Chapter 105: The Dream Demon's Work 3
Chapter 105: The Dream Demon's Work 3
Even I, as untalented as they come, was growing at a steady pace—so it only stood to reason that my Incarnations, who actually had talent, would be improving too.
Kim Ha-eun went without saying. Han Ye-ji and Lee Ha-rin were also showing consistent progress.
Han Ye-ji had a knack for sharpshooting and sniping, and she proved it on the job. A single custom tranquilizer gun and a set of blunt-tipped darts keyed to her trait were enough to subdue most criminals she ran into.
As for Lee Ha-rin, whose talent had taken such a hard swerve into ritual magic—
"So you're really saying it's all right to offer rituals to someone else?"
"Even so, I'd feel more at ease with your permission."
She was bowing her head low to me in the Temporary Sanctum again today.
My descent into the Temporary Sanctum had produced a side effect I hadn't anticipated. Calling it a side effect might be too strong. A blind spot, maybe.
In this world, a ritual is magic that sends a message in reverse—from the human realm up to a Constellation's Sanctum. Constellations can observe the human world without spending points and send messages down whenever they like. But for a human to send a message to a Constellation costs an enormous price, as I'd seen before: solid gold ingots, burnt offerings, that kind of thing.
Except I had descended bodily into the human world. Which erased Lee Ha-rin's reason for performing rituals to me altogether. If she wanted to send me a gift, she could just dispatch a messenger or have an Incarnation hand it over in person. Why reach out through a ritual?
The same way muscles only grow when you work them, magic power and magical skill only sharpen with use. To raise her ritual magic skill, she had to perform rituals—but the intended recipient of those offerings, namely me, was planted right next to her quarters at the Academy.
"But still..."
"Want to count how many times you've said 'but' today?"
A paradox: to be of use to me, she had to perform rituals for other Constellations.
If this were Han Ye-ji, she'd answer, "You told me to, so I'll do it." If it were Kim Ha-eun, she'd step up and start working out how to turn it into an efficient business. But Lee Ha-rin? She's Lee Ha-rin. She'd armed her mind with a loyalty that bordered on fanaticism. You think she'd just nod and accept that? Every time a ritual request came in, she showed up to report to me and plant her forehead on the ground.
Honestly? Being on the receiving end of a full bow was more uncomfortable than I'd expected. What's some college kid past fifty supposed to do with someone bowing to him? I'd had people grab my ankle and beg me to save their lives, sure, but when does anyone ever get a respectful bow? Watching a woman my own age—someone I'd been intimate with, someone I'd grown attached to—lower her head like that was hard to enjoy.
Maybe a power-hungry, arrogant type would get off on it?
I thought about that as I soothed and coaxed Lee Ha-rin and sent her on her way. She'd performed rituals for other Constellations plenty of times before. Why insist on getting permission now? Then again, that stubborn streak was pure Lee Ha-rin. No matter how many times I gave my approval, she still couldn't feel at ease about it.
Once I'd granted it, Lee Ha-rin headed off to perform the ritual. Kim Ha-eun had gone to harvest Nightmares from her patients, which left me with a little free time.
Normally I'd follow Kim Ha-eun to collect the patients' Nightmares as well, but today was different.
With the elf body's distinctively light steps, I padded along and found myself in a small wooded area behind the buildings before I knew it. Was "woods" the right word? More like an unkempt lot. A place where the trees and undergrowth screened it from the sightlines of the buildings and training grounds—the kind of spot students used for secret rendezvous.
'Why'd I end up here?'
Hands in my pockets, I'd been lost in idle thoughts, and when I snapped back to attention, I was ambling among the trees. Maybe it was the elf body, but this low hill—too small to call a forest, too untamed for a park—felt as comforting as the Temporary Sanctum. It wasn't cultivated, but people clearly passed through, and I wandered naturally down a narrow footpath.
Bushes tall enough to reach the thighs. Trees to block the sun. Nameless wildflowers and red and black berries.
With this much atmosphere even on a modest hill, it made sense that lovestruck young men and women would sneak off here. Proving my point, voices drifted from up ahead: a man and a woman.
If they were students, they should've been in class. Skipping to hook up? I had to admit, that was bold. Plenty of other Constellations were probably watching the Academy, and these two had the guts to do this.
"Hey, come on—aren't you rushing things, noona?"
A simpering man's voice reached me, and I stilled my footsteps. The coquettish tone grated, but primal curiosity won out in the end. I stepped carefully, avoiding any fallen branches.
"Don't pull it out. I'm in a hurry..."
A fairly short man and a broad-shouldered, sturdy woman.
Two thoughts hit me at once: both of them were pretty, good-looking—and mildly disgusting. It's not as if I hadn't spent plenty of time seeing "manly" men in this gender-reversed world. So why this reaction?
A visceral revulsion, like something twisting in my chest. Confused by my own inexplicable emotional response, I let out a slow breath and concealed my presence.
"Agh, seriously... we've only got an hour, but..."
The man cooed through his nose, twisting his body, while the woman's breath quickened roughly as her hands roamed over him. In this world, this was probably a normal scene. But the disgust hit hard enough to turn my stomach. Like stumbling across some creature spawning in an underground tunnel.
'Is something going on?'
This was a world of magic and extraordinary abilities. A sudden, abnormal reaction like this had to have a supernatural cause. So I let instinct guide me. Like some kind of voyeuristic creep, I hid behind a nearby tree and watched the couple's amorous display.
"Noona, aren't your hands a little too naughty?"
"It's your fault."
'What am I even watching this for...'
No matter how handsome the man was, watching him wriggle his ass and simper was disgusting—there was no getting around it. A faint wave of self-loathing crept in. But my instincts kept telling me to stay hidden.
As I watched the woman's hand slide steadily toward the man's waistband, a thought struck me. If magic or a psychic ability was involved, shouldn't I be looking at this through the lens of magic power?
Still not fully adjusted, I realized. I focused magic into my eyes. Pale violet threads spread slowly through the air, drifting on the breeze like spider silk.
Then I saw it: black smoke filling the woods.
"Noona, slow down a little—okay?"
It was seeping from the man's tongue. Black exhaust.
※
Black smoke, spreading wide enough to fill the entire low hill.
I couldn't figure out what it was, or who that man was. I went back to the Temporary Sanctum. I didn't know a single thing about it, and I could hardly barge in on a happy couple and demand, "Who are you? What's that stuff?"
Nor did I feel like leaping out while they were tangled in the undergrowth, the woman pounding down on him from above in that Amazoness position. I also had zero desire to keep watching his bare ass with that much clarity, so I headed straight back.
To put it bluntly, the guy hadn't done anything wrong. If you had to pin a fault on him—he skipped class to spend time with his lover? The Academy instructors could handle that with demerits. The physiological revulsion, the irrational anger? That was my personal reaction.
I didn't think this was just about seeing some guy's bare backside. Still, I wasn't about to resort to stabbing anyone in the spine over a bad mood like I might have in the old world.
'Was that black fog a mana veil to block Constellation observation?'
The black fog did bring to mind techniques that obstruct a Constellation's observation to protect an Incarnation's privacy. If he'd used an Authority to enjoy a secret tryst with his lover without Constellations peeping in, then I had even less to say. That Authority was a gift from his Constellation. Who was I to complain about another Constellation's gift to their own Incarnation?
But that unexplainable disgust and revulsion—what was that about?
Even the knowledge I'd absorbed from The Incinerating Tyrant contained nothing relevant. That suggested it wasn't related to Dream Demons—maybe something to do with elves, or something specific to this world entirely.
Impossible to answer. A question that left a queasy knot in the corner of my mind.
Maybe the way I was sprawled listlessly on the sofa, bothered by the questions circling my head, was obvious. Lee Ha-rin, back from her schedule, came up behind me without a word. Her gentle hands found the nape of my neck, and firm fingers kneaded the muscle with pleasing pressure.
"Did something happen?"
Her massage skills kept improving, I had to say.
"You're worried about me? Something's been nagging at me. Do you happen to know anything about magic that looks like black fog?"
I tossed the question to Lee Ha-rin on the off chance she might know, but her answer came with visible difficulty.
"I do know some things, but mist-like mana patterns are so common that it's hard to list them all. Mist can signify everything from stealth-type effects to water-attribute blessings or even healing. It carries too many meanings."
The fact that the problem wasn't ignorance but knowing too much to explain it all—that was pure Lee Ha-rin. It lifted my mood a little. Her gentle fingers kept working the back of my neck, and her soft voice murmured steadily by my ear.
"The first thing that comes to mind is—"
Since Lee Ha-rin studied Constellation and Incarnation Authorities as a personal passion, she revved right up the moment a favorite topic came up. She has a decent way with words, so listening to her explain Incarnations' Authorities and the anecdotes connected to them made time fly.
Kim Ha-eun, who'd finished her own tasks late and slipped quietly back, started listening attentively to Lee Ha-rin's stories too. A cool drink and some snacks Kim Ha-eun had brought, plus those steady hands that never stopped kneading my shoulders. And entertaining tales of what Constellations and Incarnations had gotten up to across the continent.
I passed the time in drowsy contentment, and before long, that physiological disgust and unease had melted away—dissolved like cotton candy in water, long gone.
Until a body was discovered at the Academy.