Chapter 99: Constellation, A Tiny Nightmare 3
Chapter 99: Constellation, A Tiny Nightmare 3
The first time I used magic power.
Way back when I'd just bought the Dream Demon Authority from the shop—when I was a half-baked Dream Demon—every time I peeked into someone's Nightmare, a headache would slam into me.
I'd completely forgotten about that after the headaches stopped once I started taking Dream Elixirs regularly and became a full Dream Demon.
But this is a world with magic and talents. If those exist, limits have to exist too. Push past those limits, push too hard, and backlash follows. Simple logic.
'Ugh, my head...'
Not even back when I was scouting contaminated zones and nearly crossed the Jordan River had my head hurt like this. Although back then, every bone in my body had ached like it was being crushed—no headache, just full-body agony.
This time was different. Body fine, mind alert, but my temples were being drilled into with an awl. Even keeping perfectly still had tears welling up in my eyes. I squeezed them shut.
"Are you alright, Constellation?"
She must have noticed my furrowed brow. I cracked my eyes open at the sound of her voice and saw someone's thighs and knees. A gentle touch brushed across my forehead.
The Temporary Sanctum was still a Sanctum, apparently. The moment I came to my senses, the headache that had been gouging through my skull subsided.
"I've shown you an unsightly side of me."
The words came out smoothly the instant I saw Lee Ha-rin gazing down at me with worried eyes. A far quicker response than the old days, when I'd had to pile on the gentleness and leisure to act the part in this gender-reversed world. Even this polished performance alone told me how much I'd leveled up as a Dream Demon.
"No! It's perfectly fine!"
Watching Lee Ha-rin beam with joy despite knowing her Constellation had passed out from magical exhaustion—that sent a little chill down my spine. Just as some people fall in love with obscure pre-debut celebrities, there were plenty who adored weak, unremarkable Constellations. The type who cheer you on as you gather more Incarnations and expand your influence, like rooting for an idol climbing toward bigger stages.
Lee Ha-rin would probably latch onto any Constellation and start adoring them, but still. Is it really okay for her to radiate that much happiness while tending to someone—no, some Constellation—who passed out with a nosebleed? Taking in the situation, she'd left me right where I fell on the carpet, worried I might have hit my head, and had simply given me her lap as a pillow.
"Um, are you sure you can move?"
Her voice was thick with concern, but it didn't matter. Whether it was the Temporary Sanctum's function or a Dream Demon's ability, aside from the headache, my body was in peak condition. I rose from the floor, and Lee Ha-rin stood up with me.
At the same moment, I felt an emotional wave washing over me from behind.
Sure enough—my Dream Demon rank must have genuinely risen, because Lee Ha-rin's emotions were spilling out so plainly I couldn't miss them. More precisely, her thoughts, tangled up with emotion, were painting themselves whole into my mind. Her and me, stepping out of the Temporary Sanctum together.
'Okay, that's a bit much...'
Specifically, she was imagining parading around with me on her back, showing me off to everyone. If I walked out that door right now, she'd probably scoop me up and carry me without a second thought. I planted myself on the sofa instead.
"Speaking of which, did you see the pure-white werewolf that was in here? The one I created..."
I spoke while enjoying the luxurious feel of the sofa supporting my lower back. A creature that size couldn't possibly go unnoticed, yet I hadn't seen it anywhere.
Lee Ha-rin fumbled at her waist in response to my question. What she pulled from her pocket was a carved gemstone fragment.
"Ah, that white werewolf vanished after a little while. It left only this behind."
A fragment of the pale violet heart I'd created. That was all.
'So I was short on magic power after all.'
Had I fainted right on the verge of perfect success and failed to sustain it? I toyed with the fragment, which made a faint clinking sound in my palm, mulling it over.
The fact that this hadn't disappeared meant I'd succeeded to some degree. Every Nightmare I'd made up until now had vanished without leaving so much as a speck of dust. So if anything remained, it meant I'd finally managed to fully pull a dream object into reality.
I'm no Creator, and I can't conjure something from nothing. But I can use magic power to drag things out of dreams and into the real world.
As I fiddled with the fragment, clink-clink, Lee Ha-rin—apparently misunderstanding something—flung herself prostrate before me.
"I'm sorry, Constellation!"
"What for?"
A completely out-of-context apology. Had she groped my body while I was unconscious? Wiped my nosebleed and changed my clothes? I couldn't fathom what she was apologizing for, so I asked. Face buried in the carpet, she shouted:
"Well, I didn't know what the white werewolf was, so I think I may have been... a bit excessive. I cornered it, and it thrashed around, then suddenly let out a huge howl and disappeared... I believe I killed it!"
Along with the shout came a wave of intense guilt and anxiety.
No wonder I'd vaguely heard shouting and the clamor of things breaking and shattering right before I passed out. If she'd only come in after I'd already fainted, she would've seen that the white werewolf wasn't dangerous. The problem was that she'd walked in at the exact moment I collapsed.
"You didn't kill it. It was a magically constructed form—it doesn't matter at all."
Not that any of this was reason to scold Lee Ha-rin. A boy crumpled on the floor with a nosebleed and a massive werewolf standing tall beside him—who wouldn't react that way?
A bookworm who'd done nothing but study magic circles in her room, charging without hesitation at a werewolf a full head taller than her. Most people wouldn't have been able to throw themselves into it so readily. When a Constellation and Incarnation are bound together, the way it makes people's eyes roll back in their heads really never changes.
The same temper she'd had on contract day, when she'd foamed at the mouth and lunged at her instructor while still a cadet. That fire hadn't gone anywhere.
"So lift your head. After everything between us, are we really going to bow and scrape and beg forgiveness over something like this?"
Her hair was disheveled from lying prostrate. I reached out and stroked it gently. At the military academy it had been a short bob. When she entered the Academy, it reached her shoulders. Now it was past her shoulder blades. I played idly with hair that could no longer be called short, and felt another surge of intense emotion rising from her.
"Still, wouldn't it be wise to get an examination? Right now you're not in a Clone body—you're inhabiting a physical vessel through Descent. No matter how closely this place was modeled on a Constellation's space, it's ultimately human technology. I'm worried you might have been seriously injured somewhere."
She lifted her head slowly and spoke with a composed face, carefully suppressing the desire visibly simmering beneath those eyes.
"Fine. If you're that worried, getting checked out sounds like a good idea."
Her dark eyes flooded with elation. Even without any Dream Demon ability, I could see it plainly—the corners of her lips twitching upward, the outer edges of her eyes curving down in joy. But my next words made her face crumple instantly.
"However. I'll be walking there on my own two feet."
"But..."
Those pitch-black eyes, still clinging to hope, gazed at me pitifully. Our eyes met, and the Dream Demon ability activated once more—just like the old days when I'd had to lock eyes with someone to read their Nightmares. Unaware that her thoughts were being read, she spoke cautiously.
"Until the examination is complete and we have the results, wouldn't it be prudent to handle your body carefully?"
'It's a ten-minute walk from here to the Academy infirmary... fifteen if we walk slowly.'
"Once the results come back, I'll be able to rest easy as well. I'm the one who presided over the ritual that brought you here through Descent. Seeing you bleed and collapse like this—I can't shake this anxious feeling. Please, think of it as an Incarnation's childish whim. Just this once. I'm begging you."
'Kim Ha-eun handed the Constellation over to me earlier, so if we stop by there first, that's twenty minutes... no. If I do that, I might lose the honor of attending to him. That one's body is sturdier than mine.'
Her worry was genuine, but she was blending it so expertly with her own desires. I'm sorry and I'm worried, so I'll atone through devoted service. And that service is deeply pleasurable. That was the gist of her thoughts.
It wasn't that she was plotting anything lewd. Her desire was laid bare in its purest form—she simply wanted to show off as the Incarnation who carried her Constellation on her back.
'Was bringing up our relationship the spark that set this off?'
Normally, Lee Ha-rin would bow her head and back off after a few words from me. But today was different. The desire to transcend the ordinary Constellation-Incarnation bond had clearly caught fire inside her.
Look at how the Unfading Giant Tree didn't even know the names of the farmers under its care, sending me as its proxy to perform rituals. That alone proved how unusual it was for a Constellation to take deep, personal interest in each individual Incarnation and interact with them like I did.
If that Giant Tree had been lonely and bored, it could have found ways to talk with its Incarnations and grow close to them. Instead, it had spent its time tending only to plants until it met me. That was the norm for Constellations and Incarnations. With the exception of me.
"Fine. But no detours. We go straight to the examination, understood?"
"Yes!"
'If the exam runs a little late, it'll be mealtime. I'll just have to walk very, very slowly.'
I answered with a heavy sigh, and Lee Ha-rin's head shot up. She darted toward the entrance and stood waiting for me. The sight of her reminded me of a dog who'd just heard the word "walk." It was hard to say anything to that.
I reined in the magic power that was freely cycling through my eyes and ears, reading her emotions and thoughts, and added one last thing:
"Once the examination is over, I'd like to visit the cadet cafeteria. I'm curious about what you all eat on a regular basis."
At my words, she smiled like she'd never been happier in her life.