Chapter 163
Chapter 163
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 163
Chapter Title: Day and Night #4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
In truth, once you learned about the state of the Draco sisters, it was only natural to become curious.
One body for the sisters.
Two souls.
Suppose I were the man engaged to the older sister, Mirna Draco.
And imagine we’d even gone through with the wedding. Then, naturally, my relationship with Mirna Draco would be that of husband and wife. It would mean we could legally have children.
So what would my relationship with Narmi Draco be called? Brother-in-law and sister-in-law? That’s what it would be in a normal situation.
But the above only applied to normal situations.
As the ladies of House Draco, where sister-in-law and wife were fused into one body, their husband would undoubtedly find himself in a very awkward position.
“Hmm.”
Whether she understood my question or not, Narmi twirled the straw in her teacup. Thanks to that, the flames flickering over the blue alcohol danced like a snake’s tongue for a moment—.
“Actually, my sister and I have talked about that a lot.”
“I imagine so. Of course.”
“But honestly, we don’t really know either. Wouldn’t it have to be something like polygamy? That seems like the most plausible answer. Polygamy!”
“Polygamy means marrying two people at once, right?”
“Yeah! To become the husband of the Draco family, you’d have no choice but to marry both my sister and me at the same time.”
So that’s how it would turn out.
Certainly. That would be the wisest and most sensible approach. It was a solution thought up by the minds of Narmi and Mirna, two women, so it made sense. However, as Narmi slurped down the alcohol through the straw in small sips, she added,
“But there’s a problem with that too.”
“A problem?”
“My sister and I both have to find a partner we like at the same time. And that partner has to like both of us equally. Otherwise, there’s bound to be trouble.”
“I see.”
“But finding someone like that isn’t easy. Plus, once people learn about our weird constitution, a lot of them look at us like we’re some kind of bizarre lab experiment.”
I could certainly understand the Draco sisters’ feelings. Finding a partner must not have been easy for them.
It probably wouldn’t be any easier now. Because while Narmi might not know it, I had already taken the innocence of the ladies of Draco! That meant I had to be that groom.
Could I, as their husband, love Narmi and Mirna equally?
This was a question that pierced right through the harem I wanted to build. Could I equally love all the women who would become members of my harem in the future?
But as a human, I might end up liking one more than the others. Then the rest of the women might band together and turn on her.
Building a harem isn’t easy.
While I was deep in thought, Narmi spoke up.
“Of course, it’s not like there’s absolutely no other way.”
“A way?”
“Yeah. This ventures into forbidden territory—something that could be called a forbidden art. But I think it’s okay to tell you, Taeo.”
Rustle rustle.
Narmi glanced around before covering her mouth with her fan and leaning her head toward me.
“Among the highest necromancy spells of our Draco family, there’s one called Spirit Possession. Sometimes it’s described as divine descent.”
“Divine descent?”
My ears perked up at the term, which sounded like something from shamanistic faith. Come to think of it, House Draco originated from the eastern conquerors. In the original story’s setting, the east was tied to the Orient.
That was why Mirna, the master of exorcism, wielded swords, talismans, and fans as weapons.
Narmi continued.
“A while back, we found a forbidden tome in our father’s study. It was a necromancy spell for preparing a vessel and transferring a soul into it.”
“So, you’re saying it possesses the soul into another body?”
“Yeah, you could call it possession. I don’t know why Father had such a book. But I suspect it was because of me or my sister. Our constitutions are special, after all.”
“Using that, either you, Lady Narmi, or Lady Mirna could transfer to a new body?”
“That’s right!”
It was a perfectly reasonable idea.
House Draco had long dealt in black magic and necromancy, handling souls. It wouldn’t be strange if they knew a spell to move a soul to another vessel.
Wasn’t King Solomon’s grand ritual, Ars Nova, something similar? Implanting soul-imbued spells into another person’s body to reshape their thoughts and personality.
Perhaps House Draco had collaborated with Solomon in creating that grand ritual.
「Calm Situation Assessment!
You gain experience points through the talent 《Calm Thinking》.
All job experience +5」
That’s the answer. Even the great king of magicians, Solomon, had apparently borrowed others’ hands to create such a massive ritual.
So the first Ars Nova created was the high necromancy spell Gamigin? That made sense. Because I knew what Demon King Solomon had wanted to do.
According to Professor Stella, when Solomon’s beloved nymph died, he mourned her day and night, shedding tears without rest.
Then, the moment he stopped crying, as if possessed, he began researching half-soul magic and the revival of the lion—the resurrection spell.
Here, I felt the puzzle pieces connecting.
Demon King Solomon had sought House Draco’s help to place someone’s soul into a new vessel—.
That was the truth I realized. And that someone was the dead nymph. Solomon had tried to resurrect her or possess her into another body.
Possession, huh—.
As someone with quite a bit to say about possession myself, I felt a complicated mix of emotions.
Had I ended up in this body because of some spell? It wasn’t entirely impossible.
Someone had pulled the soul of Lee Seong-eum, who was living well on Earth—me—and possessed it into Taeo Gospel’s body.
As I calmly pondered this, no text appeared before my eyes.
Guess that wasn’t it.
Just as I was about to form another hypothesis, Narmi said,
“But anyway, it’s just an idea for now. Preparing a vessel isn’t easy. And deciding which of us—me or my sister—goes into the new vessel would be tough too.”
“Indeed, that’s a difficult issue. The vessel would have to be a living person, right?”
“Probably. But who would offer their own body? And no sane person would think of taking someone else’s body. I don’t want to go that far.”
“I see.”
“Plus, finding a body compatible with the soul wouldn’t be easy. Trust me on this—I’m the one saying it. It’d probably require a lot of test subjects! I couldn’t do that.”
That’s what Narmi said, but I knew the lady of Draco became a mad necromancer and fell as the villain in Part 2’s story.
From my memory, the mad necromancer was searching for vessels. It didn’t seem unrelated to what Narmi had just said.
The story of Mirna and Narmi’s corruption and fall to darkness might not be over yet….
Thinking that sent chills down my spine, making me resolve to guide them carefully.
* * *
Before I knew it, our various conversations had carried us past midnight, heading toward 3 a.m.
3 a.m. on a weekday.
With a ton of work waiting for me from morning the next day, staying up this late talking with someone was honestly a bit burdensome.
I’d be sleepy all day.
Should I skip morning running for once? No, Elga would throw a fit.
As I anticipated a tiring day with such thoughts, Narmi cheerfully spoke up on the walkway where the dormitory came into view.
“Taeo, thanks for today. I showed up out of nowhere and dumped all this on you. Honestly, I was a total nuisance. Heh-.”
With a little “Heh-” and sticking out her tongue slightly, Narmi looked adorably like a teenage girl trying to play off her mistake with cuteness. Her face was quite flushed, probably from the small amount of high-proof alcohol.
Chirp chirp—
Buzz buzz—
Summer night with crickets crying from all around.
Narmi added,
“It’s embarrassing, but I don’t really have friends. No one to talk to at night like this. So I feel a bit sorry for acting spoiled toward you.”
Narmi’s words were probably true. No one knew her true nature, and few could be friends with someone who could only be active at night.
Because people generally moved during the day and slept at night.
Compared to Mirna, who grew up surrounded by people as a young lady, Narmi seemed to feel like a lonely outcast.
But hadn’t Mirna said the opposite? That people liked Narmi more than her.
I don’t get it. Their sisterly bond is so close it’s complicated.
I escorted her all the way to her door.
She just needed to open it and go inside, but for some reason, Narmi hesitated and didn’t enter.
“If I go in now, I won’t see the sun rise again? I won’t know the faces of people going about in the morning. I won’t see fields or flowers shining in the summer sun….”
Narmi seemed regretful.
Maybe it was the alcohol making her emotions all fuzzy.
“…I want to see blue skies with clouds drifting by too. I want to try ice cream that’s only sold during the day. I want to visit the bustling five-day market on the surface, not the underground one.”
Listing her desires, Narmi let out a small, wistful sigh. Inside the bright and cheerful Narmi, small shadows lurked that she didn’t show.
Perhaps those accumulated one by one and turned her into a villain. For the sake of Narmi’s mental health, maybe I should comfort her a bit.
“Then let’s hang out again sometime.”
“During the day?”
“Couldn’t you, Lady Narmi, come out during the day if you wanted?”
“But I have a rule with my sister—”
She seemed about to say something but then closed her mouth.
Then, “Yeah, I’m gonna do some things I want too—!” she shouted cheerfully. Seeing that made me want to smile too.
Gaining courage, perhaps, Narmi entered the room and grabbed the door. As she slowly closed it, she peeked out just her face.
“Taeo, thanks for today.”
“I learned a lot of new things thanks to you.”
“Why are you so nice to me?”
“Well, that’s….”
As I fumbled for a good answer,
“Hmm, Taeo, see you next time. Keep today a secret, okay?”
“Got it.”
That ended our conversation.
The next day, after returning to the dormitory and falling straight asleep, I dragged my sleepy body to running and heard something unexpected from Elga, who was supervising me.
“Hey, did something happen with Mirna yesterday by any chance?”
“With Lady Mirna? I didn’t really… Did something happen?”
“No, but she was making a huge fuss in her room—”
A huge fuss.
My heart pounded at Elga’s words.
So after running ended, I rushed to Mirna and Narmi’s dormitory, only to hear violent crashing and shattering sounds from inside.
This was clearly the sign of some incident unfolding.
“Lady Mirna, are you okay? Excuse me for a moment.”
I rudely opened the door. Fortunately, it wasn’t locked. But the important thing wasn’t the door—it was the state of the room inside.
“…Lady Mirna?”
The lavish dormitory for the ladies of Draco alone.
The vast room was filled with shards of glass everywhere. My face reflected dizzyingly in the broken glass scattered on the floor.
It was from windows and mirrors.
And with blood flowing from Mirna’s hand, it seemed she had smashed the mirrors with her knuckles and fist.
“Wow, what’s with the mess in here?”
Elga, who had followed me, entered the room and clicked her tongue at the surroundings.
“It’s a warzone.”
“Who told you to barge in like this?”
Mirna shot me a chilling gaze with an unprecedented iciness in her voice.