Chapter 201: Mirror Therapy
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 201: Mirror Therapy
It was true that I was momentarily flustered by the sudden “Aunt” declaration, but it didn’t change much in the grand scheme of things.
The Doctor spent a good while longer poking and prodding me, even pulling me into a hug, but she eventually concluded that there wasn’t as much to it as she’d expected.
“I suppose family affection is something built over time spent together rather than through bloodlines. Or perhaps one needs to see the child consistently from infancy?”
She released me after leaving a parting comment that she might need my cooperation for further experiments later, just in case repetition changed the results.
To be honest, her parting words were a bit chilling: “I’ve already passed along the test results. It’s a bit different from what everyone expected, but they seem to have calmed down reasonably well.”
I slowly steeled my resolve and stepped out the door.
Right, let’s start with an apology.
Even if it wasn’t something I did because I wanted to, it was a fact that I had hurt them.
“Then shall we read a book together while we wait for Daddy?”
Right, I’ll wait with them for Dad—wait, what? Who are you waiting for?
A little girl was nestled in Professor Cathy’s arms, munching on ice cream.
But as I stepped outside and looked around, a scene of utter chaos met my eyes.
First, there was Cheon Yu-hak, trembling in the distance with a melancholy expression; Ju Ri-ra, sobbing while clutching an archaeology magazine; and Lilac, collapsed on the ground with a glove and ball while Lee Yu-na tried to comfort him.
The only ones who seemed relatively sane were Ha-ni, who was trying to draw the child’s attention with food, and Ga-eul, who was trying to interest her with a photo of me.
“If you eat any more ice cream, Daddy might scold you, so shall we eat something else?”
“H-here’s a picture of Daddy!?”
The sight of them groveling as if flattering a being of absolute power was quite a shock.
“Mm-hm.”
Meanwhile, the child—no, the deity—who was reigning over everyone and enjoying all that power as if it were her birthright, sat on the professor’s lap licking her ice cream like a perfectly innocent girl.
…What on earth am I looking at?
Just what happened while I was locked in there?
In that space that looked both cozy and incredibly bizarre, the Little Spirit was the first to spot me and waved her hand.
“Ah, Daaaaddy~!”
Oh, how cute. Whose kid is she to be this adorable?
And at our Little Spirit’s exclamation, every eye in the room snapped toward me.
Professor Cathy lightly scooped the little girl up and approached me as the group’s representative. Her aura was so formidable that I felt like I wouldn’t even be able to make an excuse.
“Daddy’s out!”
“Yay~!”
Surprisingly, while the professor and the others looked a bit disgruntled, no one immediately lit into me.
I thought I was going to get chewed out for real this time, but maybe it was better than I thought?
I almost let my wishful thinking run wild for a second, but my smartphone began to wail as if to tell me “not a chance.”
Well, while the specific wording of the texts varied, the gist of their messages was the same. To summarize:
The kid is watching, so we’ll let it slide for now, but just you wait until later.
I knew it would turn out like this, but it still felt a bit bitter.
* * *
Only after the Doctor guaranteed that there was nothing wrong with my body was I allowed to go back out to see the ocean.
Well, actually, everyone was refusing to let me go, but I was only able to step out because the spirit requested that she wanted to see the sea with “Daddy.”
…The beach was a mess. The battle must have been intense; parts of the sand had melted into glass, and there were several messy craters that had turned into puddles.
“Is this the beach?”
“Yes. It’s usually a bit cleaner than this, but it’s still pretty, right?”
“It’s the same ocean, but it looks different from how it did from inside the water.”
For her, who had seen nothing but the sea and fish from the moment she was born until she created her own nest, the scenery of the outside world seemed to be quite stimulating.
“Yeah. Knowing it in your head and seeing it for yourself are two different things.”
She picked up a handful of sand as if it were treasure and let it trickle through her fingers repeatedly, as if savoring the texture.
According to our Little Spirit herself, she hadn’t exactly lost her power.
She hadn’t lost her memories or the knowledge she’d learned from me, either.
In truth, the power she possessed wasn’t so small that it would be lost just by reviving a single half-dead corpse. It was only natural.
Rather, the reason she was forced into this form was that she had used her power in an improper way—specifically, by mimicking the way I had used my Authority before the regression.
Because she used her power in a twisted way, she suffered a backlash, resulting in her being weakened while she corrected her own distortion.
An incomplete deity who had lost her finished self.
In other words, she was in a state like a child, slowly putting the pieces of her broken self back together.
That was her current condition.
“It’s pretty.”
Even though quite a bit of time had passed, she remained focused, alternating her gaze between the sky and the sea.
Honestly, watching her like this made me hesitate.
No matter how well I sugarcoated it or how plausible I made it sound, I was ultimately someone who had come to use her.
As my card to counter the strongest card Seo-ha held, and as a god who would establish new rules in this world.
To protect my people more safely, and to create an absolute being who could replace me in the worst-case scenario where I was gone.
But the thought occurred to me.
Isn’t this a forced choice? Is it really right to make this little child, who finds even the sea and sky fascinating without her divine power, walk a path I decided for her?
Is it really okay for me to handle a being I destroyed before the regression however I please?
“It’s okay.”
“…Huh?”
Before I knew it, the child, who had been looking at the sea, came over and took my hand, patting it as if to comfort me.
“It’s okay, because I would have been nothing if it weren’t for Daddy anyway.”
Wait. I felt a strange sense of unease. It felt like words I had heard somewhere before.
— It’s okay, it was money I saved to spend on you anyway.
— It’s okay, it’s just something that couldn’t be helped.
— If you ever encounter a wall you can’t overcome yet…
“Ah.”
“So, if there’s something you want from me, you don’t have to hold back. If it’s to protect Daddy’s precious people, it’s okay.”
She was beaming with a pure, innocent face.
“I don’t mind being used.”
Words born of ignorance struck me like a dagger.
Of course. Since she was influenced by me, she would naturally say things that sounded like me.
“It’s okay,” she said. Where else would she have heard it? It was something I said all the time.
What exactly is “okay” about this? Hearing it from the other side feels incredibly unpleasant.
It felt even worse because it was coming from a child who had ended up in this state for my sake.
Is this what they call “Mirror Therapy”?
These were words I had said so often without even thinking.
Even while pouring out my Innate True Qi and knowing I would end up covered in blood, I had constantly told them I was okay.
I said it because I actually thought I was fine, but this is how it looked and sounded to the people listening.
It sounds like saying it’s fine to be hurt as long as it’s for your sake.
If you wrap it up nicely, it might be an act of kindness, but in the end, even that is a terrible form of self-righteousness. To put it bluntly, it looks like horrific self-harm.
Of course, I knew this intellectually.
It was just that I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.
What do you mean, “I’ll try my best”? You stupid bastard.
— …Do you finally understand a bit of what you’ve been doing wrong?
I had no rebuttal for Sun Wukong’s tone, which sounded like she was looking at something pathetic.
Yeah. Experiencing this firsthand… it really feels like crap.
— You really need to be good to the people around you. Usually, everyone leaves a guy like you once they get to know him.
I couldn’t even argue with that clucking voice.
“I’ll have to apologize to them immediately.”
“Huh?”
…Of course, after I fix our Little Spirit’s way of thinking first.
I thought I was being careful, but it seemed she had been influenced by me more than I imagined.
The fact that she calls me “Daddy” is likely part of that context.
Perhaps I was on the verge of breaking this child in a completely different way than the Twelve Zodiacs did.
By making her a failure like me, someone who believes nothing can be accomplished without sacrificing something.
“…Daddy, did I do something wrong?”
“No. It’s just that what I want has changed.”
I had wanted her to be a noble and absolute standard, a perfect god who was fair to everyone, but I think I need to give it more thought.
“Really?”
“Yes. No—yeah. But since I don’t know exactly what I want to do yet, let’s think about it together.”
“Together…?”
“Yeah, together.”
Not by blood, but as this child’s spiritual father and her only follower.
I will do my best to ensure our Little Spirit doesn’t break and stays on the right path.
First, let’s take the first step toward that.
“Shall we decide on a name once we get back?”
“A name?”
“Yeah, a name. You can’t keep going without one.”
“My name!”
Perhaps it would be better to decide right now, but I wanted to name her carefully and preciousy, without rushing.
Precisely because it would be the name that marked her new beginning.
* * *
Since we had to return to the Academy tomorrow morning, I was enjoying my last vacation meal when I found myself watching a very small war.
“Is it good?”
“Yes, it’s delicious, Unnie.”
“…Unnie. Um, wouldn’t there be a slightly different title?”
Professor Cathy sent a signal as if desperately wishing for something, but the spirit shook her head.
“Cathy Unnie is Unnie.”
“Ugh…!”
“W-what about me…!?”
Next, our spirit reached out toward Ga-eul, who had brought an offering of food, and smiled benevolently while stroking her hair.
“Ga-eul is Ga-eul.”
“…Not even Unnie!?”
“Yeah. Ga-eul is cute.”
“Cute…?”
Mm, it was a bit pitiful to see Ga-eul so shocked that she thought it made no sense.
It’s okay, Ga-eul. It’s probably because of the influence of the knowledge she got from me. When she sees people I know, she answers based on the images I have of them.
It’ll probably get better with time.
…Wait, putting it that way makes it sound like I think Ga-eul is incredibly cute. Well, I do, but still.
“Ga-eul is cute!”
As a sniffing Ga-eul retreated, Professor Cathy began to converse with the Little Spirit again.
When I asked the professor, she said that our spirit would likely be classified as an “item” I acquired from the dungeon.
We couldn’t report what happened in the dungeon falsely, and she said it would be more of a hassle otherwise.
…Then again, if word got out that she revived the dead, there’s no way the Hero Association bastards would leave her alone.
They’d pull all sorts of crap to try and bind her to the state or their own factions.
Come to think of it, I’ll eventually have to clear out all those old fossils and leave only the decent people behind.
Whether she knew my thoughts or not, the spirit, who had been quietly eating the grilled clams the professor was cooling for her, suddenly stood up with a grilled clam in hand and started walking somewhere.
“Huh?”
She’s going to Ha-ni?
“Mom, you try this too!”
…Huh?
Ga-eul is Ga-eul, and the professor is Unnie, so why is Ha-ni “Mom”…?
I don’t think I ever thought of Ha-ni as a mother figure…?
For a split second, the professor and Ga-eul, whose efforts had been betrayed, wore expressions of “Why!?”, but they quickly relaxed, perhaps thinking it was a relief she hadn’t called a woman “Mom.”
I wonder how they’ll react when they find out she is a girl.
Ha-ni, who was the one actually called “Mom,” looked troubled as if she liked it but couldn’t show it, and accepted the grilled clam the child offered.
“It’s good, right?”
“Yeah. Uh, I think it tastes even better because you’re feeding it to me…?”
Right. Aside from being happy, she must be flustered.
You’re flustered because you were suddenly called “Mom,” right?
* * *
The Chairperson’s office at Leilan Academy.
Leilan Claudia was agonizing over the hopeful fact that her long workday was finally coming to an end, and the reality of her situation where she felt hope over such a trivial thing.
It had been a busy year because too many incidents had occurred, but things were finally starting to settle down.
She had received word from Cathy about the “happening” at the sea. Well, looking at the results, they might get some flak for it, but it wasn’t enough to cause significant external pressure.
Let’s rest a bit after I finish this paperwork.
It was the moment she stamped the final document, thinking of her sweet rest.
A knock interrupted her, and a familiar person appeared.
“Cadet Baek Seol…?”
At that moment, Leilan Claudia began to feel a tremendous sense of unease.
It wasn’t that they weren’t on friendly terms, but Baek Seol was fundamentally a cadet who hated useless tasks and moved rationally.
In other words, the probability that she had come just to say hello for no reason was remarkably low.
Still, maybe she just wanted to have a cup of tea…
“An explosion has occurred in the Academy’s professor wing.”
…Right, of course not.
Just as Leilan was about to offer a pleasantry, Baek Seol beat her to the punch as if she’d anticipated it.
And with the worst possible news, at that.