Chapter 120: Nightmare. (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 120: Nightmare. (6)
The Succubus Queen.
She stood silently, gazing at the landscape she had created.
The dreams of many were intermingling, their boundaries beginning to crumble. This meant that the Perfect World she had envisioned was now one step closer to reality.
To be honest, she had been anxious back when she was kidnapping people to gather their desires and life essence.
Can I really do this? Is such an absurd feat even possible?
But every time doubt flickered in her mind, the power she had stumbled upon by chance would answer.
Of course it is.
The most important thing in this world is someone’s intense longing, and you are a being who performs miracles using that as your fuel.
She had been suspicious every time this power showed her something new, but now, it seemed she could finally cast those doubts aside. After all, she had succeeded in connecting the dreams of thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—based on the desires of a mere few hundred humans.
The fact that she, who should have perished long ago, was still alive—and had come so close to achieving her dream after surviving—was all thanks to this power.
“Authority.” This power, which had introduced itself as such, was still something she couldn’t perfectly control, yet it was already providing more than enough help.
“It’s almost done.”
Once the dreams were completely merged and began to function as a new world, the other children would no longer be in danger, nor would they lose their sanity.
Just as that thought crossed her mind—
— Abnormal contact confirmed.
— Verification complete. Partial transfer of Authority beginning.
She heard words she could not possibly ignore.
A portion of her Authority was being stripped away at an incredible speed. Simultaneously, the fusion of the dream world began to slow down with visible clarity.
What on earth was happening?
To grasp the situation, she hurried to inspect all the dreams. She found the cause in one of them.
It was the dream of one of the individuals whose mind was so strong that she had to use her Authority to twist their dream to break them down slowly.
There, a boy stood, holding the owner of the dream tenderly in his arms. She didn’t know how he had done it.
The Irregular who had supposedly regained consciousness within the dream world.
He was effortlessly seizing the Authority that she hadn’t been able to fully subdue even over several years, as if it had belonged to him from the very beginning.
Her instincts screamed a warning.
She couldn’t afford to lose this power yet. She had to catch him before he took any more of her Authority.
* * *
I reached out my arm.
As my hand drew closer, the black sphere enveloping my sister reacted with rejection. Having already found its master and adapted to this world, it seemed intent on disposing of me for its owner’s sake.
The moment I saw it, I knew what it was.
It was a fragment of the Authority of the Creator, much like the sludge residing in my heart. I didn’t know why it was here or why it was surrounding my sister, but it was clear that I couldn’t just stand by and watch.
My outstretched arm touched the wriggling black sphere.
I see.
This thing was currently twisting my sister’s dream. It was repeating the scenes I had just witnessed, bit by bit, twisting them further into a worse direction with every loop.
There wasn’t a huge difference right now, but if the dream continued to be corrupted like this, eventually not even a trace of the original form would remain, and even her happy memories would vanish.
“I can’t let that happen.”
In response to my will, the sludge—no, the Authority—within my heart surged. I felt the familiar pain of my heart being squeezed, but it wasn’t unbearable.
The amount of Authority in my heart and the amount surrounding my sister were roughly the same, but for some reason, I didn’t feel like I would lose.
“I haven’t even seen everything that happened in the past yet. But this… this isn’t right.”
I was certain. If something went wrong with my sister here, I would definitely regret it.
For a moment, a stinging pain shot up from my touching hand, but soon, the Authority surrounding my sister began to examine me as if startled.
It had acted as if it would kill me at any moment, but the second it confirmed who I was, it dropped its guard and approached me like a puppy recognizing its master.
Look at that sudden change in attitude.
It flowed into me. Both the crest planted by the Touch of the Devil and the Black Shadow put up a small resistance, annoyed by the new foreign substance entering my body, but the fragment ignored them and forced its way through toward my heart.
The sludge, along with the emotions, nightmares, and regrets of my sister that it held, were all transmitted to me.
The sorrowful feeling of being unable to let go, even though she hated and resented me for pushing her away when she tried to approach.
The guilt of not being able to return to me what she had received from our mother.
The regret over why she had needlessly bullied me and kept her distance during our close childhood years.
Once all the emotions were conveyed, the sludge in my heart met the new sludge and merged, beginning to recover its original form.
A hand. Though the shape was still blurry, it was unmistakably the form of a hand.
The shape recovered by the two merged sludges was a small palm trying to grasp something, and it naturally gripped my heart as if it belonged there.
The sensation of it clutching my heart wasn’t painful; it was ticklish. It was a strange sensation—ticklish yet nostalgic.
— Mine.
The sludge, which had felt nothing but unpleasant at first, now felt somewhat pitiful.
The desire of the sludge—no, the hand—whose shape had become slightly clearer, was faintly transmitted to my mind.
You wanted to protect me.
The Noise was a barrier to protect me, and you were trying to prevent it from scattering.
You thought that no matter what truth lay beyond it, I wouldn’t be able to bear it and would crumble if I found out.
“Well, let’s just say that’s the case for now. I need to put out the immediate fire first.”
After absorbing all the Authority, I caught my sister as she slowly descended from the air.
It was a strange feeling. I felt strangely resentful toward her, yet sorry at the same time. But simultaneously, I felt regretful and wanted to forgive her.
I wondered if it was because the emotions from the dream still lingered, but it didn’t seem to be just that.
I feel a bit dizzy.
Good grief. It was dizzying enough when it felt like Kang So-hyun and ‘I’ were separate entities, but now it feels like there are two of me.
“Sister.”
There was no answer when I called. Perhaps she was still asleep.
I wanted to respond to the emotions that had flowed in with the Authority, but was it okay to say it while she was unconscious?
No, whatever.
I should say it before these feelings cool down. I can always say it again later when the opportunity arises.
Originally, I had no intention of getting deeply involved with her. At first, I thought I couldn’t just cut her off because we were biological siblings, and when I realized we weren’t even blood-related, even that connection grew faint.
However, if my guess is correct—if she had acted as my sister since we were very young in the memories I can’t recall, and if all these emotions she held were directed toward me…
Then you were undoubtedly my sister and my family.
Though our relationship has become terribly twisted, just as you didn’t completely give up on me…
The Noise vanished once more.
The hand desperately tried to grab the disappearing Noise, but when I thought it was okay, the hand hesitated before showing me a memory.
In a scene similar to the current one, my sister was in my arms. However, she was dying, blood trickling from her mouth.
— I’m sorry. So-hyun.
What do you have to be sorry for?
Apologizing to the person who drove you to your death—have you gone mad?
— I’m sorry I couldn’t stop you. I guess I can’t be like Mom.
She closed her eyes. With her last remaining mana, she didn’t attack me; instead, she burned herself away and crumbled.
It was so hot I should have let go, but I foolishly held onto the ball of fire that was no longer my sister until the very end.
The heat, which even pierced through my mana barrier, left burns on my palms. I just stood there foolishly until she turned into ash and scattered.
I opened my eyes. It was because the hand had violently grabbed the Noise and blocked the memory, as if saying I couldn’t see any more.
“You don’t have to try to be a substitute for Mother.”
It was an answer I had postponed before, thinking it was a problem I shouldn’t answer, but now I know it’s my problem.
“You don’t have to force yourself to do something for me, either.”
So, I will give my answer.
“I think that someday, I want to forgive you, and be forgiven by you.”
This was what the ‘me’ in her memories had wished for, what the current ‘me’ wished for, and what had ultimately failed to be achieved in the memories beyond the Noise.
Ah, now that I’m actually trying to say it, the ending feels a bit lacking.
“I love you, Sister.”
Hmm, was that a bit much?
I should probably leave that part out when I actually talk to her.
Wait, her face looks a bit red. She is sleeping, right?
“…Sister?”
No answer. Seeing as there was no movement, she seemed to be asleep.
“…Ah, but I’m running out of time, so I think I’ll have to do the rest after I wake up.”
I felt a sensation as if my body was being flung away. It seemed it was time to move on to another dream.
“…When I wake up, I’ll try to be the one to approach you first.”
The moment I finished saying that, my body was flung away again.
And so, I didn’t hear it.
“…Mom, what do I do?”
The murmur of the girl who had been awake halfway through, her face flushed red.
* * *
I thought I would be flung back into an empty space again.
Actually, that was exactly what was happening until a moment ago.
I was drifting along, imagining whose dream I would enter next, when I felt something forcibly twisting that flow.
The Touch of the Devil and the hand in my heart tried to resist, but I deliberately restrained them as inconspicuously as possible.
I wanted to see the culprit’s face, and I felt a strange sense of confidence. A confidence that even if a trap had been set, I could simply crush the trap and move forward.
I was forcibly shoved into someone’s dream, and my strangely blurred consciousness returned.
First of all, it seemed ‘I’ existed in this dream, but my senses felt oddly distorted.
And the guy in front of me was weird from the start.
Why of all people is it his dream?
“…I never thought a day like this would come, Kang So-hyun.”
For starters, he had a fairly handsome face that was about 1.3 times more polished than his actual self in reality. He was already tall and well-built, so he looked decent enough, but seeing a strangely youthful face on such a sturdy body was unsettling.
On top of that, he was decked out in all sorts of flashy equipment, and on his head, he wore a circlet—the kind a Hero in an RPG game would often wear.
By his side was a succubus in the form of a nun with her eyes closed, weeping while radiating a demonic energy that aggressively mimicked divine power.
Wiping away her tears, he stood facing me.
“I tried to forgive you. I thought there must be a reason. Even when you betrayed Yu-hak…! Even when you put our party in danger and brainwashed Ri-ra and Yoon-ha to treat them like toys…!”
Now then, let’s see how much more this moron will spout. While I watched with that question in mind, my mouth began to move on its own.
“Well, it was quite fun in its own way. Watching you guys play friends.”
The voice was strangely greasy. This piece of work… he saw me as this kind of character? I’m actually getting a bit triggered.
I’ve figured it out.
Up until now, I had only seen the organization of memories, but dreams aren’t always just a direct projection of the past, are they?
This must be the content of the dream he’s having. A fantasy where I’m the villain and he overcomes me.
The owner of the dream was none other than Jae-hee. Woo Jae-hee, the tanker of Cheon Yu-hak’s party and a man who dreams of becoming a future harem king.
I wondered what kind of dream I’d be dragged into, and it certainly is an environment where succubi can exert their maximum power. A guy whose dream is a harem.
But seriously, this is ridiculous. He really thinks of me like this?
It’s not true, right? This is a dream manipulated by these succubus wenches or something, right, Jae-hee?
“I did think you were an opponent I’d have to overcome someday. But not like this…!”
Ah, so this bastard did plan on taking me down eventually?
Our images appeared in the sky. The Hero Woo Jae-hee, and me, with pale skin and a black robe, looking like a Demon King no matter how you looked at it.
On either side of me, Ju Ri-ra and Oh Yoon-ha (lower succubi in their forms) with horns growing out of their heads approached and clung to my arms.
Whoa, whoa. Don’t do this.
Stop the NTR drift…!
“If those two were happy…! I would have endured it, but seeing you still treat them like toys, I will not stop now! Kang So-hyun!”
The Hero Woo Jae-hee bellowed mightily.
“Laughable. What can someone like you, who isn’t even Cheon Yu-hak, possibly do? Fine. If you wish it so, I shall play with you. You fool.”
The Demon King Kang So-hyun sneered, mocking him.
…What the hell is this scene, seriously.
“I swear upon this sword. You filthy brainwasher who defiled the true harem! I shall execute you and become the Harem King…!”
“Then come at me, Hero of the new era…!”
You’re not even a swordsman, so why are you a blade-user in your dream, you bastard…!
I think I’m going to lose my mind…!