Pyrophobia
Instinct.
“Oh, the rain has stopped.”
“That’s quite fortunate.”
If it hadn’t, I would have had to fashion a raincoat out of Indescribable Terror and sprint over three hours of distance with my contractor while getting pelted by wind and rain! O Goddess, thank you. I had planned to fly us to our destination. I was worried what would happen if the rain continued until morning. Almost as if it were trying to mask the test subject’s screams, the violent downpour that had raged from evening until dawn fortunately retreated the moment morning arrived, revealing the sun.
‘Nice.’
Dew clung to the moss climbing the red walls. The sky pooled on the ground. The scent of damp earth and wood that could only be smelled after rain, along with its characteristic chill. For some reason, even the emotion of terror had grown thicker overnight. This morning carried quite the atmosphere. It was also rather sweet.
Who was it? The lovely bastard who sprayed chocolate perfume into the air. This is what Valentine is like. Damp, damp…!
I inhaled deeply, steadily replenishing the MP that had been drained by last night’s clinical fear-vaccine experiment. The fear I had extracted from the test subject last night had been quite the delicacy, but gulping it down in one massive mouthful like this suited my style far better than nibbling bit by bit.
‘Whoa.’
Thanks to the terror flowing in from all directions, a dizzying shock exploded across my taste buds like fireworks. I was trembling like a kid tasting Super X Star for the first time when my contractor, who had been squatting beside me and combing her hair with a shadow-made comb while staring into a puddle, stretched with a long yawn and stood up.
“Ughhh! Hiya… I’m sorry to say this to you, Raven-nim, but I think I prefer the middle realm over the demon realm after all.”
My contractor gazed up at the now-clear sky after the rain and wore the bitter smile of a discharged soldier reminiscing about a past stained with mud. The sight was oddly amusing, so I let out an involuntary chuckle before speaking.
“No need to apologize.”
‘I feel the same way.’
Logically speaking, who would enjoy a place so perpetually dark that you couldn’t even synthesize vitamin D? Of course, the volcano I erupted might have contributed to that atmosphere, but even before that, the weather there had never been great. Really. Anyone who says otherwise is buried under volcanic ash. I am the Pompeii disaster itself.
Sharing the common trait of having survived over 360 days in Terraforming, we spent our light morning chat cursing the wretched demon realm(?) before I spoke.
“Hold on tight, Contractor.”
“Like this?”
“No, I’ll hold you tight.”
“Thank you.”
“…Didn’t we have this exact conversation before?”
“…I’m getting a sense of déjà vu too.”
Whoosh! With a single leap we left the brick-built forest behind. Chaaaarrrrk!!! We soared toward Bastion’s sky, so clear it seemed the autumn heavens themselves had risen.
—Flap!
The colossal demonic wings cast over the ground. They were far larger and more majestic than when I had previously woven them from body parts. At first, creating wings without Kkachi’s help had been a challenge, but after several trials and errors I had adapted enough to rule the skies on my own. It felt as though I had become a young crow fledged from Kkachi’s embrace.
Yet…
‘Indeed, the energy consumption is far lower than biological energy.’
Unlike biological energy, which had made my heart race with every wingbeat, fantasy energy called mana consumed very little unless I expelled it externally like when firing fear bullets or casting healing magic. The efficiency was excellent. Thanks to that, I no longer needed to climb high and glide.
Flap! Each beat of the massive wings—modeled after a bat’s wings and the fallen angel wings Kkachi had once attached to my contractor in Terraforming—sent tiny moisture particles and wind slicing across my skin like razor blades. But it didn’t matter.
“Hehe, hehe.”
My contractor, cradled in my arms like a prince or princess, hummed a little tune while kicking her feet, apparently not scared at all. Of course, Kkachi had spread a thin layer of shadow over her skin and eardrums for protection, but it felt like only yesterday she had been whining like a medieval kid on a gyro drop, complaining about the height. (It was yesterday.) Suddenly, I thought children really did grow up fast.
***
We crossed the sky almost like a projectile and arrived at the high-class inn where Sion was staying. We headed to the second floor and knocked on the door.
Knock knock knock.
“Sion-nim. We’re here.”
“Open the door already, thief.”
After a brief silence—
—Nya-nyang! If you were gonna be this late, you should’ve come around lunch or something! Why show up before ten in the morning nyang! This body still wants to sleep more nyang! The sound of a vicious cat hissing at a butler who dared touch her jelly while she slept came muffled through the wooden door.
“Oh, she’s being awfully quiet.”
“You’re right. At this rate we could set off an explosion outside and she wouldn’t notice.”
“I don’t think it’s quite that bad.”
She was making quite a racket with her “nyang nyang,” yet the sound didn’t carry far, as though we were hearing it underwater. The soundproofing was excellent. I had heard this was a rather expensive inn, but I hadn’t expected this level. My contractor and I marveled at the quality of the expensive room before knocking again. With this much soundproofing, we figured we wouldn’t disturb the other rooms, so I raised my voice just a little.
“Sion-nim! I told you that sleeping in too late only makes you more tired!”
—I’ve never heard such nonsense in my entire life nyang!
“Hey, a good thief goes to bed early and rises early. Thief.”
—Good thief my ass! Stop spouting nonsense, you crow bastard nyang! Felis are naturally heavy sleepers nyang! You people need to learn to respect Felis nyang!
Her rebellion was quite fierce. However—
“…Raven-nim, shall I pick the lock?”
“That would be faster.”
—Nya-nyang!? Have you all gone insane nyang!?
In front of survivors from a ruined world who preferred to smash first and think later, passive resistance had no chance. Shhhk. My contractor placed her hand on the doorknob. Shadows crawled up the handle and slipped into the keyhole. Click-click. Less than three seconds later—
Clack.
The door opened, revealing Sion, who had burrowed under the blanket with only her head sticking out, staring at my triumphant contractor with an expression of utter disbelief.
“Unya-nyang! You actually picked the lock nyang! Did you awaken some lockpicking skill or something nyang! This is—this is illegal entry nyang! Get out right now nyang!”
“Come on, get over here…! Let’s go eat together. Food, food!”
“Nya-nyang!? When did you get so strong nyang! Adventurer-nim, did some starving evil spirit possess you nyang! No, more importantly! This body isn’t even dressed yet nyang! This body will come out on her own, so stop pulling nyang! Unya-nya-nyang! The whole world is about to see this body naked nyang!”
In the end, Sion had no choice but to crawl out on her own, unable to withstand the rampage of a middle-schooler who had been starving during her stakeout in the slums. Well then. Now that everyone was gathered, let’s go eat. And while we’re at it, finish the side quest I had been putting off.
‘Wait for me, Noir.’
I would personally carve into that body exactly what terror was, and what fear was.
***
“Welcome to the Rainbow Cup… Huh? Wait! You people are the troublemaking customers who stopped Lit from leaving early that day— Mmph!? Mmmph!”
“Haha. Welcome, everyone. Please feel free to take any empty seats.”
After saying that, the tall male waiter dragged the Retriever-like dog beastman waiter away by covering his mouth.
‘…He was definitely about to call us troublemaking customers, wasn’t he?’
I thought his face looked familiar. He was the young waiter who had glared at me like he wanted to kill me on the night we stayed at the Rainbow Cup, right before his shift ended. To think he still remembered that incident. His grudge ran deep. Feeling a twinge of fear at the Retriever waiter’s intense fury—even while being dragged away—he continued glaring at me as we followed Sion, a regular here, deeper into the tavern.
“One order of grilled pearl lobster and one pearl lobster pasta, please!”
“Yes, yes! We have a lot of orders right now, so it might take a while. Please wait just a moment!”
Even though it was still morning, the Rainbow Cup was packed with adventurers, buzzing with lively energy. Just how good was business here?
“…Hm?”
While following Sion and savoring the adventurers’ tantalizing fear, I sensed something ten times more concentrated than the rest—like espresso-grade terror.
“Raven-nim, what’s wrong?”
“What’s got you acting up again, you crow nyang?”
“No, there’s something I need to check. You two go ahead and sit down first.”
I sent the starving middle-schooler and the still-sleepy cat ahead, then followed the dense fear. The place I arrived at reminded me of an open kitchen in Japan. Seats surrounded the kitchen in a square shape, as if the master were about to serve sushi or ramen. And at the center—
A man of Eastern descent who looked like a mafia member, with a red exclamation mark floating above his head like a quest NPC, was vigorously kneading dough.
‘That’s…?’
When I stared intently at the red question mark that looked as though red paint had been poured over it—
Fear Discovered.
Pyrophobia: Fear of fire.
Would you like to collect this fear?
The familiar skill window appeared before my eyes.
‘Is Fear Collector activating right now?’
Fear Collector
Reach out your hand. This fear now belongs to you.
- Collect.
- View.
My attribute bullet maker skill that collected fears to load into the Injector. I had only ever used Fear Collector on myself until now, but I had always thought it might work on others as well.
‘So this is how it activates on other people.’
I had gained valuable information. And—
“Fire, huh….”
‘This one looks tempting.’
I felt like I could obtain quite a decent fear.
“…Huh?”
When I blinked, the man had turned his head and was now staring at me. I thought I had heard Noir’s voice earlier, but right now, obtaining the fear before my eyes took priority above all else. I wanted it. I wanted to add a new fear to my meager collection.
“…Raven? What are you doing to my disciple? Raven…?”
I slowly reached toward the fear waiting for me. Like a snake stealthily yet surely pursuing a mouse.
“Raven, stop. Okay? I said stop.”
I advanced toward my target. But before I could claim the fear—
“Hey, I said—”
A wave of cold fury crashed into me.
Crack-crack-crack!
My arm froze solid from fingertips to shoulder in an instant, refusing to move. The arm that had been stretched toward the man, elongated as if to grasp his face, hardened in that pose before crumbling into dust.
“Ah.”
“Ah?”
Both chefs stared in shock—one at me, now missing an entire arm, and the other at the sight before her. The smell of something burning and sticking to a pan wafted from the kitchen.
“Hmm.”
Staring blankly at my missing arm—the same way the red-haired girl had once lost hers to a fish in the beginner village—I snapped back to my senses from the chill emanating from my empty shoulder.
“Uh, uh-uh. Umm. Yeah… This one’s on me…? No, but Raven was the one who went after my disciple first…. Hmm?”
As Noir muttered broken, incomprehensible words like a malfunctioning machine, I quietly knelt before her. If I didn’t—
“…Hmmm. Oppa, what kind of novel insanity is this now?”
—I was afraid I would hear words detrimental to my mental health from Croma senior, who had appeared beside me at some point and was now quietly looking down at me.