Chapter 131 - Wasteland (1)

“I realize I may have overstepped, but I have taken care of the incident involving my future brother-in-law.”

After all the commotion, we gathered around the dinner table. The Flame Emperor had a swollen black eye. I had a lump bulging from my head. Master had hit me while scolding me...

“Incidents like this must either be suppressed very early or buried beneath the passage of time. The latter is generally preferred, but the timing was unfortunate in this case. Politics was quiet, and my future brother-in-law had a concert scheduled in ten days.”

Raviel deftly picked out seasoned cockles with her chopsticks. Her movements were smooth and swift. There she was, using chopsticks.

She existed.

'Beautiful.'

Ah, I was grateful that chopsticks had been invented. The chopsticks were probably honored that Raviel was using them, too. No doubt about it. Though hearing a bastard like the Flame Emperor addressed as [my future brother-in-law] made my guts twist and churn.

“... Boyfriend.”

“Yes?”

“Stop looking at me so ardently,” Raviel said, looking uncomfortable.

“Look away. Or lower your head. I am speaking to your parents right now. I would rather not display anything embarrassing in front of Mother and Father.”

“Yes...”

I obediently lowered my head and just ate... What the hell? These seasoned cockles were fucking delicious. My attendant spirit made these? Had he actually been an accomplished cook all along? My worldview was crumbling...

“Oh, but please stop calling him your future brother-in-law. He doesn't deserve to be called that by you, Raviel. Just call him a bastard.”

“Y-you little shit. You've lost a lot of your manners since I last saw you, haven't you?”

“Hmm.”

Master slowly sipped the liquor accompanying her meal.

“In truth, I am a little bewildered, Raviel. I could understand if it were for Gongja's sake, but as you know, Suha and Gongja do not get along. Was there any need to use your family's influence to help Suha?”

“There was not,” Raviel said calmly. “I merely wanted to show you both.”

“Show us? What, exactly?”

“You are probably underestimating our love. A rich heiress's passing amusement, a pleasant memory of school days, a life experience—whether you view it favorably or unfavorably, I imagine that is the extent of it.”

Raviel's voice flowed across the dinner table.

“But I am serious. I sincerely intend to embrace you all as my new family. There are voices in my own family opposing our relationship, but I will crush every such objection. I handled this incident to demonstrate my ability and resolve to you both.”

“...”

“Please give us your blessing to marry. Mother. Father.”

Master smiled ruefully.

“... A girl far too good for my son has come into his life. Thank you. What a strange feeling it is, seeing one's son loved. Still, I did not raise him in vain.”

Master.

“Holy shit. So we're related by marriage to a conglomerate family now? Man, my singing career's set. Totally set. Hey, sister-in-law! Some singers have been expanding into China lately. Could you help our group, too...?”

“Suha. Cause trouble one more time, and I will erase you from the family register. Understand that I will sever our bond as parent and child.”

“Huh?”

“No. That will not be enough. Go to the person you assaulted and bow your head. Get down on your knees and earn their forgiveness. Until you do, I will not acknowledge you as family.”

“M-Mom?”

I quietly watched the scene around the dinner table.

“...”

A home.

Parents.

Something I had never had.

Raviel left after officially receiving their blessing for our marriage. We even set a date for our families to meet. My attendant spirit laughed. “Bwahaha! I'll have to get my boy a suit! This is sooner than I expected!”

“...”

Master and my attendant spirit were writers. After Raviel left, the house grew quiet, and the soft sounds of their work spread through the hushed living room.

Master wrote with a pencil. With a cup of coffee beside her, she occasionally put a few words on manuscript paper, then sank into thought for a long time. Her profile was serene as she pondered.

My attendant spirit wrote on a typewriter. The keys clattered softly in a steady rhythm. As he wrote, he kept scowling like a pissed-off sea otter. Occasionally, he went to the kitchen, mixed himself a cocktail, and brought it back.

“...”

A quiet world.

'Why?'

Even as I headed to school the next morning, I could not understand it.

'Why is this the Heaven-Slaying Star's trauma?'

Students in uniform passed me on the way to school. Every face was either one I had seen somewhere or inexplicably familiar.

“Good morning, sir!”

Some students even bowed respectfully the moment they saw me. Loosened front buttons. Excessively tight trousers. Shortened skirts. Students who looked like trouble from any angle bent at the waist before me.

“Did you sleep well last night, sir?”

“... The Four Demon Lords?”

They were none other than members of the Demonic Cult.

A middle school student who looked exactly like the Moonshadow Demon Lord tilted their head.

“What do you mean, Four Demon Lords? We're the Four Kings of Sinseo Middle and High, sir.”

“This is insane...”

Were the Four Demon Lords school bullies in this world? And I was their boss? That meant the top high school delinquent was dating a rich heiress who was student council president.

I was going to lose my mind.

“Excuse me. You people... Why are you going around acting like thugs? Stop it. Just study. No, forget studying. Please disband your gang or whatever it is.”

“We've been behaving lately, sir! Didn't you tell us to keep a low profile once you started dating the queen bee? We're keeping a low profile! Because of you, we can't even make kids run snack errands whenever we want anymore!”

“That's not... Forget it. The Four Kings? And you call Raviel the queen bee? I'm going insane.”

“P-please don't speak so politely to us, sir! It's frightening!”

The things driving me insane continued even after I entered the classroom.

“Attention. Bow to the teacher!”

The Black Dragon leader was our class president. Neatly dressed, she looked like a model student from her bearing alone.

“All right. Class president, collect everyone's phones.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Anyone hiding theirs had better not let me catch them. Huh? Got it?”

And Viper was our homeroom teacher. Looking so much like a thug that it was hard to tell he was a teacher, he lounged on the classroom platform with a switch in one hand.

'I'm going to lose it.'

The Black Dragon leader carried a collection box around the classroom. The students handed over their phones, some willingly, others reluctantly. Not smartphones, but flip phones. Or slider phones.

“...”

When she reached my desk, the Black Dragon leader simply passed by.

Quietly, without a word.

'Huh?'

I looked around. I was the only student she had passed without a word. The Count (※a classmate!) and the Paladin (※also a classmate!) both obediently handed over their phones.

“Um. Excuse me... Class president?”

An unfamiliar form of address. At my voice, the Black Dragon leader turned around. Her calm black eyes looked at me.

“... What is it?”

“You didn't collect my phone. Here.”

I stood and put my phone in the box. Speaking so casually to the Black Dragon leader made me terribly uncomfortable. Apparently I wasn't the only one uncomfortable, because she looked at me with great surprise.

“... Well. Princess Pyeonggang is reforming Ondal the Fool.”

“Huh?”

“No, nothing. Forget I said it.”

She shook her head lightly and walked to the front row.

Viper was grinning on the platform.

“Well, well. Never thought I'd see the day the mighty Kim Gongja handed over his phone. Take a good look, kids! You don't need nagging or a switch to straighten someone out. All it takes is love, and people change on their own. Once you get to college, put some effort into finding your sweetheart.”

The Paladin shot her hand up.

“Sir, Kim Gongja says he's going to Seoul National University. He told me in all seriousness.”

“Huh, that's strange. He told me he was going to Oxford.”

The Count grinned.

“He said the student council president was going to study abroad. He'd follow her no matter what.”

“Hmm. So Seoul National is his safety school, and Oxford is his reach. Just what you'd expect from Kim Gongja. A man whose standards are in a completely different league from ours...”

The students snickered. The Paladin and the Count seemed to set the mood in this class, and the Count flashed a grin.

“Watch out, class president. You might lose your place at the top of the class.”

“... Mind your own business,” the Black Dragon leader replied curtly.

It felt strange seeing all those familiar faces in school uniforms.

No.

Not [all] of them.

“...”

The back row. The window seat.

The student I had met on the rooftop stairs yesterday was sitting there, quietly writing something in an open notebook.

'We're in the same class.'

A breeze blew through the window.

The curtain billowed.

The child was small enough to be completely hidden behind it, appearing and disappearing between its folds. The thin curtain was like a veil, setting the child a few steps apart from the classroom.

“H-hello, everyone...?”

Someone entered the classroom.

“First period is math... Um, isn't it?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

“Th-then let's start the lesson...”

It was the Apothecary.

'I'm not even surprised anymore.'

Right. With the Four Demon Lords elevated to the Four Kings and the Flame Emperor turned into my biological older brother, what else could surprise me?

Even Hungry Ghost and Golden Silk Blossom had formed an idol group and were singing with the Flame Emperor. The Apothecary being a math teacher was nothing. Of course. Absolutely...

The school day flew by.

“It's Gongja!”

“Gongja! Come play with us!”

When I left the cafeteria at lunchtime, middle school children swarmed around me. The tenth floor. The children I had seen in [Hide-and-Seek in the Infernal Mansion].

“...”

“All you do lately is study! Play with us, too!”

“Let's play soccer! Soccer!”

The children who had been tortured to death despite committing no crime were now middle schoolers, smiling brightly.

I felt a little breathless.

“... Okay. Let's play.”

I ran and played with the children on the grounds where the high school and middle school stood side by side.

An elderly security guard stood at the school gate. It was Namgung Un, the Murim Alliance Leader.

During gym class that afternoon, elementary school children headed home beyond the gate. They were the apostles of [The Immortal Evangelist of Happiness]. In groups of two or three, or holding hands with their partners, they passed along the ginkgo-lined road.

“...”

I didn't understand.

I truly didn't understand.

The final lesson ended, but I didn't go home. I sat on a bench on the school grounds, blankly watching the students leave.

'Everyone is alive.'

In this world, my attendant spirit wasn't a ghost. He was alive. I couldn't imagine what sort of novels he wrote... but he lived and worked as a writer.

Master was alive.

The children from the mansion were alive.

His rotten personality hadn't changed, but the Flame Emperor was alive, too, as a human who whined to his parents and got scolded. Hungry Ghost, too. Even Golden Silk Blossom.

There had been familiar faces among the students leaving earlier. The hunters who had challenged the Librarian and been devoured by a tentacled monster as an example. Even those hunters whose names I didn't know passed by on their way home, alive.

'This is Lefanta Aegim's trauma?'

Wasn't this a peaceful daily life?

Wasn't it a happy hypothetical?

What part of this world resembled hell?

“So here you are, boyfriend.”

I turned my head.

Raviel had approached from behind, smiling.

“Raviel...”

“You look troubled. You weren't answering your phone, so I worried something had happened. It is not good to make your lover worry needlessly.”

“Ah.”

I hurriedly took out my phone and switched it on. I had forgotten to turn it back on after getting it back at the end of school.

“I'm sorry. Um. I've been a little unsettled...”

“What could have disturbed my boyfriend's heart? I would prefer that nothing in this world but me could stir even a ripple in it.”

I tilted my head back a little. Raviel lowered hers. With the back of the bench between us, we shared each other's breath for a moment.

“Raviel.”

“Mm.”

“Do you happen to know my parents' names?”

Raviel blinked.

“Of course.”

“Could you tell me now?”

“Mother's surname is So, and her given name is Baekhyang.”

And then.

“Father's surname is ■, and his given name is ■ ■, isn't it?”

“...”

Muted sound.

When Raviel spoke my attendant spirit's name, noise overlaid it, like static.

'Ah.'

Of course.

I didn't know my attendant spirit's real name.

If this was a dream... it couldn't present facts I didn't know.

'Just as I thought.'

Today, during a break, I had flipped through the attendance register on the classroom platform.

I wanted to check whether the Black Dragon leader's or the Paladin's name was written there.

But.

Attendance Number 1. Kim Gongja

Attendance Number 2. ■■■

Attendance Number 3. ■■

Attendance Number 4. ■■■

Attendance Number 5. ■■■

Most of the names weren't written out.

Even when I tried to discover them, I couldn't make them out.

As if someone had scribbled over them in black.

“... Raviel. This will sound strange, but I'm anxious. You're a rich heiress. Common sense says you wouldn't spend your school days with someone like me at a school like this.”

“Your words are making me anxious. What do you mean?”

“Maybe. Maybe all of this is...”

My phone buzzed, vibrating.

Text Messages: 1

Sender: ■■

A sense of foreboding swept over me.

“Sorry, Raviel. Just a moment.”

I flipped open my phone.

A moment later, words appeared on the screen.

Compared with a smartphone, the screen was not merely small, but cramped.

I'm the one you murdered.

Don't forget.