Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Exchange Meeting #2
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Originally, this should never have happened.
A mere replica, born from a single being, gaining a will of its own and acting independently.
"...."
However, due to one man's intervention—no.
Perhaps because of her own intervention, unable to bear watching him any longer.
The true progenitor, operating under the epithet of Wine Lord, might now be facing this absurd situation.
"Who are you?"
Looking at the tiny, innocently asking figure made even a hollow laugh impossible.
The moment he laid eyes on her, his breath caught, and a throbbing pain pierced his skull.
"And who might you be?"
To the intruder who had slipped back into someone else's home—precisely, her own mental world—to cause trouble.
The progenitor asked in a cold voice.
"I'm Eira-den."
"Hah, Eira, is it."
What object in the world has a name and acts of its own accord?
That was why the progenitor decided to enlighten her.
"You are me."
"....?"
"More precisely, you're nothing but a tower tool, a mere copy mimicking me."
Eira looked exactly like the progenitor as a child, but even her thought patterns weren't a perfect match.
This was due to the tower's intervention during her creation process.
She had been influenced to make the trials progress more smoothly in terms of personality, turning her into an object.
Once more.
"Huh?"
Eira gazed with a carefree attitude at the enormous presence looming before her.
The progenitor was undoubtedly beautiful.
Beauty was a primal instinct that all living creatures followed—
A force so powerful it drew even children to it unconsciously.
Thus, the progenitor was beautiful.
Her moonlit hair gleamed with luster, and her lofty gaze carried an overwhelming aura.
"Me? Your sister?"
"Sister... Well, yes."
Eira stared intently at the progenitor.
She was pretty, sure.
But calling her a copy of herself felt oddly repulsive, not something to nail down so definitively.
"Eira is Eira, though?"
"You might not understand yet. But you have to accept what must be accepted."
"Huh...?"
After talking, she didn't like it one bit.
Eira concluded.
She didn't want to do as this woman standing before her said.
"No way!"
"So stubborn."
"Eira is Eira! A super cool big bro saved me! And, and...!"
The one thing she hated most.
The claim that she was just a replica of that woman.
Didn't that mean there was a high chance she'd end up looking like that too when she grew up?
Eira really didn't like that thought.
Because the future self she secretly dreamed of didn't have that dark, somewhat abandoned look.
"I don't like you, sis! Eira is Eira, so why say I look like you?!"
"Don't worry. I don't like you either."
"Eek!"
Despite her calm attitude that grated on Eira's nerves, the progenitor was quite flustered by the current situation herself.
'What the...'
How had he managed it? How had he influenced this mere object to such an extent?
Recalling the newbie's ongoing bizarre actions, the progenitor swallowed a sigh.
Then she stared straight at Eira.
"Ugh!"
"How bold."
What had she been doing at this age?
Probably rampaging through the theme stage trials as scripted, enduring a truly dull and unlucky period.
Thanks to the tower, she only had fragmented memories, but she knew that much.
She hadn't been saved.
'No.'
Strictly speaking, the very assumption of being saved by someone was flawed.
'It's all that newbie's fault.'
From the theme stage to implanting vain hopes in her—it was clearly that guy's doing.
This was something she'd have to slowly consider holding him accountable for later.
Amid the prolonged standoff, Eira suddenly tilted her head curiously and asked.
"...So, have you met Do-yoon oppa too, sis?"
"No."
"Huh...? Then what happened?"
Her innocently probing tone grated on the nerves like nothing else.
"No one came."
Her origin, a past stained in blood.
Back then, she had been utterly alone, in profound solitude.
That was the proper past, her root.
The progenitor had swept away the cultist horde entirely on her own, becoming a complete monster.
"I didn't receive help from anyone like you did. I accomplished everything alone. That's why I can't acknowledge you."
Perhaps.
The progenitor might be jealous of Eira.
'Jealous.'
Of this insignificant, childish thing?
The progenitor found the shift in her emotions quite bewildering.
Toward Eira, who mimicked her yet had a different past.
It felt increasingly chaotic, unable to grasp hold.
"Hmm~"
Children are sensitive to others' emotions.
Eira picked up on the progenitor's agitation.
"You're jealous of Eira, sis?"
"...What?"
"Heehee. A super cool oppa saved me! Jealous? Huh?"
Gazing at her with a cheeky grin, Eira stirred a strange irritation in the progenitor.
"How ridiculous."
Do-yoon or Eira.
Neither could reach the progenitor's position.
Not even if you added them together.
Between the progenitor and them stood impenetrable walls.
'Me, jealous of my own replica?'
Absolutely not.
She stood aloof, observing the world from a place no one could behold.
"Why on earth would I feel jealousy toward the likes of you?"
"...Eek."
Her attitude, looking down as if at an inferior being, stirred bad feelings in Eira once more.
She really didn't like it.
For the first time that day, the two—who were alike yet different—strongly confirmed their mutual incompatibility.
"You need to learn humility. You're nothing but a component existing solely for utility."
"Nuh-uh! Oppa said he likes Eira!"
"The newbie just—"
About to deliver a cold dose of reality to Eira's childish retort, the progenitor soon gave up.
The more they talked, the more childish she herself seemed to become.
"...Forget it."
"Heh heh! Eira wins?!"
"Haa..."
In the end, the progenitor, who gave up the conversation first, lightly waved her hand, pushing Eira's presence out of the space.
"Ah...!"
Pushed back into Do-yoon's mental world, Eira vanished from the space with a startled reaction.
"...."
Left alone, the progenitor lingered in the spot, unable to shake off the lingering emotions for a while.
Same past, different ending.
She hadn't been saved, but that innocent child had been.
Eira's existence was the ideal the progenitor had never attained.
#
Around the time Do-yoon was busily preparing for the exchange meeting.
Far from the land he stood on, an organization had taken notice of his presence.
"...."
In a black mental space.
-Thud.
The faint tremor of the earth signified the tower's emotions.
The woman had been born with the innate ability to glimpse fragments of the tower's will since setting foot on this land.
-Clank.
".....!"
A deep abyss, the sound of chains laden with malice, interfered with the woman's senses.
"Hah...!"
Finally shedding the ability, the woman gasped for breath, drenched in cold sweat.
"Shrine Maiden!"
"Someone, get some water!"
The group protecting her from the side tensed and supported her body.
Hanaoka Miyu.
Having risen in the shrine secretly established in Kyushu, Japan, she staggered outside.
"Hoo..."
After catching her breath for a moment, she escaped the earlier chain sounds.
A stern warning, heavy with intent not to pry further—
The shrine maiden recalled the unknown entity awakened in South Korea and swallowed dryly.
There was someone like her there.
She definitely hadn't been there until recently.
'Awakened not long ago.'
Hanaoka Miyu felt a sense of kinship with the similar entity, yet a thick wariness as well.
Because no one knew the dangers of her abilities better than she did.
Beings standing on the precarious edge, heavily influenced by the tower, liable to go mad at any moment.
"...You."
Hanaoka Miyu thought of the one continuing activities in South Korea and licked her dry lips.
-Neigh.
Turning to the tickling sensation on the back of her hand, she saw a horse-shaped shikigami.
"That tickles."
Ghosts born from her abilities, filled with blind loyalty.
-Whinny.
After communing with her shikigami for a while, Hanaoka Miyu sensed a presence approaching from behind.
"Shrine Maiden."
"Yes."
"Is everything all right?"
A man in a black suit, the handler from the Japanese government.
"Just the usual manifestation of my ability."
"...I see."
"However, there's an unusual energy coming from South Korea."
"Energy, you say..."
"There's definitely a psychic of similar caliber to mine. And they awakened recently."
Hanaoka Miyu gazed at the dry sky for a long time, reading the heavens.
Then she suddenly asked her handler.
"The exchange meeting is soon, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"Perfect, since it's in South Korea. I should go take a look myself."
"...."
The handler quietly accepted Hanaoka Miyu's will.
Because she was Japan's most renowned top-tier hunter.
'Who are you, exactly.'
Why did they exude such a dangerous, destructive aura?
The shrine maiden—Miyuu Hanaoka—decided to find out in person.
"...What."
"What? What's wrong?"
Do-yoon, deep in training, shivered as a chill brushed the nape of his neck.