My Only Friend
I had one precious friend. A girl, at that. She might've been my first female friend. Maybe it was because my mind followed my body. In reality she was much younger than me, but we were still close. Back when my biological parents died and I had no one left but Fuyuka, she was my only companion. But her parents had racked up debts to some organization or another, and before long she vanished without a trace.
It was terrifying. The vague distance I'd been trying to keep from organizations turned into something concrete the moment my friend disappeared. That incident became the trigger that made me want to stay even farther away. And because I was scared, I pretended not to know the friend I'd spent three years with. Like she meant nothing, like she was just another creation, I buried her in the depths of my memories. This isn't the real world I live in, after all.
…Really? Is this truly not the world I live in? Is this place nothing more than fiction, and the people here nothing more than creations? No. That was nothing but the delusion I'd been clinging to. Maybe I'd been living too comfortably and got lost in fantasy. This time, I felt it clearly.
“If it weren't for us Carpediem, this PC bang would've gone under, right? Ain't that so?”
Ten days had passed since Choon-sik massacred the customers inside the PC bang. In that month, what I learned was that it only took ten days for a perfectly fine PC bang to be stolen by a single organization.
“If you're grateful, at least boil us some free ramen. It's raining real nice today, so it'll taste damn good, won't it?”
What Carpediem had done over those ten days wasn't anything grand. Choon-sik had gone into hiding, claiming he'd be punished according to Carpediem's internal rules, and the only thing that happened was his former subordinates coming and going as “customers.” But a single massacre wasn't something the customers could forget. Who in their right mind would use a PC bang if they might die for it? Foot traffic dried up in an instant, and before long the only people using the place were Carpediem members.
“Hey! You should be grateful. Thanks to us, other thugs can't even come in. So pay up the protection fee.”
It was ridiculous. Since the only customers left were Carpediem members, the only money we could make came from Carpediem. And now they wanted protection money from that same money. In the end, we wouldn't be able to maintain the building and would have no choice but to sell it. It wasn't even rented—it was Mom's building. We'd have to sell it because we couldn't even pay the electricity and water bills.
So what did Carpediem gain from making us give up the PC bang? The next step was obvious. They'd tell us to hand over the building at a dirt-cheap price if we wanted to live, and we'd do it. Starting with this building, Carpediem would plant their first foothold in the Southern District. They'd been wary of the Jujak Guild and hadn't had any territory here before, so this was perfect for them. The one who proposed this operation, Choon-sik, would definitely get promoted to a high rank within Carpediem. He might even become the center of their Southern District conquest project.
Still, losing the building didn't hurt at all. So what if I lost a base? If I gritted my teeth and kept going, I could always build something new. But the heart Mom lost could never be returned.
“Because of me… how many people must have died…”
Mom had been a kind, gentle person. In front of her, Choon-sik had killed customers over something as petty as ramen not tasting good. After that incident, Mom's eyes became empty. Hollow. The warm, winter-like gaze lost its warmth and turned cold and dead. It meant she could never return to the mother she used to be.
And among the things that hurt me most about her changed words and actions was this:
“Son, I'm sorry… Mom's so useless, I can't do anything… In my head, I keep hearing the screams of the dying customers. I'm sorry, son, I'm sorry…”
She had completely forgotten all the years she'd struggled to raise me, and now she was apologizing to me just because she couldn't do anything right now.
There was nothing I could do in this situation. In the end, we sold the building to Carpediem for a pittance, and the PC bang where Mom and I had built so many memories closed its doors. This was all because of me.
Normally, business owners didn't lose their buildings to Carpediem this easily. Most of them paid protection money to the Murim Alliance and received actual protection. The only reason I hadn't accepted the Murim Alliance's protection—because I didn't want anything to do with organizations—was entirely my fault. Thinking I could live peacefully if I had nothing to do with any organization had been my sin. It was the price of my arrogance, seeing this world as mere fiction and its people as mere creations.
If I'd known it would come to this, I should've accepted the Murim Alliance's protection. No, I should've joined the North Sea Ice Palace of the Murim Alliance. Then this wouldn't have been taken from me. Even if it had been, I could've gotten revenge. At the very least, if I'd joined Fantasia a month ago when Eris asked and built it up even a little, things might've been different.
Staring at the firmly shut door after selling the building, my feelings were complicated. I never thought I'd live to regret not joining a ruined organization.
“…It didn't appear today either.”
The hologram window that had appeared on my parents' death anniversary, asking if I wanted to become Fantasia's fighting dog, didn't show up. Since I didn't even know where Eris was, joining Fantasia now to get revenge was impossible. If only I could join Fantasia, make money somehow, build up power, then I could take revenge. I could get back what was stolen.
“I could even bring back the light that disappeared from Mom's eyes.”
There was something called memory-erasing medicine in this world. A drug that could selectively erase only the parts you wanted. With that, restoring Mom to her original self would be nothing. So why hadn't I done it? Because it was ridiculously expensive. Even though we'd sold the building to Carpediem for a pittance, the money we got wasn't nearly enough to buy it. They said forgetting was a blessing from the gods. It was true. The memories you most wanted to forget were the ones you could never erase.
“In the end, with who I am now, I can't do anything…”
The hologram window that used to appear so readily when I didn't want it refused to show when I needed it. It felt like the great flow of the world's fate existed just to torment me.
But then another thought occurred to me. What if I really was the protagonist of a possession story? What if I existed as a proper protagonist of a work of fiction? What if this was just the crisis before the real beginning, and I'd soon encounter some kind of opportunity? That kind of delusional thinking.
“Huh… Did you close the PC bang?”
And that delusional voice reached my ears.
“N-Noona?”
I turned around in disbelief, and there stood Eris. She looked far more haggard than the last time I'd seen her, but just seeing her here made her shine.
“Hyun-woo, did you close the PC bang?”
But there was no light in Eris's eyes. What on earth had happened during the past month and ten days—roughly forty days? I didn't know exactly, but she'd clearly been through something difficult. I continued the conversation in the gentlest voice I could manage, trying not to agitate her exhausted heart.
“Yeah. It just ended up that way.”
“Really? I wanted to play one last round of Leori before I died…”
What? Die? Did I hear that wrong?
“W-Why would you die?”
“Because Fantasia's getting disbanded tomorrow…”
They needed at least three members, but because they only had two, the government was disbanding them. It was absurd. It wasn't even a school club, yet they couldn't recruit a single member in forty days. What was even harder to understand was the talk about dying.
“No, why would you die just because the organization gets disbanded? If it gets disbanded, you can just wash your hands of it and live normally.”
“I can't do that. The reason I've lived this sewer-like life was because of the sense of duty to protect Fantasia.”
“Sewer-like life…?”
She did look like she was living in poverty. But calling it a sewer seemed like too much. The moment I thought that, I was shocked by what Eris said next.
“Siz is working three part-time jobs just to buy my magi poisoning treatment. But it's getting harder and harder for her to keep up with three jobs. Siz is reaching her physical limit. So Siz was even considering selling her body to make money more easily…”
It really was a sewer-like life. I had no choice but to admit it. To Eris, Siz was like a mother to me. Watching someone you love sacrifice themselves for you was painful to witness.
“I can't let Siz sell her body just to keep me alive when I couldn't even protect Fantasia. So I was going to die today. Playing one last round of Leori before dying wouldn't be so bad…”
Eris didn't seem to have any intention of asking me for help. Maybe the reason the hologram window had stopped appearing was because I'd disappeared from her mind the moment she ran out of options. Just how ruined was this organization that they couldn't recruit even one member in forty days? I didn't know, but it was exactly the kind of organization I needed right now. Rather than massive organizations like the Murim Alliance, Carpediem, or the Esper Hunters that were always plotting something, a ruined organization with nothing left was safer.
“Noona, you went through something just as hard when I was struggling, huh.”
“Huh? You were struggling too, Hyun-woo?”
“Yeah, I was. Because of the Choon-sik you brought, we ended up losing this building to Carpediem.”
“W-What…?!”
Eris's eyes wavered. She seemed pained by the fact that she'd caused harm to someone until the very end. But I hadn't said this to hurt her. If I were to be direct, it was just because I was embarrassed about rejecting her last time and wanted to beat around the bush.
“So now I have nowhere to go. Don't die irresponsibly—take responsibility.”
“T-That means…”
Light slowly began returning to Eris's eyes. And the hologram window I'd been longing to see appeared before me.
Better than the Three Great Organizations! This Eris will take you in for free. Only Woo Hyun-woo. Become the Fighting Dog of a Ruined Organization
“Y-You mean you want to join Fantasia as an official member?”
“That's right. Noona… No, Boss.”
I grinned and accepted the hologram message.
“Welcome to Fantasia! And if possible, call me Hyungnim instead of Boss. Hehe.”
“Yeah? Then should I call you Boss Lady?”
“Whoa! That actually sounds pretty good?”
The moment I accepted the hologram message, the next message appeared.
You have become the Fighting Dog of a Ruined Organization!
Title Granted — 'Fantasia (Ruined)'s Fighting Dog'
Your ability, Title Collector, grants power to the word 'Fighting Dog.'
The moment I opened the granted ability, I made my decision.
Title: Fantasia (Ruined)'s Fighting Dog
Rarity: EX
Description: As the fighting dog of a ruined organization, you are a dog gone mad for battle.
Ability: The more you fight, the stronger you become. There is no limit.
※ From now on, even without revealing the title, the equipped title's ability will apply.
— Someday, once I'm strong enough, I'll rip out that bastard Choon-sik's tongue.