Chapter 79: Business 4
Chapter 79: Business 4
The endless meeting finally burned through what remained of my clone's duration.
What had started right after breakfast had now dragged on well past a late lunch. People filed into the conference room, left, and were replaced by others—over and over.
'Now that I think about it, isn't she absurdly important?'
The president of the Incarnation Academy.
This world ran eerily parallel to the Earth I'd lived on. Judging by the computers and smartphones, their tech lagged maybe a decade behind, though the population seemed larger—probably thanks to the Constellations. Even so, the vast continents sustained somewhere around ten billion people. I didn't know the exact breakdown by continent, but I'd skimmed the hundred-billion global population figure online once. With no wars between humans and every continent developing without food shortages, it made sense. Long before large-scale mechanized agriculture took off, Constellations were already churning out staggering quantities of food with their Authorities. That explained a lot. A world teeming with that many people had exactly one Academy president. Only one Academy, so one president—obvious, right? But it wasn't something you encountered every day. In my past life, a position like the UN Secretary-General carried immense status, but the Academy president blew that out of the water. The head of the world's sole institution for training Incarnations. You didn't just stumble into that seat. She appeared to have hundreds of executives under her direct command and, proportional to the sheer size of the campus, easily thousands of instructors. A place where every Incarnation on the planet gathered—how colossal was her influence? And that staggering figure had practically groveled before me, then thrown her full backing into motion.
"Gold ingots to the southeast, mercury to the northwest!"
"Confirm the ritual vessels carved from Byeokjo Wood are being properly maintained!"
"All priests assigned to assist the ritual have completed their purification baths!"
People swarmed across the screen. Talk in the morning, meeting by noon, and scrambling into action before evening. Barriers on a storage room deep in the Academy disengaged and a mass of gold bigger than a person lurched out. From somewhere that looked like a museum, they hauled out stacks of sleekly polished wood. A colossal magic circle was taking shape around a thoroughly bewildered Kim Ha-eun and a stoic Lee Ha-rin, fresh from her purification bath. The formation was large enough to swallow half a training ground. An altar of pure white marble materialized with a heavy thud. My head swam.
'This is not what I pictured...'
It was supposed to be dream therapy. I had imagined a cozy little shop—something like a skincare massage parlor where Ha-eun and I quietly absorbed clients' nightmares together. In what universe did this qualify as "therapy"? From the distance, a horde of men draped in thin white robes came pouring in, arms laden with offerings. Some clutched gemstone-carved branches, others carried censers strung from gold chains. The red powder tracing the magic circle was ground ruby. Every robe, every ritual tool, hummed with embedded Authorities.
'The cheapest thing here is a solid-gold lump bigger than a person?'
Gold being the bargain-bin material really said it all.
Kim Ha-eun lay down awkwardly atop the pure white altar. Her wandering eyes searched desperately for someone to lean on, but the ritual assistants closed in, blocking her view. Lee Ha-rin stood with her eyes shut, slowly swinging a gem-encrusted pure-gold censer like a pendulum while chanting incantations. The ritual assistants surrounded the altar in a ring, stepping carefully along the lines of green powder as they worked. It was a spectacle that made that village harvest blessing—the one we'd run using a World Tree branch from the Unfading Giant Tree—look like a child's tea party. I didn't even need to reach out with my senses; mana currents churned and swelled like a typhoon, blanketing the Academy in a roiling shroud. Kim Ha-eun must have seen the storm with her own eyes—she twitched and fidgeted on the altar, nerves getting the better of her. By now, the mana had crossed from visible color into tangible force, and it was starting to howl. Lee Ha-rin's neatly styled hair, so carefully prepared in her purification bath, burst loose into a wild tangle. The twenty prostrate priests were shoved and tumbled by the wind, blown clear out of the magic circle. The solid-gold lump the size of a man's torso, a monstrous beast Fang that looked two meters long—every offering vanished into that mana storm, swallowed whole and never seen again.
Then, contrasting the majestic gale rattling my one-room apartment, a small chime sounded by my ear. Not from the chaotic TV screen, but from the computer monitor beside it, calmly printing messages.
[Incarnation Lee Ha-rin is officiating a Constellation Descent Ritual.]
[Incarnation Kim Ha-eun and 20 others are assisting the Constellation Descent Ritual.]
[Offering confirmed: Golden Censer of the Unfading Flower.]
[Offering confirmed: First Trophy of the Hunter Hidden in Mud.]
.
.
.
.
[Incarnation Lee Ha-rin's Constellation Descent Ritual has been conducted flawlessly.]
[Descent of Constellation Lethargic Nightmare is now possible.]
[Will you answer your Incarnation's fervent wish?]
Item-confirmation messages scrolled up in a terrifying cascade. I hit the Y button without a shred of hesitation.
※
A solid-gold lump bigger than a person. A golden censer studded with countless gems. The Fang of a colossal monster stretching over two meters long. A magic circle dozens of meters across, drawn in ground ruby. Branches carved from sapphire and emerald. Byeokjo Wood vessels nurtured with divine power and struck by lightning. All of it—gone.
"Thank you for answering our fervent wish."
"Thank you!"
All that, just to summon me.
The room was more dazzling than any five-star hotel I'd ever toured in a city. Calling it a room felt wrong—too vast. A parlor, maybe? But this was meant to be my personal quarters. I waved off the twenty bowing men before me. What was I supposed to do with a flock of scantily clad men? If they'd been women, maybe, but this? I shooed them all out and slowly surveyed the space. A massive wall-mounted TV dominated one side, surrounded by all manner of appliances. A rug big enough for dozens of people to sleep on. Furniture that screamed luxury from every joint. I'd thought this world was a decade behind based on its smartphones and TVs, but these furnishings and electronics put anything I'd gawked at in my past life to shame.
'Maybe the existence of art-related Constellations drove limited-production luxury goods to another level?'
Now I had two bases where I could move freely. The Constellation's space where I first opened my eyes, and this Temporary Sanctum, built with a flood of money.
"A Sanctum. Pretty damn impressive."
"It isn't by my ability. You embarrass me with such praise."
Lee Ha-rin answered at once from where she sat ramrod-straight on the living room sofa. Kim Ha-eun was in the middle of moving her luggage to the Academy dormitories, so Ha-rin was the sole person attending me here. To be honest, when she started talking about bringing in a butler or a dozen young acolyte boys to keep things tidy—since I was a man—I put a stop to that. I had zero desire to cohabitate with a gang of dudes. Even if the place was huge. This wasn't a goddamn barracks.
"So, what do you need me to do?"
"Oh, there's nothing specific you must do. Simply by residing in this space—the core of the magic formation—you supply us with mana."
It looked like modern Earth, but magic outstripped science here. Not just chucking fireballs at things, either—magic was a sprawling field with hundreds of sub-categories, all tangled together and researched like branches of physics. I didn't grasp a single principle or theory, but that one tidbit was the part I could wrap my head around. I had answered my Incarnations' wish and descended to the mortal plane. The condition "Dream Demon Constellation has descended" was met, and all the complex formations woven through the Academy responded. Using those formations, Kim Ha-eun and Lee Ha-rin would travel around and treat people's minds. In other words, I was basically a generator.
"Is that so? Well... fascinating."
I drew a finger through the air. Mana responded like it did in dreams, and the TV clicked on without a remote. I wasn't using magic via mana—I was touching reality the same way I'd manipulate a lucid dream. This Sanctum existed in the physical world, but it had been crafted to behave like a dreamscape. Real, yet mutable at my will, just like a dream.
'No worries about intruders, then.'
It was the Academy, smack in the middle of the continent, inside the most heavily guarded building where the president herself worked. Who was going to storm this place? I sank onto the sofa in front of the TV with that idle thought. The cushioning felt like my ass was melting into warm butter. The screen was a decent distance away, but it was so big every detail was crystal-clear. Had they measured the exact distance when arranging the furniture? As I puzzled over that, Lee Ha-rin naturally knelt and settled herself in front of the sofa.
"...What are you doing?"
"I felt that no matter the occasion of the Descent Ritual, we kept you standing for far too long today."
Without hesitation, she took my foot, peeled off my sock, and began to knead. She didn't stop at the ankle or calf—she worked her fingers meticulously between each toe. My body jolted at the bizarre, unfamiliar sensation.
'Not a bad feeling, actually.'
Maybe because it wasn't my clone body, but it felt cooler than I'd expected. Different from a shoulder massage. A ludicrous scene: watching TV, getting a foot rub, and nibbling on sweet snacks in pure decadence. I savored that plush sensation for about five minutes before a stray thought slipped out of my mouth.
"So, if you're attending to me, what happens to your personal research?"
This was effectively a hotel suite. I'd eventually redecorate to my own tastes, but for now, it really did resemble a hotel living room. Naturally, there were no documents or materials for magic research anywhere. Lee Ha-rin's daily routine at this hour should have been bent over a desk, sketching magic circles.
"Well, for one, managing this Sanctum is a form of study in itself."
"Sure. But what about your work?"
Was it jealousy? She didn't want to hand the job of tending to me over to someone else.
"Haa... This space is like my own dream, so I don't strictly need an attendant."
"...O-oh. Is that so?"
Ha-rin's face crumpled like a wilting flower the instant she caught my refusal. The pitiful sight made me rush to add more.
"Which means I don't need other people. Once you're done with your research, feel free to drop by."
"Ah, yes!"
Her face broke into a full, bright smile. She carefully slipped my sock back on, gave a deep bow, and stepped outside. Had she been worrying I'd descend to the mortal plane and start bossing around a retinue of servants? No, it probably went deeper than worry—jealousy, more likely. She might not mind other Incarnations, but the thought of non-Incarnations getting close to me was intolerable. The sensibilities of Incarnations in this world were too much to untangle.