we rose from our seats almost simultaneously.
"Shall we walk off the meal on the way back? A little stroll."
[Yes]
[Sounds good.]
A superhuman's body demands a much larger food intake than an ordinary person's.
Consequently, my meal portions had grown. In the past, I couldn't even finish a few chopsticks' worth; now, I could polish off an entire bowl by myself.
I rubbed my comfortably full stomach and nodded at the suggestion of a walk.
Siyoram was vast. There were designated park areas for strolling, but the campus itself was so expansive that simply heading back to the dormitory made for a decent walk.
'It's been a while since I was back at the dormitory.'
Along the way, we chatted idly, since just walking felt boring. Hands clasped, feet moving—then, suddenly, I realized it really had been a long time since I'd returned to my dormitory.
During the written exam period, I'd stayed at the library. After the tournament preliminaries, at Hong Yeon-hwa's dorm. After the main rounds ended, at my master's quarters...
It had been nearly a week. Basic purification magic was active, so at least dust wouldn't have piled up.
Once I got back, I had to train seriously hard.
The midterm evaluation provided an excuse, but it still felt like I'd slacked off on my training.
Of course, there were things to do during the vacation, and the upcoming Trial of Growth at the start of next semester meant my stats would jump significantly then...
"Oh, right."
My train of thought was cut off by Baek A-rin's exclamation.
I turned my head to see what was up. With her usual unwavering demeanor, Baek A-rin asked me a question.
"Haven't you been getting a lot of talk about engagements (約婚)?"
[Pardon?]
The subject itself came completely out of the blue.
Engagement (約婚).
A promise to marry in the future, rather than an immediate wedding ceremony.
There could be many reasons: being too young, or lacking the right circumstances. Or, as I considered the concept, a political purpose.
"No. I figured you must have been receiving them all along, and now that the midterm evaluation is over, I was curious if they'd started flooding in in earnest."
Baek A-rin added an explanation as she stared at me. Since she seemed curious about the answer, I nodded stiffly.
Early in the semester.
Even when I hadn't proven my qualifications yet, strange messages used to pour in.
We are the so-and-so family... faction... clan... regarding your qualities... our child is also quite decent... forming a blood relation...
Emails plastered with flowery words. The first few, I tilted my head, wondering if they were spam, and tossed them in the trash.
But as time passed, they kept coming, more and more. Not just one or two—sometimes, I'd check and find ten piled up in a single day.
And the content changed, too, shifting away from the heavy topic of engagement to light invitations just to meet once.
Grimacing, I recalled something similar happening in the original work.
Political engagements. As far as I remembered, that was a practice from the days of monarchies and aristocracy.
Not to say it was unheard of in modern times... but it wasn't exactly normal for the neighbor kid Cheol-su and our family's Min-ji to hold an engagement ceremony, was it?
At least, according to the common sense I'd brought from my original world.
Here, things were a bit different.
In truth, superhumans and the factions they formed could wield influence comparable to—or even greater than—the nobles I knew.
National borders had faded, and regional powers reigned, using administrative personnel as they pleased.
Not "The Republic of Korea," but "The Korean Peninsula" or "The Korean District."
Not "China," but "The former Chinese territory..."
In fact, names like China, Korea, and Japan had long since come to signify regions rather than countries.
"I see... there are quite a few people who figure it's already a done deal anyway."
...And right next to me was the person who'd widened her eyes on the first day of the semester and asked if I'd gotten any calls—wasn't she the heir of one of those major powers?
The heir of the Changhae Family, which ruled the northern Korean Peninsula, Primorsky Krai, the Khabarovsk region, and beyond.
At this level, she practically was royalty or nobility. If anything, she wielded even greater authority...
"What do you think, Ha-yul? About the engagement offers."
Just as I was freshly grasping Baek A-rin's staggering status, she suddenly asked me that question.
"......"
My legs stopped involuntarily.
Baek A-rin, who had stopped alongside me, stared at me with her characteristic blue eyes.
Engagements... When I thought of them as spam mail, I'd ignored them, but after seeing the flood of messages, it was a topic I'd given some thought.
- Creak...
The Confession Necklace rasped.
[I hate it.]
- Crrreak....
The sound itself grated with revulsion, like nails on a chalkboard.
[I hate it.]
Baek A-rin looked surprised at the resolute denial the necklace spat out.
[I have no intention of criticizing other people's circumstances.]
Realizing how I must have sounded, I quickly added an explanation.
[I don't feel outright revulsion or anything...]
[Uh...]
[That is...]
How should I explain this? I fidgeted, shuffling my feet with a strange sense of urgency, until I found a moderately suitable answer and blurted it out.
[It feels burdensome.]
"Burdensome?"
[Yes...]
[It's impossible for me.]
Engagement, becoming a couple who promises marriage.
Marriage, two people becoming husband and wife and forming a family.
If you get engaged, you'll get married; if you get married, you'll build a home and become spouses.
And if that happens... you'd probably have children, too.
My thoughts reached that point. When I tried to insert myself into that picture, I felt a crushing pressure, as if my body were crumpling.
To put it bluntly, I had no confidence.
I had no confidence I could make a spouse happy.
I had no confidence I could have children, raise them safely and happily, and help secure their future happiness.
Look at the state I'm in right now.
How could I possibly make someone happy, raise someone, teach someone?
I'm a dead man walking, not knowing when I'll die unless I lift these curses first...
"I see. I can understand that. Honestly, feeling burdened at this age is perfectly normal."
'Oh.'
Only then did I snap back to my senses and rein in the necklace.
I'd ended up spilling my thoughts. Thanks to that cool yet gentle touch kneading my hand as if to say everything was okay, the words had just poured out of me.
I hadn't laid all my deepest thoughts bare, but I had conveyed the point that it was burdensome and impossible.
Baek A-rin, who'd listened to my explanation, nodded in agreement that it was understandable.
And then she tugged at my hand again, urging us to walk.
The conversation lapsed. Baek A-rin seemed to have something on her mind.
So I checked the Confession Necklace to see if anything strange had come out.
Thankfully, nothing. It had just been an emotional grumble about feeling burdened and unsure... about having no confidence.
I already regretted even that, but luckily, it hadn't blabbed any unnecessary past history.
All that effort poured into controlling the Confession Necklace had paid off.
"Here we are—arrived!"
We finally reached the dormitory.
[Thank you for walking me back.]
[I really enjoyed yesterday, too.]
Standing before the entrance of my dormitory building, I bowed my head in thanks.
That I'd enjoyed it was sincere. At the very least, it wasn't a bad memory.
"Hearing you confirm it yourself puts my mind at ease!"
Baek A-rin replied with a beaming smile.
It didn't seem like my earlier grumbling had upset her or anything. I was inwardly relieved, and just as I began to loosen our clasped hands—
"Ha-yul."
Baek A-rin lifted our linked hands right up to my nose.
"If the engagement offers are burdensome and proving troublesome for you, I can help."
[Help?]
"Yes, help."
I tilted my head at the puzzling statement, and Baek A-rin let go of my hand with an enigmatic smile.
"Just keep that in mind. If it ever gets so burdensome you can't stand it, I'll help you out."
In short, she was telling me to contact her if things got tough.
[Thank you.]
[If it gets to be too much, I'll ask for your help.]
Whatever the case, it was goodwill extended willingly.
I bowed my head, and Baek A-rin smiled and waved back.
.
.
.
Back in my dormitory after a long while. Even though it had only been a week, it felt like an eternity. I trudged down the hallway, a strange emotion washing over me.
After exiting the elevator and walking a short distance, my dorm room finally came within range of my Observation Authority.
It was my own room, not someone else's house. There was no need to be cautious with my observation. So I didn't bother to withdraw my perception.
- Crick... c-crackle...
I sensed the Origin Egg spiderwebbing with cracks in real time.
'...Good heavens!'
I froze like a stone for a second, then scrambled madly to the door and threw it open.
There it was, on the corner of the living room sofa.
The Origin Egg was bobbing left and right, scattering fragments.
The energy field blocking my observation wavered. It was an unmistakable sign of hatching.
'Good heavens...!'
Even though my eyes were physically shut, my emotions soared so high I was certain my inner eyes must have been flashing wide open.
'It's opening, it's opening...!'
The Origin Egg.
The one Hidden Piece I'd considered safely obtained—and which had shown absolutely no signs of hatching, to the point I'd begun to suspect I'd been scammed—was finally hatching!
Right now. It was going to open any second!
My heart hammered with excitement. I kept shifting restlessly.
'What's going to come out?'
I was brimming with anticipation.
'The Elixir of Polarity?'
The elixir that had contributed significantly to the absurd stat-building of the 11th Iteration 'Diamond Warrior'?
'Or the Two-Sided Mirror?'
The one-use artifact that enabled the 3rd Iteration 'Three Ends' to copy a single unique ability?
'The Order of Regression would also be fine.'
The one-use artifact that created the 5th Iteration 'Reverse Magic Path.'
Honestly, it'd be tricky to use, but even that would be something. Even if I didn't use it, just putting it up for auction would net an absurd amount of money, even by superhuman standards.
Given that I'd entertained the notion it might never hatch, I'd gladly accept a simple elixir set.
I could take it myself, or if it seemed suspicious, have it appraised and then use or sell it.
Anything would be good.
But if I had a wish... I wanted it to be something I could use right away during the break.
Of course, I had plans to set up insurance, but the more dangerous my intentions were, the more I hoped for something that could immediately boost my combat power.
- Crackle, c-crrick—!
As if answering my hopes, the Origin Egg accelerated its hatching.
At last, a large fissure scored across the egg, splitting it in two.
The energy field was still present. But when I looked closer, the shell had already separated into top and bottom halves.
'Has it opened?'
My heart pounded furiously. I took several deep breaths, then carefully reached out my hand.
- !
The Origin Egg heaved once with great force. The top half of the shell tilted askew. This intense reaction, unlike anything before, made my hand halt.
The egg heaved again. It was almost... as if something was inside it.
'?'
My hand trembled. I felt a faint, instinctive unease.
And then.
- Crack!
A hand burst from the fissure splitting the egg.
A tiny arm with fair skin.
It flailed around, as if checking the outside, then—crack!—another arm burst out on the opposite side.
The limp, flailing arms suddenly retracted back in with a pop. A moment later, two small hands poked out and lifted the shell covering the egg.
The tiny hands rose upward, and the shell lifted along with them.
Finally, the being inside revealed itself.
"Pyah!"
A gurgling laugh, free of any worry or care.
Hair that was purely white, untouched by any other color, and eyes just as pure white, brimming with nothing but innocence.
It was a baby with an extraordinary appearance...
No, not just an ordinary baby.
There was actually something else that was truly extraordinary.
Behind the gurgling infant, a pair of wings fluttered.
Unlike the pure white of its hair, the wings were semi-transparent and beautiful, holding all five colors within their gorgeous shimmer...
'......'
My brain screeched to a halt. My thoughts were severed cleanly, and a fierce headache pounded as if my skull was resonating.
Tinnitus almost rang in my ears—a piercing eeeee— The strength drained from my legs, and I felt like I'd fall flat on my back.
Just then, the baby, who had been swinging its arms vigorously, looked at me.
Since I'd been crouching in front of the sofa, my eye level was roughly similar to the baby's where it was seated.
The baby's mouth opened.
"Ah, Dada!"
My ears rang. The sound stretched out long.
Ah, Dada...
D-Dadda...
Daddy...
Daddy...?
To who? To me?
- BANG!
In that instant.
Suddenly, a vicious headache and pressure unlike anything I'd ever felt in my life crashed over me.
My vision, already pitch black, was stained an even deeper shade of utter darkness...
* * *
[The Origin Egg accepts the Origin (起源) of the manifester.]
[Searching for conditions suitable for the manifester...]
[The Origin Egg is hatching.]
...
[Fairy Knight (妖精騎士)... Fairy Knight hatching complete.]