Chapter 90
Chapter 90
* * *
“Hi.”
Step, step. Nineteen year old Nari, who was sitting in the bathtub, turned her head to the side. Maybe it was because of the warm water. Her hazy mind cleared halfway. Someone she had never seen before had come into the house. He was a very black man.
Nari half opened her eyes and looked at the man. Because her vision was blurred, she could not see his face clearly. Who is that, she thought, it did not seem like Dad or Jeong Suho.
Of course not. There was no way the people who had gotten sick and tired of Mom and Nari and left would ever come back to this house.
A thief, maybe? Even so, it did not really matter. With lifeless eyes, Nari just stared at the man. He squatted down beside the bathtub and gently touched Nari’s wrist.
“Good grief… It is a waste for you to die here.”
“…Thief?”
“Oh. Looks like you still have enough strength to talk.”
As the man worked on her wrist, warmth slowly returned to her body. He seemed to have given her some kind of emergency treatment, but she did not really want to check what he had done.
“You can kill me. No one ever comes here anyway.”
Whatever he did here, however bad it was, it was not as if things could get any worse. When Nari spoke in a dry voice, the black man in front of her laughed.
“Ah, no. That is not why I am here, Nari.”
“You know me?”
“Of course I do. You are our cute little sister.”
Only then did Nari’s vision sharpen. He was a handsome, thin man dressed in black, with a dangerous air about him. His impression was kind of similar to Dad’s. Thinking that, Nari repeated what she had heard from the black man.
“Little sister?”
“Yeah. I am your big brother.”
“I am an only child, so who are you?”
“I am the Lord of Chaos.”
A Constellation of the outer universe. The black man looked at Nari as he said that. Nari blinked. A Constellation?
“They said if a Constellation descends to Earth, everyone will know.”
“This is not reality you see. Want to get up and see?”
At his words, Nari braced herself against the tub wall and sat up. It had definitely been the bathroom in her mother’s house, but at some point the bathroom wall in front of her collapsed like a flimsy drama set, and the surroundings turned into a cave. Seeing the scenery, Nari gasped and sucked in a breath.
The bathtub she was sitting in was placed on top of a high altar. She blinked as she looked down below and organized the information entering her head.
“Ah, ah! Here again…! It is here again.”
Nari closed her eyes and wrapped both arms around her shoulders. When she went to sleep she was at home, and whenever she tried to get away from that home, she ended up here.
She had seen this scene more times than she could count, yet she had never been able to wake up. Eventually she had decided that she must finally have gone insane.
“This is your dream.”
“…A dream?”
“Yes. I came here through your dream. This is an ability only you have. That is why my father wants to make an incarnation contract with you.”
Nari’s expression slowly twisted. Pressing down her trembling hands against the rim of the tub, she could not hold herself back any longer and splashed bathwater at the Lord of Chaos.
“An incarnation contract?! You are telling me to become a Hunter? Of all things, a Hunter?Are you insane?! Why me?!”
The water hit the ground a moment later and boiled up with a hiss. Hearing something sizzle and burn, Nari looked down and saw that the water in the tub she was soaking in had turned into black slime.
“What is this?!”
“Easy, Nari. Let’s calm down for a second.”
The Lord of Chaos grabbed Nari’s wrist. As Nari, lost in anger and confusion, slowly steadied her breathing, the Lord of Chaos smiled gently at her.
“Our goal is the same as yours. That is why we are asking for a contract. You do not have to save Korea or stand for justice.”
“What are you talking about?”
Nari looked up sharply with a face that said she had no idea what he meant. Were there Constellations like this? The Constellations she saw in the media always wanted to guard the world from the gates.
The Lord of Chaos continued in a soft voice.
“My father desires despair.”
“Despair?”
“We Constellations were born from fear and despair. We always hunger for those things. So if we form a contract, it is a win-win situation. We will crave the despair of the world, and you will crave revenge.”
“…”
“You want to kill them all, do you ? That feeling is what called us.”
Revenge. At that word, Nari’s fingers twitched slightly. Resentment and aggression that had never been released stirred in her depths. Perhaps sensing that, the Lord of Chaos smiled and spoke.
“I will turn every land you stand on into a barren wasteland where not a single blade of grass grows, a land of despair. How about it, is that not a good offer?”
“The land… I stand on.”
The students at school who bullied her. The reporters who swarmed in packs. The perverts who somehow got her personal information and came after her. And her father. And Jeong Suho. They would all die.
And she could die too.
For a moment, Nari’s face lit up at the thought, then quickly hardened. As the madness in her eyes slowly gave way to reason, she muttered.
“No. Even so, killing people is…”
“You can break the contract halfway through.”
“S-Still, signing a contract over people’s lives is a little… difficult.”
Ah, of course. Like mother like daughter. The Lord of Chaos’s brow furrowed for a moment, but soon smoothed as he adopted a gentle expression again.
“Then how about we make a trial contract for a few weeks?”
“A trial contract?”
“Yes. We form a temporary contract. We are not fully recognized Constellations yet, so we can only complete the contract if you acknowledge us.”
“You are not… a fully recognized Constellation?”
Hearing that they were not full Constellations, Nari slowly raised one eyebrow.
From the look on her face, the Lord of Chaos guessed that in her mind he had downgraded into some kind of scammy snake oil Constellation and hurried to explain.
“We are beings half anchored into the system. Other Constellations attacked us and our power was drastically weakened. We have to rebuild our forces.”
“Why did they attack you?”
Nari spoke with a sulky tone, clearly not understanding what it meant to be half anchored into the system. The Lord of Chaos shrugged.
“Because we are bad Constellations. They said we were hurting others just by existing, so they all attacked us.”
At that, Nari’s fingers, gripping the tub, flinched. Because she thought it sounded similar to her own situation, where her very existence was denied and she was attacked as if it were nothing.
Sensing that, the Lord of Chaos spoke again.
“That is why only you were able to call us. We are like you. Cut off from the world, feared, and when you protest they do not want to understand, so they just slap the label of chaos on you and leave it at that.”
Like her, cut off from the world, feared, randomly bullied and beaten without explanation, while others refused to understand and only filled their own bellies before leaving.
“Wherever we go, we are always the villains. So we decided to be real villains for once.”
The Lord of Chaos burst into laughter. Nari simply lowered her gaze, because she could not say she did not understand that feeling. Noticing her hesitation, the Lord of Chaos spoke.
“Then why don’t you spend about two weeks with us and decide after that. Helping you is not the only thing I can do. Live with me and without me. See which life is better, and choose later.”
“Even so, that sounds like a bad condition.”
“I told you didn’t I?We are half anchored to the system. So we absolutely cannot destroy anything without your permission. Breaking an incarnation contract in the middle is no problem at all.”
At that, Nari looked at the Lord of Chaos, then nodded twice with a dissatisfied expression. The Lord of Chaos grinned and held out his hand to her. It seemed he wanted a handshake, so Nari quietly took his hand. A black light shimmered in front of her.
[The Constellation ‘◼◼◼◼’ has requested a temporary contract.
Duration: 14 days
Incarnation contract linked trait: Fragment of the First Dream
Do you accept?
Y / N]
Nari briefly held her breath. After taking a deep breath in and out, she widened her eyes and placed her hand on Y.
Black light swirled around her, and soon her system window turned black. Seeing the light, the Lord of Chaos laughed.
“So you are black. No wonder your vessel was so large.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means it is a good color. Achromatic colors have a high capacity to accept things. Ah, my favorite color is green though. Hahaha, do not look at me like that.”
When she still looked unconvinced, the Lord of Chaos laughed out loud. Nari blinked several times, because it had been a long time since she had seen someone laugh while looking at her.
Immediately afterward, a system window appeared before her.
[The temporary contract has been completed.]
[Your status window is changing!]
[Awakened information
Name: Shin Bitnari
Age: 25
Disposition: Evil
Incarnation name: Fragment of the First Dream
Class: S
Overall stats: S
Skill aptitudes: Reality manipulation, mind control, illusion
Job aptitudes: Trickster (class) – Illusionist (job)
Contracted Constellation: ◼◼◼◼
Traits: Fragment of the First Dream (Mythic), Natural Lucid Dreamer (Common), Failed Hero’s Daughter (Rare)
*Current status ailment – you are afflicted with “Social Aversion”. If you use your skills in your original appearance in front of others, their effectiveness will be greatly reduced.]
“S rank…?”
“Yes, S rank. We are amazing, I told you.”
Seeing her class and overall stats shoot up, Nari rubbed her eyes. The Constellation in front of her spread his arms wide and smiled.
“Now you can have money, connections, fame, and authority, all at will! Enjoy yourself as much as you can for a year, then if you want, you can just throw this lousy world away. Of course, if you do not like it, you can just cancel the contract.”
Nari had never imagined he would be such a powerful Constellation, and could only keep rubbing her eyes. Seeing that, the Lord of Chaos raised a hand beside his face and smiled confidently.
“Then here is your first contract gift.”
“What is that?”
“I will let you leave this dream.”
Snap! He snapped his fingers once. Nari woke up from the dream.
“You will never fall into nightmares again, because you yourself will become the new nightmare.”
So be confident wherever you go. With those words as a last message, Nari’s vision blurred. When she finally managed to pull herself together and opened her eyes,
“…Gasp.”
She was on the bed in the small studio apartment she had begged her father for. Only then did Nari realize that even the bathtub in her mother’s house had been part of the dream.
Then was that Constellation also a dream? Thinking that, she opened her status window. It was not a dream.
A black message window popped up in front of her.
[“Hi,” says the Lord of Chaos, looking at you and waving.]
Feeling as if someone were watching her, Nari glanced around. When she did not notice for a long time, another black message appeared.
[“Are you not going to say hi,” says the Lord of Chaos, pouting at you.]
“Ah… hello.”
[“From now on we will talk like this,” says the Lord of Chaos, waving both hands in big motions.]
The tiny studio apartment she had wheedled out of her father. She had always been alone here, but now that there was someone talking to her, Nari hid the ticklish feeling in her chest by clearing her throat.
“Are you… going to keep talking to me?”
[“Of course, I will keep watching you,” the Lord of Chaos insists earnestly.]
“Keep…”
Knowing that there was a higher being constantly watching over her felt very strange. Even if that being was plotting the end of the world, as long as he treated her well right now, was that not enough?
Thinking that, Nari decided to accept the temporary contract for now.
And so, two strange weeks began.