Chapter 127: A Strange Afterstory
Chapter 127: A Strange Afterstory
The matter was settled more easily than expected.
The female disciple who had regained her senses in the dream also recovered consciousness in reality.
Whether it was the beating she gave Kim Ha-eun that restored her confidence,
or whether having exchanges somewhere other than the military and the battlefield
healed the female disciple's soul, I couldn't say for sure,
but she was freed from her Qi Deviation and headed inland for recuperation.
"I am in your debt."
The way she stared at me the day she left, her eyes brimming with fervor, was a little unnerving.
No matter how I looked at it, it didn't seem like she'd lost her memory.
Perhaps she had lost the memory, but it was carved into her unconscious.
Still, master and disciples departed the Academy without incident.
Declaring that their promise would be kept without fail.
More problematic than expected wasn't The Sword That Severs the Yoke, but Kim Ha-eun.
"Hey, you, that...?"
We decided to keep the punishment I'd dealt Kim Ha-eun a secret, so things wouldn't get awkward among my Incarnations.
I'd already scolded her plenty; there was no need to drive a wedge between two people who'd only just gotten close.
Two people who'd been too awkward to even talk had finally found a peer to converse with.
The issue was the part that couldn't be hidden—namely, the change in her Origin.
"I don't know either, so stop asking."
From the crack of dawn, Kim Ha-eun and Lee Ha-rin were making a racket in my quarters.
Kim Ha-eun, fine, that's one thing. But Lee Ha-rin, who was respectful to the point of subservience—this early in the morning?
Thinking that, I stepped out of the room I used as a bedroom and into the living room—
"Well, I think it's because of the Authority..."
There stood Kim Ha-eun, sporting horns, wings, and a tail.
Two horns, growing just above her ears at roughly eyebrow height, maintaining a smooth curve.
Behind her, a long tail with a heart-shaped tip swayed gently,
and every time the bat wings on her back fluttered, her chest heaved.
She was the very picture of a lewd demon, a succubus, straight out of the 19+ media from my past life.
"Um, aren't you embarrassed?"
"I am embarrassed, so please just shut up..."
that's only my personal impression.
This world is one of reversed gender roles.
If a burly, muscular man walked around with bat wings and a heart-shaped tail,
the reaction wouldn't be, "Wow, how magnificent!" but more like, "Why the cosplay?"
Even more so if it were inside the Academy dormitory, not some event venue.
'It is my fault, though...'
Maybe when I was touching her Origin, wishing for her to become a complete dream demon,
the basic image of a succubus had popped into my head and was reflected onto her.
Just like I'd thought of Freddy Krueger from that movie when I became a dream demon.
The unnaturally soft-purple hair and red horns,
the bat wings flapping behind her, the demon tail.
No matter how I looked, she resembled a hostess in a cosplay bar.
Made worse by the fact that she'd just woken up, her clothes still loose and disheveled.
"Constellation, you're awake. There's chilled milk tea; shall I bring you some? Or would you prefer hot?"
Seemingly unwilling to pay much attention to another woman's cosplay,
Lee Ha-rin scurried over to me as I opened the door.
"Something cool, please."
Since a Constellation's body doesn't strictly need meals,
at some point, I'd taken to just downing drinks whenever my mouth felt idle.
Used to this habit of mine, Lee Ha-rin naturally offered me a large plastic bottle of milk tea.
Lee Ha-rin, who'd once imagined a fancy hotel-like interior and an elegant table,
and tried to serve it in a lavish teacup,
was slowly, perfectly grasping my preferences.
As I gulped down the milk tea straight from the bottle,
Lee Ha-rin gave a respectful bow and left to attend to her backlogged research.
Her schedule had been delayed by about a week due to the successive rituals, so she must have been feeling rushed.
"And you? Nothing on your schedule today?"
As I sprawled loosely in a chair,
Kim Ha-eun kept standing beside me.
"What would you have me do?"
She turned the question back on me.
Normally, she'd just give a curt bow and go off to gather magic power.
Now that I thought about it, was this because I'd blocked her magic power absorption?
Having somehow figured out how to control and conceal her wings and tail, Kim Ha-eun kept trailing after me.
Behavior totally unlike her usual self, when she'd invent tasks just to obsessively gather magic power.
'What's gotten into her...?'
I stared intently into her light-purple eyes, which seemed clearer than before.
Aware of her own fault, she flinched slightly, but having correctly read my gaze,
she lifted her head again and met my eyes.
I read her complicated yet simple feelings.
In this situation, there was only one thing for me to do.
"Go and look after the patients as usual. Come back before lunch to report on the situation, and if you properly collect Nightmares and bring them, I'll give you magic power."
"Yes, understood."
A command.
What remained in Kim Ha-eun after being thoroughly scolded by me was a passive demeanor.
You could see it as obedience, somewhat different in nature from Lee Ha-rin's.
Study as your parents tell you,
go to the university your parents want,
try to get a job at a place that will please your parents.
That was exactly Kim Ha-eun's life.
A model student who believed wholeheartedly that she could play once she got to university,
and spent her school years doing nothing but studying for a prestigious school, never even playing games.
Her magic poisoning was gone,
and the wild, reckless behavior she'd justified with the pain of losing her parents had been brought under control.
Now, all that was left in Kim Ha-eun was a personality that moved according to the instructions of someone above her.
The slight problem being that her education had taken place in the space of dreams and the unconscious?
Look at her, unable to leave for patient treatment because I hadn't given the order.
Perhaps this passivity was due to Kim Ha-eun becoming a complete dream demon—
a bondage imposed by the relationship between a Dream Demon Constellation and a Dream Demon Incarnation.
Lee Ha-rin left. Kim Ha-eun was sent on her way.
I fiddled with my smartphone, and a message came in.
The only people who know my number are my three Incarnations and the Academy's president.
Even then, if the president had something to convey, she'd inevitably send someone to call for me formally,
so the person who'd send a text was predetermined.
[Constellation, did something happen at the Academy?]
It was Han Ye-ji, staying on the continent's interior, not at the Academy.
She was firing off a question at me out of the blue.
This was markedly different from her usual formal messages to me—her Constellation, a man—all flowery and exquisitely courteous, as if even sending a text felt awkward.
Her fluster was bared in the uncharacteristically short, direct message.
A barrage of messages flooded in, as if my reply didn't even matter.
What on earth could have happened since the morning commute to set her off like this?
Had some thoughtless instructor or cadet spread the story about the two Constellations online on a whim?
[Since I got to work this morning, strange people keep trying to talk to me]
[Muscular women with swords keep coming up to me]
[People with scars and rough faces keep acting like they know me]
[Even men I don't know have come to bow to me and then leave]
Frantic, or perhaps just deeply agitated.
I could clearly feel her confusion in this incomprehensible situation.
There was nothing for me to do at the Academy anyway, so I went straight up to my Sanctum
and watched through the screen to see what was happening to Han Ye-ji.
"No, I mean, I have to go on patrol."
"Is that so? Then at least take this."
"I'm really not supposed to accept things."
What met my eyes was Han Ye-ji, surrounded by a crowd of hulking figures.
In contrast to Ye-ji's bewildered face,
her two teammates were watching the scene with great amusement.
The expressions of the muscular women resembling Amazons who surrounded her weren't bad either.
'The Sword That Severs the Yoke, how many disciples does she have?'
My guess was that these were The Sword That Severs the Yoke's disciples.
Since it was said she taught swordsmanship without an Incarnation contract,
they must have been spread all over the Eastern Continent and caught wind of the news.
With that thought, I took my eyes off the screen and looked at my smartphone.
People think alike, no matter the world.
There appeared to be a lot of websites in this world similar to the ones from my past life.
A site just for humor, a site with clubs subdivided by personal taste,
even a site where people collaborated to gather information.
When I searched for The Sword That Severs the Yoke on the internet,
all sorts of Constellation-related sites popped up.
What caught my eye was a phrase: The Sword That Severs the Yoke/Achievements.
It reminded me of a plant wiki I used to visit back in my past life to look up game strategies.
'It's not just a lot... it's on a whole other level?'
They say letting people post their opinions freely reduces accuracy,
but no one would dare post lies about a Constellation's achievements.
Reading through the well-organized entries, I could understand by what means The Sword That Severs the Yoke, without a single Incarnation, earned and spent points to descend to the mortal realm.
I'd thought she was just a straightforward, overwhelmingly strong Constellation,
but she was one who freely disseminated every technique she knew to anyone with a modicum of talent.
I saw a post stating that over 90% of the trainers teaching weapon arts and martial arts at the Beating Lionheart's Gym who weren't Incarnations were disciples of The Sword That Severs the Yoke.
'Without a single Incarnation, just from Constellation recognition points?'
Beyond that, from exercises akin to cardio boxing,
to self-defense for men, to something like a taekwondo gym for improving children's stamina—
even the martial arts taught in the military were connected to The Sword That Severs the Yoke.
'Even if she doesn't buy Authorities with points, that's incredible.'
Most fields related to physical education, martial arts, and self-defense had ties to The Sword That Severs the Yoke.
Just as in the Republic of Korea, kendo would make you think of Haedong Kumdo, and taekwondo would bring Yongin Taekwondo to mind,
the people of the Eastern Continent thought of The Sword That Severs the Yoke.
"This is good for your body, it's great to have while exercising."
"Ah, and these are the shoes we use at our gym—"
"Do you have a regular place you work out? If not, we—"
"I specialize in personal training."
"For a gunslinger, there's a related self-defense technique."
Did the disciples of The Sword That Severs the Yoke have some kind of community?
In the brief moment I'd been searching on my smartphone, Han Ye-ji on the screen was buried in the crowd.
Every fitness-related business owner in the neighborhood had swarmed to find her.
"Yes, sorry, thank you, just a moment?"
In the midst of her stammering, Han Ye-ji was caught in a gift bombardment.
Her shoes were subtly swapped for new ones, a wrist strap was wrapped around her arm,
and a shopping bag crammed with health supplements was thrust into her other hand.
"Hmm, I don't think this one suits Ye-ji."
"Ah, are you their colleagues?"
As if that wasn't enough, Jeong Ah-rin and Namgung Hui, who'd been giggling and spectating from behind, also became targets.
So the incident might have exploded at the Academy with Kim Ha-eun,
but the one most heavily impacted was Han Ye-ji, who was inland.
'I'll just explain it to her in a dream.'
Watching a somber-faced Han Ye-ji pull a vacuum-sealed half chicken breast someone had slipped into her patrol jacket pocket,
I gave up on explaining via message and averted my gaze.