The Mental World Wedding
“Yujin. Let’s join hands. The moment Yuria gets her hands on the Dragon Lord’s Heart, it’s over. She won’t consume it—she’ll lock you away in this place instead. You don’t want to be trapped here forever either, do you?”
“Joining hands sounds fine. What’s the concrete plan?”
“Yuria still hasn’t found the heart. You hold her off until I locate it and take it myself. She’s hunting for both the heart and you, but the second you show up she’ll forget all about the heart and fixate on you completely.”
“You seem to know her current state pretty well.”
“How could I not? She’s probably muttering ‘Master’ even now.”
“…….”
I pictured Yuria. Her naked body rose unbidden in my mind. Lust exploded through me in an instant, and I went hard.
Kyle’s sword flashed for my throat. I slipped backward with Charna and let the blade whistle past empty air.
“…What the hell was that?”
“Sorry. For a second you just looked disgusting…. Right now you’re… thinking about Yuria naked, aren’t you?”
Kyle’s face twisted. The hand gripping his sword trembled violently; he was barely holding back the murderous intent aimed at me. Watching him struggle only made my irritation spike.
“I’ve already been caught by Yuria once. Three whole days. And what we did for those three days… you can guess without me saying it, right? We mixed our bodies the entire—”
Plum-blossom sword energy screamed toward me. I’d been ready; I sidestepped cleanly.
“That’s enough, Yujin. I want to join hands with you. That much is sincere. You need my help too.”
“You rate yourself far too highly. I don’t need your help.”
I reached into empty air. A sword materialized and settled into my grip. Over the past few days of wandering this mental world I’d learned a few things. One of them was this: I could summon small objects. Creating clones the way Yuria did was still impossible, but this much worked.
“…Yujin. Are you really planning to fight?”
I laughed in the face of Kyle’s sudden seriousness.
“Why the sudden surprise?”
“There’s nothing to gain for either of us. Even if one of us dies here, we just reappear somewhere else.”
“Did you know? Yuria was offering me far more than you ever imagined. I still remember the moment she gave me her virginity like it was yesterday. She smiled so happily. Kyle, even if you died and came back a hundred times, you could never make Yuria that happy.”
“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you here, and I’ll kill you in reality. Then Yuria will live a happy life with me!”
Purple light exploded from Kyle’s eyes as he charged. I watched his every movement through Charna.
So an Aura Master isn’t called an Aura Master for nothing. If I take him head-on… I’ll have to sacrifice an arm.
The decision was instant. Even if this had been reality, I would have traded an arm to beat him. There were several ways to grow it back afterward, after all.
Here he comes.
Purple plum blossoms bloomed around Kyle. Beautiful. The scent of plum blossoms brushed my nose.
And deadly. Those blossoms are pure sword energy.
Kyle and the blossoms crashed toward me together. No escape route. Plum blossoms blanketed every direction. Being shredded into bloody ribbons would have been the natural outcome.
There’s a way.
I thrust my qi-wrapped left arm straight at Kyle. I had to open a gap before offense and defense became one. It worked. The arm I shoved into the overlapping blossoms was torn to shreds, but it carved a path toward him.
A blade of lightning becomes a serpent and strikes for the throat.
I drove the sword into that opening. The blade turned into a snake of lightning and lunged for Kyle’s neck. He twisted aside in panic. My sword punched clean through his left shoulder.
Lightning discharge!!
Crackling thunder roared through the blade. Kyle screamed in agony. He clenched his teeth and staggered backward. The sword tore free of his shoulder; the residual lightning crashed to the ground.
“Yujin!! I never imagined you were this strong! I’ll give you that much! No more holding back—I’m going to kill you for real!!”
Purple aura detonated from Kyle’s body. Watching that power shoot skyward, I swallowed hard. Since my strike hadn’t finished him, the advantage was his.
That didn’t mean I planned to die quietly. Even if I went down, I’d take a piece of him with me.
Both our heads snapped sideways at the same instant. A colossal presence had appeared beside us.
“I found you, Master. So this is where you were.”
Yuria.
Her eyes were unfocused, fixed solely on me as she approached. A chill ran down my spine. This time the danger was real.
“Yuria!! I’m right here! Why won’t you even look at me?!!”
Kyle shrieked like a man possessed. Yuria never spared him a glance. She simply kept walking toward me. I hesitated. Die, or let myself be caught?
Trusting Elena and getting caught might be smarter. If I could just hold Yuria off, Elena would handle the rest.
“Master. I’ve finally found you. I won’t make the same mistake as before. We’ll be together forever. I’ll serve you for eternity, so please rest easy.”
Yuria stopped dead. Her eyes locked onto my ruined left arm and went wide. Then her face twisted into something hideous. She spun and fixed her gaze on Kyle, who had already finished preparing for battle.
“It was you…! You dared wound Master! Unforgivable! That sin will be paid for with hundreds of deaths!”
“Yuria! You’re finally looking at me?! That’s it! The answer is Yujin. If I kill Yujin, you’ll keep looking at me, right?!”
I was the only sane person left.
Yuria moved first. She went straight for Kyle’s throat, intending to end him in a single stroke. Even my eyes couldn’t track the details of her motion. Kyle still managed to raise his sword and block.
“Yuria! Roughly speaking, I’ve figured out your fighting style. I won’t die that easily!”
“Even so, you’re just a bug that won’t last a minute…! Die!”
Yuria’s voice was thick with hatred and killing intent. Seeing my wound had clearly driven her into a frenzy.
Even looking like that she’s still an Aura Master. He’ll last at least thirty seconds.
Time to run.
I turned my back.
Mid-sized Yuria and little Yuria suddenly appeared in front of me.
“You mustn’t, Master.”
“Master has to stay with me.”
Three blue butterflies materialized. Two of them touched mid-sized Yuria and little Yuria; both bodies turned to ash and vanished. The remaining butterfly settled on me.
My body vanished with a soft rush.
I stood in some open clearing. A glittering lake shone behind me.
Elena sat in a chair. The moment she saw me she let out a long sigh.
“Haa. You’re exhausting. If I’d known it would turn out like this I would have used Limit Break back in the elf village and just gone home to my own world….”
Elena grumbled under her breath.
“I didn’t expect things to go this far either. If that damn demon bastard hadn’t interfered… everything would have been simple.”
I wiped cold sweat and forced my lust down. After doing this long enough, I’d gotten used to it. We dropped the small talk and went straight to business.
“I found the Dragon Lord’s Heart.”
Elena placed a blue orb on her palm. It was far smaller than the heart I’d seen outside—small enough to swallow in one gulp.
“As expected of Elena. Where was it?”
“Luck. Sitting on some mountain peak. Found it about two days ago.”
“Good thing it didn’t fall into Kyle’s or Terius’s hands.”
“The worst-case scenario hasn’t changed. You know it too. Even if we hand this to Yuria, she won’t eat it.”
“Right now her only goal is to live with me forever.”
“You put it so nicely. She wants to bind you and live with you forever.”
Whether that was even possible was another question—our real bodies still existed outside. But that wasn’t something to worry about right now.
“Your choice. Force this down Yuria’s throat, or eat it yourself right now and end the mental world.”
“…….”
“I’d prefer you eat it. Yuria is a monster. From someone who’s fought her—no matter how many times I try, I lose.”
“Mental attacks should work on her right now, shouldn’t they?”
“They work, but they’re meaningless. Her obsession with you is pure madness. Still, they bought me about ten minutes. Without them I wouldn’t have lasted five.”
So she’d been fighting Yuria for a full ten minutes in that earlier battle. Elena suddenly looked a lot more impressive.
“So, Yujin. What’s your decision?”
I frowned and turned the problem over again and again.
…Isn’t there some way to make Yuria swallow this? If only that demon’s power wasn’t in play….
Suddenly Glebet’s face floated up. Glebet, sunk in listlessness, his desire to rest stimulated until he looked utterly broken. But Glebet hadn’t always been like that.
He said he became that way after watching Kyle and Elena fight. In other words….
Desires can be rewritten. Yuria is no exception.
“We stick to the original plan. Yuria has to eat the heart.”
“…So you’re not just being stubborn. Let’s hear the plan.”
Thirty-seven.
That was how many times Yuria had killed Kyle in the span of two hours. Every time the idiot died and reappeared he bellowed her name at the top of his lungs, and every time Yuria slaughtered him with fresh rage and hatred.
Even that wasn’t enough to cool her fury. The crime of cutting off Yujin’s arm deserved at least a hundred deaths.
“Yuriaaaaaaa!!”
Kyle’s voice rang out from far away. Just as Yuria prepared to go kill him again, a blue butterfly fluttered toward her. She leapt backward at once, dodging it. That butterfly belonged to the person she watched most carefully.
When she kept avoiding it, Elena’s voice emerged from the butterfly.
“Yuria. Yujin is over here. If you want to see him, stop dodging the butterfly.”
“Elena. You haven’t done anything to Master, have you?”
“You’re the one planning to do something.”
“……You clearly have some scheme. It won’t work. I will spend eternity here with Master.”
“Fine, fine. Just come this way.”
“…….”
Yuria’s blue eyes sank even deeper. The butterfly settled on her shoulder. Instantly teleported, she looked straight ahead.
Elena stood on a raised platform, smirking down at her.
“I don’t want to admit it, but I’ll give you this much. You’re first. Well, I’m not the devoted type like you anyway….”
“Elena. I won’t kill you—I’ll lock you away. Leave you free and you’ll only interfere between Master and me. Where is Master?”
Yuria’s shadow writhed threateningly.
“Drop the killing intent and look around.”
“…….”
Yuria kept her guard up as she quietly surveyed the surroundings—and then froze in shock.
A beautiful lake glittered in the distance. Clean white paths of flower petals. Everything decorated in pure, dazzling white. And seated in chairs around them, completely bound—Glebet, Kyle, and Terius. Arms, legs, even mouths perfectly restrained.
“This place is like….”
“An outdoor wedding venue. Those three are the guests.”
“A wedding?! Don’t tell me you and Master—!!”
“Calm down. Look at where I’m standing. I’m the officiant.”
Yuria checked Elena’s clothes. Nothing like a wedding dress. Light returned to Yuria’s eyes. Her voice trembled.
“Th-then… the main characters of this wedding are….”
“Tch. Who else could it be but the two of you?”
“……!!”
“You’re far too happy. It’s irritating. Anyway, come here.”
Elena seized Yuria’s wrist. The sharp aura and killing intent vanished as if they had never existed.
“W-where are we going? To Master…?”
“Did you suddenly turn stupid? Obviously the bridal waiting room. You weren’t planning to become a bride looking like that, were you?”
“We’re really going to hold a wedding with Master here…?”
“If you don’t want it, I’ll take your place.”
“No. It’s fine. Where do I go?”
The moment I stepped into the tent I felt my shrunken body return to normal. My field of vision suddenly rose; there was no mistaking it. At the same time the clothes on my body shifted into a tuxedo. Proof that things were going according to plan.
…Just like Elena said, the center of this mental world is Yuria.
That was why my body had shrunk. Because Yuria wanted it that way. Just as I had raised her from childhood, she had wanted to raise me from childhood in return. That was my guess.
Anyway, the plan worked. Yuria’s desire has changed. I don’t know what will happen after the wedding ends… but at least while the ceremony lasts, we’re safe.
By the time the wedding finished we would already be back in reality.
My hard-to-control lust could have ruined everything, but Elena’s illusion solved that. Absolute Mind wasn’t fully active, so the loophole worked.
Then I sensed someone beyond the tent.
“Master! All wedding preparations are complete! It’s time for your entrance!”
Nepia’s bright voice. Of course she was a fake.
I stepped outside and followed the maid-uniformed figure into the wedding venue. I entered alone. Naturally—Yuria wasn’t there. The star of a wedding is the bride, and the bride always enters last.
I walked the white carpet toward the platform. Bright, soft, cheerful music played—perfect for a wedding.
There were many guests. Even excluding the three specially invited ones, every seat was filled. Among them were my parents. Well, not my real parents—Ention Frucus and Ellain of the Baekhwan world. Fakes, of course. Maids who worked at the mansion, nobles I’d only glimpsed in passing—all of them filled the guest seats.
I walked the virgin road and slowly surveyed the guests. Kyle sat in the very front row.
“Mmmph! Mmmph!”
Bloodshot eyes glared at me, blazing with murderous intent. When I curled my lips into a smile, his thrashing grew even more violent.
I stepped onto the platform. Officiant Elena was frowning. She clearly hated the role.
She spoke to me in a low voice.
“I will never marry anywhere less splendid than this. Remember that.”
I put a finger to my lips. Elena’s face crumpled. Sorry, but the star of today’s show wasn’t her—it was Yuria. I quietly watched the bound Kyle go berserk. Beside him, Terius and Glebet were also restrained. Glebet looked vacant; Terius just stared at Nepia with tears streaming down his face.
“The bride is entering!”
Emcee Nepia called out cheerfully.
Yuria stepped into the venue. For a moment I simply lost my words. She was that beautiful.
Our eyes met, and Yuria smiled softly.