Chapter 151: Snake's Resolve 4
Chapter 151: Snake's Resolve 4
I'd been so close to savoring that soft, feminine figure curled up on the bed, playing coy like a giant cat. So damn close.
It was early afternoon at the academy, sunset still a long way off.
I blinked a few times, and suddenly the sun had dropped, darkness seeping in.
Before me stood me, the school nurse just wrapping up for the day, and Lee Ha-rin, straightening her uniform and looking to catch a ride home.
Every crucial moment in between had been skipped over in seconds flat.
'This fucking shit. At this point, it's on purpose, isn't it?'
No matter how I looked at it, this was clearly abnormal.
It felt exactly like that mess with Han Ye-ji.
How did an interruption always manage to barge in right before the main event?
When I was just tending to patients at the Academy or idly shooting the breeze in another Constellation's Sanctum—any ordinary stretch of downtime—I never got interrupted once.
'Whoever it is, I'm not giving them a clean death.'
Was there a man alive who wouldn't be furious?
Even a goddamn male beast would lose his mind.
You make me wade through the boring waiting, then sabotage things at the last second so I can't taste the sweet fruit?
'Could've at least shown up while I was still waiting.'
A taut sensation pulled at the nape of my neck.
That awkward, disorienting feeling—the same one from when I first entered a lucid dream.
Now that I was a full-fledged Dream Demon, there was only one reason my neck would prickle with that uncomfortable sensation, like clothes that didn't fit right.
Someone was using magic power to interfere with me.
Rather than fight the pull, I let my body be flung forward.
A car with a passenger inside—its engine refusing to turn over, bucking uselessly—flickered at the edge of my vision.
From school uniforms to cars... Lee Ha-rin had built up quite the diverse collection of desires in here.
And what I should have been enjoying had just been reduced to a fleeting dream in her unconscious.
My killing intent spiked even higher. My vision spun, and a familiar scene came into view.
The TV screen that filled one corner of the room, the computer set up beside it.
The thick World Tree branches sprouting from the corner and stretching all the way to the ceiling.
And beneath it, my bed, blankets left in a mess, and the stone that had rolled across the floor before hopping up onto the desk.
Along with the fading afterimage of some unknown figure.
"The fuck is this?"
The stone defied gravity, climbing back onto the desk.
And the figure that had vanished, wearing a startled expression.
At first I thought I was seeing things.
If the tangled blanket hadn't thrashed and flapped, if the chair, the fridge, and all the other junk hadn't started moving wildly, I honestly would have thought it was a hallucination.
But it wasn't just ignoring gravity.
The whole room was moving in reverse, like a video being rewound.
Amid the chaos of that trashed room, only one thing stayed perfectly still.
The branch of the World Tree, holding its ground with serene dignity.
My destination was clear.
※
"You have something you want to ask the World Tree?"
"Yeah, I'm still not very good with that side of things."
I had shifted from my larger form back into the elf boy.
Still, holding a conversation with the World Tree using only my own abilities was a stretch.
I seemed to recall once stealing and learning a druid's Authority, up to the point of sharing vision through a wooden bracelet, but...
Well, what could I do?
If I couldn't handle it myself, I'd just ask someone else for help.
If asking wasn't enough, I'd beg if I had to—just to catch that bitch.
I didn't know who had interfered with me.
I didn't know why an anomaly had occurred inside my own Sanctum.
But if a person was responsible, only one suspect fit.
Heart of the Exiled Serpent.
Just as I had once entered her Sanctum, wasn't it possible that she, too, had slipped into mine?
Far more logical to suspect a Constellation I was already entangled with—like Heart of the Exiled Serpent—than some random intruder whose name and identity were completely unknown.
The Incinerating Tyrant and The Sword That Severs the Yoke were, naturally, off the suspect list.
Those two wouldn't bother sneaking in—they'd just smash me to pieces along with the entire Academy.
The Unfading Giant Tree and Loyal Fang didn't have the ability to enter someone else's Sanctum.
"Hmm, so if I just show you what I saw just now, that'll do?"
She'd been in the middle of tending her garden, setting down her watering can and straw hat, and now she came trotting over to check on me like she was asking after my well-being. Almost unbearably endearing.
"Yeah, please. And thank you."
I'd shown up out of the blue with a completely random request, but the elf girl, a soft smile blooming on her lips, didn't hesitate.
"Oh, this much is nothing."
A slender, snow-white arm lifted upward.
Because of that traditional elven garb I could never get used to, her smooth, hairless armpit was fully exposed.
The sexual desire I hadn't resolved flickered up like embers refusing to die, but right now, relieving my stress took priority over relieving my lust.
With that thought, I shifted my gaze to her fingertips.
From the massive tree claiming a corner of the garden, a vine thick as a serpent slithered silently down.
A skill I couldn't even compare to—I had to borrow someone else's Authority just to make physical contact, let alone move a plant on my own.
But then, she'd lived her whole life as an elf since birth, whereas I was a Dream Demon merely borrowing an elf's shell.
"Mm, oh, hmm...?"
A leaf of a different color settled onto the fingertips she'd been using to stroke the tree's stem. A lush, green leaf, plucked from the very tip of a green stem.
Her delicate brow, serene as she picked up and caressed that little sprout, suddenly furrowed deeply.
Her eyes, which had been gently closed like a painting, now shut tight. Then her eyelids slid back up to half-mast, and small snorting sounds—huff, huff—escaped as her tiny nostrils flared.
"Here. You see."
She was clearly angry. I could see the forced corners of her lips trembling.
To be honest, I had no idea why she, of all people—who always wore a smile—was this furious.
Puzzled, I placed the little leaf, soft as silk, onto my palm.
What unfolded before my eyes was a view looking down into my room, almost like a CCTV feed.
Plants don't have eyes, but this had to be the perspective of the World Tree's branch, gazing down into my space.
There, in the corner opposite my bed and right next to the TV screen, someone appeared.
Just as I'd expected: it was Heart of the Exiled Serpent.
She hadn't come willingly, it seemed—her usual arrogant expression was gone, replaced by a startled, flustered look.
I figured that, just as I'd gotten sidetracked into her Sanctum at a crossroads on my way to the dream city, she had stumbled straight into mine while moving between Sanctum and the surface world.
Wearing a bewildered face, she looked this way and that.
Then she began rummaging through my room, sweeping her hand across the desk that also served as a dining table, opening the fridge, and staring intently at the computer and TV screen.
Eventually, she found the golden stone and slipped it nonchalantly into her pocket.
'That rotten, fucking bitch.'
The stone glowed with a golden luster, pulsing and throbbing in rhythm with the waves of my magic power. It was handsome enough to call a masterpiece—or an antique ornament.
Did that make it okay to just steal it without a second thought, just because you'd landed in some unknown place?
After pocketing the stone, she headed for the computer beside the screen. She must have figured she'd learn something by looking at it.
Was it because she messed with the computer that ran my Sanctum's system?
Suddenly, a purple mist churned violently near the bed, and I appeared.
At the exact same moment, she whipped around in alarm and vanished in a blur.
Left in her place was just the stone, sitting there by itself.
What followed was exactly the scene I had witnessed with my own eyes.
Objects moving as if time was rewinding to restore them to their proper places.
The stone, abandoned where Heart of the Exiled Serpent had vanished, fell with a soft clack, rolled across the floor on its own, and climbed back onto the desk, returning to its original spot.
The food she'd rummaged through inside the fridge rearranged itself.
The blankets and chairs she'd disturbed while snooping around returned to their proper alignment.
"Mm, what exactly is this situation...?"
"So, here's what happened—"
The Unfading Giant Tree, her beaming smile back in place, asked me the question.
Feeling an inexplicable unease at that expression, I gathered my thoughts and answered.
I told her how I'd become able to enter Heart of the Exiled Serpent's Sanctum. How, once inside, I'd poked around here and there, but she'd chased me out before I could actually encounter her. Then my speculation—that Heart of the Exiled Serpent could also enter my Sanctum, but even if she could enter, she seemed unable to exert any real influence.
'So that's why my fountain pen and paper knife disappeared.'
That fountain pen I'd grabbed, fully intending to jam it into her neck the first time I entered. I should have noticed the moment it vanished from my hand.
'Does that mean booby traps are useless too?'
I'd been thinking about setting up a whole array of anti-personnel booby traps—the kind those serial killers in Nightmare use to hunt their victims—just in case. But seeing how everything automatically reset to its original state... it seemed pointless.
"So this woman is the Fallen Constellation The Incinerating Tyrant is searching for?"
"Yeah, that's right."
I'd been busy entertaining thoughts of traps rigged with piano wire that would slam wooden spikes into someone's skull, or ones rigged to fire a pistol when a desk drawer was opened, when I snapped back to answer the Unfading Giant Tree's question. Her tone had taken on a somewhat chilling edge.
Her smiling face hadn't changed. Her voice hadn't changed. But my instincts were screaming danger at me.
"In that case, I'll help you."
"How?"
"Since the World Tree's branch seems to exist independently, separate from the Sanctum... shall we try planting a seed?"
Smiling softly, she yanked hard on the World Tree's branch.
At that rough, uncharacteristic touch, a chill ran down my spine for reasons I couldn't quite fathom.