Chapter 360
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 360
Chapter Title: A Three-Way Vacation (6)
“What in the world…”
Spica’s mouth hung open, gaping like a fish.
But only for a moment.
She shot Oh-jin a sharp glare and exclaimed in a thoroughly annoyed voice.
“I never took you for this kind of person. I'm so disappointed!”
As the goddess of Virgo, the symbol of pure love, Spica didn't hide her discomfort.
Before such a goddess, Oh-jin replied with a voice so calm it was almost shameless.
“This was a decision I made after much deliberation and thought.”
“Hmph! Does making a decision after much thought make it any less of a crime? If anything, this is premeditated! A planned crime!”
“Love isn't a crime.”
Huh.
That was a line he’d heard a scumbag male lead say in a drama once.
“Three-timing is a crime, you jerk! What kind of ridiculous excuse is that?!”
Well, yeah.
If his cheating partner told him ‘falling in love isn’t a crime,’ he’d probably think, ‘what kind of bullshit is this?’
However.
“I don't think that's something the person who suggested Vega sneak into my tent in that outfit, knowing full well I already had two lovers, should be saying.”
“Ugh.”
After all, Spica herself was the one who had instigated Vega from behind the scenes.
It made no sense for her to now lecture him about three-timing being a crime.
“Besides, looking at the people passing by over there, it seems they don't have just one lover either, do they?”
Oh-jin subtly shifted his gaze, scanning the Constellations wandering around the ‘Starlight Plaza’.
While there were some male-female pairs, it wasn't uncommon to see one man with several women, or one woman with several men.
‘Well, in their case, it's probably one Constellation with multiple Awakeners.’
As mentioned before, Constellations possessed conditions so favorable they could be called the best possible lovers.
They had such superior specs that so-called alpha males or females couldn't even compare.
Why would beings like them bother clinging to just one lover?
Besides, it wasn't like there were any social norms or legal restrictions forcing Constellations to have only one partner, right?
“Th-that's because they're Constellations.”
“So, it's okay for Constellations but not for humans?”
“No, that's not what I meant.”
“Isn't that exactly what you mean? That Constellations can have multiple lovers at once, but how dare a mere human like you audaciously three-time?”
“W-well.”
“This is blatant racial discrimination… no, human discrimination, isn't it?”
You f*cking racist!
“Ugh.”
Falling for Oh-jin's dazzling gaslighting, Spica turned to Vega with a look of injustice.
“H-hey, are you okay with this? Three! I'm talking three people!”
And the great Constellation of the North Star, Vega, wasn't even the first, but the third!
To use the medieval class system as an analogy, it was like an empress becoming the concubine of a rural commoner… no, a rural noble!
[I am, in fact, grateful to Oh-jin. For going out of his way to accept my feelings.]
But with the “empress-turned-concubine” herself saying such crazy things, Spica couldn't help but feel dumbfounded.
[Hehe. Don't make that face. This is what I wished for, and the other two are very sweet and good girls.]
Vega said, smiling brightly.
It was an expression so full of happiness that even Spica, who had known Vega for hundreds of years, had never seen it before.
“If you're happy with it, I guess it's fine, but…”
What could she do when the parties involved were happy?
Spica let out a deep sigh, then, as if shaking off her worries, smiled brightly and asked.
“So, where are you guys headed? From the way you were going, it didn't look like the Starlight Plaza.”
[That is…]
“This way leads to… a tomb? Don't tell me you're going to the Tomb of Stars?”
Spica turned to Vega with surprised eyes.
Vega glanced at Oh-jin with a flustered expression, then let out a short sigh and nodded.
[Indeed.]
“No one ever goes there, so why…?”
[Th-there is a reason.]
Vega hurriedly turned and pulled on Oh-jin's arm.
[Let us go quickly.]
“Aww, what is it? Tell me too~”
[…Do you wish to be seared by lightning again?]
“Eek! N-no!”
Leaving behind Spica, who jumped back with a pale face, Vega strode forward.
Oh-jin gave Spica a slight nod and followed Vega.
“What's the Tomb of Stars?”
[That… you will know if you follow me.]
“……?”
He couldn't understand what the Tomb of Stars was that made her so hesitant to explain.
‘Well, I'll find out when I get there.’
Oh-jin followed Vega towards the place called the ‘Tomb of Stars’.
The Tomb of Stars was quite a distance from the Starlight Plaza.
It was so far that, worried they would waste too much time walking leisurely, Vega created a sphere of lightning midway and they rode on it.
“This place is…”
The starlight that had filled the Sanctuary faded, and the surroundings gradually began to darken.
In the distance, he could see a massive black rift that was sucking in the surrounding starlight like a black hole.
[That is the Tomb of Stars.]
Vega flicked her hand, dissipating the sphere of lightning she and Oh-jin had been riding.
[Follow me.]
Vega carefully took Oh-jin's hand and led him towards the black rift.
What he saw after passing through the rift was…
“…Wow.”
An uncountable number of starlights embroidering the black space.
It felt as if he had entered a space completely surrounded by an autumn night sky.
Oh-jin unconsciously reached out and touched the empty air filled with starlight.
*Crackle.*
He felt a soft texture in the supposedly empty air.
“This is…?”
[Black Heaven.]
“What?”
Black Heaven?
Did she say Black Heaven?
Oh-jin's eyes widened as he turned to Vega, wondering if he had misheard.
[To be precise, it would be more accurate to call it the remnants of Black Heaven.]
“Remnants of Black Heaven?”
[Did I not tell you before that in the distant past, Black Heaven devoured all the Constellations?]
“Ah, yeah. You did.”
A past so distant that even time itself was unknown.
Before Vega and the other Constellations were born.
He'd heard that there were Constellations called the ‘Ancient Constellations’.
‘And they were all devoured by Black Heaven.’
After all the stars were devoured by Black Heaven, the ones newly born were the current Constellations.
[This place is the scar left behind when Black Heaven devoured the stars in the past.]
“Huh…”
So that's why it was called the ‘Tomb of Stars’.
“So this is the Black Heaven that destroyed the world in the past?”
Oh-jin reached out and touched the dark clouds filling the surroundings.
He tried to absorb the dark clouds by slightly activating his Black Heaven, but…
‘There's no energy left at all.’
It was just an empty shell.
Not even a wisp of energy remained in the remnants of the past Black Heaven.
[In truth, what exactly happened in the distant past has not been passed down accurately.]
Why Black Heaven was born.
For what reason it devoured the Constellations.
There was only rampant speculation; nothing had been properly revealed.
“Well… for records to exist, someone has to survive to leave them.”
Oh-jin looked around at the corpses of stars filling the tomb and clicked his tongue lightly.
[Still, among the several plausible speculations, there was one like this.]
“What kind of speculation?”
Vega continued, gazing intently at the Tomb of Stars.
[The speculation that Black Heaven might exist for the birth and death of stars.]
The birth and death of stars.
Here, ‘stars’ did not refer to the stars in the universe, but to the ‘Constellations’ created by the creator known as the Titan.
“What does that mean?”
[While Black Heaven is the being that destroyed the past Constellations, it is also the power that gave birth to the current ones.]
“…Wait, if that's the case.”
Vega nodded.
[All of the Constellations, including myself, were born in this ‘Tomb of Stars’.]
The death and birth of Constellations.
If Black Heaven was involved in all of it.
“…Didn't you say before that a being called the Titan created the Constellations?”
The primeval giant said to have created this world.
In game terms, he had thought of the Titan as the developer and the Constellations as the GMs running it.
[What they created were not the current Constellations, but the Ancient Constellations.]
In that case.
‘Is Black Heaven some kind of… reset button?’
A power that, like the Great Flood in the Bible, destroys the world once and allows it to be reborn.
[Hmm. You do not seem surprised at all.]
“The scale of it is so massive that it doesn't feel real at all.”
Oh-jin let out a dry laugh and shook his head.
Even hearing that the power dwelling within him was one that could destroy and recreate the world, the scale was so absurd that there was nothing to be surprised about.
[Hehe. In truth, it is the same for me.]
It was a story that felt distant even to her, the Constellation of the North Star.
[Well, what I have just said is all nothing more than baseless speculation.]
Vega let out a dry laugh and shook her head.
[Nevertheless, the reason I specifically told you this story is…]
Vega slowly approached Oh-jin and stroked his cheek with a gentle expression.
[I wanted to let you know that the Black Heaven you possess is not necessarily an ominous entity that only destroys and ruins the world.]
“…Vega.”
[Lately, I have also come to think this.]
“Think what?”
Vega's hand, which had been stroking his cheek, came to rest on the left side of Oh-jin's chest.
[That you might be the true Star of Heavenly Defiance.]
“The Star of Heavenly Defiance isn't me, it's…”
[The Star of Heavenly Defiance may not necessarily refer to a Regressor, might it not?]
According to the prophecy, the Star of Heavenly Defiance is a being of salvation who travels back in time to rewrite the world's fate.
Although Oh-jin had not traveled back in time.
Is it not a fact that he changed the predetermined fate by absorbing the Stigma of Lee Shin-hyeok, who did travel back in time?
[Unlike the Black Heaven possessed by the Heavenly Demon, a Black Heaven created not for the destruction and ruin of the world, but for its birth. I… believe that is the Black Heaven you possess.]
Vega smiled faintly, her eyes taking in the countless starlights floating in the black space.
The silver-haired goddess gazing up at the starlight.
At her breathtaking beauty, Oh-jin was momentarily lost for words, staring blankly at her.
“You brought me here just to tell me that?”
[Indeed.]
Vega nodded, her smile as warm as a spring breeze.
Even though this was a date for her, her admirable heart, which thought of him, made Oh-jin's heart begin to pound.
[Ah, th-and one more thing.]
Vega opened her mouth with a hesitant expression.
[I wanted to tell you of a myth that has been passed down here.]
“A myth?”
[Rather than a myth, it is more of a legend passed down among the Constellations… no, closer to a superstition.]
A superstition passed down among the Constellations.
[Th-this… this is the place where stars are born, is it not?]
Vega, who had been sneaking glances at Oh-jin, clutched the hem of her dress tightly.
[The stars that are… j-joined here… are said to be together for all eternity… or so the story goes.]
“……”
Wait.
Don't tell me ‘joined’ means…
[S-so. That is…]
Vega, who had been stammering, clenched her fists as if she'd made up her mind and exclaimed.
[H-here, I wish to form a stellar… c-c-conjunction with you!]
…Stellar Conjunction?
“Ah.”