Chapter 233: A Nymph
"...Why...am I here?" I ask Arial as I look around at this endless expanse of water. I was resting like Esther asked, and then I started to fall asleep, only to suddenly appear here.
"Hehehe, so impatient, little fruit!" she says, moving seductively through the water before stopping and looking at me with a disturbing seriousness.
"What the hell was that, Evelyn?"
"...What are you talking about?"
"Hmmm...that place, those things, those immense structures everywhere, carriages of metal moving on their own!! Strange clothes, and a massive number of humans"
"!!!!"
’Oh crap!! She saw that?!’ I’m shocked; I never imagined she would have seen it. She probably didn’t see the initial part, where I was in that house, with those fake, faceless parents and the "Evelyn" on the computer telling me the truth.
But she must have seen my visit to Japan. Which means she saw the modern world, and she saw me break down in tears over a "strange" woman who was actually my mother.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about..."
"Don’t lie to me, little fruit. What was that place? Those things? And above all, what the hell was that bizarre power I felt? It was creepy, disgusting, and extremely clingy!!"
’Power? Is she talking about Evelyn’s powers?’ I don’t know how strong that "Evelyn" was, I only know she was undoubtedly very powerful since she could affect other worlds, mess with time, and force my reincarnation into her body.
"..."
"Nothing to say, Evelyn? Ah, but there’s more. Your strange reaction to making Esther dependent on you is weird too. Does it have to do with that mundane woman? The one who was crying? Does it have to do with those papers with the strange writing?" she questions with immense curiosity.
"I don’t know..."
"Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!! Liar!!" She seems insanely interested in it. Nymphs are curious; I guess her interest makes sense.
"Look what you’re doing to me, little fruit!! I can’t stop thinking about all of it!! What were those glowing screens? Why didn’t I sense the Hikishin? How did those vehicles move? What was that strange language the people were speaking?"
"Besides, were those humans? They weren’t demons!! They were real humans!! Those machines were like, insane!! In my entire existence, I’ve never seen anything like that! You HAVE to tell me what those things were!"
"..." I shouldn’t talk about the modern world to fantasy beings, especially not to a nymph. What if one day Arial is strong enough to travel between worlds and tries to go to the modern world? I don’t want to be the cause of the world I once lived in collapsing someday.
"Evelyn, what are you hiding? Does anyone else know about it? Ah, I’m sure Esther doesn’t, right? You’ve kept this secret well." The more Arial talks, the more relieved I am that she doesn’t know I’m a reincarnation.
If she knew I lived there as a human, died, and was reincarnated as a demon baby in this world, she’d try to blackmail me.
"Arial, just forget it...I won’t say anything, and that doesn’t matter...it was...just a cruel gift from a cruel person who wanted to see me suffer..." It wasn’t a pleasant gift; it only showed me everything I lost.
"Besides, I love Esther. I didn’t mean to hurt her. A-and I didn’t make her dependent on me; she always was, and I just showed her that..."
"That was pretty toxic of you, you know that, Evelyn?"
"...I don’t need your judgment, Arial, and I won’t say anything...don’t forget you’re inhabiting my body against my will, and all because you cowardly ran away from the dungeon!!"
"Now send me back..."
"You’ll leave the spiritual plane when you wake up, don’t worry. I just put in a little effort to pull you here. Besides, Evelyn, I have an excellent memory. I don’t need you to tell me things I’ve already seen. I’d just like to know what all of that was..."
"But if you don’t want to talk, fine. But don’t forget, Evelyn, we have a contract, and you owe me a body to inhabit."
"..."
"By the way, Esther seems pretty dangerous. She was obsessively watching you sleep for two days straight. She seems really strange about everything. I don’t know the reason, but yeah, you did it. She seems addicted to you, like you’re a drug."
"...Why are you telling me this? Are you mocking me?"
"Oh no, no, no, Evelyn, I’m not mocking you, hihihihi" She laughs, a strange laugh and a smile full of malice.
"I just think it’s funny. You’re becoming a lot like the very thing you once despised."
"Leave me alone." I start walking to get away from her, but she appears in front of me, grabbing me.
"Let me go! I don’t like you, don’t you understand?!"
"Oh, how cruel. You’re going to treat me like this after already borrowing my power...but it’s fine. You’re fun to observe. Your life is so turbulent and piques my curiosity."
"Tell me, Evelyn, what is a nymph?"
"...?"
"Answer the question. Give me a little attention, and I’ll leave you alone!"
"...What a stupid question. A nymph is a spiritual-type monster, the only difference from other monsters in general being their superior intellect, and probably the fact that they are directly linked to nature."
"Bingo!! Nymphs are spiritual beings."
"And tell me, Evelyn, what is common among all nymphs? What makes us so well-known and makes all races avoid us?"
"...Seduction, obviously. Nymphs use their bodies, magic, and powers to attract and psychologically and emotionally manipulate their targets, luring them close. And when they get too close, they enter the danger zone and can’t escape anymore, eventually dying from being trapped near the nymph, satisfying her curiosity..."
"Satisfied now? Can you go away?" I ask.
"HihihihiHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" She lets me go, cackling with a huge smile. Her smile is sickeningly wide, humanly impossible to be so big. Sharp teeth are on display, showing that in the end, she is a monster, and her beauty is a pretty trap that easily deforms in the face of her true intentions.
"Something funny?"
"Oh yes, hilarious." She says, wiping her hands over her eyes as if she’d teared up from laughing so hard.
"Evelyn, what are you? Just answer my questions, and you’ll have your answers."
"...A puppet..."
"No, no, no, my sweet and naive little fruit. Deep down, what are you truly? I don’t mean that fragile shell you use..."
"...Ah...probably...some kind of spirit." It’s obvious, considering my body really is just a shell, and I can swap bodies with other puppets, or create a new body.
"Exactly, Evelyn, you are a spiritual being. And tell me, didn’t you just trap Esther by luring her into a psychological and emotional trap where she’ll be stuck with you until the day she dies?"
"Didn’t you use seduction, your beauty, your body, your feelings, and your own personal selfishness to trap the person who ’interests’ you?"
"I’m not...wait...no!! T-That has nothing to do with it!!" I say, understanding where she’s going with this.
"Evelyn, by logical definition, you are also a nymph."
"...N-No, that’s not..."
"Evelyn, there’s a common mistake many mortals make because they don’t truly understand what a nymph is. Why do you think the term ’nymph’ is generalized, indicating a whole chain of species?"
"But we’re all totally different? For example, I’m a lake nymph. I’m naturally completely different from a forest nymph. So why are we in the same category?"
"We have nothing plausibly in common besides the fact that we’re both spiritual beings, you understand? ’Nymph’ isn’t 100% a racial term. It’s the complete definition of a spiritual being that, logically, doesn’t have a real physical body, can’t be easily killed because it’s a natural spirit."
"And that psychologically and emotionally manipulates other living beings, luring them into a sweet trap where they’ll be imprisoned until death. We aren’t aggressive beings. We aren’t brutal killers. We aren’t evil."
"We’re just selfish beings who, through our own desires, affect other lives. What drives most nymphs is curiosity. We don’t understand other races. We don’t understand their feelings. We aren’t bad; we just want to understand."
"But then, Evelyn, why aren’t spirits and nymphs in the same category? Simple. Because a Spirit doesn’t act like us, isn’t hard to kill, and above all, doesn’t have a dominant connection to anything."
"I am a Naiad, the nymph of lakes. I spiritually represent what a lake is. You, Evelyn, have an unusual domain: ’Puppets.’ But it’s still your own domain, and it’s alive."
"Evelyn, do you know what defines a nymph’s spiritual domain? It’s ’life.’ Anything that has a direct connection to ’life’ can have a nymph representing it. Does that ring a bell?"
"My dear, sweet puppeteer, aren’t you capable of creating life using your domain? Using your puppet power to create conscious beings, sentient beings that can make their own choices?"
"S-Stop! Don’t compare me to you!!! You’re just a damned aberration!! A monster!! No..."
"Open the system."
"..."
"Evelyn, open your status. Now."
"..." I freeze, my heart racing wildly.
"Open it, Evelyn. You know how the status works. If you discover new information that’s true, the Status adds it. It happened when you discovered you were of the demonic dragon race. So prove I’m wrong, Evelyn."
"...S-Sta...status..."
[Status
Name = Evelyn Ashcroft
Race = Demonic Storm Dragon/Hyleíade (Demonic Living Puppet)/(Material Spiritual Nymph)
Title = Tragedy/Master of Puppets/Material Nymph]
I only glance at the beginning, and immediately I bite my lip. Just like she said, the system proves I was wrong.
"So, Evelyn, tell me. What are you?"
"...Hyleíade..." I stop moving, falling to the ground. I don’t know how to feel about this. It’s not something to be sad about, because it doesn’t change my life much. But it shows that maybe I am a monster.
"There are skills that change the biology of their users, Evelyn. It seems your blessing turned you into a literal monster. How sad, that’s so tragic. Evelyn Ashcroft is actually a nymph! Who would have thought, little princess?"
"...Why did you do this..." I stand up, throwing myself on top of her, knocking her to the ground as she smiles maliciously.
"Out of curiosity, obviously. I want to know what those things were. So, nymph to nymph, how about you help me out a little, my sweet, adorable junior?"
"Besides, you were foolish, Evelyn. Didn’t you ever wonder why your body has a core? As soon as I linked with you, I questioned it immediately. Why does Evelyn have a core like a monster?"
"I didn’t understand, so I spent a long time analyzing your behavior, actions, powers, everything. I looked at everything you went through to find the answer."
"And your behavior, in the end, is exactly that of a nymph. A little different because you were born a demon before becoming a nymph, but still, you undoubtedly stopped being what you were before when you became a spiritual being."
"..." I cover my face with my hands. Not crying; crying wouldn’t help. But I feel...disgusting...yes, I really am such a disgusting being.
"Why do you think torturing me like this would make me help you?" I look at her through my fingers, my voice a cold, irritated tone.
"Torture? You hurt me. I revealed a truth your mind ignored. You seem to have some knowledge of nymphs. If you had put the pieces together, you would have known you are a nymph."
"You...you’re so wretched...I hate you so much, Arial."
"Hehehe, well, know that I adore you very much, Evelyn. You’re the most interesting thing I’ve ever encountered in my entire life."
"..." I look at the water below us, this place that seems infinite, and then just bite my lip. It seems like everything chose this moment to fall apart.
My past life showing me what I lost, the betrayal, being imprisoned, being tortured, increasing the toxicity of my relationship with Esther, and now this revelation that I’m a monster just like Arial.
"Why...why does destiny hate me so much...hahaha..." I let out an empty laugh while Arial watches me with a smile, as if she’s gained something from this and is satisfied.
Imagine what will happen to me if someone finds out I’m a nymph. Esther. If Esther finds out I’m a nymph, I can easily see her chaining me up somewhere with the excuse that it’s "For my own good," just a way to control me.
Esther has already reached an emotionally dangerous level for me. Anything could make her explode.
"How much more do you plan to fuck with my mind, which was already a mess, Arial?! You want to know what that was?! It was a fucking other world! Those were cars driving on the streets, cell phones and televisions with their glowing screens, humans, buildings. It was technology, you stupid bitch, understand?!"
"It wasn’t magic! It wasn’t anything special!! It was just something humans learned to do by practicing and learning!!! Even the humans in this world could do that!!" I shake her hard while dumping information.
"..." She just listens to everything with satisfaction, as if listening to wonderful music after fucking with my psyche even more. And I can only curse this world that, in the span of 2 to 4 months, has given me one bad thing after another without rest. And it’s existentially exhausting. I’m starting to feel so tired of trying.