Chapter 407: Expanding Kang So-hyun Universe (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 407: Expanding Kang So-hyun Universe (3)
And this is a story from the flip side of a finished tale, occurring at a time when no one would care anymore.
“Oh my, he really tore it apart. He must not have liked it. Right, Seo-ha?”
When he had completely lost interest in the corpse and withdrawn his power, a woman approached the abandoned body.
The Twisted Deity, an evil god who granted wishes in a perverted manner.
Having usurped the body of the world’s Creator, she was calling out to the pitiful woman whose form she had stolen.
— …What are you planning to do this time?
“What do you mean? The same thing we always do.”
Using the Authority of the Creator, the malice manifested a corpse that was ‘almost perfectly’ identical to the one he had disposed of.
She even went as far as using her authority to wrap and preserve the real corpse.
“The roots of a withered World Tree, the corpse of a High Elf, and even Nidhogg’s venom. I’ve obtained much better ‘materials’ than usual this time.”
It had always been like this.
Though she recognized it as her own doing, this Twisted Deity had been secretly collecting the corpses of the particularly formidable foes Ha-neul had defeated.
The body of the woman who was supposed to be the leader of the Twelve Zodiacs, the hero from another world obsessed with death, a form created by the fusion of two Demon Kings—and now, a High Elf’s body, the remains of the World Tree, and Nidhogg’s venom.
Seo-ha knew the deity was secretly crafting something even she couldn’t see, but there was no way to know what she intended to do with them.
— …What on earth are you trying to make?
“If you ask like that, I don’t feel like answering. You should ask more passionately. Who knows? I might be making a trump card to oppose our precious protagonist.”
— …I’ll just forget it immediately even if you tell me, won’t I?
“There’s such a thing as ‘what if’ in this world. Things some call coincidences and others call miracles. I can’t tell you because I feel like our precious protagonist might pull one of those off as if it were nothing. I can’t say.”
— …What if Ha-neul finds out directly from you?
“That wouldn’t be so bad in its own way, Seo-ha. My poor, foolish Creator. The more he looks into me to gain something, the more he will be tainted by me and drift away from you.”
— …Don’t make me laugh.
“Trying so hard with that trembling voice isn’t scary at all. Shall we see how it turns out? Our protagonist can perfectly distinguish between you and me right now, but I wonder if he’ll still be able to tell us apart when you become infinitely weak and diminished, until there’s no difference between us.”
— I never wished for this.
“No, this is exactly what you wished for. And what I’m making with these precious materials is a sort of device to fulfill our precious dream.”
Having gathered everything she needed, the Twisted Deity vanished from the forest with a quiet laugh. The forest, which had found warmth for a brief moment, returned to a desolate space where only a fabricated corpse remained.
* * *
I intended to return to the Academy immediately, but a minor problem arose.
Since I had arrived by plane, I had to go through the return procedures and fly back, but the business discussions involving Cheon Mu-jin—who was supposed to arrange the flight—hadn’t finished yet.
In the end, we decided to look around since we were already abroad.
So, could I just play?
Not really. I still had a bit of work left to do.
“…So, let’s keep this brief and get straight to the point as quickly as possible. Okay?”
Though I had come as a clone, honestly, he wasn’t someone I wanted to be deeply involved with. I wanted to settle the business and go back quickly.
“…It’s been a while, Kang So-hyun. Is this the first time since Labyrinthos?”
The person who had called me out greeted me with a scowl.
Yes, the one who summoned me was that con artist thief—Licht.
“From your expression, it looks like you didn’t really want to meet me either. What is it?”
“…I won’t ask who you are.”
“…What?”
“I won’t ask what your goal is, either.”
“What are you talking about? Speak so I can understand you, brat.”
“I know that you are the Mask I met yesterday.”
“Nonsense. Didn’t you see me and that guy in the same place at the same time yesterday?”
Good. I handled that naturally.
I don’t know how he found out, but ever since I was caught by Baek Seol, I’ve practiced acting nonchalant to prepare for situations like this.
“Yes, I saw. But that’s not a very difficult trick if you borrow the power of an artifact, is it? It can’t be decisive evidence.”
“But it’s at least circumstantial evidence, isn’t it? Why on earth do you think I’m the Masked Villain?”
“The spots you hit yesterday were the same.”
“…Huh?”
“It might sound crazy—or maybe I’ve actually gone mad because I’m so desperate—but the places where you attacked me in Labyrinthos and the places where I was hit by the Masked Villain this time are almost perfectly identical.”
“…You know you’re talking nonsense, right?”
“Yes, I know. You could call it a coincidence. But I don’t think so. That was violence that only someone very accustomed to inflicting pain—without it being a fatal blow—could pull off.”
Just how impressively did I beat him for this madman to try and deduce my identity based on the spots he was hit?
No, well, fine.
Let’s say he’s right. Let’s say it’s all true.
“So, what if I am Mask? What are you going to do about it?”
The moment he tries to blackmail me, it’s unfortunate, but I’ll have to scramble this con artist’s brain.
I expected him to use this to threaten me and gain the upper hand, but instead, he immediately slammed his head onto the ground.
He did it with such force that it made a loud thud.
“I will never, under any circumstances, reveal your identity. I’ll give you all the artifacts I have. If you want, I’ll live as your subordinate for the rest of my life. So…”
“Hey, hey. What are you doing? Get up.”
This guy didn’t have this kind of personality before.
“Please. I beg of you, please let me have the Branch of the World Tree.”
“…What?”
To be honest, this guy is only good at information gathering and dungeon raiding, so I don’t really need him as a subordinate.
He’s also the type who might betray me at any moment.
Besides, both the Divine Bow and the Branch of the World Tree now belong to the Chairperson, so it’s not like I can just give them away.
…Come to think of it, he had both the Branch of the World Tree and the Elf’s Divine Bow in the 1st Timeline, didn’t he?
When I asked why he stole them so desperately back then, he said it was for the sake of adventure. Was that not the truth?
“What are you going to use the Branch of the World Tree for?”
“My younger sister is sick. It’s an incurable disease on the same level as Mana Stone Disease.”
What nonsense. I already know from the 1st Timeline that he has no family.
‘I have no choice if I want to save my sister. I swore I’d even sell my soul to a devil to cure her, so I can certainly bow my head and swear loyalty.’
However, he wasn’t lying. He was speaking with absolute sincerity.
He began his story.
It was the exact same story I had dismissed as a lie in the past.
The story about having a grandfather and a younger sister.
The only difference was that now that I could read his thoughts, I could see the parts he didn’t bother to mention.
He wasn’t blood-related; his grandfather had picked him up as an orphan.
I see. They weren’t legally adopted, they just lived together like family. That’s why an investigation would show he had no family relations.
And I wondered why he crawled all the way into the Fairy Forest again.
— Thanks to the Boss, I’ve gotten my revenge and killed everyone who deserved to die… I have no regrets now.
“So that was real? I thought it was a lie. You should have lied less often…”
“…Pardon?”
“First, let’s go check her condition.”
“Does that mean…? The Branch of the World Tree…!?”
“I said let’s go check her condition first. It might be possible to cure her without it.”
Fearing I might change my mind, he hurried to book a flight, but if it was just a quick trip, a plane was of no use.
“Forget it. Just hold on tight and don’t let go.”
The Nimbus Cloud.
The moment we boarded the brilliantly manifested golden cloud, the scenery began to change at an impossible speed. We reached our destination literally in the blink of an eye.
“…Huh? How did…?”
“What, is this your first time on a Nimbus Cloud?”
“A Nimbus Cloud!? This is it!? Of course it’s my first time! Who else would have ridden a Nimbus Cloud! If you get both the Gourd and the Ruyi, can you use all of Sun Wukong’s Taoist Arts?!”
“…Yeah, I get that you love artifacts, so let’s check your sister’s condition first.”
“Ah, ah. Yes. My apologies.”
The girl I faced inside the house I entered following him was, surprisingly, a familiar face.
“…The Witch?”
The 21st ranked S-rank Hero, the Infinite Witch.
She had the exact same face as the formidable enemy I had struggled to kill in the 1st Timeline before my regression.
…In fact, the Infinite Witch was a hero that the con artist had insisted on killing with his own hands, so I had let him do it.
“…Yes. I don’t know how you knew, but my sister was cursed by a witch. I don’t even know what kind of curse it is or if there’s a way to dispel it. There are no clues other than the fact that she loses life force every day and her waking hours are decreasing.”
As I’ve mentioned before, Korea is a place that maintains a fair amount of common sense for a superhuman society.
In most countries, S-rank Heroes act as lawless individuals no better than villains, ignoring almost all laws in exchange for protecting people from villains.
The Infinite Witch’s trait was definitely fragmenting her own soul and letting the pieces parasitize a target, slowly devouring them from the inside until they eventually became ‘another version of herself.’
She claimed she only did it to criminals or their families, so there was no problem.
…This young girl didn’t look like a criminal, and it was unlikely to be because of Licht, as he isn’t even a significant criminal at this stage.
“…What did your grandfather do?”
“He was a shoemaker. He was well-versed in old stories and was a good talker.”
It wasn’t a lie.
At the very least, Licht himself firmly believed that.
Well, for now.
“Hey, do you know of any good artifacts?”
“…Huh? Well, I have information on them, at least.”
“Really? That’s good. I happen to need some decent artifacts.”
Since he wasn’t slow-witted, he seemed to understand what I was saying.
“This is a cheap price to pay for your sister’s life, right?”
Though I had struggled, the Infinite Witch was ultimately an enemy I had defeated in the 1st Timeline before I had even reached the rank of a Transcendent.
Even if she was protected by a complex barrier and had hidden the real contract deep inside by mimicking a curse, it meant nothing before the Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils.
The problematic part, however, was that a portion of the soul had already begun fusing with the witch’s, meaning a crude extraction would cause a disaster.
‘I can count on you, right?’
— Indeed. It’s not like I’m interfering with her natural lifespan. I shall help save a child who fell victim to such trickery.
I don’t have to do it myself.
I have Sun Wukong by my side.
She’s someone who can pick up and reassemble a broken vessel and a spilled soul; a mere fusion is nothing to her!
— Don’t make it sound so easy. Dealing with souls is incredibly delicate work.
‘Oh, come on. If Sun Wukong can’t do it, who can? You can do it.’
— You brat… flattering me. Well, you’re not wrong. Her skill isn’t bad, but if I were to struggle with a prank played by a mere Taoist-level brat, the name of Sun Wukong would be disgraced.
The moment I handed over control of my body, Sun Wukong reached out toward the girl’s soul without hesitation.
“I-is it going to be okay…?”
“Be quiet. I am performing delicate work.”
Sun Wukong caught something that was trying to flee from her touch, pulled it out, and chuckled before incinerating it with Taoist Magic.
Then, he converted my life force into divine power and let it flow into the girl’s body.
After some time had passed…
“…Mm? What is it? Oppa, when did you get back…? I thought you’d leave me alone and stay out for a long time again.”
“…Ah.”
“What kind of adventure did you have this time? You’re going to brag again, aren’t you?”
As if she had just woken up from a nap, the girl opened her eyes with a peaceful face and looked at Licht playfully, saying she’d be upset if he didn’t tell her an interesting story.
“Oppa? What’s wrong?”
“I… do you know how worried I was…”
…It was a slightly strange feeling.
Perhaps the version of this guy I knew was his form after he had already been broken to the extreme.
Since his personality and actions were similar, I had just brushed it off, but perhaps he hasn’t crossed the line yet either.
“Oh…? Who is that person?”
“Ah, thank you. My apologies for the late greeting…!”
…Well, it’s not like anything changes, but that was just a thought I had.
“It’s fine. I have something to receive in return.”
“Who is this person, you ask?! He’s the one who cured you…!”
“Hey.”
“…Yes?”
“Since you two need to have your emotional reunion, you can be free for a little while.”
“Huh? Yes.”
“But it would be troublesome if you broke our contract, so shall we place a Restriction on you?”
“…Pardon? A-a Restriction?”
“Oh, come on. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t planning to run away, right?”
An emotional atmosphere is one thing, but I’m doing this because I don’t fully trust you yet. You’ll understand since I’m your benefactor, right?
For some reason, his face turned pale with terror, but I had no intention of letting him off.
“…Is he a doctor?”
Between the despairing Licht and the beaming me, only his younger sister failed to grasp the situation.