The Approaching Mist, the Sweeping Emotions (1)
The dark clouds that had been swirling in my heart gradually faded away. In their place, a feeling like pure white clouds drifting closer. The aftereffects were slowly healing inside me.
‘…Though if I see anyone connected to the church, it’ll probably flare up again.’
The hatred I felt toward the church that had used my friends as experimental subjects. That emotion would likely remain inside me for the rest of my life. If I ever came face to face with a holy knight, I’d have to control those feelings as much as possible.
“Anyway, Saten.”
“Yes, Uncle? Why are you calling me?”
“How’s your emotional studies coming along?”
Emotional studies. By reading books, she could indirectly experience the emotions hidden within them. Not everything in those books was correct, of course. But for Saten, who had never experienced emotions, this was the only method available.
Saten silently held out a stack of about ten books in response to my question.
“You read all of them?”
“Yes, I read every single one. The book that helped me understand emotions the best was this one.”
“…It’s a fairy tale.”
A fairy tale. A children’s story filled with events that could never happen in reality. The cover showed a princess fallen into a deep sleep and a prince riding a white horse. There were even seven short dwarves standing around them. It felt strangely familiar…
“The title is The Princess Who Fell Asleep.”
“Yes. It’s about a princess who eats an apple and falls asleep, then gets rescued by a prince on a white horse.”
“…Minerva must have pulled this from my memories. Saten, where did you find this book?”
“It was on the shelf in our old house. Out of all the books, this one was the most interesting.”
“…Hmm, I see.”
The author’s name on the cover read Mingnengneungbang. No matter how you changed it, it was way too obvious, wasn’t it? Minerva had a duty to spread knowledge to people in addition to recording everything. Well, bringing in some Earth culture wasn’t completely out of the question.
Anyway, the book itself wasn’t as important as my conversation with Saten.
“Saten, which scene in this book did you find the most interesting?”
“There were a lot of parts I didn’t understand, but I thought the final scene was the most interesting. The part where a kiss wakes her from her sleep was fascinating.”
“Hmm, that scene…”
After a long, winding story, the prince on the white horse kisses the princess, and she wakes from her deep slumber. It was the highlight of Snow White. Or rather, The Princess Who Fell Asleep.
“Why did you find that part the most interesting?”
“Everything else was boring, so the ending was the most fun.”
Huh?
“Then the reason you said this book was the most interesting was…”
“Because it was the shortest. Forcing myself to understand content I don’t get is tedious.”
“…”
She had a point. Saten spoke with clear displeasure in her voice.
“There are way too many bugs in books that don’t think or move on their own. Bugs that get swept up in emotions. Kicking your own daughter out of jealousy, then trying to kill her with a poisoned apple? It’s truly pathetic.”
“You can’t understand the characters at all, can you, Saten?”
“No, I can’t understand their thoughts whatsoever. Magic textbooks that only contain theory are far better.”
“…”
Clinging to content you don’t understand and reading it for hours would definitely be boring. Still, those tedious stories were absolutely necessary if Saten was going to survive. She had to make an effort to regain her emotions.
“You still need to read them, Saten.”
“But…!”
“Only then can I teach you magic.”
“…That’s true.”
Saten reluctantly agreed. Because everything I said was ‘correct.’ She had made a promise with me, so she didn’t argue. After muttering to herself for a moment, she looked up at me.
Her face was expressionless, yet I could clearly see curiosity in her eyes.
“Uncle, I need to regain my emotions, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then what’s the most important thing when finding the ‘answer’ in magic?”
“In magic…?”
Hmm… Aina had once shouted at me, “The most important thing in magic is the process!” You set a goal, calculate during the process, run experiments to verify what went wrong, and identify the problems.
The answer to Saten’s question was…
“The most important thing in magic is the ‘process.’”
“Correct. It’s the process. Calculating, then experimenting to see if it’s right. That’s what matters.”
“But why are you asking me that?”
“Then wouldn’t emotional studies be the same, Uncle?”
“Huh?”
To know what kind of emotion arises from a certain action, wouldn’t an experiment be necessary?
Saten pressed me with eyes full of madness. Though I felt no emotion from her, at the end of those pitch-black eyes was nothing but curiosity. That single feeling was what made up the emotionless girl named Saten.
She stared at me with intense eyes.
“I need an experiment, Uncle.”
“…What kind of experiment do you need? If you need materials, I can—”
“No. The material has to be you, Uncle. I’ve heard things, and there are things I’m curious about. It won’t work unless it’s you.”
What the hell had she heard? What exactly had she heard to make her act like this toward me?
Unaware of my growing confusion, Saten asked a question I couldn’t possibly answer without panicking.
“Uncle, what kind of emotion do you feel when you kiss?”
“W-what…?”
“The princess in that fairy tale woke up after receiving a kiss from the prince. She even ended up marrying him. What kind of emotion would make someone get married?”
“Even if you ask me…”
“I think that emotion is probably ‘love,’ isn’t it? That child said so too. That the ultimate goal of love is receiving a kiss.”
Who the hell told her what? Saten kept spouting things I couldn’t understand. With a voice full of curiosity, she stepped closer and said,
“So I want to confirm what kind of emotion it is. Can I have those kinds of thoughts too? I’m curious. Uncle, please kiss me.”
“That’s insane, Saten. Saying something like that to a fully grown adult is—”
“It’s fine. These are the first words I’ve ever said to you. I won’t say them to anyone else. And your goal is for me to obtain emotions, isn’t it? So let’s run an experiment. Let’s see what it feels like to kiss and what kind of emotion it creates.”
“…”
Saten, who had been sitting in her chair, stood up and stepped in front of me. She was taller than the other girls, but she still only reached my solar plexus. She closed her eyes as if waiting for me to kiss her.
‘She’s definitely gone crazy. I thought her eyes had changed lately… but it was in a bad way.’
As if agreeing with me, Minerva sent me a question. It was incredibly simple.
Pervert. Lolicon. Sex offender. There are far too many words to describe Lee Junwoo. Will you really do as Saten wants? Choose.
…If I checked the future for choice 1, I’d have to watch myself kissing Saten. There was no way I could do that. Without much hesitation, I checked the answer sheet for choice 2.
‘Hmm…’
Nothing in particular happened. The only concerning part was that Saten’s curiosity hadn’t been satisfied. I quietly looked down at Saten, who still had her eyes closed.
“…”
She stood there with her eyes gently closed and her head slightly raised, waiting for me. Just like the princess in the fairy tale, she was waiting for her prince to save her. Maybe it was because of her dreamy appearance, but she really did look like a princess fallen into a deep sleep.
But I had no intention of helping with Saten’s experiment. No matter how I thought about it, the correct answer was choice 2.
Creak—
“Uncle?”
“I’ll get you an experimental subject next time. Use that for your experiments.”
A cat would probably do. Go kiss that one instead.
Bang—!
I slammed the door and fled from Saten’s room as if running for my life.
“Where the hell did she get such a ridiculous idea…?”
I couldn’t understand it. Though that was part of Saten’s charm, I suppose…
Before leaving, I glanced back at Saten’s room. From inside came her emotionless voice.
“Hmm, what a shame. It could have been such a good experiment.”
Chills ran down my spine… It was good that she was experimenting to understand emotions. But that kind of emotional experiment was a bit much…
‘I could help with a wholesome experiment, at least.’
But not today. Dragging my suddenly cold body, I headed to my room to rest. Her room was on the second floor. I walked down the wooden stairs and stepped into the hallway leading to my room.
And there, I saw a small girl I hadn’t seen in a long time.
“Uncle…”
“Hare.”
Hare, who hadn’t left her room for seven days. She had lost so much weight from barely eating that she looked almost skeletal. The aura around her had matured somehow. She spoke to me with a firm, upright posture.
“I… won’t bother you anymore, Uncle… I’ve realized all the things I did wrong… I’ll make sure nothing like that ever happens again.”
Could I really trust her? The girl who had stolen my wallet, tried to turn Estia into an electric barbecue, and blackmailed me. Could I really trust her again?
‘…I don’t have to believe her words, but I should believe in her actions.’
If she showed that she had truly reflected, that was enough. From now on, she just had to act properly. I decided to ‘temporarily’ forgive Hare. Still unable to completely let go of my suspicion, I said,
“…You must be hungry. Come to the kitchen. I’ll make you something to eat.”
Eat first, at least. Hare had starved herself so much that she looked as thin as when we first met.
At the moment Lee Junwoo and Hare moved to the kitchen, the adventurers on the fourth floor of Henencia’s labyrinth dungeon were in a state of panic. Even though it was a low floor, an unexpected being had appeared.
“U-uaaaah—!! S-save me—!!”
“N-Nelson—!! Henry—!! A-are they all dead—?!”
Click. Click.
In her hands, she held the severed heads of two men. A seductive woman walked forward. A low-ranking demon with crude clothing and horns on her head. A succubus. Having overcome the limitations of her species to rise to the position of the Demon King of Lust, she approached the two adventurers who had nowhere left to run.
“How cute. You look like hamsters trying to escape.”
“D-don’t come any closer—!! P-put down Nelson and H-Henry’s heads—!!”
“Hmm? Why would I? They’re smiling so happily. Why would I let them go?”
Click. Click.
The sound of her heels echoed as the Demon King of Lust, Rust, approached. The two adventurers in her hands wore expressions of pure bliss, as if they had no regrets even in death. The two men, trapped with nowhere to run, instinctively realized their end was near. So they immediately took action.
“U-uaaaah—!! D-die—!!”
“This is revenge—!!”
“I only wanted to make you two happy. You’re both so mean, you know?”
Slurp—
Rust licked her lips as she looked at the low-ranking adventurers with seductive eyes. The moment their eyes met hers—
“…”
“…”
“Have happy dreams, you cute adventurers.”
Just like the adventurers whose heads had been cut off, the resisting adventurers froze in place, smiling happily. They must have been having wonderful dreams.
Thud.
The two heads fell to the floor. Rust looked at the corpses of the adventurers and let out a laugh filled with ecstasy.
“Ha, hahaha—!! As expected, the vitality of low-ranking adventurers is the best… The younger they are, the more delicious they taste…”
Slurp—
Having harvested plenty of vitality again today, Rust looked at the corpses whose important parts had vanished and shouted happily.
“Thank you for the meal—?”
But it still wasn’t enough. Rust sniffed out the scent of other adventurers and began wandering the lower floors of the dungeon once more.
The Demon King of Lust, Rust. She…
“I feel like I’m about to meet a wonderful man soon. Hehe…”
She had a premonition of her encounter with Lee Junwoo.