The Heavenly Demon Steps Out (2)
After returning to the modern world, I had encountered countless creative works. Having only known the poetry recited by Murim poets and the drunken songs belted out by sots, how could I not become absorbed in modern culture? In those stories, it was incredibly common for a girl who knew nothing of makeup to see her transformed appearance with someone's help and utter lines like, 'Is this really me?'
However, I could not do that. I wasn't blind, after all. I could clearly see that the person who had left the house and the one standing here now were completely different. My neatly arranged hair complemented my pale skin. A crisp white shirt layered beneath a black outer garment. Jeans that accentuated the lines of my legs. My current appearance closely resembled the beautiful boys—or perhaps beautiful girls—seen in various video productions.
The fact that Enri stood beside me, gazing at my reflection with clear satisfaction, suggested my assessment was fairly objective. The problem, I supposed, was that I was someone who simply could not adapt to this beauty. After all, I had always found more comfort living as a shut-in than as a beauty.
Staring at myself in the mirror made my skin crawl. It felt as though something that shouldn't be there had taken up residence. If I recalled my time in the Ice Palace, I might eventually grow accustomed to it. But did I truly need to adapt?
“Miss Ara. Shall we go eat now?”
“Finally.”
Could I truly escape this hell at last? It had been an ordeal of immense hardship. Once I returned home, I would undoubtedly collapse into a heap and remain sprawled there for quite some time. This had been weighing on my mind for a while, but it seemed I would need to purchase something to embrace. Something soft, fluffy, and abundantly plush. Such a thing was necessary for the sake of my mental stability.
When I emerged from my thoughts, I found Enri wearing an awkward smile.
“I’m sorry. I got a bit carried away, didn’t I?”
“It’s fine.”
I was simply grateful that she understood. Most people who act purely on their own whims rarely consider others’ feelings.
Enri led me along, claiming there was a restaurant nearby that she knew well. A place she knew well, hmm. Was it food from the Western Kingdom, I wondered? I found myself intrigued by that as well. Since arriving in the modern era, I had yet to taste a single dish I disliked. No matter what was placed before me, it boasted flavors that, when compared to Murim cuisine, could only be described as heavenly. This promised to be a delightful experience.
As we walked and exchanged light conversation, Enri suddenly stopped upon spotting a statue on the side of the road.
“Was this here before?”
Coated in bronze, it appeared at first glance to be the delicate work of a skilled sculptor. But upon closer inspection, the truth became apparent. The subtle rise and fall of the chest with each breath, the faint tremors in the muscles—such details gave it away. The person pretending to be a statue had tried to erase all traces of humanity, yet there were limits. To truly deceive someone like me, they would have needed to die for a moment and then resurrect.
I had no idea why they were doing this, but I felt I should inform Enri. She looked as though she might reach out to touch it out of curiosity any second now.
Just as I opened my mouth to speak, the statue moved.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
Enri let out a scream utterly unbecoming of a woman and stumbled backward, her foot catching on the edge of a paving stone. Had I not caught her from behind, she would have landed hard on her rear.
The performer removed their hat in apology before returning to their original pose.
“Haa… haa… That was… a person?!”
Still reeling from the shock, Enri cried out. In response, the statue moved once more, proving it was indeed human.
“Yes. It’s a person.”
“But why on earth is a person doing that?!”
“Indeed. Why are you doing that, sir?”
I asked, but received no reply. What an unusual individual.
“Huu… That scared me…”
Enri looked on the verge of tears. Clutching her chest and muttering in a tiny voice, she seemed genuinely frightened.
“How are you so calm, Miss Ara?”
If I told her I had already known, she would probably get angry. So I simply shrugged my shoulders without a word.
“Because I wasn’t surprised.”
“You really have nerves of steel.”
Insisting that the only way to calm a startled heart was to put something delicious in one’s mouth—a rather strange logic—Enri practically dragged me toward the restaurant.
“Here?”
“Yes! Doesn’t it look good?”
“…It does, I suppose.”
The place Enri had brought me to was a budae jjigae restaurant. That spicy red broth filled with various hams, ramen noodles, beans, tofu, and other ingredients all boiled together in one pot. It was exactly that dish. I had not expected it in the slightest.
It wasn’t that I disliked budae jjigae. I enjoyed spicy food, and I loved ham and ramen noodles even more. My affection for them could almost be called love. However, the image of a delicate Western girl like Enri recommending a budae jjigae joint created a rather jarring disconnect.
Come to think of it, there was no reason for Enri, who had come from abroad, to specifically seek out foreign cuisine while in Korea.
When we entered, the owner auntie greeted Enri with a surprised, “Oh? You’re back again?” The additional teasing remark—“You’ve brought a handsome young lady with you this time”—was a bonus.
“The usual for you, right?”
“Yes, please.”
After the auntie left, Enri stretched her arms. The motion made it clear she felt completely at home in this restaurant.
“Miss Ara, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Are you good with scary things?”
Scary things, huh. Well, I wasn’t sure. After all, I had usually been the one instilling fear rather than feeling it.
When I tilted my head in confusion, Enri searched for something on her smartphone and handed it to me. It was a video from MyTube. A young girl was dancing. The precarious balance—on the verge of falling yet never quite doing so—immediately drew the eye. I didn’t know who she was, but she clearly had talent. She would go far.
Then, just as the girl seemed about to make a mistake and fall, a woman with a pale, ghastly face suddenly burst out with a scream. The blood smeared around her eyes and her pitch-black pupils made her look like someone cursed by sorcery—or a vengeful spirit who had died with deep resentment. It was not a pleasant sight, so I stopped the video.
“Miss Enri, are there no more videos of the dancing child?”
I was curious about what happened after that part.
When I looked up, Enri was staring at me with sparkling eyes. What was this? Why was she looking at me like that? It reminded me of the way believers had once regarded me as their savior.
Enri grabbed my hand and spoke in a tone far more serious than she had ever used before.
“Miss Ara. Could I ask you for one favor?”
“What kind of favor?”
“Please play a horror game with me! I’m begging you!”
When I asked for a more detailed explanation, Enri spoke haltingly. She had been late for her scheduled streaming time recently, and as punishment, she was required to play a VR horror game. She was far too much of a coward to do it alone, and everyone around her was also a scaredy-cat who had refused her requests and run away. I was the only person she knew who remained calm in the face of fear. She pleaded with me to help her just this once, as if I were saving her life.
In truth, Enri’s words were closer to desperate begging than a simple request.
“It might be burdensome to appear on stream, but I’ll handle everything.”
“I’ll help you.”
I had no idea how terrifying this so-called horror game could be to warrant such a fuss, but considering all the kindness Enri had shown me so far, this much assistance was only right. I felt no particular burden about appearing on a broadcast. In the past, I had stood before thousands. Sometimes my audience had been believers. Other times, they had been enemies on the battlefield. While the nature of a broadcast was quite different, the important thing was that I was accustomed to others’ gazes, wasn’t it?
“Really?! You promise? You absolutely will?”
“Don’t worry.”
“Wow!”
Her bright smile made her look like an innocent child, but her eyes told a different story. Those were the eyes of a demon dragging people down into hell. Just how frightening was this horror game to make her look like that? I wanted to ask, but before I could say anything, Enri had already begun setting the schedule without hesitation.
Hmm. Well. It should be fine. At most, it would probably be similar to the sorcery performed by those Taoist charlatans.
The following evening, I was invited to Enri’s VR room.
Unlike my own VR room, which could only be described as an empty white space, Enri’s was beautifully decorated. Pink walls adorned with numerous stuffed animals and elegant lighting gave it a distinctly feminine atmosphere. Perhaps a bit excessively so.
“Welcome, Miss Ara. Isn’t my room nice?”
“It is. A fine place indeed.”
“Aren’t you a little too immersed in your Heavenly Demon role-play?”
When I spoke in the language of Murim rather than Korean—as I had grown accustomed to doing in the VR world—Enri let out a laugh. It wasn’t an act; this was simply closer to my true self. Strangely, whenever I used Korean, the polite speech patterns from my previous life emerged first, likely due to lingering traces of my past. I saw no reason to correct it and had paid it no mind, but being treated as genuine when using that tone while this felt fake left me with a subtle, strange feeling.
“That wasn’t acting?”
“No. I am simply speaking in the manner I originally used.”
“So that’s how Chinese gets translated. I’m sorry, I misunderstood.”
“Think nothing of it. It is easy to make such mistakes.”
Since it was also the language I had used while living as the Heavenly Demon, it couldn’t entirely be called a misunderstanding.
“By the way, Miss Ara… Could you please use Korean as much as possible during the stream?”
“Why?”
“You’ve become far too famous in the Apis community. If people find out that the person I invited is you, there will be absolute chaos—horror game or not.”
Had my name spread that widely? I hadn’t done much. Though I had fought that black thing with considerable sincerity, so perhaps word of that had gotten around. I didn’t particularly like the idea of my defeat being circulated, but what was done was done. I could simply cover it with a video of my victory later.
“The speech pattern will be completely different in Korean, so that should be fine. And for your face, this should work.”
What Enri handed me was a cute fox mask. It had no straps, so I wondered how it would stay on, but she explained that it would attach automatically when placed against the face. I tried it on. Indeed, it stuck the moment it touched my skin.
I tapped it quite firmly, but it showed no sign of falling off.
“When you want to remove it, just think about taking it off while touching it with your hand.”
When I did so, it came off easily. How fascinating. Was this another trick made possible by the VR world?
“How does it feel?”
“It’s not ba… I mean, it was fine.”
It didn’t obstruct my vision, nor did it create any strong sense of discomfort against my face, so wearing it posed no inconvenience.
“That’s a relief! You won’t have to wear it for long anyway. The horror game we’re doing today is only about three hours long.”
“Then let’s finish it quickly.”
“I want that too.”
Enri had been smiling brightly, but upon remembering that she actually had to play a horror game, her expression stiffened. She took a long, deep breath, slapped her own cheeks twice with considerable force, and then forced another smile.
“Then I’ll start the broadcast now.”