Chapter 153: Entrusted (3)
-Chirp!
“Come here, Chirp.”
I picked up the little white chick, who was rolling around excitedly on the wide bed. Just like in the Hong Kong hotel, it seemed to love exploring unfamiliar places. Watching TV too—it was clear my kid was incredibly curious about everything.
“At least you’re having fun, Chirp. That’s a relief.”
-Chirp chirp!
“Looks like your dad isn’t going to get any sleep tonight, huh.”
The environment was fantastic. I wasn’t picky about sleeping conditions, and there were no issues that could keep me awake. Dinner was delicious, the walk was pleasant, and the ridiculously luxurious bathroom, complete with who-knows-what bath additives, was excellent.
Only one thing was missing.
‘Yuhyun, I hate to admit this, but I can’t sleep without you.’
Damn it. I didn’t want to sleep. When was my fear resistance going to recover? It should be back by now. Was it because of the doubled effect of attack skills? It’s been lasting unusually long.
“Why is TV banned anyway?”
Was this some kind of meditation retreat? Even detention centers allow TV. It was probably to keep me from watching the news, but still, this was excessive. How was I supposed to survive an entire night with nothing to do?
“Chirp, you need to sleep.”
I patted a large pillow to make a little nest and gently placed Chirp in it. Though I had no intention of sleeping, I climbed onto the bed and leaned back. The bed was really nice. I might accidentally fall asleep here. Should I move to a chair instead?
“If I turn off the lights, I might actually fall asleep… But isn’t it too bright as it is?”
-Chirp.
I should switch to indirect lighting. Where was the remote?
“The light remote should be…”
“Here.”
“Oh, thanks—”
It was Yuhyun’s voice. And his hand.
I froze completely, unable to react. The familiar hand that had extended toward me to pass the remote was now holding my wrist.
“It’s alright. I won’t hurt you.”
My brother’s voice spoke soothingly, trying to calm me.
“Even appearing here without a medium is incredibly difficult. That means I can’t do much of anything. Don’t worry.”
I couldn’t bring myself to turn my head. Chirp flapped down from the pillow and settled onto my lap.
“You… your appearance.”
“This world rejects me, so I had to borrow the help of someone who belongs to it. Taking the form of the person you value most and think about the most makes it easier to get through.”
The filial duty addict. Diarma’s successor. The one who had borrowed Yun Kyungsu’s corpse to appear last time.
I’d expected this thing to contact me eventually, but why now, of all times?
“…Isn’t it a bit late for an unannounced visit?”
“Dreams happen at night. I could’ve come sooner, but your brother’s been with you constantly these past few days. When someone identical to me is nearby, it becomes glaringly obvious that I’m a fake. That makes it more likely for me to be rejected.”
The calmness in the fake Yuhyun’s voice sent chills down my spine. Was he saying that, because I’d been sleeping with Yuhyun nearby recently, he hadn’t been able to show up?
Dreams happen at night, huh. Combining the way Yun Kyungsu’s corpse had taken different forms with the dungeon’s properties during that incident, it was clear this filial duty addict’s ability belonged to the illusion category of mental skills. A truly terrible match for mental health.
“So, have you decided what the wager will be?”
I looked down at Chirp on my lap as I spoke. I couldn’t keep avoiding it forever, but I didn’t have the courage to turn my head. If only it would deliver its message and leave already.
“Oh, that’s up to you, Hyung.”
Goddamn it, why does it keep calling me Hyung?
“Are you just going to keep looking away? You’re supposed to look at someone’s face when you talk to them.”
“I don’t consider something wearing someone else’s skin to be a person.”
“That’s a little hurtful.”
It chuckled softly. The sound reminded me of our conversation over dinner earlier. Stroking Chirp’s downy feathers with my fingertip, I finally turned my head.
The thing stood next to the bed, leaning slightly toward me. It wore a face older than my brother’s current one, smiling at me.
Don’t smile like that. The only time you smiled at me like that at that age was back then.
“…I’ve looked at your face, so hurry up and say what you need to say, then leave.”
Focus on something else. Something else. Yerim and Peace should be wrapping up their dungeon run soon—hopefully, they’re safe. Come to think of it, those two have never really worked together before. I wonder how it went. Their attributes clash, so they probably didn’t get along perfectly. When they first met, Yerim annoyed Peace enough that he disliked her. They better not have fought or anything. I hope they cleared the dungeon and came back on good terms.
“I’ve developed an interest in you.”
The thing wearing Yuhyun’s face said, its eyes gleaming with amusement. The darkness in its gaze was deeper than the current Yuhyun’s. These days, my brother often had one eye that glowed red, making him look even more different.
For a moment, I felt strange. It was the same person, but he was already changing little by little. His skills would change too. He already had Iryn, and there would be skills like the White Whale’s Tear of the Festival that disappeared without being acquired.
He was the same brother, but not quite.
“In the meantime, I’ve been observing everything in as much detail as possible. I looked into what’s been happening in this world. I couldn’t learn everything, but I managed to uncover a bit about you.”
…How much does it know?
As I swallowed dryly, the thing continued speaking with eyes full of curiosity. Its expression at that age was so unfamiliar that it oddly calmed me a little.
“A Nurturer who loved and raised a natural-born S-rank.”
“So what? That’s not uncommon.”
Did it only know up to the Nurturer title? Or had it figured out the Perfect Nurturer? If it was the latter, that could be a problem. If it had caught on to the keyword effects, it would seriously interfere with future plans.
“That title appears very rarely. In fact, only here, in the fifth origin.”
The thing pulled my wrist toward itself as it spoke. It had said it couldn’t do much, but its strength was clearly greater than mine.
“You’ll never find the standard Nurturer title in the first, second, third, or fourth origins, or in any of the others. Raising beings below the rank of natural-born S-class is common and widespread. But…”
The creature whispered as though sharing a secret.
“A Nurturer who raises a natural-born S-class only appears here.”
The Fifth Origin. The snow-covered tree. The universe to which our world belongs.
“Of course, it could just be a coincidence because the number is so small. But perhaps it’s something connected to the origin itself. So, Hyung, let’s make a deal.”
“A deal?”
“Yeah. Give yourself to me.”
“…The waiting list’s a bit too long for that. Get in line, behind everyone else.”
Of course, I’m not an item, but if I were, Yuhyun would obviously be first in line. Seong Hyunjae, who claims the spot himself, would probably count as second. Beyond them, there’d be plenty of people willing to bid their entire fortune. Just thinking back to the auction proved that.
“You don’t have to keep struggling with something that’s far from guaranteed to succeed. Give yourself to me, and I’ll pull out the people you want to save. How about it?”
“Didn’t you say only SS-grade or close to it could be rescued?”
“Luckily for you, most of the people you care about seem to be S-class. And even if they aren’t S-class, it’s not completely impossible to save them. It just comes at a much higher cost. Sometimes, even those ‘unfilial bastards’ pull useful people out of collapsing worlds.”
It said that if this world were to be destroyed, Myungwoo—the blacksmith—would likely be a candidate for rescue.
The blacksmith? Myungwoo? If that were true, at least I could breathe a little easier about him.
“So, Hyung. Isn’t it a good deal? I can save up to ten S-classes and maybe one or two A-classes. That’s pretty generous. It’ll cost me quite a bit too.”
Ten S-classes were more than enough to cover everyone on my team.
“I thought you lot were interested in destroying worlds. Taking all these people away would make it even easier to do that.”
“If it were that easy, don’t you think we’d always propose deals like this? Normally, it’s one or two at most. That’s why we mainly focus on persuading natural-born S-classes.”
The thing’s expression turned slightly mischievous as it added,
“And, you know, we’re actually split into two camps.”
“Two?”
“Yeah. One side is made up of the good little kids who work hard to help the parent—the origin—devour the worlds. And the other side consists of those who are curious. They want to see what happens after the end.”
Filial duty addicts. One faction helps their “parent,” the origin, swallow up the worlds. The other wants to know what comes after the origin devours everything.
The creature in front of me was undoubtedly part of the latter group.
Come to think of it, it had shown interest in Yuhyun with all that talk about spirits, but it hadn’t cared much about destroying the world itself—claiming its own safety was more important.
“Let’s sign a contract, Hyung.”
A pale, glowing white panel appeared before me. Just like the L-grade contract with Diarma. This time, though, I couldn’t even count on the double skill effect from the Venom and Curse Dragonkin skill to escape.
“Even though your F-rank stats make it impossible for me to pull you out alive on my own, I’ll treasure you and take good care of you. Natural-born S-class Nurturers are already rare, but most of them are dead by the time they’re discovered. No one has ever successfully contracted one before. And I’m especially curious about how you safely fused the mana stone in your chest. Back then, I thought it would fail, but somehow it stabilized. I wonder what kind of beast it will produce.”
That was… oddly comforting to hear. It seemed Seong Hyunjae’s shard had done its job well.
“This is a rare material, so I’m making quite the concession for you.”
A rare material, huh? I didn’t trust the thing, but I couldn’t help feeling tempted. It was uncertain whether I—or we—could save this world. But if sacrificing myself could guarantee the safety of my team… well, it was worth considering.
Could I delay the decision? If possible, I’d prefer to sign only when I was sure there was no hope left. Then again, since cases like mine were so rare, maybe I could negotiate. I could ask for, say, a five-year grace period…
-Chirp!
At that moment, Chirp leaped into the air with surprising force, crashing into the contract panel with its entire body.
Thud.
“Chirp!”
That thing’s incredibly sturdy! I quickly grabbed Chirp, but he didn’t seem hurt. He flapped his wings energetically, as if full of determination.
-Chirp chirp! Chirp! Chirp!
“Calm down, Chirp! You’ll get hurt!”
-Chirp!
“…What’s that?”
The thing—no, not Yuhyun—tilted its head, looking genuinely puzzled. It seemed to have only just noticed Chirp’s presence, despite the chick having been on my lap the entire time. It reached out toward Chirp, and I instinctively moved to shield the chick, trying to pull back, though my wrist was still caught.
“Don’t touch him!”
-Chirp!
“Something about it feels familiar. Let me take a closer look, Hyung.”
“Stop calling me Hyung and get lost!”
The creature stared at Chirp as though it wanted to dissect him. That thing wasn’t my brother. Twisting my trapped wrist, I leaned back as far as I could, raising my knee to kick it away—
Bang!
A golden chain burst through the door, smashing it apart as it flew into the room. The chain, as sharp as a spear thrown with immense force, pierced the creature’s side. Even after penetrating, the chain retained enough momentum to hurl it to the far end of the room. I was nearly dragged along with it but came to a sudden stop as an arm grabbed me around the waist.
“Yuhyun!”
I shouted reflexively as blood splattered into the air. I knew it wasn’t really him, but damn it. Unlike my panic, the creature wearing my brother’s face looked down at the chain embedded in its side with a completely unaffected expression, as if it didn’t feel any pain at all.
“Crescent Moon?”
…Did it recognize the chain? It might have some connection to Crescent Moon. The creature raised its head and looked at the chain’s owner—Seong Hyunjae.
“And who are you?”
“The homeowner.”
Technically correct, but not the answer it was looking for. Chirp, who had fallen onto the bed, toddled over to me. I glanced down to make sure Chirp was safe, then turned my gaze back to the creature.
…I knew it wasn’t Yuhyun. I knew that perfectly well, but my heart still wavered. I wanted to rip out these lenses. If I’d been wearing glasses, I could have easily taken them off.
“Do you not know about Crescent Moon? More importantly, Hyung—”
“I told you to stop calling me Hyung, you bastard!”
“It’s easier to maintain this form if I remain as your brother. Will you accept the contract?”
“That’s—”
“You shouldn’t covet something that already has an owner.”
Seong Hyunjae’s voice cut off my response.
“I let the young master keep his claim because Han Yujin refuses to let him go, but I have no intention of adding another.”
“…What do you mean, let him keep his claim? He’s not yours in the first place.”
And even if I were something to be owned, my brother would come first. Why was he already drinking kimchi soup over this?
“If it’s difficult to watch, then look away.”
Seong Hyunjae said, his voice calm. The chain shifted, faint sparks dancing from his fingertips. I bit my lip and cast my gaze downward.
Crackle.
The sound wasn’t particularly loud, but the scent of burning filled the room. It wasn’t the smell of charred flesh—it was furniture and walls catching fire. I instinctively gripped the arm holding me tightly, then forced myself to lift my head again.
In the blackened, scorched spot, a massive, jellyfish-like entity wavered. Its blurry form was hard to make out as it slowly undulated its body.
-Think it over carefully. If you reject the deal, I won’t retreat so easily.
And with that, it vanished.
Seong Hyunjae looked down at me as I exhaled a short sigh.
“So, the mana stone in your chest produces a beast?”
…How much had he overheard? Was this bastard bugging my bedroom?
–TL Notes–
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