Chapter 100 - A Play (1)

1

SPLASH.

The blood flowing from the mirror flooded its surroundings.

At first, only a drop or two fell. Blood beaded like water from a tap that had not been fully shut off.

But the moment a grandfather clock chimed in the distance—ding... ding...—the flow changed completely. Blood poured uncontrollably from the cracks in the mirror.

DING...

Twelve o'clock. Twelve chimes.

A drop swelled into a stream.

One stream split into six.

Blood blanketed the corridor.

A crimson sea of blood.

The grandfather clock sounded its final chime.

We stood in the middle of a carpet of blood.

"My lady."

Instinctively, I put my arm around Lady Silver Lily's shoulders. The pool of blood reached our ankles. Its sludgy, slime-like texture felt ominous.

"This is..."

"My nightmare."

Lady Silver Lily whispered in my arms.

"Do not let your guard down, butler. This place is already no different from another world. Others can neither know nor see what happens here."

BLOOP!

Bubbles rose from the sea of blood. Thousands swelled, and thousands burst.

But some, instead of vanishing like bubbles, took on complete forms.

[The Silver-Plated Heart manifests.]

They were demons shaped like lips. No, they were lips themselves. They had no faces, no bodies—only red lips and red tongues.

One grinned.

-Your Highness, Crown Prince.

-How hateful.

The blood-bubble lips kept rising and bursting. Their murmured words rarely connected. They broke off constantly, like a choir producing a hideous dissonance.

-Our kindly crown prince.

-Before he became crown prince, the prince picked flowers for me.

-He wiped my tears with his sleeve. He is a good man, all the same.

-It is because he is tenderhearted.

-All the same.

Lady Silver Lily thrust her rapier in a flash, piercing the blood-bubble lips. The demon burst. But twice, three times as many tongues surged from the sea of blood as she had destroyed.

The demons' giggles rang out scarlet.

-How lovable.

I swung my sword as well.

-What meaning is there in loving someone who was admirable from birth?

The demons' fighting strength was negligible. They did not even resist us. They meekly accepted our blades.

It was just that...

-He may be a flawed man.

-But embracing a flawed person and guiding him is true love.

They grated on my nerves.

This was a mental assault, not a physical one.

-I love you, Your Highness.

-I know how to love, too.

-I am a noble who loves.

I bit my lip. It disgusted me. I swung my sword faster, cutting through the blood bubbles.

-Will you kill me?

-It is useless. The more you trample tragedy, the sweeter it becomes.

-Golden Silk Blossom. Did you see that thing flirting with His Highness?

-How revolting.

The sea of blood laughed and surged.

-He is so innocent that he still dreams of a romantic life. His Highness does not love Golden Silk Blossom. He is merely using her as an escape from the imperial throne.

-Poor His Highness.

-Pitiful His Highness.

Damn it.

I had witnessed something like this before.

'The Demon King of Autumn Rain!'

Before I took that constellation in and gave it the name Hungry Ghost, it had been like this. The Demon King rained blood from the sky and commanded an army of monsters at will.

This was the power of a constellation.

Those demons were Lady Silver Lily's familiars.

[The presence of the Silver-Plated Heart grows more distinct.]

Something other than lips emerged from the sea of blood.

Hands.

Two hands clasped each other like a bride and groom at their wedding.

-Raviel, your family and the imperial family have betrothed us.

-Betrothed?

-Yes. But I do not want a political marriage.

The demonic hands interlaced their fingers.

Drops of blood fell endlessly from those blood-formed hands.

I realized the demons were reenacting [events from the past] like a play.

-Forget the betrothal the adults arranged without asking us. Whatever they do, I will love you. I came today to propose to you properly.

-Your Highness.

-Raviel, when we are a little older, will you marry me?

Dozens of lips surrounded them.

They answered together.

-Yes.

-I promise to love you.

-I will love you too, Your Highness.

That son of a bitch.

He had spouted that shit and then refused to take responsibility?

-His Highness has probably forgotten.

-It was a childhood promise, after all.

-It cannot be helped.

-People forget so easily.

The blood-bubble lips giggled.

-It cannot be helped!

I could bear it no longer.

Anger surged through me.

SPLASH!

I took a step forward, concentrating aura in my leading foot.

Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven.

Eighth Move.

Linked Sword of Death by Burning.

My aura spread with the ripples of blood.

I seared the sea of blood covering the corridor with aura.

-Well, well.

The attendant spirit spoke behind me.

-These trash mobs don't even take a full hit anymore, huh? Our little Crow-Tit has come a long way.

Normally, I would have played along with his teasing. But I was in no mood for that now. I swept the corridor clean.

The demons burned. They did not even scream as they vanished. Instead, they laughed to the very end, infuriating me.

"Damn it."

I had incinerated the demons in one blow, but I was still seething.

Anger at the crown prince. Contempt.

Someone as noble as Lady Silver Lily had been hurt because of a man like him. Worse, it had become a wish that could never, ever be undone. That enraged me.

"Since when...!"

I drew a sharp breath to steady my voice. No matter how angry I was, I did not want to raise my voice at Lady Silver Lily.

"... When did you become a constellation? These are a constellation's familiars. You created them, my lady."

That must have been why they recognized us as allies and did not resist.

Lady Silver Lily nodded, as though she knew that too.

"It happened the moment I drove the dagger into my heart."

By then, the blood had begun returning to the mirror. Wriggling, the streams of blood crawled into its cracks.

A reversal. Lady Silver Lily watched with quiet eyes as the drops of blood squirmed like leeches.

"It seems this world originally had no constellation. Whether one once existed and was killed, or whether there was none from the beginning, is difficult to say."

Lefanta Aegim had probably killed its constellation. But this was not the time to discuss that. I listened to Lady Silver Lily.

"As time passes, the demons grow increasingly powerful. Their numbers become vast, and their forms grow enormous. Even controlling them as I do now becomes difficult. And when the tenth day comes..."

When the tenth day came.

She paused there. Then she shook her head once and continued in a different direction.

"... In any case, once the ten days began repeating, I naturally became the [representative of the world]. Whether I wish it or not, the hands of this world's clock revolve around me."

-Hmm.

The attendant spirit rubbed his chin.

-This isn't a normal ascension. In Murim terms, she reached that realm through the methods of the unorthodox factions, not the orthodox factions. The sword she stuck in the mirror may be only a broken fragment, but it is still a sacred relic that was once the [Goddess of Protection].

He muttered, "Well..."

-If you drive something like that into your heart, of course you'll ascend to constellationhood whether you like it or not... And if you keep regressing on top of that, the causality becomes more than a human body can bear. She's a half-baked constellation, not a complete one. Anyway, I suppose several coincidences combined to produce this.

'Can someone become a constellation even if they don't want to?'

-Yup. Were you born human because you wanted to be, Zombie?

Honestly, this guy always had to put things that way.

-What matters is the conditions, not your will. Plenty of people suffer because they're human, and a surprising number suffer because they're constellations. It's very easy to make life miserable. Understand, Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult?

"Whew..."

I suppressed my anger at the crown prince. The anger I swallowed left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Lady Silver Lily watched me.

"How strange. Are you not disappointed?"

"Pardon?"

"What you said is correct. Whatever the circumstances, those demons are my familiars. They do not invent the words they sing. All of them are things I murmured in my dreams, words I recited, even if only unconsciously."

She tilted her head.

"I swore to a love that would never change for all eternity. To keep that love pure, I must remove the dust and blemishes that accumulate on it every day."

Disappointment.

Frustration.

The desire to receive as much as she gave.

"Those things are the result."

The greasy grime of the heart.

A curse in the purest sense.

"Is it not ugly?"

She spoke almost in a murmur.

"I taught you love. But that was all I intended to do. I meant for you to withdraw your love at this point. I deliberately brought you here to shatter your illusion."

"Disappointed?"

A breath escaped me involuntarily. Not a sigh. A breath from which I had barely managed to refine away my anger.

"You ask if it's ugly? Whatever else I may not know, my lady, I would never be disappointed in you over something like this."

"... Something like this?"

"You told me your secret. You took out your heart and showed it to me exactly as it is. Truly ugly people, my lady, never show their hearts to anyone. They pretend to be carefree, to be untroubled. All they know is how to hurt people."

That fucking Flame Emperor.

"If anything, I'm worse. If you knew the thoughts that went through my mind, you would be the one recoiling in horror."

"Now I am curious."

"If you brought me here to drive me away, you miscalculated, my lady. I didn't fall in love with you because you were someone without ugliness."

She faltered for the briefest moment. Because of that word: love. My face grew hot as I said it, too, but I had no intention of hesitating.

"It has been only a day since you began to adore me. What glittering flattery."

"Is one day the problem? Would a year of loving you be enough? Would a thousand days? Should I come back then?"

"..."

"I can see what kinds of people you loathe and despise. You must hate the same things I loathe and despise. I can also tell what hurts you and causes you pain. I love the way you live. Because you and I live the same kind of life."

Were my words reaching her? Was I expressing what I meant properly?

I did not know.

I had never said anything like this to anyone. It was unfamiliar. But I wanted to have the person before me. I wanted Lady Silver Lily to have me. I wanted us to possess each other and share one life.

"I like you as much as I like myself. I hope I can come to love myself as much as I love you."

That was how I truly felt.

And the only way I knew to act on my true feelings was to give them everything I had.

"I will make you love me. I won't ask you to abandon the crown prince. Even without my asking, at some point you will abandon him."

"My heart..."

"Yes. I don't care whether your heart is mortgaged to the world. If that's the problem, I'll solve it. If you still love the crown prince after that, I'll become an overwhelmingly better person than him and keep hanging around in front of you."

"..."

"Did the crown prince give you unforgettable memories in childhood? That doesn't matter either."

I whispered into Lady Silver Lily's ear.

"We are regressors. The only two in this world."

I knew my face was red now. Still, I said what I had to say.

"There will be so much time that only you and I can enjoy. During that time, I will give you memories so breathtaking that your memories of the crown prince will fade beside them. I will try my hardest."

"Hmm."

The corners of her eyes lifted.

"Do you intend to repeat these final ten days infinitely? You will exhaust yourself and fall away."

"That isn't a threat. This isn't the first time I've repeated the same days."

"What if I tire of you and ask you to disappear from my sight?"

"I would disappear, but..."

I moved my hand, reaching for the fingertips of Lady Silver Lily, who had lost her lamp during the fight with the demons. It took courage. Fortunately, I had as much courage as I needed.

"That won't happen in the first place."

"Why not?"

"You are someone who hasn't tired even of the crown prince, and I'm a better person than he is. If I make you uncomfortable, please tell me now. I'll disappear."

Silence.

Lady Silver Lily looked at my face.

"... How troublesome."

Her lips parted.

"I ought to find you bothersome, but right now, I do not. Nor do I think I will find you bothersome easily."

It happened at that moment.

"...ler! ...!"

A voice reached us from far down the corridor. It sounded urgent. Her residence, quiet with even the servants asleep, suddenly erupted into commotion.

"Where...! But...!"

A rush of footsteps followed. The attendants had awakened. Lights came on here and there, and before long, the graying servant ran up to us.

"My apologies, my lady."

Lady Silver Lily released my hand.

"What is this commotion at such a late hour?"

"I am sorry to have to report..."

Just then, the voice causing the distant commotion reached us more clearly than before.

"Butler! Where are you, butler!"

My face stiffened.

It was an all too familiar voice.

The graying servant bowed to us.

"Lady Golden Silk Blossom, the baron's daughter, is running amok."