Is There Something on My Face?
Ziiing—
"Whew…"
The pod's door slid open and I returned to reality. It was around nine in the evening. I'd originally planned to push on through the dungeon and squeeze in some extra content afterward, but between Yena's wailing and the frankly absurd number of things that had happened, we'd decided to call it an early night.
"So… what should I eat?"
Usually by the time we wrapped up it was the dead of night, so I'd either grab something quick or just go straight to bed. But with the hour sitting in this awkward in-between zone, maybe I ought to have a proper meal for once.
'Should I order some chicken?'
I left my room and settled onto the sofa in the middle of the living room. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling window, the Han River and the evening skyline spread out in a single glance. I'd paid a fortune to move into a place with a river view — and yet, mornings aside, I almost never looked at it.
'…Did I actually miss reality that much?'
Back there, I'd ached for this world so badly. And yet now that I was actually here, sleep aside, I was somehow spending more of my time in Deoen. The complete opposite of how bitterly I'd once hated that place.
"……"
Perhaps I'd been glad to come back precisely because I had to. Because that was all I had left.
Kkatok!
"?"
While I sat lost in thought, the D 27+ phone I'd paid an arm and a leg for buzzed against the sofa cushion.
Yena, huh. Now that I thought about it, she'd ended her stream before I did. She'd seemed down, and honestly a little off. Normally she'd have kept running backline content until dawn, but instead she'd shut everything off and logged out of Deoen right away.
What?
I scratched my head. Was it the skill that had caused this? Come to think of it, the first time I'd used Spear's Roar in Deoen, a wave of fatigue had crashed into me back in reality too. But Yena had died once, and her body recovered the moment she left the dungeon — I'd assumed that would smooth things over.
"…Maybe it's because she's not a Celestial."
Celestial techniques could normally only be wielded by Celestials. No matter how thoroughly you understood the principles, no matter how much raw power you had, a perfect imitation was impossible. I'd watched Sword Master–class humans and gifted species attempt a clumsy copy, only for their body or soul to buckle under the strain and fall apart.
'If something's genuinely gone wrong… this could get a little dangerous.'
After some deliberation, I tapped out a reply.
"Uuugh…"
Yena lay sprawled across her bed, breathing in ragged gulps. After casting the skill Lily had taught her, a crushing wave of exhaustion had flooded through her — a sensation she had never once felt in all her time playing Deoen. All of her mana draining out in a single instant, as if a piece of her very self were being torn away.
Of course, that sensation had lasted only a heartbeat, and after dying and reviving she'd seemed more or less back to normal.
But…
"Wow… that was rougher than four hours of PT…"
Back in reality, it hit far harder than those brutal training sessions of old. Her whole body was limp, and her right arm wouldn't stop trembling.
I'm seriously gonna die.
With a tottering body, Yena left Lily a message. The reason she'd reached out to Lily instead of a hospital or any of her other contacts was simple.
'No matter how I think about it… this has something to do with Lily…'
She'd ended up like this right after using the skill Lily had taught her. And on top of that, Lily herself had a history of wearing herself out after big techniques — once even dropping off the grid entirely from severe stamina loss. Put it all together, and only one conclusion remained.
'There's something about that skill.'
Fortunately, Lily seemed to understand the situation, and had asked for her unit. Yena had sent back the answer with a trembling arm.
About five minutes later.
Ding-dong~
"Yena?"
"Yes… come in…?"
The door opened to reveal Lily in full black — black clothes, black hat, black mask, the complete set. Tall for a woman, too, Yena noted all over again. Her dizzy eyes drifted slowly upward… and then her head tilted.
'Wait, she takes the same apartment elevator as me?'
Even if her in-game face and real face matched, wasn't she hiding a bit too much?
Lily pulled off her hat and mask — and Yena's foggy mind snapped wide awake in an instant.
"Is there something on my face?"
"N-no. Come on in…"
She's seriously gorgeous.
Yena felt, anew, just how unfair the world could be.
"Hmm… you definitely pushed yourself too hard."
I took Yena's wrist as she lay in her expensive bed, reading her condition with care. Nothing wrong with the body itself. No internal injury, no damage to the soul — nothing that should have caused a problem.
'…Honestly, souls are hard to get a read on anyway.'
This was reality, not Deoen. Sensing a soul through a body no stronger than a well-conditioned ordinary person's was no easy feat. But there's such a thing as a feeling.
"…You know this is a bit of a burden, right?"
"It should be. You're being diagnosed by me."
A saint's treatment — former saint, that is — isn't something just anyone receives. Feeling burdened was only natural. Feeling grateful was only proper.
Diagnosis complete.
"Just take a few good, deep breaths and you'll be fine."
"…Like you were, back then?"
"Yes. Like me."
If Deoen's bodies carried over into reality, her body itself would have been damaged, in need of genuine treatment — but Deoen uses a different body from this one. The pain Yena was feeling now was the pain her soul remembered from Deoen. A soul carrying that memory had returned to reality; of course it hurt.
"And what if it hurts to death?"
"You endure it. Think of it as a really intense workout. Basically muscle soreness."
"…It's way worse than my PT sessions…"
Yena grumbled, breaking out in a cold sweat. Even so, for having used Spear's Roar, this was an excellent outcome. Normally, the body being torn apart was the bare minimum, and partial damage to the soul was par for the course.
The reason I'd taught her such a reckless technique was simple: no one else alive could use it, and even if she died casting it, she could revive. That was exactly how it had played out for Yena, in fact. And as I'd predicted, her soul was perfectly intact — which meant I could probably teach her something a tier higher.
The moment she caught the look in my eyes, Yena shuddered and turned her head away.
"I'm never using it again…"
"You wielded it just fine, though. Care to learn an even stronger one?"
"So I can die using it?"
"You won't die. Thirteen times this pain, maybe? You won't die, so give it a—"
"NO!"
Shame.
As I mourned the missed opportunity, Yena let out a long, whining "Nghhh…" and turned her head away again.
"…Where did you even learn something like this? You seemed to know it from the very moment you started Deoen."
"Annoying human."
"Pardon?"
"There are such things."
'If once isn't enough, do it ten times. If ten isn't enough, do it a thousand.'
At that point, surely you'd have earned the right to kill me?
"…I suppose there are."
Having read something in my expression, Yena hesitated, then finally spoke.
"Um."
Grrrrrowwwl…
"…Are you hungry, by any chance?"
"…….Chicken."
I wanted chicken.